- 6/22/2025
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00:00he's a wrestling legend and a pop culture phenomenon my hero your hero everybody's
00:13hero hulk hogan was the perfect specimen big tall blonde tan built i fear no man
00:21hulk hogan became the most recognizable face in the world but it all comes at a huge price
00:27it was completely broken and destroyed he wrestled with secret addictions he did a lot of percocet
00:33oxycontin the fbi's banging on people's door family tragedy hogan's unlucky to be alive
00:39a scandalous sex tape whenever your dick is plastered on the internet it's gonna be a bit
00:44jarring and personal demons hulk sat there with a bottle of rum a jar full of xanax and a gun he was
00:53suicidal but every time hulk hogan was down on the mat he gets back up stronger than ever hulk
00:59wanted the title of his book to be resurrection because coming back from the dead has been
01:05something he's done again and again in his life
01:26in the 1980s and early 90s hulk hogan is the king of the world his iconic move of ripping the shirt off
01:34he hit the ears hulk's brand transcends generations and genres it's called hulkamania i've known hulk hogan
01:42for almost 50 years my name is brian blair formerly one half of the killer bees for the wwf
01:48the first time i met hulk hogan was at the wrestling matches in the armory when i was 17 years old
01:56tampa didn't have um the lightning they didn't have uh the rowdies they didn't have the buccaneers back
02:04then the big deal was uh university of tampa football on saturday nights and professional
02:10wrestling on tuesday nights at the armory my older sister would take me i'd be sitting up in the
02:14balcony and he'd be down at ringside razzing all the wrestlers as they were coming back and forth to
02:21the ring i'm brutus the barber beefcake i'd go back to 1974 with uh terry bolea aka hulk hogan
02:32tampa was a uh home of florida championship wrestling it was a hub for the whole state
02:39unbeknownst to me he was trying to get in he really studied the business he liked to emulate people he
02:46would get in the mirror and emulate like superstar billy graham or dusty roads i'm gonna get meaner
02:53and better i think terry had a clear vision that he wanted to be a superstar in the wrestling industry
02:58and when he found the hulk hogan gimmick it fit him to a tee he is the hulk
03:08but he's not born hulk hogan the six foot seven three hundred pound machine comes into this world as
03:15terry bolea in 1953. the youngest of two boys he has a modest upbringing in a two-bedroom home in
03:23tampa florida they had to sort of sleep at angles on the floor in order just to fit in the bedroom
03:30terry's hulk-like physique comes at an early age he was pushing 200 pounds by the time he was like
03:3512. he's a phenomenal athlete crushing his local little league home run record his head was so big
03:41that it didn't fit into a regulation little league helmet he's an awkward kid but in his teens terry
03:48grows into his size and discovers his artistic side as a bass player of a flamboyant rock band
03:54i started sneaking in a bar called the other place there was a group called ruckus terry was
04:00the bass player with platforms on he was like seven feet tall sun tan blonde hair muscles his mother's
04:07jewelry terry is a sight to behold and it just so happens this bar is a hot spot for local wrestlers
04:13they notice terry's charisma instantly and convince him to get in the ring something hulk didn't realize
04:19is that there was a lot of hazing there was a lot of like we don't really want you here when you're
04:27terry bolea wrestling isn't easy hulk hogan wasn't welcome in a lot of wrestling circuits
04:33looking back on it now you have to wonder if it's because he was so naturally talented and i think
04:41a lot of other wrestlers didn't necessarily want him there my name is mark d'agostino i co-wrote hulk
04:47hogan's autobiography my life outside the ring he actually quit wrestling entirely a couple of times
04:53but terry gives it one more shot and this time brings his buddy along for moral support
04:57both of us had long blonde hair i had a blonde mustache and we were wrestling together as the
05:03boulder brothers terry and eddie boulder then everything changes when he adopts a new name
05:08in the larger than life persona for terry they begin saying well geez he looks like the hulk luf
05:15rigno yeah geez why don't we call him terry the hulk boulder i'm gonna take you and bury your head right
05:20in the map brother hulk is a natural wowing crowds with his massive biceps and signature moves
