LOVERRO: The biggest fraud in a sport that celebrates phonies

OPINION:

The cheated generation has lost one of its most beloved frauds.

Former wrestling champion Hulk Hogan died Thursday at the age of 71 at his home in Clearwater Beach, Florida, where emergency personnel had been called for a report of a cardiac arrest.

Hogan (Terry Gene Bollea) helped the professional wrestling business out of the dim lights it operated in and into the marquee entertainment industry it has become during his time on and off as heavyweight champion in the 1980s and for several decades.

He became a cultural icon beyond the ring while wrestling took over American culture and politics all the way to the White House.

Hogan’s impact on the wrestling business helped expand its influence beyond the so-called squared circle.

“He is probably the most famous pro wrestler who ever lived and more people paid to see him perform over the course of his career than any other person,” wrestling reporter Dave Meltzer posted on social media.

He became a hero to the generation of young fans, many of whom, upon his passing, have chosen to turn a blind eye to the fraud that was Hogan. They have had lots of practice having to bury deceptions.

The 6-foot-7, 325-pound (at his promoted largest) Hogan was a special case — a charlatan in a business based on deceit.

It’s not easy to be defined as a phony when your work is to create illusions, but Hogan will be remembered for his public failings because they clashed so hard with his hero image, his “take your vitamins” proclamations to fans and the whole “Hulkamania” American sales pitch.

In 1994, Hogan testified in court that he and his boss Vince McMahon, owner of what was then called the World Wrestling Federation, received shipments of illegal steroids from a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, physician. Hogan testified that he had been using steroids for decades. Hogan had received immunity for his damning testimony and McMahon was found not guilty.

Then there was the sex tape made public in April 2012 between the estranged wife of a Tampa radio personality and Hogan that would eventually result in a $100 million defamation lawsuit against Gawker Media (which included “Deadspin”). Hogan won and would reach a $31 million settlement that would put the media company out of business.

A few years later, it was reported that Hogan made derogatory racial comments and slurs on the sex tape.

There were a host of embarrassing family issues that surfaced after Hogan put his family on display in a reality television show, “Hogan Knows Best,” resulting in a divorce from his wife Linda after it was revealed Hogan had an affair.

For many wrestlers, checkered pasts are standard. Steroid use was reportedly rampant.

There are few choirboys in the business.

But none came close to the high profile enjoyed by Hogan, a TMZ regular.

By the way, this very popular racist steroid cheater was inducted into the Boys and Girls Club of America Hall of Fame in 2018 — most likely by cheated generation members, those who grew up investing their hearts and minds into sports/entertainment heroes who would fail them.

In baseball, two of the cheated generation’s legends, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, were exposed as frauds. Bonds testified on steroid use in grand jury testimony and Clemens revealed in the commissioner’s Mitchell Report about rampant steroid use in baseball.

The storied Summer of 1998 home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa turned out to be a fraud, as both players were using steroids — Sosa testing positive in 2003, according to The New York Times and McGwire, after years of denial, has admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs. Alex Rodriguez, whose career numbers are among the greatest in baseball history, is a two-time admitted cheater who was suspended for a year by baseball.

All have been kept out of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

All-American bicycle racing icon Lance Armstrong was stripped of seven Tour de France titles and banned from racing for life for steroid cheating, and he claimed all he was trying to do was keep up with the other cheaters. American sprinter Marion Jones was the 2000 Summer Olympics star, winning three gold medals and two bronze in a sport where you need rose-colored glasses to believe anything you see. Jones was stripped of all of them after admitting to lying to federal investigators about using performance-enhancing drugs, caught up in the BALCO investigation along with Bonds. In 2008, she was sentenced to six months in jail.

It’s an impressive list of sports/entertainment legends and accomplishments that a generation of fans grew up watching and believing were real, only to learn they were cheated. It defined their era, and many have failed to come to grips with that reality, choosing to hold onto their youthful fantasies.

Last week, they said goodbye to perhaps the biggest deceiver of all, whose duplicity stood out even in a business of deception.

• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.