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- Hulk Hogan is on a mission to do damage control. Hogan is keen to salvage his damaged public image by appearing in two media interviews airing on ABC’s Nightline and ABC’s Good Morning America on Monday. Hogan’s contract with WWE was terminated after it was reported that he used the N-word in the sex tape that is at the center of his $100 million lawsuit against Gawker. He used it in reference to a man his daughter Brooke was dating. WWE also removed mentions from Hogan from their website and stores. Hogan’s name was also taken out of the WWE Hall of Fame. It seems the tour was not arranged by the WWE either, as they likely would have made him appear on NBC shows. Sources close to the WWE do not expect Hogan to be “let back in” so soon.
- As noted, Rich Brennan has been promoted to full-time WWE Smackdown lead announcer, and with Tough Enough ending, Booker T will also be returning to the announce table in WWE. Brennan takes the chair of the man he followed as the voice of NXT, Tom Phillips. A Rhode Island native who worked extensively as a sportscaster in the Houston, Texas area before signing with WWE last Spring, Brennan's previous wrestling experience was with Booker T's indy promotion Reality of Wrestling. There's no indication on whether or not he'll move away from the NXT announce role, but considering that it only requires one Thursday night taping a week in general, he should be able to pull the same double duty that Byron Saxton does, working NXT and Raw regularly.
Based on the Tweets below, it appears the Smackdown announce team will now consist of Brennan, Booker T and Jerry Lawler, while Raw will be called by Michael Cole, JBL and Byron Saxton. No word on what WWE has planned for Tom Phillips. Booker and Brennan had this exchange on Twitter:
What makes Sting special? His first AEW opponent opens up RIGHT HERE.