05:26before finally landing at vince mcmahon's wwf here comes hulk hogan with the blonde hair snapping it
05:33back he was american made got a great gimmick going there did tremendous got a great following learned
05:39a lot about on the microphone and how to sell himself hulk hogan was the most energetic guy you
05:46know all the flexing it's what made hulk hogan who he was my name is kurt angle and i wrestled for 20
05:52years in the wwe and in tna and i've known hulk hogan for 22 years it's amazing i'm going to tell
05:58you right now he's in a class by himself everything that had been building for all these years finally
06:04came together in the ring vince mcmahon put him in the ring with the wwf champion the iron chic
06:11what does hulk do he wins the belt we have a new champion and hulkamania is born what are you
06:19gonna do when hulk hogan runs wild on you brother what you gonna do what you gonna do brother he
06:24started tearing his shirt off you know and imposing for the people ate it up like candy they loved it
06:32i was a hulkamaniac everybody was and if you weren't you're lying and the hulkamania excitement spreads
06:38to hollywood hulk's meteoric rise in the wwf catches the eye of a big name actor sylvester
06:45stallone was preparing to shoot his third rocky movie he needed a wrestler character for one of
06:52the big scenes in the film and he saw hulk hogan on tv he said i have to have him stallone calls him up
07:01hey i want you to do uh rocky three it's chance of a lifetime a major walk-on role in rocky three
07:10oh my god rocky that's what put him on the map he was this monster big wrestler i'll rip out your neck
07:17and down the hall he just catapulted in wrestling would you welcome hulk hogan by the mid-80s hulk hogan
07:25is wrestling's biggest star on march 29 1987 hulk celebrity will catapult to levels never seen before
07:33in pro wrestling history millions look on when he gets in the ring with a giant look at the stare
07:40of the champion against the challenger the only other person i would say that was even as impactful
07:46as hulk hogan was andre the giant but for the opposite reason and that he said less he did less
07:54roywood jr comedian hulk hogan fan from 1985 to whenever he said
07:58andre the giant don't talk i just come in the ring and i beat your ass he came up to andre the
08:06giant's chest the irresistible force beating the impossible object it's hard to imagine how big this
08:11guy is before wrestlemania 3 andre the giant had also been putting on a lot of weight he was according
08:18to hulk pushing 700 pounds he had one meal a day and after that he drank believe me he had
08:27pounded some cavassier that night he just didn't seem like he was in a good mood he just seemed like
08:34that nasty giant and i was just kind of afraid for terry anytime you're getting in the ring with
08:38somebody's seven foot four and weighs 650 pounds he was big time nervous but then hulk on tv he lifts
08:49this hulking giant of a man again pushing 700 pounds and body slams him
08:57boy when he picked up the giant it was one of the most incredible feats i have ever seen in my
09:05life slams the giant and i mean the it was pandemonium the ground shook i mean you you were
09:12just vibrating like i've never felt anything like it before or since it's the slam heard around the
09:20world and it sends hulkamania into overdrive it was one of those moments that ripples well outside of the
09:26the wrestling fandom and becomes this sort of cultural moment for wrestling and for hulkamania
09:34hulk hogan is now not just a famous wrestler he's a certified megastar hulk hogan would do a promo
09:41and have me ready to order summer slam on my mama's cable package how many kids do you think just
09:48snuck and ordered wrestling for 90 dollars and then just got an ass whooping two months later when the
09:57bill came to the house his image was on t-shirts on lunch boxes it was everywhere like hulk hogan was
10:05just america fans are going wild and hulk is eating it up but he's also grinding through serious pain
10:14when he lifted the giant he tore his whole lat right off the bone what people don't know is that
10:21he tore the muscles in his back when he did that muscle tears would haunt him for the rest of his life
10:27backstage he looked like an 80 year old man walking around he was in pain all the time excruciating pain
10:34while the outcomes in pro wrestling matches might be predetermined anything can happen in the ring
10:40the physicality of wrestling has never been faked the injuries he sustains against the giant are
10:46nothing compared to what happens at the 1991 survivor series hulk faces off against one of
