Harley Race Almost Killed Hulk Hogan During WWE Show

Hamish Woodward

Harley Race allegedly tried to kill Hulk Hogan during a WWF show, but ended up asking him for a job once he got to the arena.

This was said to have occurred at some time in the 1980s, before Harley Race’s return to the WWE in 1986.

Race was a legend of the ring at this time, being a former NWA World Heavyweight Champion. His bouts with Ric Flair were legendary, but he had appeared to have fallen on hard times in the meantime.

He reportedly came to the arena in Kansas before a WWF show and burnt the ring to ground, manifesting his anger toward Hulk Hogan into pyromania.

Harley Race felt slighted at the way the WWF and Vince McMahon killed the territory system in the United States, placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of Hulk Hogan.

He later came to the arena with a gun, threatening to kill Hogan. However, the WWE Hall of Famer than asked for a job with the company, to which Hogan replied that he would tell Vince McMahon.

While speaking on the Bubba the Love Sponge Show, Hulk Hogan said;

“We just started going into all these markets and just went into Kansas City and Harley Race had been living there you know 25-30 years. This TV gets broadcast in from New York ‘I’m the real WWF Champion brother! I’m coming to the Kansas City Arena’.

They set the ring up that afternoon they called me said ‘Harley Race showed up between the afternoon, blind drunk, and lit the ring on fire.’

He said if you come to the building tonight he’s going to kill you. So, I went across the street from the arena. I drank at the Rusty Scupper all day. I went back to the building, went scampering in when the matches already started.

I was on last I said put my ass on fourth so I can get out here before intermission so I’m in there taking a shiznit when all sudden Davey Boy Smith comes in here and he’s like,

‘He’s here! The f****** King is here! And he’s got a gun!’

I pulled my pants up didn’t even wipe my ass went running out in the hallway and Harley Race saying ‘I should blow your fucking kneecaps off you piece of shit’ but put the gun in the other hand he goes ‘but I need a job’.

He shook my hand and I said well ‘I’ll talk to Vince for you’. I said

‘Thank God. Jesus Christ’.”

WWE would sign Harley Race to a contract soon after. He became the King of the Ring champion soon after debuting in the company, as a way for the company to recognise his legendary status with referencing any other promotions.

He also spent time feuding with Hulk Hogan, with the pair wrestling in a fantastic Texas Death Match in 1987.

While you may think the story of Harley Race trying to Kill Hulk Hogan is another one of The Hulkster’s lies, it has been corroborated by Bruce Pritchard on his Something to Wrestle With podcast.

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