Original subtitles

- Ladies and gentlemen, Hulk Hogan!

[energetic music]

- Hulkamania-- God, it took over the world.

[fireworks popping and crackling]

It was a very exciting time in wrestling.

- Got action! Hulk!

- They love it!

- He was patriotic.

He was for family values.

- People loved him.

- But then...

[power whirring down]

- Tonight the Showbiz Countdown--

Hulk Hogan's sex tape.

- I never really imagined

I'd see Hulk Hogan's erect penis.

- [chuckles]

It was crazy.

There were these

celebrity sex tapes floating around.

- This is the tape that catapulted her

from socialite to superstar.

- But for Hulk Hogan, this was much more

than just an embarrassing sex tape.

- I'm going full blown to try to find out

who did this to me and why.

- This was one of the craziest cases that I reported on.

- No, seriously, I do not have a 10-inch penis.

- It turned out, there was something else on the tape

that Hulk Hogan didn't want to be revealed to the public.

- What can you tell me about the use of the N-word?

[dramatic music]

- ♪ Ching-ching, you got the bling-bling ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Who needs money, come on ♪

♪ You need money, come on ♪

♪ Show me the money ♪

♪ But I never let it take me away ♪

♪ 'Cause you a ♪ - ♪ Star ♪

- ♪ You drive a ♪ - ♪ Car ♪

- ♪ Got the latest fashions and trends ♪

♪ But tell me who you ♪ - ♪ Are ♪

- ♪ Tell me who you ♪ - ♪ Money, money ♪

♪ ♪

[static crackling]

- Batman and Indiana Jones aren't exciting enough

for you this summer, you may want to check out

Hulk Hogan's thriller.

crowd: Hogan, Hogan, Hogan, Hogan.

- If you thought the Incredible Hulk was

a figment of some television writer's imagination,

you would be wrong.

He exists; he's alive and well and competing

for the heavyweight wrestling championship of the world.

[triumphant music]

- He is real.

He is the Hulk.

[rock music]

- The origins of Hulk Hogan--

it's hard to be 100% certain

about all of the specifics of everything,

but the entire world knows the character of Hulk Hogan.

But this person started out as just

a working-class guy from Tampa called Terry Bollea.

- Where'd you get that picture? - Somebody--it's yours.

It's not mine. - Oh, thank you.

[laughter]

- I knew he was destined for fame because

Terry always just wanted to be number one.

- He'd always been determined to be the best.

Make no mistake, it didn't fall in his lap.

He worked his ass off to get there.

[engines rumbling]

- It's South Tampa, and he was hanging

around a lot of the gyms that the wrestlers went to.

And that's how Terry Bollea

broke into the wrestling business.

He spent some time going around to various territories,

really learning the craft and learning what he could do

to make himself stand out.

♪ ♪

- Hulk, he had an amazing physique at 6'6" or 7",

300 pounds.

- Maybe you people out there don't realize

what you're looking at, Daddy.

But you got 6'7" right here, a mountain of a man.

- He looked a little bit different from everyone else.

He was very tan.

He had the bleached blond hair.

♪ ♪

- I just looked at him and went, wow,

this guy's gonna... do something big.

- Terry worked very hard to build

this character that would capture people's imaginations.

And he finally settled on a name that would

make him a wrestling legend.

- This, the Incredible Hulk Hogan.

[crowd cheering]

- He went to the top of the card

in the early '80s and became a sensation in the Midwest.

- The blows by Bockwinkel having seemingly

no effect on Hulk Hogan.

- He sold out arenas.

- Here's the man.

Here's the champion.

- And then he sold out stadiums.

That coincided with Vince McMahon, Jr.,

taking over the WWF from his father.

And Vince McMahon, Jr., turned his eye to nationalization.

- The fabulous Hulk Hogan--

take a look at this giant of a man.

- He knew that Hulk Hogan was the guy

that he could pitch his company to

to make pro wrestling a household name.

- Hulk made a deal with Vince McMahon

and never came back.

♪ ♪

[driving rock music]

♪ ♪

- When Vince McMahon, Jr., took over wrestling,

it was about spectacle and pomp and circumstance.

Hulk Hogan was the perfect demonstration of that.