10:52wrestling's most intimidating characters known for his skull-crushing moves the undertaker had this
10:59move the tombstone it's executed very carefully so that you end up landing back here without actually
11:05breaking someone's neck or breaking their skull for whatever reason hulk was really sweaty that night
11:11the undertaker was off by an inch and when hulk went down he really smashed his skull and his neck
11:18possibility here that the hulkster could have a broken neck i was just i couldn't put a thought together
11:26i just thought i killed him guys put oil on their bodies and you're all sweaty and you're you're
11:31trying to pick a guy up and hold him that weighs over 300 pounds and maybe he just slips a tiny bit out
11:39of position that tiny bit is enough could translate into maiming someone permanently he wound up in the
11:49hospital for two straight days after that and he has been suffering ramifications ever since as far
11:56as the world knows hulk hogan is unstoppable but behind the scenes he's going down a dangerous path
12:03doing whatever it takes to show up in the ring pro wrestling uh you gotta find something that's
12:10gonna make you feel better he told me that he had a painkiller problem and you know we we kind of
12:15talked to each other about it because we both went through the same thing it would be hard pressed
12:22to find someone who wasn't
12:26medicating if you wanted to try to get out of bed and go to the gym and make it to the show and
12:34that's it's the only way you could do it brutus comes out with hogan and i love this brutus has two
12:40fanny packs on this is what a good friend brutus was not only did brutus have his fanny pack
12:45he had hogan's drugs that he kept on his side my name is missy beefcake and my husband is brutus
12:52the barber beefcake he did a lot of percocet and oxy cotton i'm not even going to say what i was
12:59gonna say because i don't want to get myself in trouble
13:11hulk had become a mega star and now he was making mega money millions and millions of dollars every
13:18year while hulk hogan is managing his crippling injuries he becomes more famous than ever and starts
13:25partying like he's the king of the world hulk showed me a check that was for a million dollars
13:33that was his pay for wrestlemania that's nice there where are we going how can we spend some
13:38of this it was definitely sex drugs rock and roll all the way we were rock stars in the 80s
13:44we could have anything we wanted you had women lined up
13:48you wanted to do drugs alcohol whatever you wanted it was at your fingertips he found himself
13:56partying hard the excess of the 80s playing out through one of the larger than life characters
14:05in the 80s professional wrestlers are all the rage their fame eclipses even the biggest hollywood
14:10celebrities and hulk hogan revels in his big moment
14:12hulk had suites on the penthouses giant rooms all connected and tons of beer and everything and
14:23and and everybody would come you know to terry's room and and we'd all just party half the night
14:30and sleep a couple hours get on an airplane go to the next town and then do it again that night
14:36these guys are out running wild lots of beautiful ladies running around lots of sex lots of drugs
14:43when these guys were partying at their like the height of wrestling there wasn't a camera in
14:47everyone's pockets so i feel like you were able to get away with a lot more because it just became
14:51this word of mouth legend of these insane stories it's the 80s cocaine in the 80s is like it's like
14:58weed like everybody did it this is this is what they did they worked hard they played hard in the ring hulk is
15:06the champ behind the scenes he's living large and meets the love of his life terry met linda
15:13in san fernando valley she was you know really beautiful blonde hair and all the bells and whistles
15:21his eyeballs were bulging out of his head basically he went head over heels for the next thing you know
15:27bang they were getting married but marriage doesn't slow hulk down he found himself staying up till
15:33three four in the morning partying with all the other wrestlers and his wife linda um
15:38doing whatever kind of drugs came around there's a degree of level of do good and be a good boy and
15:45hey eat your vitamins and all of that pardon me everybody like
15:53everybody was snorting and drinking and sex partying i would be more weirded out if i found
15:59out hulk hogan went and like prayed after matches i'd be like what's his vice booze and cocaine are
