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Hulk Hogan dead at 71 after a cardiac arrest!
Say what you want about him as a person, but he's obviously the most mainstream wrestler of all time (Rock is most mainstream overall, but wrestling specific wise, Hogan was easily it).
You knew this day would come when THE big name legends eventually die, but this is such a shock.
I'm literally in the middle of watching his Undisputed Title reign in 2002.
I could see them doing a tribute episode on Smackdown for him outside of the usual 1 minute clip they do for other deaths.
Apparently today's the 10 year anniversary of when he was originally fired from WWE over those leaked messages from him.Last edited by Majingir; 07-24-2025, 12:37 PM.Comment
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On-screen, a larger than life superhero. Wrestling would not be what it is today both for us as viewers and for the other wrestlers themselves without his Hulkamania run.
Off-screen, a ****ty person and a massive racist.
so…it is what it is.Comment
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As expected, you get the mixed reaction to his death.
Some who'll just focus on the wrestler and others who'll "dance on his grave".
His last ever tv appearance of course was him being booed out of the arena when WWE/TKO were somehow surprised at that reaction.
He definitely would've made more appearances for SNME if not for the negative reactions.
Also makes me wonder the reaction when Vince dies. For years I felt like it'd be filled with a "dark cloud" with the allegations we've heard about only now coming to light after he dies which overshadows all the tributes. But all that's happened already while he's still alive so when he dies would it just be people even thinking of him as the creator of WWE and sports entertainment, or is the focus going to solely be on everything we've found out the past few years?Comment
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Nothing else to say but thank you.
Absolutely devastating.Comment
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****ty person, but an endearing, untouchable character/persona.
He'll never be the idol that he was for me for decades (as a kid and eventually young adult), but you also can't take away what he did for pro wrestling.
He's a lot like John Wayne, an icon for his body of work, yet also a known racist, bigot and all around POS.
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I was short on time earlier and I don't like the way my initial reply reads back so I'm adding a few more thoughts.
It's tough to balance. I just turned 40, so needless to say I grew up in Hulkamania. Shirts? Posters? Action figures? Chewable vitamins? That workout set with the blue dumbbells? I had all that stuff. One of my earliest memories is my dad holding me up at a house show to get a better view of Hulk. Suburban Commando? Seen it. Mr Nanny? Of course. No Holds Barred? I have it on Blu-Ray today. I saw every episode of Thunder in Paradise.
I started watching WCW more when he went over. Listened to his heel turn over a scrambled PPV signal. Was at the Raw after the nWo came to WWE and saw the Rock-Hogan faceoff in person. Watched him in his TNA run but the less said about that the better. When he came back to WWE in 2014 and they put new merch up I bought a couple shirts, one of them to replace a childhood Hulkamania shirt that was lost in moving years ago. Saw him live that year at another Raw and it was just cool hearing Real American in the arena again.
That's the Hulk Hogan stuff I'm going to miss. But while I'm not going to dwell on it too much you can't ignore the bad off-screen stuff because it's part of who he was. Some of the things he said in an attempt to deflect blame from Nick for that car crash were probably the first instance I had of "well this guy's kind of ****ty..." Then the racist comments, both on the leaked tape and in various jail communication with his son? Just an absolutely **** person.
I've never been happy to hear about a death and I'm not starting now, but a lot of the negative aspects of Terry Bollea really knocked down the positive thoughts I had about Hulk Hogan.
RIP to Hulk Hogan the character, I guess.Comment
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It's mainly who he was (on tv) which has people sad.
If WWE announced Hogan was going to be at Summerslam, I wouldn't have been excited for that either.
But when you look back at 80s, 90s and 00s Hogan, it's sad to see that gone. Say what you want about Hogan dying, but also, a big part of wrestling just died. This is arguably the first HUGE death of a talent of this "S tier" caliber in wrestling. Sure you had the likes of Bruno and Andre, but a Hogan, Rock, Austin, Cena would resonate way more with current fans and society in general than Bruno or Andre did at the time of their deaths.