- Ladies and gentlemen, Hulk Hogan!

- We know who the boss is.

That's the big dude up there.

And he created the heavens, the earth, the Hulkamaniacs,

New York City,

and the largest arms in the world, brother.

- We have got action! Hulk!

- They love it!

- Hulkamania-- God, it took over the world.

[static crackling]

I would say, at one time, his level of popularity

was like--literally like the Rolling Stones.

[crowd cheering]

He was just huge.

[fabric ripping] - You're looking

at a $10-million-a-year superstar.

crowd: Hogan, Hogan.

- Hulk Hogan's gonna defeat that mean, nasty giant

because Hulkamania is running wild.

♪ ♪

- He was the ultimate good guy.

People loved him.

- Terry Bollea as Hulk Hogan transcended wrestling.

Hulk Hogan was a household name.

Now you could watch the Hulk Hogan cartoon.

You could eat the Hulk Hogan cereal.

You could buy the Hulk Hogan shirt.

You could buy the Hulk Hogan bandanna.

You could buy the Hulk Hogan action figure.

You could buy the Hulk Hogan home weight set.

- And then, of course, the "Rocky" movie

with Stallone, Thunderlips, and all that--

it all came together.

- Rocky!

- [yelling] - Catch me!

- He got a starring role in "No Holds Barred."

And then in 2005,

he launches his very successful reality show.

- "Hogan Knows Best."

♪ ♪

- I really think Hulk Hogan

brought a different element to wrestling.

He made it more celebrity.

[photographers clamoring]

[camera shutters snapping]

- People would want to take pictures and autographs

while I was in the restroom.

Or when I was eating dinner,

a lot of people would come up, you know.

At first, it kind of scared me, you know,

because I said, my God, there's nowhere to hide.

[indistinct chatter]

- If you're the biggest all-American hero,

how can you not become addicted to attention?

[cork pops]

- My God, and it was crazy with the women.

We were like rock stars,

just a different city, different night,

different bar.

[laughs]

- I personally like to watch the guys

roll around on the mat.

- And they have great bodies. [laughs]

- Hulk Hogan was a sex symbol.

And I think all the females fancied him.

- You hit big in the WWF at that time.

- Brother... - Tons of women.

- Let me tell you something.

When I did "Rocky III," Stallone was single.

- Uh-huh? - Right.

- And we were running pretty hard back then.

- Hey, you've got to be dreaming of those days.

[laughter]

- I have no idea what possible extracurricular activities

Hulk Hogan was getting up to when he was on the road.

But Hogan and Linda remained married for 24 years,

up until the very public breakdown

of their relationship.

- I mean, you may not know who or exactly when,

but you know that he's acting different.

You know that he's, you know, showing you

all the signs of having an affair.

- You were suspicious then.

- But this wasn't the first time.

I mean, this happened ten years into our marriage.

And I kept my mouth shut.

I don't know where his career would be today

had I, you know, blown the whistle on him then.

- Would you have put up with everything had you not

discovered that Hulk, Terry, was having an affair

with your daughter's friend?

- Just a life full of lies.

You just say--wake up one day and go, can I keep going?

- It's insane having a camera live on top of you.

Just some things you don't want the world to know.

- We're getting a better idea

what Hulk Hogan's wife is looking for

in the divorce she's asked for.

She wants a share of the family's two

multimillion-dollar Florida properties.

The petition says the marriage is irretrievably broken.

- When I went to the house, every room was empty.

All my dogs and all of our animals were gone.

There were pictures of my family all over the house.

And every closet I went in, all the clothes were gone.

For so long, I was like the captain of the ship.

Now all of a sudden, you know, I don't even have a ship.

[somber music]

- It's just a terrible incident in his life.

- You are alone in your house in Florida.

You're nursing a combination of Xanax and rum.

- Right, right.

- And this--and you're holding a gun.

And you write, "3 pounds.

"I remember thinking, 3 pounds of pressure

is all it takes to pull this thing."

- Yeah. - "It would be just so easy."

- Yeah.

- Hulk Hogan, he's in need of support.

And who does he turn to?

His old friend, radio shock jock

Bubba the Love Sponge.

- I continue to be myself.

