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One day after his close friend Hulk Hogan’s unexpected death on Thursday, WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy Hart said he’s still in shock that the “Hulkster” is gone.
“I called [Hogan] on Wednesday night, and then Thursday morning is when everything took place,” an emotional Hart told PEOPLE on Friday morning. “So just…just overnight it all happened, but it was so positive the day before.”
Hart, 81, last saw Hogan about a month ago, before the WWE star had neck surgery. Before then, Hart said he watched wrestling with Hogan three times a week most weeks on Monday, Tuesdays and Fridays, and the friends also did karaoke together with Hogan’s son Nick Hogan on Monday nights at the family’s Hogan’s Hangout bar in Clearwater, Fla.
“He was great,” Hart remembered from their last night together. “He had great food to eat that night. He was talking with the fans. He was just phenomenal.”
Hart said when he called Hogan this week, he instead spoke with Hogan’s assistant who passed along the message that the retired pro wrestler was “doing great.”
“Well, tell him I love him,” Hart said he told Hogan’s assistant, while thinking, “this is great” news.
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The next morning, Hart received the news that Hogan had died at 71. Officers from the Clearwater Police Department responded to a “cardiac arrest” incident at Hogan’s home, and the WWE Hall of Famer was later pronounced dead at the Morton Plant Hospital about 90 minutes later, PEOPLE reported on Thursday.
“It just hits so fast,” Hart said. “It was like, ‘Oh my God.’ We thought he was doing so well, you know? We didn’t go to see him at the house and didn’t go to see him at the hospital, because we wanted to make sure that he didn’t get any infections or anything else, like if anybody had a cold or brought anything in. So, that’s what we all did.”
Hart spoke with PEOPLE from The Rocket Arena in Cleveland where WWE is set to host Friday Night SmackDown and pay tribute to the 12-time world champion, who is widely seen as the most famous professional wrestler of all-time.
“Anytime you lose anybody in this business, it’s such a tight, tight-knit group, it’s like a fraternity, you know? And it affects all of us,” Hart said. “And the show must go on and all that, but that’s just the way it is.”
Hart shared several stories about his life on the road with Hogan, first meeting while working together in Memphis, Tenn., when Hart was the manager for Jerry “The King” Lawler and Hogan was brought in to face Lawler in a match. “We’ve been friends ever since,” Hart said.
It wasn’t long after when Hart became Hogan’s manager instead, traveling alongside the megastar and acting as his mouthpiece every time Hogan and WWF (the former name of WWE) brought “Hulkamania” to sports arenas around the world. The duo’s career together took off in the WWF before they left together for the rival World Championship Wrestling (WCW) promotion. They later enjoyed a short run in Total Nonstop Action wrestling before returning to WWE, where the pair last appeared on screen together in early January during the company’s debut on Netflix.
Everywhere, even on Friday morning after the WWE star’s death, Hart said fans would stop him to talk about Hogan.
“It was like traveling with Elvis Presley,” Hart recalled. “It was just unbelievable. The fans just came out of the woodwork for Hulk. I mean, no matter where we went, it was insane.”
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While Hogan kept up his public reputation as a tough, unbreakable figure in the ring throughout his career, Hart says the superstar was really “a big softy” behind closed doors and was as big of a fan of pro wrestling as the fans who cheered him on throughout his career.
“He loved wrestling,” Hart said. “He loved it. And he missed being able to do it because his body had been broken up so badly through the years. He had a shoulder replaced. His hip was replaced. He had two knee replacements, just so much stuff. And that’s why, when he went in the hospital, he was feeling numbness in his fingers, and that’s why he went to get that little neck surgery to help him out.”
The WWE credited Hogan with helping grow its popularity worldwide throughout his career, saying in a statement Thursday that Hogan is “one of pop culture’s most recognizable figures.” But there was also notable trepidation from others around the pro wrestling and entertainment world Thursday, who struggled to balance his character’s importance with the shortcomings of the man behind the wrestler.
Hogan’s upstanding “good guy” reputation took several hits in his second act outside the ring, finding himself at the center of several scandals, including lying about his steroid use, using racist language and becoming embroiled in controversy over a notorious sex-tape scandal. His fierce support of President Donald Trump also proved divisive, leading to WWE fans loudly booing him and Hart in their last appearance together in January.
But speaking with PEOPLE on Friday, Hart said undoubtedly that Hogan is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, “right next to Ric Flair.”
After reflecting on his longtime friendship with Hogan, Hart paused to paint a picture of Hogan in the afterlife, sitting among pro wrestling’s greatest figures.
“Hulk loved this business more than anything,” Hart said. “And now he’s happy because he’s free of pain where he’s going. And then once he’s where he’s going, up there in heaven, he’s going to be with all his friends. He’s going to be with Andre the Giant. He’s going to be with The Wild Samoans, Sika and Afa. He’s going to be with Dusty Rhodes, who was his mentor. He’s going to be with Randy Savage, who he and Hulk, they were so tight back in the day down in Tampa, and so many more of our people. He’s gonna be with Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon, and he’s gonna have one more interview with Mean Gene where he can come out and say, ‘You know, Mean Gene, whatcha gonna do when Hulkamania and all the little Hulkamaniacs run wild on you?’ “
