Jimmy Hart says Hogan’s assistant told him he was “doing great” just hours before he passed

In an interview with PEOPLE, Jimmy Hart revealed that he had a phone call with Hulk Hogan’s assistant who assured him that Hulk has been doing great. The phone call was on Wednesday night, just hours before Hulk passed away.

Hart last saw his best friend a month ago before Hulk went in for surgery. After surgery, Hogan never recovered and was in bed the whole time fighting for his life.

The Hall of Famer said he spent a lot of days with Hogan prior to his passing, watching a lot of wrestling together on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, and teamed with Nick Hogan on Monday nights to do karaoke at the Hogan’s Hangout bar.

“It just hits so fast,” Hart said. “It was like, ‘Oh my God.’ We thought he was doing so well, you know? We didn’t go to see him at the house and didn’t go to see him at the hospital, because we wanted to make sure that he didn’t get any infections or anything else, like if anybody had a cold or brought anything in. So, that’s what we all did.”

Their last appearance for WWE together was on the January 6 episode of Raw, where Hart carried an American flag accompanying Hogan to the Intuit Dome.

Hart was flown in to Cleveland on Friday to be part of the 10-bell salute for Hogan before Smackdown started.