Hulk Hogan Says He's Glad Racism Controversy Is Behind Him

Hulk Hogan's public life has been a roller coaster over the last decade or so, most visibly taking a hit in July 2015 when The National Enquirer reported on racist comments he had made on a video that had been recorded without his knowledge eight years earlier. He was quickly dropped by WWE, but within weeks, went on an apology tour, albeit one where his apology did not reflect what he actually said on the leaked recording. Still, it seemed to work, and three years after the controversy, he was back in WWE. His career has recovered to the point that, this week, he's been on a media tour promoting his newly-announced line of cannabis products, which included a Forbes interview where he addressed the 2015 scandal.

"Well, it was kind of a speed bump," Hogan said, using identical verbiage to his comments on the matter during a recent interview on "The MMA Hour." "It's a glitch in the system as far as who I am. There's no excuses for it. You can go through a divorce, your son can be in jail, you can have all kind of problems happen, but there's no excuses. And at the end of the day, that's not who I am. And everybody knows that all my friends and everybody I work with know that." Hogan for the record, explicitly said "I am racist" during the tirade revealed in 2015, later adding that "I guess we're all a little racist."

"I'm just glad it's behind me, and moved on and learned a great lesson about respect and it's something that you have to keep at the forefront of your mind," Hogan continued to Forbes. "Even if you're mad or you slip or you have a moment of anger or something, it's still never time to vent and go in that direction. So that's not who I am. And I'm just glad that everybody is with me and still on the team with me."