WWE star Seth Rollins went scorched Earth in his criticism over the behavior and legacy of wrestling legend Hulk Hogan.
“I’m not stupid,” Rollins, 38, said on the Wednesday, April 16, episode of the “Outta Pocket” podcast. “I see everything that’s out there. He’s someone who is, I think, a victim of his own ego a little bit. He just doesn’t understand how what he does affects people around him. I think he just lives in this space that he’s created for himself. He’s shaped his worldview, and this is how he’s gonna see things.”
Rollins continued, “I think if you’re going to be like that, people are gonna treat you accordingly. I don’t know what to tell you.”
Scandal, lawsuits and controversy have followed Hogan, 71, for years. In July 2015, Hogan was caught repeatedly using a racial slur on a leaked sex tape recording from 2007. In the video, Hogan admitted to being “a racist, to a point.” In a statement to People in 2015, Hogan said his language was “unacceptable.”
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“It’s just like any other relationship,” Rollins said. “Dude, if you are not a good person, and it’s in your moral ethic to not treat everyone with the same respect, regardless of what they do, or where they come from, or the color of their skin, I got no time for you.”
Rollins, who is married to WWE star Becky Lynch, expressed gratitude to Hogan for “everything he’s done for my business,” but the buck stopped there.
“Whether he hasn’t changed his personal beliefs, or he hasn’t taken the time to honestly make amends for some of the things he’s said and done, I don’t know which one it is. Maybe it’s both,” Rollins suggested. “Maybe it’s one more than the other. I don’t know. But you put those two things together, you kind of have dug your own grave, man. If you don’t feel like you want to make that progress in your life with the people around you, then that’s just not the kind of person I want to associate with. So, that’s how it is.”
Many WWE fans share Rollins’ viewpoint, as evidenced by Hogan’s appearance on WWE Raw’s debut on Netflix in January, at which Hogan was loudly booed by the sold-out crowd at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.
Hogan has not been seen on live WWE programming since.
Rollins gave leniency to a path forward for Hogan, but he said it’s going to take some real soul searching.
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“First of all, you’ve gotta change the way you think,” Rollins posed. “You used the kind of language that he used, in the way he used it, it’s just not acceptable. That to me is your mind, that’s the way you think. So first of all, you need to look at yourself in the mirror, and you need to realize that that’s not OK.”
He continued, “And you need to realize that you need to think differently, and how do you get yourself there? What process do you need to take to get yourself there? What am I doing? Why am I acting this way? Why am I thinking this way? Is this learned behavior? Likely it is. Why did I learn this? I need to unlearn this. Why do people think that I feel this way? If I’m saying that I don’t, why do people think that I am this person?”
“I think if he just approached it that way, it might go a long way in helping him kind of build relationships with people like me, who are like, ‘I ain’t got time for you right now,’” Rollins concluded.
