Remember When Hulk Hogan Choked Out Richard Belzer on Live TV?

Actor Richard Belzer might be best known for his longtime role as John Munch on Law & Order, but he's also taken up hosting duties on a variety of different programs.

One, which saw him standing opposite professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, which culminated in an infamous incident that saw Belzer knocked unconscious on live television.

It's a viral clip that seems to resurface every few years and make the rounds on the internet. The video most recently became big news in February 2023 after Richard's death.

The snippet of footage was taken from a live recording of the 1985 TV series, Hot Properties, which Belzer hosted.

One of the guests on the program was Hulk Hogan, who was coming on TV at a time when the veracity of professional wrestling was being questioned.

See, the bubble didn't exactly burst with fans that professional wrestling outcomes weren't pre-fixed. Folks called the action "fake" which many stars in the business saw as an insult to the work they put into the medium.

While today, fans don't seem to care that wrestling is scripted and still applaud the physical duress athletes in the business put themselves through. Not to mention the dedication performers exhibit when committing to their roles, back then calling wrestling "fake" was definitely seen as a trigger word.

This could be why Hulk Hogan, as Mr. T and others watched on, went so hard on Richard by putting him in a "front chin lock."

The appearance was part of a circuit to help promote the first-ever Wrestlemania event, and it looks like Hogan was doing his darndest to drum up publicity for the event.

Watch what happens below.

Hogan narrates his actions as he speaks to Mr. T off-camera, who encourages Hulkamania to keep Richard inside of the choke for a little bit longer. Richard, once the choke is secured, widens his arms out, but they soon go limp.

Richard soon collapses to the ground and in a few seconds. Mr. T jokes that he's just sleeping as Hogan puts him in a "sleeper hold.

After Richard awakens and is helped up by Hogan, he immediately goes into TV host mode. A pool of blood can be seen on the floor, and clear bloodstains are dripping from the back of his head and onto his suit.

Hogan asks Richard if he's "all right brother?"

In another episode, Richard explains that the incident wasn't a hoax, and he even encouraged the cameraman to zoom into his head so viewers could see the stitches himself.

The host then goes on to reference an incident between ABC's John Stossel and wrestler David Schultz, who was asked by the reporter if wrestling was fake. Schultz didn't like that and slapped Stossel twice.

The Hot Properties host would go on to sue Hulk Hogan, Vince McMahon, Mr. T, and the WWE (previously known as the WWF) for the choke hold. The matter would ultimately be settled in 1990 for $400,000.

He used the money to buy a home in France, which he named Chez Hogan.

In a 1990 interview, Richard purportedly told sports commentator and journalist Roy Firestone that he came close to death after being choked out and falling to the ground.

"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."