Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea died on Thursday, sources confirmed to Uncrowned. He was 71 years old.
News of Hogan’s passing was initially reported by TMZ. Per the outlet, medical personnel were called to Hogan’s Florida home for a “cardiac arrest.” Hogan is survived by his third wife, Sky Daily, and two children, Brooke and Nick. Hogan was married twice before Linda Claridge and Jennifer McDaniel.
Although Hogan’s professional wrestling career began in the late 1970s, his true explosion on the scene didn’t come until the mid-1980s, when he helped Vince McMahon turn the then-WWF from primarily a northeast-based wrestling territory into a national brand, and eventually a multi-billion-dollar company.
During his initial run with McMahon’s promotion, Hogan’s popularity surged, making him easily the most famous and recognized wrestler during the period. Hogan’s entrance music (“Real American”), signature red-and-yellow gear, his catchphrase “Whatcha gonna do, when Hulkamania runs wild on you?” and his dubbing of fans as “Hulkamaniacs” helped make him arguably the most popular babyface of all time. Although Hogan’s matches followed a simple formula — offense, near defeat, “hulking up” before ultimately winning — he remained the biggest draw WWF had at the time.
Hogan’s most famous match came in 1987, when he wrestled Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III. Hogan and Andre had wrestled several times in the past, but none of the previous matches were met with the anticipation or stakes that their showdown at the Pontiac Silverdome did in that match.
style="background-color: white; color: #232a31; font-size: 1.385em; line-height: 1.8; margin: 0px 0px 0.8em;">In an interview for the 2018 HBO documentary “Andre the Giant,” Hogan recalled the build-up to the show, saying that he wasn’t sure if Andre would follow the plan for the match, allowing Hogan to win and breaking his kayfabe undefeated streak. Hogan’s bodyslam of Andre and ensuing victory were defining moments in professional wrestling history.
Hogan’s run at or near the top of WWE continued into the mid-1990s before he joined WWE’s main competitor at the time, Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling. Turner, looking to make a splash and grow his brand beyond the southeast territory, brought in Hogan and several other big-name talents. Hogan’s first few years with WCW were largely forgettable before he became a star for another generation.
Once the top babyface in the business, Hogan would again transcend professional wrestling in 1996, turning heel for the first time in over a decade and forming the New World Order alongside Scott Hall and Kevin Nash at Bash at the Beach. The NWO storyline quickly became one of the hottest in not just professional wrestling, but pop culture at the time, propelling WCW to an 18-month run of beating McMahon’s WWE in television ratings.
When McMahon eventually bought WCW and Hogan returned to WWE in 2002, he did so as his NWO “Hollywood” Hogan character and again captivated audiences at WrestleMania 18, wrestling Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in an instant classic. Hogan would leave WWE again in 2003, wrestling for numerous promotions, including TNA/Impact, over the next decade.
Hogan appeared sporadically on WWE programming — mostly major events such as WrestleMania and anniversary shows — in subsequent years.
Influential as a professional wrestler, Hogan utilized his status to cross over into Hollywood on several occasions. Hogan’s first, non-wrestling role came in 1982’s “Rocky III,” where he played Thunderlips, a professional wrestler that Sylvester Stallone’s character fights during a charity event. Hogan’s most famous roles came in the 1993 film “Mr. Nanny” and the 1994 television series “Thunder in Paradise.” Hogan and his family also appeared on a reality television series, “Hogan Knows Best,” in the mid-2000s.
Myriad scandals plagued Hogan over the years. In 1985, Hogan was involved in an incident with actor Richard Belzer after Hogan placed Belzer in a chokehold at the star’s request. Belzer passed out and suffered a head injury and sued Hogan. Nearly a decade later, Hogan offered testimony in the federal steroid trafficking trial against McMahon.
Most notably, in 2012, a clip from a sex tape involving Hogan and Heather Clem was published online by Gawker. Hogan sued Gawker, and after years-long litigation, eventually reached a $31 million settlement.
