Hogan suit says surgery cost him top match

CLEARWATER, Fla., Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Wrestler and entertainer Hulk Hogan has sued a Tampa spine center for "unnecessary and ineffective" surgeries that he says cost him $50 million in lost income.

Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, says the treatment by the Laser Spine Institute cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars and a well-paying match with top wrestler John Cena, the Tampa Bay Times reported Tuesday.

The lawsuit, filed in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court, charged the "repeated additional but unnecessary and ineffective surgeries performed by defendants resulted in significant bone loss and increased spinal instability."

Bollea, 59, was suffering from low-back pain and numbness that had grown worse over the previous decade when he underwent the surgery at the medical center in 2009. By December 2010, the suit claims, he still did not have any relief from the back pain and underwent spinal fusion surgery. He went to work three months later.

The suit claims that, given Bollea's condition, Laser Spine should have known its "minimally invasive" outpatients treatments wouldn't work.

Laser Spine declined to comment on the suit, but said in a statement that it was "proud to have helped thousands of patients achieve a better quality of life by delivering optimal surgical outcomes."