Wrestling legend Hulk Hogan dead at 71 from apparent cardiac arrest
Hulk Hogan has died at the age of 71, Page Six can confirm.
“Unfortunately, we must confirm that Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan, passed away this morning,” his reps told us Thursday.
“We are heartbroken. He was such a great human being and friend.”
Clearwater Fire & Rescue personnel were dispatched to the wrestling legend’s Clearwater, Fla., home late Thursday morning in response to a call about a “cardiac arrest,” the department announced in a press release.
Hogan was then transported via ambulance to Morton Plant Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
TMZ was first to report the news.
His wife, Sky Daily — whom he married in September 2023 — claimed earlier this month that her husband was recovering well following an “intense surgery” that took place in May.
PennLive.com reported on July 12 that Daily, 49, posted a screenshot on her Instagram Story showing a question from a fan who had asked whether Hogan was in a coma and dying.
“No, he’s definitely not in a coma!” she replied. “His heart is strong, and there was never any lack of oxygen or brain damage. None of those rumors are true.”
Daily went on to explain, “He’s been recovering from a major four-level Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF), which is an intense surgery with a long and layered healing process. If you look it up, you’ll see what the last six weeks have involved… not just for his spine, but also for his vocal cords, and the eating/breathing tubes that are clamped over during surgery.”
According to Columbia University, an anterior cervical discectomy is a procedure that removes a damaged intervertebral disc from the spine in the neck, using a surgical approach from the front of the neck. A fusion is the implantation of a bone graft that will fuse with vertebrae in the area.
While Hogan had been “in an out of the hospital to support that recovery,” Daily insisted that “there’s no need for the drama or panic some people try to stir up.”
She concluded, “He’s healing and we’re taking it one day at a time with love, strength, and patience.”
Bubba the Love Sponge, who hosts a radio show in Tampa, Fla., claimed over the weekend that a security guard at the hospital where Hogan was admitted told him that “they’ve gone as far as they can go at the hospital” and were “keeping him comfortable at his house in a hospital bed.”
Bubba and his co-hosts also discussed rumors that Hogan’s longtime friend, wrestling manager Jimmy Hart, had claimed that the WWE Hall of Famer was “not doing well” and couldn’t speak due to a damaged trachea, adding, “It does not look good. It does not look good at all.”
However, Hart denied those claims via Facebook Tuesday, insisting, “Hulk is doing great, doing phenomenal! Last night at karaoke with Nick was absolutely fantastic, baby!!!”
