Hulk Hogan says he’s "learnt from [his] mistakes" which saw him exiled from the WWE Hall of Fame for three years.
The 65-year-old retired professional wrestler was axed by the company in 2015 following the publication of a transcript taken from a sex tape recording revealed him using the "N-word" during a conversation about his daughter Brooke’s then-boyfriend.
After several public apologies Hogan was reinstated to the Hall of Fame last year, and now says he’s "definitely not in the same place" he was when he made the comments.
He said: "People are all human and they make mistakes, so it’s about forgiving people and learning and growing. I’m definitely not in the same place I was 12 or 13 years ago, you know, when I said such stupid words, what came out of my head. That’s not who I am.
"People learn from their mistakes, and people generally have a good heart. There’s a lot of good people in this world. You’ve gotta learn to forgive, and move forward."
Despite his WWE comeback, Hogan – whose real name is Terry Bollea – says he won’t be returning to the ring any time soon, as he thinks he’s "too old" to wrestle now, and would be "embarrassed" by his performance.
He added: "I’m too old to wrestle. I embarrassed myself enough out there by moving too slow, so I don’t want to get back in there again. I don’t think I could. I could probably wrestle somebody like John Cena or Vince McMahon, but as soon as I’d be done they’d be taking me straight to the hospital to fix something … the body’s too worn out for that."
Shortly after his reinstatement, Hogan was invited to company’s November pay-per-view event in Saudi Arabia, but the event was bittersweet as just a few weeks later, he received the call telling him his longtime friend Gene Okerlund had died.
Speaking about Gene – who died earlier this month – he told People magazine: "It felt like my Adam’s apple went backward or something, I couldn’t catch my breath. I guess my wife thought I was having a heart attack. It hit me so hard cause I just talked to him a couple weeks before about getting together the weekend when I came back from New Years."
Hulk Hogan: I’ve learnt from my mistakes
