Choked-up Hulk Hogan begs forgiveness for using racial slur, says 'people get better'
A contrite Hulk Hogan met with "Good Morning America" news anchor Amy Robach for an interview that aired Monday in which he fought for his reputation and name.
"Oh, my gosh. Please forgive me," Hogan (aka Terry Bollea) said. "Please forgive me. I think if you look at the whole picture of who Hulk Hogan is, you can see over all the years that there's not a racist bone in my body."
In late July, WWE fired Hogan and removed him from its Hall of Fame for using racial slurs during a conversation recorded in 2006 or 2007.
The legendary wrestler became emotional during the interview (watch it here) and tried to provide context for the slurs for which he previously apologized.
"I'm not a racist, but I never should have said what I said," Hogan told Robach. "It was wrong. I'm embarrassed by it."
"People need to realize that you inherit things from your environment," Hogan said. "And where I grew up was south Tampa, and it was a really rough neighborhood, very low income. And all my friends, we greeted each other saying that word."
Hogan said he and his friends would "throw it around like nothing."
The National Enquirer published a transcript of the secretly-recorded conversation, attributing (in part) the following to Hogan: "I mean, I don't have double standards. I mean, I am a racist, to a point, f---ing n-----s. But then when it comes to nice people and s--t, and whatever."
"If everybody at their lowest point was judged on one thing they said and let's just say in high school," Hogan told Robach, "you may have said one bad thing and all of a sudden, your whole career was wiped out today because of something you said 10 or 20 years ago, it'd be a sad world. People get better every day. People get better."
In the days after Hogan's firing, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson said he was "pretty disappointed by what he heard." The Rock added: "It's funny, it's one of those things where€ -- I'm not justifying what he said -- but we've all talked trash. Especially in private. He said what he said and now he's paying the price."
Meanwhile, Brooke Hogan wrote a lengthy poem defending her father titled, "If you knew my father."
"She knows me. She's seen me -- kids of every color, nationality..." Hogan said of his daughter Brooke. "She's seen me interact with these kids through Make A Wish, through just all these different organizations. For me to vent and be so angry at her, she should have been the one -- she should have been the one to throw me out like the trash. But instead, she showed me more love than anybody."