Earlier this year, Hulk Hogan was officially reinstated by WWE after being suspended/fired three years ago for his racist rant that went viral. Once he was reinstated, everyone thought he’d be back on WWE television before too long, but he had only been backstage to apologize and not much else. On Friday at Crown Jewel , the return finally happened as had been rumored for weeks and Hulk Hogan was back in a WWE ring.
WWE has been in Saudi Arabia for the past week as they prepare for Crown Jewel even though there has been plenty of controversy behind the event. Despite that fact, Vince McMahon and WWE chose to continue on with the pay-per-view as scheduled and it started off in a very big way on Friday afternoon.
As the event started, the iconic theme song of “Real American” filled the arena and Hulk Hogan came out dressed in his traditional red and yellow. The crowd popped huge for the former world champion as he made his way to the ring doing his old-school poses and playing for the fans as recapped by the official website of WWE .
He entered the ring and it was quite strange for many longtime wrestling fans since a lot thought that Hogan may never be back in WWE again.
WATCHA GONNA DO when HULKAMANIA and #WWECrownJewel RUN WILD ON YOU?! pic.twitter.com/nulkYlJ7rk
— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) November 2, 2018
Hulk Hogan was introduced as the host of Crown Jewel , but he didn’t have a lot to say upon getting in the ring. Hogan only said that it was great to be back in front of the fans and to see all of the Hulkamaniacs in front of him once again.
To be honest with you, his entrance down the long ramp actually appeared to take longer than his promo in the ring. Still, the fans in Saudi Arabia ate up every single second of it and loved seeing him back in WWE.
Hogan’s appearance happened after Shinsuke Nakamura retained his United States Championship over Rusev in the Kickoff Match of Crown Jewel . The opening match of the main card was Rey Mysterio vs. Randy Orton in the first match of the WWE World Cup.
It’s not known just how much Hulk Hogan is going to be around WWE or do with the company since he has been reinstated and is back in their good graces. As recently reported by the Inquisitr , Hogan himself said that there are a lot of plans in the works and that he will likely be a part of WrestleMania 35 next year. Crown Jewel lost a couple of big stars in Daniel Bryan and John Cena this past week, but WWE hoped to make up for that with the addition of the Hulkster.