Hulk Hogan was initially devastated by the crowd's negative reaction to his surprise appearance at WWE's Monday Night Raw Netflix debut in Los Angeles.
The wrestling icon, who has a love-hate relationship with WWE fans after a series of controversial moments outside the ring, was a special guest as the company hosted the first show of its $5 billion deal with Netflix.
When he entered the Intuit Dome in California, he was roundly booed by the crowd, much to the shock of fans watching at home, and DailyMail.com can now reveal that the Hulkster himself was also stunned by the reaction.
A source told us exclusively: 'Did Hulk think they were going to cheer him up? Especially bringing up Jimmy Hart, who everyone likes, and who was also waving an American flag at the time…that's a big yes!
“So when he came out, they booed him, and then he went to the back after his promo, he was instantly disappointed that the fans were turning on him. But he wasn't angry!
“If he hadn't been there to promote his beer, he would have leaned a little more toward it, but he had to get over the promotion.” But after thinking about it, some good things came out.
Hulk Hogan, now 71, was a special guest on Monday Night Raw as WWE took Netflix by storm
Despite having Jimmy Hart waving a flag at his side, Hulk Hogan was booed by the crowd.
“The fact that he got booed, everyone was talking about it, and he's been in the wrestling business long enough to know, even a bad reaction helps a lot, because if you don't get cheered or you don't get booed, then They don't care at all.
“This has actually been a great promotion for their beer and as soon as he was disappointed, he thought about it some more and is actually excited about the result.” Hulk is a businessman and he's going to ride the fan reaction all the way to the bank.
When he entered the arena on Monday Night Raw, Hulk, now 71, tried to tell the WWE audience that they were the best tag team partner he had ever had. Their response was to boo him out of the building.
Hogan was banned from WWE in 2015 after a tape surfaced of him making racist comments, including using the n-word.
In a video made public by The National Enquirer, Hogan said, “I guess we're all a little racist” and used the n-word while referring to his daughter's love life, including repeating the phrase “fuck.” Niggas' several times.
In 2015, audio emerged of a racist rant by Hogan about his daughter Brooke's (2R) love life.
At the time of the audio, Hogan's daughter Brooke had been trying to launch a music career.
According to Radar, the audio shows him using a series of racist comments in a rant about his daughter Brooke, 27, who was trying to launch a music career, to Heather Clem, the wife of a friend.
She is reported to have said that “a black billionaire” had offered to finance her and then speculated about her sex life.
Hogan told Clem: 'I don't know if Brooke was fucking the black's son… I mean, I don't have any double standards. I mean, I'm a racist, to some extent, a fucking black. But then when it comes to nice people and shit and whatever.
He continued: 'I mean, I'd rather if she was going to fuck some black, I'd rather she marry some 8 foot tall black worth a hundred. millions of dollars! Like a basketball player! I guess we're all a little racist. Damn blacks.'
He was initially kicked out of the WWE Hall of Fame, but has since been allowed to return and repaired his relationship with the company's power brokers.
After making headlines in California this week, there is also now talk of more storylines, and that they will follow a similar path to The Rock by turning him into a 'heel', or bad guy.
Jimmy Hart waving the American flag did nothing to quell the boos that were heard.
WWE bosses are considering going down a similar path with Hulk Hogan to The Rock (pictured)
“Those in the back have listened to the fans like they do with most of their stories,” the source continued. “They listen to the audience and if they have a direction they want to go with something, they'll try it first, but if the crowd's reaction is so different, they'll make sure to steer it in the direction the tide is going.”
'It has already been discussed that the next time they put Hogan on television it will be to make him a heel or a bad guy, because the last time he was a bad guy, it worked wonders for his career.
'They could base it on what they had to do with The Rock last year. The last few times The Rock came back, they made him the hero and the fans hated him. The Rock leaned towards being bad, they changed direction and now, after last night, fans like The Rock again.
“So by giving the fans what they want, you get what you want, and to them that's flattery.” Hogan and some of the writers have spoken since then and every time Hogan comes back, if they boo him, they will wait for it and support each other 100%.
“Plans are for Hogan to go back to being a bad guy and help out in a future storyline with another wrestler.”
Hogan is unable to physically wrestle himself due to the state of his body, but is expected to make future appearances managing one of WWE's Superstars in a new role.
In the 1980s, Hogan was the driving force behind WWE's rise from a regional promotion in New York to an international brand.
Hogan was stunned by the negative reaction from the crowd in Inglewood, California, on Monday.
He is undoubtedly one of the most popular and successful babyfaces of all time and the catalyst for what made WrestleMania so successful, main eventing eight of the first nine events.
More recently, Hogan became a celebrity who supported Donald Trump's US presidential campaign, which he ultimately won.
But he's adamant he won't bring politics to WWE, with a source telling DailyMail.com: “He's open to almost anything except one storyline that won't be used: anything to do with Trump.”
'Both WWE and Hogan don't want to go down that route and make things political. “Hogan supports Trump, but he won't mix that support with anything he's doing in WWE.”