RIP Hulk Hogan

[great_chandel]

For me personally, this one is tough. I grew up a huge wrestling fan. I know it is arguable. However, Hulk Hogan made wrestling. He made the WWF. The WWF did not make him (although it helped). No single wrestler was larger-than-life, sold more tickets, or revolutionized wrestling more than Terry Bollea in the 1980's. I always agreed with the late and great wrestling legend Lou Thesz: "On a scale from 1-10, Hogan was a 2 when it came to wrestling skills. However, when it came to entertainment, he was a 9." I saw Hulk Hogan many times wrestle in person. Other than (perhaps) the Ultimate Warrior, Steve Austin and The Rock, I had never heard more deafening crowds screaming for one man. It was absolutely chaos (it was so loud). His rivals from Ric Flair, Warrior, Piper, etc. were a who's who of wrestling. I just cannot believe he is gone. One of my all-time favorites. The Hulkster............what an act........what an entertainer. While I was not a fan of his acting (he was not a very good actor outside of the ring), I did love him in "Rocky" 3. He was great as "Thunderlips." Terry Bollea was 71.

[monitor_ep]

Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea died on Thursday he was 71 years old died of “cardiac arrest.”. Hogan is survived by his third wife, Sky Daily, and two children, Brooke and Nick. Hogan was married twice prior to Linda Claridge and Jennifer McDaniel.

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[shaunaconda]

Damn! Bad week for celebrity deaths!

Hogan definitely made wrestling…RIP!

[B-Lister]

He died with hate in his heart. That's all I'm gonna say.

[Dannyc]

Yeah, rhis week was the 80s edition of celebrity deaths in 3s, unfortunately. RIP Hulkster..

[Dan2Dan]

For me personally, this one is tough.

This one hit me, too, though I was never a pro wrestling fan. Back in the 1970s, some of my extended family were wrestlers, but the high school and college variety, and they looked down on pro wrestling. Nonetheless, I first saw cable TV at a summer beach house in 1983 and that was my exposure to WWF. I was captivated by the spectacle as a 12-year-old, even though Roddy Piper and the Iron Sheik were too 'over the top' for me, even then. Too much unintelligible screaming into the camera and self-aggrandizing, for my taste.

Analagous to Ozzy, I wasn't a huge fan of much of Ozzy's music/or Hulk's wrestling (or some of his most infamous personal issues already alluded to above in this thread). That said, as a man in my mid-50s, I now have the perspective to respect anyone who can propel themselves from 'nobody' Terry Bollea from Tampa (with childhood friend Brutus Beefcake) to maybe one of the 5-10 most famous Americans in my lifetime for 40 years. That's no accident, and that ain't easy, "Brother"!

Muhammad Ali and Evel Knievel are two other celebrities whom I 'worshiped' as a kid who proved to have feet of clay. Kareem and Magic and John Riggins were imperfect, too.

All THAT being said, my first thought when I heard this news today about his heart attack at 71 despite being a fit man was that maybe the devil came calling today for the Faustian Bargain that 20-year-old Terry Bollea made 50 years ago about steroids and fame.....