Hulk Hogan discusses why he was fired by WWE. In the history of professional wrestling, there are few who stand on as high a pedestal as Hogan, at least when it comes to his on-camera career. Beginning with his capturing of the then-WWF World Championship from The Iron Sheik back in 1984, Hogan helped lead the company to heights it had never seen before, captivating audiences both young and old with his larger than life presence and charismatic—if sometimes crazy—promos.
Hogan's level of stardom would rise so high that he carved out an acting career outside of wrestling as well. While the Hulkster's Hollywood exploits obviously never came close to hitting the heights that The Rock would eventually hit, the fact that casting directors kept signing Hogan on to their projects is a testament to just how much the Hulk Hogan name once meant. Back on the wrestling side of things, Hogan was also able to briefly help WCW become a top-level competitor to the WWF in the mid-90s, leading to the famous Monday Night Wars era.
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Unfortunately, recent years have seen Hogan's image tarnished. In 2012, a sex tape featuring Hogan was released online. It's hard to judge Hogan too harshly for that, as the tape was recorded without his knowledge and released without his permission. Still, it's the last thing any of Hogan's Hulkamaniacs ever expected to see. To make matters worse, 2015 saw audio emerge—recorded along with the sex tape—of Hogan unleashing a tirade of shockingly racist remarks about black people. This unsurprisingly led to Hogan being fired by WWE, where he had been working as an ambassador for the company, and making occasional on-screen appearances.
This Sunday, Hogan is set to appear on the FOX News program Objectified and will discuss at length the circumstances of his 2015 WWE firing. A preview of some of Hogan's remarks has been released online early, and they reveal that despite the severity of his transgression, the wrestling legend was still surprised at how quickly he was let go. According to Hogan, he called WWE as soon as he became aware that the company had learned of his caught on tape statements, and felt blindsided by them firing him the very next morning.
"It really caught me off guard,” said Hogan. “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."
Since being fired, WWE has mostly treated Hogan as persona non grata when discussing its past history, although his matches and segments are still intact as part of archival shows available on the WWE Network. While Hogan admits that this ignoring of his storied wrestling legacy hurt him on a personal level, he understands why WWE has done what they've done, at least from a business standpoint. It remains to be seen whether Hogan will ever be welcomed back into the WWE fold, but he'll always have a deserved place within wrestling history, in spite of his sometimes shameful behavior outside the ring.
Source: Wrestling Inc.