I'm of two minds about WWE's reaction to this. On one hand, to say they have a less than stellar track record when it comes to issues of race would be an understatement. Vince himself has said that word in front of a black man and woman on national TV in a scripted segment, Michael Hayes... enough said, and all of the ridiculous stereotypes over the years and one of which is still a regular part of there current programming. So its very easy to mock them or be like 'what about Michael Hayes' or post the video of Vince saying that word. Conversely though, I agree with there decision. Scrubbing him from there history is over-the-top, but I have little doubt they'll slowly start showing him on the website again, and then you'll start seeing a Hogan show highlighted on the network. Him being on current WWE programming will be the last shoe to fall, but it'll happen at some point. The fact that the firing was blatant PR is largely irrelevant to me. If someone makes what I feel is the right decision, that to me is more important than whatever there motivation is. Now if they start patting themselves on the back and talking about how great they are on issues of race (like they do with all of there charity efforts), at that point I'm more than happy to throw there past back in there face.
Stanford wrote:safi wrote:Maybe I'm off about this, but I think all of that combined this news isn't as big as it would have been because his image has been eroded to such a degree.
That, and he's never been a serious figure. He's the most flamboyant, absurd example of pro wrestling the public knows about. He's so silly, it's impossible to even think of him as a real person.
Hulk Hogan Calls Wrestler 'Sambo' is more likely to be believed as the build to a wrestling show than an actual news story.
He was never a serious figure, but he was a nostalgically revered figure although like I said that has been eroded over the last decade. If he'd espoused some really out there political position, then it'd be like why would I care about what the guy that's known for calling everyone brother and ripping his shirt off thinks about this issue. But what happened is that in the eyes of many he was outed as a racist and that segment of the population that had that nostalgic reverence for him, for some or a lot of them that feeling dissipated or disappeared altogether.
