AJ Styles has a theory about Hulk Hogan’s TNA run, which went from 2009 to 2013 and gave The Hulkster and Eric Bischoff a lot of influence over the company’s television product. Styles recently appeared on The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast and was critical when asked about the Bischoff/Hogan era in TNA.
AJ started by saying Hogan and Bischoff didn’t study the TNA roster before their arrival, and didn’t know enough about TNA’s homegrown talent.
“First of all, I just tried to stay positive. Pretty much anything Hulk Hogan touched at least at the beginning turned to gold,” Styles said. “But it didn’t obviously, because I don’t think he knew the roster that was in front of him and that was the problem. The names, the people who were the “brand names” of TNA that they had no idea who they were. If they didn’t know who they were they just did whatever they wanted with it. They wanted me to dye my hair blonde and be ‘Little Ric’ and just because they didn’t know me. Instead of being Ric Flair I needed to be AJ Styles with Ric Flair. Being with Ric I’ll hopefully get the rub from Ric there is no doubt about that and Fortune could have been great but they broke up Fortune a little bit too early and we were really getting some steam and they broke us up and noting came about it.
Styles feels Hogan didn’t use his many mainstream media appearances to promote TNA, instead discussing his personal turmoils. Styles believes that Hogan was embarrassed by TNA, and purposely didn’t talk about it much with the media.
“It was things like that that got weird, and Hogan seemed like he didn’t have much to do with TNA and seemed like he was embarrassed of the show because he never said anything about TNA at all,” Styles cotinued. “Even when he was on shows he just never mentioned it. I believe that he was ashamed of what was on TV. I believe if TNA were doing a lot better he would have been a lot more gung-ho about saying a lot more about it but he didn’t say a word and it bothered me but thinking back I understand it now.”
Styles has been on the injured list since 11/24 due to a bulging disc in his lower back.
On Thursday (but not uploaded to the court website until yesterday), in the Second District Court of Appeal of the State of Florida, Gawker won the latest battle in their long-standing legal entanglement with Hulk Hogan. This time, the appellate court granted Gawker’s request to issue a stay blocking the Pinellas County trial judge’s order that a forensic examiner hired by Hogan could search their computer network. As reported here in October, Hogan’s side was granted the ability to hire a forensic computer examiner (on his own dime) to look for specific key words and phrases allowed by the judge, and Gawker quickly moved to block the ruling.
This all stems from the leak this past summer of Hogan’s racist comments on one of the sex videos shot without his consent in 2007. Hogan’s side was arguing that Gawker must have leaked the story to the National Enquirer, violating a court order about certain documents Gawker got in the discovery phase of the litigation. Gawker argues that they never even had the transcripts of those comments, including the most inflammatory ones.
An online petition has been started at Change.org to get Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump from the WWE Hall Of Fame.
As of this writing, 4,903 people have signed the petition to get Trump removed from the WWE Hall Of Fame. Part of the petition reads:
Consistent with this statement, WWE should remove Donald Trump from the Hall of Fame for his derogatory comments about Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, Muslims and other minority groups.
WWE not only employs Muslim and Middle Eastern talent, but has also recently launched the Network in the Middle East. The WWE must realize how many of its fans are Muslim. What message does it send to them to honor Donald Trump on the WWE’s Hall of Fame?
And Mexico is one of WWE’s biggest international markets – the WWE has a history of working with Mexican professional wrestling promotions as well as recruiting some of Mexico’s top wrestlers. Many of WWE’s most beloved superstars represent their Mexican heritage in the ring.
Additionally, it was mentioned in the petition that WWE removed Hulk Hogan from their “online properties,” including the Hall Of Fame section of their official website for a similar offense. That part of the petition reads as follows:
Donald Trump has no place in the prestigious WWE Hall of Fame. The WWE Universe has continually expressed outrage at his induction, even booing him off the stage during his induction ceremony in 2013. He is a stain on WWE’s ability to be a positive influence to its 650 million fans worldwide.
Hulk Hogan’s immediate dismissal and removal from WWE’s online properties due to racist comments have shown us that WWE will not tolerate those who disrespect their commitment to celebrating diversity. This is a critical moment for the WWE to scrub its ties with Donald Trump immediately.
Over the weekend, WFTS-TV in Tampa Bay, Florida did a story about radio personality, former TNA interviewer, and former best friend of Hulk Hogan, Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. Primarily, the story dealt with the release of the police report about the theft of various homemade sex videos from his office, including those of his ex-wife and Hulk Hogan. They’ve also posted the entire interview, which is embedded at the top of this article.
The key points from the short form news story are that Bubba:
* Asserts that the act at the center of the controversy were between three consenting adults, although that doesn’t apply to Hogan’s role in the video and audio recording.
* Believes that nobody is being charged because Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober has it in for him. In the past, Ober unsuccessfully prosecuted him for animal cruelty stemming from a radio stunt where Bubba had a hog humanely killed while playing animal sound effects. Ober also testified against him in a defamation trial brought against him by rival radio personality Todd “M.J.” Schnitt. Ober’s office denied all of this.
* Is contemplating retirement and stepping out of the public eye as a result of all of this.
I'm so thankful/blessed/humbled by all the bubbaArmy's comments/support Bubba
In the unedited interview, Bubba elaborates on various points, including that he:
* Admits that he did do something illegal (presumably recording Hogan without his consent) and that he’d be in jail if the statute of limitations on the crime hadn’t expired.
* First became aware of the theft when screenshots of his ex-wife with Hogan showed up on TheDirty. He first suspected Matt Loyd of stealing the DVDs when the clip showed up on Gawker because Loyd is “vindictive.” For what it’s worth, the police report, depending on your point of view, either strongly implies or outright says that Loyd wasn’t the Gawker leak.
* Thinks fellow radio personality Mike “Cowhead” Calta, who had some role in the DVD being sent to Gawker (he claims that, via his agent, he got Gawker’s information for an anonymous listener who called in), was actively involved. Why? Bubba thinks Calta did it to get him fired and take his morning drive time slot.
* Had never had anything stolen from his office before. He thinks someone either found them and figured out what they were
* Has nothing against the police who ran the investigation, as they pursued the truth and it’s only the prosecutors who have decided not to act. Being that it’s the first high-profile “celebrity sex tape” in Florida, he thinks a successful prosecution could become precedent-setting caselaw if it went to court.
* Will sue Loyd and his wife if he has to, since he thinks a civil lawsuit will be a slam dunk.
* Has not seen Hogan outside of depositions since this all went down three years ago. “If that’s what I deserved, then I understand.[..] Maybe I’m not worthy of him forgiving me, and I certainly wouldn’t blame him for that.”
Last night, I went over the key items in the report that the Tampa Police Department released released this week about the 2012 theft of DVDs from Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. These DVDs included videos of his former wife Heather Cole having sex with various men, some (like a police officer friend) who knew they were on camera and others (like Hulk Hogan) who didn’t. While there are still some unknowns, like who leaked one of the Hogan videos to Gawker and why nobody has been prosecuted, the report fills in a lot of details that weren’t public previously. I tried to outline those in last night’s article, and now, it’s time to examine them a little deeper.
So, how do you contextualize all of this?
To me, the most interesting part overall was the detailed summary of the December 14, 2012 FBI sting operation in which Hogan and lawyer David Houston pretended to go along with making a deal with sex tape broker Keith Davidson. Not only was it a detailed look at a strange, seedy backroom celebrity business deal, but Davidson made some telling comments. Specifically, the “issues” in the videos that he mentions are Hogan’s now-infamous N-word rant and Hogan saying his son Nick’s then-girlfriend’s twin sister had been coming onto him. The former has been out since July and the latter was known going back to Gawker’s October 2012 article.
