Retired WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan has lifted the lid on his past addiction issues and the healthy lifestyle choices he’s made that finally prompted him to kick his toxic habits for good.
Chatting with Muscle and Health, Hogan, whose real name is Terry Gene Bollea, opened up about the literal beatings he’s taken throughout his decades-long wrestling career and the surgeries he’s had to endure as a result. He also detailed his subsequent addiction to prescription painkillers and his struggles with alcohol.
“I’ve had a lot of practice drinking because I wrestled for about forty years, so those guys have a beer every once in a while,” Hogan said. “But about seven months ago, I decided not to drink any more alcohol. I was at a New Year’s Eve party and saw a bunch of stuff that I didn’t condone or like. I saw myself in this environment, and I went, ‘You know what? I don’t know how I got here, but I’m done.’ It was just that one thing.”
Hogan, who stands tall at 6 feet 7 inches, said it feels “much better to be so clear-headed” and he’s no longer tempted to drink alcohol, while also insisting that he doesn’t believe he has an addictive personality.
Hulk Hogan opens up about giving up alcohol and pain meds.
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“When I’m done, I’m done,” he said, adding that it hasn’t been easy to operate within the same social setting while practicing sobriety, but he’s managed to maintain his relationships among his wrestling contemporaries, who can be “a little intimidating,” by remaining firm in his convictions.
“I have a lot of friends who like to party, but they no longer try to push alcohol on me,” Hogan explained of the difficulties he’s faced while traversing the wrestling world while newly alcohol-free.
“I’ve had certain wrestlers look at me in the face and go, ‘If you don’t have a drink with me, you’re not my friend,’ ” he continued. ” ‘Well, I am your friend, but I’m not going to drink with you. What are you going to do about it?’ ”
One happy side effect of quitting drinking, Hogan claimed, is that it also curbed his appetite for eating junk food at night, and so the weight just started falling off.
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Hulk Hogan has the advantage over Karl Malone at Bash at the Beach 1998.
Elsa Hasch /Allsport/Getty Images
“When I was drinking alcohol, I’d leave [his restaurant and bar located in Clearwater Beach, Florida] Hogan’s Hangout after Monday night karaoke with a belly full of beer shots and liquor, then go home and sit in front of the TV with popcorn, ice cream and chocolate. I’d completely swell up,” he admitted. “I used to look like I’d been training chest and back after a food and drink binge on a ton of carbs, alcohol and sugar.”
“In actual fact,” he continued, “I wish I’d have lost [the weight] more slowly because when your arms are really big and shrink up two or three inches, you have loose skin on them. I didn’t think it was going to come off so fast.”
While Hogan, who turned 70 years old on Aug. 11, feels he now has his issues with alcohol firmly under control, booze hasn’t been his only struggle with substances. Having endured the enormous chronic physical toll of constant brawling throughout his successful WWE career, this pummeling is what eventually led to a dependence on pain management medication.
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“There was a period of time, about five or six years ago, where I was in crazy pain to the extent I couldn’t even function. When you have back surgery, it takes a good year for your body to recover, yet they were cutting on me every four months,” Hogan explained.
The father of two said doctors would write him prescription after prescription, which became a “vicious cycle,” leading to him “hitting the pain pills hard” following 25 procedures, including 10 operations on his back, facial reconstruction, knee and hip replacements, and abdominal and shoulder surgeries.
“I needed pain meds at that stage, that’s for sure. But once things started to wind down, they continued giving me the same meds. It got to a point where I’d recovered from the tenth back surgery, and the pharmacy would call me and say, ‘Your prescription’s ready,’ and like a dog chasing a bone, I’d go pick it up,” he said.
Then, finally, Hogan said one day he took a look at himself and said, “ ‘I’m not in pain. I don’t need this. My body hurts from all the wrestling injuries, but I’m not in this excruciating pain that I can’t live with.’ ”
Now, Hogan said he mitigates his pain and optimizes his workouts by using CBD, the non-intoxicating chemical found in the cannabis plant so that his “joints don’t hurt so much when I wake up” and when he lifts weights.
“At first, I was confused because I’d never used CBD,” Hogan explained. “I didn’t understand the health aspects of what it can do for you as far as energy, sleep, or getting off hard drugs or pharmaceuticals slowly and winding down are concerned. It took me a while to figure it out because I am a little slow. I had to do a lot of research and do my due diligence. I figured this was something that really would benefit a lot of people that needed help — and I know it will.”
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Remaining dedicated to his physical fitness, Hogan said nowadays he is enjoying life on the beach in Clearwater, Florida, while spending time with his adult children Nick Hogan, 33, and 35-year-old singer and actress Brooke Hogan. He also enjoys dedicating six days a week to his workout routine.
“I may miss one day a week, but the gym’s in my house, so there’s no excuse not to go down the elevator,” he said, adding, “I don’t even have to walk downstairs.”
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Source: HIS Education