WHILE PROMOTING HIS new television series Ballers at a press tour, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was inevitably asked for his thoughts on the controversy surrounding the WWE Hall-Of-Famer.
Last week an audio transcript was released that allegedly features Hogan, real name Terry Bollea, making racist comments. In the aftermath, the WWE terminated Hogan’s contract and removed any mention of him from its website.
Johnson says he was “pretty disappointed” regarding Hogan’s offensive comments.
“I’ve known Terry for a lot of years. My dad helped train him in Florida in the ’70s when he was breaking into the business. My uncles helped train him as well. So I’d not known him to be racist.
“It’s funny, it’s one of those things where—I’m not justifying what he said—but we’ve all talked trash. Especially in private. He said what he said and now he’s paying the price.”
Hogan is also currently fighting a £100 million lawsuit with Gawker Media after they released his sex tape online. It is in that tape that Hogan is caught making the racist comments to then-lover Heather Clem.
A joint investigation between the National Enquirer and Radar Online has also uncovered audio of Hogan making homophobic comments to describe the new owner of his childhood home.