I was able to confirm that, contrary to the baseless rumors about racist comments towards Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson being on one video, there are no other comments deemed to be a threat to Hogan’s public persona. At least when it comes to the videos themselves, there’s not much more damage they could do to Hogan. He was lucky, relatively speaking, that only transcripts got out and not the audio. That the general public hasn’t heard the comments likely plays a factor in why:
He’s so optimistic about being rehired by WWE.
Some fans mistakenly think he got in trouble for an old radio interview where used the n-word in the context of quoting people.
Obviously, he wants to make sure that doesn’t change, and he also wants to ensure nobody else sees him having sex. But unless there’s something that came up in the FBI investigation that we have no real concept of, there may not be further skeletons this case’s closet that can ruin Hulk Hogan.
Gawker has, at times, claimed that determining if Hogan was aware of the cameras in Bubba the Love Sponge Clem’s house is why they sued the FBI. He’s always insisted that he wasn’t, with skepticism coming from Bubba talking about his security system on his radio show and Cole seemingly positioning Hogan for the camera on the video. While a friend of Bubba’s who had a tryst with Heather after Hogan was aware of the camera, Heather swore to police that Hogan was unaware. From the report (in a section that’s been redacted from the version Bubba posted on his website):
Cole stated that the sex she had with others during her marriage to Bubba was consensual. She stated that Bubba insisted on it being videoed. I asked Cole if Bollea knew he was being recorded and she said no. I told Cole that the in the videos it appears as though she is positioning Bollea for the camera. She said she did that because that is what Bubba wanted. Cole said Bubba could be very controlling. Cole said she remembers Bubba coming to the house after they had separated and requesting the DVDs sometime around the end of 2011.
One would think that issue should be put to bed at this point. Of course, that passage raises another issue, which is that Bubba comes off terribly here. It at least reads as if he heavily pressured his wife into participating in making secret videos of trysts with his friends even if she was fully into their swinger (for lack of a better term) lifestyle. That doesn’t take away from him being a legitimate victim when it comes to the DVD theft and related crimes, and he’s right to be angry at the prosecutors for not charging anyone. After all, if the police have so much evidence and are willing to name Matt Loyd in this report, why do the prosecutors think they won’t get a conviction?
There’s honestly no good answer other than that conspiracy theories about Hogan using his influence because he’s worried about things that could come out in a trial. As I said earlier: If it’s not on the videos, we don’t know what that is. Unless it’s just not wanting anyone to hear his racist comments on the videos out loud, there’s no indication why this would be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk0ZACuiYAY
Speaking of things that Hogan doesn’t want out: One would think that Gawker as well as various interested media outlets (who have filed intervening motions in the past) may try to parlay the release of this report into the unsealing of some of the FBI documents. After all, if the substance of what was said during the sting operation is now public record, why not the word for word transcript? It wouldn’t shock me at all, and it’s something to keep an eye on in both lawsuits.
As for Matt Loyd being named as who stole the DVDs from Bubba, that’s no surprise at this point, as it had been hinted at in various lawsuit filings. But if he didn’t leak one of the DVDs to Gawker, then we don’t really have any good leads as to who it is. That is unless there’s some obfuscation going on here.
We’re still over three months away from the Hogan-Gawker civil trial, and this story is far from over.
WWE’s Executive Vice President Triple H called into the WHEB Morning Buzz radio show (Portmouth, New Hampshire) this week to promote their “Lending A Helping Can” charity auction. When asked if WWE would ever welcome Hulk Hogan back into the fold, Triple H told host Greg Kretschmar:
“For me I hope so.
It’s about reinvigorating his brand and him as a human being and the confidence within the world as to who he is. But the one thing about people in general, when somebody is on top they love to see him fall and when they fall they love to see him make that comeback. They’re great stories and I think that’s where people are.
Do I think he can be forgiven and make amends with the world and move forward? Yeah absolutely. But at the same point in time for us in that time frame you’re putting up a message to the world of how you’ll tolerate things and how you’ll react to things. And we did what we needed to do and he’ll do what he needs to do to get himself back.
And its not, to me, at the end of the day for him, how he’s perceived by the world, him as a human being, I’m sure is a lot more important to him than anything else. And re-establishing who he is as a human being I’m sure is of utmost important to him and I’m sure he’s gonna do it and when he does we’ll go from there.”
For more information on how you can donate to the Lend a Helping Can campaign, visit WHEB.com.
Earlier in the week, we noted that Tampa area media, having procured a new police report, had jumped on the story that Matt “Spiceboy” Loyd was the man behind the theft and leak of the Hulk Hogan sex videos. The local TV stations mostly covered the most basic of details: That Loyd was named as the suspect, prosecutors declined to charge him, and Bubba the Love Sponge (the videos came from his security cameras after he had given Hogan his blessing to sleep with his then-wife Heather Cole) was angry that the prosecutors were doing nothing.
What I did next was procure the entire 31 page police report from the Tampa Police Department. Since then, Bubba has released a version on his website, but it’s heavily edited and redacted, seemingly to remove the information he doesn’t want out. With that in mind, here are some of the key revelations in the report:
* This specific police investigation started separately from the Hogan videos. as in May of 2014, Loyd (using @Joshisinthecity, a now-deleted dummy/sockpuppet account) tweeted a photo of a stolen non-Hogan DVD to Bubba, who replied to attempt to bait him:
@Joshisinthecity thank u for the heads up. Follow me so we can discuss
— Bubba The Love Sponge®? (@TheBubbaArmy) May 30, 2014
* Loyd no longer had possession of the original Hogan DVDs because they were seized by the The DVD in a 2012 sting operation targeting his “sex tape broker,” oft-disciplined lawyer Keith Davidson. The remaining DVD, labelled with the name a non-celebrity friend of Bubba’s, showed Cole having sex with said friend. The friend did say know he was being recorded, while Cole told the TPD that Hogan did not. When the TPD asked Cole why she appeared to be positioning Hogan for the camera, she replied that it was “because that is what Bubba wanted” and “Bubba could be very controlling.”
* This explains why, to a point, the FBI had stonewalled Gawker in their attempts to get a copy of the FBI’s Hogan investigation. Gawker’s first Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was filed on November 8, 2013 and rejected on privacy grounds. When they got the necessary waivers from Hogan and Cole via the lawsuit, the refiled on November 7, 2014. By the time the FBI responded on February 4, 2015, not only had the TPD investigation been ongoing for months, but they were also using the FBI file as evidence. That’s why law enforcement privilege was cited to block the release of the file but Gawker had statements stating they were not the target of an investigation: The crime being investigated had nothing to do with the leak to Gawker because Loyd didn’t make contact about the Hogan videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTLztVGd414
* The DVDs were taken from Bubba’s office, where he moved them during his divorce from Cole in October 2011. Why? “Clem transferred the DVD’s from his home to his workplace where he believed they would be more secure.” The DVDs were eventually moved when he moved to a new studio in December 2011 to January 2012. He didn’t know they were missing until March 2012, when a screenshot showed up online from one of the Hogan videos. “Clem immediately responded to the office/storage area and became aware that each of his DVD’s were now missing.”
