Hulk Hogan, the wrestling legend, who made this sport with a wave of the “Hulkamania” from a popular pastime to an ubiquitous pop culture phenomenon before becoming the hero of the right, died at the age of 71.
Darren Prince, Hogan’s long -time agent, confirmed the death of the wrestler to Rolling Stone. Hogan died on Thursday (July 24) in Clearwater, Florida, after paramedics were called to an emergency call for “cardiac arrest” in the wrestler’s house, reports CNN.
Hogan was taken to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead. In the past few weeks, however, it is said to have been on the deathbed after an operation at the beginning of this month, although people from his environment denied these rumors.
Hulk Hogan was the brand ambassador of the wrestling
“The WWE is sad about the death of WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan,” said the company in a statement. “As one of the best -known figures of pop culture, Hogan of the WWE gave the WWE to worldwide recognition in the 1980s. The WWE expresses her condolences Hogan’s family, friends and fans.”
Wrestler, born in Georgia, who was called Terry Bollea with a bourgeois name, began to professionally wrapped in Florida in the mid -1970s under names such as “Super Destroyer” and “Terry Boulder”. In 1979, Bollea was introduced to the then owner of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), Vince McMahon, made the Bollea under contract and gave him the name Hulk Hogan, who is partly due to his imposing stature (2 meters) and its similarity to the comic hero “The Incredible Hulk”.
In the early 1980s, Hogan-at that time still a bad guy-divided his time between the WWF (where his fights contributed to the popularity of “Sports”) and the New Japan Pro-Wrestling and fought for championships in both leagues. After a two -year guest performance at the American Wrestling Association, Hogan returned to the WWF and the “Hulkamania” was born.
The asset, shirtzer -free Hogan soon became the flagship of the WWF, renewed his rivalry with Andre Giant, competed against greats like “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and “Macho Man” Randy Savage and was the headliner of the first wrestlemania of the company.
It is difficult to overestimate what influence and what popularity Hogan had on both sport and pop culture in general. He became the hero of millions of fans, especially children. At the height of his career, Hogan was seen in Saturday morning signs, in music, in commercials and on fitness videos.
There could be no talk of oversaturation, because “Say your prayers and eat your vitamins” (say your prayer and take your vitamins) became a national catchphrase and continued to fill stadiums. “In blowered Manhattan, where people like Jackie O. and Mr. T walk through the streets unhindered,” wrote the New York Times 1984, “Hulk Hogan does not even come three meters.”
Hogan’s success in the ring led to roles in films such as “Rocky III” (as wrestler named Thunderlips) and a memorable guest appearance in “Gremlins 2: The Return”. Hogan played as the main actor in 1989 in the wrestling drama “No Holds Barred”, in 1991 in the science fiction action film “Suburban Commando” and in the family comedy “Mr. Nanny”.
In the following two decades, Hogan switched between today’s WWE and the World Championship Wrestling, where he accepted a heel personality called Hollywood Hogan. Hogan was accepted into the WWE Hall of Fame and stayed in the wrestling milieu until his death, while he also worked in the areas of music, merchandising and reality television.
“I am absolutely shocked about the death of my close friend Hulk Hogan,” wrote Ric Flair, who wrapped on his side and against Hogan, on social media. “Hulk has been by my side since our beginnings in the wrestling business. An incredible athlete, talent, friend and father! Our friendship meant everything to me. He was always there for me, even if I didn’t ask him about it. He was one of the first to visit me in the hospital when I only had a chance of survival of 2 percent, and he prayed at my bed … Hulkster, nobody will ever be able to get there! My friend! “
The Gawker case
In the 2010s, Hogan came into a completely different, but no less sensational struggle: a legal dispute with the Gawker website, which had published part of a sex video in which Hogan and Heather Clem, the wife of the shocking radio presenter and former Hogan-Freund Bubba the Love Sponge from Florida. The encounter itself took place in 2006, and in 2011 Hogan spoke in the “Howard Stern Show” about the rendezvous, which in his statement had taken place with Bubbas knowledge and encouragement.
Bubba had also recorded the encounter, burned the video on a DVD, labeled “Hogan” and supposedly hidden in his desk. Although nobody should see the video, it finally reached the public, and in October 2012 Gawker published a 1 minute and 41 second excerpt from the 30-minute video. The accompanying article, written by AJ Daulerio, was partly a comment on the voyeurism towards celebrities in the Internet age, sometimes a superficial retelling.
Hogan sued Gawker in Florida for violation of privacy, violation of personal rights and intentional refusal of mental cruelty. While Gawker argued that this was protected by the first amendment and that Hogan himself had made his sex life public in the “Howard Stern Show” through the discussion about the encounter with Clem, the jury was ultimately right to the wrestler.
Hogan was initially awarded a compensation of $ 140 million for punitive and compensation. Gawker appealed, but in 2016 the case was finally settled with a payment of $ 31 million, with Gawker agreed to remove the contribution. At this point, however, Gawker had already filed for bankruptcy and sold to Univision.
At the beginning of 2016 it was also announced that both Hogan’s legal dispute and other lawsuits against Gawker were financed by the right-wing Tech billionaire Peter Thiel. Thiel had told the “New York Times” that the website – and in particular her blog Valleywag, which focused on Silicon Valley – had “ruined the life of people for no reason”. (Valleywag had outed Thiel as gay in the mid -2000s.)
In the middle of the appeal procedure in the Gawker case in 2015, Hogan was faced with another major controversy after another volume was leaked through that contained a racist tirade in which he complained, among other things, that his daughter was together with a black man, and in which he used the N-word generously. (According to reports, the admission came from judicial documents in the Gawker case.)
Back and forth with the WWE, big fan of Donald Trump
Hogan apologized, but the WWE had already decided to terminate his contract and banish him from sport by removing all the references to him from her website, taking merchandising articles out of the range and even from the WWE Hall of Fame.
But the punishment did not last long. In 2018, Hogan returned to the WWE screens and was also included in the Hall of Fame. He continued to appear in WWE programs until the 2020s, most recently at the beginning of this year when RAW made his debut on Netflix.
During this last phase of his career, Hogan was also increasingly involved in conservative politics. He supported Donald Trump several times as presidential candidates and even told TMZ in 2016 that he wanted to become Trump’s “vice presidential candidate”. In 2024, Hogan even gave a speech at the Republican party congress, where he described Trump as “my hero” and gave his trademark, tearing his shirt.