Source: Roger Caitlin of The Hartford Courant

For a man who is bent on making a dent in Vince McMahon’s WWE empire that helped make him a star, Hulk Hogan is unequivocal in his support of Linda McMahon in her bid for the U.S. Senate from Connecticut.

“I think she’s going to win, Hogan said in answer to a question at the tv critics press tour in Pasadena, Calif., on Friday. “She’s brilliant. She’s a very gracious, very smart lady, and her intent and her agenda has always been to help the community and be plugged in and be involved. Inside or outside that wrestling world that the McMahons have created, Linda McMahon is a great person.”

On hand to support the rival “TNA iMPACT” on Spike TV, Hogan didn’t have as many kind words for her company WWE and her husband.

“My philosophy is different than the WWE model where Vince McMahon will ride someone until they drop. He will shoot them and eat them,” he says. A transition must be made between new stars and the old.

But, Hogan said, “Nothing has to be edgy and personal and pull the carpet out from under people. There’s a way to make all of this work, but the focus has to be on the future, and that’s one of the things that has to happen. And that’s the biggest mistake that Vince McMahon made. My time should be over. I should be done and gone. There should have been two generations already that should have replaced me. But because things were executed correctly, I’m alive and well, and I can sell out any ring in the country right now.”

There is an advantage of keeping the old wrestlers around, he says. “These older guys have a lot of wisdom. They can teach the young guys how not to get hurt. They’ve been around forever. And, creatively… it really enhances how quickly these young guys can move along.”

Mickey Rourke was brilliant in his depiction of an old fighter in “The Wrestler,” Hogan says but he added “that’s not a snapshot of the wrestling business. That’s a very small percentage of just one or two guys that I know, and I know everybody.

“Most of my guys or my friends that are in the twilight of their career, they are working in the high schools on the weekends. They are making $3,000 to $4,000 on the weekend. So they are doing good. They are making $700 or $800 a night selling pictures, and it’s not that final dive to your death.”

“TNA iMPACT” runs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Spike.

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