Then, in July 2015, footage from the same sex tape was leaked to Radar Online and the National Enquirer, where Hogan was filmed using racial slurs and claiming he was “a little racist.” The incident caused WWE to cut ties with Hogan for several years before eventually reconciling.
Then, in July 2015, footage from the same sex tape was leaked to Radar Online and the National Enquirer where Hogan was filmed using racial slurs and claiming he was “a little racist.” The incident caused WWE to cut ties with Hogan for several years before eventually reconciling. One of Hogan’s most recent appearances, at Raw’s Netflix debut in January, was met with an overwhelmingly negative reaction from WWE fans.
In recent years, Hogan expanded his platform into a memorabilia shop in Florida as well as a beer company, Real American Beer, and was in the process of launching a freestyle wrestling company, Real American Freestyle, alongside his former WCW colleague, Bischoff.
Hogan took a central role in the 2024 presidential election, delivering a speech at the Republican National Convention last August and introducing former President Donald Trump on the final night.
Despite criticisms about his wrestling style and his transgressions, Hogan remained a major draw and influential figure in the industry. During his six-decade career in professional wrestling, Hogan won countless titles and was inducted into multiple Halls of Fame.
One was a businessman turned reality TV star twice elected president. The other was a professional wrestler who became politically active later in life.
Donald Trump and Hulk Hogan’s paths first crossed at a late 1980s wrestling event at one of Trump’s Atlantic City, New Jersey, hotels, kicking off a more than three-decadelong friendship that was marked by their obvious career parallels. Both were ‘80s celebrities who found greater fame in the world of reality television before wielding their influence in politics.
Just over a year before his death Thursday, Hogan delivered a rousing speech at the Republican National Convention in July 2024 in Milwaukee during which he dramatically ripped off his T-shirt — to reveal another one bearing the Trump-Vance campaign logo — and endorsed his “hero,” Trump.
Hogan said he was motivated by the attempted assassination of Trump days earlier at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“What happened last week, when they took a shot at my hero, and they tried to kill the next president of the United States, enough was enough, and I said: ‘Let Trumpamania run wild brother. Let Trumpamania rule again, let Trumpamania make America great again,” Hogan said.
“We lost a great friend today, the ‘Hulkster.’ Hulk Hogan was MAGA all the way — Strong, tough, smart, but with the biggest heart,” Trump wrote on his social media site, using the acronym for his ‘Make America Great Again’ campaign slogan.
“He gave an absolutely electric speech at the Republican National Convention, that was one of the highlights of the entire week,” Trump said. “He entertained fans from all over the World, and the cultural impact he had was massive.”
Trump offered warm best wishes and love to Hogan’s widow, Sky, and said he “will be greatly missed.”
The official White House account on X shared a photo of a suited Trump and Hogan, wearing a Trump-Vance campaign T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, with their arms clasped as if they were wrestling. The caption said, “Hulk Hogan will be greatly missed!” and included a red heart emoji.
Trump went on to enjoy a long association with professional wrestling and some of its top officials, including the husband and wife duo of Vince and Linda McMahon, the founders of World Wrestling Entertainment. Linda McMahon served Trump in both of his administrations and is currently education secretary after heading up the Small Business Administration in his first term.
In 2013, Trump was inducted into the celebrity wing of WWE’s Hall of Fame.
In Milwaukee, Hogan said he had known Trump for more than 35 years and talked about how he won wrestling’s world title as the future president sat ringside during a WrestleMania event at Trump Plaza hotel and casino in Atlantic City.
“I was bleeding like a pig and I won the world title right in front of Donald J. Trump and, you know something, he’s going to win in November,” Hogan said at the convention.
Hogan also addressed thousands at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden last October.
After Trump was reelected, Hogan was among thousands of supporters who went to Trump’s victory rally at a Washington sports arena on the eve of the presidential inauguration in January.
Hulk Hogan was billed as “The Immortal One” and the former WWE champion seemed to believe it as he bellowed in his red-and-yellow attire throughout sold-out arenas around the world in the 1980s and into this century that Hulkamania would live forever.