* @Joshisinthcity’s tweet was eventually traced to Loyd’s workplace. He claimed that the DVD was a fake and, having known of the DVDs for years, forged Bubba’s handwriting on a new blank DVD to spook him. The handwriting in the photo was consistent with other burnt DVDs Bubba had written on that he provided to the TPD. At this point, Bubba told the TPD “that the FBI had conducted an investigation involving the Bollea DVDs and he thought that case was over.”
* The FBI eventually got approval for the TPD to see the Hogan case file. On January 20th of this year, the Tampa investigators watched the Hogan videos with the FBI agents assigned to the case and summarized them as follows:
Disc marked HOGAN 7/13/07 contained Heather Clem and Terry Bollea engaging in sex. Bollea does not look at the camera. The camera appears to be on a high ledge in the master bedroom behind a plant. There is no discussion about them being recorded.
The disc marked HOOTIE 7/3/07 showed the camera to be in the same location as the previously mentioned disc. Bollea and Heather are standinganext to the bed, Heather is topless and facing Bollea as Bubba walks into view and comments about a scratch she has on her back. Bubba then leaves the room. Bollea and Heather engage in sex.
The disc marked HOOTIE with no date shows that Bubba walks in after sex between Bollea and Heather. Bollea, Heather and Bubba have conversation. Bollea leaves. Bubba makes comment about tape being used for retirement. Bubba says he is going to get the tape and walks out. Tape ends.
* The FBI also provided the TPD with audio recordings taken during the investigation into “sex tape broker” Keith Davidson when he tried to sell the original DVDs to Hogan for Loyd via intermediaries. When Davidson negotiated with Hogan attorney David Houston over the phone as part of a sting operation, they started at $1 and $1 million respectively before settling on $300,000. $150,000 would be paid upfront with two other installments of $75,000 each at the nine and 16 month marks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRpnLCvRhkw
* Perhaps the most interesting portion of the 31 page report is the detailed summary of the final meeting with Davidson on December 14, 2012 that closed the sting operation. When Houston asked which video “has the issues,” Davidson is paraphrased as saying that “tape 2 talks about his son’s twin girlfriend” while “tape 3 talks about n word, Brooke dating black guy, etc.” Obviously, the tape 3 note refers to Hogan’s racist comments that got him fired by WWE. The other note marks the video Gawker got from Loyd as tape 2, because A.J. Daulerio wrote this in the article that was originally published alongside their “highlight reel” of the video:
But Hulk has to go meet his son Nick at midnight. Then Hulk tells a story about how Nick’s new girlfriend has a twin sister who called Hulk on the phone. Hulk reveals that the young woman inquired about his divorce and, if that’s true, she would like to be the first to go out with him.
It appears that, with that story having been out for over three years now and then n-word rant leaking in July, there is no other incriminating information on the other video, described here as “tape 1.” The audio of the racist comments getting out would be harmful since nobody has heard them, and obviously he doesn’t want anyone to see him having sex, but in terms of damaging information, it’s all out there.
* Davidson, for whatever reason, would only give Houston certain details out of earshot of Hogan. For example: “I don’t know if they were stolen and quite frankly I don’t want to know if they were stolen.” He also gave his word he would assist in having the clips removed from Gawker’s site, as they were still up at the time. While Davidson told Hogan and Houston his client knew the videos existed because he was shown them and Loyd said it was well-known that the videos existed, Bubba denies showing them to anyone at work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmPis1-wJlo
*As outlined in the Tampa media coverage, Lori Burbridge, a friend of Loyd and his wife, Tasha Carrega, handled financial transactions to shield Loyd. Loyd went to TMZ when leaking stills To TheDirty failed to generate enough buzz. She told police that TMZ put Loyd in touch with Davidson, who bragged about handling similar cases when she questioned if what they were doing was legal. TMZ paid $8,500 for the videos, which they never published for legal reasons. TMZ’s Mike Walters had spoken to Hogan on the air on their syndicated TV show about having seen the videos.
* It appears that, while Loyd did contact Gawker under an assumed name, he was not the person who leaked one of the videos to Gawker. Davidson coached Loyd, Carrega, and Burbridge to say they were the Gawker leak to ensure the deal with Hogan went through.
It’s not clear at all why local prosecutors are not charging Loyd if the Tampa Police Department has so much evidence and is willing to name him as a suspect. Tomorrow, we’ll go over some additional details and try to analyze exactly what all of this means.
A Tampa police investigation is accusing Matt Loyd of being the culprit who stole the Hulk Hogan sex tape and extorted the pro wrestling legend.
Loyd, better known to fans of the Bubba The Love Sponge Show as on-air personality “Spice Boy,” has been accused of stealing multiple sex DVDs from Bubba’s office and selling them off to celebrity-gossip website TMZ. The police report also alleges that Loyd contacted sex tape broker Keith Davidson to “engage in the extortion” of Hogan.
According to a new FOX 13 News report, Loyd hired his wife’s best friend from high school to serve as the middleman for the operation, so that his name wouldn’t be attached to anything. He was reportedly paid $8,500 by TMZ for the content he gave them from the Hogan sex tape.
– Hulk Hogan said he’s “not done yet” at his Evening with Hulk Hogan event in Sheffield, England on Saturday night.
“You guys are loyal. You known I’ve made a huge mistake or said something really dumb. That’s because I was mad or at a low point in my life, but that’s not who I am,” Hogan told a reported crowd of 1,000 about being blacklisted from WWE over the summer, which coincided with media scrutiny of scandalous remarks he made in 2007. “I’m not done yet. I need to learn another lesson. All this stuff happens to make me a better person. That’s how I look at it.”
Hogan also said he still admires WWE chief Vince McMahon.
“There are two Vince McMahons. On a personal level I love him to death, as a business man I respect him. He’s a good guy. He really is,” said Hogan.
– Randy Orton isn’t the only wrestler to get married in Las Vegas, Nevada last week. Nick Dinsmore, who was known as Eugene in WWE, married his longtime girlfriend on Wednesday.
Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker is the pro wrestling news story with the most wide-reaching “real world” consequences, and rolls on next week with a hearing on Wednesday, November 18th. An amended notice about the hearing went up today, and it outlines which topics will be covered, time permitting, over the course of the hearing. All of the matters mentioned in the notice were raised by Hogan’s side, and they include:
1. Hogan’s motion for attorney’s fees and costs on discovery rulings:
This was covered in detail here at SEScoops about two weeks ago. The short version is that Hogan’s side is accusing Gawker of violating the rules of discovery (the process that includes document production, deposition testimony, and so on) in bad faith. This would put them on the hook for Hogan’s fees in the discovery issues where he had to fight them in court, which total $427,665. Most of that comes from attorney’s fees with less than 10% being from court costs. Hogan accused Gawker, of, among other things, making it difficult to secure some depositions and doing things designed to drag him into court so often that he’d drop the case for financial reasons.
2. Hogan’s motion to compel complete production of documents in response to financial worth discovery, reconsideration of a related ruling, and a request for sanctions:
This sort of ties into #1. Hogan has won previous motions for additional financial information from Gawker, and Gawker has refused to produce some documents. Specifically, Gawker hasn’t provided Hogan with a “Transfer Pricing Study” that shows exactly what Gawker pays Hungarian sister company Kinja. Last year, one of Hogan’s discovery requests specifically asked for the study, but Gawker said the only versions that existed were confidential, covered under attorney/client privilege. Hogan is moving for sanctions against Gawker because a privilege log (filing that outlines what the other side can’t see due to attorney/client privilege) as an “economic analysis” instead of a “transfer pricing study.” Gawker insists it’s still privileged, Hogan’s side argues it’s not.
