Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson won't label Hulk Hogan a racist

Former pro wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson says he was "surprised" and "disappointed" when he learned that Hulk Hogan had come under fire for making racial slurs.

Hogan, whose real name is Terry Gene Bollea, was terminated by World Wrestling Entertainment last week after a recording surfaced that had him repeatedly using the N-word.

During a session with the critics to discuss his HBO show “Ballers,” Johnson was asked about the racially tinged remarks that led the WWE to sever its ties with Hogan, who had long been a face of the organization.

"I was pretty disappointed with what I heard, like all of us," Johnson told reporters at the TV critics press tour Thursday. "I've known Terry for a lot of years, and my dad helped train him in Florida in the '70s when he was breaking into the business ... I had not known the man to be racist."

Unlike their days in the wrestling ring, The Rock refused to body slam his former opponent.

"I'm not justifying what he said. We've all talked trash, especially in private," Johnson remarked. "He said what he said, and he's paying the price."

Hulk Hogan can wear bandanna in court for sex-tape trial: Report

While jurors sit in court next week for Hulk Hogan's sex-tape trial, they may get a glimpse at one of the former pro-wrestler's expanded body parts but, one thing they won't see is his diminishing hairline at the defense table.

Hogan’s $100 million sex-tape lawsuit against Gawker doesn’t begin until Monday, but a Florida judge has already ruled the 61-year-old WWE celebrity can wear a legendary piece of his persona to court — his bandanna.

The muscle-bound and mustached Hogan, famous for the head wear emblazoned with the “Hulkamania” nickname across his forehead, will be able to wear one “plain bandanna,” Florida state court Judge Pamela Campbell has ruled.

Besides taking away part of the larger-than-life entertainer's signature look, the judge also mandated that Hogan will have to go by his birth name, Terry Bollea.

“There will be judicial serenity and calm, to which the parties are entitled,” Campbell told both sides while setting the trial’s ground rules. 

She maintained that the trial "is not going to be a carnival."

Hogan sued Gawker after the New-York-based website published excerpts in a two-minute “highlights reel” from a 30-minute sex tape that showed the former WWE star having sex with the wife of radio shock-jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem, once the wrestler’s best friend.

The Hulkster's legal team, which claims the video was shot without its client’s permission or knowledge, charges that its posting by Gawker was an invasion of privacy.

Gawker’s defense is that the Hulk has been dishing out details of his sex life for years. That was all before Gawker published anything, making it newsworthy and protected by the First Amendment, the defense maintains.

If Hogan wins and the jury, from his hometown of Tampa, awards him anything close to the $100 million, it could bankrupt Gawker.

Maybe then we'll get to see Hulk rip off his trademark tee.