Today, WWE held a conference call and sent out a press release revealing the WWE Network subscription numbers as of today to reflect the interest in WrestleMania 32. Here’s the breakdown of today’s numbers and how they relate to the post-WrestleMania numbers last year:
1,824,000 total subscribers worldwide (up 39% from 1,315,000 last year, though there were no free subscriptions in that period)
1,454,000 paid subscribers worldwide (up 11% from 1,315,000 last year, with the same caveats applying to this and every other comparison)
370,000 free subscribers worldwide
1,390,000 total domestic subscribers (up 24% from 1,123,000 last year)
1,109,000 domestic paid subscribers (down 1% from 1,123,000 last year)
281,000 domestic free subscribers
434,000 total international subscribers (up 126% from 192,000 last year)
345,000 international paid subscribers (up 80% from 192,000 last year)
89,000 international free subscribers
While the decline in domestic paid subscribers is not great on the surface, you have to remember that they decided to allow free trials during WrestleMania with a specific goal in mind. The hope is that it would bring in a ton of trials, the new subscribers wouldn’t cancel (doesn’t matter if they loved the service or just forgot), and then keep their subscription going. If “churn” (subscriber loss) is minimal, then this is a huge success. If the numbers just go back to where they were, then that’s a big problem.
Meanwhile, the press release has quotes from Vince McMahon…
History was made last night with both a record-setting crowd at AT&T Stadium and more households than ever before watching WrestleMania on WWE Network. WWE Network continues to drive transformative growth for our company.
…and WWE Chief Strategy & Financial Officer George Barrios:
Results today further demonstrate the power of our brand, illustrate our potential to drive long-term growth and provide evidence that we are effectively executing our multi-platform content strategy.
There were also notes about how:
“Video views reached 65 million across social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, and YouTube), representing an 87% increase over last year.”
“WrestleMania garnered a record 10.9 million social media fan engagements4, up 19% from the prior year.” They define those engagements as “the cumulative fan response to WWE content measured by the number of ‘likes’, ‘follows’, ‘shares’, ‘mentions’, and ‘retweets’ across social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Tumblr.”
On the conference call, which used this presentation (PDF) as a reference point, there wasn’t much addition information…or at least substantive information. Barrios did say that WWE Network is now available everywhere on the planet other than China, with their China strategy coming in “[the] next several months, hopefully.”
While WWE stock was rising leading up to the announcement ((Previous close was $17.71/share, open was $17.71, and high was $18.86), it dropped sharply thereafter. The stock bottomed out at $15.90 before rebounding slightly to $16.56, which is the price per share as of this writing.
WWE issued the following statement this morning with regards to the issues getting fans into AT&T Stadium for WrestleMania yesterday:
To ensure the safety of WWE fans, increased security measures were put in place tonight. We apologize that it may have taken some fans longer than usual to get into AT&T Stadium.
Fans in line at the stadium were told that the delays were caused by issues with the stadium’s Wi-Fi bringing down their wireless ticket scanning system. Given the two conflicting stories, it came off as at least curious. Then this exchange happened on Twitter this morning:
@RealPaigeWWE sorry Paige i have no idea how your stalker got to mania and #Axxess.He had a restraining order from WWEEvnts here in Germany
WrestleMania 32 Kickoff Show (Mauro Ranallo as host/play by play announcer)
Team Total Divas (Natalya, Paige, Alicia Fox, Brie Bella and Eva Marie) vs. B.A.D. and Blond (Lana, Tamina Snuka, Naomi, Emma and Summer Rae)
The two big things going into this match are that it’s Lana’s in-ring debut and probably Brie Bella’s last (or next to last) WWE match for the time being. The finish depends on what they’re trying to do here. Well, and if Lana has political weirdness going on. Brie winning would be a nice moment, but the heels need a big win a lot more, especially with Lana debuting and both Emma and Summer Rae returning to the mix. Still, this was so hastily thrown together (with an angle shot on Main Event, no less) that it doesn’t really matter. E! and/or Bunim/Murray Productions wanting Team Total Divas to go over could also be a factor, especially depending on what type of storylines they’ve been shooting and if they’re looking to give Eva Marie a big moment.
The Usos vs. The Dudley Boyz
This has potential to be a really good match, as The Usos tend to deliver on big shows and especially WrestleMania, plus they may have chips on their shoulders about being on the pre-show. The Usos should get a win here to blow off the feud in what is, on paper, the best match of the kickoff show.
Kalisto (c) vs. Ryback for the WWE United States Championship
Kalisto’s first WrestleMania match, so he should be looking to make a statement with his performance as well. The only ending that makes sense is Kalisto conquering Ryback and proving The Big Guy wrong about if a good little guy can beat a good big guy. Anything else would be a flat ending and kill of Kalisto. In the ring, this might be the sleeper match of the card. Ryback has quietly improved a lot in the last year or so and he’s done some fun promos to hype this match, so if it delivers with an uplifting finish, it’ll be a nice way to gear the fans up for the main card.
WrestleMania 32 Main Card
Chris Jericho vs. AJ Styles
This is the rubber match, and Styles has to win. On top of only being in for a limited run, Jericho has not been setting the world on fire since his return, most noticeable having blown a lot of spots in their previous pay-per-view match. Styles, on the other hand, is coming off a run where he was arguably the best wrestler in the world and excelling at putting on great big show matches. There’s really no reason for Jericho to win this match; It’s for Styles to get a big win over a tenured star in (hopefully) a great match at WrestleMania.
Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal
With the reports that Braun Strowman has lost favor with Vince McMahon, this is wide open, especially with the surprise entrants. Baron Corbin is rumored to be one of the surprises (Tommy Dreamer is another) and would make some sense. Otherwise? If the Strowman story is false, he should still win. If it’s true? This is a pick ’em with no obvious winner except for maybe one of the surprises.
The League Of Nations vs. The New Day in a Handicap Match for “Tag Team Supremacy”
New Day has been winning most of the matches in this feud, which would make you think they lose here, but with all of rumors about their big entrance and a surprise star being involved in the finish, it sure seems like they’re winning unless plans changed. In the ring, the feud hasn’t been lighting the world on fire but I could see them pulling out the stops here, especially with the kind of risks Kofi Kingston and Big E like to take.
Charlotte (c) vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch in a Triple Threat Match for the WWE Divas Championship
All signs point to Banks winning here, though it feels like Lynch caught on better with the fanbase at large. In-ring expectations will be high coming off of their NXT matches, so expect the usual flashy, rehearsed match with a lot of dramatic false finishes. This should also lead to the rebranded WWE Women’s Championship being introduced tonight or tomorrow and the winner will be doing a lot of media, so expect this to be treated as a really big deal.
Kevin Owens (c) vs. The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Sami Zayn vs. Stardust vs. Zack Ryder vs. Sin Cara in a Ladder Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
Zayn should win to get momentum and set up an Owens program after how coldly he was introduced to the main roster fans. Will they do that? It’s not like the other options are especially realistic other than Owens retaining and maybe Ziggler winning for a renewed push. I’m especially curious to see what Stardust, Ryder, and Sin Cara pull out, as they’re all more talented than their pushes and are getting a rare major showcase match here. Given Owens, Zayn, and to a lesser extent Ziggler have a history of doing some pretty insane ladder matches, this has potential to be a lot of fans’ pick for best match.
Brock Lesnar vs. Dean Ambrose in a No Holds Barred Street Fight
The booking patterns would suggest an Ambrose win, as revenge for Lesnar leaving him laying over and over again. This is another strong candidate for match of the night, as Ambrose is probably as willing as anyone on the roster to do a hard Lesnar style match, and at WrestleMania with weapons he’s totally in his element.
Triple H (c) vs. Roman Reigns in a No Disqualification Match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Does Vince change his plans again? Who knows?!?! I don’t see a way Reigns doesn’t win, but the question has become if he’ll somehow turn heel in the process. With The Rock there, maybe Reigns can turn on him? That said, if Reigns doesn’t turn, at least it’s not going on last as of the most recent reports. In the ring, both guys are inconsistent, and it seems like the added No DQ stipulation will let them have all of the smoke and mirrors that Triple H loves.
The Undertaker vs. Shane McMahon Hell In A Cell Match (If Shane wins, he controls RAW/WWE. If Undertaker loses, he can never compete at WrestleMania again)
This is the “real main event.” Shane McMahon will probably jump from somewhere high as the big spot in a crazy match with every kind of smoke and mirrors you can think of. Nobody knows who will win, but it certainly seems like Shane winning makes more sense unless Shane was somehow enticed back just to have a big main event opponent for Undertaker. Drama wise, expect a ton of crazy stunts and camerawork zooming in on facial expressions.
Who knows if there’s anything to this, but if there’s even a lick pf truth to it, it’s very interesting: The New York Post reported last night that John de Mol, the Dutch billionaire media mogul who founded Endemic and Talpa Media, has a standing offer to Vince McMahon to buy WWE if he ever wanted to sell. Talpa Media bought 6% of WWE’s public stock last year, but the way that WWE Stock is structured, even buying all of the public stock couldn’t enable a hostile takeover. This is because the McMahons have a different class of stock with greater voting power. Endemol is one of the biggest media companies in the world, and had a previous wrestling connection when they produced Ring Ka King, the sort of TNA spinoff that Jeff Jarrett ran for a season in India.
The Post reached out for comment on the story and got responses from both sides. First, from WWE:
WWE, controlled by founder and Chief Executive Officer Vince McMahon through Class B shares, isn’t in any discussions about a potential sale.
And here’s what de Mol’s spokesperson said:
We do not comment or give explanations on the investments of John de Mol and therefore also not with respect to his investment in WWE.
