WWE Legend Thinks Hulk Hogan Has “Lost His Way”
A WWE Hall of Famer has given their thoughts on Hulk Hogan’s fall from grace.
During Monday Night Raw’s debut on Netflix, Hulk Hogan was given a hostile reception by a packed crowd at the Inuit Dome, and there was little sympathy for him on social media.
In recent years the reaction to Hogan’s appearances has been increasingly negative with fans often citing his history of racism, alleged lack of an apology for those actions, and very public support of controversial in-coming United States President Donald Trump.
On Raw, Hogan appeared alongside Jimmy Hart who arrived with an American flag in hand and was heavily booed from the moment his music hit. Each line of his following promo was also met with loud disapproval while his attempts at the ever-reliable ‘cheap pop’ were met with jeers.
Booker T Reacts To Hulk Hogan Backlash
During the most recent edition of his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T gave his thoughts on the segment and the negative backlash Hogan received. The NXT announcer said he felt Hogan had lost his ability to connect with younger people, suggesting time had passed him by.
Getting old sucks, man. You lose your focus when you’re getting older. I think that’s what Hogan has done over the years. He’s lost his focus. He’s lost his way, as far as being able to connect with young people. I always talk about that, as far as young people. If you don’t know how to change with the times, time will pass you by. I say that all the time…
It’s like Hogan, god bless him, man, but bandana and tearing the shirt off and flexing the muscles and stuff, it’s only gonna work for so long, I think it’s only going to work for so long. [Hogan getting booed] had a lot to do with a lot. But I’m just saying, having that same character forever and just being, for instance, a regular person…It’s just kind of sad to see…I don’t know.
I think it’s this era too. I think it’s the young people, they’re different. It’s a totally different world that we’re living in now. For instance, just say a lot of these fans who were booing, they’ve never watched Hulk Hogan do his thing. They’ve never seen the Andre the Giant match.
I say that because I get a lot of kids that come up to me, and they don’t know anything about my wrestling career. They know me as a commentator. So I can see being disconnected from the fans and not being able to go out there and have that magic today in 2025 like it worked in 1985, ‘90, whatever, it’s a different world now.”
Booker went on to say that Hogan may have “go-away heat” with fans, describing the situation as a “fall from grace.”
“At the end of the day, they normally respect you for what you’ve done inside the ring, unless you’ve turned them off to the point to where it’s good heat, then it’s go-away heat. Maybe he’s created a lot of that go-away heat with a lot of people. I don’t know. It’s hard watching this Hulk Hogan compared to the Hulk Hogan that we watched in the ‘80s. It really is.
It’s a totally different person that we’re watching. You say you put on the red and yellow, you’re the same person. No, you’re not [laughs]. It’s hard to look at people, especially these days with social media, everybody has an opinion, and today’s opinion is voiced very, very loudly, and we got a chance to see it in real-time. I think that’s what that was.
To see where that dude is, it’s a fall from grace, it truly is. What was the lynchpin to make it all happen and make all those fans feel that way? It could be a multitude of things, man, but I tell you what man, I wouldn’t want to be that guy. I really wouldn’t.”
The veteran closed by saying that Hogan had put himself in a position where something like the reaction on Raw could happen.
“For me, these days, if you’re just not real, people gonna try to find something on you to try to make you look a certain way. The thing with him, they don’t have to look for it. I say it all the time, you put yourself in a position, something will happen.
With him, he’s put himself in a position where stuff can happen, and it’s a damn shame because I was a Hulkamaniac when I was a kid. I get it, I understand why people feel the way they do. I was one of the guys that was on the bandwagon once upon a time.”
Speaking on his own podcast, Kevin Nash said he felt bad for Hulk Hogan, citing the serious back issues he’s been dealing with in recent years. Despite the backlash, Hogan is expected to appear at Saturday Night’s Main Event in San Antonio, Texas on January 25th.
H/t to Fightful