Steve Carrier on July 29, 2025
WWE paid tribute to Hulk Hogan on RAW just days after his passing—but now it’s been revealed that the speech Triple H delivered to open the show wasn’t actually new at all.
According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, the exact same speech from Friday Night SmackDown was reused, edited only slightly to avoid timeline confusion.
The July 28 edition of RAW opened with a solemn moment, featuring the WWE roster, Nick Hogan, Eric Bischoff, and Nick’s wife all gathered on stage. Triple H appeared to deliver a heartfelt tribute once again—but Meltzer claims it was a carefully edited playback of Friday’s speech.
“So the RAW show opened up with another Hogan tribute and 10-bell salute. And it was very weird because on Friday they had all the roster out on the stage, and Hunter standing there in the middle with a microphone, and he does a short speech. Then they played a music video.”
“Well, on this show, they have all of the RAW roster on the stage — plus Nick Hogan and Eric Bischoff and Nick’s wife — and they replayed the Hunter speech. Like they just replayed the one from Friday like he was saying it live again. It was so weird.”
Meltzer pointed out the detail that gave it away: a repeated verbal stumble. That prompted him to go back and compare both segments side by side.
“I probably wouldn’t even have noticed except he stumbled over a word on Friday, and then he stumbled over the same word on Monday, and I thought, ‘That’s kind of weird.’ So I actually loaded up SmackDown and I was going back and forth, and I went — ‘Oh my God. They just replayed a tape.’”
Even more surprising, WWE removed the word “yesterday” from the original speech to conceal the timing.
“They edited out the word ‘yesterday.’ Because the original speech on Friday, he said, ‘Yesterday we lost…’ — and they cut out the word ‘yesterday.’”
The revelation raises questions about WWE’s handling of such a personal and emotional moment. By reusing a previously recorded tribute and making it seem live, it suggests the company may have prioritized production control over authenticity.
Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.
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July 29, 2025 4:49 am
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