Hulk Hogan Wins $115 Million From Gawker!

Hulk Hogan, accustomed to winning in the pro-wrestling ring, scored a huge victory in the courtroom today when a Florida jury pinned a $115 million verdict on Gawker Media in the former athlete’s invasion of privacy lawsuit! Hulk, whose real name is Terry Bollea, hit celebrity gossip site Gawker, its founder Nick Denton and former editor A.J. Daulerio with the suit for posting a two-minute segment of a video of Hulk having sex with a former friend’s wife in 2012.

Hulk’s lawsuit sought $100 million for violation of his privacy. A six-person jury in St. Petersburg, Fla. — four women and two men — deliberated for nearly six hours before returning their verdict, which moved the black-clad Hulk to tears. The jury awarded Hulk $55 million for economic injuries and $60 million for emotional distress. The panel will reconvene next week to consider punitive damages that would be piled on top of the $115 million.

The video showed Hulk having sex with Heather Cole, at that time the wife of radio host Bubba "the Love Sponge" Clem, who recorded the raunchy romp via a surveillance camera in his bedroom. The Hulk/Love Sponge friendship did not survive the bedroom encounter.

Gawker’s lawyers were prevented from getting Bubba on the witness stand, and a massive trove of documents related to the case — including text messages between Hulk and Bubba, Bubba's deposition testimony, the FBI’s findings, and a $5,000 settlement between Hulk and Bubba — were ordered unsealed by a Florida Appeals Court, but the judge in the invasion of privacy suit, Circuit Judge Pamela Campbell barred the material from being shown to the jury. Jurors were not shown the actual sex tape, either.

Gawker is already planning to appeal. Nick issued a statement in response to the verdict: “Given key evidence and the most important witness were both improperly withheld from this jury, we all knew the appeals court will need to resolve the case. 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.”