16:05one thing but it's hulk's third drug of choice that threatens to end his career for good did the
16:12biggest star in pro wrestling get to the top by using dangerous drugs hulk would tell us all the time
16:18train say your prayers and eat your vitamins i'm perez hilton the original influencer celebrity blogger
16:27podcaster and pop culture expert
16:31what he didn't say was also take your steroids
16:40most of us think of professional wrestling as harmless entertainment and hulk hogan as the king
16:44of the ring but was there a sinister side to his success train say your prayers eat your vitamins
16:51be true to yourself true to your country be a real american
16:55i think he wants this squeaky clean like look no i just ate my vegetables and i lifted weights and i
17:02just you know i wrestled and that's all i did when that's not the truth my name is greg valentino
17:08and i am a steroid expert one of the biggest steroid dealers ever in the 1990s from bodybuilding
17:15to professional wrestlers in the 1990s we were all using it look at hulk hogan it put a pin in him and he
17:23would that wasn't natural but you know a man has to do what a man has to do in any business my husband
17:31did steroids and and admits it in the spring of 1994 the widespread use of steroids in wrestling
17:38becomes a national scandal and the media's attention all turns to wrestling's most famous face
17:46fbi's banging on people's door the fbi you know it was no joke it's on the news it hit wrestling
17:53really hard where people started you know pointing the fingers pro wrestling is reeling wave after
17:58wave of scandalous charges threaten its hard-won family image your name came up recently when a
18:05doctor got himself into trouble you want to discuss it the last thing that he ever wanted to do was
18:12because all the little hulkamaniacs was to let the kids know that he had done something that might not
18:18look good in the eye of the beholder and influence a child in the wrong way the idea that he was on
18:25steroids but denied taking steroids to me that's all part of the persona hulk hogan didn't take steroids
18:34terry took steroids and hulk could never never learn how to separate himself didn't want to he just
18:41wanted to be hulk hogan all the time 24 hours a day seven days a week i don't know caught up with
18:50him i'm not a steroid abuser and i do not use steroids i was vocal about going on the him going
18:58on the arsenio hall show and denying steroid use i didn't think that was a good move you know looking
19:03back i'm sure he knows that was the wrong thing to do i i think he's a liar i i i think he
19:09was doing what he was trained to do to be a performer um and to deny deny deny if you do
19:18messed up shit own it say you know what i messed up and i did this but you know they think well
19:24little kids are watching well maybe if you told little kids hey listen i did these things and i
19:30wasn't so good when i did them it comes out everybody knows that hulk hogan was involved in a lot of
19:35scandals and yet he's never takes responsibility for any of them the showman part of this is that
19:41oh no this is all natural this is baby oil i'm just glistening so you can't cop to that i took
19:47steroids hulk's took steroids vince took steroids everybody took steroids yeah ouch my shoulder hurts
19:55i'm gonna take a shot to make it feel better faster so i can go out here and lift andre the
20:00giant over my head for you so yeah i took steroids they get beat up they get thrown around they get
20:09bashed you know what i mean and and you need steroids to actually help recuperate unfortunately some of the
20:16wrestlers go to drugs i did eventually i ended up with a painkiller problem and i know hulk hogan had
20:22one too i know that he was doing cocaine i know he abused steroids uh but he was doing what he had to do
20:29to get the job done hulk's hero image is in shambles and now he's a target for the feds
20:37the fbi was investigating they came walking out onto the dock at his house down here in florida where
20:46we lived one day looking for him to uh question him they actually had me go in front of a grand jury
20:55they hope that i might turn on flip on hulk and then that might cause him to flip on vince
21:03the u.s justice department charges wwf president vince mcmahon for supplying his wrestlers with
21:09illegal steroids and their star witness the hulkster a lot of people looked at hulk hogan when he came
21:17out and he started attacking you know uh mcmahon and all this stuff you know it's almost like he was
21:23like kind of biting the hand and fed him so to speak i went and you know testified in front of
