After divorcing his wife, Linda Hogan, Hulk Hogan used potentially fatal doses of fentanyl to treat his physical discomfort while he was in the TNA.
In the new Netflix documentary series “Hulk Hogan: Real American,” which was his last interview prior to his unexpected death in July 2025 from a heart attack, the wrestling pioneer talked about his dependence on the substance.
Hulk said that after giving “everything” to Linda after their 2009 divorce, he joined Total Nonstop Wrestling (TNA), the second-largest wrestling organization after WWE, because he needed the money.
He turned to the opiate to ease his excruciating pain, but it wasn’t long before he and TNA realized he wasn’t fit to compete at the level he’d been committed to.
Hulk clarified:
“I was taking 80-milligram fentanyls, two in the morning, stuffing them under my gums here … I had two 300mg patches of fentanyl on my legs and they gave me six 1500mg fentanyl lollipops to eat.”
“I went to the pharmacy, he goes, ‘You should be dead. We have never seen a human being take this much fentanyl.'”
The legendary wrestler was in such excruciating pain that he had to sleep in a chair. He said, “If I just twitched my finger like that, my whole back would spasm and torque.”
He left the TNA in 2013 after his contract expired, having made his final in-ring performance in 2012.
