jasongill 2 days ago

Hulk Hogan was my business partner in an ill-fated web hosting business called Hostamania. While he ultimately had a lot of troubled, old-fashioned thinking that I don't agree with, he was a genuinely friendly person who was nice to everyone despite crowds following him around constantly.

He was an odd character but was truly a character - he was Hulk Hogan as you know him (bandana, the mustache, the yellow muscle shirt) from the moment he got up to the moment he went to bed; unlike some stars who had a life outside of their character, his character became his life which was really something interesting to behold up close.

I've been getting a lot of calls and talking to friends today; and again - while Hogan was not exactly a "good person" in all regards - he was a friend and brought a lot of joy to a lot of people and he will be missed.

  • dakial1 18 hours ago

    Seems like maybe he was good natured but susceptible to the influence of the environment he grew up/lived.

    Kind of like those grandpas who were very kind to all people but for unknown reasons had prejudice against minorities.

    I was hopeful that this kind of bad influence in good people would stop with society evolving, but in reality things seem to be cyclical...

    • kbelder 12 hours ago

      >Seems like maybe he was good natured but susceptible to the influence of the environment he grew up/lived.

      We all are. Not just Grandpas, but all the way down to current kids. It's just less obvious for the cohort you're part of.

    • billy99k 17 hours ago

      [flagged]

      • cutlilacs 17 hours ago

        This take is nonsensical. People don’t bring up George Floyd’s past when discussing him because it isn’t relevant to the circumstances of his death. When people protest or talk about him, they’re focusing on the way he died and how cruel it was.

        In contrast, Hulk Hogan was a racist. What he said on that tape was blatantly racist. When discussing his life and legacy, it’s relevant to bring up a racist rant he made as an adult, especially when he was already famous.

        No one is suggesting George Floyd was a role model. That’s not the point.

      • bigyabai 6 hours ago

        They're also cross-referencing the public and on-record racist statements and behavior of his. Your correlation of this to Trump and George Floyd (???) is a product of your own insecurity, or a particularly pathetic strawman. Either way it's not very salient to the discussion. There is no "lost cause" of Hulk Hogan's racist behavior.

        Not every assertion like this has to turn into a culture warrior tirade against the forces of antiracism. People like John Hampton and Hulk Hogan wanted the world to know they were racist, and we all got the memo. It's okay to move on, they don't need saving from the reprieve of social suicide.

      • behole 13 hours ago

        [flagged]

        • bicepjai 11 hours ago

          Can you elaborate on what’s off the wall comparison that was made ?

          • behole 4 hours ago

            George Floyd <> Hulk Hogan. Trash talking points from this user, as per.

  • itomato 18 hours ago

    The visual I have of him in 1989 full Hulkamania Regalia holding a Publix shopping basket while reaching in for bologna will stay with me forever.

    Bright yellow and red Hulkster with the green Publix basket, reaching down next to me to grab hotdogs or bologna or whatever it was and nodded 'hello'.

  • tracker1 14 hours ago

    I saw him at a hotel/resort around the time his daughter turned 18, I was in the same restaurant as an argument that appeared on their reality tv show a few months later (not on camera)... You could tell that marriage was having issues.

    That said, Hulk himself was completely warm and responsive to fans when I'd see him around signing pictures/merch and taking pictures with random fans over that week. I cannot imagine being "on" that well, he was a consummate celebrity at its finest example. I wish more celebrities could see, and execute even half as well.

  • tropicalfruit 2 days ago

    sounds like a book/article i would want to read.

    the world of wrestling and kayfabe is so interesting and has so many parallels with real life.

    • xnx 2 days ago

      > so many parallels with real life.

      Parallels is probably not strong enough a word to describe a world where a reality TV star who was part of WrestleMania in 2007 is President of the United States.

    • orionsbelt 2 days ago

      Mr. McMahon, a documentary on Netflix, is a great watch.

    • mebizzle 18 hours ago

      I unironically believe there are deep lessons about psychology and sociology contained beneath the ridiculousness.

mathgeek 2 days ago

It never stops being surreal to see the death of someone who heavily impacted an entire generation so profoundly.

  • emchammer 2 days ago

    Yes, he was an icon. I wasn't exactly into the whole wrestling thing, but he was just a fixture. It's sad.

racl101 2 days ago

Boy, tough week if you grew up in the 80s seeing all your heroes go away.

