By Andrew Sanford | News | February 4, 2025 |
Hulk Hogan’s heel turn in the mid-’90s was one of the most monumental moments in wrestling history. That is impossible to deny. The family-friendly hero who had urged children to say their prayers (lol) and take their vitamins shocked the wrestling world when he landed a leg drop on his longtime friend, Macho Man Randy Savage, and joined forces with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. They would go on to form the nWo, one of the best and worst wrestling factions ever. It would be insane to undercut this moment, just as it would be insane to assume anyone is factoring that moment into their personal feelings toward noted racist Hulk Hogan.
WWE premiered on Netflix last month to huge fanfare and celebration. Matches were had. Fireworks were fired. Travis Scott was there. So was Macaulay Culkin. CM Punk and Seth Freakin’ Rollins took their feud to the next level with an incredible main event. But no one cared about that. All anyone could talk about was Hulk Hogan hobbling onto the stage to promote his stupid beer and getting booed like crazy. Deafening boos that drowned out any chance of him being heard.
Being booed in wrestling is not necessarily a bad thing. Getting “heat” with an audience can be useful, as it was when Hogan had his heel turn almost thirty years ago. It doesn’t even have to be intentional to be useful. The Rock got booed last year and turned it into one of the most successful storylines of the decade. What happened to Hogan was different. It had nothing to do with storylines or geographic locations. I would argue that it didn’t even involve politics. Hogan was booed because he was an abhorrent racist.
Many white wrestling commentators (and former wrestlers) couldn’t understand why Hogan was not welcomed with open arms. It was kind of sad to see, especially because any Black commentator (or former wrestler) knew exactly why. It wasn’t surprising to see people bend over backward to explain away his hostile reception, but it was disappointing. People aren’t idiots. They know all they need to know about Hogan and respond accordingly. It would take a massive idiot to assume that people booed him because of, say, a storyline that’s old enough to rent a car. A massive, delusional loser of a human being would think that.
Speak of the devil! The Hulkster was a guest on The Pat McAfee Show, and Pat asked him if he expected a hostile reaction because of his political views (another white man missing the point). Hogan took the ball and ran with it. “Oh, I did. Yeah. Some of it the political stuff but you’ve got to remember the last time I ran hard in LA I was a bad guy. I was Hollywood Hogan, I was riding dirty with the boys you know Nash and Hall,” Hogan explained. “We were spray painting people and crotch-shotting everybody, so last time I was there I was a heel, but I think the politics had a whole lot to do with it like you said.”
I don’t think that politics had nothing to do with it, but they are again ignoring the massive racist elephant in the room. Hogan was caught on tape saying vile things, and people remember that because it was awful. He went on to pretend he would have turned the moment around had he not been promoting a sh**ty beer, but that’s delusional as hell. You can’t work a crowd that wants nothing to do with you. There’s no explaining your way out of this one (while taking shots at Kamala Harris). The wrestling world is done with you, Hogan. Good riddance.