It wasn't all bad news for Hulk Hogan last week, who we found out had lost another sponsorship deal due to his recent firing by WWE over the National Enquirer exposé that he had made highly offensive racist remarks during one of his secretly recorded sex tapes with Heather Cole. That's because the latest developments in his lawsuit against Gawker for publishing excerpts from the aforementioned sex tapes have largely been positive for The Hulkster.

As we had previously reported, a group of media companies had been lobbying Judge Pamela Campbell to make a number of sealed records in the case public. Early indications were that she would deny this request. At a hearing last Thursday, she ruled that most of those confidential files would indeed remain sealed, as their publication would violate Hogan's right to privacy. Indeed she only agreed to one of the 17 items at issue being unsealed and another one she didn't make a decision on, but the rest would remain secret.

According to TambaBay.com, "the document that Campbell unsealed contained orders from court documents as well as two letters touching on the sex tape." It seems unlikely that these documents would include any great revelations about the case.

A much bigger victory was Campbell approving a third party forensic investigation of Gawker’s computers and a search of their offices to discover whether the company had illegally leaked transcripts of the sex tapes to the National Enquirer and RadarOnline.com, which led to Hogan's WWE firing. As David Bixenspan noted, Gawker could lose the equivalent of a summary judgment if they were found to be behind the leak, which would be the best case scenario for Hogan, as it would avoid having to go through a highly public and embarrassing trial.

The only disappointment to Hogan's side was that Campbell had (previously ruled) that she would allow the sex tapes to be given as evidence in the trial, but would do so in a manner that the public gallery wouldn't see the explicit material:

According to a written ruling by Florida Circuit Court Judge Pamela Campbell obtained by Radar, "When the video is played for the jury at trial, the monitors shall be turned in such a way so that only the jury, the parties, their trial counsel, and court personnel may see the video." However, the judge wrote, "The public and press shall not be excluded from the courtroom when the video is played, and the pooled camera shall not be turned off during such time."

Still, even with that (prior) minor blow, overall the proceedings went so well that Hogan exclaimed that "It's a beautiful day," as he left the courtroom.

For Gawker, the hearing clearly didn't go well and they noted their frustration over the judge's decision to keep most of the lawsuit's confidential records sealed in an official statement afterwards:

"Given the obvious public interest in this case, it is truly unfortunate that a large number of records remain hidden, and that the public is prevented from seeing both sides' arguments and the basis for many of the court's most significant rulings, The public should be able to know what happens in its court system.‎"

On a related side note, Hogan announced via Twitter that he will be appearing on Ric Flair's podcast this week. It will be interesting to see whether his ongoing lawsuit with Gawker will be touched on during the show.

Really pumped to do Ric Flairs Woooo Podcast ,doing it at 2pm today,don't know if it's live or taped, it doesn't matter,BROTHER. HH — Hulk Hogan (@HulkHogan) October 5, 2015

In a final piece of good news for The Hulkster, WrestlingInc.com has reported that WWE has started putting back some of the Hogan-related content on their Network that they had removed immediately prior to his abrupt firing.

"Content featuring Hulk Hogan has returned to the WWE Network after the organization removed references to the legendary wrestler from its various platforms when he was fired and blacklisted on July 24, 2015. Hulk Hogan Unreleased from 2009, the WWE Rivalries episode on his feud with Roddy Piper and episodes of WrestleMania Rivalry (Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, Hogan vs. The Rock, and The Mega Powers Explode) are available to watch again. Episodes of the animated series Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling were not added back though."

Maybe this is a sign that the frosty relationship between the two sides is slowly starting to thaw? A WWE comeback for Hogan is still unfathomable in the short-term future, but once his lawsuit with Gawker has been decided, that possibility can't be ruled out.

Update: I've been informed by a reliable source that last week's Radar Online story entitled "Hulk Hogan Sex Tape Set To Air In Court — What It Will Reveal" was recycled three month old news. Make of that what you will.