Professional wrestler Terry Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan, died on Thursday at the age of 71, according to World Wrestling Entertainment.
Bollea is widely recognised as the biggest wrestling star of all time and helped WWE become the behemoth that it is today.
In the 1980s and 1990s,Hogan’s larger-than-life personality – in and out of the ring – made him a household name and a crossover mainstream star, starring in movies and recognised around the world.
“WWE is saddened to learn WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan has passed away. One of pop culture’s most recognisable figures, Hogan helped WWE achieve global recognition in the 1980s,” the company said in a post on X.
“WWE extends its condolences to Hogan’s family, friends, and fans.”
The city of Clearwater, Florida, said in a statement that police and fire personnel were dispatched to Bollea’s home after a report of an individual in cardiac arrest.
Bollea was treated by fire and rescue crews when they arrived and was transported to Morton Plant Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
With his boasts of possessing “24-inch pythons” for arms and his reminders to “say your prayers and eat your vitamins,” Bollea was instrumental in wrestling’s 1980s “golden era.”
Bollea’s popularity and his rivalries with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, André Rene Roussimoff – known as André the Giant, “Macho Man” Randy Savage and scores of others made professional wrestling a multi-billion-dollar industry in the 1980s and early 1990s.
His decision to leave the then-World Wrestling Federation for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the mid-1990s sent shockwaves around the wrestling world.
His “heel turn” – the wrestling term for a hero turning into a villain – in 1996 and his run as “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan is one of the most memorable periods of wrestling history and helped WCW usurp Bollea’s former company in television ratings for 83 weeks – the last time WWE trailed another wrestling company in the traditional measure of popularity.
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