Obviously, if anything else comes out with regards to this story, we’ll keep you updated.
Late last night, newly crowned NXT Women’s Champion Asuka posted several lengthy tweets in Japanese, and the always reliable E. Key Oide on Twitter translated them. It turns out she had some pointed comments at those who point to her and Shinsuke Nakamura’s backgrounds in Japanese promotions as the reason for their superior skill level, as well as criticisms of the women’s wrestling scene back at home. In Japan, the women’s wrestling scene, while having a loyal cult following, has been running on fumes with independent level promotions for the past decade-plus. It’s a far cry from when All Japan Women was a hugely successful touring promotion in the ’80s and ’90s, and in here tweets, Asuka goes into why.
Here’s the translation (again, go follow E. Key Oide if you’re into translations from Japanese wrestlers and stuff like that):
I got the title! And I did it with a zero loss winning streak, record-setting quickness. I see some people tweeting about the high level of Japanese performers, based on my accomplishments. Those types of comments just don’t sit well with me. I’ll come right out and say it! The level of women in Japan isn’t that great. My fights against various Divas and experiences with many superstars on my road to gaining the title makes me sure of that.
The Japanese performers who are making strides in WWE aren’t making strides because Japan is at a higher level. It’s all because of the skills and techniques possessed by the individual. In the past, I’d criticized women’s wrestling for only doing matches that appeal to fans of women’s wrestling. And now I can expand on that point. This type of wrestling is too niche to succeed. They try to appeal solely to a Japanese audience, yet expect to gain popularity on a global level.
There’s been instances where Japan was expected to be the best in the world for a certain field or industry, but ended up being surpassed before they knew it…
I now see a similar phenomenon taking place for wrestling. I don’t consider myself to be a representative of Japanese women’s wrestling, just because I’m Japanese. Why? Because, like I’ve said before, there’s too many elements that prohibit this type of wrestling from attaining worldwide success. It could be partly due to a difference in culture: Japanese wrestling fans see wrestling as a process of subtraction, while the WWE Universe see wrestling as a process of addition. If wrestling is considered as a process of subtraction, then there is more emphasis placed on avoiding mistakes, which leads to tighter matches… at the cost of any hope for growth.
Why? Because everybody looks for that one mistake, then makes a huge fuss over it, like they’ve accomplished something great. The result? I was the only female wrestler in Japan able to take this path. But! If you want to abandon all pretense that Japanese women’s wrestling can compete on a global level? If you want to stay the course, only focus on appealing to women’s wrestling fans?
The issues I bring up cease to be problems. In that case, it’d be like comparing apples and oranges -that style is in a world entirely removed from mine. Ultimately, whoever gets results will have the greatest weapon in justifying their position.
Me? I’ll just keep raising the bar with the Divas.
The note about not understanding how to appeal to audiences outside of Japan may be a pointed reference to New Japan Pro Wrestling. In the last year or two, management has publicly spoken about wanting to expand internationally but don’t appear to have a good roadmap on how to get there. The NJPW World streaming service was a step in the right direction, but they haven’t made any real attempt to make alternate language versions of the website. There’s an integrated Google Translate mechanism to view the site in English, but being a machine translation, it’s heavily flawed, and you can’t use the site’s search feature in English.
There was also a lot of criticism from fans and wrestling media with their choice of English announcers for major shows. It was less that they picked Kevin Kelly and Matt Striker (though there was negativity on Striker in some circles) and more that NJPW’s most visible in English via their AXS TV show. While the AXS show is produced via an agreement with Japanese TV network TV Asahi and not NJPW proper, the AXS announcing team (then Josh Barnett and Mauro Ranallo, now Barnett and Jim Ross) were the voice of NJPW to English speaking fans. Yet Ranallo and Barnett weren’t contacted.
That said, Stardom, the leading women’s promotion in Japan, is also trying to make strides with Stardom World, a paid subscription channel on YouTube. It’s available to most of the world, there’s no commentary (as opposed to Japanese commentary), it’s inexpensive at $4.99 per month, and being on YouTube means it’s accessible on many more devices than NJPW World. Asuka’s not wrong that the style can be way too niche for a lot of people, but her success in NXT may lead to more people at least checking out Stardom World’s 14 day free trial.
A few photos and videos have gone up on social media of the WrestleMania 32 set being constructed, including this Instagram video that went up at midnight ET Friday night/Saturday morning:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDrv3s9ys9Z/
Note that the ring area is completely curtained off, which is always a sign of something secretive going on. For example, they broke out the curtains when Daniel Bryan rehearsed his return at SummerSlam 2010 less than 90 days after being fired. Given the report of a “major stunt” being rehearsed for WrestleMania, it wouldn’t be surprising at all if that’s what they’re hiding. Of course, there could be a number of things, especially since the legends we know will be there (The Rock, Mick Foley, Steve Austin, and Shawn Michaels) haven’t been advertised as doing anything. There’s also a nice photo of the stadium setup that was tweeted a couple hours ago (without the ring being curtained off) that I can’t get to embed for some reason.
PWInsider reported behind their paywall (h/t WrestlingInc.com) that WWE held a talent meeting in Dallas before WrestleMania week festivities kicked off. The topic was apparently the pre-show, with it being stressed that anyone who’s working the pre-show instead of the main card shouldn’t feel that they’re “let out” or not a part of WrestleMania. Instead, they consider everything from the first match part of the event since it’s an entity unto itself that’s not like a normal pay-per-view. Mauro Ranallo will be calling the two pre-show hours, with the first hour being a WWE Network exclusive and the second hour being everywhere, with USA Network and YouTube being the most notable platforms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPxEHXWVlMk
I’ve been told that security at WWE’s talent hotel as tighter than ever, with security even asking those staying in the hotel to come down to approve guests instead of just adding them to the list. In previous years, some fans or people not even there for WrestleMania would be coincidentally booked in the hotel, but this year, it looks like it’s all WWE personnel, friends, and family. Part of that may be that it’s a smaller hotel than last year, albeit part of the same chain. There are apparently no surprises on the security list, but WWE could very well be keeping any big surprises nearby but out of town like in Fort Worth. Daniel Bryan, however, is on the list (well, Bryan Danielson is), but it’s possible that wasn’t changed when he was pulled from all of his dates. Being that he’s married to Brie Bella, she’s on the show, and obviously they would have been sharing a room originally, it’s not like there’s any reason to have changed it on the hotel/security side.
Stay right here at SEScoops for all of your WrestleMania weekend news, including love coverage of the Hall of Fame induction ceremony and WrestleMania 32 proper.
Yesterday in the WrestlingObserver.com Daily Update,there was an interesting (albeit not necessarily surprising item (I believe from Dave Meltzer) about what’s going on as part of WrestleMania 32 rehearsals at AT&T Stadium: “There was a major stunt being worked on and practiced yesterday afternoon.” Being that the hype for The Undertaker vs. Shane McMahon has revolved heavily around Shane saying he will use his body as a weapon as well as clips of his past crazy stunts from the Attitude Era, it’s reasonable to think that if there’s a big stunt, it will be in that much. Perhaps even more so because the same update item says that the Hell in a Cell match in question is set to go on last as of the time it was written.
Besides his trademark flying elbow drop through the announcers’ table, Shane McMahon also did some incredibly elaborate stunts when he was at his most active. Most famously, at SummerSlam 2000, he took a bump off the truss near the top of the TitanTron onto a crash pad.
A few minutes ago, Wrestling Twitter exploded upon seeing that the above video of Shinsuke Nakamura practicing his entrance inside the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center had been uploaded to YouTube. Surreptitiously shot from behind a railing, it catches the vast majority Nakamura’s entrance, including his new entrance music. Uploaded by “Scott Nebenzahl,” the video has a description that simply reads “Don’t ask how I got this ?.” No public videos had been uploaded to the account in five years before today and there’s no indication who shot it. In case YouTube gets the original upload pulled from YouTube, there are mirrors on Streamable, Vid.me, and SendVid.
Nakamura makes his WWE debut tonight at NXT TakeOver: Dallas against Sami Zayn, who will be done with NXT after tonight. Stay right here at SEScoops for live coverage of the whole card, which airs live on WWE Network from the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center.
If you ask me today, I should’ve been back two weeks ago. I’ve logged almost 400 hours of physical therapy. I got 111 visits in 12 weeks time. I go every single second I can. People say I have a Wolverine-like style of recovery. I was given a nine month quota to come back and after three months I can tell you that I am ready to do anything asked of me possible. It’s a matter of when they call me.
Are you medically cleared?
Yes.
Cena has been out with a shoulder injury since the start of the year, It feels like longer because he had just returned that week from shooting “American Grit” for Fox. Obviously, he doesn’t have a match this Sunday at WrestleMania 32, but now we know that he could get involved in one of the top matches. Make sure to read the whole Complex interview with Cena, as it covers a number of topics in depth, including if he’s been a heel all along.
Yesterday, we reported on how Chris Smith at Forbes had put together a list of WWE’s highest paid wrestlers. While lists of this kind have gone around for years, they’re usually of some nebulous origin or an incredibly unreliable source like CelebrityNetWorth. This is different, however: Not only is it from Forbes, the magazine of record for finance, but it’s also an actual Forbes staff writer as opposed to their larger contributor network. Nothing against them, but they weren’t hired with the financial angle in mind. Since it’s a Forbes article from a Forbes staffer, the list is being taken a lot more seriously than these things usually are.