I continue to be politically driven,

opinionated, outspoken,

controversial, in-your-face, no-holds-barred.

- He keeps trying to get you to go to his house

and stay there.

And you were like-- - He wants you--

he begs you to come to his house.

- really is in love with you, isn't he?

- Well, my wife says we're a couple homos.

[laughter]

- Hogan was staying at Bubba's house often at this time.

But what came out next

was something that nobody expected.

A shocking revelation sets off a domino effect

that would change Hulk Hogan's world forever.

- And so we're driving home from the Dollhouse.

And my wife calls me.

And Hogan's down.

And I just told her, I said, hey, Heather,

have a little sexy outfit on.

And take care of my boy when we get home.

- Bubba was cheering Hogan on.

And that started this whole sordid ordeal.

[upbeat music]

- "The Bubba the Love Sponge Show."

- I don't want to break the law.

I don't want to-- I just need to know

what the damn law is.

- Bubba the Love Sponge was a very popular shock jock

in the Florida area.

- Yeah, it might be. - It might be too thick.

We'll see. - Where is the shit?

- Get away, here we go.

[fan rattling] - Oh!

♪ ♪

- My name is Mike Waters, and I worked

on "The Bubba the Love Sponge Show,"

where I spent most of my career.

Tom the Treeman is completely unfazed.

Bubba the Love Sponge is the ultimate shock jock.

- Here we go. Don't tap out.

- We were just stepping on landmines constantly.

- You know, now you guys want my wife

to show her [bleep] hole.

- Hey, you brought it up, man.

- [chuckles] We were out of control.

- I'm on fire again!

[sharp bang] Ah!

- We eventually worked our way up to number one in Tampa.

We dominated for years, just dominated.

I don't know how he got away with it.

[chuckles]

- Let's get you topless with panties on.

- All right, you can strip me. - All right.

- We got fined $750,000 because we were too dirty.

Bubba was larger-than-life guy, amazing talent,

amazingly flawed.

- Whoa, God.

[crowd cheering]

Foley just knocked out Bubba the Love Sponge.

- Bah-bang. [chuckles]

- Bubba the Love Sponge was on the periphery

of pro wrestling,

always having pro wrestlers on his show, especially Hogan.

- Who else can say they're best friends

with the world's greatest wrestler?

[beep] Hulk Hogan is on the line.

[echoing] On the line, on the line.

- What's up, Hootie?

- Hootie up. What up?

- Hootie up, Hootie up.

What are you doing?

- Oh, man, that punch in the face

was like the one heard around the world.

- Bubba and Hogan became good friends.

They're both Florida guys.

[dramatic music]

- First time Hulk Hogan comes to the show,

you're like, it's Hulk Hogan.

You know, he's a monstrously tall guy.

[indistinct chatter]

- Then after, like, six months, you're like,

oh, Hogan's coming in again.

[chuckles]

[ominous music]

At the studio, there were rumors

that Bubba was letting Hogan sleep with his wife, Heather,

and that, you know, he was taping it.

[lens whirring]

Certain people have certain proclivities.

I think he was just a big voyeur.

- My best friend [bleep] my wife

is not that big a deal to me.

- This was one of the craziest cases that I reported on.

[keys clacking]

Hulk had sex with Heather on a number of occasions.

And Bubba had a camera set up in the bedroom.

And so there were these three sex tapes of Hulk Hogan.

♪ ♪

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- Bubba was having trouble with his wife, Heather.

And they eventually got divorced.

And his claim was that he took these DVDs,

and he was keeping them in his office at work for safekeeping

because he didn't trust his wife to not get ahold of them

and try to profit off of them.

- But apparently, one of his disgruntled employees

allegedly stole the tapes.

At the time, Bubba did not realize that they were stolen.

He only found out when a gossip website, The Dirty,

published a screenshot

from one of the Hulk Hogan sex tapes

in early 2012.

It caused a sensation online.

TMZ picked up on it, and it set the internet shattering.

Bubba suspected that Matt Loyd, AKA Spice Boy,

stole the tapes.

- We were at 102.5 The Bone at that time.

And there was a lot of animosity in the building

between Spice Boy, who left the show and did nights.

