by Alan Wojcik
Review of Hulk Hogan Real American
SPOILER ALERT: There are parts of this documentary I will not spoil for you. Watch the whole thing to the end and you will understand why I didn’t list something medical in here.
Whether you liked or disliked him, Hulk Hogan aka Terry Bollea was the biggest star in the world of professional wrestling for decades. Was he a perfect person away from the camera, that’s not for this reviewer to determine, I will leave that to the individuals who read this. We are here to talk about the Netflix/WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) creation HULK HOGAN: REAL AMERICAN which has a release date of April 22.
The documentary is broken down into four chapters; Chapter 1: The Rise, Chapter 2: Hulkamania, Chapter 3: Hollywood Hogan and Chapter 4: Hulk vs Terry. As you can assume the documentary covers Hogan’s life from his Port of Tampa upbringing to a brief music career to the legendary wrestling career you know about, including the federal government steroid trial that nearly took the WWE (then WWF) down in 1993-94 Also covered is Hogan’s life after leaving the ring, which included a failed movie career, the VH1 series “Hogan’s Knows Best”, the bitter divorce from Linda plus the infamous 2012 Gawker trial after a tape of Hogan sleeping with the spouse of a Tampa radio host was leaked online, plus the controversial language that was on that tape. Chapter 4 in particular shows his spiritual and physical recovery from the divorce/trials and several surgeries to the creation of Real American Beer plus wrestling fans turning on him for supporting a certain politician to be named in the next paragraph.
First let’s get to the big shockers of who was interviewed for the documentary, namely Hogan’s first wife Linda (who provided hours of home movie footage), former rival on and off camera Jesse “the Body” Ventura and the current President of the United States Donald Trump. Former WWE boss Vince McMahon is part of the piece but only in audio form and briefly on video towards the end of chapter 4. The biggest names not interviewed would definitely be Hulk’s daughter Brooke (audio only), second wife Jennifer McDaniel and former best friend Brutus Beefcake. The biggest life event not covered was the car accident Hulk’s son Nick was part of where someone was paralyzed for life; which I know about from living in the Tampa/St Petersburg area where Hogan lived.
Also interviewed for the documentary were: son Nick “Hogan” Bollea, 3rd wife Sky Daily Bollea, filmmaker Werner Herzog, historian Keith Elliot Greenberg, author David Shoemaker, wrestlers Cody Rhodes, Bully Ray, Kevin Nash, Jerry “the King” Lawler, Paul “Triple H’ Levesque, Jake Roberts, Nattie Neidhart, Brian Blair, Ted DiBiase, Bret Hart, manager Jimmy Hart, WCW executive Eric Bischoff, broadcaster Bob Costas and Jeremy Borash, actor Christopher Lloyd and WWE executive Bruce Prichard,
This is wonderful tribute to the man who worked with Vince McMahon to take professional wrestling to heights never dreamed of. Hogan holds nearly nothing back about his life including struggling with who he was in and out of the ring. Yes he had personal issues but when you see archived footage of him with Make A Wish recipients it melts your heart. I admit I got tears towards the end of chapter 4. It is truly a shame like Michael Jackson, Hulk Hogan will be remembered more for the bad then the good his life created. Follow me on Twitter/X through @MyNameIsWojcik