Nick Hogan's New Reality: Life After Jail for Son of Celebrity Wrestler

Oct. 7, 2010— -- At the age of 20, Nick Hogan has already enjoyed the highest highs and survived the lowest lows that life has to offer. Now he's aiming for the middle ground -- just trying to keep his life on track.

Nick is the son of professional wrestling icon Hulk Hogan. He made a name for himself as a race car driver while still in his teens. He appeared in the family's reality TV show, "Hogan Knows Best," which ran from 2005 to 2007.

His character on the show was a teenage prankster, a sort of real-life Dennis the Menace. Today he says the troublemaker fans saw on TV was not the real Nick. "I wasn't that person at all," he says.

In fact, the reality was worse.

Nick Hogan had a problem: a need for speed, and not just on the racetrack. He was a real menace on the roads of Florida, where the family lived, racking up multiple speeding tickets. Several times, police clocked him going over 100 miles an hour.

It was "absolutely reckless," he acknowledges now, in an exclusive interview. "It was being young and honestly just stupid, not mature."

At the time, he seemed to relish his image as an outlaw, boasting personalized license plates that read "COEHSP" -- an acronym for "Capable Of Eluding High Speed Pursuit."

His recklessness caught up with him on August 27, 2007.

Police say Hogan, then 17, was drinking as well as speeding that day, when he lost control of his Toyota Supra sports car and slammed into a palm tree in Clearwater, Florida. Nick denies he was street-racing.

His best friend, John Graziano, was in the passenger's seat, and wasn't wearing a seat belt.

Graziano survived, but suffered severe brain damage. He was an Iraq war veteran, a decorated marine, now destined to live the rest of his life in a semi-conscious state, needing 24-hour nursing care.

Graziano's father lashed out, saying, "What al Qaeda couldn't do to my son, [Nick] did in a matter of minutes."

Nick was stung by the accusation. "I remember hearing that for the first time, and I just remember wanting to stand up and just scream that I had no intention to ever hurt John," he said.

The Hogans later settled a lawsuit with the family, believed to be worth millions.