Hulk Hogan says he needs to apologize ‘not to the black wrestlers, to all the wrestlers’

Even before he appeared at HBO’s Thursday, Mar. 29 Andre The Giant premiere event in Los Angeles alongside several WWE personalities, talk was heating up about Hulk Hogan returning to the company.

That talk led to a comment from one of this year’s Hall of Fame inductees, Mark Henry. On Sirius XM’s Busted Open Radio, Henry said black wrestlers within companies all over North America aren’t ready for a Hogan to regain a prominent role in wrestling via WWE, as “a lot of work to be done to heal that wound and to fix that wall.”

TMZ caught up with the Hulkster after the Andre premiere and asked him about Henry’s comments. Hogan said he wasn’t aware of Mark’s comments on Busted Open, but he did address the overall issue:

“Oh I didn’t hear that, bro. I just heard him make a comment on TMZ about - he said I should apologize. And I totally agree, but not to the black wrestlers, to all the wrestlers. What I said was way out of line and I’m forever sorry for that.

But I never heard Mark Henry say that. He’s my boy, man. I’m friends with all the guys, man. I’m friends with all the guys - come on.”

Now, this is a TMZ airport ambush, so it’s not as if Hogan had time to prepare a response.

But this also reads as another example of Hulk, to paraphrase Henry, trying to make closure on his behalf rather than on behalf of the people most hurt by the words and thoughts he expressed on the tape which led to his WWE firing.

That’s just my take, however. The more important reaction will come from Henry, and other African-Americans. Is this Hogan owning his issue? The decision on his professional status will come from WWE. Is this what they meant about helping others learn from his mistakes?

Certainly not the end...