They say the past always catches up with you, and it claimed is latest victim last week, in the shape of the immortal Hulk Hogan.
It was reported that an audio recording from some years ago has been leaked, with Hogan speaking ill of his daughter Brooke’s love life and featuring unacceptable racial slurs.
In light of hotdog-skinned, baby-haired media magnate, Donald Trump’s recent racist comments on Mexican immigrants, Hogan’s comments have been heavily criticised by many media outlets, and even more so his current employers, WWE.
With the WWE being the PC, anti-bullying, PG, powerhouse it has become over the past few years, it immediately parted ways with its former poster boy and wrestling legend by removing all merchandise, images, and videos of him from WWE.com. Hogan’s name cannot be found on the list of WWE Hall of Fame inductees and he has been removed as a judge on the ongoing season of Tough Enough. The scrubbing has even put an end to Curtis Axel’s homage gimmick AxelMania, which shows the extent of WWE’s disapproval of Hogan’s comments.
Hogan released the following statement:
“I used offensive language during a conversation. It was unacceptable for me to have used that offensive language; there is no excuse for it and I apologize for having done it, this is not who I am. I believe very strongly that every person in the world is important and should not be treated differently based on race, gender, orientation, religious beliefs or otherwise.”
WWE released a statement confirming it had “terminated its contract” with Hogan, adding:
“WWE is committed to embracing and celebrating individuals from all backgrounds as demonstrated by the diversity of our employees, performers and fans worldwide.”
Hogan’s past is littered with controversy from his involvement in the steroid scandal, to his son Nick Bollea’s imprisonment for reckless driving that resulted in a friend’s paralysis.
His name will always be in the wrestling legend books for everything he has done for the business, but now it will forever be tarnished with yet another stain of controversy.
This is not a good time to be a Hulkamania fan and it will be a very long time until – if at all – we see him on WWE programming again. I, for one, will be burying my Hulkster t-shirts in the pit of shame.