Things I Learned Hanging Out w/ Hulk Hogan
Hulk wasn't the first celebrity/actor I worked with, but he was one of the most unusual.
In a good way.
(THREAD)
I worked with Hulk pretty regularly for several years; and one of those years was really memorable.
Mainly because just about everything in Hulk's life was completely falling apart.
In the course of just 12 months the following stuff happened to him:
- His wife filed for divorce after 20 years
- He had no pre-nup agreement, so he was in bad financial trouble.
- After forcing him out of his house, she very publicly hooked up with a 20 year old surfer, who moved into to the house...
- His son went to jail for a car accident that turned his best friend into a vegetable in a coma
- A sex tape emerged of him, taped by his good friend Bubba, and spread by gossip-site Gawker and owner Nick Denton
- He was accused of being a racist...
As a result...
- Hulk gets pulled into a $100M lawsuit vs Gawker, financed by billionaire Peter Thiel
- The bad press means most of his income stops.
- He's removed from the WWE website and all licensed products and toys
- All endorsement gigs end...
There are more details, but the basic point is that this guy has his entire life, personal and professional, completely fall apart.
At an age when most people are retiring to the beach...Hogan is seeing his life destroyed.
I spent a ton of time just hanging out in cars or airports with they guy at the time.
I heard most every phone call on just about every topic going on.
What astounded me was...how well he handled this period of his life.
Constant nonstop crisis.
And he was always cool. Always polite. Always friendly.
Never saw him yell, or lose his temper.
You could tell it weighed on him...but he had faith that, no matter how bad things were...they'd get better.
He also was a man of faith.
Crazy, insane stuff could happen to him...and I'd hear him say...
"Well, I guess the Lord has a plan for me in all this. Just gotta have faith"...
I remember after one really awful-sounding call finished...
...we were driving through the Nevada desert on the way to Las Vegas.
It was late in the day. He hung up the phone and looked out the window, silently.
I wondered what in the world he was thinking...
He was quiet for a solid couple of minutes, staring.
The sky was getting dark, red and purple.
He then said....
"Look at that sunset. Isn't that a beautiful thing? All this beauty. Everywhere. Just for us. Someone loves us."
- - - -
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.