The pro wrestling lexicon officially took shape this week as the term “X-Pac Heat,” long used to describe a crowd reaction of pure contempt not rooted in storyline, was rebranded as “Hogan Heat” in the wake of Hulk Hogan’s polarizing reception on WWE Raw’s Netflix debut.
Hogan relentlessly booed, “Let me tell you something, bro,” after which the Los Angeles crowd responded with a resounding “No, let’s tell you something.”
Merriam-Webster updated his online dictionary this morningadding “Hogan Heat” as a noun to describe “overwhelming audience displeasure, often stemming from perceived arrogance, dishonesty, character flaws, and/or excessive exposure.” In an unprecedented move, the dictionary also crossed off “X-Pac Heat” as “archaic,” noting that it was “replaced by Hogan Heat in 2025.”
“It’s rare that a cultural phenomenon requires such a linguistic shift,” says wrestling journalist and crafty linguist Dan Mutzler. “But X-Pac has carried this burden long enough, and Hogan is clearly a better name for that kind of heat.
In a delicious twist of irony, Shawn “X-Pac” Waltman received a huge standing ovation when he appeared on the same episode of Raw in which Hogan usurped him, becoming synonymous with bad heat.
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