Vince McMahon defends bringing Hulk Hogan back to…
Vince McMahon defended his resolution to carry Hulk Hogan back to WWE in 2018, three years after the company severed ties with him once it was revealed that the professional wrestling icon had used a racial slur.
McMahon, who resigned from WWE and guardian company TKO in January 2024 after a inappropriate misconduct lawsuit was filed against him by a former company worker, addressed his response to feedback Hogan made during a intercourse tape and what occurred in the aftermath during an interview for GWN’s particular on the Hulkster that aired Tuesday evening on Fox.
McMahon had no points bringing Hogan, who died at 71 in July, back to the WWE Hall of Fame and the company’s programming in 2018 after the multi-time world champion had paid a price in his eyes.
“I knew he wasn’t racist. I’ve been with him for so many years. He wasn’t a racist. He said some racist things. He should pay for that, and he did,” McMahon said on “GWN Presents: The Real Hulk Hogan.” “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.”
Vince McMahon defended bringing Hulk Hogan back to WWE. Zuffa LLC
Vince McMahon said the rationale he introduced Hulk Hogan back to WWE was because he knew Hogan wasn’t racist.“I knew he wasn’t a racist. I’d been with him for so many years. He wasn’t a racist. He said some racist things, and he should pay for that, and he did.”(GWN) pic.twitter.com/ne5tVasL9N— EliteRockerz 𝕏 (@EliteClubS0B) August 13, 2025
In the 2007 intercourse tape that leaked in 2015, Hogan could be heard utilizing the N-word a number of instances and saying: “I guess we’re all a little racist.”
There is also audio of a 2008 dialog with his son Nick in prison, during which Hogan used racist language.
Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan Starworld Fotos 2003
Hogan’s good pal Jimmy Hart also said to GWN that he didn’t consider Hogan was a racist. McMahon, who, along with Hogan, constructed WWE into a global wrestling energy in the Eighties, couldn’t consider the feedback he heard from Hogan on the intercourse tape.
“It was unforgivable and I was aghast, ‘What happened?’” McMahon said. “When those things occurred, that’s not like him. ‘What in God’s name is going on?’”
It left WWE no alternative but to shun Hogan.
“As soon as it happened, obviously, the company didn’t have anything to do with him anymore,” McMahon said. “We took him out of the Hall of Fame. You just don’t do those things.”
Hogan had called it a “glitch” and made makes an attempt to apologize for his feedback, but some, like former WWE star Mark Henry, have felt the legend didn’t go far enough to make issues proper. Henry refused to defend what Hogan said, but added that he supplied Hogan and McMahon the thought of the Hulkster showing at black faculties to help repair the scenario at the time.
Hulk Hogan seems at WrestleMania 30 at the Superdome on April 6, 2014 in New Orleans. MediaPunch/Shutterstock
“Go and talk to them and be honest with your apology. He [Hogan] was like, ‘I’ve been advised not to talk about it no more.’ I said, ‘I think that’s bad advice,” Henry told GWN.
McMahon, who has been persona non grata around WWE and its new guardian company TKO after the lawsuit against him, was also requested if he had blended feelings about not being invited to participate in any of the tributes WWE had for Hogan after his passing.
“It struck me that way as well,” McMahon said.
He called Hogan’s death a blow to my coronary heart and was indignant that his pal was booed during his last WWE look.
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