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Hulk Hogan had a persona bigger than life, leaving an indelible mark on the professional wrestling industry during his career spans for several decades.
On Thursday, Hogan died after the first respondents reported a cardiac arrest on his Clearwater, Florida, home.
He was 71.
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Hollywood Hulk Hogan puts a choke team on the neck of the Utah Jazz Basketball star Karl Malone at a wrestling match. View 12 July 1998 in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignnelzi, File)
Pro Wrestling star Aron Stevens, who appears in the National Wrestling Alliance, remembered Hogan in a statement to Pakinomist Digital. Stevens also appeared in WWE as Damien Sandow.
“Hulk Hogan is someone he is woven into the drug in Americana. He embodied every principle and ideal that was good about America,” Stevens said. “And when he first rose prominently in the 80s, it was a time when we as a country were not as divided as we are now.
“Everyone was proud to be an American, and Hulk was the personification of it. From his matches with Iron Sheik to Sgt. Slaughter during the Iraqi War, Hulk was someone who everyone could cheer because he represented, as far as his in-ring persona goes, the best of what this country is.”
Stevens, whose real name is Aron Haddad, remembered Hogan’s performance on the Republican national convention and a demonstration in Madison Square Garden, and how he served one of the greatest pops of these events.
Aaron Stevens administers Blunt Force Trauma (NWA/HIBAN HUERTA)
Trump remembers ‘great friend’ Hulk Hogan as ‘maga all the way’ after the tragic death of the wrestling icon
He also noted that the influence Hogan had on young fans.
“When you look back on his life, every sick child, whom he put a smile on their face and made them forget that they were sick, every child, he inspired to live a better life, to do the right thing, every adult he inspired, everyone is something that most people, I don’t think they think enough,” he said.
Hogan’s death rattled the sports and entertainment world. He was launching Real American Freestyle to help put freestyle wrestling on the map.
Donald Trump and Champion Wrestler Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania VL in Convention Hall in Atlantic City, NJ, March 29, 1987. (Jeffrey Asher/ Getty Images)
“Obviously, he will never be forgotten, but he was a pioneer,” Stevens said. “He was really the first of his kind, and I don’t think we’ll ever see another person who just like Hulk Hogan in the Wrestling industry again. So, Hulk, resting in peace.”