21:29the grand jury oh it was a bit nerve-wracking to say the least i kept everybody out of trouble without
21:38lying to a grand jury but in such a way that kept us in the clear hulk might have skipped out on jail
21:47time but his punishment is potentially worse everybody was nervous let me tell you that everybody
21:54to legions of fans hulkamani is a lie and hulk can't play the hero his whole persona is dead and
22:00that means his career is too his partnership with vince mcmahon is broken was out of wrestling maybe even
22:08for good terry was told that you know he couldn't come back to wrestling
22:21after a steroid scandal rips through pro wrestling hulk hogan's no longer king of the ring so he leaves
22:26it all behind and heads for hollywood at the time he just needed a break uh decided to hang up the boots
22:34and you know see what uh the acting world might bring to him hulk isn't a stranger to show bids he's
22:41had a taste of tv before hulk had uh met the guys who did the baywatch show and they wanted to
22:51do a uh tv series a head tv show provides an opportunity for him to resurrect his heroic image
22:58hulk hogan is hurricane spencer thunder in paradise i was free to uh pursue other things we filmed 22
23:10episodes of a tv show called thunder in paradise right over at disney everybody you know had a
23:16fantastic time but hogan's hollywood sojourn is cut short when billionaire media mogul ted turner comes
23:23calling wcw was trying to get their stock up trying to end and they and if they could land hulk hogan
23:30they would be on the way to to to greatness well if he wants to come back and be part of rouse i said
23:37no way at first hulk said no to the wcw but then they came back with an offer he basically couldn't
23:43refuse they cut him in on a piece of the revenues including the pay-per-view revenues he was going to
23:50get a bigger percentage of every t-shirt they sold he was going to have more creative control it
23:56basically gave him everything that he never had with the wwf it's the most lucrative deal in wrestling
24:04history and puts hulk back on top then in 2005 hulk tries to present his household as a lovable family
24:12unit on a reality show called hogan knows best hulk hogan is so iconic that terry's
24:20family also call themselves hogan you have regular names and they're like nah i want people to know
24:26i'm affiliated with hulk hogan as his reality show started to take off it became more clear that
24:34he was more than just the wrestler he was this sort of just pop culture icon that can transfer to
24:41different kind of mediums like that hogan knows best was so big that it turned not just hulk into
24:50this more traditional celebrity but it turned his family into celebrities as well and his daughter
24:57brooke became a pop star you know there's this expression the reality tv curse i think hogan knows
25:04best while it was wildly successful it also had negative repercussions for his whole family would
25:11you be happy or divorced we all know that reality tv is fake and while filming hogan knows best hulk's
25:20relationship with his wife linda was so bad and their fights so toxic that a lot of them even though
25:28they were filmed didn't make it on the show producers thought they were too real she was a bit of a tyrant
25:36behind the cameras a bit of a tyrant behind the scenes she was drinking heavily and she would
25:43fall into these screaming matches thankfully most of that didn't end up on air in case you can't tell
25:49i've had it i've witnessed you know so many uh meltdowns linda always had a problem she used to bring
25:58up and insinuate stuff about me and hulk you you guys you you know you've never i've never heard you
26:05guys argue one time in five ten years or something you've never had an argument they never stopped
26:11fighting them two it was very turbulent relationship was tough a lot of alcohol involved and it was
26:19afternoon early afternoon drinker and by four or five o'clock the gloves would come off and it would
26:26just turn nasty finally in 2007 hulk and linda's strained relationship makes it impossible to continue
26:32filming hogan knows best is cancelled hulk quickly pivots to a new gig as co-host of a reboot of the
26:40popular american gladiator series he's about to go on stage when he's blindsided by linda
26:48she laid divorce papers on him the day he started filming american gladiator
26:54he was standing there about to start literally there's an arena full of people chanting his name
27:02before the show starts and he gets a call from his attorney uh saying that linda had just served in
