For a while in the early 2010s, it seemed like Brooke Hogan was going to follow her dad's footsteps into the wrestling business. But things clearly didn't work out — so what did she do instead?
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00For a while in the early 2010s, it seems like Brooke Hogan was going to follow her dad's
00:05footsteps into the wrestling business. But things clearly didn't work out. So what did
00:10she do instead?
00:12Brooke was born in 1988, as Hulkamania was in full swing. But unlike some other children
00:17of prominent pro wrestlers of the era, Hulk Hogan's daughter didn't actually make her
00:21way to TV until she was in her late teens in 2006. Her dad was in his third run in WWE
00:28after a brief stint in TNA, and 18-year-old Brooke was brought in for an angle with Randy
00:33Orton.
00:34Orton flirted with Brooke, then challenged Hulk to a match at SummerSlam. As Hulk got
00:39into a car to leave the arena, Orton hit him with an RKO. Instead of continuing the angle
00:44with the real Brooke, Orton appeared on a later episode of Raw alongside actors portraying
00:49Hulk and his family, kissing the daughter.
00:53Orton went on to face the Hulkster at SummerSlam, but neither the real nor the fake Hogan family
00:57was involved. That stray appearance was the only time Brooke was ever involved in a WWE
01:03storyline.
01:05Six years after just barely dipping her toe into professional wrestling, Brooke returned
01:09to the business. This time, it was in a far more concrete way. She signed a contract with
01:14TNA, the promotion where Hulk also worked at the time, in May 2012. Unlike her dad,
01:20Brooke did not sign on to be a wrestler. She never had a single match. Her role was as
01:24an on-screen authority figure and a backstage consultant for the women's division, The Knockouts.
01:31Then-TNA president Dixie Carter said that she got to know Brooke through music. Brooke
01:35was open about her stint with the company being temporary, though she was excited about
01:38it.
01:39"'Brooke, officially welcome to Impact Wrestling!' What a welcome!"
01:45In addition to setting up lots of matches involving Tara, Velvet Sky, Mickie James,
01:50and many others, Brooke also found herself at the center of a storyline involving a secret
01:54relationship with Bully Ray, which also tied into Hulk and Sting's feud with the Aces and
01:59Eights faction. Ray saved Brooke from an Aces and Eights kidnapping, and she agreed to marry
02:04him. But their in-ring wedding dissolved into chaos when Taz, one of the groomsmen, revealed
02:09himself to be an Aces and Eights member and laid in to Bully Ray. Ultimately, Ray turned
02:13his back on both of the Hogans and revealed himself to be president of Aces and Eights.
02:18Brooke got a divorce from her on-screen husband, ending the storyline. She hung around for
02:23a while longer, but amicably parted ways with TNA in August 2013.
02:28Well before making her way into wrestling, Brooke had her eye on a music career. She
02:32signed with Transcontinental Records in 2002 at the age of 14. Her first single,
02:37"'Everything to Me,' was released that summer and made it to No. 97 on the U.S. Billboard
02:41Hot 100 chart. Brooke went on the road to promote her debut album, This Voice, which
02:45was never released due to her label going bankrupt.
02:49Brooke and Hulk were profiled on VH1 in a special called Inside Out Hulk Hogan Stage
02:54Dad, which was so successful it led to the creation of the reality series Hogan Knows
02:58Best, which debuted in July 2005. It chronicled the Hogan family's lives, focusing on Brooke
03:04and Hulk as she attempted to get her music career off the ground as he served as an overprotective
03:09father.
03:10In the Season 2 finale of Hogan Knows Best, Brooke premiered the single, "'About Us,'
03:14featuring rapper Paul Wall. The song reached No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100. Her first
03:20album, Undiscovered, was released in October 2006, debuting at No. 28 on the Albums chart.
03:26Hogan Knows Best ended in 2007 after four seasons, but Brooke got her own spinoff, Brooke
03:31Knows Best, in July 2008. It centered around her life and music career in South Beach,
03:36Miami. It also dealt with her family issues, including Nick Hogan's arrest following a
03:41serious car accident and her parents' divorce.
03:44That series ended in 2009 after just two seasons. That same year, Brooke released her second
03:49album, The Redemption. It was not a sales success, peaking at No. 144 on the Albums
03:55chart. Brooke has since appeared in a handful of TV shows and movies, including one episode
04:00of the wrestling-focused Netflix series Glow.
04:03"'Your girlfriend is quite the comedian.'"
04:05Brooke actually did attempt to get into wrestling one more time. In 2017, she, alongside Keri
04:11Von Erich's daughter Lacey Von Erich, Roddy Piper's daughter Ariel Toombs, Diamond Dallas
04:16Page's daughter Brittany Page, and Christy Hemme, looked to create an all-women's wrestling
04:21promotion.
04:22The group reportedly acquired a roster of more than 40 women and were looking at tour
04:26dates in September. Brooke revealed that she and the others had partnered with Johnny Cafarella,
04:31a producer and host for the original Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. But the promotion, dubbed
04:36The Daughters of Wrestling, quickly fizzled, with no word on what exactly caused its failure
04:40to launch.
04:42Brooke has also tried to reignite her music career. She released two country music EPs,
04:46one in 2015 and another in 2018. She said of the shift to country,
04:51As I got older, it started making sense with being a songwriter. It started to mean more
04:56to me, and this just was pulling me in that direction.
05:00She pivoted back to pop in November 2019 with a single called,
05:03Touch My Body, and released a cover of Milo Greene's Move in the summer of 2020. She went
05:08back to country with a song titled, Love People, in January 2021. In 2024, Hogan once again
05:14tried the pop approach with a few singles, including Boy's Trip.
05:18Brooke has also ventured into the world of interior design with her Nashville-based company
05:23BB Designs by Brooke.
05:25The Hogan family has definitely been through it, pretty much ever since Hogan Knows Best
05:29was on. For just a few examples, Nick's near-fatal car crash left his friend permanently disabled.
05:35Hulk and Brooke's mom, Linda, got divorced after he allegedly had an affair with Brooke's
05:39best friend, and Hulk was fired from WWE and removed from its Hall of Fame in 2015 after
05:44racist remarks surfaced. After that last incident, Brooke defended her father, posting a now-deleted
05:50poem titled, If You Knew My Father, to her Facebook account.
05:54Brooke wrote that Hulk never wanted to hurt his fans or family.
05:58Brooke was reinstated in the Hall of Fame and brought back to WWE in July 2018, but
06:03Brooke seems to have kept her distance from her dad. She wasn't present for Hulk's September
06:072023 wedding to yoga instructor Sky Daly. Brooke even issued a statement about her absence,
06:13revealing that she wanted privacy while wishing her father well. The Hulk star remains a controversial
06:17figure, and the status of their current relationship remains unclear.