Unarguably one of the greatest WWE performers of all time, Hulk Hogan breathed his last on Thursday in Florida at age 71. 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. The entire WWE universe was left stunned with the news of Hogan's death, with the likes of The Undertaker, Sting, Triple H, etc., taking to social media to pay tributes to the man who laid the foundation of pro-wrestling becoming a full-fledged business.
Be it Sting, The Undertaker or Triple H, all them had the opportunity to battle against Hulk Hogan for years. For Sting, Hogan remains the finest performer to step inside the ring in the entire WWE history.
Hogan, whose real name was Terry Bollea, was perhaps the biggest star in WWE's long history. He was the main draw for the first WrestleMania in 1985 and was a fixture for years, facing everyone from Andre The Giant and Randy Savage to The Rock and even WWE co-founder Vince McMahon.
But outside the the ring, Hogan also found trouble. WWE in 2015 cut ties with him for three years, even removing him from its Hall of Fame, after it was reported that he was recorded using racial slurs about Blacks. He apologized and said his words were “unacceptable.”
Hogan won at least six WWE championships and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005 and reinstated there in 2018. WWE matches are now held in professional sports stadiums, and millions of fans have watched the company's weekly live television program, “Raw,” which debuted in January on Netflix.
“He was a trailblazer, the first performer who transitioned from being a wrestling star into a global phenomenon,” McMahon said of Hogan.
“Hulkamania,” as the energy he created was called, started running wild in the mid-1980s and pushed professional wrestling into the mainstream. He was a flag-waving American hero with the horseshoe mustache, red and yellow gear and massive arms he called his “24-inch pythons.” Crowds were hysterical when he ripped off his T-shirt in the ring — a trademark move — revealing a tan, sculpted body.
With AP inputs