A true champion has wrestled his last match. Former WWF/WWE legend Terry Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan, has gone home to be with the Lord Jesus at age 71.
Hogan, more than any other figure except Vince McMahon, was responsible for the professional wrestling boom in the 1980s and was also the most central figure in the resurgence of wrestling, seen in the Monday Night Wars, with his heel turn in the 1990s.
Hogan taught us, appropriately after Vietnam and during the Reagan years, that America was a good and decent nation. He showed us through the special dramatic art known as sports entertainment that the enemies of America would be defeated, such as when he defeated The Iron Sheik, from Iran, to win the WWF Heavyweight Championship in January 23, 1984, an event that launched what became known as Hulkamania.
Hulkamania, along with the Rock and Wrestling Connection pairing wrestlers with stars such as Cyndi Lauper, made wrestling mainstream in the 1980s and eliminated most of the territory system that had informally governed wrestling under the old National Wrestling Alliance.
Hogan put the WWF on a permanent map after headlining the War to Settle the Score on MTV and shortly thereafter the first Wrestlemania with his tag team partner Mr. T as they faced off vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper and Mr. T. With Muhammed Ali being the guest referee, Pat Patterson as the main referee, Billy Martin as the guest ring announcer and Liberace being the guest time keeper. Wrestlemania was a resounding success and set the stage for the now WWE that we see today. Hogan headlined most of the early Wrestlemanias and came out to his theme music, “Real American.”
His 2002 match vs. the Rock at Wrestlemania is legendary for its pop and the crowd unexpectedly supporting Hogan, who was a heel vs. the good guy Rock. Ironically, the Rock’s father, Rocky Johnson, was one of those who celebrated Hogan’s title win with him against the Sheik in January 1984, along with Mean Gene Okerlund, Ivan Putski, Hogan’s parents and Andre the Giant.
Hulkamania taught us that giants could be slammed, whether it be Andre or illness. Hogan was the most requested celebrity associated with the Make-A-Wish Foundation in the 1980s and several children said Hogan’s visit pushed them harder to fight cancer and other diseases.
In so many ways Hogan had the purest of hearts. Terry Bollea also taught us that our heroes, like us, are often very flawed.
In the 1980s, Hogan ratted out efforts by Jesse Ventura to unionize wrestling, a business whose brutal nature and grueling work schedule made it almost a given that wrestlers, who are actually independent contractors, would turn to any means possible (i.e. steroids) to help their bodies heal in order to continue working. (It was also a given that such a union would never have materialized and a wrestling union still does not exist).
Bollea’s explicit tape and racist comments from the early 2000s are something that won’t be forgotten but we hope that the America that Hogan believed in, a land of forgiveness and compassion, holds true for him in death. Sadly, in the land of politicization that exists today, Hogan was roundly booed in his last WWE appearance not only for his past sins but likely also for his unequivocal support of President Donald Trump.
More important than even our great nation, is where Terry Bollea/Hulk Hogan is for eternity.
As many do, including many wrestlers, with the mortality of life and the totality of our sins becoming more apparent, Hulk Hogan was baptized in December 2023 at the Florida based Indian Rocks Baptist Church. Hogan had accepted Christ as his Savior as a teenager but said he had not lived his life by example and “Knowing of Jesus and knowing Him are two different things.”
His life, like many who accepted Jesus in their final days, will not be weighed by the world or the totality of his sins vs. his works, but by a just, loving and compassionate God who, through Jesus, accepts us no matter what our sins if we repent and follow Him. Hogan said his baptism was the “Greatest day of my life”, larger than even that night at Madison Square Garden on January 23, 1984. That is the statement of a true champion, no matter what he did or failed to do, or who on earth celebrates with him.
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