In excellent news for fans of busty waitresses and chicken wings, Hooters — the country’s original breastaurant — could be saved from bankruptcy by an unlikely savior: Hulk Hogan.

The Hulkster is best known for his bleached goatee, his American Hero gimmick and the racist tirade that earned him temporary removal from the WWE Hall of Fame. What you might not know is that he’s spent the last few years building his Real American Beer brand, and Hooters was one of the first restaurants to sell it. According to Business Insider, Hogan is set to repay the favor by offering an all-cash bid for Hooters’ intellectual property, meaning his Real American Beer brand could churn out Hooters-branded merch, food and drinks.

Hogan’s potential acquisition is the latest chapter in a decades-long love story. In 2008, TMZ reported Hogan was “drowning his sorrows in chicken wings” after his son was sent to jail for a DUI (naturally, the TMZ story included an image of Hogan’s face superimposed on a pair of Hooters-branded tits).

Hogan isn’t the only pro wrestler with ties to the iconic chain either. Liv Morgan is one of the industry’s best-known current stars, a multiple-time world champion who recently wrapped filming for her first major movie appearance. “I got discovered at a Hooters,” she told podcast host Chris Van Vliet last year in her trademark singsong voice, before confirming that the chicken wings are “always fresh, never frozen.”

Morgan’s colleagues at Hooters also knew she was a die-hard WWE fan, so they were quick to tell her that a wrestler — “who will not be named,” she added coyly — used to manage the Hooters chain she worked at, and would visit whenever they were back in town. On one of these visits, Morgan seized her opportunity to chat to the unnamed wrestler and share her pro wrestling dreams — a connection that ultimately led her to current status as one of top female performers today.

Meanwhile, although they weren’t discovered at Hooters, Nikki and Brie Garcia — the “Bella Twins” who dominated the WWE women's division in the early 2010s — have joked about their time as Hooters waitresses, and how that experience ultimately helped their wrestling careers. “Working there, you really owned your feminine energy,” Brie told the New York Post in a 2024 interview. “You’re going up to men who are excited and want to get crazy, so we knew how to keep them in line. It really taught me at a young age just to stand up for myself and to own it, own the room and own a table. And I think it really helped me with pro wrestling to take that attitude into that.”

As for securing big tips, Nikki joked, “You’d be squeezing your cleavage, like, ‘Do you want more fries with that?’” Plus, added Brie, “Everyone loves seeing the Hooters girls doing the YMCA and hula hoop.”

Women’s wrestling today commands more respect and is taken more seriously than ever — there was a time when exclusively playing to male fans was part of the job description, and TV time was limited to two-minute pillow fights in lingerie or grappling in giant vats of gravy. But the fact remains that Hooters and wrestling have long been a match made in heaven.