For extra updates from the 2024 Republican Nationwide Conference in Milwaukee, head to the NPR Community’s dwell updates web page. Plus: You possibly can watch dwell video protection from NPR of tonight’s speeches. This is how.

A Florida man well-known for his deep tan, outsized life-style and profitable knack for mixing leisure and actuality will converse on the Republican Nationwide Conference Thursday night time.

Hulk Hogan, the longtime professional wrestler whose actual title is Terry Bollea, is on the just lately launched roster of audio system for the conference’s closing night time, slated to talk within the run as much as former President Donald Trump’s deal with.

Watch Hulk Hogan’s full remarks:

Hogan, who has been identified to make a dramatic entrance within the ring, walked onstage towards a montage of movies and images of himself in varied patriotic poses.

He took to the rostrum sporting a pink bandana and sun shades on his head, gesturing to the group that he could not hear their chants of “USA.”

The retired skilled wrestler stated the “vibe was so intense, the vitality was so loopy, it felt like perhaps I used to be gonna press that no-good smelly large over my head and slam him into the mat, brother.”

The official RNC program identifies Hulk Hogan as a “skilled entertainer and wrestler.” He was additionally concerned in a momentous authorized case within the media world: His lawsuit towards Gawker Media resulted in a $140 million jury award after the corporate revealed a intercourse tape that includes Bollea in 2015. An ensuing settlement despatched the corporate and its founder out of business.

After the intercourse tape emerged, there was abrupt fallout for Hulk Hogan: World Wrestling Leisure spiked its contract with him over studies that he used racist language within the intercourse tape.

It might appear surprising, however Hulk Hogan’s distinguished function at this yr’s RNC is one other signal of the affect of billionaire Peter Thiel — who bankrolled Hogan’s combat towards Gawker, and who has extra just lately been a key patron of Trump’s new vice presidential decide, Sen. J.D. Vance.

Hogan remarkes had been bookended by two audio system that the RNC program identifies as “on a regular basis Individuals.”

Carrie Ruiz, who’s the final supervisor of golf at Trump Nationwide Doral in Miami; and Annette Albright of North Carolina, who misplaced her race final fall for an at-large seat on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Training.

Albright drew discover in that nonpartisan election after she and different candidates had been accused of being “Computer virus Republicans,” as member station WFAE reported.

Trump isn’t any stranger to the wrestling ring

WWE is knowledgeable wrestling promotion and media firm, identified for its scripted feats, ringside drama and zealous showmanship.

Vince McMahon purchased an earlier model of the corporate in 1982, and, alongside along with his spouse Linda McMahon, is credited with bringing its distinctive mix of wrestling and leisure into the mainstream. One in all WWE’s first — and most enduring — principal sights was none aside from Hogan.

Trump additionally had a hand in WWE’s rise, internet hosting the fourth and fifth Wrestlemania occasions. And it was Trump’s Apprentice catchphrase, “You are fired,” {that a} suited-up McMahon would shout within the ring. Trump has appeared at quite a few WWE occasions over time, together with as a visitor ring announcer and on-screen expertise.

Trump “grew to become a part of among the most compelling and highest-rated storylines within the firm’s historical past,” McMahon stated on the RNC stage. That features in 2007 when Trump shaved McMahon’s head.

Linda McMahon left the corporate for politics, serving as Trump’s small enterprise administrator from 2017 to 2019 earlier than leaving to hitch a pro-Trump tremendous PAC.

Vince resigned from his management function on the firm in January after a former worker filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexually assaulting her within the office, intercourse trafficking and pressuring her into threesomes. That lawsuit was paused earlier this yr on the request of the U.S. Justice Division.

The Final Combating Championship (UFC), in distinction, is a blended martial arts promotion firm. It got here on the scene in 1993, however wasn’t a success instantly. Within the early 2000s, Trump let UFC’s new president, Dana White, use his Atlantic Metropolis on line casino. His endorsement helped the corporate change into the world’s largest MMA promotion, as of 2023.

UFC and WWE formally merged into one firm, TKO, in September 2023, forming a brand new entity valued at $21.4 billion.

This reporting initially appeared as a part of the NPR Community’s dwell protection of the RNC.