  • TheChaplain 2 days ago

    From watching TV with Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant as a kid, I am now a man who crossed well over half of my expected lifespan. His demise is a strong reminder of our limited time here.

yablak 2 days ago

This is the guy Thiel used as a vehicle to kill Gawker. What a jerk.

https://www.vox.com/2016/5/25/11779910/peter-thiel-gawker-hu...

  • itsdrewmiller 2 days ago

    Maybe Gawker shouldn’t have been digging into his private sex life including publishing a sex tape. It’s not like Thiel funded round after round of litigation until Gawker ran out of money - they lost on the merits.

    • hellotheretoday a day ago

      It’s an everyone sucks here situation. Gawker was undeniably shitty for outing thiel and posting a sex tape of hogan and then refusing to take it down. But the impact of the lawsuit was basically that if a billionaire has a vendetta against your media org they can fund a lawsuit even if they are in no way involved. And it’s rumored that Thiel funded several suits, not just hogans, discreetly. Even with hogans he was challenged but was allowed to keep funneling cash to take gawker down

      The end result of that is that media orgs are now far more cautious about posting “exposes” of powerful people. Gonzo journalism in America is basically dead except for a handful of independent outlets that have much less impact, funding, and reach. Now it’s substacks of people that used to work for the intercept and rolling stone because media with money is playing it safe posting articles about trumps latest antics and 12 vacation spots you have to check out before you die.

      • phil21 18 hours ago

        It's not an everyone sucks situation. A relatively powerful organization well known for playing bully finally picked on someone who happened to be stronger than they anticipated and got what was coming to them.

        It's not like they decided to fess up and play nice once they were caught red handed. They decided to double down and act even shittier in court thinking they were still the big bad bullies and finding out the hard way courts don't really like that sort of attitude.

        Absolutely no one would be taking Gawkers side here if the victims happened to be more sympathetic. The facts of this case were pretty one sided, as shown by the win in a notoriously difficult to win sort of case. The behavior of Gawker in court was absurd on top of it all.

        If this were a case of a SLAPP lawsuit or burying them in legal costs over a series of marginal cases I would agree. It was not. It was simply one of their victims finding the means to finally stand up to an organization that abused it power consistently and with malice. The bully found out the hard way they weren't the biggest bully on the block, and refused to back down.

        Nothing of value was lost. Very little of what Gawker was doing was in the public interest. It was life-ruining clickbait at it's worst.

      • pwdisswordfishz 2 hours ago

        > But the impact of the lawsuit was basically that if a billionaire has a vendetta against your media org they can fund a lawsuit even if they are in no way involved.

        How is that different from what was before?

      • kotaKat a day ago

        This. Gawker's balls got cut off with this as did most good journalism. Gizmodo went to shit, the rest of GMG's sites went to shit.

        Fuck Thiel and fuck Hogan.

        • delfinom 19 hours ago

          Please GMG went to shit when they switched to pushing out absolute click bait trash. And that's driven by how dead traditional website ads are. Only medium with viable ad revenue has been videos for a long time.

          Otherwise most of those sites werent anything they needed protection from billionaires besides Gawker. Kotaku was supposed to be a gaming site but instead became an opinionated rag piece that rivals the NYPost.

          It was all for the eyeballs chasing whatever pennies are left in website ads.

          • kotaKat 15 hours ago

            That was after the GMG Union kicked in, they went to mailing in their work once that one happened. That was the second stage of the destruction of Gawker.

    • WarOnPrivacy 10 hours ago

      > Maybe Gawker shouldn’t have been digging into his private sex life including publishing a sex tape.

      Even if one supports this revenge-based justification, it doesn't mitigate the societal harm done when a path is carved out for billionaires to shutter news orgs who print things they don't like.

      The societal harm: Republicans weaponizing Gov power and billionaire resources against news outlets - which is happening at this moment.

      ref: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44688663

  • kcplate a day ago

    Gawker killed Gawker. You don’t get to sucker punch two strongmen (both literally and figuratively) and then whine and cry when they knock the shit out of you for the sucker punch.

  • oceansky a day ago

    They leaked a sex tape and refused to take it down.

    • myvoiceismypass 13 hours ago

      "Leaked" by his best friend at the time (Bubba the Love Sponge, radio dj), who filmed it, and whose wife was the one Hogan was fucking, with his blessing. A very strange situation all around.

  • archerx a day ago

    Gawker was a terrible website filled with terrible, hypocritical people who got what they deserved.

  • 1123581321 14 hours ago

    That was a good case. More individuals should be bankrolled so they can afford to use the legal system when they have been harmed by bigger parties.

  • kbelder 12 hours ago

    Gawker was a horrible blight, though.

