10 WWE Gimmicks With Racist Undertones

2. Hulk Hogan

Virgil WWE
WWE.com

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher's 1980s agenda fed off the division of nations as the fuel of capitalistic greed. America was in and out of disputes throughout the decade, with Vince McMahon gladly positioning any entire country as the monster of the week if he felt Hulk Hogan could believably be employed to trounce it.

The profits didn't lie, even if the rhetoric was full of holes. 'Hulkamania' was literally building a tower for the company to work out of, so McMahon saw no issue with having his fanbase hearing their hero spout out any old jingoistic nonsense to flog tickets against the likes of Nikolai Volkoff, Killer Khan, Sgt Slaughter and most noticeably "that J*p" Yokozuna.

Assaults on flags weren't off limits unless anybody so much as sneezed near the Stars and Stripes as Hogan and the company exorcised their right to free speech at the expense of just about everybody else's.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett