Radio host Bubba the Love Sponge Clem said on the Danny Jones Podcast this week that he believes Church of Scientology influence and street drugs played a role in Hulk Hogan’s July 2025 death, remarks that clash with a Clearwater Police Department investigation that closed the case as a natural death.
The nearly three-hour interview, released Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, included a late-episode segment titled in the show notes “The Scientologists killed Hulk Hogan.” Clem, a former close friend of the wrestler whose legal name was Terry Bollea, told host Danny Jones he was “convinced.”
“I’m telling you right now, man, the Scientologists killed him,” Clem said, according to a transcript excerpt from the episode. He argued that Hogan’s longtime physician, Dr. Gerald Fitzgerald, cut him off from prescription pain pills about six months before he died, after which Hogan obtained drugs “on the streets,” took something that had been “stepped on,” and required two doses of Narcan when emergency crews responded. Clem also said Clearwater authorities conducted a “quickie” investigation in a city he claimed Scientology “owns.”
Clem has made similar claims since Hogan died at 71 on July 24, 2025, after a cardiac arrest at his Clearwater home. He has previously pointed to Hogan’s history of opioid pain medication after neck and back surgeries, the absence of a full public autopsy at the time, and Hogan’s widow Sky Daily’s reported past ties to Scientology. Hogan’s daughter Brooke Hogan has separately said on the Bubba the Love Sponge Show that she was concerned about those ties, and asked to be removed from her father’s will rather than contest his estate.
Police and medical findings do not support Clem’s account. In June 2026, Clearwater police released a 72-page report closing the investigation. Investigators said there was “no evidence to indicate the death of Terry Bollea was anything other than natural” and no criminal wrongdoing. The report also says police reviewed Hogan’s medications and asked the Drug Enforcement Administration to check for prescription anomalies involving controlled substances, and found no suspicious prescribing patterns.
The medical examiner ruled the death a heart attack. A private autopsy arranged by the family found Hogan died “exclusively from compelling natural disease, with no reasonable traumatic or terminal toxicologic contributions.” Family members told investigators Hogan had been dealing with leukemia, an irregular heart rhythm, pneumonia and kidney failure, along with many hospitalizations and surgeries. Paramedics were called at 9:51 a.m., and Hogan was pronounced dead at 11:17 a.m. at Morton Plant Hospital, the Associated Press reported.
Clem and Hogan’s relationship fractured years earlier after a secretly recorded sex tape involving Hogan and Clem’s then-wife became public and led to Hogan’s landmark privacy lawsuit against Gawker. Clem premiered a documentary on that saga in September 2025, weeks after Hogan’s death, over a legal challenge from Hogan’s son Nick. Clem has said he predicted Hogan’s decline before the wrestler’s death, and Hogan’s representatives disputed it at the time.
No reopening of the death investigation has been reported. Scientology representatives and Daily had not publicly commented on Clem’s latest remarks at the time of publication.
The Church of Scientology maintains a large presence in Clearwater. Clem offered no documentary evidence that church members caused Hogan’s death. His comments remain his personal opinion, not a finding of any law-enforcement agency.
