The WWE Needs To Acknowledge Hulk Hogan Again

The WWE Needs To Acknowledge Hulk Hogan Again
January 30, 2016
By Ryan Porzl

In the summer of 2015, Wrestling Legend Hulk Hogan saw his recent run in the WWE terminated when a sex tape of his that was near a decade old was leaked and featured him using a racist slur repeatedly. Following the leak, the WWE not only ended it's relationship with Hogan but went the extreme and ridiculous length of trying to erase all traces of him including removing his merchandise and all mention of him on their television shows and website. There were even rumors at one point that the WWE considered removing him from their Hall of Fame. I'm going to write why all this is taking it too far, why they at least need to acknowledge him again, and why it's ridiculous to go to all this trouble when other legends and hall of famers have done far worse.



The first reason is probably the most obvious so it's probably the best to begin with which is that Hogan is probably the wrestler most people associate with the WWE with the possible exceptions of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Rock. When people think WWE, a lot of times, they think Hogan. Even non wrestling fans know who he is and the fact he was a huge star for the WWE (then WWF). During his run, Hogan has been involved in some of the biggest matches in WWF/E and wrestling history. His match with Andre The Giant is the biggest match in North American Wrestling history while it main evented Wrestlemania III which is the biggest event in American Wrestling history. In fact, a couple of Hogan's matches can easily be put in a top ten most famous or significant WWE matches of all time list. He was the face of the WWF during their national expansion. He main evented countless PPVs and Saturday Night's Main Events. He main evented The War To Settle The Score in February 1985 and the first Main Event special where he rematched Andre The Giant and drew 33 million viewers. So to try and erase someone with that much history is folly and a waste of time.

Then there's the situation that the n-words were spoken in a sex tape that was nine years old. If this had been an embarrassing situation in the locker room at a WWE show recently, like I originally thought, that would be one thing but it wasn't. Instead it was nine years ago. Let's face it, we've all had said things in life that were not good, were insulting, and things we regret. Should people get fired and pretty much blackballed over stupid stuff they said years earlier? It's ridiculous how something said a decade earlier can haunt you in the present.

Another reason is the fact that it's not like most of the wrestling community, celebrities, or fans are coming after Hogan with pitchforks and torches. In fact, a lot of wrestlers in the wrestling community have come out in support even black wrestlers like Kamala and Virgil but also guys like The Rock, Roddy Piper, Scott Hall, Lanny Poffo, and Road Warrior Animal have gone on record saying he's a good guy and not a racist. In fact, the only people that have been trashing him are guys like Bret Hart and Scott Steiner who have had axes to grind for years with Hart even resorting to exploiting Piper's death to trash him.

Now, we'll take a look at not only one of the biggest reasons why deleting Hogan or removing any mention of him is not only stupid, but downright hypocritical. When all hell broke loose, there was rumors that Hogan could be removed from the Hall of Fame. While WWE hasn't officially said anything, they have deleted Hogan from their Hall of Fame section of their official website. The odd thing about that is that members of the WWE Hall of Fame are not what you would call "squeaky clean". In fact, Hogan comes off downright noble compared to other inductees who done or said things that are far worse. Andre The Giant who the WWE has given countless tributes to has had a couple of incidents involving racism whether it be using the n-word near a black wrestler or even calling a black wrestler it (Bad News Brown and Kamala, respectively). The Fabulous Moolah who has also be praised and had a great relationship with the WWE for decades has had numerous accusations from legendary women wrestlers that include forcing trainees of her school to sign contracts where she controls their bookings as well get a percentage of their pay, to sabotaging business deals with women she had a falling out with, to even pimping women wrestlers to men wrestlers. Pat Patterson was released from the WWF in 1992 briefly after he was accused of sexual harassment from a WWF ring announcer and wasn't rehired until charges were dropped. Greg Valentine went on a sexist rant in 2015 claiming women wrestlers and fighters not only took jobs away from men but also claimed that if he ran a wrestling or MMA company that he would fire the women and send them to the strip bar. Eddie Guerrero, Tammy "Sunny" Sytch, Jake Roberts, and Scott Hall have struggled with drugs and alcohol for either years or decades, have been arrested, and lost employment. Ric Flair has had one incident after another including problems with the IRS to misbehaving backstage to philandering to road rage to taking money upfront and not fulfilling commitments. Steve Austin committed spousal abuse in 2002 against his then wife Debra McMichael (former WWF/E diva), was arrested, pleaded no contest, fined 1,000 dollars, and served 80 hours of community service. McMichael has since accused Austin of having abused her other than that one time and even claimed the WWE convinced her not to say anything since Austin was the company's top star at the time. Abdullah The Butcher has been accused of spreading Hepatitus C to his opponents during his bloody matches and was even successfully sued for 2.3 Million Dollars by Canadian wrestler Devon Nicholson who accused him of giving him the virus and that it cost him jobs in the WWE and TNA. Antonio Inoki has been known to have had ties to organized crime, specifically Yakuza families for decades and that along with accusations of bribery cost him re-election to his Japanese Diet (Senate) seat in 1995. Carlos Colon was running the WWC promotion the night Jose "Invader I" Gonzalez stabbed and killed wrestling legend Bruiser Brody. Not only was Gonzalez an employee of him, but he actually testified against Brody, claimed self defense which helped get Gonzalez acquitted, and he continued to employ him for many years afterward. For the record, I'm not saying Colon was involved but this happened on his watch. While wrestlers can get out of control behind the scenes, it's not common for one to stab another to death backstage at a show. Not to mention that he continued to employ Gonzalez even after most wrestlers that were there said Brody did nothing wrong to justify what happened. Finally, there is The Ultimate Warrior who gave the infamous "queering doesn't make the world work" comment while giving a motivational speech at Uconn which was highly controversial at the time and considered homophobic. While Warrior denied any intent to be homophobic, it still came off as that

