Hulk Hogan and Paige, who will be appearing regularly on the upcoming season of WWE Tough Enough on USA, were recently interviewed by BizJournals.com, and below are some highlights:
What are three business lessons you learned in your career?
Hogan: Save your money, save your money and save your damn money.
Paige: That’s what I got told as soon as I got [in the entertainment industry], because you could be gone tomorrow and you don’t want to be completely screwed. Also, stay humble and hungry.
What has been the biggest accomplishment in your career?
Hogan: My biggest accomplishment is staying relevant for 35 years because a lot of guys will be in this business for five years, 10 years, 20 years, but I had a really great run and had to stay relevant. I changed characters a few times and did reality TV and a bunch of different TV series. I never dreamed at 61 years young that I would still be here.
Paige: Getting signed to the WWE was the biggest accomplishment I could do and also being at such a young age and being the WWE Diva’s champion was big.
What is the biggest business challenge you’ve faced and what did you learn from it?
Hogan: Making the transition from actually wrestling to trying to figure out how to generate revenue without physically getting in the ring. I had to figure out how to use my brand and exploit the 35 years of goodwill with the world and turn that into a money making machine. Once you wrestle main events for 30 years and all of a sudden it’s taken away from you because physically you can’t do it, reality sets in and you have to figure out how to reinvent yourself. I made that transition out of survival. I went through a crazy divorce, I had a huge $60 million civil suite from an accident and my body shut down on me for two years — I had nine back surgeries. I had to figure out how to take the brand, make it work and do stuff I wasn’t used to doing such as open other businesses and other ventures.
Paige: This goes back to the saving money plan. The first year and a half that I was here, I thought “man, I have money. What should I do with it? Save it? No.” I would buy stuff immediately, but I got into a lot of trouble. I had to get surgery, I got into a car accident and someone took all of the money I had in my bank account and all of it came at once and I fell into debt. After that, I learned that I needed to be very smart with my money.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
