Hulk Hogan, the theatrical former professional wrestler, teed up former President Donald Trump on Thursday at the Republican National Convention with a rousing speech in which he ripped off his suit jacket and shirt, revealing a red Trump-Vance tank top to raucous cheers.

Trump is Hogan’s ‘Hero’

Hogan, whose real name is Terry G. Bollea, called Trump his “hero” and said that the former president would bring “America back together, one real American at a time.”

“As an entertainer, I try to stay out of politics,” said Bollea, who wore a red bandanna and had a pair of dark sunglasses propped above his head. “But after everything that’s happened to our country over the past four years, and everything that happened last weekend, I can no longer stay silent.”

Just last month, he said that he had not yet decided whom he would support in this year’s election.

“I just don’t know,” Bollea said in an interview with NewsNation. He added, “I just want the best man to win.”

That changed after the assassination attempt on Trump on Saturday.

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“When I saw him stand up with that fist in the air and the blood on his face — as a warrior, as a leader — I realized that’s what America needs,” Bollea said on Fox News on Thursday night before his speech.

He was rewarded with a prime-time spot on the final night of the Republican convention, serving as one of the last handful of speakers before Trump.

And Bollea spared few indulgences in revving up the crowd, speaking in the style of a Monster Jam announcer, flexing his biceps and — as “USA” chants rained down at Fiserv Forum — cupping his hand to his ear as if he couldn’t hear the cheering delegates below.

‘Trumpmania’

“Let Trumpmania run wild, brother!” he exclaimed. “Let Trumpmania rule again! Let Trumpmania make America great again!”

As he left the stage, he clapped, beat his chest and flexed his muscles one final time.

His remarks electrified an already ebullient crowd, spurring attendees to scream and stand on their feet. Many waved red, white and blue signs with campaign slogans reading, “Bring Back Common Sense” and “Make America Great Again.”

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Trump has had close ties to wrestling entertainment for decades, and directly participated in several World Wrestling Entertainment events. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013, eight years after Bollea entered the Hall. And Trump made Linda McMahon, the former CEO of WWE, the head of the Small Business Administration when he was in the White House.

McMahon also spoke Thursday, as did Dana White, the UFC president.

Trump has sought to project an aura of toughness after the rally shooting, which bloodied his right ear. He has worn a bandage over his ear during his appearances at the convention this week, and his supporters have made some of the first words he said after rising from the ground — “fight! fight! fight!” — a rallying cry.

Bollea, a physically towering 70-year-old performer with a gravelly voice and a recognizable handlebar mustache, has sometimes compared pro wrestling to politics. He has also contemplated running for office.

He Supported Both Obama and Romney

His own politics are somewhat opaque. He has supported both former President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

But Bollea has other high-profile ties to Republican politics. Peter Thiel, the billionaire entrepreneur and Republican megadonor, was said to have bankrolled a legal fight that Bollea waged against the news site Gawker Media after it published a video of him having sex with the wife of a radio host.

Bollea won the case and a Florida jury ordered Gawker to pay him $140 million. The media company filed for bankruptcy and shut down.

Thiel was one of Trump’s top donors in 2016, though their relationship later soured somewhat. But he remains influential in the Republican Party.

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Thiel is said to have placed calls encouraging Trump to select JD Vance, who once worked at one of Thiel’s investment firms, as his running mate. Vance, a first-term senator from Ohio whose best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” fueled his political rise, accepted the vice presidential nomination Wednesday.

Bollea, whose reputation was damaged in 2015 after it was reported that he had used a racial slur on videotape, has suggested that he would like to be vice president someday.

“You never know,” he said in the NewsNation interview. “Right now, I’d make a great vice president, brother, because I do have common sense. I do know right from wrong.”

But Thursday, he threw his support behind Vance, too.

Standing on the Republican convention stage and pointing toward Trump and his newly minted running mate, Bollea declared that he saw “the greatest tag team of my life.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Tim Balk and Maya King/Kenny Holston
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