Hulk Hogan died last July at the age of 71 from cardiac arrest, a death that drew tributes from across the wrestling world but no shock, since he had reportedly battled numerous health issues for years. By the standards of his sport, living to 71 counted as a long life.
Wrestling has long been marked by premature deaths, with stars dying from heart attacks, overdoses and suicide. Eddie Guerrero died at 38 in 2005 from acute heart failure caused by atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Andre the Giant, who stood 7-foot-4 and weighed 520 pounds, died at 46 from heart failure. Bray Wyatt died in 2023 at 36, also from a heart attack, exacerbated by Covid.
Randy Savage, Hogan's former ring partner, died at 58 in 2011. An autopsy found he had heart disease and suffered a cardiovascular event while driving that caused an accident. Female wrestler Chyna, whose real name was Joanie Laurer, died in 2016 at 46, the same age as Andre the Giant, from an overdose of alcohol and prescription drugs. Last month, Siva 'Superfly' Afi died at 77, with his cause of death still unknown.
What the research shows
A 2014 study by Eastern Michigan University found that wrestlers between 25 and 49 were 4.5 times more likely to die than the general population, with 16 percent of wrestlers' deaths occurring before age 50. Wrestlers aged 45 to 54 were nearly three times more likely than the general population to die prematurely. The study pointed to cardiovascular issues as the leading cause of premature death, with drugs a major contributing factor, both linked to the grueling nature of the job.
With no true offseason, top-level wrestlers face more than 300 days on the road a year, putting their bodies through relentless physical strain. After the 2022 death of Hall of Famer Scott Hall, fellow wrestlers Bret Hart and Kevin Nash spoke about the toll on their generation.
"We've lost so many wrestlers from my era, and this is just one more to a list that's far too long," Hart wrote on Facebook. "I won't blame any one thing, but I do believe that if the days of wrestling 300 days a year had been kinder and more considerate, if we could've been home with our loved ones more, many of my old friends and brothers would still be here."
Nash replied: "100% the meat grinder hasn't been kind to the crews that ran 300 plus days. The mental and physical pain of those years scar hard and deep but the men that I shared my life with were such a special breed and many life long friends."
Painkillers, steroids and alcohol
Hogan had undergone spinal fusion surgery, knee and hip replacements, and repairs to his shoulders, biceps and abdominal muscles for chronic pain built up over decades. In 2024, he said he had undergone 25 surgeries in the past decade alone, and like many wrestlers, he turned to painkillers to survive.
"We get banged up a lot… you're wrestling on concrete sometimes, and you can't go down, or you won't get back up. Guys start drinking too much, popping pills to keep going… it messes with your heart, your head, everything," Hogan told Joe Rogan.
Diamond Dallas Page, who wrestled through the 1980s and 90s, said his generation partied hard to cope. "Way more partying man," he said on the Chris Van Vliet podcast in 2024. "What happens to a lot of guys back then, because you drink so much and then you try to kill some of the pain with the muscle relaxers… well, your heart is a muscle. And there were guys who would take multiple pills, drinks and then five more pills. I'll tell you what I see today. A lot of these guys are straight edge, they don't drink and they don't take drugs." Page said he kept increasing his pill intake because they lost their effect over time: "I needed those f***ers to work."
In 1994, Hogan testified in a case against WWE co-founder Vince McMahon, saying he had regularly used anabolic steroids throughout the 1980s, not just to build his physique but "to heal injuries, to keep on going," adding that it was "fairly common" among wrestlers at the time. McMahon was acquitted of supplying them. Steroids carry well-documented risks including high blood pressure, blood clots and heart problems, including an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
The 2014 study said it was "plausible that the painful injuries are self-treated with high doses of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which can cause or worsen hypertension and increase the risk of heart and kidney failure." It also said it was reasonable to assume that abuse of pain-relieving prescription drugs "plays a role in the premature drug-related deaths and possibly suicide."
Brain injuries and CTE lawsuits
Beyond the heart, repeated head trauma has also taken a toll. Chris Benoit died in a double murder-suicide in 2007, killing his wife, Nancy, and their seven-year-old son, Daniel, before taking his own life. Tests by West Virginia University's head of neuroscience found that Benoit, 40, had sustained so many concussions that his brain "resembled the brain of an 85-year-old Alzheimer's patient."
Former WWF/WWE wrestler Marty Jannetty joined a class-action suit against his former employer in 2016, testifying: "We do get slammed on the floor and our heads bounced on the floor. There have been so many times when I get up and didn't remember how I finished the match." The case was later dismissed.
Chyna's fatal overdose in 2016 was tentatively linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Her brain was donated to CTE researcher Dr Bennet Omalu, but the findings of the tests were never made public. Separate lawsuits filed in 2018 alleged WWE had failed to protect wrestlers from repetitive head injuries leading to brain damage; the cases were dismissed and appeals were later declined by the US Supreme Court. More than 50 wrestlers, most of whom peaked in the 1980s and 90s, were listed as plaintiffs. Their attorney said Harry Masayoshi Fujiwara and Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka, who died in 2016 and 2017 respectively, were posthumously diagnosed with CTE. The Eastern Michigan University study also linked repeated head trauma to cognitive decline, depression and higher rates of suicide.
The same study found that 98 percent of wrestlers had a BMI ranging from overweight to morbidly obese, and theorized that BMI was significantly associated with the hazard of death from total time spent wrestling, with morbidly obese wrestlers especially at risk. The issues were likely worsened in past decades by a lack of understanding of medical practices, limited health insurance and an oversight of injuries.
How the industry has changed
Modern promotions have since introduced stricter wellness policies, drug and PED testing, and improved medical monitoring. Bryan Danielson, previously known as Daniel Bryan, was forced to retire by WWE in 2016 after suffering at least 10 concussions across a 16-year career; after intensive treatment he was cleared to return, moving his career to AEW.
WWE established its Talent Wellness Program in 2006, covering cardiovascular and brain function testing alongside substance abuse and drug testing. "The business has changed so much since I started. I think a whole lot better," John Cena said in a 2023 interview with Kevin Hart. "The talent are better taken care of. They're more professional. They're more understanding. They're not as wasteful, they're a lot smarter. They're a lot healthier."
