The next move would prove weirder than most pro wrestling costumes. Clandestinely bankrolled by gay tech billionaire Peter Thiel, Hogan sued Gawker and walked away with $140 million. It was a fatal wound for the media company, which shut down in 2016. Critics charged that Hogan and Thiel’s suit was precedent for how money could dispense with the freedom of the press.

Despite his fiscal winnings, Hogan would find it harder to fully recover his good reputation. The WWE reinstated him to its hall of fame in 2018, but earlier this year, when Hogan appeared in LA’s Intuitive Dome to promote Netflix’s Monday Night Raw, an arena’s worth of people booed him.