Hulk Hogan, Controversial WWE Hall of Famer, Dead at 71
WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan is dead at 71, representatives confirmed to Vulture. According to TMZ, medics were called to Hogan’s Clearwater, Florida, home on the morning of July 24, responding to a report of “cardiac arrest.” Hogan has long dealt with health problems related to his time in the ring and recently underwent spinal surgery. Rumors of his death have frequently floated around the internet and have typically been debunked by his current wife, Sky. Less than 48 hours before his death was reported, his former manager and fellow WWE personality Jimmy Hart tweeted, “Hulk is doing great, doing phenomenal!”
Hogan, real name Terry Gene Bollea, was born in Augusta, Georgia, in 1953 and raised in Tampa. Though Hogan attended wrestling shows growing up in Florida, he started his career in entertainment as a musician, playing bass guitar in various rock bands. It was at one of those gigs, according to Hogan’s memoir, My Life Outside the Ring, that tag-team wrestlers Jack and Gerald Brisco noticed Hogan and encouraged him to try wrestling. Of course, this origin story should be taken with a grain of salt, as Hogan has been accused of lying about his biography throughout his career.
Hogan worked his way through the Florida wrestling circuit and was eventually introduced to WWE (then WWF) promoter Vince McMahon Sr. It was in WWF that he started wrestling under the name Hulk Hogan, though his initial tenure in the promotion was short-lived. After Vince McMahon Jr. bought his father out of the company, he brought Hogan back as the face of WWF. Hogan’s flamboyant in-ring persona led to a wrestling boom in the 1980s, spurred on by Hogan’s “Hulkamania.” But in 1993, Hogan stepped back from WWF amid accusations of steroid abuse. The next year he started appearing on rival wrestling show WCW, where he would take the name “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan and join the villainous New World Order, pulling one of the most genuinely shocking heel turns in wrestling history. Hogan continued wrestling with WCW, WWE, and other promotions until he officially retired from wrestling in 2012.
Hogan also made a career for himself as an actor, appearing in Rocky 3 before starring in films like No Holds Barred, Suburban Commando, and Santa with Muscles. And after the success of The Osbournes on MTV, VH1 aired a reality show about Hogan called Hogan Knows Best. Other wrestlers have made forays into acting as well, including Jesse Ventura, who tried to unionize wrestling after seeing how the actors union worked. It was Hogan, Ventura said, who “ratted [him] out” to Vince McMahon and quashed the union activity.
In 2012, Hogan was involved in the lawsuit that led to the shutdown of Gawker after the blog released a sex tape between Hogan and Heather Clem, the wife of his friend, radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge, that had been recorded without Hogan’s knowledge. It was during the subsequent trial that Hogan admitted his claim of having a “10-inch penis” was about the character Hulk Hogan, not the man Terry Bollea.
Hogan’s last appearance on a wrestling show was at the Netflix debut of WWE’s Monday Night Raw in January 2025, where he came out with Jimmy Hart to promote his beer brand. The Raw audience loudly booed him.
Related