Hulk Hogan biopic pulled after wrestler provokes wild crowd with irresponsible threats to bodyslam Kamala Harris

While Kamala Harris was preparing to accept the presidential nomination on the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, a unique spectacle was unfolding in Ohio. Hulk Hogan, the controversial wrestling icon, was swilling beer on stage and fist-pumping the crowd on Aug. 19 to promote his latest brand, Real American Beer. Things quickly turned sour when he grabbed a microphone and jokingly threatened to “body-slam the vice president,” then mocked her Native American heritage.

A video obtained by TMZ shows Hulk Hogan stirring up hate for the hornets as he serves a rowdy crowd free beer at Thirsty Cowboy in Medina. The clip has spread like wildfire online, with one post on X racking up 7 million views.

“Are you trying to go crazy? Do you want me to pour more beers?” the 71-year-old wrestler asked a packed room of drunk partygoers from the stage.

“You want me to body slam somebody? You want me to body slam Kamala Harris? Me, you want me to body slam Kamala Harris? You want me to leg-slam Kamala?” he shouted to the cheering crowd, referencing one in every of his signature wrestling moves.

His argument continued as he questioned Kamala’s Native American heritage, invoking an old racist gesture associated with Native Americans. “Is Kamala a chameleon? Is she an Indian?” he asked, before raising his hand and saying “How” in a mocking manner. The Lakota tribe uses the word “háu” as a greeting, however it has been anglicized in popular culture and used to stereotype all Native tribes.

Hogan mispronounces Harris’ name throughout the video.

“Hulk Hogan just threatened and racially assaulted Kamala Harris,” one wrestling fan wrote on X.

Harris’ father, Donald J. Harris, is Jamaican-American, and her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, is an immigrant from India. Unfortunately, the Democratic presidential candidate has often been the goal of racist attacks from Trump supporters, resembling Hulk Hogan, who recently gave a speech praising Trump on the Republican National Convention.

But Hogan seems to be on a losing streak. The day after his Ohio performance, news broke that his upcoming biopic had been canceled by director Todd Phillips (of “Joker” and “Old School” fame). “The Hulkster” was set to star actor Chris Hemsworth because the wrestling champion and had been within the works since 2019. “I love what we tried to do, but it’s not going to work for me,” Phillips told Variety.

Hogan has an extended history of trash talking, and only occasionally faces consequences. After an audio tape of a racist tirade stuffed with the N-word surfaced in 2015, he was fired by World Wrestling Entertainment, although his lawyer claimed he had resigned. The tape was from eight years earlier and showed the wrestler repeatedly using a racial slur in reference to his daughter Brooke Hogan’s dating life.

During this time, WWE removed all mention of him from its website, removed him from the WWE Hall of Fame, and pulled all Hulk-related merchandise from its store. After being publicly shamed, Hogan apologized for his tirade and sought reinstatement. Several years later, Hall of Fame inductee and Olympic weightlifter Mark Henry called for Hogan to apologize to black wrestlers so he could fully return to WWE, but Hogan refused, saying, “I totally agree, but not black wrestlers, all wrestlers.” However, he was reinstated to the Hall of Fame in 2018.

This time he blamed his musings on the alcohol, saying, “It wasn’t me. It was the beer talking,” but seemed to realize he had crossed the road again when he told someone on stage, “I’m gonna get mad for this, bro.”