Posted by Rohan on 09:37:23 07/08/02:

PWTorch have posted this news article on Hulk Hogan.

WWFDU believes that Hulk Hogan will tour Australia, and will confirm this today.

From PWTorch -

Hulk Hogan, who was one of three main names advertised to sell the tens of thousands of tickets for this week's big Australian WWE event, has been pulled from the event.

As detailed earlier in the WWE News section, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler announced on the Australian edition of Raw last night that he had been pulled from the event "due to an attack by Brock Lesnar." Of course, even if he had been injured in an attack, because he was advertised and is such a huge name historically speaking, it would make sense that he would at least make an appearance. That apparently is not going to happen.

PWTorch.com contacted Vince McMahon's office a few minutes ago to ask if there was an explanation for Hogan not making the event as advertised. After being transferred to public relations rep Jason Bernstein, he politely said he was unable to comment because WWE does not comment on any stories to wrestling-based media. A few months ago, WWE enacted a "media ban" in response to what they deemed "inaccurate" and "unfavorable" coverage of the company in the past.

WWE.com has been deemed the only place to get "official news" regarding WWE matters. There is no mention of Hogan's status on the main pages of WWE.com (certainly if he had just been added to the show as a special bonus attraction, that would be in bright lights and headlines), so for the tens of thousands of Australian fans who were looking forward to seeing Hogan in person - thousands of whom read this site - we unfortunately are unable to provide an explanation for his absence.

From a pure business standpoint, Hogan's absence may hurt WWE attendance in the future in Australia, but WWE already has those fans' ticket money, and by the time WWE returns, WWE management probably assumes most fans will have forgotten about the last-second change or will have gotten over being upset by it. It also doesn't create a sense of confidence among fans across the world, including the U.S. and Europe, that they can safely purchase tickets in advance and know that if an advertised wrestler won't make it to an event, a reasonable effort will be made to explain the circumstances in a timely fashion and provide a suitable replacement.