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Hulk Hogan chokes out Richard Belzer and draws blood. In 1985, on an episode of the live cable tv show "Hot Properties", host Richard Belzer had Hulk Hogan and Mr. T on to talk about their upcoming Wrestlemania match against Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff. Before Mr. T and Hogan made their way to the guest chairs, Belzer had made comments during his opening joke segment mocking professional wrestling, basically claiming it was "fake." This was before our modern era of wrestlers breaking kayfabe like today, and in order for the first Wrestlemania to be a success, Vince McMahon had to keep face and so did his talent. Mr. T came out first and staying in his aggressive character, had little response to Belzer's interview and comments, acting very stand-off and agitated towards Belzer. Finally, when Hogan came out, he took no time in responding to Belzer's earlier comments, hinting that the only reason Mr. T hadn't attacked Belzer yet was due to their earlier training and his promise, even though, according to Hogan, Belzer looked "like a mugger." Belzer took the comments in stride, laughing as if Hogan just told a hilarious joke. Mr T. responded to Hogan's comments saying, "The main idea I didn't want to hurt the guy (Belzer) 'cause the kids are here today." Mr. T continued to stay in character, claiming that him & Hogan had been taking out muggers in subway stations, all of which Belzer responded sarcastically too. When Belzer asked about their upcoming Wrestlemania match, Mr. T responded almost angrily at the questions, telling Belzer not to use big words like "Vendetta." When Belzer reworded the question, Hogan's response was "Well obviously you don't know what's going on, you must be living in a log cabin or something." After Hogan explained the set-up for the match, Belzer asked if Piper and Orndoff also attacked, his "friend", pop mega-star (at the time) Cindy Lauper. Mr. T responded by asking if Belzer was really Cindy's friend, why wasn't he there to protect her, before Hogan called Belzer a coward, with neither man having a smile on their face. It seemed as though Belzer tried to make light of the situation by laughing at their insults towards him. By this point, it was extremely obvious Hogan & Mr. T had bitter feelings towards Belzer for mocking professional wrestling and then inviting them on the show. Several moments later, Belzer asked T and Hogan if they would show him some wrestling moves, to which Mr. T wanted no part of - that is until Hogan whispered something in his T's ear that made him completely change his mind. It's very possible that Hogan vaguely told Mr. T what was fixing to happen... Hogan and Belzer walked over to the band stage to perform the moves. After Belzer asked hogan to perform a "camel crush", Hogan informed him that the camel clutch wasn't in his move arsenal, and insisted they try a front chin lock since the floor was hard and Belzer "could get hurt" if they tried something like a body slam. Hogan put Belzer in a front chin lock and locked it in tight for 8 seconds. Belzer's body went completely limp and he crashed to the ground. When the crowd responded with a gasp, Mr. T informed the audience that everything was okay, and that Belzer was just sleeping. After a few seconds with some face taps from Hogan, Belzer sprung up to his feet, pointed to the camera and said. "AND NOW, we'll be right back with this word from...you know who!" As he was saying this, Hogan's eyes became bug-eyed and worried-looking. When Belzer turned his back to the camera, the whole world found out why: Belzer was bleeding profusely from the back of his head due to the bump he took when he hit the floor. As if Belzer hasn't mocked Hulk Hogan and Mr. T enough, right before the show went to commercial, the screen showed... "A Championship Challenge...call the Hulker & Mr. T next!" When the show returned from commercial break, Belzer was replaced by a new host who's opening comments stated that Hogan "didn't mean to do it." Hogan explained his actions, saying Belzer wasn't physically fit enough to take the hold, and he apologized for it. However, he might as well have said nothing at all, as when it was Mr. T's turn to talk, he referred to an incident when 20/20's John Stossell asked David Schultz if wrestling was fake, to which Schultz responded with a vicious slap to Stossell's face. This was a blatant message that they wanted to be taken seriously as professional wrestlers, and if you insult them, they will retaliate. Mr. T stated that "this is not a joke, this is not fake." When the new host summed it all up, stating that the point was it looked as if Hogan and Mr. T were looking to teach Belzer a lesson, Mr. T avoided the question by stating that they shouldn't even be there and that they should be training, but the only reason they were on the show was because their was suppose to be "50 crippled children" there at the show. Later, Belzer would sue Hogan for $5 million and which was later settled out of court. It was rumored to be 1.5 million which Richard used to buy a cottage in France. Belzer would later use the incident as part of his HBO comedy special "Another Lonely Nut". |
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