He wanted to wash his hands of Bubba

'cause Bubba had made him do a lot of things in the past

that I don't think he was proud of.

So when Spice Boy got the DVD,

I don't know if he knew what he had in his hands or not.

But when he popped it in the DVD

and he saw the one and only Hulk Hogan,

he was probably like, this is the meal ticket.

[ominous music]

The day that it came out in the news,

you know, Bubba was like, oh, my God.

You know, I can't believe this is happening.

- When the first pictures leaked out,

I asked my best friend.

And he goes, oh, I had nothing to do with this.

I'm praying to God he's not involved.

- After Matt initially leaked it to The Dirty,

then it makes its way to Gawker.

♪ ♪

- Gawker at the time was mostly reporting gossip.

And then it grew from there

to be its own independent news operation

that was a site where you could get the real story.

- You get an unfiltered, sort of the way

that people perceive celebrities in real time

that you don't get from any other media.

- Nick Denton, he runs a website called gawker.com.

He said that immediacy

and humor are more important than accuracy.

And he said, if that means a lawsuit, great.

[frenetic music]

- We viewed ourselves as pirates. [chuckles]

Like, you know, kind of hoist the black flag

and start slitting throats.

♪ ♪

One of the chief offerings that Gawker had to our readers

was that it was the place where you could say

what no one else would say,

what every other newsroom

was either too conflicted or too scared to say.

The one overarching thing that Nick would repeat

was that Gawker was a place

where you would not get in trouble

for what you did publish.

You'd get in trouble for what you didn't publish.

- Gawker.com was a place where everyone pushed each other,

like, to see who could push the envelope the furthest,

who could write the story that other people

were incapable of writing.

- We were driven by traffic.

We got bonuses if we exceeded our traffic targets.

So there was a real intense game of,

how do you find posts that are gonna go viral?

By 2012, it was like a media trope.

There were these sort of B-list celebrity

sex tapes floating around.

It was like a gross, funny thing--

Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian.

- Everyone knows the tape is out there.

But what they want to know is when they'll

actually be able to see it.

- And at that point, there wasn't a discourse

around revenge porn.

It wasn't a thing that was really

on the minds of most people

who are either producing or consuming these tapes.

It was just a--

almost a genre of story.

- And that's your Paris Hilton sex tape forecast.

Back to you, Conan.

- There were a bunch of stories for months

about this sex tape

with Hulk Hogan that was going around.

And he was a-- kind of a comical,

pathetic figure from the past.

- There was a source that had emailed me

and said that a client of his has a package

that he wants to send to me.

- I mean, he was like a washed-up

former wrestling star.

It was a little bit like, what are we

gonna do with this thing?

♪ ♪

- Tonight the Showbiz Countdown--

Hulk Hogan's sex tape.

- I'm coming to New York to talk about a wrestling tour

and our new time slot.

And all of a sudden... [crowd booing]

[glass shattering]

- Gawker posted clips of the sex tape

in all of its pornographic glory.

- This is a shameless display by Gawker.

[tense music]

Who do they think they are?

♪ ♪

- The way A.J. answered the question was,

he actually wrote this essay on the experience

of what it's like to watch a celebrity sex tape

of this person who was a hero of yours when you were a kid.

- I had no problem doing that because it wasn't really

about the sex portion of the tape

that I was actually interested.

I had to show that the sex existed.

I did that as little as possible.

And mostly, that was just to really lead

into what was probably one of the best essays

I've ever written, actually, in my life.

- It was a sort of commentary on this culture of sex tapes

that we were finding ourselves in.

So we published 90 seconds or thereabouts, which had,

like, a little bit of actual sex in it.

And it went crazy.

- Here you have basically an American icon

who's on camera naked and having sex.

Why wouldn't people want to click on it,

especially if it's on a free website?

- Hogan is being slammed by Gawker.

1 million hits.

- How about that sex tape?

- 5 million.

- That was just like his in-ring wrestling--

three moves and a shitty finish.

[laughter]

- 7 million hits on the sex tape.

The public can't get enough.

- This was the complete undermining

of the idea of Hulk Hogan as a mythos.

