Hulk Hogan just returned to thunderous applause after three years in exile.
In 2015, Hogan was erased from the company’s canon. Not only scrubbed from the website and banned from being talked about by talent in interviews and social media, he taken out of their Hall of Fame. To give an idea of how severe this was, the only other mainstream wrestler to be so eradicated from WWE history in such a severe manner was Chris Benoit after he murdered his wife and two young children before committing suicide in one of wrestling’s darkest moments.
What caused the company to divorce themselves from one of their biggest and most long lasting stars (Hogan has been one of the only wrestlers to perform for the company in some variety over three different decades) was a leaked sex tape containing raw and shocking racist comments.
The finer details of what happened can be found in the documentary Nobody Speak available on Netflix that covers the case Terry Bollea, Hogan’s real name, brought against Gawker, the infamous gossip site that leaked transcripts from the tape, that destroyed it.
WWE teased a Hogan return throughout this year. ESPN and HBO did documentaries on legendary wrestlers Ric Flair and Andre the Giant, respectively, that made extensive use of WWE’s video library with Hogan given significant interview time in both. They quietly reinstated him into their Hall of Fame, and those who follow the history of the business know that Hulk and Vince McMahon, the owner and CEO of the company, have a strange relationship that finds them always coming back to one another in some way for business no matter how out of favor they fall.
Hogan himself also became more visible after being out of the spotlight. In addition to the documentary appearances, he gave a speech at the Boys and Girls Club earlier in the year, did a reunion with fellow wrestlers Scott Hall and Kevin Nash in Orlando a few weeks ago, and he’s popped up on wrestling podcasts as a surprise guest. He’s been showing that he’s ready to come back for a while, even if not loudly.
WWE bringing Hulk back to “host” Crown Jewel was a way to reinsert him without a lot of fuss. As I write, rumors are swirling that Hogan is on the verge of signing a new long term with WWE for next year and will be coming back in some role on one of their live shows on USA Network or as part of their subscription based network.
He’s a man who was exiled, and he’s on his way back. It’s a prelude, of sorts, to what we’ll be seeing very soon: the entertainment exiles are getting their suits out of the closets to ready their comebacks.
What happened with Hulk Hogan predates our current social environment that’s produced movements like #MeToo that pushed powerful men out of their industries, or other less centralized social media drives that’ve taken large entertainment figures out of the spotlight or lucrative jobs. But it does serve as a prelude in retrospect. A rich entertainer, enshrined in his industry, taken down through unexpected statements of the past resurfacing, went into hiding for a few years to slowly emerge in small doses until returning to the big stage.
If you follow Louis C.K. at all this should sound familiar. While the timeframe is condensed compared to the three years Hogan was banished, the same pattern is unfolding. He’s been popping up unannounced at certain comedy clubs to do sets, prepping for his return. Don’t be surprised to see him pop up in podcasts or in guest appearances on smaller talk shows soon.
He’s not the only one, either.
While others who have fallen probably will never see a return (it’s hard to imagine Cosby or Weinstein ever having any power or prominence again), others like C.K. are on that cusp. Aziz Anasari is planning a new stand up tour against ‘extreme wokeness,’ Matt Lauer has expressed wanting to attempt a comeback, and Roseanne Barr got what feels like a prequel to a teary-eyed redemption arc in a Vice News Tonight segment that detailed her sad, sad life after being fired from her high-profile show.
They are coming back, or at least going to attempt to in one way or another. And it’s something we have to face.
If Hogan’s return is indeed predecessor to theirs, does the reaction, or lack of, indicate what we’ll see when the time comes? For his high profile exit, it seems examination of what he actually said and did is sparse.
“I mean, I’d rather if she was going to f*ck some n*gger, I’d rather have her marry an 8-foot-tall n*gger worth a hundred million dollars! Like a basketball player!…I guess we’re all a little racist. F*cking n*gger.”
This is what Hogan said, in reference to his daughter’s alleged relationship with an African-American. And it’s only a small piece of a hateful tirade that not just repeats that slur, but a contempt that is far more than just the slip of a word. He then not only sued Gawker for their leaking of the transcripts, he sued them for 100 million dollars, a usually symbolic amount that signals you are out to destroy the person or entity you target, all with help from far right billionaire, Peter Thiel.
You can find all of this with a simple Google search, yet almost no time is spent discussing it in the various articles published about Hogan’s return. The wrestling industry is an insular one, to be fair, but look at almost any mainstream piece about it, and you’ll see little more than vague references to something ‘racially-charged’ in what feels like a distant past.
It may sound like I advocate Hogan, or any of the other entertainment exiles mentioned, should be banished forever and that second chances a strict no-no. It’s a tight moral rope to walk for sure. There’s the human side of many of us who want to believe people can change, but the cynical and rational side of us say that those who abused power and status, or spew hate, will only do so again if they’re allowed back into the positions they once held. But shouldn’t we at least have a real frank discussion about the actual actions and context of what these people did to find themselves exiles to begin with?
Perhaps, though, there is a much darker truth in all this.
Hulk Hogan is coming back to the World Wrestling Entertainment. ESPN, co-owned by Disney, and HBO, now owned by AT&T, had no issues giving him airtime in their heavily promoted documentaries. Does it really matter if those who are unsure and those affected and hurt the most by these returning exiles think? If the corporate world is ready to have them and can slip by without too much toxic PR (the only thing these companies seem to care about anymore), do those marginalized voices have any force? And, by extension, is all of this current fever of social pushback little more than a blip in the status quo if everyone gets to come back with as little scrutiny and pushback as Hulk Hogan? Did any of it accomplish anything in the end, or was it just a primal scream that’s echo through the forest has faded and died away already?
Either way, the exiles are coming back and, one way or another, we’ll have to deal with it.
Photo: John McKeon