In his article, Smith claims that “Over the last year we’ve pored over court documents, SEC filings and WWE’s booking contracts and spent hours speaking with industry sources, allowing us to construct the first ever FORBES list of WWE’s Highest-Paid Wrestlers.” Let’s take a look at the list again:
John Cena: 9.5 million
Brock Lesnar: 6.0 million
Triple H: 2.8 million
Randy Orton: 2.7 million
Seth Rollins: 2.4 million
Roman Reigns: 2.1 million
Undertaker: 2.0 million
Big Show: 1.5 million
Kane: 1.3 million
Dean Ambrose: 1.1 million
So, what do we know about the numbers on Smith’s list for Forbes?
The only one whose pay would come up in SEC filing is Triple H, since he’s an executive officer of WWE under his real name of Paul Levesque. This does appear to be correct: If you don’t include stock awards, and Smith didn’t, he made $2,812,629 in 2015. That’s broken down as $573,269 in salary for his executive role, $526,000 in incentive plan compensation, and $1,713,360 for his pay as talent, $1 million of which is his contracted downside guarantee. There’s a note that “Mr. Levesque has out-earned this minimum guarantee in each of the past several years.”
Randy Orton and John Cena both had divorces, though only Orton’s finances went public as a result. TMZ reported that at the time of the July 2013 divorce, Orton was making $291,666 a month, or just $8 short of $3.5 million in a year. It’s not clear if that was his total 2012 pay or what, as the belief is that WWE’s downside guarantees never top $1 million. Cena did have his annual earnings pegged as about $10 million by Wrestling Observer editor Dave Meltzer in January, while Meltzer has also reported Brock Lesnar’s pay in the past because he gets a flat fee per appearance. In the past, Meltzer has said something to the effect of how these days, it’s understood that The Undertaker’s $1 million guarantee is considered his WrestleMania payoff. With additional appearances headlining SummerSlam and Hell in a Cell last year, $2 million sounds reasonable.
It gets hazier after that as you move further down the line.
In a deposition that I cited in my January article for SBNation about Big Show’s flirtation with boxing, Big Show said that when he returned to WWE in 2008, he asked for $1.25 million and a $250,000 signing bonus…but that was eight years ago and it’s not clear in the public filings if he even got what he wanted. A deposition with his wife, who apparently handles their finances, had her testifying that she didn’t think he made any bonuses on top of his base salary. That would be unusual for a full time WWE performer, but it could also have to do with confusion over the nature of WWE contracts. WWE pay works two ways: You can just take your per-event pay and royalties as they come, or you can take your downside guarantee as a salary and get a balloon payment at the end of the year for what goes over the guarantee. Since he has little merchandise, $1.5 million doesn’t sound outrageously low, though.
Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Kane, and Dean Ambrose all have little to no information out there about their pay. Kane recently put his home up on the market and it was huge, sprawling property with a house customized to his specific needs as a very tall man, but because he’s based in Knoxville, Tennessee, the price was dramatically less than you’d think, coming in under $1 million. The rest seem realistic enough.
What do you think of the list? Let us know in the comments.
Fighting Spirit Magazine editor Brian Elliott broke the unfortunate news that veteran British independent wrestler Kris Travis has passed away due to complications from stomach cancer. He was 32.
It is with deep regret that I write that Kris Travis died this morning. Kris was an FSM Readers' multi-award winner. He will be missed.
Travis, who would probably be best known for his appearances on TNA’s British Boot Camp reality show, was one of the veterans and top stars of the thriving UK indie scene. He shocked fans and wrestlers throughout the region when he abruptly announced his retirement and diagnosis last year, and while he briefly attempted a comeback, it wasn’t something that he could sustain as the cancer recurred
It’s a bit strange that this wasn’t officially announced yet, but it’s hard to argue with the evidence: Dave Meltzer is reporting at F4WOnline.com that it looks like WWE may have found a way to quickly get some major historical figures into their hall of fame at this Saturday night’s induction ceremony. A WWE Hall of Fame class of 2016 shirt being sold at the WrestleMania store at AT&T Stadium includes not just the announced inductees, but also a “WWE Legacy Award” with Ed “Strangler” Lewis, Frank Gotch, George Hackenschmidt, Lou Thesz, Mildred Burke, Pat O’Connor, and “Sailor” Art Thomas all listed under that heading.
As of this writing, WWE has not said anything else about the new Legacy Award. The obvious inference, though, is that the company is addressing the long-held criticism that they won’t ever put in a number of deserving inductees due to the unofficial “quota” on deceased inductees for each year’s ceremony. This would be a simple way to solve that problem: Induct several missing historical figures each year as a group. If there’s something else to it, who knows? But it’s hard to think of any alternative scenario besides the one outlined here.
While the pre-television era wrestlers included here (Lewis, Gotch, and Hackenschmidt; Thesz and Burke straddled both eras) were never really considered realistic candidates to be inducted. Thesz not being in had been controversial for many years. It goes a bit deeper than that, though: When he and Wahoo McDaniel passed away within two weeks of each other in April 2002, neither death was acknowledged on WWE programming. The uproar online was significant enough that WWE eventually ran a quick feature honoring both. Given the alleged “death quota,” nobody ever really expected him to go in the Hall of Fame, especially after when happened in the first place when he passed away.
Thesz was in the first class of the WCW Hall of Fame, but in the 15 years since WWE bought WCW and the 12 years since the WWE Hall of Fame was restarted, WWE never adopted WCW’s hall as their own. That would have been a quick way to add Thesz and McDaniel, among others.
One would think that the Legacy Award will be officially announced on this week’s edition of SmackDown. We should know that any moment now, as the show has already aired in Canada. If it’s not announced on SmackDown, this may just be a small gesture that WWE is making without a lot of fanfare.
When asked why he thinks he’s still getting such a strong negative reaction from WWE crowds, Reigns has some theories (emphasis mine):
“I think there’s a few different reasons why. You could name a bunch of them. I don’t think we could actually put a finger on one and say this is the reason why. Typically if you hear the boos, it generally is grown men my age and I’m not really in this business for the grown men. (laughs) I’m in this business for the families. That’s what we are; we’re a PG product. We’re a family-based product. We’re here to entertain families and give them enjoyment. If you’re a 30-year-old man and you want to flip me off at a kids show, then, hey, like I said, you paid your money but just be careful because you could get kicked out.”
Despite the fact that he’s been pushed to the moon and positioned as “the next John Cena,” the majority fans just aren’t taking to his act the way WWE has hoped. When asked if he’s bothered by fans rejecting him as the new face of the company, he gave another head-scratching reaction.
“There’s nothing to complain about as far as reaction, because we’re storytelling here and not everybody is going to have the same opinion about the story,” Reigns said. “My only concern is you’re setting a bad example. I’ve seen grown men flip me off and there were children right there. There’s a guy who got kicked out of one of the shows because I’m pretty sure he was drunk. He’s going nuts, screaming and cussing, acting like a fool when there’s children right next to him. That’s something we have to keep in mind.
A lot of times, these pay-per-views and Monday Night Raws, they’re on school nights so it is a lot more of a grown-up feel. I think if you pick and choose and just think with logic, everything will be all right. That’s just one thing, you have to be concerned with the example we’re setting. At a show, I’m not the only role model. These kids are sitting next to these other grown-ups and they’re seeing how these people act. That’s just a reflection of what they see and they probably act the same way.”
In context, it’s honestly not an unfair comment, albeit one seemingly designed to pivot from Fritz’s actual question. The whole interview is worth reading, as he also gives the non-storyline reason for his nasal surgery (deviated septum from bad allergies, worsened by all of the travel he does).
Next weekend, while most of the notable talent on the American pro wrestling scene (and a lot of names from elsewhere, as well) will be in Dallas for WrestleMania weekend, TNA’s Ethan Carter III was set to go to England for bookings with both Southside Wrestling and Preston City Wrestling. The promoters of the two groups are friends and generally split the transportation costs of international talent, so they tend to share each other’s outside names. Today, via nearly identical statements from both Southside and PCW that were posted on their respective websites, it was announced that TNA has pulled EC3 from both dates, telling PCW that ”Unfortunately nothing can be done. This is a network commitment and something he had no control over.”
As of this writing, it’s unclear exactly what kind of “network commitment for Pop TV (or perhaps an international partner like Sony Six in India) came up. The same goes for why it necessitated EC3 being pulled from his WrestleMania weekend bookings on eight days’ notice. The Southside statement said that they were told EC3 was needed to do “media work.”
Being that the show is WrestleMania weekend and just about every suitable replacement you can think of is already booked in Dallas on at least one of the many area independent shows, this is a much more difficult to solve problem than even a normal short notice pull-out for an international guest star. In his statement, PCW wonder Steven Fludder noted this issue, but promised the fans that “I have worked hard to secure somebody and subject to him finding his passport we may have another guest from the USA.” The other international fly-ins who are booked on the show (Ken Anderson , Cedric Alexander , Angelico , Eddie Kingston, and Jade) are still appearing.
This is the second time in the last several months that TNA has pulled EC3 from UK bookings on short notice, the previous occasion being so he could go do promotional work for TNA’s tour of China. You may remember that TNA’s tour of China ended up never happening. At PWInsider.com, Mike Johnson explained that according to his TNA sources, the latest cancellation was complicated by EC3 being booked directly instead of through the TNA office. Apparently, TNA took the stance that there was nothing they could really do, whereas they tried to make the situation right when James Storm (who must be booked through TNA per the terms of his new contract) had to be pulled for similar reasons this week.
