Hulk Hogan says it might not have been a conscious effort, but he credits Dusty Rhodes as being the guy that taught him how to sell in the ring.
Hogan was this week’s guest on the Steve Austin Show, and Hogan cited a number of wrestlers coming through the Florida territory as names he looked up to. He said Dusty changed things for him and saw how the “Dream” worked a match, adding that he wanted to look like Billy Graham, but wanted to work the ring like Dusty.
“Well subconsciously, I didn’t really know what I was watching, but I grew up watching Dusty Rhodes down here and The Great Malenko and Eddie Graham, Jack and Gerry Brisco and all the big wrestlers that came in when the promoters were friendly in exchanging talent, then [Vince McMahon] Sr. would send down Ivan Putski, The Mighty Igor, Superstar Billy Graham, Ivan Koloff. So I got to see everybody here, but the one thing I remember was no matter how great the matches were as soon as Dusty Rhodes came out for the main event and somebody would chop him in the throat, he’d go right down like a tub of shit and start selling his ass off and the place would start rumbling. So subconsciously, I was such a huge Dusty fan watching him and then when I saw Billy Graham come in, I said, ‘well I want to sell like Dusty (which I didn’t even know what selling was), but I wanna look like him.’”
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