The Passing of Hulk Hogan

You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis, and we have a great conversation for you guys today. But first, let's welcome our host with the most, Dr.

Abadan Shah, who's a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina. Yeah, give it up, From Professor Carolina University author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Dr. Shah's studio audience is feeling alive and well today. It's natural.

Hot crowd, hot crowd. It's a Monday mania. It's Monday Mania. I wonder what we could be talking about today.

Well, before we launch in today, we want to remind you guys about the Lighthouse. We just launched it. It's a brand new weekly devotional podcast with our very own, like John said, host with the most, who maybe serves some avocado toast from coast to coast. I'm just kidding. That last part was made up.

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If you're not on the Clearview app, make sure you go download that show right now. Yes. Dr. Shah, we have a check-in today from a young woman named Iris. She does not say where she's from.

This was from a YouTube comment, but she wrote into the show and she said, I'm Jewish. I'm afraid. And I felt pretty alone ever since October 7th. What you do matters. And your words have given me hope.

Bless you and thank you for seeing me. Oh, wow. A woman named Iris sent us that message. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that because that's not something we began after October 7th, 2023.

This is not something we began in 2025 where you can see more people speaking out. For Israel, for the Jewish people. We've been saying this for a long time. Absolutely. And we believe truly what we say: that God has called us to stand with the Jewish people, has called us to stand with the people of Israel or the nation of Israel.

And again, this is not in any way to condone people from Jewish background who may be bad or who may have done bad things. No, this is not a carte blanche. No, none of that. This is simply to say. We believe that God has a purpose for ethnic Israel.

That's right. And with that in mind, we have to make sure that we stand by them and we are to also pray for their salvation. When Jesus said, Go into all the world, starting in Jerusalem.

Now we use that. as a boundary marker for our own community. And then we go Judea, which means The county, some area which means a state, and then the outermost parts of the world means the rest of the world. Or maybe you can expand the boundary a little bit more. But if you were to talk to Jesus and say, what do you mean by it?

Jerusalem meant go to the Jewish people first. Judea meant go to those who are sort of out in the fringes. Samaria, go to people who are. Different than Jewish people, people who in a way even did not like the Jewish people, go to them. And then to the uttermost parts of the world, which means go to the whole world.

That's right. But start with Jerusalem. That's right. And so we take that mandate very seriously. Hence, we stand with the Jewish people.

But we believe God is for all people. That's right. All right, so God is not anti-any people. Right. But He's definitely not anti-Jewish people.

That's 100% right. And you said it best, the gospel is meant to go into the world. We're not called to hide from the world. And so Paul knew that he needed to speak the language of culture without compromising the message of Christ. And I think that goes perfectly in today's verse of the day.

Absolutely. The verse of the day today is coming to us from 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 22. I have become all things to all men that I might by all means save some. You know, I think that that also goes perfectly with what we're talking about today. You know, Dr.

Shaw, we've never made it a secret on this show that we are wrestling fans. Ryan, I'm pretty sure you like, you like, you watch wrestling as a kid, right? I didn't really. I mean, I know, I knew of wrestling and some of those big name guys, but I wasn't a huge wrestling fan. For the sake of the show, you're a big wrestling fan.

Absolutely. 100%.

Now, I will tell you, my dad, in one of the things that he did growing up, one of the jobs that he had, he would set up for wrestling matches. Real wrestling. That's pretty sick. He met some of these guys. Wow.

I didn't know that. We've talked about it a lot on the show. I watched a lot of boxing with my dad. Dad, but with my friends, it was WWF. And Dr.

Shel, one thing I love about you is you were a man after my own heart as far as wrestling is concerned. Yeah. And see, it was funny because I didn't grow up in the 80s. I was born in 92.

So I was watching wrestling in like 96, 97, 98. But before that, in the 80s, there was one figure. Yeah. And he was larger than life. That's right.

He had that handlebar mustache, he had that ripped shirt. You know who I'm talking about. Yeah, I'm talking about. You're talking about Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan.