Of course, just because TNA felt no obligation to help PCW and Southside doesn’t mean they couldn’t have tried to find out who was available this week that would be a suitable replacement for EC3. That said, as Dave Meltzer noted at F4WOnline.com, the most suitable replacements under TNA contract are already booked. The Hardys and Drew Galloway will be in Dallas. Bobby Lashley will be in Mexico, but that’s on Wednesday so he might be able to be freed up.
Today, the civil trial of Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker Media, founder/publisher Nick Denton, and former editor A.J. Daulerio. continued…but not for long. T0day was all about punitive damages, which are exactly what it says on the tin: They’re designed to punish the defendant on top of compensatory damages, which were awarded to Hogan on Friday for emotional damages ($60 million) as well as lost wages $55 million). After fairly brief (by this trial’s standards) arguments by both sides, the Pinellas Country, Florida jury of four women and six men awarded Hogan punitive damages of $15 million from Gawker Media, $10 million from Denton and $100,000 from Daulerio.
Daulerio, in particular, will be hit hard here. He was considered to have negative $27,000 in assets because of outstanding student loans. and even Hogan’s lawyers told the jury that they weren’t seeking punitive damages from him. One juror even asked if they can punish Daulerio with community service instead of financial damages, but that wasn’t a possibility, and clearly most of the jurors weren’t as (relatively) sympathetic as that one. It’s not yet clear how the compensatory damages are broken up, or if Gawker Media is liable for all of that.
One juror, Salina Stevens, did comment to the press, as recounted by Katie Mettler of the Tampa Bay Times (all others refused to speak to media):
The TNA exodus continues, as Bobby Roode and Eric Young are gone. Both had been with TNA since 2004, when they came in as part of Team Canada under trainer (and former TNA booker) Scott D’Amore.
They had been linked to each other on and off for much of that period, alternating as partners and rivals throughout. It’s not yet clear why they asked for their releases, but TNA has had issues with paying talent and production staff late at times in the last year or two.
Here’s the full statement from TNA:
Impact Wrestling has come to terms on the release of veteran wrestlers Bobby Roode and Eric Young (Jeremy Fritz). Bobby and Eric have been valuable members of The Impact Roster since 2004 and we wish them nothing but the best in their careers going forward.
Bobby had this to say earlier today, “To the guys and girls I got to work with for the past 12 years, Impact Wrestling, the office and everyone associated with me getting to live this dream, I say thank you. It is time for me to move on to the next chapter in my life. This has been amazing.”
Eric Young had this to say. “Thank you. Thank you to everyone who watched me for the past 12 years. Thank you to Impact Wrestling. I wish everyone here nothing but the best going forward.”
Executive Vice President of Creative and Television, John Gaburick added, “Bobby and Eric are true professionals. We salute them for the 12 years they gave TNA.
With a Superstar roster including EC3, James Storm, Drew Galloway, Jeff and Matt Hardy, “The Destroyer” Bobby Lashley, Gail Kim, The Wolves, Maria Kanellis-Bennett and “The Miracle” Mike Bennett we couldn’t be more excited about showcasing the finest wrestling in the world for the Impact fans.”
In the coming weeks be sure to see the final matches of both Bobby Roode and Eric Young on Impact Wrestling at 9PM EST on Pop TV.
After deliberating for about five hours or so following this morning’s closing arguments, a Pinellas County, Florida jury has ruled for Hulk Hogan (real name Terry Bollea) on all counts in his lawsuit against Gawker Media, founder/publisher Nick Denton, and former editor Albert James “A.J.” Daulerio. Hogan had sued them for posting excerpts of a sex tape of him and Heather Cole, then-wife of his then-best friend/radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge Clem (Clem shot the video surreptitiously). Hogan had always insisted the video, which was leaked to Gawker by an anonymous source, was shot without his knowledge and consent.
The jury of four women and two men found for Hogan on all counts and awarded a total of $115 million two phases of compensatory damages:
$60 million for emotional damages.
$55 million for economic loss (A number his lawyers came up with based on multiplying how many people they say watched it by the $4.95 bottom end price to access the Vivid Celebs sex tape site).
This puts Gawker in danger, as while they’d likely win on appeal, they may need to post a $50 million bond to appeal the award per Florida law, and there are questions if they can. On Monday, the jury will return to determine what they feel Gawker owes for punitive damages.
UPDATE 7:31 p.m. ET: Gawker sent out this statement from founder Nick Denton, who’s optimistic about an appeal:
Given key evidence and the most important witness were both improperly withheld from this jury, we all knew the appeals court will need to resolve the case. I want to thank our lawyers for their outstanding work and am confident that we would have prevailed at trial if we had been allowed to present the full case to the jury. That’s why we feel very positive about the appeal that we have already begun preparing, as we expect to win this case ultimately.
We’ll have more on the topic later, so watch this post as well as the front page.
Waiting was the theme in the Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker trial today.
It took about two hours after the normal 9:00 a.m. start time before jurors were let in due to arguments between the lawyers on both sides. Even the media and other observers had to wait, as while the cameras were on, the arguments were all conducted at Judge Pamela Campbell’s bench, which is off-mic (and the live stream is muted for good measure). After that, Gawker presented portions of Hogan’s various depositions in the case, mostly to establish the idea of him being publicity-hungry and fueled the fire about the tape more than just posting the clips and article did.
The jury was then let out to wait again, this time until tomorrow morning, when they’ll hear closing arguments. For the rest of the afternoon, there were some arguments between both sides. Gawker tried and failed to get the full length video admitted into evidence and it’s not clear why they tried now. The edited version they put online will be available to the jury but not presented in open court. Hogan attorney Kenneth Turkel also demanded that Gawker somehow keep track of if anything had been done with regards to “Gawker’s stream” of the trial during Gawker head of sales Mia Libby’s testimony on Tuesday. Libby, when asked if Gawker ran ads on the pages with the streams, wasn’t sure but said she didn’t think so.
It turned out there were, and Turkel went off about Gawker pulling the ads and/or the stream during her testimony. There’s no proof they did either, though LiveStream, the host of the stream they embedded (which was provided by third party website Wild About Trial anyway), was down for an extended period that day. Gawker attorney Michael Berry had no clue what he was talking about, and seemingly, neither did Judge Pamela Campbell, but she still granted the motion to preserve whatever is relevant pending a written technological explanation. It was bizarre to watch.
Reporters also waited all day for a ruling from the appellate court with authority over the case to release a new decision on the case’s sealed records, which came late in the afternoon. They’re gonna wait another day for more, as tomorrow, at 4:00 p.m. ET, the Florida 2nd District Court of Appeals will release the previously sealed filings in the case. Hogan’s emergency motion for clarification was granted…sort of. From today’s new DCA order:
The petitioners’ petition filed under Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.100(d) is granted. The orders of October 28, 2015, as amended by the nine-page November 18, 2015, order, as well as the two-page November 18, 2015, order are quashed, and the trial court is directed to unseal the records. By 4 p.m. Friday, March 18, 2016, in compliance with Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.425, Respondent Terry Gene Bollea shall file a redacted version of the appendices, which will then be released to the public docket.
Ruke 2.425 appears to indicate that only things that legitimately should be redacted, like social security numbers, bank account numbers, and so on will be removed. The appendices of various documents are believed to be around 2,000 pages that Hogan has fought desperately to keep under lock and key. This does NOT include the sex videos (and thus recordings of Hogan’s racist comments), so nobody outside of the involved parties know exactly what’s in there. It does include a number of exhibits gathered from the FBI investigation into the sex tapes, but what those show…we don’t know.
It’s going to be a long weekend, as not only will we have the 2,000 pages of documents to sort through, but everyone will be waiting (there’s that word again) on the jury for the verdict.
On Monday and Tuesday, Gawker’s prospects in the jury trial of Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea’s civil suit against them did not look great. Co-defendant A.J. Daulerio was the first witness to clarify the controversy about his deposition. When he first testified years ago, likely thinking the video would never see the light of day and the case would go away, he was flippant and sarcastic. When asked under what circumstances a celebrity sex tape would not be newsworthy, he said if the subject was a child. When asked for an age range, angry having felt he already answered the question, he sarcastically replied “Four.” That blew up last week, with Fox News analysts and HLN’s Dr. Drew Pinsky saving some choice words for him. He did his best to undo the damage, but on cross examination, Hogan’s attorneys drew the attitude back out of him, and he didn’t come off well.
Gawker founder/publisher Nick Denton, who’s also named as a co-defendant of his company and Daulerio, came off much better than his former employee for the most part. Still, Hogan’s lawyer getting him to read the most graphic sections of Daulerio’s article out loud seemingly did additional damage, especially after Denton had talked about the whole thing humanizing Hogan. Other Gawker employees, like Mia Libby (head of ad sales) and Emma Carmichael (former Gawker.com managing editor turned editor in chief of Jezebel, their women’s issues blog) and acquitted themselves well and held up under cross examination. To be fair, so did Denton; Hogan’s lawyers just knew how to make him come off badly if he kept his cool.
But if one moment signified how little it seemed as if the jury (and to an extent, the judge) was thinking of Gawker, it was a juror question that Carmichael got. In Florida, as well as two other states, jurors can submit questions for witnesses in civil trials, which are then read by the judge. Judge Pamela Campbell had no problem allowing and reading out a juror question asking Carmichael if she’d ever had an intimate relationship with Daulerio or Denton. Not only was the answer no, but Denton is openly gay and his husband accompanied him in the courtroom that day. The question, which was roundly criticized online, seemingly came about because of the Hogan team characterizing Carmichael as young and inexperienced. So the juror drew the inference that she slept her way to the top, because in his or her eyes, Gawker was that kind of company.
But today? Things are looking up for Gawker.
