Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2023/05/24/hulk-hogan-addresses-racist-comments-in-past-that-was-a-speed-bump-but-thats-not-who-i-was-and-everybody-knew-that/
Hulk Hogan briefly spoke about the racist comments he made in a video, which led to his WWE release in 2015.
Hogan was promoting his new line of CBD products while appearing on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani and was asked about various issues impacting his legacy over the past decade and whether he was worried about it being erased:
There was a temporary situation where I thought, okay, where is this going to end up at? Where is this going to wind down? Where is the legacy? At the end of the day, there had been so much goodwill, you know, with the Hulk Hogan brand and people knew me so well. I mean I’ve been around for forty years and people know me so well from Mike Tyson, Brutus Beefcake to Vince McMahon, Verne Gagne to Bret Hart, everybody knows me so well that they knew I would come back and I would become the person that I was. There was a temporary situation with the surgeries, some of the racial stuff that went down. That was a speed bump but that’s not who I was, and everybody knew that. So, it was a tough time but the main thing that really got me over the past ten years was the surgeries that was the thing that was in question when you come out of a back surgery and someone tells you you’re never going to walk again. That will really screw your head up. The rest of the stuff, I had a bunch of people on my side, I had a huge support system and people that knew me stuck with me and it’s just been amazing to see how the fans have stayed with me.
In 2015, a video surfaced of Hogan using racist language while being secretly recorded by former friend Todd Clem a.k.a. Bubba the Love Sponge.
Hogan used the n-word multiple times on the video when describing his daughter Brooke’s ex-boyfriend.
Hogan issued an apology at the time which led to a lawsuit against the Gawker site. WWE cut ties with Hogan, who was serving as a judge on the Tough Enough series when the scandal broke in the summer of 2015.
Hogan returned to WWE in 2018 and has made multiple appearances over the past five years including an induction into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the N.W.O. with Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Sean Waltman in 2021.