Should WWE (and we) Forgive Hulk Hogan?

Here’s something you might not expect coming from me: I’m not big on sex tapes.

Yeah, I know. I’m the guy that used to do a Hot 100 column every year around this time. Judging from my general online demeanor, you’d think that I would be all about watching famous people do the wild thing. I’m really not. I didn’t watch One Night in Chyna. I didn’t watch Paige, Xavier Woods, Brad Maddox & the NXT Women’s Championship. When I heard about Hulk Hogan’s sex tape, the last thing I wanted to do was click on a link & watch it.

Having ignored the tape, it was easy enough to ignore most of the other controversies surrounding it. Ignoring Bubba the Love Sponge is pretty easy. The whole Gawker Media thing was a weird angle that had no sympathetic characters except the writers that lost their jobs due to their bosses’ stupidity. Hogan was very close to emerging from the quagmire with his reputation intact…until the transcripts emerged.

That darn National Enquirer occasionally reports something accurately. Unfortunately for Hogan this was one instance. WWE stuck with him through the sex tape & the Gawker drama, but a racist rant about his daughter’s record producer & boyfriend was a bridge too far. They stopped using him for events & removed him from everything on their Internet platform, including the WWE Hall of Fame.

Hogan & WWE didn’t cross paths again until this past Sunday, when he was reinstated after a three-year suspension. He was backstage at the Extreme Rules PPV apologizing to the WWE Superstars. It may or may not have been filmed. Hogan says it wasn’t, but as everybody else has pointed out, he’s never been the best judge of that. We don’t know if he’ll be doing more with WWE or not, but some of us have ideas.

Strange Timing

This all comes at an interesting time. In the days prior to Extreme Rules, American media had been covering the downfall of pizza millionaire John Schnatter. Papa John had already gotten himself into hot water over comments he made regarding the National Football League & their National Anthem kerfluffle hurting his business. Last week, it was discovered that Schnatter used the n-word during a conference call with a media agency. This led to him stepping down from Papa John’s Board of Directors, along with the University of Louisville Board of Directors. His name has been taken off of the university’s football stadium & Center of Free Enterprise that he funded the building of.

Why was Papa John dropping N-bombs during conference calls? Apparently he was bemoaning the idea that Colonel Sanders was allowed to say the word without any punishment while he had to be all nice & stuff. I don’t know what type of language Sanders used in his free time, but I for one am offended that Papa John would compare his mediocre pizza to the majesty that is Kentucky Fried Chicken.

I’d say the odds are pretty good that Schnatter will regain some of his former glory. One side will raise him up at the expense of those laughing at him now. I’d also say the odds are good that my fellow Kentuckians will elect him to public office at some point.

We’re not here to talk about food & politics though. We’re talking about something a lot more important than those things. Wrestling & Halls of Fame.

Should Hulk be in the HOF?

This is a different question to me than “Should he be in the Hall of Fame?”.

Nobody reading this is perfect. We’ve all done things that we’re not proud of. Assuming that we’re decent people at heart, we make amends and hope that someday we’ll be forgiven for our transgressions.

I find it tough to hold grudges. Barring crimes against humanity that are so despicable that they shouldn’t be mentioned in polite company (murder, child molestation, rooting for the Steelers), I can forgive just about anything.

Yes, he said some truly deplorable things. Hogan is part of a generation where many people were taught by their parents & elders that it was ok to be racist. I don’t need to tell you that we’re still seeing the effects of it today, and I don’t need to tell you that some people are still teaching their kids that it’s ok to be racist today. It’s a problem that will never go away. As long as everybody isn’t the same, there will be some that hate others only because they’re different.

I don’t know what my reaction to Hulk Hogan would be if I was an African-American. This is probably a bad time to mention that I thought Hogan wasn’t white for a couple of years of my childhood due to his copious amount of time spent in the sun. I’m telling you, I had a WWF trading card with Hogan on it where he looked the same color Tony Atlas did.

I can’t sit here & tell you that you need to forgive Hulk Hogan. He needs to do that himself. I have noticed that if you say “sorry” enough times until somebody else comes along and does something dumber, we generally move on. Just saying.