Wrestling legend Hulk Hogan has dropped the ultimate body slam on Gawker — forcing the New York gossip site into bankruptcy.

The Chapter 11 filing came Friday, just minutes after a Florida judge said Hogan could start slapping liens on Gawker’s property as part of his effort to collect his $140 million jury award against the company.

In March, Hogan won an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against Gawker after it posted video online of him having sex with his then-friend’s wife.

Gawker “was forced to file a petition for relief under the Bankruptcy Code on an emergency basis, because, this morning, the debtor was denied a complete, temporary stay in Florida state court to pursue” an appeal of the Hogan verdict, a Gawker rep said in the Manhattan federal court filing.

On Friday afternoon, Manhattan federal Judge Sean Lane temporarily barred Hogan from going after Gawker’s assets pending a June 15 hearing.

Gawker founder Nick Denton has said he plans to auction off the snarky site he founded 14 years ago in his Manhattan apartment.

Ziff Davis, which owns PC Mag and other media outlets, has already put in a bid of between $90 million and $100 million to buy the online publication.

Proceeds from any sale of Gawker would be put into escrow pending the site’s appeal of the Hogan verdict, a source said. If Gawker wins the appeal, it will recoup the sale money. Otherwise, the funds will be handed over to Hogan.

Gawker plans to keep publishing with the help of two loans — one $15 million advance from the venture capital firm US VC Partners and another $7.6 million credit from Silicon Valley Bank, according to the bankruptcy filing.

Initial court filings show Gawker has at least 200 creditors, $50 million to $100 million in assets and $100 million to $500 million in liabilities.

The legal papers also detail Gawker’s downfall.

“Historically, the company’s financial health was good; it survived the 2008-2009 recession and was profitable from 2010 until 2015,” the filing says.

“However, despite its long-running success and commendable growth trajectory, Gawker Media suffered this year from exorbitant legal expenses and the recent judgment totaling more than $130 million.”

Gawker’s largest creditor is the WWE champ, followed by a $115,000 debt due to the law firm Morrison Cohen LLP and $82,000 owed to the risk-strategy group DeWitt Stern.

Denton has not yet filed for personal bankruptcy, but he’s asking a judge to shield him from the $10 million punitive damage award he owes Hogan so he can remain afloat while he sells his company.

“Mr. Denton is indispensable to the formulation, negotiation and implementation of this plan,” he says in court papers.

Without that protection, Denton fears Hogan could take over Gawker by seizing his shares in the company, the digital publisher says in court papers.

Hogan’s attorney says his client, whose real name is Terry Bollea, plans to keep pummeling Gawker.

“We have every intention to continue to pursue our judgment against Gawker and to hold them accountable for violating Mr. Bollea’s privacy whether it be in the bankruptcy court or any other court,” said attorney David Houston.

Denton, meanwhile, swung back on Twitter — but not at Hogan. He lashed out at PayPal founder Peter Thiel, who recently admitted he had secretly funded the former wrestler’s lawsuit against Gawker.

“Even with his billions, Thiel will not silence our writers. Our sites will thrive — under new ownership — and we’ll win in court,” Denton tweeted Friday afternoon.

Gawker had tried to out Thiel as gay in 2007 before he revealed it himself.

Denton’s lawyers also blamed Gawker’s troubles on the tech entrepreneur.

“The driving force behind the Bollea litigation is Peter Thiel, a billionaire investor, who holds a personal vendetta against the company and has publicly admitted that he funded the Bollea litigation, and other lawsuits against Gawker, to (as the New York Times reports) ‘try to put the media company out of business,’ ” the site’s attorneys say in the bankruptcy filing.

Denton bragged that the news of the bankruptcy filing had boosted Gawker’s traffic on Friday by 13 percent.

The publisher was also bullish in a statement about the bankruptcy.

“The sale and filing are intended to preserve the value of Gawker Media Group’s pioneering digital news business, safeguard the jobs of journalists and other staff, and allow GMG to fund the appeal against the $130 million judgment in the Hulk Hogan case against the company in a Florida state court,” the statement said.

“The company is confident it will ultimately prevail in the Hogan lawsuit, but was not able today to obtain from the trial court even a brief stay without onerous conditions to seek relief from the appeals court.”