Before the bodyslams and bandanas, and eight years before “WrestleMania III” shook the sports world, Hulk Hogan was just Terry “The Hulk” Boulder, an unknown sweating under the lights of small-town Alabama.
In May 1979, long before he was a household name, Hogan faced off against the legendary Andre the Giant inside the modest Coffee County Farm Center in New Brockton, Alabama — population 900.
Their rivalry had already sparked to life earlier on local TV in Dothan — not in the ring, but across an arm-wrestling table. Flip-flops, biceps, and blood. And the rest, as they say, was history in the making.
“Andre says he’s never arm-wrestled anyone before,” said announcer Dick Steinborn during the broadcast of the confrontation, now preserved on YouTube. “This is a first on television.”
The encounter ended when manager Billy Spears – a former Gulf Coast and Mobile city wrestling champion – got into the ring and prompted Andre the Giant to break from the match. Hulk then attacked the Giant with the arm-wrestling table, causing him to bleed. Andre fought back, leading Steinborn to declare, “look at these two supermen in the ring tearing into each other.”
Terry “The Hulk” Boulder had a few more standout moments while in Alabama, previewing some of the iconic days to come.
He switched from being a villain to a “babyface,” a professional wrestling term for a good guy, while wrestling at the Mobile Civic Center.
On May 24, 1979, 19 days after the arm-wrestling encounter in Dothan, Terry “The Hulk” Boulder rushed to the ring to save Ron Fuller – a popular wrestling fixture on the Gulf Coast – from an attack by the villainous Ox Baker.
Fuller, at the time, had a bounty placed on him by then-NWA Heavyweight Champion Harley Race.
The moment led to Terry “The Hulk” Boulder receiving his first-ever world championship title match, occurring before 8,000 spectators at the Rip Hewes Sports Complex in Dothan.