By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

Hulk Hogan said in a new interview with Sports Illustrated that he believes USA Network pressured WWE to disassociate from Hogan when the racist material from several years ago surfaced publicly in July.

"Triple H was telling me the USA Network was reacting very badly, and they had to make a quick decision, and that was to put me out to pasture. They were under heavy fire and they were scrambling," Hogan told SI's Justin Barrasso.

Hogan says he never spoke to Vince McMahon during the process, only to Hunter, who relayed a conversation with McMahon.

“The only person I talked to was Triple H. I called him and told him there was some old news coming out from when TMZ first reported the tape and there were some racial slurs on it. Triple H said, ‘Okay, thanks for calling. Let me talk to Vince,'" Hogan recalled.

"He called me back a half-hour later and he goes, ‘I’ve got some news and it isn’t good. Vince said that you need to resign.’ I never heard from Vince or talked to Vince. In the middle of the night, they just fired me."

Hogan said he and his attorney, David Houston, requested a meeting with WWE to work things out, but he says WWE declined the request. Hogan added that he felt tossed aside by WWE and McMahon.

"They’ve known me for over 30 years and they know I’m not a racist, so they should have went to the source. I don’t use the word, ever, except for in that moment of anger, so I wish WWE went to the source instead of the symptoms. I could have explained I’ve tried every day since then to be a better man," Hogan said.

Hogan, in preservation mode trying to save his career, said he hopes to get back in the WWE fold at some point, using the platform to educate people on the dangers of using racist language.

​“The only place for me to be would be the WWE. That’s where my home is. I thought I’d go step-by-step, crawling uphill with WWE, to explain how wrong I was, but that opportunity wasn’t there," Hogan said.

“I’m having the chance to now say, ‘If you hear it in a movie and you inherited it growing up as a kid, you shouldn’t use it.' It’s so hurtful on so many levels. I shouldn’t use it, the WWE shouldn’t use it in their programming when they’re doing skits. It shouldn’t be used at all. ... If I had a chance to work with Vince and help people, we could help fix a lot of things together."

After the interview was published, Hogan tweeted out: "Thank you Sports Illustrated HH," as Hogan tries to repair his image following the summer revelations.

[ LINK: Hogan's Full Interview HERE at SI.com ]

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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