By Mark Gray
9:30pm PDT, Aug 23, 2023
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Hulk Hogan was the face of the professional wrestling industry for decades, but his biggest fight was with himself. The Hulkster, now 70, was once addicted to pain medication — something that stemmed from the 25 surgeries he's undergone.
The WWE legend equated his dependency on pain pills to a "dog chasing a bone."
"I had doctors writing me prescription after prescription, and all of a sudden, it became a vicious cycle. I was hitting the pain pills hard because I'd had to endure 25 procedures, including 10 to my back, facial operations from being kicked, knee and hip replacements and abdominal and shoulder surgeries," he told Muscle And Health.
"There was a period of time, about five or six years ago, where I was in crazy pain to the extent I couldn't even function. When you have back surgery, it takes a good year for your body to recover, yet they were cutting on me every four months. I needed pain meds at that stage, that's for sure," he continued. "But once things started to wind down, they continued giving me the same meds. It got to a point where I'd recovered from the tenth back surgery, and the pharmacy would call me and say, 'Your prescription's ready,' and like a dog chasing a bone, I'd go pick it up."
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At one point, Hulk Hogan was still religiously taking pain medication when he realized he didn't need it. "I just looked at myself and said, 'I'm not in pain. I don't need this. My body hurts from all the wrestling injuries, but I'm not in this excruciating pain that I can't live with,'" he recalled.
Not long after, he was turned onto CBD, which changed everything for him. "CBD took me to a place where my joints don't hurt so much when I wake up. When I pick weights up, I don't have to do four or five sets before things start to become clear. I can tell as soon as the CBD hits my system, it calms everything down," he said. "The inflammation instantly went away with CBD. Usually, my wrists are swollen like crazy by the end of the day. Now they're fine. I noticed an immediate change as soon as I started on it."
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CBD, Hulk Hogan says, helps him "wind down slowly." He also feels it's great for people who are coming off alcohol addictions, something he knows a little about. "I've had a lot of practice drinking," he joked to Muscle And Health. The former New World Order member has long spoken about his drinking and his one-time love of beer, but he's been alcohol free since the calendar turned to 2023. "About seven months ago, I decided not to drink any more alcohol," he said. "I was at a New Year's Eve party and saw a bunch of stuff that I didn't condone or like. I saw myself in this environment, and I went, 'You know what? I don't know how I got here, but I'm done.' It was just that one thing."
He added, "I was around people who believed and behaved differently from me, and I just said, 'I'm out.' It feels much better to be so clear-headed. I'm no longer tempted to drink alcohol. I don't have an addictive personality. I mean, with anything. It can be business or people or alcohol or drugs. When I'm done, I'm done."
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Some of Hulk Hogan wrestling buddies have actually tired to push alcohol on him over the past few months and have even threatened to axe him from their lives if he didn't imbibe. "I've had certain wrestlers look at me in the face and go, 'If you don't have a drink with me, you're not my friend,'" he explains. "'[I say,] well, I am your friend, but I'm not going to drink with you. What are you going to do about it?' Sometimes wrestlers are a little intimidating. I have a lot of friends who like to party, but they no longer try to push alcohol on me."
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After he stopped his alcohol intake, Hulk Hogan noticed his waistline dropping. "As soon as I quit drinking, I had no desire to eat junk at night, and the weight just started falling off me. In actual fact, I wish I'd have lost it more slowly because when your arms are really big and shrink up two or three inches, you have loose skin on them. I didn't think it was going to come off so fast," he said.
