In an online brouhaha that escalated very quickly, fitness positivity influencer Joey Swoll has seemingly quit social media.
And it all has to do with the complicated legacy left behind by professional wrestling legend Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea.
For the unaware, Hulk Hogan was a beloved icon in professional wrestling who largely put WWF — now WWE — on the map in the 1980s.
Terry Bollea, meanwhile, was a deeply flawed human who battled a number of demons, such as a viral sex tape and using the hard “r” n-word, in the latter half of his life, before ultimately finding Christ.
When Hogan passed away at the age of 71 last week, Swoll, like many fans of yesteryear, took to social media to honor the wrestling character, if not the man behind it.
Swoll, whose real name is Joseph Sergo, took to social media to post himself working out in classic Hogan attire — yellow and red tights, plus yellow and red feather boas — as a simple nod to a pillar of his childhood.
That did not sit well with swathes of critics who were unable to let go of some of Bollea’s more sordid flaws.
That was the first salvo Swoll took on the chin.
The second came after Swoll took to social media to apologize for honoring Hogan, and noting that he was unaware of some of Bollea’s past controversies.
Do you think Swoll should’ve apologized?
That apology did not sit well with swathes of onlookers who felt that capitulating to the “woke mob” was not just unnecessary, but even a character flaw in 2025.
Daily Wire star Matt Walsh was one such voice to pile on Swoll’s apology.
Influencer Joey Swoll posts a groveling apology for praising Hulk Hogan. He thanks the leftist trolls for “educating” him. Absolutely pathetic. Inexcusable to cave to the woke mob at any time, but to cave to them in 2025? Baffling.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) July 29, 2025
“Influencer Joey Swoll posts a groveling apology for praising Hulk Hogan,” Walsh posted Tuesday. “He thanks the leftist trolls for ‘educating’ him. Absolutely pathetic. Inexcusable to cave to the woke mob at any time, but to cave to them in 2025? Baffling.”
(Walsh wasn’t done — but more on that shortly — and the comments under his post highlight that he’s not the only who feels this way.)
The blowback to the apology appeared to strike a chord with Swoll, who took to X to claim all of his past good work had been “for nothing,” and that he “was done.”
All the good I’ve done, all the people I’ve helped, all for nothing. I truly hope all the people I’ve inspired do great things in their life and pay it forward to help others and carry on my message. But no matter how much good you do, people just wait for a reason to hate you…
— Joey Swoll (@TheJoeySwoll) July 29, 2025
“All the good I’ve done, all the people I’ve helped, all for nothing,” Swoll posted as the controversy hit its apex. “I truly hope all the people I’ve inspired do great things in their life and pay it forward to help others and carry on my message. But no matter how much good you do, people just wait for a reason to hate you and tear you down. You either die a hero, or live long enough to be the villain. Thank you for your support. I am done.”
Walsh took issue with this, as well.
“This episode is a perfect example of performative strength vs real masculine strength,” Walsh wrote.
“Joey is performatively strong. He spends 14 hours a day in the gym and looks like it. But he has no real actual masculine strength,” he added.
“The moment he encountered pushback from a bunch of whiney leftists, he folded and apologized and now he’s running away and quitting while begging for pity,” Walsh said. “I don’t care how much you can bench press. If this is how you carry yourself, you’re weak.”
Swoll is perhaps best known for his content where he calls out abhorrent behavior at the gym.
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