I can try to remember him as how he looked to me as a kid in the 80’s, but I don’t think I can set aside the rest of his life, especially what we’ve learned the past 10-15 years.
Shame. I hoped he was better guy than he ended up being.
Still, 71 is young. Steroids? Other stuff? I don’t know any drug history with him. No clue.
Hulk Hogan was the most famous wrestler of all time for no other reason than because he was chosen to be. Vince McMahon saw something in him that could be marketed and he was right. That’s it, that’s the only reason we remember this douchebags name, because some other douchebag decided he was it.
He was great at the hamming it up portion of wrestling, the self-promotion, yelling, etc.
That’s about it.
Honestly I’m surprised he lived this long. I’ll take a vitamin and make a donation to the DNC in his name.
I think it was Gary Shandling who said that he (Shandling) had reached the age that nobody says you’re young unless you die.
Perhaps, but actuarial tables say the median age for a reasonably healthy male is in the mid-80s. Even my brother, who had a leg amputated due to diabetes, made it to 78.
I watched Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling as a kid in the 80s and enjoyed it.
It was a cartoon, and the cartoon version of Hogan was entertaining.
The real thing was a different story.
(Also, Brad Garrett of Everybody Loves Raymond was the person who actually voiced Hulk Hogan in that cartoon.)
Indeed. He was the right frontman for the show at the right time and place (and Vince saw that). Can’t be denied. Not objectively the best wrestler on the canvas and apparently a d¡¢k off of it, but did he ever fill that spotlight.
At least one study found that body builders have a 34% higher mortality rate than that of other males their age.
The BBC has an article about professional wrestlers in particular.
He points to research by academics at the University of Eastern Michigan who studied a group of 557 former wrestlers.
Of the 62 wrestlers in this group who died between 1985 and 2011, 49 died before the age of 50. Furthermore, 24 of the 49 died before the age of 40, and two even died before the age of 30.
Mortality rates for wrestlers aged between 45 and 54 were 2.9 times greater than the rate for men in the wider US population, the study found.
Cardiovascular disease was the most common cause of death.
That right there is a red flag about that statistic, because obviously the ones who didn’t die would bring up the average. For comparison, of people born in the 1980s who have died, 100% have died before the age of 46, but that doesn’t mean that being born in the 1980s was bad for your health.
Ditto Randy Poffo (the Macho Man). He went of a heart attack at 58 while he was driving. They found he had an enlarged heart. It’s common for people taking lots of steroids and/or HGH.
Stallone and Schwarzenegger are reportedly concerned about their hearts as well for that reason.
That it was a heart attack is not surprising at all. It’s a bit more surprising Hogan made it to his 70s. He was comparatively lucky.
Schwarzenegger, as well, also had a congenital heart condition, which has necessitated several surgeries over the last 30 years.
It’s not going to be extremely reliable, and the article concedes the shortcomings.
“Yes the statistical evidence is quite strong when we look at the mortality rate for wrestlers compared to other sports and the general population,” says John Moriarty of Manchester University.
Researchers like Moriarty face some difficulties getting hold of data, as no official body collects statistics about the deaths of those who have spent a career in the ring.
His approach has been to aggregate the findings of others who have studied the problem.
It suggests that there’s something there, but I don’t think there’s enough to draw any real conclusions.
There are several, although many didn’t spend most of their careers in WWF/E. Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Dory Funk Jr., Ric Flair, Tony Atlas, Jerry Lawler, Bob Backlund, Bob Orton Jr., Bret Hart, and Barry Windham are some off the top of my head.
Wow, the Nature Boy is still alive.
And Jesse Ventura.
Also Tito Santana and Greg “The Hammer” Valentine. Plenty of them who took fewer steroids are still kicking.
Whooooooooooo!
We spent many happy recess periods running wild; practicing sleeper holds, camel clutches and pile drivers on our friends. I’m guessing this is no longer a thing. We even knew most of the crappy lyrics to Wrestlemania. Sometimes love is like a slow dance.
Hulk has nostalgic value. Trump he can keep^. The Gawker Thiel thing was weird. But I’m still saying my prayers and taking my vitamins. What’cha gonna do?
^ Volkoff: Shiek! Number one! Russia! Number one! USA? Pthoooooie!
WWF Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOOO!
Smithers: Did you say Booooo-urns?