The Chicago Tribune has a long article up today about Hulk Hogan with some words from The Hulkster himself. The article focused on yesterday’s Hulk Hogan Appreciation Day, which was attended by about 400 people paying $99 each. Here are some quotes:

When asked about when he would be coming back to wrestle: “About every third person was saying, ‘When are you going to get in the ring again?’ They don’t realize that, even though I look the same way I looked 30 years ago—kind of—my body is pretty beat up. It’s kind of hard to explain to them. The hip replacements, the back surgeries, the elbow surgeries, the shoulder surgeries…I never like to say never, but right now I’m on the rebuild and rewind process.”

About the signing itself being challenging for him: “I tried getting through it without letting everyone know I was having a hard time. I’d never had a chair there at an autograph signing before. Now I have a chair in my bathroom so I can brush my teeth. When I shave, I shave half my face, lay on the floor for 10 minutes and then shave the other half of my face. I had a hard time walking through the Chicago airport today. I stopped one time to sit down and acted like I was doing something. I walked farther and then went into the men’s room. I leaned on the sink to crack my back and pretended I was looking at my face.”

About returning to the ring: “It seems to get farther and farther in reach. I just don’t want to exclude it from my thought process. It’s like the one place that, when I’m in there, I’m totally free.”

On the pythons: “They used to be 24 inches when I was 27 years old,” he says. “Now, last time I taped them, they were about 20 inches. That was a couple years ago. I haven’t taped them since. I’m afraid too.”

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