Terry Gene Bollea (, born August 11, 1953), better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American retired professional wrestler, actor, television personality, entrepreneur and musician.
Hogan is regarded by many as the greatest professional wrestler of all time. According to IGN, he is "the most recognized wrestling star worldwide and the most popular wrestler of the 1980s ". Hogan enjoyed considerable mainstream popularity between 1984 and 1993 as a face in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), which continued for the remainder of the 1990s in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), where he turned heel in 1996 and performed as the villainous New World Order (nWo) leader " Hollywood " Hulk Hogan.
A regular pay-per-view main eventer and box office draw in both organizations, Hogan headlined the premier annual events of the WWF and WCW, WrestleMania and Starrcade, multiple times; against Sting, he closed the most profitable WCW pay-per-view ever at the 1997 edition of Starrcade. Aside from those promotions, he has notably performed for the American Wrestling Association (AWA), New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). He is a twelve- time world champion: a six- time WWF World Heavyweight Champion/WWF Champion (with his last reign being as Undisputed WWF/WWE Champion) and a six- time WCW World Heavyweight Champion. Hogan's first WCW World Heavyweight Championship reign is the longest in history, while his first WWF Championship reign is the third-longest ever (and the longest of the 1980s ). He was the first wrestler to win consecutive Royal Rumbles, in 1990 and 1991, and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2005, by Sylvester Stallone.
During and after wrestling, Hogan had an extensive acting career, beginning with his 1982 antagonist role in Rocky III. He has starred in several movies (including No Holds Barred, Suburban Commando and Mr.
