The yellow and red didn't just represent a brand. They were a movement. For kids of the 80s, Hulk Hogan was basically a living superhero, a man who seemed physically incapable of mortality. But on July 24, 2025, the unthinkable happened. The "Immortal" one was gone.
He was 71.
The news hit like a leg drop no one saw coming. One minute he’s posting about his "Real American Beer," and the next, TMZ is flashing a headline that feels like a glitch in the matrix. Hulk Hogan cause of death became the most searched phrase on the planet within an hour. People wanted answers because, honestly, we all thought he’d outlive the sun.
The Official Word on the Hulk Hogan Cause of Death
Let's get the clinical stuff out of the way first. It wasn't a mystery for long. The Pinellas County Medical Examiner and major outlets like AP News confirmed that Terry Bollea—the man behind the mustache—died of an acute myocardial infarction.
That's a heart attack.
It happened at his home in Clearwater, Florida. First responders got the call around 9:50 a.m. for a cardiac arrest. They rushed him to Morton Plant Hospital, but by 11:17 a.m., it was over. The report labeled it "natural," which feels like a weird word to use for a guy who looked like he was carved out of granite for half a century.
But the heart attack wasn't just some random lightning bolt. There was a lot going on under the hood that the public didn't fully see until the autopsy and medical records started leaking out.
🔗 Read more: Love Island UK Who Is Still Together: The Reality of Romance After the Villa
The Secret Battle with Leukemia
This was the part that actually floored people. Most fans knew about his bad back. We knew about the hips. But we didn't know about the cancer.
The medical examiner’s report revealed Hogan had been dealing with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). It’s a type of cancer that starts in the white blood cells. Usually, it's slow-moving, but it wears the body down. It makes you vulnerable.
Combine that with atrial fibrillation (A-fib)—an irregular heart rhythm he’d been managing for years—and you have a recipe for a cardiac event. His wife, Sky Daily, later mentioned he’d been fighting through "health issues" they thought they could overcome. It turns out the Hulkster was fighting a much tougher opponent than Andre the Giant behind closed doors.
25 Surgeries and the Toll of the Ring
Hulk Hogan once famously said, "Nobody told me this gimmick stuff was fake." He wasn't talking about the scripts. He was talking about the concrete floors.
In a 2024 interview with Logan Paul, Hogan dropped a bombshell: he had undergone 25 surgeries in the last decade alone.
- 10 back surgeries.
- Both hips replaced.
- Both knees replaced.
- Shoulder repairs.
- Multiple neck fusions.
Just two months before he passed, in May 2025, he had a massive four-level Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF). That is a brutal surgery. It involves going through the front of the throat to fix the spine. His daughter, Brooke Hogan, later raised some serious questions about how that surgery played into his final days.
💡 You might also like: Gwendoline Butler Dead in a Row: Why This 1957 Mystery Still Packs a Punch
The Phrenic Nerve Controversy
There’s some drama here. There always is with the Hogans.
Brooke Hogan and a therapist who was with Hulk in his final moments claimed that a surgeon might have accidentally severed his phrenic nerve during that last neck procedure. This nerve is a big deal. It controls your diaphragm. If it’s damaged, breathing becomes a manual chore instead of an automatic reflex.
According to reports from The Indian Express, the therapist told police that Hogan didn't clutch his chest like a typical heart attack victim. He just... stopped breathing and collapsed. Clearwater Police actually looked into this, though the official cause remains a heart attack. It’s one of those "what if" scenarios that keeps the wrestling forums buzzing late at night.
The Ric Flair Claims and "Street Drugs"
You can't have a wrestling story without a bit of chaos from the "Nature Boy." Shortly after Hogan died, Ric Flair made some pretty wild claims on a podcast. He suggested Hogan had turned to "street drugs" because doctors wouldn't give him any more pain meds after his surgeries.
Sky Daily shut that down fast.
She called it complete BS. She pointed out that Flair hadn't even spoken to Hogan in the days leading up to his death. Most experts agree that while Hogan certainly struggled with the "pill culture" of 80s wrestling in the past, his death was much more likely the result of a tired heart and a body that had been through 40 years of literal car crashes in the ring.
📖 Related: Why ASAP Rocky F kin Problems Still Runs the Club Over a Decade Later
Why This Matters for the Fans
Hulk Hogan's death felt like the final end of an era. He was the gateway drug for pro wrestling. Whether you loved him or hated the politics behind the scenes, you couldn't ignore him.
His passing highlights a grim reality in the industry. The human body isn't meant to take 300 days of travel a year while jumping off ropes. Even the biggest icons have a shelf life.
What We Can Learn From the Hulkster's Health
If you're looking for the "so what" in all this, it’s about the heart. Even if you look like a million bucks on the outside, the internal organs are the ones that keep the lights on.
- Manage the "Silent" Issues: A-fib and high blood pressure aren't things you can see in the mirror. Hogan had the best doctors money could buy, and it still caught up to him.
- The Toll of Chronic Pain: 25 surgeries in 10 years is an insane amount of trauma for a body to process. Inflammation from constant surgery is a known stressor on the cardiovascular system.
- Listen to the Warnings: In the weeks before he died, reports surfaced that Hogan was losing weight rapidly and using oxygen at home. He was "pushing too hard" to promote his new beer brand when he probably should have been in a recliner.
Hulk Hogan didn't go out in a blaze of glory in the middle of a ring. He went out in his home, a 71-year-old man whose body finally said "enough." He leaves behind a complicated legacy, a grieving family, and millions of fans who still remember exactly where they were when they first saw him rip that yellow t-shirt in half.
Actionable Insight: If you or a loved one are managing chronic pain or recovering from multiple surgeries, prioritize a cardiovascular screening. Hogan’s story shows that even "The Immortal" can be undone by the heart, especially when battling underlying conditions like A-fib or leukemia. Don't ignore shortness of breath or sudden weight loss—it's your body's way of waving the white flag.