Pro wrestling legend Hulk Hogan dies at age 71

Hulk Hogan, the star who took skilled wrestling to the nationwide mainstream and have become the largest money-making draw within the historical past of the business, died Thursday on the age of 71, Florida police and the WWE mentioned Thursday.

In Clearwater, Florida, authorities responded to a name Thursday morning a couple of cardiac arrest. Hogan was pronounced lifeless at a hospital, police said in a statement on Facebook.

WWE posted a note on X saying it was saddened to be taught the WWE Hall of Famer has died.

“One of pop culture’s most recognizable figures, Hogan helped WWE achieve global recognition in the 1980s. WWE extends its condolences to Hogan’s family, friends, and fans,” it mentioned.

Hogan, whose actual identify was Terry Bollea, had been battling a number of well being points lately, together with a problematic, lingering again damage from his wrestling days. Hogan had not wrestled since 2012 however had been within the information not too long ago as a founding father of the brand new Real American Freestyle wrestling promotion and the proprietor of an upcoming New York City bar reverse Madison Square Garden, the positioning of a lot of his massive matches.

In 1985, Hogan headlined the first-ever WrestleMania, teaming up with Eighties TV star Mr. T to tackle Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff. WrestleMania I, at MSG, drew an viewers of round 1 million on closed-circuit tv and is credited with taking skilled wrestling, particularly the then-WWF (now WWE), into the nationwide zeitgeist.

Hogan’s grudge match with Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III took the wrestling enterprise — and Hogan’s profession — to new heights. Around 80,000 individuals crammed the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan for the match. The rematch, a number of months later, on free-to-air NBC, drew 33 million viewers.

Hogan was in the principle occasion of seven of the primary eight WrestleMania playing cards. He was the face and hero of the wrestling world, crossing over into the mainstream with tons of appearances on tv speak reveals, in addition to starring roles in films — together with the third Rocky movie, the place he took on the title character performed by Sylvester Stallone — and tv, together with the syndicated “Thunder in Paradise” within the Nineties. Hogan received the WWF World Heavyweight championship six totally different occasions, together with a reign of 1,474 days. Only Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund had the belt for longer days consecutively.

In 1996, with curiosity in him as a hero waning, Hogan pulled off the largest heel flip in wrestling historical past as a second act. Working for WWE competitor World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Hogan grew to become a foul man, main a dastardly group of invaders known as the New World Order (NWO). The heel flip, 29 years in the past this summer time, captured the zeitgeist in a means wrestling had not since WrestleMania I. The NWO, with “Hollywood” Hogan because the vicious frontman carrying black and white reasonably than his trademark pink and yellow, breathed new life into the wrestling business throughout the counterculture Nineties when the viewers demanded a darker, extra grownup product. Hogan was as much as the problem, serving to WCW beat the WWF in tv scores for 83 straight weeks starting in 1996.

Hogan returned to WWE in 2002 to face The Rock at WrestleMania 18 in Toronto. His character was the NWO bad-guy model, however the greater than 68,000 in attendance was not interested by booing Hogan. They cheered him over The Rock, then WWE’s greatest good man, forcing Hogan to return house to Florida that weekend to select up his previous red-and-yellow shirts and wrestling trunks.

He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.

After his wrestling profession concluded, Hogan had been embroiled in some controversy. In 2015, video recordings of him utilizing the N-word and referring to himself as a “racist” leaked. WWE terminated his legends contract on the time, although introduced him again three years later as an envoy with rare tv appearances. Hogan appeared on WWE’s Netflix debut present in January to advertise his new Real American Beer however was booed by the followers in Los Angeles.

A intercourse tape that includes Hogan was leaked by the web site Gawker in 2015 and Hogan subsequently sued for defamation, lack of privateness and emotional ache. Hogan received the case and was awarded $115 million.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.