Similarly, Gawker founder Nick Denton is saying he does not have records of his family’s trust, which the court ordered him to produce. Hogan’s side is saying that’s ridiculous. So this all comes down to whether or not Gawker is acting above board.
3. Hogan’s motion to determine the confidentiality of court records, specifically an affidavit filed by Charles J. Harder (one of his lawyers):
Like #2 tying into #1, #3 ties into #2, because the affidavit is in support of the financial worth discovery motion. It looks like Hogan wants Gawker’s information out there.
Those will all be covered for sure on Wednesday. The following are listed as being dealt with “time permitting,” so they may be held off for a later hearing…
4. Hogan’s motion to strike Gawker’s affirmative defenses:
Gawker’s most recent answer to Hogan’s most recent amended complaint includes two “affirmative defenses,” which are that Hogan is:
* Committing a fraud upon the court.
* Violating recent Florida’s statutes that bar Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP, or essentially a lawsuit filed solely to censor a legal exercise of free speech).
Hogan’s side, of course, is arguing that the case can’t be a SLAPP, because the heart of the matter is Gawker publishing clips of Hogan having sex that were shot in private without his knowledge or consent. As for the vase being a “fraud upon the court,” Hogan’s side argues it’s not an affirmative defense. Cornell’s legal dictionary defines an affirmative defense as “a defense in which the defendant introduces evidence, which, if found to be credible, will negate criminal or civil liability, even if it is proven that the defendant committed the alleged acts.”
5. Hogan’s stipulation and motion to amend/modify 10/27/15 order on motions to determine confidentiality:
Both Gawker and various outside media companies have filed motions this year to get various sealed filings unsealed with the idea that Florida’s public records laws were being violated. This applies to not just the FBI records from their investigation into Hogan being extorted with the sex tapes, but all sorts of other exhibits and motions. They range from financial information to a magazine photo spread of him with naked women with who knows what else in between. Hogan is willing to let some of the exhibits be unsealed as long as the filings they’re supporting are left sealed, and his side’s suggestions will be considered.
That’s a lot to cover, so if they don’t have time to cover #4 and #5 this will bleed into a second hearing. Some past hearings have streamed live on Florida TV station websites, so keep an eye out and we’ll let you know if this one is streamed, but either way we’ll keep you updated.
Hulk Hogan was recently interviewed by Radio Yorkshire to promote his upcoming one-man show in the UK. The WWE Hall of Famer, who famously turned heel in 1996 with the NWO, was asked if he thought John Cena could pull off a major heel turn of his own. Here’s what Hulk had to say:
“Yeah, I mean, God, I hate to keep saying it, “Never say never.” With Vince McMahon’s machine and the WWE and the writers and John Cena’s talents. With his talent alone, if he were to turn heel and WWE let him go, let John go and pull that edge out of John. Ooh boy, he’d be a good heel!”
– Featured above is the latest edition of WWE’s “This Week In WWE History” YouTube show. This week, hosts Corey Graves and Kyle Edwards look back at the episode of WWE SmackDown in 1999 where Arnold Schwarzenegger and Triple H had their big altercation.
– At the WWE live event in Brighton, England on Wednesday, Hulk Hogan fans were reportedly handing out flyers outside of the arena for Hogan’s upcoming one-man show in Sheffield, England on November 14th.
– For the first time since his podcast debuted back in May, WWE Hall Of Famer Ric Flair has no guest on his latest show. Instead, the show is called “Ask Naitch!,” and like it suggests, the show features Flair answering questions submitted from fans. You can download Ric Flair’s latest “Woooo! Nation” podcast at Play.it.
WWE Hall Of Famer Hulk Hogan recently spoke with Radio Yorkshire to promote his upcoming Sheffield Arena appearance on November 14, 2015. Below are some of the highlights.
On seeing something in Kevin Owens immediately, particularly because of his old school psychology:
“Well, I hate to brag about it, but I’m the first one to point the finger at Kevin Owens. I saw him on NXT, like his second match, and saw him just chop and beat and grind and beating his guy down and doing it the old school way and really understanding how to get heat, doing it the old school way and I said, ‘that’s the guy’. I said, ‘that’s the guy. I don’t care if he looks like a wrestler [or] looks like an ice cream salesman. I don’t care. That’s the guy.'”
On advice for breakout wrestling stars:
“Keep their eyes wide open, keep their ears wide open, and tape on their mouth and learn this business the right way. And then, the business will take care of you. You won’t have to fight so hard to make the money and to make it. Keep your mouth shut and you understand what’s going on, then the business will take care of you. That’s my advice.”
This is an editorial, obviously. It reflects the views of David Bixenspan only and should not be construed as reflecting the opinions of SEScoops.com.
Last night, The New York Observer’s editors posted an editorial about some of the recent developments in Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker Media. Specifically, it pertains to the judge’s ruling allowing Hogan to hire a forensic expert to search Gawker’s computers, portable devices, cloud storage, and so on for proof that they leaked Hogan’s racist comments to The National Enquirer. As I reported here last week, Gawker will be appealing that ruling and has compelling evidence to suggest that it’s incredibly premature to suggest they were behind the leak.
The New York Observer editorial gets some of the basic facts wrong. Like many wrestling fans, they think Hogan using the N-word in an old interview is what got him in trouble when it was actually an oddly personal racist tirade on one of the sex tapes that was shot without his knowledge in 2007. Having said that, the overall point of the article is dead-on: This is a big deal, and it has implications reaching far beyond pro wrestling and celebrity gossip. Hell, the whole case does.
Specific to this latest development, the Observer describes the most recent ruling as having “much of the news media in frenzy” because of “the potential loss of reporter’s privilege.” It’s a basic First Amendment Protection, and Judge Pamela Campbell is just throwing it out…why, exactly? Because they just happened to have an interest in Hogan’s reputation being ruined even if there’s no evidence to suggest they were behind said ruining?
Throughout the case, the perception has been that Campbell has favored Hogan, sealing any court filings that could make him look bad (like an old magazine photo shoot of him with naked women). This is just the latest and most egregious thing she’s done. Yes, she did limit what can be searched for, but there’s still no actual evidence suggesting Gawker did this. Regardless of how you feel about Gawker or the lawsuit itself over them publishing clips of one of the Hogan sex tapes, this is just not something that should be happening.
Like I said, though: It’s not just this. The whole case is a big deal. As egregious as Gawker’s actions may come off and as strange as their defense (Hogan made graphic depictions of his sex life part of his public persona) may sound, most legal experts who have commented to the media thinks they have the case won. A Hogan-friendly local jury could go against them, but they’d inevitably win an appeal. It’s a fascinating battle over freedom of the press involving arguably the biggest pro wrestling star ever and all sorts of crazy things like sex tapes, FBI stings, and alleged cover-ups.
Jesse Ventura’s defamation lawsuit against Chris Kyle’s estate was a similarly big deal. On its face, it may not be any kind of precedent setting piece of litigation because it’s much more straightforward: Did Chris Kyle lie about Jesse Ventura making comments suggesting he deserved to lose friends in the Iraq war and that he then punched Ventura? A jury (the majority, as agreed to by both sides) agreed that yes, he lied. But it was almost unheard of for a public figure to win that kind of defamation case. The estate is appealing and various media companies are intervening on the claim of unjust enrichment (essentially making money from the lie), which Ventura has spoken out against in interviews. That fight could have huge, long-term legal implications, as well.
