Who are the top 5 most famous pro wrestlers living in Florida?

As news spread of Jerry "The King" Lawler's hospitalization from a stroke Monday, it may have come to a surprise to some that a WWE Hall of Fame pro wrestler and announcer from Memphis keeps a condo in the Fort Myers area. If so, you may not be a wrestling fan.

Why do so many wrestlers live in Florida?

The Sunshine State has long been a haven for professional wrestlers, from when Championship Wrestling from Florida was based out of Tampa (where many pro wrestlers, active and retired, still live) to when WWE, formerly the WWF, made the sport global and established a base in Orlando with the WWE NXT program to develop WWE's next superstars.

Besides, there are beachfront mansions available up and down the coast, the weather is (usually) nice, there's no state income tax, and we have 24 international airports. It's probably safe to say that many, if not most professional wrestlers these days have lived in Florida at one time or another.

Here's a look at some of our most famous wrestling residents.

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1. Hulk Hogan

Hulk Hogan, one of the greatest — certainly one of the most attention-getting — professional wrestlers of all time has lived in Florida since his days as a reality star on "Hogan Knows Best." He's lived in Tampa and Miami, got married and then divorced and then married again here, and now resides in Clearwater, where he even opened a Hulkamania shop (with another in Orlando).

2. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

The Rock has a home here, but that's not surprising. He has a home everywhere. WWF/WWE megastar and A-list Hollywood darling, Dwayne Johnson has properties all over the world and more than 10 estates in Florida, including a luxury home in Miami.

Besides, he has roots here. Before he was a wrestler, The Rock was a defensive lineman for the University of Miami Hurricanes back in the early 1990s, winning a national title in 1991. Johnson has said in interviews that Florida is one of his favorite places to live.

3. Shawn Michaels

Four-time world champion and two-time WWE Hall of Fame inductee (on top of all his other accolades), the Heartbreak Kid retired to train young wrestlers and work on his ranch in Texas when, he says, his buddy Paul “Triple H” Levesque talked him into coming down south to coach up and coming superstars for the WWE's NXT program. When Triple-H suffered a cardiac event, Michaels stepped behind the scenes to help out and is NXT's senior vice president of talent development creative. Florida is now his home, or at least one of them.

"You come back to this warm weather, you kind of look at it like, oh okay, that’s why," he said during an appearance on Jim Ross' "The Ross Report" podcast. "You’re wearing shorts every day so you can’t beat it. I wasn’t sure how I was going to transition into it, but I have no problem trading in my jeans and snake boots for a pair of shorts and flip flops, it was actually okay."

4. Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho has made a lot of moves in his career. He wrestled in Canada. He wrestled in Mexico as "Corazón de León." He wrestled in Japan. He tore up the charts in the WWF/WWE to become international champion nine times and became the first Undisputed WWF Champion. He became the lead singer for the heavy metal band Fozzy, which became his "full time gig" in 2010, although he still works with All Elite Wrestling. He appeared on "Dancing with the Stars." He hosts a podcast. And he recently sold his Odessa, Florida, home (for over $1 million) and moved to a larger place in Tampa.

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5. John Cena

Like many wrestlers, after John Cena started to hit it big, he moved to Florida. The wrestling superstar, former bodybuilder, former rapper, record-holding Make-A-Wish granter and now popular actor ("Peacemaker," anyone?) lives in the private community of Nature's Reserve in Land O'Lakes near Tampa with a fleet of cars. Cena also owns his childhood home in West Newbury, Massachusetts, and another in San Diego.

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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida's pro wrestler population: Here are the 5 most famous residents