Looking Back at Hulk Hogan's Battle With 'Gawker' Following His Death at 71

If you're below a certain age, you likely don't remember Gawker. For a period, though, the website was a defining gossip site on the internet, filled with the kind of salacious controversy that more conventional sites were afraid to publish. That edgy reputation was important to the site's success, but it was also ultimately their undoing.

Hulk Hogan sued the website over the release of a tape featuring him, and now, many want to know why that lawsuit was controversial. Here's what we know.

In 2007, Gawker obtained a secretly recorded tape of Hulk having sex with his friend's wife. After the website posted nine seconds of the footage in 2012, Hulk filed a $100 million lawsuit against the website for violating his privacy. In 2016, a jury in Florida ruled that Gawker Media had violated his right to privacy and awarded him $140 million.

“I was relieved that people actually finally believe me,” Hulk told People when the verdict came down. “So many people thought I was making a sex tape to sell as entertainment.”

The verdict, and a $31 million settlement that Gawker eventually agreed to with the wrestler, was enough to bankrupt the site, effectively erasing it from existence. The case was seen as a battle between the First Amendment right to publish and the right to privacy.

While the specifics of the case might have given some people a bad feeling in the pit of their stomach, its result was the destruction of a media outlet that often worked to hold power to account.

Crucially, Hulk's lawsuit was backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, who seemed to see the case as a great way to destroy the outlet. Peter has since become a well-known figure for his far-right political beliefs and his influence over the conservative movement in America more generally.

All in all, then, the lawsuit had a remarkable chilling effect on journalism about celebrities more generally, which was its intended effect. Whether it was right for Gawker to publish that clip or not is almost a separate question. The lawsuit did damage to that outlet, but also to a broader ecosystem in which those with enough money to sue are more and more unaccountable.

Even as the lawsuit was ongoing, Gawker was also one of the outlets that published leaked audio of Hulk using the n-word and admitting that he was "racist" at least to some extent. That might not have saved the outlet, but it must have been nice to have access to that audio even as they were being sued for other disclosures about the wrestlers.

All in all, then, it's fair to say that Hulk won the court case, but Gawker's legacy had a major impact on how the wrestler will be remembered. Following his death at the age of 71, his legacy is very much in question.