In all likelihood, the Hogan-Gawker trial will be even bigger, at least in terms of coverage. It’s so much more tabloidy and salacious, but the consequences of all of the actual legal issues have real world importance.This is bigger than pro wrestling and celebrity gossip.
I know I’ll be watching closely, and I hope you all will be, too.
Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker rolled on this past week. First, Gawker president and General Counsel Heather Dietrick conceded that the company will probably lose at trial. Then, Gawker filed a stay to attempt to freeze and overturn a ruling allowing their computers to be searched for evidence that they leaked Hogan’s racist comments. Now, the latest big move is from Hogan’s side, who filed on motion on Tuesday demanding that Gawker reimburse his attorney’s fees and other court costs stemming from a number of discovery issues in the case.
Discovery is the pre-trial procedure where the two sides get information from each other as well as third parties via document production, answering interrogatories, and deposition testimony. For example, Hogan’s 1998 WCW contract was everywhere last week. How? It became public record in the famous racial discrimination lawsuits against WCW because it was filed as an exhibit by the plaintiffs, who got it from WCW during discovery. There are of course a number of very specific rules governing discovery, and in the case of Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker, Hogan (real name Terry Bollea) is saying that Gawker is in violation of a bunch of them.
Hogan is asking for $427,665 ($392,475 in attorneys’ fees and $35,190 in court costs) stemming from the abuses that his side his claiming Gawker has committed throughout the discovery process. His lawyers are arguing that Gawker is doing this specifically to raise costs to the point that the case is too expensive for Hogan to litigate. As for their accusations of wrongdoing, they include:
* That “Gawker repeatedly refused to produce any documents or information related to” sister company Kinja/Blogwire Hungary. It’s alleged that they continued to do this even after the Special Discovery Magistrate overseeing the case ruled in Hogan’s favor. “Eventually, Gawker’s delay tactics required Mr. Bollea to sever Kinja from the case simply to secure a trial date.”
* This: “Gawker attempted numerous times to turn discovery into an inquisition into Mr. Bollea’s private life. At the start of this litigation, Gawker wanted to know the name of every woman Mr. Bollea had sex with over the course of a decade. Gawker wanted to know if there were sex tapes other than the illegal recording that had been sent to Gawker [Note: There were, but they were other illegally made recordings], and Gawker repeatedly asked witnesses at deposition about Mr. Bollea’s private sex life. Gawker also wanted all of Mr. Bollea’s medical records, even though Mr. Bollea did not seek any damages based on any claim that Gawker’s actions led to his seeking medical treatment.”
The claim is that Hogan had to spend “large amounts of money” just to go to court to protect basic privacy rights. And that’s even after the judge issued an order prohibiting discovery of that nature.
* Gawker filed 24 third-party subpoenas in the case, “many of which were not tailored at all to the First Amendment defenses in its case,” instead seeking “private information” that violated the judge’s protective order. Among those served subpoenas were Dixie Carter, TNA Wrestling, WWE, Bischoff Hervey Entertainment, Hogan’s lawyer David Houston, Keith Davidson (the lawyer representing the mystery person who tried to extort Hogan using the sex tapes), and Matt Loyd (a former Bubba the Love Sponge employee). Hogan says he cooperated with all of the subpoenas.
* Gawker objected to a subpoena to their loan broker in an attempt to determine the worth of the company.
You get the idea: Hogan’s side is saying that Gawker tried to block legitimate discovery because they knew it would run up costs for Hogan. while the other side made ridiculous requests to further run up said costs. Where exactly the truth lies, who knows?
As for the costs themselves, Hogan has a total of eight lawyers working on the case at rates ranging from $295 to $550 per hour. In determining costs that Gawker were owed, Charles Harder, one of Hogan’s lawyers, wrote in a sworn affidavit that not only did he did not include travel costs, but all hourly billings were rounded down instead of up.
So for example: When responding to Gawker’s exception to the ruling on discovery about Hogan’s sexual partners, four of his lawyers billed a total of 27 hours ranging from $395 to $550 each for a total of $12,390. That’s on the lower end of some of these itemized arguments, as they ranged from $6,315 to a whopping $72,960 (five lawyers working a total of 160 hours).
The latest chapter in the drama between Gawker and Hulk Hogan (real name Terry Bollea) came yesterday, with Gawker attempting to file a stay to block a judge’s ruling while they file an appeal. That’s the ruling from last week, when Judge Pamela Campbell ruled that a forensic investigator can be hired at Hulk Hogan’s request to search Gawker’s computers and phones. The goal? Discovering if Gawker violated a court order in their lawsuit.
Hogan is suing because Gawker published excerpts of a sex tape shot without his permission on a friend’s home security system, and insisting that Gawker is playing dirty. The allegation/ That the leak of Hogan’s racist comments that got him fired by WWE came from Gawker, and that they sourced sealed documents to facilitate said leak. While not the only sealed documents in the lawsuit, everything from the FBI’s investigation into Hogan being extorted via the sex tapes has been sealed from the public.
Gawker is arguing that there is little basis for such a wide examination of employees’ and in-house counsel’s computers. They also cite their earlier filings when they responded to Hogan’s attempt to get the investigation going, which shed more light on, among other things, exactly what Gawker received from the FBI. With the argument being that there’s barely even circumstantial evidence that Gawker was behind the leak, they state that:
* A timeline of what’s contained in the Hogan/Heather Cole sex tapes was circulating in New York and Tampa radio circles by March 2012.
* Other parties who were well aware of Hogan’s racist comments before this past July included Bubba Clem, Heather Cole, Nik Riichie of TheDirty.com, the source of an October 2012 item in the Philadelphia Daily News, Keith Davidson (the lawyer who tried to help a client sell the videos to Hogan or extort money from him depending on your view), Davidson’s client, numerous federal investigators, and TMZ’s Mike Walters,
* Gawker didn’t have most of what was released by the National Enquirer in the first place, with what they have from the FBI being incomplete. The audio of the FBI sting on Davidson (where Hogan, his lawyer, and Davidson watch the videos) “simply does not include most of the quotes reported by the Enquirer.”
The radio community timeline, which Gawker got in discovery, “does not contain the racist language published by the Enquirer. It also does not reference Bollea’s use of homophobic slurs, as reported by the Enquirer.” Davidson’s transcripts, which Gawker’s lawyers got from the FBI, also don’t match what the Enquirer published.
Specific examples of quotes that the Enquirer had that Gawker’s lawyers didn’t included some of the most damning ones. That includes “I guess we’re all a little racist. F**king n***er,” which is probably the most cited one because it’s used to refute people who say Hogan’s not a racist.
* Gawker never had proof of the racist comments “in large part because Bollea successfully thwarted Gawker’s efforts to obtain that proof or take any discovery about the contents of the timeline and transcripts.”
Hogan had, under oath, represented to the court and the Special Discovery Magistrate overseeing the sealed documents that he besides what Gawker got in 2012, he “had no knowledge of the existence of any other tapes.” In actuality, he watched all three (the one Gawker got, the one with the racist comments, and one more) during the FBI sting. He also claimed that any allegations of racist comments on the videos were lies fabricated by an extortionist.
In a hearing on July 1st, a few weeks before the leak, Hogan’s lawyers claimed that if a video with the racist comments existed, then the audio may be from an impersonator hired by the extortionist. They also argued that the rumors of such comments may have been coming from the extortionist. On top of that, it was argued that mentions of the FBI investigation shouldn’t be allowed in the case because it was “predicated on these tapes purportedly saying something that they don’t say.”
