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What’s the Story?
Hulk Hogan informed fans via Twitter that he will not be returning to the WWE for the 25th Anniversary of Monday Night Raw.
In case you didn’t know...
Hogan was instrumental to the development of the WWF during the 80s and became one of the most popular wrestlers of all time. Hogan main-evented eight WrestleManias and won the WWF Championship five times before leaving the company in 1993.
The heart of the matter
Many fans of Hogan were wondering whether he would appear on the show next week, but his tweet suggests that the WWE doesn’t want to take the risk of bringing him back.
Hogan has been absent from WWE programming since 2015 after the audio from his sex tape was leaked. Hogan was heard using racial slurs against African-Americans and declared himself a racist which resulted in WWE cutting ties with him and removing mentions of him from their website.
Hogan’s racial remarks caused the WWE’s stock market prices to drop, so the fear for WWE and their sponsors could be that Hogan’s return would result in both bad publicity and another potential drop in the stock market.
Despite being an instrumental part of WWE’s History, Hogan only appeared on Raw once before leaving the company to wrestle for WCW in 1994. He would make regular appearances on Raw after returning to the company in 2002 as part of the nWo.
Hogan’s last appearance on Raw took place on 26 March 2015 when he confronted Curtis Axel during his AxelMania gimmick.
What’s next?
Despite Hogan not appearing, WWE still has plenty of big names booked for the anniversary next week including Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Eric Bischoff, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, and many more.
Author’s take
Bringing Hogan back to the WWE is still a big move that could easily backfire. While some wrestling fans are ready to forgive Hogan for his remarks, there’s no telling how many people still have issues with Hogan for what he said.
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One of Samoa Joe's colleagues had harsh words for him HERE
