If you already know the tl;dr and don't care, the article is about the same old stuff so you can skip it, but Jesse goes into some smaller details about how he found out so~
Jesse Ventura’s disgust with WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan is well-known. The former Minnesota Governor hasn’t seen eye-to-eye with Hogan after the latter allegedly betrayed him back in 1986 when Ventura tried forming a wrestler’s union, and Hogan back-stabbed him then.
While speaking to Chris Van Vliet recently, Ventura was asked if he could bury the hatchet with Hulk Hogan, to which he plainly said, “No.” Vliet then asked him when the last time he had a conversation with Hogan was. Ventura said, “He doesn’t know.” Giving his reasoning for not bonding with Hogan, Ventura said, “He betrayed me.”
And why did Jesse feel betrayed? The story goes long back to 1986, right before WrestleMania 2, when Ventura pitched in an idea with other wrestlers to have a union, which guarantees their life after wrestling, and also talks about their issues.
According to Ventura, wrestling in the 1980s was more like slave work, where wrestlers didn’t have any unions, and they were ready to be exploited by the wrestling promotions. So, Ventura tried to get Hulk Hogan on board.
However, Hogan, being a close pal of Vince McMahon or someone who wants to be in the good books of McMahon, leaked Ventura’s plan to him. McMahon thus got to know of Jesse’s move and called him the next day.
“The next day I go home, my phone rings. It’s Vince. [He says] ‘What the? Union?’ I said, Vince, ‘I’m not talking about just fighting you.’ This was 1980s, I said ‘Right now I pay $5,000 a year for health care for my family. If we had a union, I might only have to pay $1250 because there’s strength in numbers.’ Ventura said.
However, he went back on his plan and told Vince the other say that he wouldn’t have to worry about the union as he had got another union for his post-retirement benefit. However, Ventura was still furious about who leaked his plan. This was in 1986, and Ventura had to wait for another eight years to really know who it was.
In 1994, Vince McMahon himself revealed that Hogan was the one who told him about Jesse Ventura’s plans of getting a union for wrestlers. It happened when Jesse and Vince McMahon had a fallout over a WWF video in 1990; Ventura sued McMahon. So, they had to take Vince’s deposition in the case.
This was in 1994. Ventura and his lawyer flew down to Connecticut, and he told his lawyer to grill Vince McMahon over who ratted him over the union story. And Vince got into the bait, revealing Hogan’s name.
“My attorney says to Vince, Mr. McMahon, he said, ‘Has there ever been a union in wrestling?’ And Vince goes, No. [He asked] Has anyone ever tried to form one? And Vince paused a moment. He said, Yeah, I think Jesse Ventura spouted his mouth off about it one time years ago. My attorney said, really? How did you know? Did you hear Mr. Ventura talk about unionizing? And Vince said no, my attorney said well, then how did you know? With no hesitation, Vince answered ‘Hulk Hogan told me,” Ventura revealed the whole story.
And this is how Ventura got really anxious over Hulk Hogan for betraying him, after they were friends for years. That was also when Ventura decided to part ways with Hogan, and since then, he has not spoken to the WWE Hall of Famer. And it doesn’t appear that Vince will either.