27:09papers ladies and gentlemen hulk hogan welcome to the new american gladiator terry and linda were having
27:21some problems and uh then they split up it got really really nasty and he said to me he said
27:29um he said it does you no good to charm a snake once it's bitten you linda bit him hard divorce
27:40really took a toll on him not just emotionally but also financially linda walked away from that marriage
27:49with almost all of hulk's money and it left him for a while like a shell of himself it's just really
27:59sad to know that all those years he spent in the ring all that hard work was almost for nothing he was
28:05the biggest draw in the history of the business and it's just really sad that hulk hogan had to start
28:10all over again but before he can even reboot his life hulk is hit with another devastating sucker punch
28:17nick hogan crashed head-on into a palm tree hogan's friend john graziano a decorated iraq war vet suffered
28:25severe brain damage hulk's son nick got into a terrible car accident the passenger in the car uh john
28:34graziano um was severely injured and crippled from the accident it cost the family dearly you know when
28:42he got the wreck and poor guy um you know became paraplegic after that the press just went nuts
28:52on the family on his son in the middle of all of this the prosecutor's office in pinellas county
28:59decided to press charges against nick if you have the hogan name you have the power to protect yourself
29:05with a little bit of celebrity then why not what good a celebrity if you ain't gonna use the
29:11shit yes your honor i almost killed my friend but as you can recall my father beat andre the giant
29:20at wrestlemania but the judge said because of who you are meaning nick being the son of hulk hogan
29:32being someone who's on tv the judge decided to make an example of him
29:40nick was 17 had basically no record he sentenced him to eight months in prison
29:48i flew down to be here with him he wasn't really distraught in a really bad place
29:55nick's life could change forever getting thrown in jail
29:58terry was really really really upset and broken up about it it really took a toll on terry it hurt him
30:06so bad it hurt it just he blamed himself it was a tough difficult time
30:16hulk was so distraught with his son being sent to prison that he was suicidal
30:23he was just spiraling he was alone in the house he had been drinking he was just lost he felt like
30:34he everything in his life was falling apart
30:38and he sat there with a bottle of rum a jar full of xanax and a gun at one point he had the gun in his
30:51mouth he remembers a taste of the metal it only takes three pounds of pressure to pull the trigger
30:56on this particular weapon like three pounds for hulk hogan is nothing like flicking off a light switch
31:10hulk hogan has hit rock bottom his marriage is over his son is in jail and he's thinking of ending it all
31:16hulk hulk at that point he was alone in the house he didn't see a way out and thinking this is it this
31:25is it this is it and then he got a phone call he picked it up and of all people it was leila ali
31:34that's muhammad ali's daughter who he was co-hosting american gladiator with and leila he had just barely
31:41gotten to know she saw something when he left the set a couple days before that and she was
31:47concerned about him she called him just to check in just to see how he was doing for some reason
31:52broke through the cloud of pain that he was in and kind of snapped him out of it you know you never
31:58know how you're going to affect other people but again like i said that was just divine intervention
32:02god touched his heart and opened his eyes to the fact that he has two beautiful children and
32:09that so many people love and admire him seeing a man so broken down that he was ready to take his own
32:15life and how he was coming back how he was finding the strength to rise up again he just had to realize
32:23that you know sunshine's better than darkness and he chose sunshine just like in the ring hulk hogan
32:32won't be pinned down american gladiators is a ratings hit and the hulkster finds his swagger
32:38and has a new tag team partner by his side he really is in love with you isn't he he's one of
32:43the greatest people hulk had a friend named bubba the love sponge who was a very good friend and saw
32:49that hulk was kind of down in the dumps after it's divorce i know bubba well you know bubba's got some
32:54great qualities uh a lot of charisma he's very witty witty witty and uh so him and terry became
33:01friends hulk hogan and radio shock jock bubba the love sponge are inseparable i was on bubba the love
