Even in the years before cannabis turned into a billion-dollar industry, celebrities associated with cannabis have found their way to use their public profile for entrepreneurial reasons within the culture and industry of this plant. Tommy Chong famously was indicted in a nationwide criminal investigation due to selling his signature bongs online while the Doggfather himself, Snoop Dogg, has attached his expertise and experience in cannabis to multiple different cannabis brands throughout the years. B Real of Cypress Hill has had the long-running Dr. Greenthumb brand and Mike Tyson has used his public profile as one of professional boxing’s most decorated legends to both advocate for the plant and become a business partner in a number of cannabis ventures.
Since those first initial years, many different celebrities from many different fields have become professionally and financially invested in the cannabis industry. From comedians such as Jim Belushi and Seth Rogen, to hip hop artists like Jay Z and Wiz Khalifa and NBA legends like Al Harrington and Gary Payton, celebrities who received fame for a number of reasons have found themselves involved in the cannabis business. Even former child stars such as Jaleel White are becoming involved in cannabis with the itsPurpl brand and their most popular strain, Purple Urkel.
Particularly within the field of professional wrestling alumni, a noticeable number of wrestling legends are becoming involved in the American cannabis industry. Prolific wrestlers who frequently incorporated cannabis use into their wrestling personas such as “The Whole F***ing Show” Rob Van Dam and Charles Wright, who most famously wrestled as the WWF’s most jovial pimp The Godfather, have had their own cannabis brands and continue to use their platform to advocate for the plant’s many benefits, especially for athletes who’ve worked in field as physically taxing as professional wrestling.
And although he’s not officially a business owner or employed directly in the cannabis industry, former professional wrestler-turned-Governor of Minnesota from 1999-2003 Jesse Ventura has used his platform in state politics to speak to Minnesota legislators directly about why cannabis should be legalized statewide. Even at a Minnesota Senate committee meeting just this past February, Ventura spoke about how cannabis saved his wife’s life from a horrible epileptic condition.
Although, the newest professional wrestler who’s entering into the cannabis industry is the wrestler who arguably turned professional wrestling into the globally popular medium of sports entertainment that it has been for decades. The man responsible for not only turning professional wrestlers into mainstream celebrities but also Hall of Fame-levels of success across numerous wrestling companies. The wrestler who’s widely considered to be one of the best and most entertaining to ever enter the squared circle and possibly the most famous wrestler ever besides Dwayne The Rock Johnson.
Hulk Hogan, one of the most illustrious wrestlers across multiple decades, will soon be entering an entirely different industry. One that has just as much showmanship and branding but involves more getting high instead of high-flying moves. Still though, it’s an industry that can be equally as entertaining and Hogan will have a wide roster of his fellow professional wrestling alumni to do business and network with. And similarly to many of his colleagues from professional wrestling, Hogan admits that he found tremendous medical relief from cannabis-based products in many different ways that both pharmaceutical painkillers and simple over-the-counter medications simply couldn’t.
“In the last 10 years I’ve had 28 surgeries—it’s just been insane,” the 69-year-old Hogan explained in an interview with TMZ Sports. “And from everything I’ve been through, you know, the pain and the inflammation and the prescriptions that doctors would give you, that whole training, prayers, and eat your vitamins kind of got rattled a little bit.”
While the exact title of his cannabis brand hasn’t been discussed yet, Hulkamania Kush could be quite a memorable one. Or perhaps, he may make a reference to the short-lived “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan era. Regardless, Hogan has found relief from cannabis in ways that he once thought would be undiscoverable under the pharmaceuticals the doctors were giving him. In multiple interviews, Hogan mentioned that despite turning 70 soon, cannabis-based medicines have made him feel as if he were 25 again.
Luckily for the esteemed grappler, Hogan won’t have to venture very far in the American cannabis industry to find a fellow professional wrestler who’s achieved his own status of legendary for his decades of showmanship in the ring. The company that will be selling Hogan’s cannabis line is Carma HoldCo Inc, a global branding company that has a number of celebrity cannabis brands under their umbrella. Along with the Tyson 2.0 brand and the Evol brand which was created by Grammy-winning rapper Future, one of the increasingly famous brands under their umbrella is the brand which was the brainchild of none other than The Nature Boy himself, Ric Flair.
In fact, The Nature Boy and “Iron” Mike Tyson have been business partners in cannabis for well over a year now and made a joint appearance at the recent Champs Trade Show in Las Vegas. For the upcoming July edition of Champs, Ric Flair and his brand will even be hosting an afterparty.
“When I saw what Ric and Mike were doing, I instantly wanted to get on the team because you use CBD for energy, for sleep, for fitness, it just made sense.” Hogan explained. “It’s a logical extension of where I already was but this is the safe way to approach things instead of that wild card way of doctor’s prescription stuff. It just didn’t make sense anymore.”
