NEED TO KNOW
- Professional-wrestling celebrity Hulk Hogan died at age 71, the WWE confirmed Thursday
- He began as a bouncer and made his Madison Sq. Backyard ring debut in December 1979.
- He received 12 world championships all through his profession
Hulk Hogan, pro-wrestling’s 12-time world champion and TV character, who helped remodel the WWE into the behemoth it grew to become, has died at age 71, the WWE confirmed.
In assertion shared with ipromiseyoumedia on Thursday, July 24, the wrestling firm mentioned, “WWE is saddened to study WWE Corridor of Famer Hulk Hogan has handed away. One of popular culture’s most recognizable figures, Hogan helped WWE obtain international recognition within the Eighties. WWE extends its condolences to Hogan’s household, pals, and followers.”
TMZ was first to share the information, and mentioned that medics have been despatched to Hogan’s dwelling in Florida after he reportedly suffered a cardiac arrest. The outlet mentioned he was taken out on a stretcher.
Hogan, the boastful wrestling icon, movie and actuality TV star, was a two-time inductee into the WWE Corridor of Fame. He was first inducted in 2005 by his pal Sylvester Stallone, then in 2020 as a part of a wrestling workforce. At 6′ 6,” or 6′ 7,” or possibly 6′ 8″ — he beloved tall tales — and weighing greater than 300 kilos, Hogan was anointed “Wrestling’s Prime Banana” in a 1985 Sports activities Illustrated cowl story spotlighting each him and “Mat Mania!”
“Hulk Hogan is to professional wrestling what Babe Ruth was to baseball,” SI famous in 2025. “Hogan pushed the trade to new ranges and created the multi-billion greenback enterprise it’s at present…. With out ‘The Hulkster,’ wrestling would not be the place it’s within the trendy period.”
For 35 years, till his retirement in 2012, Hogan was identified for his theatrics. Together with his “24-inch pythons” (biceps), Hogan may make a canine’s chew toy out of his nemeses, together with Sgt. Slaughter, André the Large and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
A perennially tanned and oiled-up Florida boy with peroxide hair and an identical handlebar mustache, Hogan entered hundreds of rings world wide with the arrogance of an oncoming Mack truck. Sporting a fancy dress that typically included a pink boa swung round his neck, yellow spanky pants and an itsy-bitsy pink tank prime, he was wrestling’s model of Met Gala-ready.
A well-liked presence on display screen, Hogan starred in 15 motion pictures, starting with Rocky III (1982). His pal Sylvester Stallone gave Hogan excessive reward for his efficiency within the movie. “He threw essentially the most wonderful punches,” Stallone recalled. “As a result of he was bare-fisted, I may truly really feel his punch touching my pores and skin, but he knew simply when to drag again.”
Hogan confirmed up on the 1985 Grammys on the arm of singer Cyndi Lauper as her bodyguard. He revamped 200 appearances on all the things from The Love Boat (1986) to wrestling fare together with, WWE Uncooked. From 2005 to 2007, Hogan and his spouse Linda and their kids Brooke and Nick starred on VH1’s actuality collection Hogan Is aware of Finest.
“Individuals are locked into this one-dimensional view that Hulk Hogan is only a wrestler with a bald head that screams and body-slams folks,” he mentioned in a 2005 episode. “(They) do not realize that I am going to soccer video games, play frisbee, watch The Lion King and begin crying.”
One month after the present’s finale, Linda Hogan filed for divorce after 24 years of marriage, citing the Hulk’s “infidelities,” together with his affair with their teenage daughter’s shut pal. The scandals and lawsuits solely grew from there. A flawed hero, he lied about steroid use, was concerned in a infamous sex-tape scandal and was uncovered utilizing racist language — which tarnished his popularity as wrestling’s “good man.”
“I’ve a ton of scars,” Hogan instructed the Los Angeles Occasions in 2019. “I’m not excellent, however it’s about standing up, proudly owning it and transferring ahead.”