33:08sponge his show all the time i was on every week i was one of his regulars along with hulk hogan but
33:14i knew they were best friends uh you know bubba the love sponge bragged about it all the time he
33:19talked about him like just the greatest buddy a guy could have like a real guy's guy buddy he
33:24trusted the guy with his life they had had some crazy antics together uh that he would take to the
33:30grave unfortunately uh for hulk hogan's sake uh he got thrown to the wolves you know i didn't like bubba
33:40thought he was evil talking about being with bubba's wife ahead of time i tried desperately to
33:48warn him off don't even think about doing stuff some stunt like that that said you're gonna regret
33:54it it's gonna be bad no good can come from it just walk away it just was one of those moments i said
34:01hell with it i'm gonna go for it just and it was you know it's a huge horrible decision hulk decides to
34:08have sex with his best friend's wife heather clement bubba had his sinned in this place he had set up
34:16with hookers and dope and coke and everything was there and having you know people in and out of
34:24their cameras everywhere and hulk fell right into the trap next thing you know they got a him on tape
34:31with bubba's wife i remember saying to terry like you're hulk hogan like you could have gone into a 7-eleven
34:38and said i need to get laid brother and it probably would have been 10 girls that were like me me me like
34:44why somebody's white i said bubby you're not filming this are you and he just splashed into me what the
34:51hell's wrong with you i'm your effing best friend how dare you say that to me hulk had a sex tape
34:57that he claims was filmed without his knowledge although it seems like he might have known but
35:04regardless of that it came into the possession of a news outlet called gawker and they chose to not
35:11only write about its existence but to actually publish a two-minute excerpt of it the news of
35:17what bubba had done just crushed me i i all i did was feel for for terry the man you know not hulk hogan
35:27but terry balea the man had been betrayed by one of his best friends i'd google to see that sex tape
35:33it's a sex tape you gotta how could you not what you have come on come on it's the holster terry was
35:44livid could not believe that not only that happened but his friend bubba betrayed him like that it's
35:51really sad to to see somebody do that to him ruin his life that way betrayed and humiliated hulk gears up
35:58for the fight of his life he launches a multi-million dollar lawsuit against gawker for
36:03violating his privacy i think regardless of how hulk handled the tape being out there he probably would
36:10have preferred that if that got out he was 30 or maybe even 40 but regardless whenever your dick is
36:16plastered on the internet it's gonna be a bit jarring i think bubba wanted to make a pretty penny
36:21and he knew that this tape would do that for him his intention is was to ruin hulk hogan
36:26but believe it or not a sex tape scandal isn't the worst thing to happen to hulk's reputation
36:36toughest workout i've ever had and it's not over yet
36:45out of everything that i've been through this one hit me probably the hardest and that's a
36:50heck of a thing to say because i've been through a lot of crazy stuff hulk hogan terminated by wwe
36:56for racial slurs caught on tape you know black people we picky about the white people we emotionally
37:00invest in you know when you emotionally invest in a white person like yeah you know what that's one
37:06of the good ones ah not hulk hogan man damn the 61 year old apologized for his comments in which he
37:15reportedly used the n-word when talking about a man he believed was dating his daughter july 2015 in the
37:22middle of the gawker sex tape trial hulk hogan's reputation takes another hit yet another recording
37:30goes public this time it's a conversation and the backlash is instant and brutal
37:39the black person i don't think you're ever surprised when somebody says
37:43the n-word or you find out that some white person said the n-word it's disappointing to find out that
37:48part of hulk hogan hulk is erased from the wwe website hulk merchandise has taken off the shells
37:54and the legendary wrestler goes on an apology tour to rebuild his brand it was devastating it just it
38:00destroyed me for brands and any organization affiliated with someone who's a known racist it means
38:08they are taking a stand against a whole group to be pro hulk hogan means you are anti-black you are
38:19anti-minority there is no brand that can survive that type of scrutiny it cost him dearly