  • nullc 15 hours ago

    No. What a hero. Gawker was absolutely vile trash and should have been nuked from orbit a thousand times over. Their conduct on many matters, but particularly, hogan was inexcusable in the extreme.

MisterTea 2 days ago

Dead? That's not gonna work for me, brother.

RIP Terry.

  • Bluestein 2 days ago

    Entirely my reaction, as in: "Is that possible"?

nullbyte 2 days ago

I’m glad he can rest now, he must have been in a lot of pain. Literally his entire spine is fused, every single vertebrae. It must have been really painful to live like that. Im glad he can have some rest now.

atonse a day ago

I mostly remember regularly watching him in a show called Thunder in Paradise. Think baywatch with guns and a knight rider like boat.

  • derwiki an hour ago

    Before he joined the nWo, I remember Hall/Nash referring to it as Blunder in Paradise, and that really made 13 yo me giggle.

  • SenHeng 15 hours ago

    I remember the boat blew up at the end of the season. That was sad.

  • ivape a day ago

    It would come on after Knight Rider I think.

postexitus 2 days ago

One of those characters who used to be an idol for many when they were kids and who realized that this was a big mistake when they became adults.

  • mingus88 a day ago

    Never meet your heros

    • derwiki an hour ago

      I’d meet Keanu. Hope there continues to be no skeletons in his closet.

Blackthorn 2 days ago

Union-buster. Notorious spreader of racism, misogyny, and xenophobia. He will not be missed.

  • Justsignedup 2 days ago

    He was iconic. But also he was a terrible human.

  • southernplaces7 19 hours ago

    blah blah blah. Speak for yourself. I'll miss him, probably along with many others, as a cultural piece of my childhood, adolescence and for years still there as a curious part of a changing adult world. If we judged every human being in history by these nebulously stupid standards, there'd be nobody left to like.

    • iand675 17 hours ago

      There are plenty of people left to like who aren't racist and misogynist. It's okay to update your worldview of your heroes when they behave badly.

      • AlexeyBelov an hour ago

        Look at this user's comments in other threads. They won't update their worldview.

    • cutlilacs 16 hours ago

      > nebulously stupid standards

      You should listen to the racist recording. It wasn't nebulous, it was clearly and explicitly racist. Most people think he went way too far. This isn’t a case of subtle racism where people might be overreaching; what he said was awful.

      Sorry you can't outgrow your childhood, but you should come to terms that the man you idolized was a shitty person.

    • myvoiceismypass 13 hours ago

      > nebulously stupid standards

      Here's the quote, talking about his daughter: “I mean, I’d rather if she was going to fck some ngger, I’d rather have her marry an 8-foot-tall ngger worth a hundred million dollars! Like a basketball player! I guess we’re all a little racist. Fcking n*gger.”

      Feels fucking gross to even read this out loud.

  • astura a day ago

    Also millions of lies. Don't forget the lies. If Hulk Hogan is talking, he's lying.

  • tropicalfruit 2 days ago

    he was known as a master politician

    i think it's a bit unfair to judge him on some things he said privately to a friend.

    i've said a lot of things privately in my life that i would disown.

    but yeah he did a lot of bad things to a lot of people over the years according to some books i read.

    • throwawaygmbno 18 hours ago

      >i think it's a bit unfair to judge him on some things he said privately to a friend.

      I think it must be nice to think private racist thoughts expressed so regularly are just fine. Usually this kind of thinking is because the person can't ever imagine being affected by racism.

      I wonder how many people throughout his career he refused to work with, didn't hire, went after, because of their skin color. People aren't famously racist without ever expressing it.

      • mixmastamyk 12 hours ago

        > I wonder how many people throughout his career he refused to work with...

        No, he was a business partner of Mr. T for years.

    • mingus88 a day ago

      I think it’s absolutely fair to judge a person as a whole. It’s part of who they were.

      I heard Keanu Reeves anonymously donated millions to cancer charities. It’s private. Should we not include this in our assessment of his character?

      Or are we just excusing disgusting racism/sexism because Hogan did it with an inside voice?

      • Alupis a day ago

        > I heard Keanu Reeves anonymously donated

        Let's not forget some people have better PR firms than others...

        • archerx a day ago

          Yea, if it was truly private we would not know about it. It’s 2025 and people are still falling for PR firm tricks.

      • johnisgood 21 hours ago

        If it is private, how do you know about it? It certainly is not private anymore, if it was any real to begin with.