Their expert and in-house witnesses both gave more compelling arguments about the actual financial gain of Gawker from the Hulk Hogan sex tape article than Hogan’s experts did. Depositions from both Hogan’s public relations representative and one who worked for TNA showed he went against their advice when he commented extensively about the sex tape during an already planned media tour that coincided with Gawker’s post. Then, today, instead of her testifying, we got to hear, if not all, then an extended portion of the 2015 deposition of Heather Cole (the woman on the video with Hogan), which ran about an hour and a half. It was, to put it lightly, incredibly uncomfortable to watch/listen to. She framed both Hogan and her ex-husband, Bubba the Love Sponge Clem (formerly Todd Clem) as publicity-hungry to an extreme degree. Perhaps more telling was that she referred to Bubba as “intimidating” and came off as if it was incredibly traumatizing for her to have to talk about what happened.
That said…it looks like she lied under oath, though it doesn’t look like Gawker will be able to bring that up in front of the jury. In her deposition, Cole testified that she had no idea that she was being filmed, and that there were three or four encounters with Terry Bollea/Hulk Hogan, all in separate locations. There are three videos (the one Gawker, was sent, the one with the racist comments, and one more), all shot in the Clem bedroom, but yes, it’s possible her memory was off there for whatever reason and there were more encounters than she remembered. That said, when questioned by Tampa police a few months later, she said she knew she was on camera and even guided Hogan towards the camera upon Bubba’s request because he could be “controlling.” One of those statements about her knowledge of the camera is definitely not true, the question is just which.
It should be noted, though, that with regards to Hogan’s knowledge of the camera, her statement that he didn’t know about it was consistent with what he told police. So while this was compelling and felt like an overall win for Gawker, there it wasn’t all great for them.
In the grand scheme of things, the biggest news of the day might actually be what came right before the Cole deposition was played. Hogan, his lawyers, and Judge Pamela Campbell all returned from lunch looking downtrodden. It turned out that minutes earlier, Florida’s Second District Court of Appeals reversed some of Campbell’s earlier rulings. The end result is that the appellate judge has authorized the release of a large swath (believed to be in the 2,000 page rang) of motions, exhibits, and so on that Hogan wanted sealed. Thanks to intervention from the Tampa Bay Times and others, as soon as Thursday (3/17) morning, we may get a huge document dump that likely includes a large portion of the FBI file relating to the case that Hogan wants kept under wraps. His legal team filed an emergency motion to bar the release late today, but one would think that will be resolved in the morning anyway. It’s not clear if Hogan is fighting this on general principle, there’s something new and damning in there, or he’s worried about the audio of his racist comments getting out, since that would be worse than just the transcript.
Their motion made it clear that “None of the sealed records contains DVDs depicting Bollea having sex.”
What’s at issue consists of “approximately two dozen judicial records, including hearing transcripts, motions, and materials […] related to both procedural and substantive issues.“
Tomorrow may be the last day of the trial proper, with journalists being told that we may hear closing arguments. The Gawker edit of one of the sex tapes has not yet been screened in court, though they had gotten permission to do so. If Gawker plays it, it will not be visible to anyone other than the two sides, their lawyers, and the jury.
On Monday morning, Pinellas County, Florida, Judge Pamela Campbell will address two motions from third parties in the civil trial of Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) v. Gawker Media, founder Nick Denton, and former Gawker writer/editor A.J. Daulerio. The matters are Bubba the Love Sponge Clem’s motion to quash his subpoena to testify on Gawker’s behalf and various media companies trying to overturn a previous ruling refusing to release the jurors’ names. As for the jurors, that motion was filed by Times Publishing Company, First Look Media, Inc., WFTS-TV, WPTV- TV, Scripps Media, Inc., and WFTX-TV as intervenors. The situation with them is pretty simple: The news organizations are arguing that the judge’s previous ruling with regards to not releasing the jurors’ names is unconstitutional and overly broad without basis in Florida law.
With regards to Bubba, it’s much more complicated, a topic we first addressed this topic when the story broke last week when it was revealed he intended to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refuse to answer questions. Yesterday, in the motion filed by his attorney, Gawker’s theory that it had to do with past lies was…well, not quite confirmed, but here’s what it says:
It may be argued by a party in this cause that Mr. Clem has given multiple statements on whether the plaintiff knew he was being taped while engaging in sexual conduct with Mr. Clem’s then wife, now ex-wife, Heather Clem. Should these statements prove to be differing, and we do not concede that they are, Mr. Clem could be subject to a state prosecution for perjury or a federal false statement prosecution. Further testimony under oath on this issue could subject Mr. Clem to additional harm. Mr. Clem could also be subject to prosecution for the act of making the taped recording of the plaintiff and Ms. Clem. Mr. Clem lawfully may invoke his right against self-incrimination on these issues.
With regards to the next to last sentence, that scenario seems incredibly unlikely. From the police report regarding the theft of the DVDs of Hogan/Bollea having sex with Heath Cole (emphasis mine):
I reviewed the case reports and noted that on 10/16/2012 Atty David Houston and his client, Terry Bollea, meet with the FBI at the Pinellas Office. Houston informed them that he had contacted Clearwater PD and the St Petersburg PD reference the filming of his client. He was told that the filming was “out of statute” and was encouraged to contact the FBI.
One would think that at least with regards to that half of the argument, Gawker’s attorneys will point that discrepancy out on Monday morning. As for perjury charges, what Bubba Clem said under oath during his deposition was the version that support’s Bollea/Hogan’s case: That Bollea had no idea he was being filmed. Bubba did say otherwise on his radio show right after Gawker posted the video clips, but he explained during the deposition that he was doing damage control and lying to cover himself. So if that’s the truth, he’d be fine when it comes to perjury on that matter.
As for federal charges of making false statements, that’s probably why Bubba Clem is “pleading the fifth.” Cornell’s Legal Information Institute classifies “making false statements” as being when someone, “in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully” lies in various forms or fashions (see the link for more details.
As noted above, Bollea/Hogan first met with the FBI on October 16, 2012, the day after he filed the lawsuit that’s now at trial. Bubba Clem didn’t settle with him until on or around October 29th, when the settlement was announced. Presumably in the interim, the FBI spoke to Bubba. Most of the contents of the FBI file and motions referring to them are sealed, but in January, the trial judge unsealed (albeit in partially redacted form) two of Gawker’s sealed motions, one of which included the following (again, emphasis mine):
Bubba Clem testified at his deposition that Bollea did not know about the cameras in his house and that Bollea did not know he was being filmed with Heather Clem. But, Mr. Clem told the FBI the opposite, stating to FBI agents that Bollea knew about his cameras and knew he was being filmed during his sexual encounter with Ms. Clem.
In the context of what’s going on now, it sure looks like that was a false statement, both in the literal and possibly legal senses. That said, testifying under oath for the second time that the opposite of what he told the FBI is true for the second time (the first being the deposition) is not a crime in and of itself. But, while yes, it’s not as if he’s not already at risk for federal charges of making false statements if he’s able to get out of testifying here, that may not necessarily matter. Why? If Bubba Clem did lie to the FBI, he would, technically, be incriminating himself by testifying under oath again to the opposite scenario during the Bollea v. Gawker trial.
It certainly makes you wonder if he didn’t know about this when he was deposed, and if that’s the case, why he didn’t know, doesn’t it? This should be a very interesting hearing, and it will start on Monday (March 14th) at 8:30 a.m. local time.
Yesterday (Friday, March 11th) was probably the most mundane day for testimony so far in the trial of Terry Gene Bollea, professionally known as Hulk Hogan, v. Gawker Media, Nick Denton, and A.J. Daulerio. As the final witnesses of Bollea/Hogan’s case, “digital marketing expert” Shanti Shunn and “intellectual property valuation expert” Jeff Anderson weren’t especially compelling, both in terms of capturing your attention and strengthening the plaintiff’s case. Both were badly picked apart by Gawker attorney Michael Berry, who got Shunn to acknowledge that he wasn’t sure about what some of Gawker’s traffic statistics represented and Berry to agree that his methods for determining how the “Hulk Hogan sex tape” post increase the value of the Gawker.com website. It felt like there could have been much better ways to prove the same point, with Anderson’s methodology coming off especially nebulous.
That said there was some probable damage to Gawker and Daulerio, as Hogan’s lawyers read a 2010 email exchange between Daulerio and a young woman who was in a video Gawker had posted showing her having sex in a public restroom stall. She begged them to take it down for obvious reasons, but Daulerio replied that “It’s not getting taken down. I’ve said that. And it’s not a very serious matter. It is a dumb mistake you (or whomever) made while drunk in college. Happens to the best of us.” He also claimed it was impossible to identify the people in the video, but the woman countered that anyone who knew them could easily tell. In January 2011, Daulerio told GQ that he regretted his actions. “It wasn’t funny. It was possibly rape. […] I didn’t really look at the thing close enough to realize there’s maybe something a little more sinister going on here and a little more disturbing.”
After the Terry Bollea/Hulk Hogan side rested their case and the jury was excused for the weekend, Gawker moved for a directed verdict in their favor on most of the counts in the case, which the judge quickly denied. As a layman, it did sound like they had some compelling arguments, but a directed verdict is rare. They have to try, though. At one point, when the various issues of “public concern” were brought up, Bollea attorney Kenneth Turkel cited Toffoloni v. LFP Publishing Group, which happens to have its own pro wrestling connections, as precedent. That’s the case where Paul and Maureen Toffoloni, Nancy Benoit’s parents, sued the parent company of Hustler over nude images of her that were published after she was murdered by her husband, Chris Benoit. Contrary to popular belief, Nancy never asked the man who shot the video to destroy it (it’s MUCH more complicated than that), so the case centered around the issue of “right of publicity.” Eventually, the precedent was set that, in layman’s terms, an article about the person’s life is not a blanket justification for nude images to be reprinted without permission.
