Hulk Hogan has received a ton of press coverage over the last several months for his legal fight and subsequent victory over Gawker Media in the infamous sex tape scandal. But another legal victory for the Hulkster has quietly gone unnoticed; his victory in a separate lawsuit over an alleged botched back surgery.
Hogan sued the Tampa, Florida based Laser Spine Institute (LSI) in January of 2013 claiming that he was duped into undergoing multiple procedures on his damaged back that proved to be ineffective and cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars. He claimed that the surgeries actually worsened his condition and forced him to later undergo major back surgery elsewhere which did fix his back. He was seeking $50 million in damages and claimed to TMZ at the time that the botched surgeries allegedly cost him a potential big money match with John Cena.
I’m told by sources close to the situation that Hogan actually settled the suit with LSI last year and earned a high seven-figure, low eight-figure settlement. “$10 million+” is what I was told.
In March of 2016, Hogan was awarded $140 million in total damages ($115 million in compensatory damages plus $25 million in punitive damages) in his Florida lawsuit against Gawker Media after the defendant posted portions of a sex tape featuring Hogan and Heather Clem (the wife of Bubba the Love Sponge) on Gawker.com. Hogan cited invasion of privacy, infringement of personality rights, and intentional infliction of emotional distress and had been seeking $100 million in damages. Gawker subsequently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, put itself up for sale, and its assets were sold to Univision who then closed Gawker.com down but maintained the other sites under the Gawker umbrella that were not part of the lawsuit.
There has been no word on any settlement or transfer of funds between Hogan and Gawker, however it was announced in late September that Hogan had purchased a $1.6 million beach house in Tampa located next door to his other property valued at $3 million.