* The DVDs of the sex videos Gawker has are heavily edited. None of the racist comments were included. At the time of the leak, “reprocessed” versions of the DVDs (there were issues with the first one) had not yet been seen by Gawker’s lawyers.
— Lachlan Cartwright (@LachCartwright) July 24, 2015
* The Enquirer and its reporters have always claimed that Gawker was not one of their five sources for the articles. They also worded the articles to make it clear that the sources had access to the unedited videos themselves, or at least it seemed that way.
Regardless of your feelings as to the main case and whether Hogan should win that, it does seem like Gawker has a very compelling argument when it comes to this. While the appeals court itself has generally favored Gawker, this attempt at getting a stay is with the trial judge, who has seemingly favored Hogan. It should be interesting to se where this goes, and we’ll keep you apprised of any updates.
Hulk Hogan recently spoke with The Star to promote his upcoming “Evening with Hulk Hogan” event in the UK. Here some highlights of what Hogan said about:
His best opponent:
“The best I’ve ever grappled was The Rock. This guy had the talent. He had everything. If things went wrong in the ring he knew how to fix things on the spot. Not just an instinct. He had a really good feel for this business. So The Rock, without a doubt was easily the best. The toughest I ever had to wrestle and the most memorable match ever was Andre the Giant, at Wrestlemania III.
“I have to talk about the ‘Macho Man‘ Randy Savage. I cannot talk about wrestling without him. He was my main stay. He was the guy I used to love to wrestle any time I could because you always knew you were going to get the ‘Macho Man’. That was very important to have someone come at you wide open. I had a lot of good ones. You can’t forget Piper really, we had some epic battles.”
If he’s talked with Sylvester Stallone about The Expendables 4:
“I haven’t talked to him. But there’s a bunch of people who have thrown my name around and done stuff. I’d love to read the script. I don’t know how many more Expendables they’re going to make, so I’d love to be in the next one. I’d love to be the bad guy again in a Stallone movie. It would be a lot of fun.”
Wanting to End His Career with WWE:
“There’s a lot of wrestling opportunities out there. WWE would be a great place to end my career. Everything would have to be very calculated. I’d want to go out there one last time to have fun. It would have to be something I’d really have to have a handle on, because I can’t afford any more downtime or surgery.”
Set for March 2016, the trial in Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker (for publishing clips of a sex tape shot without his knowledge) is still several months away. As we wait it out, Heather Dietrick, Gawker’s President and General Counsel, made a surprising admission according to Capital New York: She thinks they’re going to lose.
During a Gawker staff meeting this past Thursday (October 22nd), Dietrick said “It’s probably difficult to win the case entirely, outright, knowing the jury that we’re facing, but it’s possible. More likely than not, we end up with a really small judgment that we can easily carry and we appeal that,” Hogan has sued for $100 million, and Florida law requires that to appeal a judgment, the losing party must post a bond for the full amount plus two years’ interest. Gawker founder Nick Denton has said in the past that a judgment of that size would kill the company or require him to sell a equity stake.
Dietrick added that “It’s quite possible that Hogan just gets a very small judgment against us, and then we have to make the decision: do we appeal that and incur further fees to vindicate the First Amendment rights that we know we’re on the right side of, or do we simply say, OK this very small judgment is a win and makes it very difficult for Hulk Hogan, who’s spent a lot of time on pursuing this case and could walk away with something very small[, to keep the lawsuit going].”
If there’s a large judgment, she’s now saying they’ll appeal expecting the appeals court to allow them to pay a smaller bond.”The rights at stake are so important , not just to this story but to other stories that we do and stories that every news outlet does, that I expect that the appeals court will allow us to appeal, which means allowing a reasonable bond that we’re able to post. The appeals court in question has generally ruled in their favor so for (seven out of eight times) in matters pertaining to the case.
My friend Chris Harrington and I have made a habit out of trying to mine publicly available documents (usually from lawsuits) for interesting pro wrestling historical information. In Chris’s case, being the “Wrestlenomics” guy, he tends to favor anything with financial information. In looking through the docket of one of the racial discrimination lawsuits against WCW, he happened to buy a copy of a filing that turned out to have Hulk Hogan’s 11998 contract (his last one) with WCW. So he posted it to Scribd last nightand it’s gotten some attention at places like Reddit.
At times there has been speculation that Hogan didn’t earn as much as some people said. Clearly, that’s not the case, as it looks like on a percentage basis, he was the highest paid wrestler in the history of the business even if Steve Austin made more money in his best years. The contract reveals the following terms:
– It was a four year deal lasting from May 29, 1998 to May 28, 2002. So when he went to WWE in February 2002, WWE only had to buy out the last three months of the contract.
– Hogan got a $2 million signing bonus.
– Each year, Hogan was to appear on six WCW pay-per-view events, for which he’d be paid $675,000 each or 15% of “domestic PPV cable sales received by WCW for each event,” whichever was greater. So he was guaranteed $4.05 million annually in PPV payoffs alone. He was advanced $1.35 million every four months.
– “Incentive compensation” bonuses would be received for PPVs that did a 1.5% buy rate or better in different tiers, ranging from $250,000 for a 1.5 to a 1.79 all the way up to $1.75 million for a 3.5 buy rate or greater. In practice, he only got bonused on this contract for Bash at the Beach in July 1998, which drew a 1.5 buy rate for Hogan and Dennis Rodman vs. Diamond Dallas Page and Karl Malone. If the same incentives were in effect on his previous deal, he made a $375,000 bonus for the 1.9 buy rate that Starrcade ’97 (the famous Hogan vs. Sting match) drew.
– Payoffs for Monday Nitro and Thursday Thunder appearances were $25,000 or 25% “of the gross (after tax) arena ticket revenues,” whichever was greater, For exampled, as far as shows on this contract go, this means he made: $226,582.50 for the match at the Georgia Dome where he dropped the WCW World Heavyweight Championship to Bill Goldberg and $232,683.75 for the “Finger Poke of Doom” off WCW’s all-time record gate of $930,735.
– “Bollea will appear and perform at sixteen {16) mutually agreed upon WCW “Television Tapings” during each calendar year of the Term. Bollea’s appearance and/or Participation at such tapings shall be at no additional cost to WCW.” Presumably that means any non-Nitr0/Thunder tapings.
– “Bollea will appear and perform at a reasonable number of non-televised house shows as reasonably requested by WCW,” which was, in practice, not often. Hogan got 25% of the gross with no guaranteed dollar amount, so he generally picked occasional major market house shows to work on. For international dates, there was a “mutual option” where either Hogan or WCW could propose terms that the other side had no obligation to accept.
– All of these terms were outlined as being for years one through three, with Hogan getting a $100,000 consulting fee in year four. “In the event that Bollea provides any wrestling services in Year Four” he was paid the according to the same terms. Perhaps he intended to retire, but in year four, WCW existed only as the Universal Wrestling Corporation (WWE bought the WCW assets including trademarks but not the company itself) to fulfill contracts and deal with outstanding lawsuits.
– WCW got exclusive rights to Hogan’s likeness and other intellectual property “only in the business of professional wrestling.” This included WCW’s involvement with motorsports like NASCAR and Monster Trucks. Hogan had the right to approve all merchandise, and he retained the ability to use his intellectual property “in connection with non-wrestling related merchandising and licensing including, but not limited to, pasta, pasta restaurants, sandwiches, sun tan oil, health drink mixers, vitamins and merchandise related to Bollea’s movies, television movies and non-wrestling television appearances.”