Gawker starts presenting their case Monday morning after a hearing dealing with outside motions from:
All told, today felt like the first big win for Gawker so far in the civil trial of Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea’s lawsuit against them. The day started with cross examination of journalistic ethics expert Michael Foley, who began testifying yesterday. Gawker defense counsel Michael Sullivan had his best performance so far, brilliantly setting up Foley to get up exactly the answers he wanted, with Foley seemingly being none the wiser until very late in his testimony.
Sullivan completely neutering Foley’s “Cheerios Test” argument. The test is “Would this upset someone eating breakfast?” Foley hasn’t worked in a newsroom in decades, so he has no online journalism experience. Sullivan used that in his favor on his way to establishing that, besides only being an ethical guideline and not law, the Cheerios Test could vary based on readers’ expectations from a specific publication.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn7dN2xkgbM
Later, he asked if Foley’s own St. Petersburg Times violated the Cheerios Test with various stories, including one about the famous Vanity Fair cover photo of a nude, pregnant Demi Moore. The end result was getting Foley to say he ran the cover photo in the paper because…people were talking about it. Which is, basically, Gawker’s defense against Bollea/Hogan. On redirect, Hogan’s lawyers tried to classify Sullivan’s line of questioning as equating things like Moore’s consensual photo shoot to Bubba Clem filming Hogan without his consent, but that’s not what they were doing.
In addition the Society of Professional Journalists were not happy with their code of ethics and the law being muddied. The SPJ ethics committee chairman, Andrew Seaman, told CNN that “The SPJ Code of Ethics is not relevant to whether an act is or is not legal. The words ‘ethical’ and ‘legal’ are not synonyms.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-W0WI7_T5w
Most of the rest of the day consisted of playbacks of deposition testimony explaining Gawker’s business model and how traffic equals money. Things got a little more interesting when they played testimony from the deposition of Kevin Blatt, a sex tape broker. He had written an offer letter for the video of Hulk Hogan/Terry Bollea and Heather Cole that was solely designed to get publicity for his client, Sex.com. The testimony they played largely undermined a key part of Hogan’s case for a large award of damages, as Blatt explained that male celebrity sex videos aren’t nearly as valuable as those with female celebrities, though it could have value to an ad-supported pornographic website. The only really compelling aspect in favor of Hogan/Bollea was that it was made clear that he was, under no circumstances, interested in selling the video.
Meanwhile, an article by legal analyst Dan Abrams (you know him best as ABC’s legal correspondent on his website LawNewz.com got a bit of attention tonight when CNN’s Tom Kludt tweeted about it. Essentially, Abrams was fleshing out the theory behind a rumor he heard that Hogan has a benefactor of some kind funding his lawsuit to try to take down Gawker. Kludt, while not confirming the story, did say he heard the rumor himself:
These types of cases are always settled, and going to trial risked exposure/embarrassment for Hogan, which has already happened in a number of ways. Gawker must have offered some good settlements, and Hogan holding out for a a big payday, the justice of a jury decision, or both, is not a great idea.
It’s the type of case unlikely to be taken on a contingency basis (percentage instead of upfront or ongoing fees), and the post-divorce/Graziano family settlement version of Hogan/Bollea most likely does not have the financial liquidity to fund the case himself.
Is there anything to it, thought? That remains to be seen. The trial, meanwhile, continues in the morning before adjourning for the weekend.
If everything goes as planned, we’re only 20% of the way through the civil trial in the lawsuit filed by Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea against Gawker Media, founder Nick Denton, and former editor Albert James “A.J.” Daulerio. Today, at least as far as the mainstream media was concerned, the playback of Daulerio’s videotaped deposition testimony was the top story. Why? Because he said something stupid.
Daulerio wrote the article accompanying the video on top of making various related editorial decisions. During the deposition, he was asked by Hogan’s lawyer about what would be out of bounds, and this happened:
Q. So it’s fair to say that whether he suffered emotional distress or not that played no part in your decision about whether and what to publish?
A. Correct.
Q. Is it your view that any celebrity sex tape is newsworthy?
A. No.
Q. What sort of celebrity sex tapes would not be newsworthy?
A. I couldn’t say specifically.
Q. Well, can you imagine a situation where a celebrity sex tape would not be newsworthy?
SETH BERLIN (Gawker Attorney): Objection, cails for speculation, but you can answer.
A. If they were a child.
Q. Under what age?
A. Four.
Q. No four-year-old sex tapes, okay…
[Pivots to a new question]
Newspapers from all over the world quickly jumped on this. From the video and in full context, it’s somewhat obvious that Daulerio, upset by the line of questioning after he answered it, is being flippant, but that’s not how most outlets covered it. That necessitated this statement from Gawker:
He’d just said in the prior answer that that he wouldn’t post a tape of a child and when the question was repeated he obviously made the point in a flip way because his answer was already clear.
Still, it definitely felt like Hogan’s side got what they wanted, making him look callous. He also came off especially badly when he said that he didn’t consider having the nudity/sexual contact pixelated in the “highlight” video Gawker made of the sex tape…because he knew he was labelling it NSFW (not safe for work). Overall, a win for Gawker, especially given his overall demeanor, which Anna Phillips of the Tampa Bay Times had the best tweet about:
This is like watching a recalcitrant child be questioned. Mumbling, monosyllabic responses. #hulkvsgawk
Denton also had his own deposition playback, coming off much better than Daulerio in the process. Still no good answer for the lack of pixelation or censor bars, but he said that he was not nearly as intrigued or excited about getting the video as others at Gawker, including Daulerio, were.
As live testimony went, David Houston, Hogan’s personal attorney, was the main event today, trying to emphasize how the video was shot without Bollea/Hogan’s consent, how embarrassing it was, how many sites complied with his cease and desist letter, and so on. It was clear that he had prepped heavily, if just because of how deliberate this moment came off:
Hulkster's lawyer was distraught when he saw the Hogan sex tape on SlutLoad dot com pic.twitter.com/vzeGAm2MBp
On cross examination, Gawker’s counsel did poke some holes in his testimony, though. It took some cajoling to get Houston to admit that he was joking about the video on on TMZ Live in March 2012. What happened there was that He and Bollea/Hogan yukked it up about how they were glad the video didn’t show a man. While not mentioned in court, it was perhaps extra bad judgment since one of their interviewers, Harvey Levin, is openly gay. Also, at first, Houston was insistent that he and Bollea/Hogan were only trying to get the video taken down, not the article accompanied. The problem? That’s not true, and the federal lawsuit that they filed at one point is all the proof you need:
It’s also more than a bit strange that, given the plaintiffs’ legal strategy of differentiating Hulk Hogan from Terry Bollea in very specific ways.
Journalistic ethics expert Michael Foley (no, not that one) closed out the day with live testimony. The Bollea defense team finished their direct examination to close the day and Gawker will question him on cross examination in the morning. So far, his testimony was mostly what you would expect, though all of his testimony relates to professional ethics as opposed to the law so far.
EDIT: Everything up to the lunch break is archived here while you can watch the live stream here.
We continue with Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea (and given the way he’s treating the two personas in his testimony, it’s probably best to keep calling him Bollea for now even if we’re used to calling him Hogan) on the stand being cross examined by Gawker attorney Michael Sullivan after they were interrupted by the end of the business day yesterday. Here’s a quick overview of what’s happened so far today and then we’ll get back into live coverage:
Bollea is continuing to go with the “That’s Hulk Hogan in-character” response to how he acted in interviews about the sex tape. In the TMZ interview with him, they called him Hulk, he was outside of his home, so he was Hulk Hogan. He compared the verbiage about his “rear end hanging out” to Ric Flair’s comedy spots where his trunks get pulled out. “I didn’t think having Hulk Hogan’s rear end hanging out was invasive of Terry Bollea’s privacy.” They admitted an email from Dixie Carter to Bollea where she was surprised by how jokey he was in his TMZ interview about the sex tape, saying it was “beneath him” and she was concerned that his personal lawyer, David Houston, was just trying to get face time on TV with him. She thought he should quell the story, but he didn’t listen, and upon Houston’s advice, he went on TV and kind of made it bigger in the process.
When stills of the video leaked in April 2012, after Bollea/Hogan figured out it was Bubba’s bedroom, Bubba told him Heather must have been responsible and Hogan believed him. Questioning now moving on to Howard Stern asking about how he could be embarrassed by the video given the way Heather talks about him on it. There were some technical difficulties and a break, then they returned. Bollea/Hogan on talking about the sex tape: “I was on an entertainment show and I had to be an entertainer, so I just kept going. […] I was joking about my penis, that’s what I was joking about,” But he went along with it. “The topic was sex and wrestling, I didn’t volunteer the sex topic, he did,”
Now, into live coverage…
10:42 a.m. ET They’re playing the earlier Howard Stern interview where Bollea as Hulk Hogan says that he would never sleep with Heather Cole/Heather Clem because of “man law” since Bubba Clem was his best friend. “On a character driven show, I didn’t want to talk about Terry Bollea and his sex life. […] There’s no reason to do that.”
