Shortly earlier than he died earlier at this time (July 24) on the age of 71, Hulk Hogan was doing what so many out-to-pasture celebrities from the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties do: He was a pitchman.
In April, Walmart started stocking Real American Beer, a model Hogan began in 2024. “Individuals deserve an actual American beer, and now they will seize Actual American Beer at Walmart—America’s retailer,” Hogan introduced in a ready assertion. “Actual American Beer is made for summer season. And now, it’s simpler than ever to get some, brother.”
Odds are {that a} PR particular person wrote that line for him, however solely Hogan himself might have provided the beer can’s branding component—a stylized rendering of the skilled wrestler along with his signature bandana and handlebar mustache, gritting his tooth whereas waving an American flag.
That’s how Hogan loyalists will likely keep in mind the person, whose a long time of fame inside and out of doors the ring didn’t simply make him a nationwide determine, however one alluring sufficient to immediate manufacturers to come back operating with endorsement contracts.
As is the case with many a celeb, nevertheless, Hogan’s legacy is blended, and paradoxical too: Hogan in the end grew to become extra well-known after he retired from wrestling in 2012—and it was his mouth, not his muscle mass, that bought all the eye.
Born Terry Gene Bollea in 1953, Hogan grew up in a rough-and-tumble neighborhood in South Tampa. After dropping out of faculty, a 300-pound Hogan dropped into the wrestling circuit. The World Wrestling Federation (at this time World Wrestling Leisure) added him to its lineup in 1977, giving him a moniker impressed by The Unimaginable Hulk. (A displeased Marvel Comics sued, settled, and ultimately let Hogan have his identify for $750,000.)
A winner of six championships, Hogan grew to become a model inside a model for WWE, having fun with fame that transcended his commerce and turning 1000’s of Individuals into “Hulkamaniacs.” A pure ham for the digital camera, Hogan stepped effortlessly into promoting, showing in spots for manufacturers massive (Arby’s, Cheerios), small (Pumax cleansing wipes) and sometimes questionable (Rent-A-Center, 10-10-220.)
It all got here to a screeching halt in 2012, when the gossip web site Gawker posted a intercourse tape of Hogan in flagrante with Heather Clem, spouse of on-air persona Todd Alan Clem, higher referred to as Bubba the Love Sponge. Individuals can forgive a intercourse tape, nevertheless it was Hogan’s language that wound up being the curb stomp. Within the video, Hogan goes on an expletive-fueled rant about folks of colour and the LGBTQ+ neighborhood.
Hogan apologized, however not earlier than the WWE kicked him out of its Corridor of Fame and lots of followers walked away.
