Oh, brother! For wrestling fans in the 1980s, rarely did a single week offer more squared-circle spectacles on live TV than the one leading up to the inaugural WrestleMania. The last week of March 1985 ended in triumph for some of the sport’s biggest names. However, not before starting with a near tragedy in front of a live studio audience. It all began after the main headliners, Hulk Hogan, with Mr. T in tow, showed a late-night host just how real and dangerous the “fake” world of wrestling can be.
Before Richard Belzer made history playing Detective John Munch for decades in shows like Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, he had another career on TV. The veteran stand-up comedian landed a gig hosting a late-night cable talk show, Hot Properties. To help promote WrestleMania, the WWF (now called the WWE) sent Hogan and his tag team partner, Mr. T, to make an appearance on the show. But a fateful decision Hulk made on stage eventually led to the rolling countryside of France.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view.
Belzer repeatedly asked a reluctant Terry Bollea, otherwise known as Hulk Hogan, to demonstrate a wrestling move on him during the show. With some encouragement from the audience, and Mr. T who remained comfortably on the couch, Hogan agreed to the demonstration. But professional wrestling is something that is practiced, choreographed and rehearsed — not done on the fly by amateurs and wannabes. However, Hogan still placed the untrained host into one of his signature moves, a front chin lock. The sleeper hold, unsurprisingly, did what it is named for and easily knocked out Belzer.
As it played out before the cameras, Belzer suddenly went limp, as his body blacked out from the famous wrestling move. For someone who spent a lifetime having the oxygen cut off to his brain and that of countless opponents in the service of entertainment, Hogan bizarrely doubled down on his first bad decision with an even worse one. He suddenly dropped the unconscious Belzer to the floor with a crashing thud, and his head smashed onto the hard studio tiles. Then, in a curious display of casual indifference, a comfortable couch dwelling Mr. T can be heard ringside-like blowing it all off with a dubious medical assessment of “He’s alright, he’s just sleeping.”
After a few agonizing seconds, Belzar suddenly regained consciousness and stood up before throwing the show to commercial, as he spins around revealing bloodstains on the collar of his jacket. Soon afterward, Belzer went to the hospital and got nine stitches, which he later revealed to viewers on a different broadcast. As a result of the careless finishing move by the wrestling superstar, the injury Belzar sustained pushed him to sue Hogan for five million dollars. The case was eventually settled out of court in 1989. Belzer took the settlement and bought a county estate in Nice, France and aptly named it Chez Hogan.
In the lead up to WrestleMania, the media hype was huge, helping to produce one of the most bonkers weeks on TV for wrestling fans. After starting off with the sleeper hold debacle, Hogan and Mr. T made their legendary appearance together days later on Saturday Night Live, before Sunday night’s big main event at Madison Square Garden, which drew a record-setting pay-per-view audience. With big names like Andre the Giant, Roddy Piper, Cindi Lauper, Muhammad Ali and even Liberace taking part, the all-star event came dangerously close to losing its main attraction if things had turned out worse for Belzer.
About The Author