That's right, brother. That's right, brother. Well, so my introduction to Hulk Hogan came when one of my friends from church came over and he said, Look, you need to come over because they had a VCR. Right, right.

Now, we had a television, but we didn't have a VCR. He had a VCR and he had this cassette tape of this special fighting. And I was like fighting, like like boxing? He said, No, this is a special fighting. You need to come see it.

Like, okay. And so I went to his home, and I was not prepared for. This world of wrestling, the colors, the theatric it is, it is very theatrical. I was not prepared to see. I mean, the show began, and this was that big title fight between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant.

Oh, yeah.

So, this is the one, and I mean, there were characters coming out like the Junkyard Dog, you know, names like Ric Flair, Nature Boy, names like. Let's see, who else did we have? Roddy Piper. Yeah. And so, Macho Man, Randy Savage.

Of course, Macho Man. He's over there fighting Peter Parker in this cage match. Yeah, Ricky, Steamboat Dragon. These are kind of names that were coming up. The Iron Shake.

Something like. What is this? How old were you at the time, do you think? I was.

Okay, so I may have been. I may have been. Oh my goodness, maybe 13 years old. That's the perfect age. Yeah.

I mean, find out what year did we have that big fight took place between Under the Giant and Hulk Hogan? Because that's the year. That's the year I started watching. That was in um I can tell you that was in What? What?

1987. 1983. WrestleMania 3. Was that the one that was a big fight? That was the big one.

WrestleMania 3, 1988. Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan. Yeah, it was WrestleMania 3. Yeah, but now they came back and fought several more times.

Now, the big title fight, the big, big fight was the one I'm referring to.

Okay, hang on. Where he picks him up 550 pounds and he body slams the following year, 1988. That's the year? Yeah, Hulk vs. Giant, the most watched wrestling match of all time on February 5th, 1988.

So we'll hear later. It was a special episode called the Main Event. Yeah, that's the one. That's the one 1988.

So that's when, and I think I started watching even prior to that, to be very honest. But that was. The one that really got me hooked. I was like, What in the world is this? Wow, yeah, he was wearing them yellow spandex shorts.

Yeah, and Andre the Giant. I mean, he had that, he had that black leotard, yeah, yeah. And you had some of these names there, and um, Dusty Rhodes was there. I'm trying to think of who else do we have. Oh, Hacksaw, uh, uh, Jim Duggan, yeah, those are a lot of names that are unfamiliar, yeah.

Mick Foley, Mick Foley, Mick Foley's still living, and so, so you know, these are some of the names that that came up. And then to see them come, and they were coming in this, this like a cart, and they would be, the cart would like. Like, not, I don't know if it was driving or maybe it was on a rail or whatever, it would come right up there. They would open the gates, and these guys would come out. I'm like, What is this?

Does the world know about this? This is the best-kept secret.

So, if someone's listening for the first time and you're just you've been living under a rock, we are, of course, we're mourning the passing of Hulk Hogan. He died, um, and it's sad because I actually found out via a Babylon B article.

So I thought, Duncan Shum, maybe it would be appropriate if I could just read to you this article about Hulk Hogan. Sure. Entering the gates of heaven. Because I will say, spoiler alert, you know, Hulk Hogan did accept Christ in his last year or so on earth. Yeah, a couple of years, yeah.

A couple of years.

So, so I want to read this. If I could get some just some entrance music, this is a real American. All right, here's the article. What began as a regular day in heaven was quickly turned upside down as the legendary sports entertainment icon Hulk Hogan made a surprise entrance to challenge Jacob in a wrestling match. Jacob, long regarded as the most experienced and intimidating wrestler in the Bible, was reportedly standing in the heavenly ring and speaking to a large crowd of his fans when Hogan's real American theme music blared over the speakers, heralding the arrival of the Hulkster.

Oh my, what's this? Can it be? It is. It's Hulk Hogan. An angelic commentator, this is the Babylon B, by the way, has said as Hulk walked to the ring, What's he doing here?

