Tony Khan has banned Hulk Hogan from all AEW live events.
Credit: Jeff Kravitz/Film Magic
As heightened racial tensions and unrest continues to bring out the best and worst of public figures on social media, Linda Hogan (fka Linda Bollea) has become the latest wrestling-adjacent personality to land in hot water for racially insensitive comments.
As some protests turned ugly amid the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Linda Hogan took it on herself to convict “all Afro Americans” of the various reports of stealing and looting.
Said the former wife of WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan:
Tony Khan has banned Hulk and Linda Hogan from AEW.
Credit: @LindaHogan
AEW President Tony Khan responded by banning Linda Hogan from all AEW events, a decree that he revealed also applies to her ex-husband Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea:
Though it wasn’t explicitly expressed in the tweet, Hogan’s banishment from AEW likely stems from a series of racist comments he made on tape in 2015. Hogan was fired from WWE and wiped from its Hall of Fame before awkwardly rejoining the company in 2018. Hogan’s return to WWE was accompanied by an ill-fated plea for forgiveness from the WWE locker room. The stunt did not go well, resulting in public criticism from too-good-for-WWE Superstar and philanthropist Titus O’Neil.
Former WWE champion Kofi Kingston also expressed cynicism amid Hogan’s controversial 2018 return:
“On a personal level, when someone makes racist and hateful comments about any race or group of people, especially to the degree that Hogan made about our people, we find it difficult to simply forget, regardless of how long ago it was, or the situation in which those comments were made.” said Kingston.
“But we also do not respond with more feelings of hate. Instead, we just do not associate with the people who convey or have conveyed this negative and hurtful mindset.”
AEW has promoted itself as a more progressive alternative to WWE, which is like being a younger alternative to Clint Eastwood in that merely existing will give most people that title by default. Whether or not it succeeds long-term in routinely integrating African-Americans in prominent, main event and executive roles remains to be seen.
Now coming off its one-year anniversary, every AEW champion—with the exception of women’s champion Hikaru Shida—is white.