38:28now i was very surprised i really was surprised i thought he was smarter than that i think he realized
38:34the magnitude of it because it wasn't just a quick little locker room slap on the ass what's up brother
38:41you know it was horrible and uh and he he paid for it dearly but hulk tries to minimize the damage
38:50with multiple tv appearances people that know me know i'm not a racist the wwe fans know me they know
38:55i'm not a racist as a black person you're never going to have a true barometer of whether or not there's
39:01real contrition and apology ultimately there's there's very little possibility of bouncing back
39:07from that and you know there shouldn't be that's a racist outburst can be a death sentence for any
39:13celebrity but hulk catches a break in the midst of his spiraling pr nightmare his lawsuit against
39:19gawker is being secretly financed by a billionaire with a bone to pick peter thiel co-founder of paypal
39:25is out for revenge against the website he bankrolled this lawsuit that hulk hogan brought against gawker
39:33as far as this video being an invasion of privacy i think this whole trial and the sex tape existing
39:39and it getting out in the public it brings up a question of whether or not a celebrity
39:44their dick and balls is public domain you have a feather no you would not no man law brother
39:50what the gawker legal team was trying to do was to weaponize hulk hogan's sexuality against him it
39:59would be perfectly reasonable to see a guy like this in a sex tape made a conscious decision to expose
40:07terrible land naked i think that was a boomerang strategy that came back to hit the legal team because
40:15in the end people felt sorry for the guy lawyer for hulk asked that do you think mr uh mr hulk's
40:22dick is newsworthy and the answer was no an absolute victory for hulk hogan in his invasion of privacy
40:29battle against gawker hulk's win even provides punch lines on weekend update he deserved compensation
40:35but 140 million dollars do you realize that makes hulk hogan the world's highest paid porn star
40:42by 139 million dollars
40:52hulk hogan's victory in a landmark lawsuit earns him millions it also helps resurrect his tarnished
40:58image the wwe quietly uncancels him reinstating their superstar into their hall of fame
41:05as long as hulk hogan decides that he belongs and deserves a second chance he's gonna find people
41:10that are given one the wwe was faced with a choice likely what happened is they sat down and they
41:18determined that wrestling fans particularly hulk hogan fans were more valuable to them than the masses
41:27i think hulk hogan and the wwe i just think they're soul mates and regardless of their back and forths and
41:33their arguments and their quips over the years you know wrestling gave hulk hogan purpose and hulk hogan
41:43gave wrestling one of his most exciting characters of all time hulk wanted the title of his book to be
41:48resurrection and it was a little dramatic for the publisher's taste but i actually think it would have
41:55been the perfect story because coming back from the dead has been something he's done again and again
42:01in his life hulk hogan has made so many comebacks it's unbelievable um he has resurrected himself so many
42:10different times the finger wave the point the head shake
42:16in the ring you cannot keep the holster down but it's nothing compared to what he's overcome
42:26in real life the thing about hulk hogan is he's like a real life cartoon character
42:35and when you're able to be that loud that memorable
42:39you don't even have to try to be resilient you will forever be remembered and forever be relevant
42:49i really liked terry we had some tremendously good times all over the world together traveling
43:00meeting people going places doing incredible things making those movies doing all this stuff
43:07with with terry he's literally had nine lives and he he continues to blow my mind uh at how he's able
43:15to enjoy life and and going around and being who he is and and letting the people see him as he is
43:23as hulk hogan the hulkster i just don't think that there's ever going to be a world where
43:30hulk hogan's charisma doesn't eventually win whomever the target is over you can erase him from the hall
43:38of fame and you can take down his plaques or whatever but you're not gonna erase legend nobody can take
43:46away his name nobody can take away his impact nobody can take away his legacy i don't think there will
43:52ever be a bigger star than hulk hogan period
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