The Somewhat Credible Hulk

Hulk Hogan died earlier this week, yet another larger-than-life celebrity who transcended generations based on his earlier success as a performer and his later success as a reality TV personality.  But unlike the similarly auspiced Ozzy Osbourne, whom we warmly mused about earlier this week, Hogan was the epitome of an enigma–a word that contrary to popular belief I’m pretty sure all of you accurately  know how to use a sentence.

To those who follow “professional” wrestling more passionately than moi–an awfully long list, to be sure–Hogan was arguably a GOAT–as PEOPLE’s Anna Lazarus Caplan rattled off, (t)he legendary WWE icon, who died at 71 in Clearwater, Fla. on Thursday, July 24, was a 12-time champion, two-time inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame, and a film and reality TV star.  And yeah, even I knew who was.  My brief encounters with him at conventions while he obligingly served as catnip to draw huge crowds to his employer’s massive booth were pleasant; he at least was briefed extensively enough to thank me for my support in clearing the matches in Boston and he even knew our station was once owned by Christian Broadcasting, which we had a good chuckle over.

In more recent years, it became common knowledge that Hogan was an unabashed supporter of Republican causes in the state of Florida, capped off in what turned out to be one of his final appearances at by a memorable show of support for one particular fanboi and a significant enough presence so that he was eulogized on the fly by the state’s governor, as MEDIAITE’s Sarah Rumpf detailed:

Thursday afternoon, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) was commenting on the recent passing of wrestler Hulk Hogan when a protester yelled several expletive-laced insults at him referencing the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility in the Everglades and calling the governor a “pedophile.”  DeSantis was speaking at an event in Bradenton, about an hour south of Hogan’s residence in Clearwater. The 46-year-old governor shared some of his memories of Hogan, calling him “a major icon for anybody in GenX…anyone growing up in the ’80s and the ’90s” and a “superhero,” especially for Florida kids. While DeSantis reminisced about watching Hogan perform in movies and Wrestlemania programs as a child, he was interrupted by a man in the audience yelling at him something about “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Apparently what helped trigger this outburst was a widely distributed online photo taken only a couple of weeks before Hogan’s demise.  Many of those who expressed the greatest degree of conflict were particularly incensed given that they concluded that Hogan was racist enough to get off his de facto deathbed for such a photo op.   But as LEAD STORY’s Maarten Schenk reported in a fact check, this was yet another exploitation of his celebrity that turned out to be not what it appeared to be:

Does a viral image really show Hulk Hogan posing in front of caged migrants at “Alligator Alcatraz”? No, that’s not true: The image is composed of two different pictures. One showed a Border Patrol facility in Texas in 2019 and the other showed a promotional picture of Hulk Hogan from 2014.

Considering that Hogan had some previous experience with racist rants, plenty of folks added two and two and got four.  But as Caplan reminded, he had addressed that part of his personality long ago:

In 2015, Hogan spoke out about a leaked audio transcript that featured him making racist slurs about his daughter Brooke’s love life.

“Eight years ago I used offensive language during a conversation. It was unacceptable for me to have used that offensive language; there is no excuse for it; and I apologize for having done it,” Hogan said at the time in a statement exclusively to PEOPLE.   The transcript featuring that conversation was published online by the National Enquirer.

Considering the impact that Hogan had on the tabloid industry as a whole, it’s hard not to think a little quid-pro-quo might have been afoot.  It wasn’t the first time something Hogan chose to do in private became public fodder, as the ASSOCIATED PRESS’ Russ Bynum recalled:

Famous for his fearless bravado as a pro wrestler, Hulk Hogan won one of his most notable victories in a Florida courtroom by emphasizing his humiliation and emotional distress after a news and gossip website published a video of Hogan having sex with a friend’s wife.

A 2016 civil trial that pitted the First Amendment against the privacy rights of celebrities ended with a jury awarding Hogan a whopping $140 million in his lawsuit against Gawker Media. Though both parties later settled on $31 million to avoid protracted appeals, the case put Gawker out of business.

Hogan, whose given name was Terry Bollea, sued Gawker for invading his privacy after the website.  in 2012 posted an edited version of a video of Hogan having sex with the wife of his then-best friend, Florida-based radio DJ Bubba The Love Sponge Clem.  Clem gave his blessing to the coupling and recorded the video that was later leaked to Gawker. Hogan insisted he was unaware the intimate encounter was being filmed. The former WWE champion testified that he was “completely humiliated” when the sex video became public.

Hogan/Bollea indeed paid a price for that video, recorded in 2007, as Caplan further recounted:

Hogan, his then-wife Linda and their children Brooke and Nick rose to another level of fame together on their VH1 reality show, Hogan Knows Best, a series that aired for four seasons from 2005-2007. One month after the show’s finale, Linda filed for divorce after 24 years of marriage, citing Hulk’s “infidelities,” including his affair with their teenage daughter’s close friend. 

For anyone that wishes to castigate him for such an act, he’s not the first celebrity to take advantage of a hottie from Florida, and he certainly won’t be the last.  And he’s definitely not the last who was granted the gravitas to do so by someone clearly into kink–especially from Florida.

But what they might be a bit more upset about is the reminder that apparently a significant reason Hogan went toe-to-toe on the legal mat with Gawker may have been the fact that, as he was for the McMahons, merely a hired performer for someone with money and motivation for revenge.  Per LGTBQ’s Daniel Villareal:

While many remember Bollea for his wrestling persona and his support of the current president at the 2024 Republican National Convention, he is also infamous for helping gay conservative billionaire Peter Thiel bankrupt the gay-owned Gawker blogging empire after Gawker outed Thiel and published a leaked video of Bollea having sex with a married woman and using racist and homophobic slurs.  In 2007, Gawker — owned by gay then-CEO Nick Denton — published an article outing Thiel, entitled, “Peter Thiel is totally gay, people.”  Then, nine years later (in 2016), Thiel admitted that he had provided over $10 million to support Bollea’s lawsuit against Gawker, alleging that Gawker had violated the wrestler’s privacy. 

In a 2016 open letter, Denton noted that Thiel, who made millions by investing in Facebook and PayPal, may have worried that the outing would harm his personal life and relationships with anti-gay investors in Saudi Arabia. “Your revenge has been served well, cold and (until now) anonymously,” Denton wrote. “You admit you have been planning the punishment of Gawker and its writers for years, and that you have so far spent $10 million to fund litigation against the company.

Give Thiel this much credit: he at least knows that getting other people to do his dirty work is more effective than his fighting his own battles.  And who better to do so than someone who’s spent his life as a convincing performance artist?

Ya think that might be a reason why Hogan showed up on the same night that J.D. Vance–yet another performer with a celebrity pseudonym–was nominated for the second most powerful position in America?  He owes a lot to Thiel, too.

Personally, I’m a bit more miffed at that being part of the Hogan/Bollea legacy.  Testifying as Bollea with perhaps more crocodile tears than usual-with nothing to otherwise refute it.

If nothing else, all of these revelations give us pause that celebrity passings are complicated events where a sense of finality and conclusion is in order.  Particularly when the public persona has less in common with the private and personal.  It’s kind of a shame that so many that are feeling the need to pass judgement are doing so for the wrong reasons.

Where I net out:  RIP, Hulk Hogan.  And Terry Bollea, don’t let the door smack you on your steroid-injected ass on the way out.

Until next time…