Vince McMahon Angry Hulk Hogan Got Booed On Raw Premiere, Says He "Deserved More" (WWE News)
Vince McMahon was unhappy with Hulk Hogan's final WWE appearance.
With TMZ Presents: The Real Hulk Hogan having aired last night on Fox, disgraced former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon was among those featured to discuss the life and death of Hulk Hogan.
As McMahon covered a wide range of Hogan topics, one of those was the reaction Hulk received during his appearance on the 6 January 2025 edition of Raw - the Netflix premiere - where he was there to promote his Real American Beer brand.
Per f4wonline, McMahon was "angry" at the reaction Hulk received and the way the segment was put together:
"I was angry because we’ve known each other for a lifetime, professionally and personally. And setting up, so to speak, this larger-than-life superhero, you don’t just let him walk out there. He deserved something very, very special. More than anyone, they owe him. It’s just like, 'Okay, here comes Hulk Hogan.' I got angry because that’s not the way I would have done it, and he deserved much more.”
Shortly after that Raw appearance, Hulk Hogan said in various interviews that he expected to be booed, putting it down to his heel days as part of the nWo. However, since Hogan's passing last month, his long-time friend Jimmy Hart has said how Hulk was "devastated" at the hugely negative reaction he received from Inglewood, California's Intuit Dome on that night.
In TMZ Presents: The Real Hulk Hogan, Vince McMahon also commented on Hulk's previous racist comments and the former WWE Champion's admission to being racist "to a point".
McMahon said those comments were unforgivable, and while the comments themselves were racist, Terry Bollea was not:
"It was unforgivable, and I was like, aghast. What happened? And when those things occurred, that’s not like him. What is God’s name is going on? As soon as it happened, obviously, the company didn’t have anything to do with him anymore. We took him out of the Hall of Fame. You just don’t do those things."
On reinstating Hogan into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2018, McMahon continued:
“I knew he wasn’t a racist. I’ve been with him for so many years, he wasn’t a racist. He said some racist things, and he should pay for that, and he did. But in the end, I think everyone saw the real Hulk Hogan, Terry Bollea, and they felt, 'Well, wait a minute. This guy, he doesn’t act like a racist. He’s not a racist.' We all make mistakes. That was a big one, but he wasn’t a racist.”
Vince McMahon also gave his reaction to the news of Hulk Hogan's passing on 24 July at the age of 71, comparing it to losing a family member:
"You just don’t think about someone, a family member or someone that close to you, you don’t think about them passing away. Terry had kicked out, so to speak, of so many surgeries. And, you know, he overcame that. It was a tremendous shot. It was a blow to my heart.”
Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan were synonymous with one another for many, many years, with McMahon choosing Hogan to lead his global expansion upon purchasing the then-WWF from his father in 1982. A relationship that was an undoubted success for both parties, Hogan would be the poster boy of the company as it launched into its Golden Era, complete with the first WrestleMania in 1985. Hulk would reign supreme at the top of the card until departing in the summer of 1993, closing out eight of the first ten WrestleManias as the WWF became the clear market leader, hoovering up the top stars of many a one-time rival promotion.
This TMZ appearance marks Vince McMahon's first interview since January 2024, when Janel Grant brought a lawsuit against McMahon, WWE, and originally John Laurinaitis, alleging sexual assault and sex trafficking. Laurinaitis has since been removed as a defendant after agreeing to provide evidence against McMahon. That lawsuit is still ongoing.