Hulk Hogan’s Final Years Brought Faith To Hulkamania
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Terry Bollea, better known to wrestling fans as Hulk Hogan, carried an oversized presence during a sports entertainment career that spanned nearly a half-century and included countless ripped shirts, bandannas and leg drops.
His biggest splash came in December 2023, though, as Hogan and his wife, Sky, were baptized at Indian Rocks Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in Largo, Fla. “Total surrender and dedication to Jesus is the greatest day of my life,” he posted on Instagram. “No worries, no hate, no judgment … only love!”
Hogan, who made his professional wrestling debut in 1977, had become more open about rediscovering the faith he first committed to as a teenager. The previous August, he spoke with Joe Rogan about attending every Sunday.
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“It’s something that you don’t let go of. People plug in and plug out … but I’m there, because I’ve seen it change a lot of people,” he said.
Rogan, who has 14.5 million followers on Spotify, questioned the wisdom of Hogan naming his church, perhaps leading to a rush of visitors because fans would want to “go to church with the Hulkster.”
“No,” said Hogan. “I want more people there.”
Hogan died of cardiac arrest at his home in Clearwater, Fla., Thursday, July 24, at age 71. His Instagram account noted that he passed away surrounded by loved ones.
“At this time of grief, we ask that everyone please respect the privacy of his family and friends,” it said. “May we all take solace in the wonderful memories he left behind for the millions of fans worldwide whose lives he touched for more than four decades. He will be missed, but never forgotten.”
Hogan posted to X in April 2023 that he accepted Christ as his Savior at 14, “but now that I am one with God, the main event theme of surrender, service and love makes me the Real Main Event that can slam any giant of any size through the power of my Lord and Savior and so it is, even now brother, AMEN!”
Hogan told podcaster Theo Von that same month how, as a child, he had attended Ballast Point Baptist Church, another Southern Baptist congregation, in Tampa once with his mother. He continued attending with a friend’s family.
In junior high, he was playing guitar and getting into sports when a football teammate invited Hogan to youth group.
“He said [they] needed somebody to play guitar, so I went up there … and that’s when I started listening to Scripture and … heard John 3:16, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life,” Hogan told Von. “Bam, it hit me, ya know, and I accepted Christ as my Savior.”
He went on to admit he “derailed, for a long time” in his faith throughout school and into a wrestling career that began in 1977.
The early years were mainly spent as a heel — the wrestling term for a villain—in smaller wrestling organizations, or territories, and even during his first stint in the World Wrestling Federation. A 1982 role in “Rocky III” and appearance on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, where he announced the start of Hulkamania, brought national recognition and turned Hogan into a babyface — the wrestling term for a hero.
He returned to the WWF in December 1983 with “Eye of the Tiger” as his entrance music and won the world title the next month. Being the tag team partner of another massive star of the day, Mr. T, at WrestleMania I in 1985 and defeating André the Giant at WrestleMania III in 1987 launched Hogan into becoming one of the most recognizable people on the planet.
The rise continued, not just in the ring with the WWF, then World Championship Wrestling, then back to the WWF, now WWE. Mixed in were several stints in Japan as well as smaller territories at the beginning and end of his career.
Last year, Hogan was asked about calling his baptism “the greatest day of my life.”
“It broke down that fourth or fifth wall, to tell people the truth about my Lord and Savior,” he said. “… It was a major pivot in my life.”
“It was so fun to be a part of Terry’s baptism and to see the ripple effect … all over the world,” Aaron Filippone, pastor of Indian Rocks, said in that video. “This is the way that Christians go public in their faith, and he felt it was important to do what Christians do.”
This article has been republished courtesy of Baptist Press.
Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.