Is he here to issue a challenge to Jacob? Hold on to your hats, folks. Hogan made his way through the smoke, the lights, the pyrotechnics before stepping into the ring, ripping off his shirt, and staring down. Jacob. Let me tell you something, brother.

The hulkster said with the roar of the crowd. All my life, I've been hearing about what a bad dude you were back in the day, man. They said you wrestled with God, brother.

Well, now the Hulkster has arrived. It's time to step up to the challenge. Let's do it, Jacob. You and me, right here tonight, brother. I didn't write this.

The crowd roared in excitement as Jacob paused to look out into the crowd before shaking Hogan's hand. You want some, Hogan? You got it. I wish I could say that in ancient Hebrew. Over the deafening cheers of the crowd, Hogan promised to give Jacob a fight he'd never forget.

What you gonna do, brother, when Hulk Hogan, these 24-inch pythons, and all my heavenly Hulkomaniacs run wild on you? Yeah. Shout out to the Babylon Beast. All right, that was pretty great. I love that he's wrestling Jacob.

I hate it. I wanted to do that because that was how I found out that Hulk Hogan was dead. I was like, there was no way he's actually dead. And then, sure enough, yeah, you know, and that's he was not the first one to wrestle. Of course, wrestling was there several decades prior to that, but he was the one who made it very iconic.

You know, he, especially that match between him and Andre the Giant, I think that I watched it the year after, is when it became like, wow, what is this? And a lot of other wrestlers also credit him. For taking this entertainment to another level where fans were like. going crazy. Uh they're the big questions that kid uh kids asked.

Yeah, and I I asked My friend asked. Is it real? Of course it's real. Because sometimes you watch it, you go. That's as a kid, I'm talking about not today, I know.

It's like Wait a minute. That That's not he's not hitting him. Yeah, like that. But it's gotta be real. It's gotta be real.

He hit him, but he fell a second too late. Or like he But why is he bouncing? Why is he like s you know kind of like bouncing his heel? Right. It's making a noise.

He doesn't need to do that. I don't do that if I have to punch somebody. Right. Why is that how is that part of it? Like what is that part of it?

What's the punching at the same time he's like making a sound with his foot? Why what is that? Why is he doing that? Or like they get hit in the stomach and they just like oh like their face is like And I'm like, I've been hit before, and I don't make those face. Make that face.

Yeah, I mean, somehow somewhere, you know, and I'm not a historian of um this kind of American wrestling. Like somewhere someone hit on this jackpot. Yeah. And next thing you know, This is a phenomenon. Yeah.

But it's larger than life characters. I mean, they really were characters. There was this whole ongoing arcs between them. There still is in wrestling today. Yeah.

But isn't it funny how faith has sort of seeped into that? Like, I know not every single wrestler is saved, but it's funny how many of them are. Yeah, many of them, many of them became Christians, like Sting. Sting became a Christian. Ted DiBiase, the Million Dollar Man.

Undertaker became a Christian. That was my guy for sure. Undertaker was always my favorite. Yeah, he would come out with that weird dude with him, you know, holding the urn. It's like, oh, that bell.

Now, these are from the 90s. These guys were not there in the 80s.

Okay. In the 90s, you have The Undertaker. In the 90s, you have The Rock. The Rock or Steve Austin, which, you know, doing the Austin 360. I didn't like that, Steve.

Steve, you shouldn't have done that. Yeah, Steve Best. And then Goldberg. Steve Goldberg. Goldberg.

Goldberg was big. Kevin Nash, some of these names. Kane, but you're my favorite Triple H. I had toys of Kane and Undertaker. These toys are getting a little bit more familiar to me now.

Yeah, the 90s was different. Yeah, it was. Yeah. And so, and then Hulk Hogan sort of left in the early 90s, and I think he came back. Again, I'm not a professional historian of wrestling, but just remembering a little bit, he went away and then he came back.

It was cool to see him, like, because I was watching the 90s, and like The Rock was there, and he did a match with The Rock. Yeah, he did. Yeah, he did. That was kind of fun. And that was kind of like, you know, the old school versus the new school.

