The wrestling world is in shock: at just 71 years old, its icon Hulk Hogan died on Thursday. There are reports in the US of a cardiac arrest at Hogan's home in Clearwater, Florida. All valiant attempts at resuscitation were in vain. Millions of fans around the world are mourning the loss of a former idol who has now lost his final match. According to the American celebrity website TMZ, a rescue operation took place at his property on Thursday morning. The former WWE (formerly WWF) superstar was taken to the hospital on a stretcher.
His manager Chris Volo confirmed to NBC Los Angeles that Hogan had already died surrounded by his family at his home in Clearwater. Firefighters and rescuers initially treated him at the scene. He was pronounced dead at the hospital, local authorities also confirmed. Hogan had only undergone cervical spine surgery in May and numerous other surgeries, 17 on his knees alone, as he once stated in an interview.
According to his own statements, he had recently changed his diet, abstained from alcohol, and had therefore lost a significant amount of weight. Already in the 1990s, he admitted to regularly using steroids. At the beginning of the year, Hulk Hogan was still in the ring, but rumors of the wrestler's serious health problems had already grown increasingly common, even falsely suggesting he was in a coma. Baseball, Bass, and Georgia Hogan was born Terrence Gene Bollea on August 11, 1953, in the U.S. state of Georgia.
Initially, he played baseball and was a bassist in several bands, until he finally found his way to professional wrestling in the 1970s. The wrestling world is now losing one of its greatest stars of all time; for many, he is still considered the greatest. Hogan had catapulted exhibition wrestling, or "lucha libre," as the sport is known in this country, to unimaginable heights in the 1980s and 1990s.
Legendary Fight Against Giants His match against André the Giant, in which Hogan lifted the supposedly 240-kilogram giant and threw him to the ground, went down in history. The "Hulkamania" fan movement would define the business for decades. The WWE paid tribute to Hogan on Thursday as "one of the most recognizable figures in pop culture." Numerous reality shows, films, and television series have brought him additional fame around the world. Just two years ago, the father of two married for the third time.
Million-Dollar Lawsuit and Politics But there were also downsides. A published video showing Hogan having sex with a friend's wife resulted in a million-dollar lawsuit against the website Gawker that lasted for years; Gawker ultimately had to file for bankruptcy. Hogan had been supported in his lawsuit by German investor Peter Thiel. Among other things, there were accusations of an alleged campaign against freedom of the press.
He was also temporarily expelled from the Hall of Fame for racist comments. He later declared his remarks "repulsive" and was reinstated. In recent years, Hogan has been repeatedly involved in American politics, most recently promoting current President and Republican Donald Trump. He had also previously supported Barack Obama, a Democrat, but declared in 2011 that he would no longer do so. "This is our superhero," Donald Trump Jr. tweeted on Thursday. "Rest in peace, legend." Florida Governor Ron DeSantis commented: "As a kid, he was someone you thought, 'Wow, that's our superhero.'"