- It's the worst thing I've ever been through, bar none.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Hulk Hogan will take all reasonable steps

necessary to ensure that all persons and entities

who were involved in this are punished

to the fullest extent of the law.

- Hulk Hogan speaking out today for the very first time

about the sex tape of him that just surfaced online,

where he's having sex with the then-wife of his best friend.

- I never really imagined I'd see Hulk Hogan's erect penis.

It's not something that Gawker needed to post.

[ominous music]

- That was very hurtful, really hurtful for Hulk.

- Got to tell you, I actually

feel really badly for Hulk.

It looks like he was completely blindsided by something

that happened a long time ago.

And really, when you think about it,

obviously, such an incredible invasion of privacy.

- When the tape was released, I don't think there was really

a pro wrestling fan who didn't at least

click on it out of curiosity

because Hulk Hogan was a household name at that point.

It was definitely a bombshell in pop culture.

♪ ♪

- I'm going full blown to try to find out

who did this to me and why.

- The first time I heard about the sex tape was on the news.

Who would do that to Terry?

He's married. He's got children.

- So I called Bubba, and I said,

you're my best friend, brother.

Please tell me if you did this,

because if you didn't do this,

I love you forever.

If you did this, we were never friends.

- Terry Bollea had spent his entire career,

his entire life fabricating

the idea of Hulk Hogan.

And in one fell swoop,

that entire illusion was shattered.

- At the end of the day,

at a really weak moment,

I made a wrong decision.

♪ ♪

- Gawker got takedown requests all the time.

But it's newsworthy material,

and it's protected by the First Amendment,

and we're gonna keep it up.

- You know, this is a crime. It's a felony.

You know, there's supposed to be two-party consent

when you film anything sexually.

I had no idea the cameras were there.

- Hulk Hogan's privacy rights were invaded.

It's wrong for a media company

to take footage that was secretly filmed

in a private bedroom,

showing a person without their clothes on

and engaged in adult activity,

and to let the world watch that.

- Denton argues Hogan made his sex life

part of his public persona.

Gawker says that's fair game for the press to cover.

- We wouldn't stay married for 22 years

if he sucked in bed, so...

- Yeah, he knows what he's doing.

- He's good. - He can deliver it.

♪ ♪

- I understand why A.J. Daulerio posted it.

But, like, even by the time Gawker published that,

there was this sort of, you know,

growing queasiness around sex tapes

and, like, people publishing that kind of stuff.

- Just because of one incident one night

with someone who I was in love with, people assume,

oh, she's a slut.

I don't know, it's something that's changed my life forever.

- Not only for Hulk Hogan

but also for Terry Bollea the person,

the damage done by the release of the sex tape

was such that it was a humiliation of him,

damaging to his reputation,

a smear on his character.

And all these things are true.

- Never have I ever been this embarrassed.

And never has my world been turned upside down

in such a fashion.

- If I had been the editor of gawker.com,

I would not have posted that.

So...

♪ ♪

- Are you any nearer to knowing who betrayed you?

- At this point, no.

- The story of the Hulk Hogan sex tapes is more convoluted

than many of the pro wrestling storylines you might see.

But nobody expected who he'd have to fight next.

[intense music]

- After Matt Loyd has stolen

these DVDs from Bubba's office

and it made it to Gawker,

he reaches out to a California attorney

named Keith Davidson, who is sort of known in the industry

as a guy who can sell or buy sex tapes.

And they come up with this scheme

to try and sell the tapes back to Hulk Hogan

because they knew that Hulk Hogan

was very concerned that there might be

even more damaging tapes out there.

- Hogan's getting hit with more tapes?

Just how many are there?

♪ ♪

[ominous music]

- Hogan, who was supposed to be promoting Impact Wrestling,

was instead doing damage control,

fielding questions about his marriage

to his second wife, Jennifer.

- Are you afraid your marriage won't survive this?

- I have never seen anybody hurt this bad

or flipped upside down like this.

So it's the worst thing I've ever been through, bar none.

- But even as he's out there

fighting to keep his life together,

that very same day, Keith Davidson reaches out

to Hulk Hogan's personal attorney/fixer, David Houston,

and says,

my client has come into possession of three tapes

that we think Hulk Hogan might be interested in purchasing.

Let's start the bidding at $1 million.