– Hogan received 50% of the net profits for all merchandise sold directly by WCW incorporating his name, likeness, or character. If he was featured in conjunction with other wrestlers, he got 50% of WCW’s share of the net profits. For licensed merchandise, he got 50% of “the Actual License Fees (as herein defined) received by WCW from the licensing of ‘Hulk Hogan’ or Bollea’s name, likeness or character.”
– According to other pay documentation from the WCW discrimination lawsuits:
For licensing, Hogan made $111,946 in 1998, $832,988 in 1999, and $447,805 in 2000. For WCW-direct merchandise, he made $40,147 in 1998, $20,846 in 1999, and $41,916 in 2000. Keep in mind he didn’t work on any WCW shows after Bash at the Beach in July 2000, the show where he walked out after Vince Russo double-crossed him on a promo.
– Ever notice how Hogan wore NWO t-shirts everywhere back in the day? There was a good reason for that: He got a $20,000/month promotional fee for promoting the NWO. That said, “in no event will Bollea’s annual promotional fee as herein provided be less than twenty-five percent (25%) of WCWs Net Receipts and Actual License Fees […] for generic non-talent specific NWO merchandise.”
– Other WCW payroll documents from the racial discrimination lawsuits show Hogan as making $3,635,969 payroll in the calendar year of 1998 and $3,756,228 payroll in the calendar year of 1999. It’s been said that some of Hogan’s pay was shifted to other divisions of Turner Broadcasting, and that appears to be the case, as we know he made more than that in pay-per-view payoffs alone each year. Presumably,Turner Home Entertainment, which handled WCW PPV events, paid the PPV payoffs to Hogan, with the “payroll” being what he made for TV and house show appearances.
– Hogan would get 100% of the net revenues if WCW launched a Hogan-themed 900 number hotline. On the opposite end of the spectrum, he made nothing from magazine or videotape sales. The latter is surprising, as even though WCW primarily focused on the rental market, there was still money to be made, and they made a big retail push during this contract with “Superstar Series” releases that included a a Hogan video.
– The contract was contingent upon WCW receiving an agreement from Marvel Comics (who owned the “Hulk Hogan” name at the time) and “Bollea’s submission to a drug test pursuant to WCWs Substance Abuse Policy, which Bollea agrees he has received and reviewed, and a finding based on such test indicating that Bollea is not currently using any illegal drugs, steroids or other substances prohibited by WCW.”
For whatever it is or isn’t worth: The contract was executed in May, a month where Hogan, not wanting to be associated with falling ratings, always took himself off TV because Nitro was moved around by the NBA playoffs on TNT. He didn’t appear on any WCW events between May 11th and June 1st.
– “When required to travel for WCW as contemplated hereunder, Bollea will receive first-class air travel, first-class suite hotel accommodations, limousine transportation and One Hundred Seventy-Five Dollars ($175.00) per diem.” In other words, officially he had no road expenses other than food and still got a $175.00 stipend each day he was on the road. In practice, the food was likely covered much of the time, to boot, since he mostly worked TV and PPV shows, which were catered.
– Finally, there’s the infamous “complete creative control” clause, which actually reads like this: “Bollea shall have approval over the outcomes of all wrestling matches in which he appears, wrestles, and performs, such approval not to be unreasonably withheld.” When Russo double crossed him on that promo, one court ruled that because it was not the “outcome of a wrestling match,” the clause wasn’t violated. Hogan successfully appealed because the clause is worthless if the match result can be effectively undone in a promo.
On the next edition of MSL & Sullivan, the weekly podcast on MLWRadio.com, former WCW booker Kevin Sullivan brought up a previously unknown wrinkle to the complicated relationship that Hulk Hogan had with the company. In a passage sent out in advance (the episode goes up tomorrow, October 23rd), Sullivan is quoted as saying the following about legendary manager Jimmy Hart:
Besides him getting a payday from WCW, he was getting paid by Hulk. So I was inclined to use Jimmy because of the creative control. He wasn’t getting a percentage. He was getting a flat fee. Every January 1st or 2nd he got a check written to him. Six figures.
When co-host Mister Saint Laurent asked why Hogan put so much faith in Hart, Sullivan explained their relationship:
Out of all the people Hulk had, he felt more secure with Jimmy because Jimmy had no vices. I think it happened in Memphis when Hulk first got there. Jimmy probably got him rides and he would ride with Hulk. When you finished Memphis, you had to go to Louisville, which was a brutal ride. 380 or 400 miles. He would get him a ride. He knew the places, this was the deep south, this was Kentucky Fried Chicken, Jimmy would talk the guy into grilling Hulk a dozen chicken breasts. That kind of thing. I think it started from there.
Earlier, we told you about how a Florida judge ruled that Hulk Hogan pay for a court appointed forensic examiner to search Gawker’s computers to see if they ;leaked his racist comments. In the earlier article, we mentioned a few of the search terms that the judge ruled that the investigator can look for. Now, having procured the entire nine page judge’s order, we hav the full list. Here they are, with an explanation of the significance of each:
“Hulk Hogan,” “Bollea,” “racist”
These are completely self-explanatory.
“DVD details,” “Hulk Hogan/Heather Clem Sex Tape from July 2007,” “Hulk_Hogan_Sex_Tapes.doc”
Also self-explanatory, but the specificity is interesting. Presumably, that wording is what’s on the FBI records that Gawker’s lawyers were sent and ordered not to share with anyone, includign Gawker founder Nick Denton.
“Keith Davidson,” “Davidson”
When Hogan went to the FBI about an extortion attempt involving the videos of him and Heather Cole having sex shot without his permission, the investigation took them to Keith Davidson, a lawyer based out Los Angeles. The FBI set up a sting operation where Hogan and his lawyer watched the videos and gave Davidson a $150,000 check. Davidson was never charged, and he claims that he was just representing whoever had the videos. Gawker’s attempts to subpoena Davidson have not gone well.
Gawker was sent the video that led to the lawsuit after receiving an odd phone call from Tony Burton, an agent at Don Buchwald and Associates, Inc. That firm primarily represents radio personalities. Burton said that he had a client who wanted t send Gawker a certain DVD anonymously and wanted to know how to do that. Gawker got the DVD of Hogan and Heather Cole days later. While it came out later that the client was Mike “Cowhoad” Calta, a rival radio personality of Bubba the Love Sponge (Cole’s then-husband and Hogan’s then-best friend), he was purportedly getting the information for an anonymous caller.
Former Bubba the Love Spunge employees. Peirce was deposed in the lawsuit and talked about the rumors about the tapes in radio circles. Matt “SpiceBoy” Loyd came up in the FBI investigation in some form. The belief has always been that a disgruntled employee of the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show stole the DVDs when Bubba left Sirius Satellite Radio for a Florida radio station, costing the employee his job.
“Bostick”
It’s not clear exacrly who this is. The docket in the lawsuit includes a copy of a settlement agreement between “Taryn Bostick” and “J.D. Walsh,” but it’s sealed. Searching for “Taryn Bostick” on Google provides no other substantive results. This is odd. J.D.Walsh could be the actor, the basketball coach, or a third person, but who knows what exactly that has to do with anything?
