Hulk Hogan and ex-wife banned from wrestling events over ‘afro Americans’ tweet

Linda Hogan claimed ‘the looting’ in America was being carried out entirely by black people and called on them to be ‘civilised’ to have their voices heard, triggering a furious backlash before the post was deleted

Hulk Hogan and his ex-wife have been banned from attending shows by All Elite Wrestling following a controversial social media posting regarding the protests across the United States.

Hogan’s ex-wife, Linda, called for “afro Americans” (sic) to be “civilised” in the wake of widespread protests and looting following the death of George Floyd last week while in police custody.

The inflammatory comments, which appeared to be in response to footage of the racial equality protests that have been broadcast over the last week, were roundly criticised on Twitter and the message prompted the chief of AEW, Tony Khan, to hit back and tell Hogan she was not welcome at the company’s events.

The 60-year-old, who divorced the wrestling legend in 2009, has since deleted the original tweet.

It read: “Watching the looting, it’s all afro Americans, not sure how robbing and stealing set the record straight but if they want to be heard they need to be civilised.”

Khan, who is the founder of AEW and a co-owner of Championship football side Fulham, made his company’s position clear in responding: “You’ve now joined your husband in being banned from all AEW shows. Congratulations.”

Khan did not specifically make reference as to why Hulk, whose real name is Terry Gene Bollea, was not welcome at AEW events, but it is likely to relate to the controversy caused by the veteran’s 2015 exit from WWE after it emerged he’d used racist slurs in a recorded conversation. Hogan was dropped by the WWE until 2018 when he returned to live shows and was reinstated to the Hall of Fame.

WWE said at the time that it was “committed to embracing and celebrating individuals from all backgrounds.”

The 66-year-old is no stranger to outlandish and controversial statements. Just last month, Hogan attracted widespread criticism online for suggesting that coronavirus was a punishment from God, saying: “God has taken away everything we worship.”