Against my doctor's orders, I came back to wrestling seven months after my hip operation.  I'd heard of others having the surgery (such as the original Sheik and a member of the Kangaroo tag team) and then coming back to the ring, and given my health and physical conditioning, I saw no reason why I couldn't do the same.

Vince agreed, and put up the $50,000 for the operation (which I repaid upon my return following the surgery) and we went for it...

People say a lot of things about Vince, and God knows I've been one of them, but despite our eventual falling out, we were close friends for more than ten years.  I can still remember Vince (upon hearing the news that if I didn't have the operation my career would be finished) telling me "Superstar, I can't just put you out to pasture..."

Then I got the idea to make it part of the storyline, and we actually had a WWF camera crew film the surgery.  The surgery was part of a huge angle they did to bring me back, and it aired all across the world.  Nothing like it had ever been done on a wrestling show, actually showing a wrestler go under the knife, and it got a huge response in every market the video package was aired.  Some of the more graphic footage was even cencored by the local stations!  Vince was fearful that seeing me in such a vulnerable state might weaken me in the eyes of the fans, but I had a plan for that as well.  Those of you who remember seeing the surgery also probably remember seeing clips of me hitting the weights hard in the gym, and climbing the mountain (literally) back to the top of the WWF.  I may have been injured, but the fans saw that The Superstar was as powerful as ever.  After having the surgery, I felt like a new man, totally free of pain, which is how I was able to lift so hard and return so soon.

But, of course, my doctor was right when he told me that the hip would give out if I came back to wrestling.  Little did I know that as a result of wrestling on it, I would develop chronic hip problems that would force me to have six more operations, and a total hip replacement over the course of the following ten years.  For the record, though, it was actually my ankles that forced me to retire in 1988, not my hip.