But will suck never hearing Real American again, or NWO in any shape or form (speaking of which, someone check on/hug Kevin Nash. His son, Hall and Hogan all in a 3 year span, that's rough)
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I think it's crazy that in any other timeline, both Hogan and Vince would go down as two of the most influential people of all time given everything both accomplished on a global scale. Vince taking wrestling from regional to nationwide, eventually all over the globe to make wrestling what it is today. Vince knew he needed that one guy who could make it work and Terry "Hulk Hogan" Bollea was THE GUY at the right time. Hulk Hogan was the face of Pro Wrestling, even if you didn't watch wrestling, you knew the name Hulk Hogan. For all their success both of them easily was able to leave lasting legacies in wrestling and the entertainment world, but both of them decided that it didn't work for them.... brother. Instead both left legacies that now become complicated. Like, Chris Benoit the wrestler, was GREAT but because of what Chris Benoit, the person did we can no longer celebrate Chris Benoit the wrestler nor talk about the WrestleMania 20 main event. Chris Benoit, the person also made it harder on his son David Benoit who got into wrestling but because of what his Dad did, essentially nobody wants nothing to do with him because signing him means having to talk about his Dad.
Usually separating the person from the character on TV is the easy thing to do when it comes to stuff like this. Yet, somewhere along the way Terry Bollea died and he became Hulk Hogan 24/7. There was no blurring the lines, he was Hulk Hogan every second of the day, everywhere he went, all of his appearances were under the name of Hulk Hogan. Dude completely lived the gimmick, and hey when you were responsible for two of the wrestling industry's biggest boom periods, why not. Taking Wrestling mainstream in the 80's, the Rock & Wrestling Connection with Cyndi Lauper, teaming with Mr. T in the first WrestleMania main event, he launched Pro Wrestling into a global entertainment product. Wrestlers wanted to work with Hogan because they knew it meant more money, and for many fans Hogan is the reason they became fans of wrestling. Many wrestlers got into wrestling because of Hogan, his impact on the wrestling industry will never be replicated. After the steroid trial, those few years were rough for the wrestling industry. WWE & WCW simply weren't putting out a product as good as before, it seemed wrestling was on the outs from being mainstream like it was in the 80's.
July 7th, 1996 was the day Hulk Hogan changed the wrestling business once again and helped launch a second boom period for the industry. The formation of the NWO really revved up the Monday Night War between WWE & WCW, as it pushed Vince McMahon to get edgier and create the "Attitude Era" in order to keep up with what WCW and the NWO was doing. Hell, despite what was the passing of the torch at WrestleMania 18 when Rock beat Hogan, that Toronto crowd and later the Montreal crowd that gave him a standing ovation for 10+ minutes made it seem like Hogan was about to usher in another boom period in the early 2000's. Hulk Hogan will forever be the reason why wrestling is what it is today, and that is something you can never take away from him.
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I don't know if I'm misremembering or maybe I am correct but the network edited it, but Hogans appearance in Montreal after WM (I think it was Smackdown?) I definitely remember him getting such a huge standing ovation that they went to commercial during the ovation and when they returned the fans were still cheering.
That's one of my fave Hogan moments which might not even be real (but I really think it is. If it was SD, maybe it aired live in Canada which is why we got the unedited cut?)
It's crazy seeing just how popular he still was in WWF given the WCW crowd was seemingly sick of him.
And if he did fight Austin, would the crowd have cheered Hogan or Austin more? This was Austin during the peak WHAT chant days as well.
Also maybe an age thing, but does anyone most remember Hogan for his 80s look? The more I see news articles and posts, the more I realize his most iconic look was either the NWO look or just his modern look he's basically had since he came back to WWE. Sure, he's had it longer, but usually people look back on someone's most iconic/mainstream look when you see tributes of old celebs,but everything from Hogan I've seen is non 80s pics.Last edited by Majingir; 07-25-2025, 07:51 PM.Comment
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I believe this is the one you are talking about. Like I said, if you listened to the Canadian crowds in 2002, you would have thought Hulk Hogan was going to usher in another wrestling boom period. I would love to see WWE release the full segment uncut so we can see it in full.
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He was the most important figure in wrestling history, TBH, but also a **** person. He was never really contrite about his disgusting comments & never truly tried to make amends, IMO.
He - like Kane - will always have an important place in my love of pro wrestling. But, both completely suck *** as human beings.
RIP Hulk Hogan
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It might have been that moment, it would make sense for sure. But I definitely do remember an uncut version so it had to have happened/aired live here for me to have even remembered the lengthy ovation. It makes too much sense that I remember watching it with an ovation so long it lasted the entire break, but the USA viewing cut it down for obvious time reasons.Comment
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