WWE icon Hulk Hogan has died at the age of 71, according to multiple reports. The news was first reported by TMZ on Thursday, July 24.
WWE confirmed the news.
“WWE is saddened to learn WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan has passed away,” the company said in a statement. “One of pop culture’s most recognizable figures, Hogan helped WWE achieve global recognition in the 1980s. WWE extends its condolences to Hogan’s family, friends, and fans.”
Hogan was influential in the rise of wrestling worldwide and was WWE’s first major star. He was a six-time WWE Champion and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame twice, once in 2005 and in 2020 as part of the New World Order.
But did you know years before his wrestling fame, Hogan was working the crowds in Cocoa Beach?
Here’s a look at Hulk Hogan’s ties to Brevard.
Hulk Hogan’s ties to Brevard
Hogan has posted on social media that he quit wrestling for a year, back in the late 1970s, to run a Cocoa Beach bar.
He helped manage what was then known as The Anchor Club located at the end of State Road 520. In his memoir “Hollywood Hulk Hogan,” he reminisced taking the job out of desperation.
During his short time in Brevard County, Hogan said he also had a gym called Whitey and Terry’s gym.
“The cops gracefully asked me to leave town,” Hogan wrote on Facebook.
Hulk Hogan has long lived in Florida
Hogan has lived all over Florida.
He’s lived in Tampa and Miami, got married and then divorced and then married again. At the time of his death, he resided in Clearwater, where he opened a Hulkamania shop. A second shop is located in Orlando.
Hulk Hogan’s life and career
Born Terry Gene Bollea in Augusta, Georgia, Hulk Hogan is one of the greatest — certainly one of the most attention-getting — professional wrestlers of all time.
“The key figure in WWE’s rise from regional attraction to worldwide entertainment leader in the 1980s, The Hulkster’s superhuman size and undeniable charisma set the standard for what a Superstar should be,” WWE writes in Hogan’s biography. “A larger-than-life icon, he packed 93,173 WWE fans into the Pontiac Silverdome, won six WWE Championships, starred in movies, television shows and his own animated series and became an idol to a vast legion of fans he dubbed his Hulkamaniacs.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Hulk Hogan, WWE Hall of Famer and wrestling legend, dead at 71: A look at his Florida ties
Reporting by Hana Khalyleh, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Florida Today
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
