Hulk Hogan's trial against Gawker.com will begin on March 7.
Hulk Hogan
The wrestling legend - whose real name is Terry Bollea - is suing the website for $100 million for leaking partial footage from his sex tape in 2012 and a trial date has now been set.
Speaking in court on Wednesday (13.01.16), Hulk's lawyer Kenneth Turkel said: "It was an extortion of my client. It was somebody trying to shake him down on a tape that he didn't consent to, that they published with knowledge that he hadn't consented to it all of which and in every scenario which there's one victim constantly and that's Terry Bollea."
The salacious footage features Hulk, 62, having sex with Heather Clem, the ex-wife of his former pal, radio DJ Bubba the Love Sponge.
And audio from the tape also features him using the N word - a transcript of which was leaked last year and led to Hulk's contract with WWE being terminated.
Gawker's attorney, Seth Berlin, said: "There was a tape involving him having sex with Heather Clem that had him making racist comments on it."
He asked the judge to dismiss the case, saying : "There was one thing that they wanted to deceive about. But as often the case, that led to a second thing to cover for the first thing, and then the third thing to cover for the second thing, to cover for the first thing."
Gawker and its owner, Nick Denton, previously insisted they had the right to publish the video because Hogan had made a number of sexually explicit comments during media appearances, so had lost any expectation of privacy.
The case will go ahead in March.
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