And it was it was f I I don't remember watching that match by the time I had real job and real responsibility. Yeah, that was when I was that's when I was like 11, 12 years old watching it. I stopped watching back in the late 90s. People may be listening to this and they're thinking, like, I thought I tuned into Clearview today. Like, we're listening for Christian content, we're listening for uplifting messages, not about wrestling recap.

But, like, we said on the podcast, wrestling is in the Bible. That's right. It is in the Bible. Jacob, he's right there. Hulk Hogan gave his life to Christ.

He did. He did. Now, if you went and researched his testimony, because always I heard a little bit here and there that he had some Christian beginnings, and he did. He gave his life to Christ when I think when he was 14 years of age or something like that. And then, of course, life hits.

And then he was in the spotlight as an actor and then as this pro wrestler. And then, of course, he tried his hand at different things. And so he went through different stages in life. And he himself admitted, he said, I made some bad decisions. And I lost my way.

But then towards the end of his life, whether he knew. This was getting close to the end of his life, or not, but he gave his life to Christ again. There's a video of him being baptized, yes, and um, and that was very encouraging to see that. And then you heard his testimony, and he's not pretending at that point, he is genuinely. The real deal at this point.

We have a video of him actually kind of it's just a snippet from a video of him giving his testimony, but I thought he was very profound here. And it's fun to see Hulk Hogan in a way that we hadn't seen him before, which is this him being real and opening up about his faith. Yeah. Yeah. We can roll that.

People, you know, that say they're a Christian and they know of our Lord and Savior, but they really don't know him. You know, everybody I meet is a wrestler talking about wrestling, but there's a huge difference when you actually get in that ring, just like you said. And that's exactly the perfect way to describe it. I get sick and tired of myself. You know, the two people in my head, the ego and the real I am.

I mean, I just surrendered. I just said, I can't do it anymore. And I went back to the Bible, and I started reading again. I'm either all the way in or all the way out with whatever I do.

So if you're with me, there's no guesswork. If I'm with my Lord and Savior, I'm all the way in. Amen. Wow. That's very powerful to hear that because if you know his testimony, if you know his story, there were some really bad moments in his life when he lost his marriage and he would himself admit it, he said, It was my fault and other things.

And then, of course, then to say I surrender, that is a great Uh admission of What that meant for him when he rededicated his life to Christ. Yeah. You know, he did an interview with TBN a while back. I think it was like last year, but he said almost exactly that, Dr. Shaw.

He said, I was always a believer, always a believer, but I didn't completely surrender. I thought I could drive better than God could. I thought I could make the decisions better than God could. And now, when God takes his hands off the wheel and says, Okay, you think you can do it better? Go ahead and do it.

He said, I just got tired of crashing and burning. And it's funny, like, If I had just read those words on the page, that could be any Christian at all. You don't read that as Hulk Hogan. What makes me think about those passages in the Bible where it says that God gave people over to their sinful desires? And that is the scariest passage of scripture to me: God takes his hands off.

He's like, All right, you think you know best? You go ahead and do it. I don't ever want to be that person. I don't ever want God to take his hands off and say, You think you know best? You go ahead and do it.

And something you've said on the show before, Dr. Shaw is you don't have to get to that place.

Sometimes we think that part of the Christian life is hitting that rock bottom and coming to that very, very end of yourself. But you've said this on the show: you don't have to. You can live the majority of your life in God's will. You don't have to create a testimony. You don't have to make those bad decisions.

You don't have to just give in to that temptation. You can stop and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. You can back away. And you may temporarily lose control and lose your focus, but the sooner you can repent, repentance is very important in a Christian's life. The sooner you can repent and say, God, God, I messed up.

God, I blew it. Not feel sorry for yourself. Not find someone else to blame for your problems. Not try to justify why you did it in the moment. None of that is necessary.

Repentance means admitting. I chose contrary To what God was telling me. His word, His Holy Spirit. I chose to listen. To my voice, to my own heart, or to the world, or to the devil.