He was born Terrence Gene Bollea on August 11, 1953, in Augusta, Ga. His father Pete Bollea, was a building foreman, and his mom, Ruth (née Moody), was a dance trainer and stay-at-home mother. The household moved to South Tampa, Fla., the place younger Terry was filled with shenanigans. ”I assume Terry will get a lot of his showmanship from me,” his mom instructed ipromiseyoumedia in 1991.
Teased in elementary faculty for having “the biggest head,” Hogan mentioned he was additionally bullied for his weight. On the age of 12, he weighed 195 kilos. “I would not take my shirt off on the seaside,” he recalled.
Whereas at Robinson Excessive Faculty, Hogan discovered his clique with classmates who shared a ardour for wrestling. “We lived for Dusty Rhodes,” he instructed Sports activities Illustrated. “If Dusty was not on TV on Saturday or Sunday morning right here in Tampa, we have been pissed off.”
The considered coming into the game petrified him. In 2014, Hogan instructed Vice, “As a child, I used to be scared to dying of them as a result of again within the day wrestlers have been very protecting, and should you known as wrestling faux, they might punch you within the face.”
After highschool, Hogan studied enterprise at a group school and labored as a financial institution teller and stevedore. He joined an area wrestling gymnasium and started slamming the mats in tiny-tank-town matches throughout the Southeast as “Terry Boulder,” “Sterling Golden” and “The Tremendous Destroyer.”
In 1978, he met bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno, who was then starring on TV’s The Unbelievable Hulk because the title character, whereas each have been company on a Memphis discuss present. “I used to be truly larger than he was,” Hogan instructed Forbes in 2011. “I went again to the dressing room and all the wrestlers began calling me Terry ‘The Hulk’ Boulder.”
One 12 months later, Hogan was wooed by Vince McMahon Sr., a widely known promoter and the founding father of World Wrestling Leisure, who later bought the company to his son, Vince McMahon. Vince Sr. was so impressed with Hogan’s bodily prowess that he gave him a contract to affix the WWE.
Vince Sr. got here up with a storyline for the younger wrestler to behave out within the ring. He determined his recruit would tackle the persona of a troublesome Irishman and gave him the surname “Hogan.” He additionally instructed Hulk to dye his hair pink. Hogan — whose hair was already thinning — declared, “I will be blond Irish.”
Hulk Hogan made his WWE (known as WWF on the time) debut in November 1979. One month later, he was strutting his size-17 (his declare) boots into Madison Sq. Backyard. “I am the person that made wrestling well-known,” he mentioned repeatedly.
In 2015, the WWE terminated his contract and scrubbed Hogan from their web site for a years-earlier racist slur. Then in 2018, after he accomplished an apology tour and spent numerous hours volunteering with children, the WWE reinstated him in its Corridor of Fame.
“Eight years in the past, I used offensive language throughout a dialog. It was unacceptable for me to have used that offensive language. There is no such thing as a excuse for it, and I apologize for having completed it,” Hogan mentioned in a press release to ipromiseyoumedia on the time.
In a 2014 interview with the WWE, he expressed hope for his alter ego to reside on. “The character of Hulk Hogan is impeccable. The Hulk Hogan character has introduced me, Terry Bollea, and made me a significantly better particular person.”
Albeit one who suffered tremendously within the title of the game. “It is not straightforward brother,” Hogan instructed Rolling Stone in 2009. “My tailbone is bent from touchdown on my ass 400 occasions a 12 months, twice on Saturdays, twice on Sundays. My again’s received all types of issues. I’m crippled. My legs get numb…. My fingers are numb. My forearms are numb. My neck, too. I’ve received arthritis and scoliosis. I’m 6’4.” I was 6’7.”
Away from the ring, Hogan was a self-described seaside bum who loved chilling together with his chihuahuas in Clearwater, Fla., whereas strumming his bass guitar. He owned a number of eating places and bars and in 2024, launched a beverage, Actual American Beer. His good pal, President Donald Trump, (a identified non-drinker) touted Hogan’s beer on Fact Social: “Nice trying can and brand.”
Of his legacy, Hogan mentioned, “I promised every Hulkamaniac once I went to that nice battlefield within the sky, I’d carry the WWF title with me.”
Hogan is survived by his third spouse, Sky Day by day, and his two kids.
