He struggled towards unprecedented popularity, was burdened by controversy for years after he had made a game of it in the light of the spotlight and eventually became the big hero of Trumps Maga movement. Thursday the turbulent life of Terry Gene Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan, came to an end after 71 years. The show wrestler got a cardiac arrest in his home in Clearwater in Florida. He was rushed to a hospital, but could not be saved anymore.
Bollea was born in 1953 in the southeastern state of Georgia, as a child of an operator in construction and a dance teacher. During a short career as a bass guitarist, he discovered his preference for entertainment. “In between the songs I was the one who talked to the audience and made eye contact,” he said about that in return for Vice. “Deep in the night, for those crazy, drunk people, I found out that I knew how to play the audience.”
In the end, Bollea chose struggling in the 1970s. First he entered the ring as The Super Destroyer, or as Terry Boulder. In 1979 he met Vince McMahon, the then owner of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), who saw potential in the two -meter -long man with wild blonde hair and heavy voice. Together McMahon and Bollea came up with a new identity: Hulk Hogan – a reference to his’Hulking ‘ (colossal) appear and to Marvels Superheld, The Incredible Hulk. McMahon, himself from Irish descent, supplemented that with the very Irish name Hogan.
From villain to public favorite
In the early days of his career, Hogan seamlessly fit into the classic image of the villain. It was the ideal opposite of neat, smooth -shaved wrestling heroes such as Bob Backlund – the typical Good Guywith his babyface.
The turning point came in 1982, when Hogan in Rocky III appeared as the flamboyant wrestler Thunderlips, who came to stand in a show fight opposite Sylvester Stallones Rocky. When he returned to the WWF a year later, the villain had become a public favorite. Now he was a patriotic character that fought against The Iron Sheikh (the personification of Iran) or Nikolai Volkoff (symbol for the Soviet Union). With that shift, the idea of who could be a hero in the world of American show wrestling – and beyond.
It was the beginning of the Hulkamania. “In Manhattan, where men like Jackie O. and Mr. T. can go unhindered, Hulk Hogan can do less than three meters,” wrote The New York Times in 1984.
Hulk Hogan (left) and Mr. T. (right) during a press conference in 1985.
Photo Corey Struller/AP
Controversy
In the spotlight, it was also visible what Hogan would rather have hidden. He acknowledged in 1994 that he took steroids-which, according to medical-scientific research, increases the risk of heart failure.
From 2005, Hogan appeared for two years with his then wife Linda, daughter Brooke and son Nick in the popular reality show Hogan Knows Best. In that show, Hogan was an over -concerned father who preferred to keep all the boys from the neighborhood of his daughter. After the show his wife and he: Hogan apparently had an affair with his daughter’s best friend.
In 2016, Hogan won a controversial lawsuit against Gawker Media Group, after weblog Gawker had published a secretly recorded video in which Hogan had sex with the wife of a friend of his. Gawker violated his privacy, the judge ruled. Gawker had to pay $ 140 million and was immediately bankrupt. Tech billionaire Peter Thiel, bitter because Gawker had revealed years earlier that he was falling for men, had financed the lawsuit. At the same time, Hogan had to through the dust After he had been racist about his daughter Brooke’s black friend.
Hogan becomes Maga
Over the past decade, Hogan started to praise himself more and more about Donald Trump. At the Republican Convention in Milwaukee, he tore his shirt last year, as he had done so often. (Comment: his shirts were often a bit ‘torn’ to facilitate the process.)
Donald Trump is a big fan of WWE, as the company behind show wrestling is now called, and often performed with Hulk Hogan. He even takes his political style from wrestling, stated religion scientist and conspiracy specialist Aaron James Goldman from the University of Lund in 2024. Wrest journalist Dave Meltzer be on it How Trump the battle between Good Guys and Bad Guys has internalized from struggle.
The principle applies in the world of show wrestling kayfabe: The collective agreement that the fighter performed really seems, even though everyone knows better. Trump, Goldman wrote, embraces that theatrical form of reality, and consciously plays the role of the villain that defies the rules and challenges the audience. It is precisely that game with the truth that in the eyes of many voters makes him more credible than political opponents who, they suspect, try to disguise something.
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