Eric Bischoff On Hulk Hogan’s Final Days: He Was Still Focused On Business

Eric Bischoff recounts one of his last interactions with Hulk Hogan, offering insight into Hogan’s health and mindset during his final days.

Hulk Hogan passed away at the age of 71 on Thursday, July 24, 2025, following a cardiac arrest. In the days leading up to his passing, there were disputing accounts of his well-being. One of the individuals who was very close to Hogan up until the end was Eric Bischoff. Hogan and Bischoff, who had been close since their days in WCW, were collaborating on Real American Freestyle Wrestling, a new brand of wrestling that combines the spectacle of professional wrestling with the skill of Olympic-style wrestling.

The latest episode of Eric Bischoff’s 83 Weeks podcast is a tribute to “The Hulkster.” Toward the end, Bischoff shares a story about visiting Hulk Hogan a couple of weeks before his passing. He describes the struggles Hogan was facing, but mentions that Hulk did his best to stay focused on the future of RAF and was eager to get back to work.

“So, I went to see Hulk a couple of weeks ago. He had been in the hospital. I wasn’t really getting day-to-day updates on his condition,” he said. “When I found out that Hulk had gone home from the hospital, I called Hulk. I said, ‘Alright, brother.’ Nick told me that he could talk, and Nick asked me to give him a call, actually. So I got him on the phone, and I could tell he was weak. You know, he sounded tired, but he still had that ‘Brother, what are we going to do next?’ underlying current of energy in his voice. Even though he sounded tired, he sounded weak. He still had that ‘What’s going on with Eeal American freestyle? Where are we at? Have you talked to Kurt?’ kind of thing, checking up on me to make sure I was on top of my shit.

“I said, ‘I’m coming down to see you.’ He goes, ‘Man, I really want to see you, but I’m kind of embarrassed for you to see me this way because I’ve been pretty sick.’ I said, ‘When I look at you, I don’t see the same thing that you see when you look in the mirror. So, fuck that. I’ll be down on Monday.’ I came down and was able to spend some time with him,” he continued. “The whole time I was there, other than bringing me up to speed on where he’s at and what he went through, it was like ‘What’s going on with Real American Freestyle? Have we signed Wyatt Hendrickson yet? What’s the event look like in August? Have we got tickets on sale?’ All he wanted to talk about was business, but in a fun, energetic way, even though he was struggling. It was just a little more effort than it should have been for him to even talk at that time, because his larynx and all this stuff got moved around during surgery. So it was work for him to have a conversation. But he was the same guy. Right before I left, and I knew — he had a nurse there. I could tell he was getting tired, and I could tell the nurse was starting to get a little anxious, because she had to elevate his legs and there were certain things she had to do to make sure that he’s going to stay healthy and and get him on oxygen on a regular basis, because that was one of the challenges that he had, was the CO2 levels in his system.”

Eric Bischoff explained that he wanted to give Hulk Hogan something to look forward to, so he promised to start preparing some interviews for him to promote RAF. He admitted he wasn’t necessarily eager to see Hogan return to work but understood that, due to Hogan’s work ethic, he needed a motivation.

“Anyway, one of the last things I said is, ‘Alright, Hulk, I gotta take off. I got some calls to make,’ which wasn’t true. I just didn’t want to be hanging around and become a burden or just be an obstacle, right? So I said, ‘I’ll tell you what, I’m going to call over to Chad. We’re going to set things up. We’ll see if we can get you out and get you on some interviews.’ Now I knew damn good and well it was going to be quite a while before he was ready to do interviews, and he knew it too. But he said, ‘Brother, I can’t wait. I may not be able to do anything on camera for a couple of weeks, but I’ll be good on the phone. You can set some stuff up for me on the phone. He was so anxious to get back to work. He was, and I said that I had that conversation with him because I wanted to leave him kind of up and looking forward to something other than being taken care of.

“Since I’ve known him, he loves the hunt. He loves the thrill of the hunt. I thought if I could give him something to be excited about, maybe it’ll help him put up with the crap he’s got to go through,” he continued.

Real American Freestyle is set to debut on FOX Nation on August 30. Learn more here.

Fans can read tributes to Hulk Hogan from other wrestling icons at this link.

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