And I chose wrong. But here I am, God. Help me. Don't wallow in self-pity. Don't waste time in.

But You know. looking for a day when you can Straighten out that person or whatever it is. Don't do that. Just surrender. to Christ.

And walk in the newness of life. That's right. Amen. It's funny because we have these icons, we have these heroes, and we see them as their character. We see them as this person that they're meant to be.

And just like you said in that video, he said, I felt that those two different people. And it's kind of funny, his name is the Hulk, because there's this dichotomy between the ego and then who I really am. And I think a lot of us, you don't have to be a pro wrestler to have that inside you. We talked about that at length, this conflict that's within the Christian, you know, the everyday Christian that Romans 8 talks about, this terrible conflict, or maybe it's just Romans 6 or 7, but it's that terrible conflict that we have. Yeah, the things I want to do, I don't do.

And the things that I don't want to do, that's what I end up doing. Yeah, there is that Hulk Hogan, and then there was the man. who was not Named Hulk Hogan. I mean, no parent named their child Hulk. His first name is Harry.

I can't think of it. Terry Balia. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, he was kind of Italian. Panamanium Scottish, French, I mean, all mixed in there.

So he was from that background. Yeah. From Georgia, actually. Really? I didn't know that.

Augusta, Georgia. I did not know that. But I think his being Christian and his coming out, especially in these last couple of years, kind of just shows that. Character that we all try to put on. You know what I mean?

We want to show the world that we've got this, we're in control, yeah. And at the end of his life, he realized, and I think all throughout, but he realized, I'm not this person. Yeah, you cannot sustain that image when you're by yourself. You cannot sustain that image when you make poor choices. You cannot sustain that image in the presence of God one day.

So you have to decide quickly: am I going to allow this image to continue, or am I going to be the real me between in front of God? And he had that real me moment. And that's what I want our listeners and viewers to understand. We're not here celebrating wrestling. I enjoyed it when I was a kid.

Sure, sure. And there were. funny things watching it in the nineties. Yeah. You know, seeing seeing some of the silly stuff those wrestlers would do and have that go on.

You know, so it was funny to watch that. But That's Well, I'll tell you what is real. What is real is they're really athletes, by the way. Oh, that's absolutely. You can't just go up in there and do that.

No matter what you think is staged or choreographed, they are still lifting one another up over their heads. Yes, actually. And they're really slamming them.

Now, of course, the mat is such that it makes that sound, but does not mean for a moment that it does not hurt. It does hurt. It hurts. 100%.

I remember one of the clips that you showed me one time of Vince McMahon coming in there and yelling. He jumps into the ring and he shatters his quads. I mean, you can tell he cannot stand up. Both, right? He did both quads at the same time.

He physically cannot stand up. He hurt himself so bad, but he's still in character. He's going like they're athletes for sure. You can't throw on a silly costume and go, no, no, no, no, no. And not some of those punches are fake, but some of them are not fake.

You're feeling it. Yeah, that's right. And by the way, that's why they have the surgery after surgery just to recuperate. Yeah. You know, like Hulk Hogan himself has.

Had so many spine fusion surgeries to get his back straight. Andrew the Giant had back surgery and he was in big pain. Like the big match, I think it was what year did we say in 1988?

So in that match, If I'm not wrong, his back was hurting. He was waiting to go get a surgery. Oh, wow. But we're gonna do this match. We're gonna do this match.

And this is a match where it was in much of his choreography.

So Hulk Hogan was supposed to pick him up and then slam him. That was a big moment. And Hulk Hogan knew that under the giant was hurting. his back was not good. Yeah.

And he told him, he said, Whatever you do, don't fall in the middle of the of the ring, fall towards the rope so you can pull yourself up because his back's hurting. He cannot pull himself up by without Support. And so he kept telling us, like, get close to the rope, brother, get close to the rope. And Andrew, the giant, you know, when the time came, this is it. He's like, slam me.

And he's like, no, no, no, get close to the rope. Slam me. He's like, we got it. Go for it, dude. Go all in.

