In a new memoir, WWE legend Hulk Hogan reveals that he came close to suicide before a phone call from Laila Ali saved his life.

On the pages of My Life Outside the Ring – available on Oct. 27 from St. Martin’s Press — the wrestler-turned-reality-TV-star admits he hit rock bottom after his divorce from ex-wife Linda after 23 years of marriage. After a night of partying with strippers in December 2007, Hulk claims he came home to an empty house and went over the edge, reaching for a gun and putting his finger on the trigger. A phone call from his Gladiators co-star Laila Ali, who noticed the star looking distracted earlier at work, prevented the Hogan Knows Best frontman from ending his life.

Hulk writes: “There were times when I thought that a whole bottle of pills would go down easy . . . Then I noticed the gun in my hand. I was careless with it . . . I kept my finger pressed right to that trigger . . . and if I moved that finger an inch in the right direction . . . I would have blown my brains out.”

Hogan also speaks candidly about the toll that years of wrestling have taken on his body: “From the day [Florida pro-wrestler Hiro] Matsuda broke my leg [in 1976] until now, not a day’s gone by when I haven’t been in some kind of pain,” he explains. “I’ve torn through both of my biceps. My triceps are torn in three places. My back is uneven because the muscles never healed properly after I body slammed Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III back in 1987. You can see ridges and divots all through my shoulders. I’ve even torn muscles in my butt.”
Spotted@