Hulk Hogan: Real American – Episode One, “The Rise”

Whatcha gonna do when Netflix releases a four-part Hulk Hogan documentary, brother? Well, I seem to have accepted the role of reviewer of Netflix documentaries about people in wrestling history with questionable life decisions, so I’m here to take a look at them. Over the next few days, we’ll cover each episode.

As this is being heavily promoted by WWE (if you watched WrestleMania on Netflix, you’d say HEAVILY promoted), I’m not expecting it to be full truth. “Full truth” and “Hulk Hogan” are often not used together though.

We start at the funeral of Hulk Hogan, with names like Flair, Beefcake, Rodman, and others and a zoom-in on his closed casket. Lots of little soundbites during the intro scene. “In early 2025, a documentary crew was given unprecedented access to Hulk Hogan. It would be his last time on camera.”

Hulk Hogan works out in his home gym, bandana on as always. He jokes about his home gym working down to the old people equipment and how his son, Nick Hogan, has to take the lids off water bottles for him. He says getting into the gym is the only peace in his life. He thinks you should be remembered for all the good things you’ve done, but a lot of that has been taken away in the last twenty years.

“It’s a Long Way to the Top” by AC/DC plays over a montage of Hogan’s rise through popularity and clips at home. This fades right back in Hogan limping out of his gym and walking into video shoot with a cane. “Not everyone’s going to love you. Some people hate me, but I’m definitely the greatest wrestler of all time.”

He doesn’t consider himself a hero, but he’s aware of what the Hulk Hogan presence means to the fans. It was over the top – “a fake character, I hope people can understand that someday” – and it was like him playing Dracula. Linda Hogan, Hulk’s First Wife joins us with some old home videos. He hated growing up broke in south Florida. His brother Allan was his dad’s favorite. Terry was soft-spoken and shy. He’d watch Florida Championship Wrestling and went in person, loving the big characters and energy. Dusty Rhodes was the guy that really hooked him. That’s what he wanted to do. He was terrified of wrestlers though and he believed it was real and he couldn’t do it.

He realized he could make money playing music and Linda tells us he could’ve been in Guns ‘n Roses. His dad hated that he quit school and was running around doing rock, kicking him out of the house. Wrestlers would come in the bar and see him. Brian Blair remembers how big he was and how he would stand out playing guitar. “I didn’t realize they were grooming me.” They started taking him to matches. A bad guy was beating up Steve Keirn and Hulk noticed that Steve was mouthing instructions to the opponent. “I knew I didn’t have to be a tough guy to get in the business.” Blair tells us it isn’t real, but you get your butt kicked in professional wrestling.

Tampa, Florida. Blair visits the site of The Dungeon (not the Hart Family Dungeon). Blair tells us that the new guys have no idea what they went through back in the day. Hulk’s trainer broke Hulk’s leg in training. He’d try to go home and wasn’t welcome when his dad was there. “My leg getting broke was miniscule compared to what he put me through.” Blair tells us Hulk’s first match was against him as the Super Destroyer in a mask. Keith Elliot Greenberg is our next guest and Hulk’s size made him take notice. Hulk had the potential to be a notable, so they put him under a mask and let him make his mistakes.

We discuss the various territories of wrestling in North America, something that has been beaten to death in documentaries by now. Hulk went to Memphis, unmasked and changed his name to Terry Boulder. We go to Jimmy Hart, sitting on a metal chair outside of a house waiting for the documentary team. Hart says there would be no Jimmy Hart without Jerry Lawler and Hulk Hogan. Lawler told Hart Hulk would never make a dime in the business. Jerry “The King” Lawler joins us to tell us Hulk wasn’t very good. Lawler taught him to take a punch but didn’t need to take a bump, just overcome it with his strength.

Here’s Bret Hart! “He was super green and the match was always about thirty seconds long. I knew more about wrestling then than he knew in his entire life. All it was was a bearhug, it was all he could do.” It was all Hulk needed though. Promoters would say Hogan was bigger than The Hulk, and Hulkster tells us that is where Terry “The Hulk” Boulder came from. He’d be put in the main event everywhere he went even though he didn’t really have a personality because he was intriguing. Promoters told him he needed to be in New York.

Vince McMahon Sr. calls and wants Hulk to go to New York. He changed his name to “The Incredible” Hulk Hogan. Hulk makes his MSG debut in 1979 against Ted DiBiase. McMahon Sr. told DiBiase they have high hopes for Hogan, and he really wanted him to get him over. The fans booed Hulk out of the building. Hulk started running his mouth in promos and knew he would be a good bad guy. They brought him a note saying “please call Sylvester Stallone” and we go to clip of Sly talking to Johnny Carson about Hulk. Hulk told Vince Sr. he was going to do a movie and Vince told him he’s fired if he does. Hulk leaves and Sr. says he’ll never work there again. Hulk portrays Thunderlips and says it made him a super star.

Hogan goes on the Tonight Show, and they go to the Red Onion. Linda had just seen the movie last night and now here’s Hulk in her bar. Hulk says Linda walked up and it was like everything stopped. They dance and go back to his rickety old apartment. He comes out of the bathroom completely naked. Linda: “How many people can say they got fucked by a giant?” Thanks for that. She got addicted to him quickly.

Hulk explains the two big places at the time was New York and Minnesota. He sent promo pictures to Verne Gagne and joins AWA, giving us our first Mean Gene sighting. Jesse Ventura was there and they wanted him to come in and beat him. Jesse Ventura joins us and says that the fans turned Hulk. Hulk talks up Dusty in promos and how Dusty inspired him. Hulk made himself bigger as a personality and quickly took off. Bret says Hogan was a 10 on the great promo scale. He had everything but a gimmick. Patriotism meant everything back then. He wasn’t into politics at the time, but he grabbed a flag and, according to Linda, “it was so pro-America that he couldn’t even make a mistake.”

Hogan cuts promos about eating vitamins, saying prayers, and never telling a lie. Yeah, never. Not once. We go through a montage of Hulk becoming increasingly popular and being on magazine covers. A kid gives Hulk a card to tell him to call Vince Jr. Vince had the idea to make Hulk the biggest star wrestling ever had as we head into a quick montage of clips of Hulk being big in WWF to preview the next episode. Hulk says his ego was way bigger than it should’ve been. “I didn’t realize the responsibility that came along with it.”

Nothing groundbreaking or controversial in this one. This is your Hulk startup 101 episode. If you’re here for the dirt and the big lies, you’re not getting it with this episode. It was okay, it went by quickly, but I didn’t learn anything that I hadn’t already heard dozens of times. Hopefully it’ll get more interesting.

Next time, episode two: “Hulkamania.”