Who is Richard Belzer? Hulk Hogan lawsuit in Mr McMahon explained

Netflix’s Mr McMahon includes a notorious moment in Hulk Hogan’s career: his appearance on Richard Belzer’s talk show and the subsequent lawsuit against the wrestler.

The six-part Netflix docu-series is predominantly focused on its titular figure, WWE’s controversial co-founder and former chief who turned the company into one of the biggest entertainment juggernauts on the planet.

Mr McMahon charts his rise with the WWF, stomping into other promoters’ territories and luring competing wrestlers with big paydays. His biggest (and arguably still his most iconic) recruit was Hulk Hogan, who leaped to super-stardom after his appearance in Rocky III and WrestleMania III, where he defeated Andre the Giant.

Two years prior to that historic PPV event, Hogan became embroiled in a lawsuit that took five years to reach a settlement.

Who is Richard Belzer?

Richard Belzer was an actor and comedian, best known for playing John Munch on crime shows like Law & Order: SVU and Homicide: Life on the Street.

NBC

Amazingly, he’s the only actor in American TV history to play a single character across 11 different shows, with Munch showing up in the likes of Arrested Development, 30 Rock, and Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Before becoming a TV mainstay, he warmed up the audiences at Saturday Night Live and appeared in several skits. He also appeared in Fame, Scarface, and Fletch Lives.

Later in life, he published five books, all discussing the validity of different conspiracy theories, like the true motives behind John F. Kennedy’s assassination and what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Belzer died in October 2023 following complications from a respiratory disease. He was 78 years old.

What happened between Richard Belzer and Hulk Hogan?

In 1985, four days before the first-ever WrestleMania, Hulk Hogan appeared on Hot Properties, Belzer’s talk show on Lifetime.

As shown in the Netflix documentary, Belzer asked Hogan to perform a wrestling move on him, so he put him in a headlock (a front face lock, to be exact), and the host fell to the ground. “Hulk thought it was a pratfall… in actuality, he was hurt,” Linda McMahon explained.

In the footage, you can see blood trickling down onto the back of Belzer’s jacket from his head. After the break, he told the audience: “If you’re not a professional athlete or you’re not a professional wrestler, don’t try to copy what you see the athletes or professional wrestlers do on TV.”

It didn’t end there. Belzer filed a lawsuit against Hogan (real name Terry Bollea) for personal injury.

How much did Belzer win in the lawsuit?

Well, technically Belzer didn’t win the lawsuit. It was settled out of court, and it’s been reported that he walked away with $400,000.

Belzer initially sued Hogan, McMahon, and the WWF for $5 million. “He came very close to killing me. I was told by a sports medicine expert that if I had fallen a few inches either way I could have been crippled for life, I could have been dead,” he told Ray Firestone in 1990.

Belzer’s lawyers also requested 50% of his compensation, citing the “angst, aggravation, and life’s blood which this case caused.”

Not that it matters too much: he used the money to buy himself and his wife a house in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France, which he hilariously named “Chez Hogan.”

We’ve broken down five other shocking moments in Mr McMahon, and for more coverage, find out why the WWE has been accused of promoting “racist trash” and Stephanie McMahon’s earlier Mike Tyson blunder.