  • gosub100 2 days ago

    [flagged]

    • croes 2 days ago

      The racism was part of his leaked sex tape

      • gosub100 2 days ago

        [flagged]

        • croes 2 days ago

          In real life people can be both

        • myvoiceismypass 2 days ago

          [flagged]

          • gosub100 a day ago

            [flagged]

            • fsckboy a day ago

              peter thiel wasn't harassed, he was outed. within the gay community there have been plenty in favor of outing.

              • procinct 21 hours ago

                Can you explain this? Why would they be in favour of outing someone against their will? I’m genuinely curious because on the surface it seems very cruel.

                • fsckboy 7 hours ago

                  I believe they feel it is better for the gay community to have more out people, there is strength in numbers and perception of normality; people pretending not to be gay are making gay seem more unusual.

                • owebmaster 21 hours ago

                  It's not cruel at all if the person outted is one of the most powerful people in the world

              • gosub100 a day ago

                [flagged]

                • hackable_sand a day ago

                  Elon did have a lot of people fooled up until inauguration.

                  Did Thiel ever disguise his white supremacist views though?

                • intermerda a day ago

                  The left doesn't hate him for his electric vehicles. What are you smoking?

            • mingus88 a day ago

              Gawker was tabloid journalism but that doesn’t give anyone else a pass for their bad actions. All parties involved are disgusting

axpy906 2 days ago

Sad but not surprising it was due to Cardiac problems. He was famously using steroids and then there was the 1980s.

  • kolinko a day ago

    At 71yo cardiac problems are not surprising even without steroid use

Bluestein 2 days ago

PS. Ozzy and now this.-

  • jedberg 2 days ago

    These things usually come in threes. Who's next? (Reply to doom someone!)

    • mathgeek 2 days ago

      It’s a perception thing because you start noticing once you notice one. Malcolm Jamaal-Warner died as well for example but not as many people noticed as Ozzy to be the “first of three”.

    • Jtsummers 2 days ago

      Malcolm-Jamal Warner died earlier this week.

      • jedberg 2 days ago

        Ah that's a good point, The Hulkster was number three.

        • Bluestein 2 days ago

          Gosh. So true. And, so sad.-

          PS. When Uncle Phill went, it was also sad.-

    • ldoughty 2 days ago

      Eyes-staring-knowingly-until-you-understand.gif

    • mindslight a day ago

      A man in Des Moines visits a news stand every day, buys a copy of the Chicago Tribune, glances at the front cover, swears, and throws it in the trash. One day the seller asks "I've seen you do this every day for months, what exactly are you hoping to see?" The man replies "an obituary." The seller exclaims "but those are on page 9 and you don't even look inside" The man replies "the obituary I am looking for will be on the front page."

    • eunice a day ago

      ghislaine maxwell

aatd86 a day ago

I remember watching wrestling and thunder in paradise. He was the man for this. Peace.

rvz 2 days ago

First Ozzy, and now Hulk Hogan. RIP.

There will never be anything like either of these generational entertainers in this century. Not even AI can replicate their personalities.

Mourning for both of them.

  • evilkorn 2 days ago

    I agree with you on Ozzy, but Hulk made a hard right turn into politics the last few years. It was sad to see him do that but his contributions to wrestling stand on their own.

    • dlachausse 2 days ago

      Why is that problematic? It’s okay to be a conservative.

      • spacechild1 16 hours ago

        MAGA is far right, not conservative.

      • metalman 2 days ago

        he was suspended from the wrestling federation for racisim and bigotry and if steronoidal guys dressesd up in costumes and tights play acting as "warriors" is conservative, then sure, thats ok

      • mindslight a day ago

        Being conservative is okay. But in 2025, right means radical populist reactionary and conservative means democrat.

        • dlachausse 18 hours ago

          How are the Democrats conservative?

          • mindslight 14 hours ago

            Stability and gradual measured change, the rule of law, belief in American institutions (both government and private), American leadership as a force for good in the world, fiscal and monetary responsibility. Heck the Democrats are even coming out ahead on economic freedom compared with the tariff taxes that change by the month.

        • Veen a day ago

          Really? To me being conservative means more or less agreeing with the thinking of people like Edmund Burke, Benjamin Disraeli, Michael Oakeshott, Roger Scruton, and so on. None of those would have supported the Democrats in their current state, but nor would they have supported Trumpian populism.

          • mindslight 11 hours ago

            Please reference the specific values you're invoking to make a coherent argument. Referencing people is a setup for a Motte and Bailey and talking past one another. This especially applies when the first two people on that list lived over a century ago, making it so that views that could appropriately be called conservative during their lifetimes are likely reactionary/revanchist in the modern day.

