Hulk Hogan was billed as “The Immortal One” and the former WWE champion seemed to believe it as he bellowed in his red-and-yellow attire throughout sold-out arenas around the world in the 1980s and into this century that Hulkamania would live forever.
Hogan was the first wrestler to host “Saturday Night Live,” the only wrestler to flex his 24-inch pythons on the cover of Sports Illustrated and stood tall as the hated Thunderlips against Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa on the big screen.
One by one, Hogan took on the biggest, baddest and all the larger-than-life cartoon characters who helped skyrocket the WWE into a mainstream phenomenon in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Hogan’s death Thursday at the age of 71 made him just the latest superstar in what some fans and historians would call wrestling’s greatest era – in a time where staid Saturday morning television exploded into late-night must-see sports entertainment – to face the final 10-bell salute.
Hogan wrestled in a tag-team match at the first WrestleMania in 1985. Mr. T is the lone surviving actor from the rest of the participants that included “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. The wrestler Hogan defeated to win his first WWE championship, the hated Iron Sheik, has also died
Andre the Giant, Randy Savage, Dusty Rhodes, the Ultimate Warrior and so many headline stars that also include “Mr. Perfect” and “Ravishing” Rick Rude from an era in which personality — and yes, performance-enhancing drugs that led to a spike in super-sized bodies — reigned more than in-ring ability that dominates today's wrestling landscape.
Here's a look at some of professional wrestling's greatest performers from Hogan's era who have died.
The Ultimate Warrior
Wearing face paint and dressed in tassels dangling from his biceps, the Ultimate Warrior sprinted to the ring when his theme music hit. He’d shake the ropes, grunt and howl, and thump his chest while the crowd went wild for the popular good guy.
In an era when the WWE targeted kids as its primary audience, Warrior was a perfect fit with a spastic entrance, blood-pumping music, flowing locks and always dressed in electric colors from head to boots.
His rambling, incoherent promos both energized and confused fans, and Warrior would often stare down at his hands as he spoke, as if he was summoning magical powers out of his fingertips.
The Ultimate Warrior became the first wrestler to defeat Hogan in a WrestleMania match in 1990 when he used his finishing running splash for the pin. He won the championship in front of 67,678 fans at Toronto’s SkyDome in a match billed as “The Ultimate Challenge.”
Warrior died in 2014 at 54.
“Rowdy” Roddy Piper
Piper trash talked his way to the main event of the first WrestleMania and later found movie stardom.
Piper and Hogan battled for years and headlined some of the biggest matches during the 1980s. Hogan and Mr. T defeated Piper and Orndorff on March 31, 1985, at the first WrestleMania at Madison Square Garden.
Piper was a villain for the early portion of his career, once cracking a coconut over the skull of Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka. He later starred in the movie “They Live.”
Piper died in 2105 at 61.
“Macho Man” Randy Savage
Snap into it!
Savage, a former minor league baseball catcher, was known for his raspy voice, the sunglasses and bandanas he wore in the ring and the young woman named Miss Elizabeth who often accompanied him.
Savage defined the larger-than-life personalities of the 1980s World Wrestling Federation. He wore sequined robes bejeweled with “Macho Man” on the back, rainbow-colored cowboy hats and oversized sunglasses, part of a unique look that helped build the WWF into a mainstream phenomenon.
He spent years as a pitchman for Slim Jim and barked “snap into it!” on commercials that air to this day.
The WWF made Savage their champion after a win over Ted DiBiase in the main event at WrestleMania in 1988. He lost the championship at the next year's WrestleMania to Hogan.
Savage died in 2011 at 58.
“The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes
Dusty Rhodes, known better as the “The American Dream,” was a member of the WWE Hall of Fame, and held the NWA championship three times. He became famous during the height of wrestling’s popularity in the 1970s and 1980 with his long-running feud with Ric Flair, now wrestling's greatest living legend.
Throughout his several decades in the ring, the Austin, Texas, native endeared himself to fans as an everyman with a less than stellar physique, but a gregarious gift of gab behind a microphone.
Rhodes was also the father of two other famous professional wrestlers: one son known as Goldust, still a champion in the rival All Elite Wrestling, and one of WWE’s biggest stars, “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes, who will face John Cena next month in the main event of SummerSlam.
Rhodes died in 2015 at 69.
