Former WWE CEO Vince McMahon is looking back at the late Hulk Hogan’s racism scandal in 2015, insisting that, at heart, Hogan wasn’t a racist.
“It was unforgivable. And I was, like, aghast. What happened?” McMahon, 79, said on TMZ Presents: The Real Hulk Hogan, a new documentary on the wrestling icon that aired Tuesday, August 12, on Fox.
McMahon continued, “And when those things occurred, that’s not like him. What in God’s name is going on?”
Hogan — real name Terry Bollea — was fired by WWE and removed from the company’s Hall of Fame in July 2015 after audio emerged of him repeatedly using the N-word and describing himself as “racist, to a point.”
McMahon, who was in charge of WWE at the time, said, “As soon as it happened, obviously, the company didn’t have anything to do with him anymore. We took him out of the Hall of Fame. You just don’t do those things.”
However, the wrestling promoter believes that the incident didn’t reflect the true Hogan.
“I knew he wasn’t racist. I’ve been with him for so many years,” McMahon said. “He wasn’t racist. He said some racist things. He should pay for that, and he did. In the end, I think everyone saw the real Hulk Hogan, Terry Bollea, and they felt, ‘Wait a minute, this guy doesn’t act like a racist. He’s not a racist.’ We all make mistakes. That was a big one, but he wasn’t a racist.”
At the time of the scandal, Hogan said there was “no excuse” for the language he used. “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. I am disappointed with myself that I used language that is offensive and inconsistent with my own beliefs. It is not who I am. I continue to work every day to improve as a person, and this matter is an important learning experience for me in that regard,” he said in a statement to Us Weekly.
WWE eventually reinstated Hogan into its Hall of Fame in July 2018. He was inducted a second time, this time part of wrestling group NWO, in 2020.
Hogan died at age 71 on July 24 after experiencing a cardiac arrest at his home in Clearwater, Florida. He was later pronounced dead after being rushed to the hospital.
Hogan’s cause of death is listed as acute myocardial infarction, more commonly known as a heart attack, per documents obtained by Us. The report also suggests Hogan had a secret history of battling leukemia, a type of cancer that affects the white blood cells.
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