Hulk Hogan's Most Iconic Moments In The Ring

The wrestling world was left reeling after we revealed Hulk Hogan had died at the age of 71 in July 2025.

Through a career full of iconic moments on and off camera, the professional wrestler's legacy was really cemented in the ring -- where he made his bones by pushing his body to the limits in some of the sport's most memorable bouts.

Here's a look back at a few of Hogan's most impressive and talked-about matches over the course of his life.

One of the moments where Hogan really made a name for himself was at Wrestlemania III in 1987, where he faced off against legendary wrestler André the Giant.

The pair had been matched on several occasions before then, with the French wrestler typically coming out on top ... but their face-off at the then-WWF's main promotion brought legions of new fans into the wrestling world.

The two made it through a grueling match, which was billed as the main event of the night and viewed by tens of thousands of fans.

At the end of their match, Hogan managed to body-slam Andre before finishing him off with a leg drop pin, and retained the WWF World Heavyweight Championship.

While Hogan had been portrayed as a "face" -- that's a good guy, folks -- for much of his career, he unexpectedly turned "heel" -- a villain -- while appearing at the WCW Bash at the Beach event in 1996.

The match-up pitted Randy Savage, Sting, and Lex Luger against The Outsiders -- namely Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, who were to be joined by a mystery third teammate.

Although Hogan's surprise arrival at the event was initially seen by fans as a move to help out Savage, Sting, and Luger, he performed a pair of leg drops on Savage, and helped Hall and Nash win the match.

Despite the trio being pelted with trash after the conclusion of the match, they went on to form the wrestling group New World Order, or nWo, and drove further competition between the WCW and WWE throughout the late '90s.

Hogan continued as a heel right up until Wrestlemania 18, billed as Wrestlemania X8, when he took on Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in the main match of the night.

Although Hogan was still playing the bad guy at the time of the event, he proved to be the crowd favorite, and he drew plenty of cheers from the show's audience after "hulking up" partway through the tilt.

Hogan and Johnson went back and forth for much of the match, and after Johnson took the upper hand and managed to pin his opponent, they shook hands in a show of respect.