Comedian Theo Von was a mourner at Hulk Hogan’s funeral and he has shared details from the service on his podcast.
Dennis Rodman stopped Hulk Hogan’s casket from wobbling and potentially toppling over at the wrestling legend’s funeral.
The retired NBA player – known as “The Worm” for his defensive and rebounding basketball skills – was one of the invited guests at Hulk’s funeral, which took place on August 5 at the Indian Rocks Baptist Church in Largo, Florida.
Another mourner at the service was comedian Theo Von – who attended with musician Kid Rock – and he has revealed there was a moment when Rodman steadied the grappling icon’s casket to “keep the Hulk headed to heaven”.
Speaking on his This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von podcast, Von shared: “You walk in, and there’s a lot of people in there, you know, Hacksaw [Jim Duggan] was in there, Mountie, Brutus The Barber Beefcake, Jimmy Hart was in there. Ric Flair was in there, Dennis Rodman was in there.
“As as they were pushing the casket out, it kind of shook, like, wobbled a little bit, and Rodman kind of stopped it, which was kind of crazy.
“He was like, you know, one last rebound … he kind of just helped tow the line there and just kind of keep the Hulk headed to heaven.”
Rodman, 64, famously joined “Hollywood Hogan” and the other members of wrestling faction the nWo (New World Order) in the late ’90s with the basketball legend competing in two matches for promotion WCW (World Championship Wrestling) as Hulk’s tag team partner, one of which pitted him against fellow NBA star Karl Malone whose team Utah Jazz had been beaten by Dennis’ Chicago Bulls in the 1998 NBA Finals.
The pair remained friends in the decades that followed.
Von – who interviewed Hogan on his podcast two years ago – admitted attending the service had a profound effect on him and made him realise just how important wrestling had been to him growing up without much money in Covington, Louisiana, and in particular how much Hulk Hogan meant to him.
He said: “It’s kind of crazy because, you know, for me, I was walking through a lot of my childhood.
“We would hold each other’s eyes open … and we would just wait there until they came on the screen. The wrestlers, Ultimate Warrior, Ravishing Rick Rude.
“All that stuff that I felt as a child … all that would go away, man, when that wrestling came on. Like when Hulk Hogan came on there, it just gave me something. It literally gave me something to look up to. I would sit there and look up at the screen … it just made you feel kind of like … something’s possible.”
Von also revealed that Hulk’s son Nick Hogan, 35, gave a touching tribute to his dad, which included a impersonation of the WWE Hall of Fame wrestler.
Von said: “Nick believes that his father’s watching over him, and then he kind of did, like, a bit of an impersonation of his dad, and he’s like, ‘Whatcha gonna do when the Hulkster is watching over you?’ And I thought, that was pretty cool.”
Among the other mourners at the service were WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Kevin Nash – who was a member of the nWo with Hulk – former WCW Executive Producer Eric Bischoff, “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, Adam “Edge” Copeland, Tito Santana and WWE co-founder Vince McMahon who delivered a eulogy to his late friend.
‘One last rebound … keep the Hulk headed to heaven,’ What did Dennis Rodman have to do at Hulk Hogan’s funeral?
