WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry has shared a deeply personal and emotional account regarding his conversations with the late Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea) following the controversy surrounding Hogan’s racist comments, revealing that Hogan ultimately chose not to issue a public apology despite being urged to do so.
Speaking with Inside The Ropes, Henry explained that his initial reaction was not anger, but pain. “When I saw him, most people would be like, ‘Oh, f*ck him. I’m never going to speak to him again. I don’t care.’ I was hurt. And I said, ‘Man, you mean to tell me all these years that we talked you don’t like me because of my color?’ ‘No, Mark. That’s bullsh*t. No.’”
Henry said Hogan attempted to explain the mindset behind the comments, framing them as an emotional outburst rather than deeply held beliefs. “I said, ‘Well, what what’s the deal?’ He said he was upset. He don’t want to hear about his daughter having sex with nobody. ‘I was mad. I was half drunk and I was acting like I was a tough guy. And I embarrassed myself.’”
Henry told Hogan plainly that the situation could still be repaired—if he took responsibility. “And I said, ‘Well, fix it.’ I said, ‘There’s a lot of people that still love you. They just want to hear you apologize.’”
However, Hogan declined, citing legal and professional advice. “And he said, ‘Well, I’ve been advised not to talk about it no more.’ I said, ‘That’s a bad decision.’”
When asked whether he believed Hogan was truly remorseful, Henry said he sensed internal conflict—but not the courage to act on it.
[Did you get the sense that he really was sorry about it?]
“Yeah. I thought—I was like, ‘Man, look, you’re not a tough guy.’ I said, ‘Stop playing the role.’ I said, ‘Why? you value Hulk Hogan so much that Terry Bollea got to suffer.’ And he just dropped his head and wouldn’t look at me. And I said, ‘Listen man, I’m telling you it can be fixed.’”
Henry also revealed that Vince McMahon personally contacted him to ask whether reconciliation was possible. “And then Vince [McMahon] called me and said, ‘Hey, I want to hear your opinion on this. Terry said that you said it could be fixed.’ And I said, ‘It can be, but he got to apologize. And he got to go to some of the black colleges, law schools, and he got to talk to them and tell them why it is he did what he did.’”
Henry outlined exactly what a genuine apology would have looked like in his eyes. “At the worst of it, minimally, me being in the place was a bad decision. What I did with my buddy and his wife was a bad decision. Drinking and doing drugs was a bad decision. Everything about it was bad. And then what I SAID was bad. I was just surrounded by bad and evil and no good. I’m sorry.’ Would have got fixed. And he wouldn’t do it.”
Henry reflected on the lasting consequences of that decision following Hogan’s passing. “And now he’s not here to defend himself about it no more and he can’t apologize now. But I’ve had people that are very close to him tell me how he wish that he would have did it.”
Henry also shared that he recently exchanged messages with Hogan’s daughter, expressing empathy while remaining honest about the reality of legacy. “I text with his daughter recently. ‘Hey man, I appreciate—even under the circumstances—you still always looked at my father different. If you ever need me, I’m here because I want to try to help repair his legacy.’”
Despite those efforts, Henry made it clear that no one else can offer the apology Hogan himself refused to give. “When they get ready to, they can’t never apologize for him. No matter how much work that they do is is not going to fix it with black people, and white people that sympathize with black people, and white people that are just decent humans. It’s not going to fix it now.”
Henry concluded by stressing that accountability matters—not just for those directly involved, but for those who carry a legacy forward. “But at least they will know when they go to glory that people won’t look at them as like, ‘Hey, you was a part of the problem, too.’ Because they don’t deserve that.”
The interview stands as one of the most powerful and honest reflections yet on the lasting impact of accountability, silence, and missed chances for redemption within professional wrestling’s most complicated legacies.
