Professional wrestling is all about telling stories and Hulk Hogan is one of heck of storyteller.
For better or worse, that is.
The Hulkster, inarguably one of the biggest stars that WWE has ever produced, says that he wasn’t shocked by the crowd’s reaction to him during his appearance on the company’s debut episode of Raw on Netflix earlier this year.
Hogan, real name Terry Bollea, addressed the backlash that he received during his appearance while speaking with Pat McAfee on Monday during the latter’s ESPN show.
While broaching the subject of U.S. politics – Hogan has been a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and made several appearances on the campaign trail leading up to his re-election – the wrestling hall of famer acknowledged that his right-wing leanings played into the reaction.
“At the Intuit Dome, I don’t think any of us expected,” McAfee said.
“Oh, I did,” Hogan responded.
“You did because of the political stuff? Or because of everything else?” McAfee asked.
“I think the politics had a whole lot to do with it, as you said,” Hogan said, after first, attempting to place some blame on the fact that he had previously been a heel when he came to Los Angeles as a member of the New World Order (NWO) faction.
“You got to realize, last time I ran hard in L.A. I was Hollywood Hogan, I was riding dirty with the boys, (Kevin) Nash and (Scott) Hall, we were spray-painting people and crotch-shotting people and started out the ‘Too Sweet’ stuff,” Hogan said. “So, the last time I was there as a heel.”
Hogan, 71, also was caught on camera in 2015 making racist comments, which led to WWE cutting ties with him for a period of time.
“I would assume you get into politics and also some other stuff,” McAfee said.
Hogan responded: “Yeah, of course.”
“When you’re in the public eye for 40 years,” McAfee said, before Hogan followed: “You do slip and fall a couple times.”
Hogan was appearing on the Jan. 6 episode of WWE Raw – the company’s first episode broadcast live on Netflix – to promote his Real American Beer, which has a sponsorship deal with the wrestling outfit.
While cutting a promo with manager Jimmy Hart — who stood behind Hogan waving an American flag — fans at Los Angeles’ Intuit Dome rained down boos on the one-time fan favourite.
Hogan, as he always has been wont to do, put himself over for the attention that he received, albeit it negative.
“But anyway, at the end of the day, we kind of looked at it the next day because I had like 11 billion impressions,” Hogan said of a clip of him being booed, “and some of the other guys, some of the big stars that were on that card that night, only had like 3 billion. Don’t want to name names.”
Hogan then told McAfee – who also serves an announcer for WWE – that had he not been there to pitch his beer, he would’ve turned this around on the raucous crowd.
“If this was for wrestling, and they turned on me like that, I would have turned into Hollywood Hulk Hogan,” Hogan said. “So, you hate me for everything I’ve done for all the Make A Wish kids and everything I did for your kids? Well, guess what? I did it for the money. And by the way, since you want so much hatred coming your way, I hope you have a good time when Kamala Harris is your new governor and you’re all standing in the soup line.
“Mic drop, see ya. But I couldn’t do that. But I was ready to go after them.”