Hulk Hogan was a father-like hero and that includes his flaws | Opinion
One of Hulk Hogan’s nicknames was “The Immortal One.”
The Immortal One, born Terry Gene Bollea, died Thursday of an apparent heart attack, according to sources. He was 71.
Despite the professional wrestling business and then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF), which Hogan brought to new height in the 1980s, being built on vanity and the triumph of constructed heroes, one of the immortal moments that garnered the yellow-and-red-clad star that title was in loss.
At the sixth iteration of Wrestlemania, the Superbowl of professional wrestling, in 1990, Hogan was pinned by an ascending babyface, or good guy, the Ultimate Warrior. The match is a classic WWF, now WWE, moment – the unassailable hero meeting his match and facing the possibility of fading away.
Famously, Hogan is said to have tried to shield his heroic reputation by kicking out near the end of the final three count, supposedly to sow doubt about his loss in the minds of fans as preordained as the defeat was.
Hogan had attempted to hide his degradation.
Hogan was the strongest, the tallest (aside from Andre the Giant), the tannest, the best fighter, probably the richest, who taught values, and if we listened, we could be just as good and just as cool. In that way, he manifested what most children feel about their dads.
But Hogan couldn’t shield himself from his imperfections forever, his grandeur and legacy eroding through public disgraces over the decades.
The man known as Hulk Hogan was an icon who later in life was exposed for his flaws as his fans aged along with him — an embodiment of many father-child relationships.
Hogan doled out life lessons beyond beating down the bad guys so the good guys could get over. “Say your prayers and take your vitamins” and us little Hulksters could get “24-inch pythons,” his phrase for his bulging biceps.
Waving the American flag, Hogan charged to the ring with his theme music blaring, “I am a real American.”
The closest, real person to Hulk Hogan in the Hulkamania era for any kid would be their dad. The shirt-ripping super star embodied the strength and character that kids find in their fathers.
He grew into a different kind of idol for his fans in the mid-to-late 1990s.
Becoming a heel, the wrestling term for a bad guy, in 1996 after leaving then-WWF for World Championship Wrestling, “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan provided a potent, snarling force as his once adolescent fans who idolized him in the ‘80s and early ‘90s were growing into their rebellious teenage years or hitting their early twenties.
The grizzled veteran who took what he wanted and broke the rules to get ahead that Hogan portrayed was there for those teenagers and young adults to grasp onto.
Removed from WWE Hall of Fame
Aside from a few moments, such as his 2002 Wrestlemania match with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Hogan’s position in fans’ minds waned in the 2000s.
He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005, an honor that would be revoked.
The superhero he was in the ‘80s and the powerful villain he portrayed in the late ‘90s were fizzling away amid forgettable wrestling and crummy reality television shows he was in.
Hogan was aging, visibly slowing down and no longer a force who could do no wrong, to those who grew up with him.
The internet era also proliferated stories of Hogan’s less-than-savory backstage demeanor and outright lies he told to inflate himself.
But his flaws overtook his legacy in 2015. That year, Hogan’s remarks from a 2007 sex tape were published in which he expressed disgust at his daughter dating a Black man, used a racial epithet for Black people and admitted to being a racist. The WWE took him out of the Hall of Fame because of the incident.
He apologized for his racist remarks, but it was hard to believe he had left racism behind.
Hogan was a hero to kids but as those kids became adults his worst qualities were laid bare.
Those who loved Hogan struggled to reconcile his imperfections. He created contradictory feelings for his once idealistic, young fans.
In that way, he was like so many fathers, supermen to their adolescent children but unmasked for their failings and frailties as age progresses.
Hogan made it harder to believe he had moved beyond his racism when he tore off his shirt at the 2024 Republican National Convention to show he was supporting for president Donald Trump, a politician who has built a platform on racism, such as questioning Barack Obama’s birth place and calling immigrants all “rapists” among actual policies that are harming those from other countries.
So how should the Hulkster be remembered? Should he be celebrated? The WWE thought so. They put him back in their Hall of Fame in 2018.
To believe the man was only his flaws would be to embody the exact, judgmental quality that Hogan exposed in degradation of himself.
For a moment he was a superhero, and he could have died a hero. Instead, he was an example.
This story was originally published July 27, 2025 at 1:52 PM with the headline "Hulk Hogan was a father-like hero and that includes his flaws | Opinion."