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WWE superstar Hulk Hogan, 71, died on Thursday after a reported cardiac arrest.
Although there has been no confirmation of what led to the fatal event, the famed wrestler had allegedly been facing multiple health issues in the months and years before his death.
In an appearance on Jake Paul’s “IMPAULSIVE” podcast in September 2024, Hogan admitted that he’d had 25 surgeries in the last 10 years.
PRO WRESTLING ICON HULK HOGAN DEAD AT 71
This included 10 back surgeries, procedures on both shoulders, and knee and hip replacements on both sides.
Hogan called out the difference between today’s fighting rings and the dangerous equipment of the 1970s, which he described as a 22-foot ring with “lumps” and “boards sticking up.”
“It was horrible,” he said. “The equipment and jumping up and dropping the damn leg for 40 years, when I had the largest arms in the world — I should’ve been using ‘The Sleeper.’”
“I probably should’ve quit earlier, but I just loved doing it — and the money was just crazy.”
Regardless of the physical consequences of his years in the ring, Hogan stated that he has “no regrets.”
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TMZ Sports reported in March 2025 that Hogan had undergone neck surgery to relieve pain, which was a “quick turnaround” that required little recovery time, according to a representative.
Earlier this month, Hogan’s wife, Sky Daily, squashed rumors on social media that her husband was in a coma following recent surgery, noting in an Instagram post that “his heart is strong, and there was never any lack of oxygen or brain damage.”
Daily revealed in her post that Hogan had been recovering from a “major four-level anterior cervical discectomy and fusin (ACDF), which is an intense surgery with a long and layered healing process.”
“If you look it up, you’ll see what the last six weeks have involved … not just for his spine, but also for his vocal cords, and the eating/breathing tubes that are clamped over during surgery,” she wrote in a post. “We’ve been in and out of the hospital to support that recovery.”
Years of ‘physical strain’
Those included “his admitted steroid use in the 1990s, to multiple knee and hip replacement surgeries, to shoulder and multiple back surgeries, and finally a neck fusion operation which, by many accounts, was followed by a downhill slide in his health, culminating in a fatal cardiac arrest,” the doctor wrote.
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Siegel pointed out that Hogan came from a group of professional wrestlers who had a “high incidence” of steroid and drug use, suicide and heart disease.
According to a recent University of East Michigan study, wrestlers between 45 and 54 years old were nearly three times more likely to die prematurely than the general U.S. population.
Hollywood Hulk Hogan puts a choke-hold on the neck of Utah Jazz basketball star Karl Malone at a pay-per-view wrestling match on July 12, 1998, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi, File)
“And those numbers increased the older the wrestler was,” Siegel added. “Many of these men didn’t even make it to their 70s.”
“Keep in mind the physical strain of having a large, bulky frame being repeatedly slammed, combined with frequent travel and the emotional stresses of being both an athlete and an entertainer.”
In 1994, Hogan reportedly admitted under oath — during the trial of then-WWF Chairman Vince McMahon, who’d been charged with steroid distribution — that he had used steroids “for over a decade” before he stopped.
“Hulk Hogan lived in pain for decades, but it didn’t keep him from being a continuing role model for many, including in his later years,” Siegel said. “He came to embody physical and spiritual vitality, and that is what he will really be remembered for.”
What happens during cardiac arrest?
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“It was reported that he was experiencing good health until he collapsed,” Serwer said. “This presentation is quite common for a heart attack with sudden cardiac arrest.”
The most prevalent cause of sudden cardiac arrest is a heart attack, or ischemic heart disease, the cardiologist shared.
The most prevalent cause of sudden cardiac arrest is a heart attack, according to a cardiologist. (iStock)
“When a heart attack occurs, the heart muscle is deprived of oxygen, resulting in the death of muscle tissue,” the doctor detailed. “This condition predisposes the heart to abnormal heart rhythms, such as ventricular fibrillation (Vfib).”
Vfib is characterized by “rapid and irregular electrical activity that causes the ventricles [to] quiver and be ineffective,” Serwer said.
This results in the heart being unable to pump blood to the body, leading to a rapid death.
Cardiac arrests that occur outside a hospital have a “significantly low” survival rate of about 10%, according to Serwer.
For those who receive cardiac arrest response, like CPR and defibrillation, survival increases by up to 40%.