Terry Bollea died on Thursday. The former professional wrestler was 71 years old. According to his longtime manager, Bollea died at his home in Clearwater, Fla.; different reports say that paramedics responded at dawn to an emergency call reporting that Bollea was suffering from cardiac arrest. He'd had some sort of recent neck surgery, and was rumored to be in failing health. Bollea's wife, Sky, recently batted away rumors that he was in a coma. Fellow washed-up wrestling luminary Jimmy Hart insisted Tuesday afternoon that Bollea was "doing phenomenal." That turned out to be not the case.
Reports of Bollea's poor health were first circulated by the radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. Followers of Bollea's post-wrestling career will recall that Clem and Bollea were once good friends and sometimes appeared together on Clem's Tampa-area radio show. In 2012, the two made headlines when Gawker reported that Clem had recorded a clandestine video of his wife, Heather, having sex with Bollea. A separate recording that became public years later captured Bollea making vile and racist remarks while in conversation with Heather.