10:44 a.m. ET “I had to talk to Howard about whatever he brought up.” Hulk Hogan can tell ridiculous lies, Terry Bollea is sitting there under oath. In that mode, is it OK to be dishonest? “In that mode, it’s entertainment.” Gawker clearly trying to establish that he’s a lawyer, Hogan clearly well-prepared. He was protecting his privacy as Terry Bollea. But Terry Bollea is never mentioned once, is he? Bollea/Hogan agrees, with Sullivan’s point being that Stern and others were not distinguishing between Hulk Hogan and Terry Bollea. Hogan’s memory is even worse than you’d expect, as he has no idea that the Gawker article and “highlight reel” video of the sex tape were posted concurrently.
10:53 a.m. ET “I didn’t have a problem with [TheDirty.com] publishing stills [from the sex tape].” Did not ask any media interviewers not to ask about the sex tape. Thought that was his publicist’s job and he wasn’t gonna do their job for them. Odd.
10:59 a.m. ET They’re going over the TMZ interview after the Gawker article/video came out, which is when Hogan found out for sure Bubba was involved. He got sick after Mike Walters told him during the interview that the video (actually one of three videos as Gawker had all of them and it wasn’t on the one sent to Gawker) that Bubba says after he leaves that he could retire off the video.
11:03 a.m. ET Bollea/Hogan thought he was going to have a heart attack. “Man up with this Bubba thing and it is what it is. [Now] I knew who he was,” so he was able to rationalize the situation and call himself down. It hit him HARD.
11:08 a.m. ET Bubba’s betrayal was one of the hardest things he ever had to deal with. Did he ever see TMZ’s copy of the video with Bubba’s admission? No. Did he ever ask TMZ to show it to him? No. With litigation inevitable, why talk to the media about all of this in such detail? “It was OK to talk about it. We were getting barraged with the media and trying to make it go away.” Trying and failing to get Gawker to take it down fueled the fire.
11:11 a.m. ET Bollea/Hogan got calls from Vivid Video, and they thought it was all a stunt he was in on. Was he concerned everyone thought it was “another wrestling angle where Hulk Hogan was trying to con us,” he kind of says yes. He never had a problem with the article, he says, it’s just the video. “Whatever they put up, I don’t even know.” You never had a problem with the article? “Well, I wasn’t happy about it.” But you included the article in your initial complaint. Bollea’s lawyer objects, Judge Campbell sustains it for some reason and won’t allow Sullivan to argue the objection. Well then.
11:20 a.m. ET Somewhat circular conversation about how his guard was down when Heather propositioned him because he was at an all-time low. When did he get his guard back up? He never did. He’s still at an all-time low? No. He thinks he’d give in to other women who propositioned him? No. But he never got his groove back as Hulk Hogan, it seems like he’s saying. We move on to video of the press conference from when he filed the lawsuit.
11:23 a.m. ET Was he concerned he’d draw attention to the story? No, he had to do something to “stop Gawker from what they were doing to me. […] I don’t know how you could increase the attention more than Gawker did.” He testified at deposition that there weren’t as many reporters there as at the O.J. Simpson trial. Umm…OK? Did he expect his press conference would draw that level of attention? “I did not know what to expect.” Shifting focus to “the privacy of Hulk Hogan.”
11:27 a.m. ET Sullivan read a quote from Bollea/Hogan’s deposition explaining the distinction between the privacy of Terry Bollea and Hulk hogan, which ended with the word “brother.” Now Bollea/Hogan testifying that he’s concerned about Hulk Hogan’s privacy but it’s kind of been given away, anyway, because he’s lost his anonymity. People have taken pictures of him in the bathroom or showering after a match. But nobody invades his private business in his home or a friend’s home.
11:30 a.m. ET If fans ask him about his private life, he answers in character as Hulk Hogan, especially since they don’t address him as Terry Bollea. “I never go down to Terry Bollea,” he said in his deposition. Now: “Not outside the house.” Everyone expects him to answer as Hulk Hogan.
11:33 a.m. ET Never sought medical or psychiatric treatment for his emotional distress. Now hashing out pro wrestling being worked as far as how “predetermined” is more accurate than “fake” due to the physicality. Oh my God, it looks like they’re getting him to talk about how he wasn’t sure if Andre the Giant would let him win…and now he’s asking what a “work” is. This is going to be something. “It’s like dancing with someone.”
11:35 a.m. ET “When a work goes well, it goes quite smoothly, right?” Can two good workers working together look quite real? Yes. Can the term “work” be used outside the wrestling world? Yes, however you want. Oh boy, you can see where this is going. Now, does he consider himself a celebrity? Yes.
11;42 a.m. ET Was he concerned how the “Hogan Knows Best” storylines about trouble in his marriage to Linda would affect public interest in and perception of his marriage? No, not really.
11:48 a.m. ET Didn’t have a problem with a reality show scene where he his pants down and they played fart noises? Not really though he wasn’t crazy about it. Now onto his second book. He doesn’t seem to understand that he got an author credit for his ghostwritten memoir. Now onto what he wrote about his affair with Christiane Plante from his daughter’s record company.
11:51 a.m. ET Sullivan read this from Hogan’s book: “Next thing I know, the two of us started kissing. Not to sound perverted or anything, but it was fantastic. Here I am in my fifties now, and this was a really attractive thirty-four-year-old woman, with dark hair and a curvaceous body. . . . It was such an emotional and physical release. We didn’t have sex that night, but it opened the door.” Talk about how much the affair was covered. Now more about how personal the book was and how he was OK with that.
11:55 a.m. ET Now going over his first book. Extra layer of changes on top of him and the ghostwriter because it was a WWE book. And now we move on to Hogan’s appearance on Bubba the Love Sponge’s radio show via telephone on October 20, 2006. Did Bubba call him Hootie? Yes, it was a joke because that was the name of Bubba’s dog.
12:01 p.m. And now the topic is Hogan saying on Bubba’s show that if people bought his daughter’s record, he’d respond to the question “How big is your penis?” and then explaining all of that in relation to his ring and shoe size. This is actually happening. Now he’s saying he’s talking about how he was talking about Hulk Hogan and not Terry Bollea. “Seriously?” Yes. Oh my God. Now the Hulk Hogan vs. Terry Bollea thing again. This whole discussion has to be seen and heard to be believed.
Hogan: "I do not have a 10 inch penis….Terry Bollea's penis is not 10 inches." Draws snickers, including from the Gawker camp. #hulkvsgawk
12:05 p.m. ET Now talking about Howard Stern asking Brooke Hogan/Bollea, Terry/Hulk’s daughter, about her sex life. Bollea/Hogan saying it was uncomfortable since they were asking about Brooke Bollea even though they were there as the Hogans…which feels like it contradicts his thoughts about himself.
12:08 p.m. ET More of the same, then an objection & sidebar when Sullivan asks what he thought of Stern saying he wanted to take Brooke’s virginity and what he meant when he responded by saying “Howard, she’s the right height.
12:13 p.m. ET They’re still conferring with the judge.
12:19 p.m. ET Whatever they discussed, they broke for lunch when they were done. We’ll be back at 1:30 p.m. ET.
1:35 p.m. ET We’re back, but the jury isn’t…it appeared that Gawker’s lawyers were asking for guidance as to what was fair game with regards to the Brooke-related stuff.
1:41 p.m. ET Cross examination is done and now Hogan/Bollea’s lawyer is questioning him on re-direct to re-iterate the emotional toll of the video.
1:44 p.m. ET Hogan was mobbed by people asking about the sex tape leaving the courthouse yesterday. Physical and emotional toll of the video included trouble eating and sleeping. He was worried about talking to kids as Hulk Hogan because he felt like there was a cloud over everything.
1:48 p.m. ET Explains how going on Howard Stern opens up opportunities for other mainstream interviews, which can be tricky as a pro wrestler. Now back to the Howard Stern post-sex tape interview.
1:53 p.m. ET Did his book that discussed his affair include photos of the woman? No. Of Heather Clem? No. Naked photos? No. Him having sex? No. Now comparing his comedy semi-nude scene on Hogan Knows Best to a nude scene in a mainstream movie. Bollea/Hogan says he saw a movie with John Cena recently (“Trainwreck”) which had “John Cena on top of this comedian, Amy Schumacher, having sex with her in this movie.” Yes, “Amy Schumacher.”
1:55 p.m. ET Reiterating how TheDirty.com pulled the stills from the sex video after getting a cease and desist from him. How the mainstream interviews didn’t show anything.
1:57 p.m. ET Reiterates not consenting to the video or anything Gawker did. Re-direct is over, do the jurors have any questions? They do, and submit them in writing. I didn’t realize that was a thing?
2:00 p.m. ET Juror asked for the timeline of the still photos vs. the video. TheDirty.com posted the stills in April 2012, while Gawker’s edited video was posted in October 2012, but the judge answered that. And Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea has been excused.
With opening arguments completed, it’s time for what may get more attention than anything else in the trial of the civil lawsuit that Hulk Hogan (real name Terry Bollea) filed against Gawker Media, founder Nick Denton, and former Gawker editor/founder A.J. Daulerio. Hogan will be the first witness in his case starting today at 1:00 p.m. ET, and we’ll be bringing you live coverage of his testimony right here since it’s likely the biggest “event” of the trial, at least that we can predict. The whole trial is being streamed live by both WTSP (the CBS affiliate station in Tampa, Florida) and Wild About Trial, a court buffs’ website.
One would expect that this will take a while, possibly lasting until the end of business today. In his opening argument, Hogan attorney Shane Vogt made a point of saying that Hogan will completely own up to his infidelities and whatnot, arguing that it has no bearing on whether or not clips of a video of him having sex that was shot without his consent should be put online for the whole world to see.
Keep refreshing starting at 1:00 p.m. ET to follow along.
