Hulk Hogan^†

Hulkamania didn't build itself. It started with a twenty-second Iron Sheik Camel Clutch and the crowd noise at Madison Square Garden on January 23, 1984. At WrestleMania III in 1987, he bodyslammed the 525-pound Andre the Giant in front of 93,173 fans. The action figures, the make-a-wish visits, the three demandments gospel. Nobody before him had built this much mythology out of a scripted fight.

Fired by WWE on July 24, 2015, after racial slur transcripts from a 2006 sex tape surfaced. He died exactly ten years later on the same calendar date. He won a $140 million jury verdict against Gawker for publishing the tape (settled for $31 million), a lawsuit secretly bankrolled by Peter Thiel, who had a separate grievance against Gawker entirely. WWE reinstated him to the Hall of Fame in 2018, but when he appeared at Raw's Netflix debut in January 2025, the crowd booed him.

Getting the 'Hulk' part of his name took a Memphis talk show and Lou Ferrigno standing nearby looking small by comparison. WWF fired him for taking the Thunderlips cameo in Rocky III (1982), then rehired him when Vince McMahon Jr. took over. His nWo heel turn at WCW Bash at the Beach in 1996, betraying his own partner while fans pelted the ring with garbage, drove WCW to beat WWF in TV ratings for 83 consecutive weeks. He built a 30-year career being America's hero. He was better at being the villain.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared August 1, 2025 as Hulk Hogan Day and ordered state capitol flags flown at half-staff. WWE aired ten-bell salutes across SmackDown, Raw, NXT, and SummerSlam. A Netflix documentary, with over 50 hours of footage completed at the time of his death, remained in production and required retooling for release. His daughter Brooke, estranged since 2023, publicly stated WWE never invited her to the televised tribute.