Hulk Hogan is one of the most iconic and instantly recognisable faces and personalities in pro wrestling history. His career has spanned decades, and fans of all ages know and love him. Well, loved him.
A leaked sex tape saw the WWE Hall of Famer make a series of racist comments - which he's since said were the "biggest mistake" of his life - and, in more recent times, it's his somewhat intense political leanings which have turned off many fans.
Hogan is no longer revered by wrestling fans and that was on full display during the first RAW on Netflix when the show premiered on the streaming platform last month.
Appearing alongside Jimmy Hart, Hogan was on hand to hype up his Real American Beer brand, one of the new sponsors for RAW on the streaming platform. Fans mercilessly booed him and, following multiple reports about how WWE reacted to that, we now have comments from the Hulkster himself.
"You have to realize, the last I ran hard in LA, I was a bad guy. I was Hollywood Hogan and riding dirty with [Kevin] Nash and [Scott] Hall, spray painting people and crotch-chopping everybody. [The] last time I was there, I was a heel. I think the politics had a whole lot to do with it. At the end of the day, we looked at it the next day because I had eleven billion impressions, and some of the big stars that were on the card that night only had three billion."
"I don’t want to name names. [Does ear cup]. Give me some more. I was talking about the beer, we’re in a relationship with WWE, they are my partner in this thing, and I had to be a good guy in LA. If this was for wrestling and they turned on me like that, I would have turned into Hollywood Hogan. You hate me for all I’ve done and the Make-A-Wish Kids and all I’ve done for your kids? Guess what. I did it for the money. 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. I couldn’t do that. I was ready to go after them."
To essentially blame his heel run in the territory is laughable, especially as pro wrestling fans haven't thought about wrestlers in that way for decades. Hogan has been a babyface and heel since his stint in WCW and fans there surely weren't still holding a grudge against the nWo!
WWE's RAW debut was overshadowed by the response to Hogan and one can only imagine how much worse that would have been had he started cutting a promo on former Vice President Kamala Harris...