Terry "Hulk Hogan" Bollea has found record industry executives present a tougher battle than any he has faced in the ring.
Bollea said he has taken a "grassroots" approach toward helping his 17-year-old daughter Brooke with her signing career. That includes making live signing appearances around the country while she works to establish herself in the music world.
"Instead of waiting another year for a record deal, we're just going to go ahead and throw her on stage live," said Bollea, whose daughter's song "Everything to Me" briefly reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 Singles sales chart in 2004. "We're waiting for the one person who really believes in her and gets behind her, the one person at a record label who says, 'I get it!'"
Brooke might not have to wait much longer thanks to the exposure she is getting from "Hogan Knows Best," which was a 2005 ratings success for VH1. The adventures of the Clearwater, Fla.-based Bollea family are chronicled, with The Hulkster's grappling buddies Jimmy Hart and Brian Knobs of the Nasty Boys among those making cameo appearances.
Episodes have focused on Brooke's first date (and her father's ultra-paranoid reaction) and The Hulkster returning to the ring last April in conjunction with his induction into World Wrestling Entertainment's Hall of Fame. The second "Hogan Knows Best" season, which begins in early 2006, will feature similar hi-jinks that also involve his teenage son Nick and wife Linda.
"People have seen a bald, screaming wrestler for 25 years," said Bollea, who is widely considered the most storied performer in wrestling history.
"There's a curiosity of what I'm really like, and you can see how my family functions. We're a normal family with normal problems."
Despite his age (52) and an artificial hip, Bollea showed earlier this year that Hulkamania is still running wild by being a major part of WWE's two most-successful pay-per-view telecasts of 2005. After playing a supporting role at Wrestlemania XXI, Hogan proved his drawing power when a headline match against Shawn Michaels drew a reported 534,000 buys for August's SummerSlam event.
"It was kind of a match nobody thought they would see," said Hogan, who won the bout. "Plus, the fans have seen so many of the main wrestlers over and over, week after week. It's almost like a novelty when Hulk Hogan wrestles Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin or an opponent like that."
Hogan said he had no interest in pursuing what would have been a financially successful rematch after Michaels' made unprofessional comments about him the following night on Monday Night Raw (9 p.m., USA Network). Michaels' poked fun at Hogan's limited in-ring mobility and claimed The Hulkster would only return to WWE when given the chance for another lucrative payoff.
Such comments were surprising to Bollea considering how Michaels (real name Michael Hickenbottom) touts himself as being a born-again Christian.
"Shawn had expressed how much he wanted a dream match. Things were cool and we had a good match," Bollea said. "That's pretty much where we left it at. There was always room to have a Hogan vs. Michaels II and III, but Shawn went on TV and kind of made fun our match and I didn't want to pursue working with him any more.
"I think there's a lot of the old Shawn Michaels in the new Shawn Michaels."
Bollea has publicly lobbied to wrestle Austin, but ego could keep it from happening because both sides would have to agree upon the match finish.
Bollea said he also has special interest in facing three other WWE performers _ John Cena, Kurt Angle and Paul "Big Show" Wight.
"I wouldn't mind working with a young guy who would like to learn how to put butts in seats," said Bollea, who is expected to appear at Wrestlemania XXII in April. "If you have an ego or you're worried about technical wrestling, I'm not interested. I'm worried about the bigger picture. It has to do with business and generating revenue, not being robots."