And he did it. But, you know, his back was killing him. He had to go get surgery after that. Yeah. There's one more clip I want to see because I want to end on a send the Hulkster out on a really, really high note.

You know, we didn't know this. I didn't know this at the time, but President Trump actually tweeted. At his passing, that Hulk Hogan was a good friend of his. Yeah, I never knew that. Then I found this video.

Well, there was a one that was from back in the 80s where he, is that the one you found? No, it's the one that you sent me.

Okay. That's probably it. Yeah, it's back in the 80s where he's talking about Trump. I mean, this is way before President Trump ever became President Trump. Yeah, this is just Donald Trump.

And check this out. The fear in all those little hulksters. They realize that when I get Andre the Giant cinched up in the launch position, when I slam him through the Trump Plaza, brother from New York, that's called Florida, the fault line is gonna break off. Andre the Giant falls into the ocean as my next two opponents fall to the ocean floor and I pin them.

So will Donald Trump and all the Hulkimaniacs. But as Donald Trump hangs onto the top of the Trump Plaza, his family under his other arms as they look at the guy trying not to crack up. Dog paddle with his life to get his safety. But Donald, if something happens, you run out of gas, and all those little Hulkamaniacs run out of gas, just hang on to the largest back in the world, and I'll dog paddle us, backstroke all of us to safety. Oh, and thank you, Hulk Hogan.

Let's get back to it. What was that? There you go. I couldn't end the episode. I could not end the episode without talking about showing that.

Oh, my God. I had never, before this morning, I had never seen that clip in my entire life. Oh, that is hilarious because it's like, where are you actually going with that? I know. I'm talking about a fault line breaking off and cleaning to the top of the competitive.

You never find out. I never found out what the point of any of it was. He's just hyping himself off. That must have been before the big fight because he's talking about picking Andre the Giant up and slamming him through the into the ocean? Yeah, the fault line's going to break off.

He's going to slam right through the Trump Plaza. That's pretty funny. But I mean, later on, he came out and at the rallies, he supported President Trump. Yeah, he did. He was a true friend in that sense.

I love it. That's what President Trump treated, I think, or what he posted on X is that he was a MAGA supporter all the way. Yeah, that's true. That's true. I love it.

Guys, make sure you join us next time. Same time, same place. We're going to be diving into another great topic here on the Clearview. Today's show. Thanks again to our sponsors for making today's episode possible.

And don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the show on iTunes. If you want to re-listen, you can always support us financially at Abadanshaw.com. John, what do you want to leave listeners with today?

Well, a couple of things. We got a couple minutes left, so I'm going to take my time. I'm going to let you guys know everything that's coming your way. Number one, we are doing another live stream that's on August 15th from 7 to 9 p.m. We want you guys to call into the show and talk to us live.

We're going to pray with you on the air. That number is 252-582-5028. We want you guys again to call us and we will pray with you on the air. Just like Ryan said at the top of the episode, go and subscribe to Dr. Shah's new weekly devotional podcast.

That's the Lighthouse with Dr. Abadan Shah. You can find that on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pray.com. Speaking of Pray.com, lots and lots and lots of new things are coming. Of course, the Lighthouse is on there, but also our exclusive show, Daily, not Daily Doctrines, Discerning Doctrine.

That's the name of the show. We're just past, I think, 32,000 followers.

So really happy about that. We're going to do a big celebration episode. As soon as we hit 50,000. If you have not followed drshawnpray.com yet, make sure you go and do that. Thank you to everyone who's using the pray platform to give and support us financially.

We greatly, greatly appreciate your obedience to God's word. And if you are the follower that gets us to 50,000, John will get in the ring with you. I will get in the ring with you, brother, and I will put you up and put you through the fault line. No, I won't do it, but I will. I tell you what, if you're the follower that gets us to 50,000, go ahead and take a picture, send it in to us.

We'll go send you a little something nice. Yeah, send you a little something in the mail. It'd be fun. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearby Today.