Hogan was the first wrestler to host “Saturday Night Live,” the only wrestler to flex his 24-inch pythons on the cover of Sports Illustrated and stood tall as the hated Thunderlips against Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa on the big screen.
One by one, Hogan took on the biggest, baddest and all the larger-than-life cartoon characters who helped skyrocket the WWE into a mainstream phenomenon in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Hogan’s death Thursday at the age of 71 made him just the latest superstar in what some fans and historians would call wrestling’s greatest era – in a time where staid Saturday morning television exploded into late-night must-see sports entertainment – to face the final 10-bell salute.
Hogan wrestled in a tag-team match at the first WrestleMania in 1985. Mr. T is the lone surviving actor from the rest of the participants that included “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. The wrestler Hogan defeated to win his first WWE championship, the hated Iron Sheik, has also died
Andre the Giant, Randy Savage, Dusty Rhodes, the Ultimate Warrior and so many headline stars that also include “Mr. Perfect” and “Ravishing” Rick Rude from an era in which personality — and yes, performance-enhancing drugs that led to a spike in super-sized bodies — reigned more than in-ring ability that dominates today’s wrestling landscape.
Here’s a look at some of professional wrestling’s greatest performers from Hogan’s era who have died.
The Ultimate Warrior
Wearing face paint and dressed in tassels dangling from his biceps, the Ultimate Warrior sprinted to the ring when his theme music hit. He’d shake the ropes, grunt and howl, and thump his chest while the crowd went wild for the popular good guy.
In an era when the WWE targeted kids as its primary audience, Warrior was a perfect fit with a spastic entrance, blood-pumping music, flowing locks and always dressed in electric colors from head to boots.
His rambling, incoherent promos both energized and confused fans, and Warrior would often stare down at his hands as he spoke, as if he was summoning magical powers out of his fingertips.
The Ultimate Warrior became the first wrestler to defeat Hogan in a WrestleMania match in 1990 when he used his finishing running splash for the pin. He won the championship in front of 67,678 fans at Toronto’s SkyDome in a match billed as “The Ultimate Challenge.”
Warrior died in 2014 at 54.
“Rowdy” Roddy Piper
Piper trash talked his way to the main event of the first WrestleMania and later found movie stardom.
Piper and Hogan battled for years and headlined some of the biggest matches during the 1980s. Hogan and Mr. T defeated Piper and Orndorff on March 31, 1985, at the first WrestleMania at Madison Square Garden.
Piper was a villain for the early portion of his career, once cracking a coconut over the skull of Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka. He later starred in the movie “They Live.”
Piper died in 2105 at 61.
“Macho Man” Randy Savage
Snap into it!
Savage, a former minor league baseball catcher, was known for his raspy voice, the sunglasses and bandanas he wore in the ring and the young woman named Miss Elizabeth who often accompanied him.
Savage defined the larger-than-life personalities of the 1980s World Wrestling Federation. He wore sequined robes bejeweled with “Macho Man” on the back, rainbow-colored cowboy hats and oversized sunglasses, part of a unique look that helped build the WWF into a mainstream phenomenon.
He spent years as a pitchman for Slim Jim and barked “snap into it!” on commercials that air to this day.
The WWF made Savage their champion after a win over Ted DiBiase in the main event at WrestleMania in 1988. He lost the championship at the next year’s WrestleMania to Hogan.
Savage died in 2011 at 58.
“The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes
Dusty Rhodes, known better as the “The American Dream,” was a member of the WWE Hall of Fame, and held the NWA championship three times. He became famous during the height of wrestling’s popularity in the 1970s and 1980 with his long-running feud with Ric Flair, now wrestling’s greatest living legend.
Throughout his several decades in the ring, the Austin, Texas, native endeared himself to fans as an everyman with a less than stellar physique, but a gregarious gift of gab behind a microphone.
Rhodes was also the father of two other famous professional wrestlers: one son known as Goldust, still a champion in the rival All Elite Wrestling, and one of WWE’s biggest stars, “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes, who will face John Cena next month in the main event of SummerSlam.
Rhodes died in 2015 at 69.