When WWE fired and subsequently deleted Hulk Hogan from their history, it was like Christianity hitting backspace on the New Testament. As a publicly traded company, WWE had no other choice than to execute Hulkamania.
Ever since, Hogan has spent his time trying to put distance between himself and the racially charged comments that got him fired. The reason why WWE released Hogan has never been in doubt, but we had yet to hear the Hulkster’s account on the matter.
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Hogan was recently featured on FOX’s Objectified where he opened up about getting the boot from WWE.
“When I heard this was going to happen, I called them on a Thursday or a Friday. As I hung up the phone that night, they fired me in the morning,” Hogan said. “It really caught me off guard, I didn’t expect it because the WWE knows who I am. I’m not that person, that’s not who I am and that’s not what I do.”
For those that don’t know, Bollea’s character, Hulk Hogan, was paramount in making WWE a billion dollar corporation. He was the company’s founding image, their first superhero.
“I think they did what was best for business,” he said. “They were worried about losing sponsors and network support.”
Even though Hogan agreed with WWE’s decision, it didn’t make things easier for him.
“It was tough, it hit me hard,” Hogan said. “When you look at a 40-year career, it’s just gone.”
The full interview airs this Sunday at 8 PM ET. The video ends on quite the cliff hanger: Does Hulk Hogan wish to come back to WWE?
Whatever Hogan says on camera, the answer is ultimate yes. So the real question is whether or not we want him back.
Professional sports is littered with moral (sometimes mortal) atrocities. Whether it’s a DUI, battery, gun possession, steroid scandals, or manslaughter, there’s something within the human disposition that is willing to forgive. We actually may crave it. But only after due time. Perpetrators must learn their lessons before we allow them to return. This kind of moral incarceration has been embedded in our culture through centuries of storytelling. Sports find themselves filling this narrative void and we watch these athletes as if they were characters in a story.
The Hulk Hogan character finds himself crawling out of his lowest valley to date. The prison door will open one day and the question won’t be if Hogan can help wrestling, but if we will allow it.
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