Wrestling legend Hulk Hogan dies at 71

Hulk Hogan, the renowned wrestling star, television personality and popular figure, died on Thursday at his home in Clearwater, Florida. The death was first reported by the tabloid TMZ, and US Weekly confirmed the news, citing family sources. He was 71.

Hogan, a 12-time world champion who stood 6 ft 7 tall (201 cm) and weighed 302 lb (130 kg), had recently undergone several surgeries, so much so that his current wife, Sky Daily, was forced to deny to the press a few weeks ago that the former wrestler was in a coma, stating that he was recovering and that his heart was “strong.”

Hogan has been surrounded by controversy. In 2005, he was inducted into the Wrestling Hall of Fame, but was removed from it a decade later for racist comments during a sexual encounter, as revealed by a video leaked by a media outlet, which he successfully sued. He was later reinstated in 2020. He had been retired since 2012.

Although as a child in his native Georgia he dreamed of becoming a baseball star, a broken arm thwarted his dreams and gave him a new start. “I wanted to be a baseball player as a kid,” he said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “That was my first love, but breaking my arm was the best thing that ever happened to me because I segued into wrestling.” Ashamed of his size and weight at school (he recalled being embarrassed to even wear a swimsuit at the beach), it was when he reached high school that he discovered his passion for wrestling. After studying business administration at a local public university and working as a bank teller and dock worker, it was at his gym in the late 1970s that he began to make inroads thanks to local competitions, which eventually brought him national and worldwide fame.

In addition to sports, Hogan and his peroxide hair were a fixture in film and television since the 1990s, appearing in around 15 films. One of these was Rocky III alongside his friend Sylvester Stallone, who said of him that “he threw the most amazing punches,” as he told People magazine. His connection to popular culture was such that, at the 1985 Grammy Awards, he appeared arm in arm with singer Cyndi Lauper, as if he were her bodyguard.

A pioneer of reality TV formats, he starred alongside his family in the show Hogan Knows Best on the music channel VH1. But the idyllic, carefree life seen on television contrasted sharply with the real world. A month after the series ended, his first wife, Linda Hogan, who starred in the reality show, filed for divorce. Among the reasons she cited were his numerous infidelities, including with his daughter’s best friend from her teenage years.

Hulk and Linda were married between 1983 and 2009, and together they had two children, Brooke and Nick. The wrestler then married Jennifer McDaniel in 2010, and the couple divorced in 2021. In September 2023, he married his third wife, Sky, a yoga teacher 25 years his junior.

In recent years, he had been associated with the MAGA movement, and in 2024 he showed up at the Republican convention to great cheers. There, he tore open his shirt to reveal a red T-shirt with the names of Donald Trump and J. D. Vance. “Hulk Hogan was a great American icon,” lamented the vice president after learning of Hogan’s death. “The last time I saw him we promised we’d get beers together next time we saw each other. The next time will have to be on the other side, my friend! Rest in peace.”