♪ ♪

In response to that, David Houston goes to the FBI.

And the FBI says, keep talking to them.

We will record the calls.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- David Houston, Hulk Hogan's personal attorney,

and sex tape broker Keith Davidson

agree to meet

in Florida at the Sandpearl Hotel

and actually exchange the original copies

of the tapes for $300,000.

The hotel room is bugged.

David Houston is wearing a wire.

The FBI is in the room next door.

And then Keith Davidson enters.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Then Keith Davidson goes to bring in his client, Lori.

Keith Davidson said, she's kind of an intermediary

for this other guy, Mr. X.

- David Houston says, look, we have to watch the tapes.

We have to make sure this is real.

♪ ♪

- There was something on the tapes

that Terry Bollea didn't want to be revealed to the public

because he knew it would destroy

his reputation as Hulk Hogan.

So then they hand over the check,

and the FBI bursts in.

- It's an FBI Royal Rumble.

[intense rock music]

- Keith Davidson and Lori, the intermediary,

are arrested.

And she says, I'm representing Matt Loyd.

- The FBI is really bringing the heat.

♪ ♪

After that FBI tag team, Hogan can turn his attention

back to the main event.

And this is one fight he's not gonna back down from.

[discordant music]

- Hulk Hogan filed two lawsuits today.

The first lawsuit was filed against Heather Clem

and her ex-husband, Bubba the Love Sponge.

Approximately six years ago,

the Clems secretly videotaped Mr. Hogan

having private, consensual intimate relations

in a private bedroom.

The second lawsuit filed today

was against Gawker Media.

It alleges that the defendants posted excerpts

of the videotape at their website, gawker.com.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- In 2014, Nick Denton still believed

that he would be able to reach a settlement with Hogan.

But it gradually became clear that this

was a real risk to Gawker.

- And you realize, well, wait a minute.

Wait, this was supposed to settle, and it's not.

And there's a trial date. That's happening?

[crowd cheering]

- Hulk Hogan was not just after money.

Most people who sue media companies want money.

They don't necessarily want to punish the media outlets.

So, like, something was off about the whole thing.

There was a rumor going around Tampa that someone

is bankrolling Hulk Hogan.

[crowd cheering and whistling]

♪ ♪

- We later found out Peter Thiel was behind it.

♪ ♪

- PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel has now been reported

as the man who has been financing

media wars against Gawker Media.

- Peter Thiel first started to form his vendetta

against Gawker because in 2007,

Gawker wrote a post saying,

"Peter Thiel is totally gay, people."

- The point of that post is, there's an open secret

about Peter Thiel that no one talks about

that everybody knows.

He lives a life as a gay man in Silicon Valley.

- Back around that time, that was still kind of

a pretty spicy thing to do.

- They were a singularly sociopathic bully.

And there were many people that did things

far worse than me.

And so, you know, I was convinced that if I didn't

do something, nobody would.

- Hogan's secret financier, Peter Thiel,

had turned us into public enemy number one.

He was the most vindictive man in Silicon Valley,

and he wanted our blood.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- I was one of the jurors.

And I remember them telling us it involved Hulk Hogan.

And I kind of had that eye-roll attitude, like, oh, no,

here we go again, you know?

Another Hollywood sex tape.

I was very nervous.

I mean, it's not like it's life or death.

But it was a huge deal.

- Gawker founder Nick Denton argues

the case is really about whether celebrities

can use the courts to intimidate reporters.

- This is where celebrities' desire to control their image,

to manage their own business,

the business of their image,

comes into conflict with our business,

which is to put out the real story.

- The reason that they posted this and the reason

that they kept it up--

power and profit.

- Hulk Hogan's entire claim was based on

not being aware of the recording.

- When you were having these sexual encounters

with Heather, you testified that you had no knowledge

you were being recorded, right?

- Yes, sir.

- Bubba the Love Sponge had made

public statements that Hulk Hogan

knew he was being recorded.

So we want to call Bubba the Love Sponge

to testify.

But Bubba pleads the Fifth Amendment:

I'm not gonna testify 'cause I might be

implicating myself in crimes.

- Bubba the Love Sponge never took the stand.

