More than 25 surgeries: Hulk Hogan’s health problems during his WWE career

The wrestling world is in mourning with the news of Hulk Hogan’s passing. The iconic former American wrestler, a six-time WWE World Championship belt holder, was reported to have suffered a heart attack at his home in Clearwater, Florida during the early hours of Thursday morning.

Augusta-born Hogan, whose real name was Terry Gene Bollea, had a number of health issues over the years - the result of decades of punishing physicality in the ring and the grueling training that goes hand in hand with contact sports.

His last match was against Randy Orton during the preliminaries at SummerSlam in August 2006. Hogan won the match after performing a leg drop on Orton - it brought up his 1588th win (66% win rate: 396 losses, and 135 draws), and was his last outing in the WWE.

He had already been dealing with mounting health issues - problems which would get much worse in the final years of his life.

Hulk Hogan: 11 back operations in a decade

Hogan underwent countless operations. His daughter Brooke Hogan confirmed that in the 10 years between 2011 and 2021, her father underwent around 25 operations - including knee replacements, shoulder, back and hip surgeries. The true figure is probably closer to 30.

Almost half of those interventions were to rectify issues with his back. He became depend on painkillers and his last television appearance in May prompted many fans to comment about his gaunt, pallid face on social media.

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