WWE legend and Real American Freestyle commissioner Hulk Hogan has died at 71.
TMZ reports that medics were dispatched to Hogan’s home in Clearwater, Florida, early Thursday morning with operators stating it was regarding a cardiac arrest. They added that Hogan was seen being carried onto a stretcher and into an ambulance.
News of Hogan’s death was confirmed by promoter and Hogan’s Real American Freestyle partner Eric Bischoff.
His death comes just three days after Fox Nation acquired the TV rights to his RAF wrestling tournament, with its inaugural matchup set to stream on Aug. 30. It also follows reports that the Hulkster had been battling health problems in recent months.
Hogan leaves behind a polarizing legacy in professional wrestling, undeniably transforming it as the first true global superstar of the industry and turning what was then known as the World Wrestling Federation from a regional wrestling promotion into a national, made-for-TV cultural phenomenon that is now the multibillion-dollar entertainment empire known as WWE.
But in his later years, Hogan’s contributions and accomplishments were eclipsed in the eyes of many fans and wrestlers — both his contemporaries and successors — by his reputation for backstage politicking to preserve his status as top star and his personal scandals, including a leak of a sex tape that led to a successful lawsuit that shut down the website Gawker as well as racist remarks that led WWE to distance itself from him for many years.
Born Terry Bollea in Augusta, Georgia, Hogan was recruited into wrestling in 1976 by brothers Jack and Jerry Brisco, who performed as a tag team. He took his name from a local talk show appearance alongside “The Incredible Hulk” star Lou Ferrigno after the host noted that he was more muscular than the TV star.
In the early ’80s, Hogan performed in the WWF and in New Japan Pro Wrestling alongside the latter’s founder, Antonio Inoki. He also appeared opposite Sylvester Stallone in “Rocky III” as a wrestler who faces Rocky Balboa at a charity event. But his career took off on Jan. 23, 1984, when he defeated The Iron Sheik to become the WWF World Heavyweight Champion in Madison Square Garden as announcer Gorilla Monsoon proclaimed, “Hulkamania is here!”
Hulkamania quickly caught fire, as Hogan became known for his over-the-top promos in which he ripped his iconic yellow-and-red shirts and implored kids watching — his “little Hulkamaniacs” — to “train, eat your vitamins and say your prayers.” It was off Hogan’s growing stardom that promoter Vince McMahon established the WWF’s annual flagship show, WrestleMania, in which Hogan main event-ed eight of its first nine editions.
The most famous of those main events was at WrestleMania III in 1987, when Hogan defeated Andre the Giant, a longtime hero-turned-heel. In a moment that became one of WWE’s most replayed, Hogan body-slammed the 7-foot-4 giant in a feat of strength that sealed his status as one of the most bankable stars in wrestling history.
But in the ’90s, Hogan shocked the wrestling world by leaving WWF and signing with Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling in 1994. That was nothing compared to what he did two years later, as it became increasingly evident that Hulkamania was growing stale in the eyes of fans who wanted grittiness and antiheroes rather than the Saturday morning cartoon feel of ’80s wrestling.
In 1996, in what is considered to be the most famous heel turn in wrestling history, Hogan joined fellow WWF defectors Scott Hall and Kevin Nash in forming the villainous stable known as the New World Order. Renaming himself “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan and exchanging his yellow and red gear for black and white, Hogan reinvented himself as a cocky villain who sought to take over WCW, famously spray painting the nWo initials over their world title while feuding with the brooding, face-painted avenger Sting.
After WCW was bought by WWF in 2001 over declining ratings, Hogan returned to the company that made him a star. In 2002, still wearing his nWo gear, Hogan faced The Rock, then at the height of his wrestling stardom, at WrestleMania X8 in 2002.
While Hogan was supposed to be the villain, a raucous crowd in Toronto loudly cheered for him over The Rock, though he still lost the match. That wild popularity led him to return to his Hulkamania persona and win the WWF title for a sixth and final time later that year before being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.
After 2005, the “Hogan Knows Best” star’s in-ring wrestling career began to wind down, especially after a spinal fusion surgery in December 2010. In the early 2010s, he played a heel manager alongside former WCW head Bischoff in TNA Wrestling, reigniting and eventually ending his feud with rival Sting. He returned to WWE in 2014 for some sporadic appearances, including at WrestleMania 30 to kick off the show alongside The Rock and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
But in the 2010s, Hogan became more known for scandals outside the ring than what he was doing in it. In 2012, Gawker published a short clip of a sex tape between him and Heather Clem, the estranged wife of radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge. Three years later, the National Enquirer published a clip from another sex tape from 2007 in which Hogan could be heard using racist slurs while ranting over the notion of his daughter dating a Black man.
Shortly after the release of that second tape, WWE terminated its contract with Hogan and scrubbed his name from its website, including the WWE Hall of Fame page. Meanwhile, Hogan sued Gawker over the publishing of the Clem sex tape with the major financial assistance of Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel. Hogan won and was awarded $115 million, a sum that was negotiated down to $31 million but still led to Gawker being shut down.
Hogan was reinstated to WWE in 2018 and made several guest appearances in the years that followed, but his relationship with the fans never returned to the widespread adulation he once had. In what ended up being his final WWE appearance this past January, Hogan appeared on the first episode of Netflix’s “Monday Night Raw” to promote his Real American Beer. But his appearance at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles was met with loud, expletive-filled jeers.
While his career came to an unceremonious end, Hogan remains one of the most recognizable wrestlers of all time, a figure of ’80s pop culture that catapulted wrestling into the zeitgeist, and served as the template for future WWE main eventers like John Cena and Cody Rhodes. He is survived by his wife, Sky, and his children from a previous marriage, Brooke and Nick.
