FILE - in this April 3, 2005, file photo, Hulk Hogan fires up the crowd between matches during WrestleMania 21 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)
Republished July 31, 2025 - 12:56 PM
Original Publication Date July 31, 2025 - 10:06 AM
Professional wrestler Hulk Hogan 's death last week was caused by a heart attack, according to a Florida medical examiner's report released Thursday.
Hogan, 71, whose real name was Terry Bollea, previously had leukemia and atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, the report from the District Six Medical Examiner said.
To honor the “Hulkster,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said, flags will be flown at half-staff at all official buildings Friday, which he declared “Hulk Hogan Day in Florida.”
“He was a true Floridian through and through,” the Republican governor wrote in a memo Thursday.
Hogan was pronounced dead at a hospital less than 90 minutes after medics arrived at his home in Clearwater to answer a call about a cardiac arrest on the morning of July 24, police said. The report said the cause of death was "natural."
“He had been dealing with some health issues, but I truly believed we would overcome them,” Hogan's wife Sky Daily posted on Instagram.
“This loss is sudden and impossible to process,” she added. “To the world, he was a legend… but to me, he was my Terry.”
Hogan was perhaps the biggest star in WWE’s long history, known for both his larger-than-life personality and his in-ring exploits. He was the main draw for the first WrestleMania in 1985 and was a fixture for years, facing everyone from Andre The Giant and Randy Savage to The Rock and even WWE co-founder Vince McMahon.
Hogan's daughter Brooke Bollea Oleksy, better known by her stage name Brooke Hogan, memorialized her father in a recent social media post.
“I am so grateful I knew the real version of him. Not just the one the world viewed through a carefully curated lens,” she wrote on Instagram.
Funeral plans have not yet been publicly announced.
News from © The Associated Press, 2025