Eric Bischoff has opened up about the decision to carry on with the inaugural Real American Freestyle event in the wake of Hulk Hogan’s tragic passing. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, the WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW President reflected on honoring Hogan’s legacy, the health struggles that ultimately caught up with him, and the future of RAF.

Bischoff explained the mindset of moving forward with the event despite the devastating news. “We woke up and said, ‘You know what? What would Hulk want us to do? He wants to keep going. This is an opportunity for us to build on to an already large legacy and to do something positive’. And from that point forward, it’s just, you know, we’re just like ‘Powered by Hogan.’ We just driving through and trying to make him proud, and I think we are. I know we did on Saturday, and I think he’d be very proud of the progress that we’re making and what we’re doing.”

He also discussed Hogan’s long battle with health issues, pointing to the toll taken by years of surgeries and the physical cost of his famous leg drop. “Look, it’s not like any of us were surprised that he had undergone another surgery. This was probably his 21st major surgery, the neck surgery, which ultimately ended up being his last one. Over the last 15 years, Hulk has had so many of these surgeries, and all of them have been very serious surgeries where he was under anesthesia for three hours, four hours, six hours , they’re not just little procedures. But he always kicked out,” Bischoff said. “He was always able to kick out of it and be optimistic and look forward to doing whatever it is he was excited about. So when he went in the hospital this last time, it was serious, and we all knew it was serious, but we’ve been so accustomed to him being able to kick out and overcome it , and just this time, he couldn’t. And in that sense, it shouldn’t have been shocking or surprising, but it really was. You don’t have to be a doctor, you don’t have to be a physiologist. All you have to do is go look at a video of Hulk going up and coming down with that big, and look where he lands. He lands on his hip whenever he did that leg drop. So all 300 pounds of him, night after night after night,” Bischoff said. “Stand up on your bed and jump off your bed and land on your hip on the floor, and just do that, oh, I don’t know, 400-500 times a year for 20 years, OK? And then let’s talk about where it hurts. That leg drop was it. All of his issues started in his lower back and his spine, and it just progressed from there.”

Looking ahead, Bischoff revealed there are discussions for RAF to become a weekly series, though he admitted the scheduling could be tricky. “You know, I don’t mind Saturday nights. I’ll be honest with you, it’s not the greatest night for television in terms of HUT , households using television , and so forth, but it works for me. We gotta stay away from Monday night because you’re gonna have football. Thursday you’ve got football. There’s a lot of wrestling on Monday night (WWE) and Friday night (WWE) and Wednesday night with AEW.”

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