The investigator will also be able to search for these quotes from Hogan’s rant:
1. “my daughter Brooke jumped sides on me”
2. “black billionaire guy”
3. “He had Jamie Foxx coming in on the 22nd track”
4. “she is making some real bad decisions now”
5. “the one option Brooke had, Brooke’s career besides me”
6. “sell beach records”
7. “south beach records”
8. “VH1 wanted me to do a big thing and go back to the house I grew up in”
Hulk Hogan scored a big victory today in his lawsuit against Gawker over their publication of excerpts of a sex tape shot without his knowledge. According to the Tampa Bay Times, a court-appointed investigator can look over Gawker’s emails, internal records, text messages, and so on. Why? It’s complicated.
Back in July, his infamous racist rant (from another video of Hogan with Heather Cole, the woman from the Gawker video) was released by both The National Enquirer and Radar Online, getting him fired from WWE in the process. Hogan’s lawyers immediately accused Gawker of being behind the leak. Gawker’s lawyers (but not anyone else at Gawker) had access to the transcript stemming from a lawsuit to get the FBI’s case file of their investigation into Hogan being extorted via the sex videos. Gawker has insisted they had nothing to do with the leak.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRpnLCvRhkw
So what happened today was that Judge Pamela Campbell ruled that Hogan can hav a forensic investigation (at Hogan’s expense) into Gawker’s computers, writing that “The limited discovery is being permitted for the sole purpose of determining whether or not this serious allegation is true.” The investigator can only search for specific terms, including “racist,” “Hulk Hogan,” and “DVD details” in the communication of founder Nick Denton, president/general counsel Heather Dietrick, and A.J. Daulerio, who was editor at the time of the original Hogan article. It’s not entirely clear if other employees can have their emails searched.
Gawker attorney Seth Berlin told the Times that “The order has no basis in law or fact.”
WWE Hall Of Famer and former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura recently appeared as a guest on Busted Open Radio to talk about a number of topics. Below are some of the highlights.
On his book “American Conspiracies” and what he hopes to accomplish with this book that he didn’t with the first: “First of all, I didn’t choose to re-release it. My publisher Sky Horse publishing wanted to do an updated version, so I said fine and had no problem with that. We released a new version with four new conspiracies because generally the way the Government operates, you can probably get a new conspiracy out of them every year. They will do something they don’t want you to know about, they will cover it up with the cloak of National Security, and then you have to uncover it to find out the things they are doing now.”
On the possibility of entering the presidential race and what chances he might have of winning: “Well, if you look at the situation right now, there is the start of a revolution happening here. You can see it in the Republican Party right now. Their three leaders have never held the office at the any time. You’re watching these two parties disintegrate in their own way before your eyes, which is good. Come next spring time, the pipers will be out and it will be down to two people when the Libertarians name their candidate. They go to the Libertarian convention, name their candidate, then from June to November you will be on the ballot in 47 to 48 states. Then the key would be to get into the debates. You have to be in the debates to have a chance to win. You need to wait in my case, if I am going to do it. I wait until they get down to one or two people so you save money and don’t spin your wheels and waste your time.”
On Donald Trump and his presidential qualifications: “Donald Trump was a supporter of me way back in the days of the reform party in the 90s. I knew Donald for twenty or twenty five years now since back to WrestleMania four or five and all that. He has always threatened to run but has never gone through with it, but now he has gone through with it and he is in for the long haul. The problem is, if he doesn’t get the Republican nomination, what happens to all the people that were going to vote for him? Would they just go back to the normal Republican? Or would they look for something else? The same thing could be said for Bernie Sanders. He is an Independent infiltrating the Democrats. He won’t get the nomination either and what will happen to all his voters? Where will they go? Will they simply go back to the Democratic Party? I don’t think so. When you look at the whole nation, the last election, 64 percent of the people chose not to vote, that is almost two-thirds of the nation didn’t vote. Well those are potential customers for me if I run because that’s how I won in Minnesota. I was getting people who didn’t normally vote to get out and vote.”
On hosting ORA’s “Off The Grid” television show: “It’s on ORA TV which is on the internet Monday through Friday and I am off the grid when I do it. What you are going to get is Jesse Ventura in a ten to eleven minute interview on any subject. It really turns me loose and being on the internet there aren’t any FCC regulations, I’m in total control of my show, and it’s the most fun I have ever had doing a show.”
On his reaction to the Hulk Hogan scandal: “Maybe the people are seeing the real Hulk Hogan. Let’s all remember we play parts in wrestling and may be nothing like we are in real life. Maybe we are seeing what Hulk Hogan is in real life. I am only speculating on that so bear that in mind. We would always laugh when he would tell the little kids to say their prayers and eat their vitamins, and we would always laugh and say, ‘oral or injectables?’ What kind of vitamins are we talking here? I remember when Hogan would always deny that he used steroids and I would always laugh.”
On why he left WCW: “The real story was, when they brought me in they paid me big money because I made the jump from the WWF. A lot of people couldn’t handle the money they were paying me to just be an announcer, Bill Watts included, who was the head booker. I think Jim Ross was very jealous because he wouldn’t work with me. I would toss him lines and he wouldn’t respond to them, and he even admitted that he didn’t do the best job he could when he worked with me in WCW. I think Jim was jealous of the money I was getting which wasn’t my fault. He shouldn’t have blamed me for it. There never was the chemistry there with Jim Ross that I had with Vince or Gorilla. The reason it ended up the way it did, was they brought Hogan in and then Hogan had me immediately dismissed. I remember, I had six months to go on my contract and I never had to work. They just paid me and I sat at home. Hogan came in and he did not want me on the mic there. He had the power to do it so Eric Bischoff—that little—I have a few names for him, the back stabber Eric Bischoff, and I never worked my last six months as soon as Hulk Hogan was brought in.”
After a lot of speculation the Tampa Bay Times has finally come through with an article explaining why Hulk Hogan’s “Hogan’s Beach” restaurant is in the process of closing. Today, the sale was closed on the Best Western Bay Harbor hotel at Rocky Point, which the restaurant is part of. The 261-room hotel is being sold for $34.5 million to the Oxford Capital Group out of Chicago. Obviously, this means that the restaurant closing has nothing to do with the fallout from Hogan’s racist rant leaking over the Summer, something real estate investor Ben Mallah confirmed to the Times.
Mallah explained that “Basically everything with us is timing. We buy assets and fix them up. The market is high right now. Tampa’s hot …Hogan had nothing to do with it. He was fine. Ultimately, we’re in the real estate business, not in the restaurant business.” Mallah said that Hogan had no ownership interest in the restaurant, which licensed his name, though his name is on some of the ownership paperwork.
The hotel is still open under the Bay Harbor name, but will be undergoing major renovations. Hogan’s Beach Shop, a separate storefront not connected to this property, remains open for business.
TampaBay.com is reporting that Hulk Hogan’s “Hogan’s Beach” establishment in Tampa, Florida will be re-branded and re-named, ending their affiliation with Hogan. They claimed that the restaurant is still open and serving customers under the Hogan name, however there is no solid timetable for the changes to happen.
Owner Ben Mallah, a real estate investor, said Hogan’s Beach and the Best Western-Bay Harbor-Tampa hotel it’s next to are being sold, however the sale is not officially done just yet. Even without the sale, Hogan’s Beach is going to be re-branded.
Mallah said the changes have nothing to do with the recent Hogan controversy. He also noted that Hogan licenses his name to the restaurant but has no ownership interest.
“We’ve had a two-and-a-half-year run with that brand,” said Mallah. “It’s time for a new brand. Everything changes.”