Hulk Hogan tragically passed away last Thursday from cardiac arrest, just 18 days from his 72nd birthday. The wrestling world is remembering Hogan’s historic happenings and accomplishments, while also debating some of his controversies. A fellow two-time WWE Hall of Famer is now opening up on Hogan’s biggest scandal after standing next to him for decades.
The Hulkster’s significant health issues that led to his passing were first revealed by longtime friend turned for Bubba the Love Sponge. The controversial Florida celebrities were close until a sex tape with Hogan and Bubba’s wife Heather Clem was released online in April 2012. Months later, the Gawker website shared a clip of the tape that revealed Bubba arranged for the hook-up, and knew it was happening. He was later filmed telling his now-ex-wife that if they ever needed to retire, the sex tape would be their “ticket” to riches. Hulk sued Bubba for invasion of privacy, and a settlement was reached.
Hogan ended up suing Gawker for $100 million, alleging defamation, emotional pain, and loss of privacy. The case ended with Hogan being awarded $140 million, but a settlement of $31 million was reached two months after the judge’s decision. This led to the end of Gawker, but years of heat for The Immortal One as the tape, filmed in 2006 or 2007 without his knowledge, included “pillow talk” where Hogan dropped a N-bomb when venting over a situation with daughter Brooke Hogan and a man she had dated. Hogan apologized profusely, and had support from people like The Rock, but unfortunately his relationship with much of the public was never the same.
Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan were friends for decades. The former Big Sexy and co-host Sean Oliver filmed a special tribute episode of Nash’s Kliq THIS podcast, and the Gawker scandal came up. In regards the N-bomb debacle, Nash revealed he filmed for Netflix’s Hulk Hogan documentary that has been in the works for months. He recalled talking on-camera about the Hogan situation.
“They’re doing a Netflix special on Hulk, and they asked me to be a part of it, and I’ve done several of these things… you speak for 9 hours and they find a way to take three sentences, cut them together, make you look like an a**hole. But I said I will do it, and I f***ing spent half my time basically saying I spent a lot of days, morning til night, with him, and I never heard him drop an N-bomb. Ever. So, if that… anybody that’s been around a racist… they use that word. There’s guys in my gym, that… I hear them talking among themselves, and they say s**t, especially when Obama was President,” Kevin Nash said.
He continued:
“And it’s like… I never heard Terry use the N-word, so in that case… I have no defense for him, there’s nothing I can say, I’m not black, I don’t have the right to… I personally found it offensive, it did diminish how I felt because I had never heard it from him before, but then I also tried to dig deeper to figure out why this time, of all the times of s**t that he’s went through, this time was the time that it happened, and it’s on tape,” Kevin Nash said.
Kevin Nash Believes Hulk Hogan Was Caught Up In Hit Job
On the Hulk Hogan tribute edition of his Kliq THIS podcast, Kevin Nash continued talking to co-host Sean Oliver, and declared that the aforementioned scandal was an “absolute hit job” against Hogan.
Nash, who was unable to attend WWE’s Hogan tribute at SmackDown, also mentioned rumors and speculation surrounding the passport of alleged 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta, which was shockingly found in debris from the World Trade Center attack.
“That’s the thing that always got me… I’ve never heard the guy say it in my life, yet the time I hear it is on tape? Along with a sex tape that got… he ended up getting paid $135 million in the settlement, but then they didn’t have the money, and I don’t know what he ended up getting out of it, but to the point of, how much of that whole situation was set up to f***ing… [Oliver: are you suggesting a setup?] I look at it as a f***ing absolute hit job. Who’s to say that wasn’t a hit job? You get a sex tape of him f***ing his best friend’s wife, and an N-bomb in one f***ing tape? And nobody else? I mean… I’m smelling [accused 9/11 hijacker Mohamed] Atta’s f***ing passport, I’m sorry,” Kevin Nash said.
Oliver recalled many people thinking it was a setup at the time, but pointed to how the idea was that the dialogue was not written for Hogan, if this was a setup. Nash did not give Hogan justification for the alleged offensive incident, but ended the discussion with a reference to a well-known Bible quote from John 8:7, which says, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
“Yeah, but if he was in a situation where his daughter was involved with a black man, and they knew that something was going awry, and it was pushed, and pushed, and pushed… and you’re f***ed up. Like I said… I can’t give him an excuse, and I’m not trying to give him an excuse to why he… because I don’t… if somebody said, ‘I’m gonna shoot your wife in the head if you don’t say the N-word!,’ I’ll say, ‘Well, I guess I’ll have to say it because I don’t want you to shoot my wife in the head.’ But… I’ll just go back to… let he who has not sinned throw the first stone. That’s all I have to say,” Kevin Nash said.
Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash last worked together on March 28, 2002 at a non-televised WWE live event in East Rutherford, NJ. The Hulkster and Triple H defeated Nash, Scott Hall, and Sean Waltman in the Handicap Match main event.