Florida — Wrestler Hulk Hogan has died of cardiac arrest at his Florida home. He was 71 years old.

Hulk Hogan, pro-wrestling’s 12-time world champion and TV personality, who helped transform the WWE into the behemoth it became, has reportedly died at age 71, according to TMZ.

TMZ said on Thursday, July 24 that medics were sent to Hogan’s home in Florida after he reportedly suffered a cardiac arrest. The outlet said he was taken out on a stretcher.

Hogan, the boastful wrestling icon, film and reality TV star, was a two-time inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame. He was first inducted in 2005 by his friend Sylvester Stallone, then in 2020 as part of a wrestling team. At 6′ 6,” or 6′ 7,” or maybe 6′ 8″ — he loved tall tales and weighing more than 300 pounds, Hogan was anointed “Wrestling’s Top Banana” in a 1985 Sports Illustrated cover story spotlighting both him and “Mat Mania!”

“Hulk Hogan is to pro wrestling what Babe Ruth was to baseball,” SI noted in 2025. “Hogan pushed the industry to new levels and created the multi-billion dollar business it is today…. Without ‘The Hulkster,’ wrestling wouldn’t be where it is in the modern era.”

For 35 years, until his retirement in 2012, Hogan was known for his theatrics. With his “24-inch pythons” (biceps), Hogan could make a dog’s chew toy out of his nemeses, including Sgt. Slaughter, André the Giant and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

A perennially tanned and oiled-up Florida boy with peroxide hair and a matching handlebar mustache, Hogan entered thousands of rings around the world with the confidence of an oncoming Mack truck. Sporting a costume that sometimes included a red boa swung around his neck, yellow spanky pants and an itsy-bitsy red tank top, he was wrestling’s version of Met Gala-ready.

A popular presence on screen, Hogan starred in 15 movies, beginning with Rocky III (1982). His pal Sylvester Stallone gave Hogan high praise for his performance in the film. “He threw the most amazing punches,” Stallone recalled. “Because he was bare-fisted, I could actually feel his punch touching my skin, yet he knew just when to pull back.”

Hogan showed up at the 1985 Grammys on the arm of singer Cyndi Lauper as her bodyguard. He made over 200 appearances on everything from The Love Boat (1986) to wrestling fare including, WWE Raw. From 2005 to 2007, Hogan and his wife Linda and their children Brooke and Nick starred on VH1’s reality series Hogan Knows Best.

“People are locked into this one-dimensional view that Hulk Hogan is just a wrestler with a bald head that screams and body-slams people,” he said in a 2005 episode. “(They) don’t realize that I go to soccer games, play frisbee, watch The Lion King and start crying.”

One month after the show’s finale, Linda Hogan filed for divorce after 24 years of marriage, citing the Hulk’s “infidelities,” including his affair with their teenage daughter’s close friend. The scandals and lawsuits only grew from there. A flawed hero, he lied about steroid use, was involved in a notorious $3x-tape scandal and was exposed using racist language — which tarnished his reputation as wrestling’s “good guy.