Tonight, Monday January 6, 2025 sees the debut of WWE Monday Night Raw on Netflix. A year in the making, the first appearance of the flagship program for World Wrestling Entertainment on the streamer is being treated like a Wrestlemania or Royal Rumble or SummerSlam; it’s a massive show featuring the company’s big guns.
Tonight John Cena begins his final year as a wrestler with WWE, as he plans to retire after 2025. The Rock, the Final Boss, is scheduled to appear. Two massive matches are also set to grace the ring, as CM Punk takes on Seth Rollins and Solo Sokoa faces off against Roman Reigns. With no need to follow strict run times, there’s speculation that tonight’s Raw could go 3.5 hours.
For WWE fans, this is exciting stuff. However, this morning a touch of grey couldn’t help cloud the proceedings for me. WWE announced that they would be teaming with WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan to promote his Real American Beer, with the brand’s logo appearing on the ring mat corners of every Monday Night Raw broadcast.
Sigh.
I grew up a Hulkamaniac. My first live wrestling event was seeing Hulk Hogan take on Terry Funk at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens in December 1985. I was eight years old. I remember the shock when Hogan lost his World Heavyweight Championship to Andre The Giant at The Main Event. Hell, I remember jumping out of my chair at Skydome when “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan hulked up against The Rock at Wrestlemania X-8. I was a fan.
But I also remember being disappointed and disgusted by Terry Bollea, the man who plays the role of Hulk Hogan, when his racist tirade against African-Americans in an admittedly very private moment came to light in July 2015. I’ve never been able to look at the man or the character the same way. Over the years, it’s been clear that a large swaft of the WWE Universe, the company’s fan base, feels the same way. While there’s certainly a portion of that base that still eat up Hogan, his live reactions since 2015 have certainly never been the same. I don’t know how the wrestlers in the back feel about Hulk Hogan, but I can’t see many of them terribly enamoured with the man, no matter how many mea culpa’s he’s made.
WWE is a business, of course, owned by TKO, a company driven by profits. I get that, and don’t have a problem with commerce. It just boggles my mind that being associated in any contemporary way with Hulk Hogan adds value or interest to viewers or shareholders. Hogan hasn’t done anything of note for WWE in decades; however, his most recent headline grabbing antic, appearing at the Republican National Convention stumping for Donald Trump, did get people talking, and maybe that’s what WWE and TKO are hoping for by establishing a new relationship with the Hulkster.
There’s enough happening on WWE Monday Night Raw tonight that I’m excited to see that I’ll certainly be tuning in; having to be reminded of Hogan, though? That’s definitely not a selling point.
