Hulk Hogan never regretted his lawsuit against Gawker Media, despite the leaked tape exposing racist comments he made

Tributes have flooded in from his fellow wrestlers, such as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Ric Flair, Kevin Nash and Triple H, US President Donald Trump and celebrities, including Sylvester Stallone who Hogan starred with in 1982 film Rocky III.

Stallone, 79, said: "I had the pleasure of meeting this brilliant personality and showman when he was 26 years old.

"He was absolutely wonderful and his amazing skill made Rocky III incredibly special. My heart breaks."

Despite the outpouring of love, some of the latter years of Hogan's life were mired in controversy and in 2013 he famously sued Gawker Media for $100 million after the online outlet posted a video clip in October 2012 of him having sex with Heather Clem - the now ex-wife of his former friend Bubba 'The Love Sponge' Clem.

In 2015, a transcript from the tape was leaked revealing Hogan using the 'N-word' during a conversation about his daughter Brooke Hogan's then-boyfriend.

The exposed comments led to WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) terminating his contract and avoiding association with him for three years until he returned in 2018.

Although the lawsuit against Gawker led to the comments becoming public knowledge and resulted in some fans refusing to forgive him for his mistake, Hulk - real name Terry Bollea - believed that taking Gawker to court was the right thing to do because it was a "moral" crusade for him.

In an interview conducted with Philip Hamilton in November 2015 for BANG Showbiz, Hulk said: "I think this type of journalism has no place (in society) and needs to stop.

"At first it was a business thing and I thought, 'Should I stop here? Or keep going?' And then it was more than that to me, then it became personal ... It definitely is a moral issue."

Asked if he had regrets about taking the case all the way to court, he added: "You know what I've thought about that back and forth, and back and forth, and it's a tough one because I knew the obstacles that were in my way. I knew there were things that might happen and they did happen. I had thought all that through already. It's a situation of you know who your friends are, you understand the political environment, the social environment and the political correctness we have now.

"But at the end of the day there's a lot of people out there doing stuff they shouldn't be doing and destroying lives and once I really dug into this thing and saw what my opponent (Gawker) was all about, I decided this type of behaviour just can't go on. "You just can't have, you know, paparazzi and stuff and hiring peeping toms to film you when you get off work or when you're in the shower, it's got to be stopped."

The tape had been secretly recorded in 2007 when Hogan was suffering from depression in the wake of his wife Linda Hogan filing for divorce and his son Nick's arrest and subsequent imprisonment over a serious car crash.

Hulk admitted he was at the lowest point in his life when he made his misguided comments and had even contemplated ending things as he hit rock bottom.

Hogan had been seeking $100 million for defamation, loss of privacy, and emotional pain from Gawker.

He won the court case and on March 18, 2016, was awarded $115 million.

In November 2016, Gawker reached a $31 million settlement with Hogan.