Sky Daily Hogan, the wrestling icon’s wife, says he “never got back” to his old self after the fusion operation.

Hulk Hogan’s family details neck surgery complications just before his death: ‘Wish he never’ had procedure

Sky Daily Hogan, the wrestling icon's wife, says he "never got back" to his old self after the fusion operation.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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April 22, 2026 5:04 p.m. ET

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Nick, Brooke, Linda, and Hulk Hogan. Credit:

Carley Margolis/FilmMagic

- Hulk Hogan's family opened up about "complications" following an operation the wrestler had two months before his death.

- In Netflix's new docuseries, *Hulk Hogan: Real American*, Nick Hogan remembered his dad "still showed so much resilience" following the fusion procedure.

- Sky Daily Hogan, Hulk's wife at the time of his death, says he "never got back" to his old self, and she wishes he "never did the neck surgery."

Hulk Hogan's family are still devastated by the wrestling icon's death in July of last year at the age of 71. And they still have questions about the neck surgery the athlete and entertainer, born Terry Bollea, underwent just two months before.

Hogan's first wife, Linda Claridge, their son, Nick Hogan, and Sky Daily Hogan, Hulk's wife at the time of his death, all looked back on that dark time in the docuseries *Hulk Hogan: Real American*, which premiered on Netflix on Wednesday.

"It's strange because there was never a time when I was in his gym working out without him. But it's comforting in a way to be around his weight equipment," Nick says at the end of the series' fourth and final episode, while pumping his dad's iron. "It was just tough to process all of it. Everybody knows he went in to have a neck surgery. And after the neck surgery there were some complications."

Sky shared a photo of the couple from "the day before Terry went in for neck surgery. We're smiling, he's bright-eyed — and he never got back to that spot again."

Hulk Hogan in Tampa in 2023.

Julio Aguilar/Getty

A representative for the former wrestler, who retired from the sport in 2014, told TMZ in May of last year that Hogan underwent "a little fusion procedure" in order to "feel a little better."

It was far from the first for the six-time WWE Champion. He told Logan Paul in a 2024 episode of his *Impaulsive *podcast that he'd "had like 25 surgeries in the last 10 years," including "10 back surgeries, both knees, both hips replaced, shoulders, everything."

Nick explained on *Real American* that toward the end of his father's life, "It was about two-and-a-half months that we were in and out of hospitals. But he still showed so much resilience and strength."

With tears in her eyes, Sky shared, "I wish he never did the neck surgery."

Hulk Hogan's cause of death revealed

Hulk Hogan doc reveals the shocking amount of fentanyl he took in his wrestling career

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Hogan's cause of death was not immediately known in the days after. But on July 31, 2025, * *was able to confirm via medical records that he died of acute myocardial infarction, commonly known as a heart attack.

Hogan's wrestling career clearly took an intense toll on his body. He spoke to that toll himself in *Real American*, during interviews captured before his death.

He detailed "taking 80-milligram fentanyls, two in the morning, stuffing them under my gums" before contractually obligated matches for the Total Nonstop Wrestling entertainment group. "I went to the pharmacy," Hulk recalled, where the pharmacist told him, "'You should be dead. We have never seen a human being take this much fentanyl.'"

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