Hulk Hogan Was Booed Out Of The Building On WWE’s Raw On Netflix Premiere, But Don’t Let People Tell You It Was Just About Politics

WWE’s star-studded debut on Netflix was filled with celebrities and famous faces from the history of professional wrestling. Most got huge ovations when they made appearances or were shown on the jumbotron, but one legend very notably did not. The first Monday Night Raw of the streaming era went well for just about everyone except Hulk Hogan, who was booed loudly and aggressively by the nearly 20,000 fans in attendance. The negative reaction was, of course, a huge talking point on social media, and many pointed to the Hulkster’s MAGA politics and the event’s Los Angeles location to explain what happened. The truth is it’s a lot more complicated than that though.

I’m not saying politics didn’t play a role in what happened last night. I’m sure the reception he got would have been less negative if it were in a more conservative part of the country, but the wrestling community’s relationship with Hulk Hogan has been complicated for more than thirty years. There is perhaps no one, in the history of the business, who has done both more good and more bad for the sport than the Hulkster.

Hogan’s mid 80s to early 90s run as the ultimate babyface catapulted wrestling out of the shadows and into the mainstream to the point where more than 30 million people watched a Main Event episode of WWE programming he headlined in 1988. His reinvention as a heel, or bad guy, in 1996 helped launch wrestling’s second big boom period, The Attitude Era. His classic matches and programs with the likes of Andre The Giant, Randy Savage, The Ultimate Warrior and The Rock are still talked about with reverence. He’s, without question, one of the most important performers in the history of the business and at his peak, was arguably the most beloved.

But Hogan’s wrestling career wasn’t filled with just peaks. It also involved a long history of backstage politicking and alleged refusals to lose to younger talent, or at least to lose to them in a way that helped their characters. After main eventing seven of the first eight WrestleManias, WWE was ready to turn the company over to a new generation of stars, most prominently Bret Hart and Yokozuna, who were scheduled to main event WrestleMania 9. But after a conversation with Vince McMahon, the show instead ended with Hogan interrupting their match and stealing the title in under thirty seconds in what is still remembered decades later as a disastrous mistake.

It’s not an outlier either. Hogan’s career is filled with moments where he seemed to have a chance to make someone else look good, both for their sake and the sake of the business, and in a majority of cases, that didn’t happen. Even when he agreed to lose, it often was in a way that made himself look good. He lost to Andre The Giant in ‘88 but he put his shoulder up before the three count so he could argue he wasn’t beaten fairly. He lost to The Ultimate Warrior in ‘90, but he kicked out at 3.00001 seconds, obviously because he didn’t want his character to look bad. He lost to Sting in ‘97 but only after a series of last second rewrites saw him initially win the match and then have it restarted on a technicality.

In Hogan’s entire WWE and WCW career, he was only pinned or lost by submission 14 times. On multiple occasions when he was allegedly asked to lose, he decided, instead, to quit the company or threatened to quit until the finish was changed. There are some cases, especially late in his career, where he did lose clean to some rising stars (most prominently The Rock at WrestleMania 18), but you don’t need to listen to many interviews with legends of the sport before you start hearing negative stories or ones about a time where they were going to beat Hogan and he said, “That doesn’t work for me, brother.”

Because of all of the above, there has long been an undercurrent of animosity against Hulk Hogan, at least from hardcore wrestling fans. To this day, when a character is booked too strongly or wins a match that doesn’t really make sense for their character, fans will change the character’s last name to Hogan, as a shorthand way of explaining their feelings. Of course, Rhea Hogan won the title back. I’m not surprised Cody Hogan hasn’t lost clean in almost a year.

If that was the whole story with Hogan, however, he wouldn’t be getting booed. There are plenty of other famous faces in the wrestling business who have backstage politicked their way to staying on top. Unfortunately, on top of all these wrestling specific problems, there’s also a long history of outside the business issues too.

You could talk about the long history of stretching the truth in interviews. You could talk about him pulling out of his biopic at the last minute. You could talk about the steroid trial. You could talk about the leaked sex tape with a friend’s wife and subsequent lawsuit, but the biggest issue is the history of racist comments.

Back in 2015, Hogan was caught on tape repeatedly using racial slurs and saying he didn’t want his daughter to date a Black man. After an investigation, more tapes came out, including one where he told his incarcerated son that he hoped he wouldn’t be imprisoned alongside any Black men. Hogan later apologized in an interview, but WWE fired him from his legends contract and stopped making any reference to him for more than three years. Since 2018, he has made sporadic appearances, sometimes getting a warm reception and sometimes getting more of a mixed one.

And then there’s the politics. Hogan famously made an appearance at The Republican National Convention last year to support Donald Trump and has since given numerous interviews in which he’s expressed his approval for the Republican leader. That obviously hasn’t sat well with some fans who have a distaste for right wing politics, and it unquestionably played a role in what happened last night, especially since the event took place in Los Angeles, which is, of course, a very progressive part of the country.

Hulk Hogan, however, is far from the only classic WWE personality with conservative ties. The Undertaker, who received a huge ovation during Raw’s debut on Netflix, released a video endorsing Donald Trump. Stephanie McMahon, who received a huge pop when she was shown on screen, is the daughter of Linda McMahon, Donald Trump’s recently appointed Secretary Of Education. Kane, one of the longest tenured and most popular characters in WWE history, is currently the Republican Mayor of Knox County, Tennessee. There is no shortage of WWE personalities with direct right wing ties, and they are not treated like this…

So, did politics play a role in what happened last night? Sure. That was definitely a factor, but it would be disingenuous to say Hulk Hogan was booed because of his political beliefs. He was booed because hardcore wrestling fans have had a very complicated relationship with Hulk Hogan for thirty years, and the insane ticket prices (highest arena gate in company history) made sure the audience was almost exclusively filled with hardcore wrestling fantastics. Instead of casuals who would have been stoked about seeing Hulk Hogan, the building was filled with people still mad about Starrcade 97 and people who listened to all those inappropriate comments when they first leaked. Add that undercurrent of negativity, combine it with his politics and the political beliefs of the average Los Angeles resident and it created a perfect storm of negativity.

I don’t know where WWE goes from here with Hulk Hogan, but I do know what happened last night was about more than politics. His recent appearances for Donald Trump and the Los Angeles location certainly played a role, but hardcore wrestling fans know the boos were about a lot more than that. They were about everything that’s happened the last thirty years. In a sport filled with complicated people who have done both great things and horrible things, Hogan is perhaps the defining example of that duality. After receiving some of the biggest pops in the history of the business, I guess it’s fitting he got one of the biggest boos.