Refusing to testify was a real blow to Gawker's defense

because his testimony would have called into question

Hogan's claim that he didn't know he was being recorded.

- Nothing in the trial had gone right for us,

and everything had gone wrong.

- When Hulk Hogan first took the stand,

I almost got emotional and overwhelmed,

because nobody should have to fight for their privacy.

- And this tape totally sabotaged me.

Just my demeanor, I just felt like I was turned inside.

It was just constantly on my mind.

It's just--it's just like this overhanging cloud

that will not lighten up.

[static crackling] - In a case like this,

if something is newsworthy,

the courts have to protect it.

But on the other hand, even First Amendment freedoms

are lessened somewhat when we're dealing

with private facts about people's private lives.

- Our position was, you're a public figure.

You can't claim an invasion of your privacy and then also

go out there and invite people to peer

into your private sexual life.

- Does your wife give you third input?

- Oh, God. - Oh, third, fourth, fifths.

- Really? - [chuckles] Yeah.

- Hulk Hogan got on the stand and insisted

that even though Hulk Hogan

was happy to boast about his sex life

and didn't care about his privacy,

Terry Bollea did care about his privacy.

And this was the sex tape of Terry Bollea,

not Hulk Hogan, the character that he played.

- No, I--[chuckles] What the [bleep] are we doing?

Like--like, come on.

- It was absolutely insane.

- Well, as Hulk Hogan, you know,

I've said I slammed an elephant

and surfed on a tiger shark and, you know,

body-slammed Moby-Dick.

So it's--it gives you artistic liberty,

when you're Hulk Hogan, to be a character.

And it's entertainment.

- I felt like I was in a police interrogation.

They were just badgering him about switching

back and forth from Hulk Hogan to Terry Bollea.

- So when you are in Hulk Hogan mode,

rules and things like telling the truth do not apply?

- When he was on radio shows in the character of Hulk Hogan,

he would talk very openly about the size of his penis.

- Do you have any doubt,

as you sit in that witness stand today,

that you were discussing the length of your penis

on Bubba's radio program?

- Well, it's not mine, because mine isn't that size.

But we were discussing the length of Hulk Hogan's.

- Seriously? So you--

- No, seriously, I do not have a 10-inch penis.

No, I do not, seriously.

- OK, fair enough.

- They couldn't wrap their head around it.

Hulk Hogan's a character.

But Terry Bollea is a human being.

He gets overwhelmed and hurt, just like the rest of us.

- Did you give consideration to plaintiff's privacy

before you published the video excerpt?

- Given the fact that he's a public figure, I did not.

♪ ♪

- They opened up all of these questions about

people's privacy, about celebrity,

about what is acceptable to pry into and what isn't.

- Do you think that celebrities have no right to be let alone,

say, even in their own homes?

- I think it's limited at this point.

But, you know, public figures live a different life.

- You know, when the Pamela Anderson

sex tape came out,

there was just no real consideration

about how that affected her as a person, as a mother.

There was definitely a lot more understanding

when the Hulk Hogan sex tape came out about, yeah,

you can't really do these things.

- I don't care if he's a celebrity.

I don't care if he's on every TV show,

every radio show talking about sex, being salacious.

That does not give them the right to do what they did.

And I hope this jury sympathizes with him.

[discordant music]

♪ ♪

[heartbeat thumping]

- I was in Gawker's offices.

Everyone came in.

The office was filled.

And everyone was watching a live stream together.

♪ ♪

- I don't think, even then, anyone quite, like,

realized that the trial was potentially

existential for Gawker.

- We presumed that we were protected.

♪ ♪

- When the verdict was read,

everyone kind of was in shock, I think.

[dramatic string music]

[crowd cheering]

- We decided to award Hulk Hogan $140 million.

- He's done it, ladies and gentlemen.

♪ ♪

- A sex tape is not something I find newsworthy.

I don't want to see it.

I don't need to see it.

- How you feel, Hulk?

- I feel great.

I'm really happy about everything that's happened.

And I think we made history today

because I think we protected a lot of people

from maybe going through what I went through.

So we're very excited and very happy.

♪ ♪

- I mean, we were stunned.

It was gobsmacking.