Sadly, it's not just with the wrestler portion of the Hall of Fame but also the celebrity portion as well. Pete Rose has infamously been banned from Major League Baseball due to gambling on games during his time as a player and a manager. As a result, he can't have any involvement in baseball outside of being a ticket buying fan and he's ineligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rose also served five months in jail for tax evasion. Mike Tyson was accused of spousal abuse by his ex-wife, served three years in jail for rape, and must register as a sex offender. Arnold Schwarzenegger is an adulterer and fathered a child with his housemaid at a time when his wife was pregnant with their fourth child and hid it for 16 years until he was confronted by his wife with evidence. Finally, Donald Trump has been accused of having done business with mafia families, has committed adultery, and his 2016 Presidential Campaign has seen him give comments that have been considered racist, sexist, and islamophobic. Now, I'm not trying to demonize any of these people but the fact is that, as bad as Hogan's comments were, there no where near as bad as what others have done.

Finally, there's the WWE itself. How many times over the decades have they had controversy surrounding race or sexual orientation? It's been well documented that the WWE has never had a full black WWE Champion despite the belt being around for 53 years. The closest is The Rock but he's half black and half Samoan. While the WWE has crowned Black World Heavyweight Champions and Black ECW Champions, they never actually crowned a Black WWE Champion. Not only that but it also took Vince McMahon fourteen years before he crowned his first black Intercontinental Champion with Ahmed Johnson in 1996. Then there's the case of WWE given black wrestlers gimmicks that have been considered racist like the African Saba Simba, pimps Flash Funk & The Godfather, and the shucking and jiving New Day. They've also treated Japanese wrestlers poorly as well by mostly portraying them to be clowns that smile, constantly bow, and speak broken English. The company has also had problems with the GLAAD (Gay, Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) with some of their characters like Goldust and Billy & Chuck. Then there has been many controversial storylines mostly with black wrestlers like The 1997 Gang Warz where you had the black militant Nation of Domination, the Puerto Rican gang Los Boricuas, and the white biker group Disciples of Apocalypse. While the original idea wasn't intended to be racist (Savio Vega and Crush formed the respective groups after being fired from The Nation by Faarooq), it seemed like it eventually boiled down to people rooting for their respective race given you had a black group vs. a hispanic group vs. a white group. Speaking of The Nation, The WWF did an angle where D-Generation X vandalized The Nation's locker room and spray painted inappropriate stuff on there while trying to blame The Hart Foundation. They've been other cases as well. While, I'm aware that these situations occured years to decades ago, we have internet access and can find out about it. Meanwhile, Hogan's incident was on a tape that was years ago and there's no official statute of limitations regarding how long someone or a company can be hung to dry over someone years old.

Since writing this, there has been rumors that the WWE is possibly bringing Hogan back down the line. Whether this happens or not, The WWE needs to accept the fact that Hogan made a mistake and ackowledge that one of their biggest stars ever existed.