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Hulk Hogan knows what he’s going to get from his whole Gawker lawsuit over the leaking of his sex tape, as Hogan and Gawker reached a settlement for $31 million, reports the New York Times. Gawker founder Nick Denton says Hogan’s retirement “will be comfortable” and took some digs at the source of the legal funding for Hogan. “After four years of litigation funded by a billionaire [Peter Thiel] with a grudge going back even further, a settlement has been reached,” he wrote in a blog.
“As with any negotiation for resolution, all parties have agreed it is time to move on,” Hogan’s longtime attorney David Houston said in a statement.
Denton said that he didn’t believe pursuing all legal remedies via appeals made sense for him and his company. He felt the ruling of $140 million by a Florida jury was excessive and would have been reduced or eliminated, “but all-out legal war with Thiel would have cost too much, and hurt too many people, and there was no end in sight.” He said he was just ready to move on.
Keller’s Analysis: I don’t believe this makes Hogan any more valuable to WWE, but if the settlement was high enough, I could see Hogan agreeing to return to WWE for a lower payday just to “save face” and show that he isn’t still ostracized from the world that he is most famously part of. If I’m WWE, I don’t think there’s a huge stench in being associated with him at this point, but I still find his comments about African-Americans personally vile and disqualifying of him being marketed effectively as a hero to children and a warm-fuzzy nostalgia act. I’m not sure he’s worth the headache for WWE. WWE, though, markets Ultimate Warrior as a hero and an inspirational figure when he has a track record of expressing views at least as bad if not worse (certainly more frequent on a wider array of topics) than Hogan’s, so it can’t be ruled out, and certainly Hogan is a bigger name by far that Ultimate Warrior. It might bother Hogan that Warrior is getting much more attention than he is as a part of WWE’s history as a hero and inspirational character.
1 Comment on Hogan reaches $31 million dollar settlement with Gawker, Gawker founder says Hogan will live comfortably in retirement (w/Keller’s Analysis)
I can’t imagine the rationale that would keep WWE from using Hulk “I Am a Racist to a Point” Hogan in some capacity when Ultimate “Queering Doesn’t Make the World Work” Warrior is treated as a role model.
I can’t imagine the rationale that would keep WWE from using Hulk “I Am a Racist to a Point” Hogan in some capacity when Ultimate “Queering Doesn’t Make the World Work” Warrior is treated as a role model.