The night Hulk Hogan disappeared from WWE

Over the course of Thursday evening and Friday morning, WWE.com was scrubbed of any modern mention of Hulk Hogan. He is no longer featured in the Alumni section, his merchandise is out of the WWE Shop and he has been removed from the list of Tough Enough judges. Even Curtis Axel has returned to his generic gimmick on his roster page, instead of his months long Axelmania.

It seems unlikely we will see Hogan on another Tough Enough panel.

Even a direct link to his former profile page tells us, "You are not authorized to access this page."

What the heck happened?

Rumors are flying that a tape featuring a racist rant Hulk Hogan made back in 2012 has surfaced in relation to the current ongoing Gawker sex tape trial. Whether or not this is the actual story is still up in the air, as WWE has made no official statement. But most dirt sheets seem to expect TMZ or another tabloid style celebrity site to post the article later today.

With WWE not making any statement, no word exists on who takes the middle seat on the Tough Enough panel at this time. And WWE should thank their lucky stars Paige nominated Patrick last episode, because otherwise that could have been a whole bigger problem.

UPDATE: The release comes after the revelations of tapes where Hogan talks about a black boyfriend of his daughter Brooke in grossly insensitive language. WWE released a statement early Friday morning saying, "WWE terminated its contract with Terry Bollea (aka Hulk Hogan). WWE is committed to embracing and celebrating individuals from all backgrounds as demonstrated by the diversity of our employees, performers and fans worldwide."