As they did with the first episodes of WWE SmackDown and Raw since Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea’s death last Thursday, the July 29 NXT opened with a memorial for the late Hall of Famer.
Shawn Michaels, the man in charge of the brand, and Matt Bloom, the head coach at the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida where NXT, LFG & Evolve are filmed, were joined by the NXT and PC rosters for a 10-bell salute to Hogan.
The same video package that was shown on Monday’s Raw then aired before NXT got on with its
night.
After that aired on The CW, headlines started popping up on the wrestle web about Jamar Hampton, who wrestles out of the PC and has appeared on LFG & Evolve. A former track & field athlete from the University of North Carolina who signed with WWE after a tryout at SummerSlam two years ago, Hampton posted and deleted the following message on Instagram:
“Is this really who we should be celebrating? Do ya research”
Hampton included a link to the audio recording of Hogan discussing how he’s “racist, to a point” while repeatedly using the n-word to discuss a Black man his daughter was seeing at time. The recording became public in 2015, and briefly led to Hogan’s exile from WWE. Hogan apologized several times, but the content of his apologies, the absence of meaningful anti-racist or pro-equality efforts in the wake of them, and subsequent examples & reminders of his racism led to criticism for the remainder of Hogan’s life — and that debate has only seemed to intensify after his death.
We’ll see how WWE handles a PC talent openly leveling that critique — if only briefly — during their attempts to honor one of the biggest stars the business has ever seen.
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