The man once known as ‘Hollywood’ Hulk Hogan did not feel the love from fans in Tinseltown.
Being broadcast live on Netflix from the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, the WWE icon made an appearance on Monday’s episode of RAW and the crowd’s reaction to his appearance couldn’t have been worse.
The retired grabbling great laboured through his promo to promote his beer company’s alignment with WWE as the crowd booed him loudly, nonstop.
Even having fan favourite Jimmy (Mouth of the South) Hart with him, waving an American flag, couldn’t win over the raucous crowd.
When Hogan began his promo with his iconic “Let me tell you something, brother,” the crowd only got louder with their jeers.
At one point, there were audible “F*** Hulk Hogan” chants.
The boos weren’t only for when Hogan was on stage, either. When he appeared later in a pre-taped commercial for Saturday’s Night Main Event, the ad reportedly was booed heavily by the fans in the arena.
Perhaps this outcome should’ve been easy to predict: Hogan, real name Terry Bollea, was a fervent supporter of Donald Trump on the campaign trail towards his re-election as U.S. president and California is a seen as a stronghold for the Democratic Party.
Hogan even showed up to the event wearing a shirt that read: “MAGA POWERS,” a reference to his former tag team with ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage.
He also has controversially been involved with scandals involving a sex tape and racist comments captured on tape.
Last year, Hogan, suggested during an interview with Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade that the incoming president could give him a role in his new administration.
During the interview, the former WWE superstar recounted a conversation that he had with Trump at a political rally in October at Madison Square Garden.
According to Hogan, Trump seemed open to the idea of having the wrestling icon serve in his second term in the White House.
“My president said, ‘You know something, you’d be great to run the President’s Council on Physical Fitness,’” Hogan said of the conversation, which occurred after the rally while he and Trump were talking nutrition and physical fitness.
“At the end of the day, when I was in the back at Madison Square Garden after the whole rally, we were talking about Robert Kennedy, I was talking about nutrition and how many foreign countries won’t even let their people eat the food that we eat here in America,” Hogan said. “It’s so bad, and it’s poisoned a generation of kids. And at the end of the day, we start talking about physical fitness.”
With files from Jan Murphy