Hogan was pronounced dead at a hospital less than 90 minutes after medics in Clearwater arrived at his home to answer a morning call about a cardiac arrest.
Hogan, whose real name was Terry Bollea, was perhaps the biggest star in WWE’s long history.
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 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.
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.
Hogan was also a celebrity outside the wrestling world, appearing in numerous movies and television shows, including a reality show about his life on VH1, “Hogan Knows Best.”
In recent years, Hogan added his celebrity to politics. At the 2024 Republican National Convention, he merged classic WWE maneuvers with then-candidate Donald Trump’s rhetoric to passionately endorse him for president.
Hogan was born in Georgia but lived much of his life in the Tampa, Florida, area. He recalled skipping school to watch wrestlers at the Sportatorium, a professional wrestling studio in Tampa.
“I had been running my mouth, telling everybody I’m going to be a wrestler, and in a small town, the word gets out,” Hogan told the Tampa Bay Times in 2021. “And so when I went down there, they were laying low for me. They exercised me till I was ready to faint.”
The result: a broken leg and a subsequent warning from his dad.
Outside Hogan’s Hangout, his restaurant in Clearwater Beach, people talked about their admiration for Hogan as news of his death spread. Rich Null of St. Louis said the two men worked out together.
“Thirty minutes into our workout in the gym, he said, ‘cut the Hulk Hogan crap, call me Terry,’” Null said. “He was a really super nice guy, and we’re gonna miss him.”
(Photo Evan Agostini/Invision via AP)
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