1:09 p.m. ET Hogan’s lawyers are actually starting by playing the deposition testimony of Heather Cole, the woman in the video with Hogan. She’s not going to be appearing as a witness, so this is how the Hogan side is opening their case. Will include some notes here while checking if it’s know how long this will run.
1:25 p.m. ET Bubba Clem comes off terribly here, with Heather saying he could be “intimidating” and that he was “”loud… aggressive in the way that he would talk to someone… until you did what he wanted.” She sounds like she’s choosing her words carefully. This is pretty brutal, though, especially in the context of the case: “He would continuously berate you until you did what he wanted. Whether it was in the privacy of your own home, or publicly.” She said that she doesn’t recall Bubba told her he was recording the encounters with Hogan, though there’s video proof that he did tell her.
(Hogan is definitely up next, by the way)
1:28 p.m. ET Terry Bollea, professionally known as Hulk Hogan, takes the stand. There appear to be some internet connection issues at the courthouse as he starts and gives basic background information about his life.
1:38 p.m. ET: It’s back, though we’re still mostly on Hogan’s upbringing and early life. Hogan is reaching for words, as he somehow starts talking about seeing wrestling at the “Armenia” only for his lawyer to correct him with “armory.”
1:40 p.m. ET Yes, we get the story about Hiro Matsuda breaking his leg, but only after Hogan’s lawyer feeds him a question to answer with the word “kayfabe” and explain what it means. Is wrestling hard on his body? Talks about his injuries.
1:49 p.m. ET Now we’re going through Hogan’s early career. He said that Jerry Jarrett gave him a $800 per week guarantee and bought him a car. I’m…not sure I believe that. Now we’re up to him going to the WWF. They’re trying to humanize him with all of this background.
1:53 p.m ET Rocky III now. Hogan is going through his usual stories, which aren’t necessarily true, though Jarrett apparently DID by him a car. But anyway, even though he just testified to it under oath, he was not fired by Vince McMahon Sr. for wanting to shoot Rocky III as far as anyone else knows. Now we’re up to his 1983 WWF return.
1:58 p.m. ET: “That’s when it really took off. When we quit trying to insult the public’s intelligence. It’s just to entertain.” The Hulk Hogan character is described as a loud, all-American good guy. And now the judge wants a comfort break that will also allow them to fix some technology issues (presumably the streaming hiccups and Hogan’s microphone).
2:12 p.m. ET: We’re back. Hogan’s mic works now. Talking about his celebrity. Nobody outside of his home ever really calls him Terry anymore. Talks about how he’s usually accommodating when fans ask for autographs. Talks about one time he said no: Guy aggressively approached his family in a restaurant and got his cigarette ashes in Hogan’s wife’s food. Has a doctor friend who he can be Terry Bollea around, plus a few other local friends as well as his family.
2:14 p.m. ET So why IS he wearing a bandana in court? His wife would berate him about his baldness during arguments and talk about wanting to be with someone younger. It’s a self-confidence thing. Also:”I have an exceptionally large head.” Explains that even though the bandana is part of the the signature Hulk Hogan “look,” he wears it for different reasons as Terry Bollea.
2:18 p.m. ET Now claiming he wrestled 400-450 times a year. No. Seriously, no. Said that he had a lot less friends than he thought he did when he was wrestling. Had at most three close friends. Finds it harder to trust people than he used to. Who were his close friends? Jimmy Hart, Ed “Brutus Beefcake” Leslie (but they grew apart when Leslie got remarried to someone who Hogan doesn’t get along with), and formerly Todd/Bubba Clem.
2:23 p.m. ET Hogan outlining how he and Bubba became friends. Bubba was with Hogan in the hospital room when his father died. Bubba held Hogan’s father in his arms as he died. Line of questioning moves to Hogan’s marriage to Linda. Didn’t really have any arguments until 1986. Bad problems started from around 2004-2006 when “Hogan Knows Best” got going and peaked around 2006-2007.
2:29 p.m. ET Explaining how “Hogan Knows Best” was, basically, a work (“soft scripted” is the term for that type of “reality” show). They were told what to say most of the time but “were hoping for magic” in terms of some kind of spontaneous moment.
2:31 p.m. ET Hogan explains how the bloom came off the rose when they realized how much work “Hogan Knows Best” was. Third season was…difficult. On-camera, Linda was “very professional,” but off-camera Linda was distancing herself from Terry and talking about wanting to finally move back home to California.
2:37 p.m. ET Marriage was basically done when Linda moved out. Now we pivot to Bubba and Heather offering for Heather to have sex with him. Started with half-joking sounding propositions like “Heather wants to see you naked!” Hogan “didn’t know Heather very well at all” even though she was his best friend’s wife. They continued hounding him about him sleeping with Heather to the point he asked them to stop.
2:40 p.m. ET “I thought those people cared about me.” Said he “let [his] guard down” one time at Bubba’s house (the only place he “felt safe” during his divorce) and that led to a sexual encounter with Heather, than two or three more (Bubba filmed three). Bubba rarely invited him over; Hogan had only been there a few times before. He got there, they had a group hug, Heather led him to the bedroom, Bubba handed him a condom, and told him he’d be in his office while they had sex. But first: Hogan asked Bubba if he was filming the encounter. Bubba snapped back with a “How could you even ask me that? I’m your best friend!” type of rant.
2:43 p.m. ET “I was on a publicity tour for Total Non-Stop Action, a very small company…”
2:47 p.m. ET “Could you explain to the jury what TNA is or was? Are they even still in business?” They’re still going over how he found out about Gawker’s article/video, etc.
2:51 p.m. ET They’re playing Hogan’s “Showbiz Tonight” appearance during that media tour about TNA that ended up becoming about the video. At the time he said that the whole sex tape thing (both in general and Bubba’s betrayal) “Hurts worse than any back surgery… worse than my son going to jail…”
2:57 p.m. ET How did he feel when he found out about the Gawker post/video? From the description it sounds like he had a panic attack, pretty much, though he didn’t describe it that way. His lawyer, David Houston had to talk him down. At that point, he considered Houston his only real friend.
3:03 p.m. ET Hogan looks like a complete shell of himself listening to the Howard Stern interview from right after the video went up. Playback over, back to questioning.
3:15 p.m. ET Last 10+ minutes mostly Hogan talking about how embarrassed he was. Was even embarrassed for his Hulk Hogan character, not just as Terry Bollea. Direct examination done, break then cross examination by Gawker’s counsel.
3:48 p.m. ET Gawker attorney Michael Sullivan cross examining Hogan, laying groundwork about the Bubba friendship. Does he miss Bubba? He misses the Bubba he THOUGHT he knew. He was on Bubba’s radio show 50-100 times. They had heated arguments when he asked Bubba if he was involved in the sex video materializing when Hogan asked him after screen grabs showed up online. Moving on to the Gawker post now.
3:52 p.m. ET Sullivan comes off much better than Berry did, with a comforting voice. Sounds more like a guy just doing his job, while Berry sounded flippant. Talking about how good a liar Bubba is to convince Hogan he knew nothing about the video. Hogan testifying now he didn’t know he was being recorded. Bubba and Heather never said only like “You can only have sex with Heather if we can record it.” Sure sounds like Gawker is laying groundwork for something here.
3:58 p.m. ET Hogan doesn’t remember Bubba telling him anything about security camera installation in his bedroom. They’re about to play a clip of him on Sirus/XM’s “Busted Open.”
Hulk Hogan on the defensive as Gawker atty tries to show inconsistencies btw depositions and his testimony today. pic.twitter.com/Vt1thZnXU6
4:03 p.m. ET Clips now of Hogan saying Bubba “I know you have cameras, are there cameras in there?” Hogan thinks what he said to Bubba was “You’re not filming this, are you?” The situation felt too weird. Why’d his mind go straight to am I being filmed? Just a weird gut feeling.
4:07 p.m. ET Hogan knew there were security cameras, but they were never pointed out and he didn’t know there was one in the bedroom, much less facing the bed. He didn’t read the commentary alongside the video on Gawker at the time, and it appears he didn’t until his deposition, which he doesn’t remember. They’re jogging his memory with the transcript. Hogan has a notoriously bad memory.
4:14 p.m. ET Berry catching Hogan in lies about watching the Gawker video. Testified in deposition that he didn’t watch the edited Gawker video. Said on multiple TV shows that he watched anywhere from a minute of the video to the entire 1 minute, 40 second video. Says he lied on the TV shows because he was “on autopilot.” Definitely strange, though. Why not say “I just couldn’t look at it, I know what my lawyers told me” or something similar?
4:20 p.m. ET Hogan said he was kind of in the Hulk Hogan character when he made those media appearances even though the topic was something that happened to Terry Bollea. Something leads to a bench conference with the judge and lawyers. Which just ended…
4:29 p.m. ET It was “a constant badgering” of Bubba and Heather propositioning the whole situation for close to two years. Bubba had bragged about being a swinger, even on the radio. Laying further groundwork about Hogan’s friendship with Bubba and how well he did or didn’t know Heather. Hogan moved into their house for a short period after his wife filed for divorce, which was after he had sex with Heather. Was uncomfortable being there, concerned they’d egg him to resume the affair. But Heather never made advances while he lived there and Bubba didn’t push the issue, either.
4:32 p.m. ET We get a bench conference when Hogan’s lawyers object to questions about if Bubba ever told him about videos of Heather with other men. And then we adjourn for the day. Michael Sullivan will continue his cross examination of Hulk Hogan tomorrow morning.
The lawyers are discussing some scheduling issues after the jury was sent away for the day. Guessing nothing of note happens here, but if there are any real developments, we’ll keep you updated.
That’s it for today. Things are getting…interesting.
