has claimed he was pitched a comeback match for WrestleMania 39 but had to turn it down.
The Hall of Famer has been open about, including 10 surgeries over the past 10 years alone, and he would love an official retirement match after his in-ring career ended at an untelevised TNA Wrestling live event 11 years ago.
Hogan has revealed he’snow, and if he keeps working on his back he wouldn’t rule out one more WrestleMania bout with ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin.
Appearing on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, he recalled Shane McMahon actually trying to coax him back at last month’s event in Hollywood.
He said: ‘You know what’s so funny, Shane McMahon called me. He goes, “Hey, you got one more in you, old man?” I said, “Take it easy with the old man stuff, brother.”
‘I said, “What do you want to do?” He goes, “All you gotta do is stand in the middle of the ring, and I’ll come do it.”
‘I said, “Right now, my back needs a little more work, but that’s something we can talk about next year.” I’ve always wanted to have a retirement match.’
The former world champion, who turns 70 in August, insisted he can ‘never say never’, and there are storyline options with Shane tied into Hogan’s relationship with his father Vince McMahon.
He added: ‘There’s several things we came up with. I told him, “I just need to get my feet underneath me more. Now’s not the time, not this WrestleMania, definitely not. Let’s talk about four or five months from now and see where I’m at.” ‘
Rather than a match with Shane though, Hogan’s dream scenario is a generational clash with Stone Cold, a bout that eluded him during his run as Hollywood Hulk Hogan.
He explained: ‘I could have tore the place down with him because he was the ultimate good guy at the time, but I think he was having some physical problems with his legs and nerve damage, and he was about at the end of his run.
‘So if I had one guy to get in there with, it’d be him. I just don’t know, with all this time passing and both of us getting older and wiser if it would even make sense. You have to be crazy to back in there at my age, anyway.
‘I just haven’t talked to him about anything like that ever, so if he would get in the ring, he would be the guy.’
