Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
After being awarded a huge judgment against Gawker.com for the website's decision to publish snippets of a sex tape video that featured the WWE Hall of Famer, Hulk Hogan has filed another lawsuit against Gawker today. News of the lawsuit was first reported by The New York Post.
In the new lawsuit, Hogan is alleging that Gawker purposely leaked the transcript of Hogan's racially-offensive rant about African-Americans to The National Enquirer, which published the material in July 2015. At the time, the transcript had been sealed from the public by the presiding Judge over the case.
When the material leaked, WWE immediately cut ties with Hogan, firing him from his role as an ambassador for the company as well as a judge for Tough Enough, they also immediately stopped the licensing and release of any Hogan-related merchandise and removed as many mentions of him as possible from the official WWE website, including WWE.com's Hall of Fame listings. While it has been portrayed that Hogan was removed from the company's Hall of Fame, that is not correct. In this year's WWE Wrestlemania 32 program, Hogan was still listed and pictured as a member of the company's Hall.
The firing also meant that Hogan, who had been pushing for one final Wrestlemania match, would never get his wish, effectively ending his in-ring career with a match against Sting at the TNA Bound for Glory PPV in Philadelphia, PA in 2011.
Hogan is also suing a number of defendants involved in the leaking of the initial sex tape to Gawker, including Mike “Cowhead” Calta, a local radio DJ in Florida who at one point, worked for Bubba the Love Sponge. Bubba had filmed Hogan, without his knowledge, having sex with his then-wife Heather Clem. When Bubba's marriage with Heather ended, he moved the tapes to his radio office, where they were later stolen and attempted to be sold to different news organizations. Hogan settled a lawsuit against Bubba over the issue. Bubba refused to testify in the initial lawsuit against Gawker.
In the lawsuit, Hogan alleges that Gawker had been threatening to release the transcript of his comments, an angry rant about the then-boyfriend of his daughter Brooke, for some time before they came out. The lawsuit claims that Gawker head Nick Denton wrote online that Hogan's "real secrets" would be coming out while Gawker Editor AJ Daulerio (who published the sex tape video clips and article) Tweeted "XOXO" with a link to the National Enquirer's article.
Hogan is seeking unspecified damages in the new lawsuit.
To read The New York Post article, click here.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
