Shocked he's doing it but it makes sense.
1. It was obvious to everyone Gawker leaked the audio tape specifically as retaliation to harm Hulk and while no hard proof of it was ever dug up at trial, even the judge could tell Gawker was to blame given how the judge basically said, if they found proof at trial they leaked the audio, that Gawker would forfeit any right to a jury trial and it would go straight to summary judgement, in terms of the Judge stopping the trial and passing sentence on Gawker then and there.
Also, this is a great way to make it impossible for Gawker to stall the fuck for time, as far as milking the appeals process for as long as they can until they shore up their war chest to survive the financial hit from the first trial. This makes it harder to get sugar daddies to look twice at Gawker as far as wanting to invest in them.