Terry Bollea, who rose to fame in the 1980s as Hulk Hogan, the babyface champ that Vince McMahon used as the foundation of his expansion of his father’s regional WWF promotion into an international juggernaut, died on Thursday, after a cardiac arrest at his Florida home, according to published reports.
Hogan was 71 years old.
There had been reports that Hogan had been in failing health in recent weeks, since undergoing neck surgery in May, but close friends and confidants had been aggressively refuting the rumors in interviews and social media posts as recently as yesterday.
Hogan made his debut in pro wrestling in 1977 with a regional promotion in Florida, before rising to stardom with his appearance as “Thunder Lips” in “Rocky III,” then becoming the face of the AWA promotion in the Midwest, challenging the long-time AWA world champ, Nick Bockwinkel, in a series of matches for the world belt.
McMahon hired Hogan away from AWA promoter Verne Gagne in 1983 and quickly made the 6’7”, 302-pound behemoth the WWF world champ, launching “Hulkamania,” with Hogan the centerpiece of a new approach to promoting wrestling that blended the in-ring matches with appearances by celebrities – including the likes of Mr. T, Cyndi Lauper and Liberace – from the worlds of TV, movies and music.
The first of his six title reigns was his longest, going more than four years, from 1984-1988, with Hogan dropping the belt in a nationally televised loss to Andre the Giant.
After more than a decade as the top babyface in pro wrestling, Hogan shocked the world with a heel turn after jumping to WCW, where he formed the New World Order stable with heels Kevin Nash and Scott Hall in 1996, sparking another run of celebrity involvement in wrestling that included matches involving basketball stars Dennis Rodman and Karl Malone and late-night TV host Jay Leno.
Later in his career, Hogan was involved with the upstart TNA company in a four-year run that failed to spark either TNA or Hogan the way we’d seen in his previous runs in WWF and WCW.
His final years as a celebrity were marked by a racism scandal that led WWE (the renamed WWF) to cut ties with him, and a lawsuit over a leaked sex tape funded by MAGA billionaire Peter Thiel that led to the downfall of the popular gossip website Gawker.
Legal issues are a part of the Hulk Hogan story – there was the 1985 lawsuit stemming from the chokehold that he put on actor and comedian Richard Belzer on a talk show, and his explosive testimony in the 1994 trial involving McMahon in which Hogan admitted to years of anabolic steroid use.
Hogan’s final couple of years had him launching a branded beer, a freestyle wrestling promotion and appearing on behalf of Donald Trump at the 2024 Republican National Convention.
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Chris Graham
