Hogan and Gawker issue statements on trial verdict

Mar 19, 2016 - by Colin Vassallo

Hulk Hogan declined to speak to the dozens of reporters outside the St Petersburg, Florida, courthouse yesterday after the verdict was delivered but gave his usual one liner on Twitter to address his fans. “Thank you God for justice, only love 4Life,” Hogan wrote. Meanwhile, Gawker Media founder Nick Denton’s statement was slightly longer and it didn’t thank anyone for justice. “Given key evidence and the most important witness were both withheld from this jury, we all knew the appeals court will need to resolve this case,” Denton wrote. “I want to thank our lawyers for their outstanding work and am confident that we would have prevailed at trial if we had been allowed to present the full case to the jury. That’s why we feel very positive about the appeal that we have already begun preparing, as we expect to win this case ultimately.” Despite filing for appeal, Gawker will still need to cough up at least a $50 million bond to get an automatic stay on the judgment. The company can request the court to reduce the amount or else if they’re lucky, get to pay nothing until the final appeal judgment.

With Gawker appealing, the chances are that Hogan will not see the $115 million or else a relatively small figure compared to that. While Judge Pamela Campbell has been very pro-Hogan during the case, arguing that the recently unsealed FBI documents are “irrelevant” to the case and ordering the seal of the documents, the Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal hasn’t been so kind to the Hulkster, even overturning judge Campbell’s decision on sealing the documents. Gawker might have lost this battle but it doesn’t mean they will be losing the war. The appeal hearing won’t be tomorrow and it will be some time before this case is back.

Colin Vassallo has been editor of Wrestling-Online since 1996

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