The Legend of Professional Wrestling

Kevin Nash regrets that he never received a final opportunity to visit Hulk Hogan and tell his longtime friend that he loved him.

Speaking on Kliq This, Nash said conflicting reports about Hogan’s health led him to believe that the wrestling icon would recover.

Nash was aboard a cruise ship in Alaska when his wife told him that Hogan had died.

“I was just laying there, and she was right over the top of me. She said, ‘I don’t know how to say this. I’ll just say it. Hulk died.’

“I was just like, ‘Okay.’ She said, ‘You all right?’ I said, ‘Well, let me process this.’”

Nash said he sat silently looking at the snow-covered mountains while attempting to process the news.

“I sat up on the bed and basically swung my legs around. I opened the blinds, and I’m looking at Alaska—snow-covered peaks and everything else.

“I just kind of sat there and digested it. I’m just like, ‘Wow.’”

Nash had no internet connection in his room but did not want to remain publicly silent following his friend’s death.

“I had zero Wi-Fi. Zero. I mean, I had nothing.

“I didn’t want to be radio silent on a friend’s death, so I had to get dressed and go to the Wi-Fi café, which was the only place that had a little bit of a signal. I put out a quick tweet and a quick Instagram just to say something.”

Nash admitted that Hogan’s “Immortal” persona contributed to his belief that he would survive his health problems.

“They always called him the Immortal Hulk Hogan. To me, man, even when I heard what Bubba was saying, I just knew he’d kick out.

“I just knew I’d get on the phone with him at Big C. I mean, I just knew.”

Nash said reports from Bubba the Love Sponge sounded fatalistic, while information coming from other people close to Hogan made the situation appear less serious.

“Bubba’s reports were very fatalistic. Then we would hear from other people close to him that were seeing him—Bubba wasn’t seeing him at the time—that it wasn’t all that was being put out there.

“To the point where Jimmy Hart, shortly before Hulk’s death, said that they’d gotten together: ‘Everything’s good, brother. We even did karaoke together.’”

Those reports convinced Nash that Hogan was recovering.

“I figured, all right, he’s at his club, he’s at the restaurant, so he must be on the mend.

“This was really confusing as to how bad a shape he was in.”

Nash later watched a hospital video Hogan had posted shortly before his death and became frustrated by the information he had received.

“He was sitting on the toilet in the hospital, and he’s cutting kind of a promo. He seemed like he was in good spirits.

“I saw that after he passed, and it was dated two or three days earlier. I was really kind of hot with some people that I was getting information from.”

Nash said Hogan lived approximately two hours from his Florida home. Had he understood the severity of Hogan’s condition, Nash would have made the drive even if they could not meet face-to-face.

“Terry’s two hours from my house. I could get in my car and pop over there.

“Even if I had to put a mask on if he was worried about germs, or talk through the fucking front door—through the glass door, through a slider.”

Nash connected his regret to the deaths of Scott Hall and his son, Tristen, explaining that he never received a final conscious conversation with either of them.

“I didn’t have that chance with Scott, and I didn’t have that chance with my son.

“My son was alive for 20 hours after he had his cardiac arrest, but he wasn’t conscious. It would have been nice to—I guess that’s selfish on my behalf.”

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Kliq This, with a h/t to Wrestling Headlines for the transcription.