[dramatic music]

- Nothing at Gawker was going to be the same after that.

♪ ♪

- The online media company Gawker

is on the auction block this morning.

The company filed for bankruptcy just three months

after losing that invasion-of-privacy case

involving ex-wrestler Hulk Hogan.

[static crackling]

- The Hulk Hogan trial was not about Hulk Hogan.

The object of the trial was to destroy Gawker.

Peter Thiel has determined what the new rules are.

And it's ironic, a sort of Silicon Valley tech champion

was funding the effort of a man

who was suing Gawker to keep his vile gutter racism

from becoming public.

[static crackling] - As you know,

Gawker has said that you initially

filed the claim to prevent the publication

of racist language from you in another tape.

- Mm-hmm.

[somber music]

- Following the release of the sex tape,

there were a number of stories that came out

from another of the tapes

revealing that Hogan had said some

extremely racist things

in between his sexual escapades

with Bubba's wife.

- WWE and Hulk Hogan are now parting ways

over racist slurs Hogan is heard repeating over and over.

- Hogan is heard on the tape talking about his daughter,

Brooke, who he accused of sleeping

with an African American.

[glass shattering]

- This is hard to watch,

the implosion of an American icon.

[glass shattering]

- What he said when he believed no one

would ever hear these things,

it shows you the real person.

This wasn't Hulk Hogan the superstar.

This was Terry Bollea.

These were the things that he believed.

- The man I met and I know would

never have said racial slurs.

- A lot of people turned against him.

It was a--

I worried about it a lot for him.

Almost put him in a point of depression.

- What can you tell me about the use of the N-word

in one of those tapes?

- The use of the N-word goes along with that day,

when I bottomed out.

People that know me know I'm not a racist.

Some of my best friends, you know, are Afro-American.

The people that know me know I'm not a racist.

The WWE fans know me.

They know I'm not a racist.

It's just a horrible mistake.

- I was pretty stunned at just how...

aggressively racist what he said was.

And the apologies that he's issued

have, to me, rung very hollow.

- He said that the Black wrestlers in the--

aren't ready to have you back.

- Well, I didn't hear that, brother.

I just heard him make a comment...

- Let's go.

- On TMZ about it, about--he said he--

I should apologize.

And I totally agree, but not to the Black wrestlers,

to all the wrestlers.

- He's saying things that he genuinely

feels or believes unprompted,

with the belief that no one was around.

- Do you blame Bubba as much as you blame Gawker?

- No, I'm accountable.

I blame myself, you know.

- I know it's not easy to root for me.

I know.

I know that it's not easy to think

Bubba's being the victim.

- Bubba the Love Sponge is the ultimate schemer.

I think it was a big propaganda campaign

that he's the victim of this.

So he--you know, he did all this.

But it's not his fault.

- I did let him [bleep] my wife.

And my home surveillance system got--

captivated it, as it captivates everything.

That's the--my own-- that's my only dabbling

in the whole thing.

♪ ♪

- It was really hard to...

handle the fact that he did this to me, you know.

It was--

♪ ♪

I don't how to say it.

♪ ♪

- One last question, you know, WWE--

Hulk Hogan wants a comeback.

Do you think it's ever happening?

- I think, after apologies to all

the existing African American talent, that,

you know, he would be a--

we're a forgiving world.

- In 2018, Hogan made his first reappearance

on WWE Television.

- Team Hogan, Team Flair.

Did you ever think, 30 years later,

you guys would still be continuing the rivalry?

- Well, you know, I figured it would never end.

- It's what you've all been waiting for,

the one, the only Hulk Hogan.

- He appeared again at WrestleMania 35

to open the show and got a huge cheer.

[crowd cheering]

You are always going to want to hold on to your heroes.

[upbeat rock music]

- How do you turn this into, you know,

the happy ending that I'm sure you've prayed for?

- You know, just everybody that knows me knows who I am.

But for those who don't, I'm gonna fight

to win them back one day at a time.

And there's nothing else I can do except be honest.

- It just shows you how fame, money,

power, celebrity can overcome any scandal,

even a racist sex tape.

- I feel like a kid again because the fans

are so excited.

There's so much energy here.

I feel kind of like Hulkamania has been reborn.