Vince McMahon Speaks Out Following Hulk Hogan’s Death: “He Wasn’t a Racist”
By Conor Renshaw on 13 August 2025
Vince McMahon spoke in a TMZ interview that aired yesterday about the death of Hulk Hogan and has defended the decision to bring Hogan back into the WWE after he was ousted due to footage of Hogan’s racist remarks being made public.
The TMZ interview with Vince McMahon aired yesterday, and McMahon recounted how, in 2015, a Hulk Hogan sex tape resurfaced and showed the WWE Hall of Famer making racist remarks. McMahon first said that the remarks were “unforgivable” and that he was “aghast” by them, and that he and the company responded appropriately by removing him from the company.
“It was unforgivable, and I was like, aghast. What happened? And when those things occurred, that’s not like him. What is God’s name is going on? As soon as it happened, obviously, the company didn’t have anything to do with him anymore. We took him out of the Hall of Fame. You just don’t do those things.”
However, Hogan was brought back to the WWE in 2018 and continued to work with the company until his passing on July 24, 2025. McMahon defended this decision and said of Hogan that he “knew he wasn’t a racist” but “said some racist things.”
“I knew he wasn’t a racist; I’ve been with him for so many years. He wasn’t a racist. He said some racist things, and he should pay for that, and he did. But in the end, I think everyone saw the real Hulk Hogan, Terry Bollea, and they felt, well, wait a minute, this guy, he doesn’t act like a racist. He’s not a racist. We all make mistakes. That was a big one, but he wasn’t a racist.”
What Else Did Vince McMahon Say In His TMZ Interview?
Also in his interview, Vince McMahon also spoke of Hogan’s last WWE appearance on Raw’s debut episode on Netflix that took place on January 6, 2025, and said that he was angry about how Hogan was booed while he promoted his Real American Beer, and McMahon said that he would have done the segment differently.
“I was angry because we’ve known each other for a lifetime, professionally and personally. And setting up, so to speak, this larger-than-life superhero, you don’t just let him walk out there. He deserved something very, very special. More than anyone, they owe him. It’s just like, okay, here comes Hulk Hogan. I got angry because that’s not the way I would have done it, and he deserved much more.”
McMahon also spoke about how he felt after he learned about Hogan’s passing, stating that he was shocked and felt the loss so deeply that it felt like the death of a close family member to him.
This is the first interview Vince McMahon has given since January 2024, when he resigned from TKO after the ongoing Janel Grant sexual misconduct lawsuit was filed against him.