The D'Amore Drop: The Hulk Hogan stories you never hear about — and what it all means after a complicated week

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The D'Amore Drop is a weekly guest column on Uncrowned written by Scott D’Amore, the Canadian professional wrestling promoter, executive producer, trainer and former wrestler best known for his long-standing role with TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, where he served as head of creative. D’Amore is the current owner of leading Canadian promotion Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling.

You hesitate to comment on the passing of Hulk Hogan, and I want to be very clear that I am one of those who feel his legacy is very complicated. It contains a lot of good and some very bad. The memory of the biggest star of a generation, perhaps any generation, is tarnished.

The question for all of us is whether the good is completely erased by the very bad.

As other commentators have written volumes about, Hogan completely changed wrestling forever. Twice.

Sure, his motivation there was his own fame and fortune, and the high tides he brought raised plenty of boats.

But there was no personal benefit to doing the thousands of off-screen appearances he did with no cameras and no reason to do them other than to make others happy. John Cena is rightly celebrated for doing more Make-A-Wish appearances than anyone else, but Hogan is a close second.

I’ve been privileged enough to be asked to do these types of Make-A-Wish appearances. Please believe me — and I think every parent or anyone with a soft spot for kids will get it immediately — these visits can be gut-wrenching.

The first one I did was with a kid named Joey who was a massive Border City Wrestling fan. Three of us went and Joey was so excited. I held it together for two hours talking to this great kid. And when the parents told us their boy had made sure to rest extra for days so he’d have energy to talk, I hung on while they told me their son probably didn’t have long.

Then I ran the last few meters to my truck and just bawled my eyes out for 15 minutes straight.

Hogan did that thousands of times. Usually at least once in every town he visited on the grueling WWF tours of the 1980s and '90s.

I can mention this next story now, because the kid passed away in the '80s and Hulk’s gone now too…

This comes via George “The Animal” Steele, who went to many of those Make-A-Wish meetings with Hogan.

George was so proud of Hulk doing these all the time. He added that Hulk instinctively found the right tone and words, depending on each child and how sick they were.

If the kid had a chance of getting better, he’d talk with them about kicking out, Hulking up, and running wild on their illness. He’d tell them he believed in them.

But where he was truly great was with the kids who knew the end was closing in.

George said Hulk would tell them, 'Hey, there’s always hope, but if that day does come, you’ll get to meet our brother Jesus Christ. And I’ll see you again in Heaven and you can introduce me.'

I think it is OK to tell this now that everyone involved has passed on. One time, it was in St. Louis, a boy dying of cancer told Hulk that he wouldn’t be going to Heaven … because the boy had done bad things. Over the next hour, the kid trusted Hulk enough to tell Hulk that he was being abused.

George said Hulk told the kid that it wasn’t his fault, that Jesus loves him. He stayed with the child until he fell asleep. Then Hulk took the stairs to the hospital administration floor five at a time — burst in and made sure the authorities were alerted.

Arrests were made.

Hulk Hogan really cared about kids.

That shouldn’t be forgotten.

Neither should the fact some of those kids were desperately hurt by Hulk’s words later on in life.

I don’t pretend to have the answer on whether you can separate that kind of good from the bad, or even if separating them at all is the right thing to do.

Maybe we have to look at the good and look at the bad, side-by-side. Maybe we have to remember both.

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One interaction I had with Hulk Hogan was in WCW in the mid-'90s. I was working as a job guy — what they now call enhancement talent — and my boss, Jody Hamilton, pulled me over and asked if I'd be able to make it to more of the shows. He added that it was Hulk Hogan who’d insisted on it — and that Hogan said I should get a raise.

I was 21 years old and on cloud nine that Hulk Hogan even knew my name, much less rated my work and went out to bat for me. I was floating around and then I got a tap on the shoulder. I turned around.

“Did they talk to you, brother?” Hulk said.

“Y-yes, sir! Yes they did — thank you!”

And then he said the most Hulk Hogan thing ever: “Don’t thank me. I know you think I did it for you, and I am happy for you, brother, but don’t make any mistake about it: I did it for myself.

“Because while you and me will probably never wrestle, you are great at putting over the guys that I wrestle. I need monsters to slay — and you help create those monsters.”

While finishing this column I got the news my friend “Champagne” Gerry Morrow had also passed away. Gerry’s name won’t be known to many of today’s fans, but he had a huge impact on professional wrestling.

In the ring, Gerry was a massive regional star in Stampede Wrestling and, with partner The Cuban Assassin, won tag-team gold all over North America.

He was a friend and mentor not only to me, but a generation of Canadian stars like Chris Jericho, Lance Storm, Edge, Christian Cage, Don Callis and many others.

Rest in peace, Gerry. We’ll all miss you.

My friend Bully Ray over at the mighty "Busted Open" podcast is predicting, or at the very least fantasy booking, that Seth Rollins returns this weekend at WWE SummerSlam and cashes in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the WWE World Championship.

There’s certainly something odd about the way Rollins’ injury has been reported on. If the idea was to make fans wonder what on Earth is going on, it’s worked.

MLF’s big role in the massively successful "Happy Gilmore" sequel is yet more evidence that AEW has become entrenched not only as a super-massive planet in the wrestling solar system, but also increasingly in pop culture.

I’m excited to see who the next challenger for AEW World Champion Hangman Adam Page will be. Obviously MJF won the Casino Gauntlet and can step up and challenge for the title at any time. He’s the top and most likely major challenger for Hangman — but is he next?

AEW has major options: Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland — coming off a big win over the Young Bucks — are both gunning for the gold.

And on the women’s side, the debut of Alex Windsor from the U.K. adds some fresh blood in that division too. AEW’s title scene is loaded.

Meanwhile, the WWE women’s roster have a great opportunity to continue the red-hot run they’ve all been on this year. Iyo Sky, Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair had the best match of WrestleMania Night 1 — no, WrestleMania WEEK — in April, and Sky, Ripley and new champ Naomi will, I think, steal the show at this weekend’s SummerSlam event.

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WWE is on fire — they are very close to selling out their first ever two-day SummerSlam — but wrestling is doing great up and down.

This week the NWA, the historic promotion owned by Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, debuts on Roku. My buddy Pat Kenney — better known as Simon Diamond — is one of the guys driving the NWA, and it’s great to see. Corgan loves wrestling and keeps finding ways to get content to fans.

Obviously, Billy used to co-own and run TNA. I’ll never forget getting Billy, Dixie Carter and Ed Nordholm in one photo at TNA’s 20th anniversary. Three presidents from three different TNA eras of the company, all in one shot.

We had a blast at Downtown Throwdown, Maple Leaf Pro’s outdoor show on the streets of Windsor, Canada this past Saturday.

You roll the die when you run outdoor shows, and rain was given out but, luckily, never arrived. Main-eventers the Good Brothers, especially, had fun performing for a street audience.

We recorded the event and it will be going up on our YouTube channel shortly. In the meantime, check out this classic from earlier in the month between Josh Alexander and Ace Austin. 

Speaking of The Good Brothers, my guys also got a deal with Roku too, for their own promotion Lariato and their always hilarious "Talk’n Shop" podcasts.