Sylvester Stallone Pays Tribute to Hulk Hogan, Calls ‘Rocky III’ Costar a ‘Magician’

Sylvester Stallone is sharing fond memories of working alongside Hulk Hogan.

Following the wrestling icon’s death on Thursday, July 24, at the age of 71, Stallone, 79, spoke to TMZ’s Harvey Levin about starring in Rocky III with Hogan. The actor said they met for the first time during rehearsals for the movie in the early 1980s.

“He just came in, and you knew this guy had a glow about him,” Stallone said of Hogan. “He was a force to be reckoned with.”

“He was just at the beginning of his career,” he continued. “He hadn’t quite come into his own yet, so we got him at a point where he was enthusiastic.”

Stallone said Hogan’s “immense” size made those involved behind the scenes of the movie unsure if he would be a good fit before he was eventually cast as the fighter Thunderlips in the 1982 flick.

“He was probably about 315 pounds, but very smart, and he had this deep, calming voice,” Stallone said. “He was willing to do anything that would make the show better.” 

“Now, at first no one wanted him because he was too big, but I said that’s the whole point, it’s like David and Goliath,” he continued. “The bigger the better, so he showed up in magnificent shape.”

Despite his eagerness to work with Hogan, the Expendables actor confessed that he was initially cautious of doing stunts together. 

“We started to roll around and he would literally pick me up and drop me to the ground and I thought, ‘I’m going to be literally a pulp by the time I land,’ ” Stallone said. “And yet, he would always break the fall. He would do things that you wouldn’t see, like a magician.”

“I’ll say, I’ve had a lot of punches thrown at me,” he continued. “No one was more accurate and precise than him. It was extraordinary for a man that size.”

Stallone demonstrated how lightly Hogan’s fist would touch his face, before adding, “He was great, such a good sport.” 

The Rambo actor described Hogan’s death as a “tragic loss,” while agreeing with Levin that he’s an icon not only in wrestling but also in movies and television. 

Stallone described the late WWE icon as “irreplaceable” before sharing a little-known story from their time working on Rocky III.

“People underestimate how gifted some of these behemoths are, and he was the most gifted of all,” he said of Hogan. “I just remember two things … One, he throws me into the corner, he goes ‘I’ll be gentle,’ I said, ‘Okay.’ ” 

“He throws me into the corner and I go about six feet in the air,” Stallone continued. “I hit the corner and the whole point is for him to run towards me and go boom, hit me hard, and I fall down, which naturally I would.”

“Instead, he decided about halfway across the ring that he’s going to jump up and I go, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ” he said. “It looked like the white whale from Moby Dick, he came down and hit me with his shin bone right here.”

Stallone pointed towards his shoulder area as he recalled not wanting to see his “collarbone sticking straight up.” Until this day, it remains the hardest that Stallone has ever been hit in his career.

“He was mortified,” Stallone said of Hogan. “I said all is forgiven, but the point is, Harvey, he literally leaped up.”

“His shin was here, so that gives you an idea of how athletic he was,” he added, while pointing at his shoulder.

Stallone said the second story he remembers is Hogan not thinking the ending of the movie was realistic, and so he threw him off while doing a chokehold to prove his point.

“He was a force,” Stallone said.

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Revealing that Hogan once made four stunt men retire for the day during filming, he added, “I wouldn’t say unconscious, but close to it.”

“When people say it’s fake, no, you can’t fake gravity and when he’s coming down and whacking you with forearms this big, it was truthful,” Stallone concluded.