5 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (July 20)

Hulk Hogan, to his fans, has atoned for the disgusting racist tirade that surfaced in 2015. Does evidence exist to support this, beyond the initial apology Hogan was always going to make?

Hogan lent an ear to his son after Nick crashed a car and left his friend John Graziano in a permanent vegetative state. Hogan fantasy booked Nick's reality show redemption hours after the impact. “We could call it ‘The New Nick’, or something.”

These were dark times for the Bolleas. Perhaps this was less vulturous than it initially reads. He was empathetic towards his son, at least - if we’re being kind. We can’t be kind to the other ugly details of the call, in which Hogan, oddly, expressed his hope that he and his “n*gga” Nick were not reincarnated as a “couple” “blizz-ack gizz-uys.”

Hogan’s moment of madness wasn’t really a moment. On two occasions the public was since made aware of, Hogan expressed in the most rancid terms possible his distaste for black people. Some people simply want to take Hogan at his word. His word. Think about that. The guy who once claimed that Elvis Presley was a Hulkamaniac, despite dying in 1977, should be taken at his word. Moreover, when HBO’s Bill Maher found himself at the centre of his own racist scandal, Hogan tweeted his disbelief that Maher needed only an apology to save his job.

Why didn’t I get away with it? Hogan seemed to ask.

This week, he did - then didn't...

Ahead of Extreme Rules, with convenient timing, WWE drummed up interest for the show not by booking an absorbing weekly storyline cycle, but by announcing Hulk Hogan’s return to the company.

Per PWInsider, Hulk’s return came with a caveat: to prove his worth to the current roster and excuse WWE of eating cake, Hogan was instructed to apologise to the locker room. This was of course filmed, just in case you were concerned that WWE would not find a way of monetising the scandal. Whispers later circulated that it wasn’t filmed, but that seems another convenient hush-hush, given that WWE was subject to criticism as immediate as it was fierce. This was all completely inevitable. It was literally a matter of time; WWE waited patiently for the furore to dissipate before bringing the Hulkster back into the fold. Hogan didn’t need to apologise; he just needed to wait slightly longer than Nick Patrick’s count at StarrCade ’97.

Balls to WrestleMania VI; the prospect of Hogan doing everything possible not to utter the word “brother” in front of the black members of the roster surely represents the Ultimate Challenge.

Actually, f*ck that: the Ultimate Challenge is actually apologising. Hogan apparently showed no remorse over calling black people “f*cking n*ggers”, but instead warned his fellow roster members that you can’t bloody say anything in these PC-gone-mad-times because you might get recorded.

Wasn’t this guy the cleverest politician ever to enter the wrestling business?