            • Veen 10 hours ago

              I invite you to read them yourself — or their equivalents from your own country. Conservatives are by nature culturally specific. I'm not trying to persuade anyone of anything. Just giving a counter example to the claim that conservative is synonymous with radical reactionary populism. It is not. Donald Trump is no conservative.

              • mindslight 8 hours ago

                It seems like we're mostly agreeing in a roundabout way. The original context was using the label "hard right" in 2025 and the comment I was responding to equated that with conservative. But if you're "hard right" in 2025 America but still continuing to call yourself a conservative, you're basically abusing the label as a dishonest cover for a radical agenda.

                I most certainly understand and respect there are political views that don't map well to the two party system. So with that context the last bit of my original comment is more like if you are actually conservative and trying to express yourself within our current two party system, you're voting Democrat. The whole party most certainly isn't conservative, but there is a large moderating establishment that makes its overall results align much more closely with conservatism than what's currently being offered by the Republicans.

    • ElectronCharge a day ago

      A hard right turn into politics would benefit quite a lot of HN readers...

      The anti-capitalism movement is completely misguided. Capitalism has improved the human condition immeasurably! Every other system tried recently has failed miserably.

      Is capitalism perfect? No, so let's work on improving it, in the face of robotics and AI!

      The future is bright, if we go energy-intensive and break out into the larger Solar System! Otherwise, we face stagnation and decline...and likely a global catastrophe.

      • EasyMark a day ago

        I'm a capitalist but I am not a billionaire sympathizer. Capitalism needs curbs just like every human concept ever invented. It's not a panacea.

      • ringeryless a day ago

        i disagree, profoundly. 500 years of nation-state politics can be boiled down to "can we come up with a fair system for self-rule, or shall we have more kings" the right wing answer is always another king. hell, lenin was the czar who killed the czar before him and got popular support by pretending to be populist. what is communist about him and his buddies eating caviar while the peasants starved?

        fix the system, don't rig the system, and "fuck the system" and anti gubment anti UN nonsense just plays into the monarchists hands.

        right is and will always be WRONG. LEFT is just a wishlist, utopian general vector of where to go, but never achieved.

        there, i fixed your brain, now wake up and spread the word.

      • _DeadFred_ 16 hours ago

        This 'improvement' is what tech sold us these last two decades. What we got was struggle gig work and tech bro's pushing eachother out of the way to be first to endorse Project 2025. And NFTs, man that sure improved things.

        Also 'we have to keep what we're doing because if we don't the earth will be destroyed because of what I want us to keep doing' isn't the best selling point.

      • tastyface a day ago

        Fascism will not settle in without some serious mass violence. I’m not sure even the most conservative HN readers are prepared for that.

  • Hiko0 2 days ago

    One will be missed for who he was, the other for a fictional character he once played.

RyanOD 2 days ago

The afterlife just keeps looking better and better...

Zardoz84 12 hours ago

Coming soon another public WC.

tapper 2 days ago

All them steds messes with your hart!

scop 2 days ago

His in ring performance will always give me goosebumps, every time. I’ve seen him start puffing his cheeks, shaking his head, no-selling punches, and finger pointing a million and every…single…time it gets me excited and pumped. And all for a silly leg drop at the end. Goes to show that the story can communicate so much more than the moves.

What a an amazing talent and performer.

  • krapp 2 days ago

    Shawn Michaels. Chris Jericho. Mick Foley. The Undertaker. Rey Mysterio. Steve Austin. Shinsuke Nakamura. Kenny Omega. Booker T. John Cena. CM Punk. All better wrestling talents and performers than Hulk Hogan. The list could probably be even longer, because Hulk Hogan was at best a passable wrestler and a terrible performer. Finger-wagging and no-selling spots isn't impressive and doesn't take skill or talent.

    He also sabotaged the careers of other, better wrestlers and tried to prevent Jesse Ventura from unionizing. Fuck him. Fuck his racist ass, I hope Vince joins him in Hell soon.

tastyface a day ago

[flagged]

  • kolinko a day ago

    The issue with other things you mentioned is that they would very fast dominate HN discussion and degrade the quality.

    • tastyface a day ago

      So let’s all talk about the death of a wrestler while ignoring the tech-billionaire-fueled bonfire in our backyard. How intellectually curious.

tastyface 2 days ago

[flagged]

  • awnird 2 days ago

    Elderly American racists is HNs core demographic

    • tastyface 2 days ago

      “Empathy is a weakness and fascism is fun, actually!”

42lux a day ago

[flagged]