Hogan dismisses ‘the racial stuff that went down’ as merely a ‘speed bump’

Hulk Hogan was fired by WWE in 2015 after racist comments he made on a sex tape became public. Three years later, WWE brought Hogan back into the company for one of their Saudi Arabia shows and wasted no time celebrating his return. In between, Hogan issued multiple apologies that completely missed the point. He has since appeared on WWE programming several times in speaking roles, most notably as a host of WrestleMania 37.

During today’s interview on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, the MMA reporter asked Hogan if he was worried about his legacy being ruined by his racist comments.

Here is Hulk’s response:

“There was a temporary situation where I thought, okay, where is this gonna end up at? Where is this gonna wind down? Where is the legacy?

At the end of the day, there had been so much goodwill with the Hulk Hogan brand, and people knew me so well. I’ve been around for over 40 years and people know me so well from Mike Tyson, to Brutus Beefcake, to Vince McMahon, to Verne Gagne, to Bret Hart. Everybody knows me so well, that they knew that I would come back and I would become the person that I was. There was a temporary situation with the surgeries, and some of the racial stuff that went down. You know, it was a speed bump. But that’s not who I was, and everybody knew that.

So, it was a tough time. But the main thing that really got me were the surgeries over the last 10 years. That was the thing that was in question. When you come out of a back surgery and someone tells you you’re never gonna walk again, that will really screw your head up, as far as getting any kind of momentum back. The rest of the stuff, I had a bunch of people on my side. I had a huge support system. People that knew me stuck with me. It’s just been amazing to see how the fans have stayed with me.”

Once again, Hogan doesn’t take accountability for his racist words, downplaying the whole thing as a merely a speed bump, and focusing on himself as a victim who needed to overcome adversity. He also sticks with the ridiculous claim that “everybody knew” he wasn’t racist. He even cites Bret Hart as one of the people who can vouch for his character, despite Hart publicly stating in 2015 that he hoped Hogan never returned to WWE.

Immediately after Hogan’s response, Helwani asked Hulk, “Do you have any regrets?”

Here is Hulk’s response:

“Yes…Everybody always says no. I would have done something completely different. When you’ve got the largest arms in the world, why are you dropping the leg every night for years destroying your back?… Why wouldn’t you use the sleeper?

…That’s the only regret I have, that legdrop.”

The legdrop is the only regret that Hulk Hogan has. Yeah, that sounds about right.