Hulk Hogan: Real American – Episode Three, “Hollywood Hogan”

Previously: Part One (The Rise), Part Two (Hulkamania)

Hulk Hogan talks with Vince McMahon on the Prime Time set about retirement. Jesse Ventura, Kevin Nash, and Bruce Prichard all laugh about the idea of Hulk retiring. Linda Hogan says Hulk would go crazy. Hulk comes back to battle Ric Flair and the Undertaker. Eric Bischoff says being Hulk Hogan is like being Master of the Universe and Natayla Neidhart calls the top spot a drug. Nick Hogan tells us that even days ago (when this was filmed), Hulk was talking about one more match.

We go backwards to 1990 and Hulk vitamins being introduced. Linda says Hogan was a health buff and took 100 vitamins a day. Jesse jokes about Hulk talking about vitamins by injection. Hulk says the mindset was that steroids were safer than sugar and he started taking them right after high school. Nick remembers his dad being in the gym when he was getting ready for school. Steroids become illegal and Linda says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Home video shows Hogan calling it a “witch hunt.” Jimmy Hart calls it a speedbump and remembers telling Hulk you’ve got to wear a seat belt. Hulk goes on Arsenio (“I got Arsenio his job”). Hulk, to the interviewer, laughs about how he said he had never taken steroids. David Shoemaker, Author of “Why Hulk Hogan Matters” says it was a shame Hulk just went out and lied. He knows why he did it but you’ve got to keep up the image because Hulk is like Superman. “Part of Hulkamania also was being honest and forthright.” Was it though? Bret Hart compares it to Nixon. “When you lie, you’re a liar.” Some children tell an interviewer that Hulkamania will die.

Hulk says he wouldn’t do that again. He moved away from wrestling, realizing he couldn’t be Hulk Hogan. 1992, Bret Hart gets the spotlight. “I was stunned and as blown away at that as anybody. Hulk Hogan was Elvis Presley; I was the Robert DeNiro of wrestling.” Shoemaker says that every Bret match was a great match. Bret thought Hulk would be happy for him. Hulk: “No brother, that ain’t happening.” Here we go.

Hulk goes on WWF TV and comes back. Shoemaker thinks Hogan was unable to change and it wasn’t the right time to come back. Hogan and Brutus Beefcake team up at WrestleMania IX and that was meant to be his only role. Bret remembers trying to shake Hulk’s hand and Hulk not even acknowledging him. Hulk says maybe he was drunk or high but wouldn’t have done that intentionally. Bret knew he was the enemy now. “I had that Hogan stroke back then; me and Vince were bonded at the hip.” Vince makes the call for Hulk to win the belt back. Bret: “Fuck you.” Bret, always the best part of any documentary. Shoemaker felt even as a kid that Hogan came off as a bad friend. “He was a backstabbing, knife-wielding piece of shit,” says Bret.

Bret complains about Hulk putting on the same act for years and years. Triple H says it has passed and he doesn’t want to call him a one-trick pony, BUT. Vince tells Hulk that his run is about over. Hulk goes to Jimmy Hart and tells him. Hulk: “For me, it was the classic Vince McMahon mistake.” In something I never thought would happen, we get footage of the Hogan/Yokozuna King of the Ring match set to Mr. Mister’s “Broken Wings.” Vince McMahon’s voice recalls Hulk going off on him on the phone. Bruce calls it touch to watch and Vince tells Hulk he’ll never work there again. “I’m good at getting fired.” Bruce calls it sad but thinks Hulk saw it as an opportunity to make himself work more.

Hulk mingles with Hollywood. Christopher Lloyd (!) appears holding a copy of “Suburban Commando” on VHS and says Hulk even looked like he was from outer space but wasn’t scary as as person. “He was a friend right away.” Lloyd knows Hogan was never doing King Lear. The press tore his movie appearances apart. Hulk says, “I knew I was just a wrestler scamming by.”

Hulk starts filming Thunder in Paradise and Nick Hogan calls it “Baywatch but cooler.” Hulk loved the time at home, and we see clips of him making the kids sandwiches and doing karaoke with them. His heart wasn’t all the way into movies because he had trouble sitting around for hours a day. He was spoiled from wrestling for fifteen minutes. He knew he had to get out of it and go back to wrestling.

1994. Thunder in Paradise films next to the WCW soundstage at Disney-MGM Studios. He calls WCW “wrasslin’” and a distant #2 from WWF as we get clips of Big Josh and the bears and RoboCop. Bischoff wanted to show advertisers they were legitimate because “WCW was seen as just a notch or two above porn.” He knew Hulk was on the lot, so he asked Hulk to come to work for him. Hulk gets a wild deal from WCW and a Disney parade. Hulk says he was told he could run the company. Shoemaker calls WCW Hogan a more prehistoric version of Hulk than what we already had and Cody makes fun of the fake audience at the parade. Keith Elliot Greenberg thinks the red and yellow Hulk didn’t have the impact it would have had a few years ago especially as Vince in the steroid trial continued. Hulk goes to trial. He wanted to shut it down, told the judge Vince never sold him steroids but yes he took him. It sunk the case and Vince is not guilty. The media hits Vince on the courtroom steps and Vince in his neckbrace tells them that Hulk didn’t tell the whole truth.

We head to Bash at the Beach and Hulk’s debut match against Ric Flair. Hulk feels he got his respect back after the steroid trial. Cody: “I don’t mean to be mean, but I remember watching that match and thinking this was an older Hulk Hogan. This was not the same Hulk Hogan that slammed Andre the Giant.” Shoemaker felt like Hulk was tired. The booing started after a few months. Hulk tells us he wasn’t happy and didn’t know who he was any more. Bischoff calls it the end of an era where you had pure good guys.

Scott Hall arrives on Nitro. Kevin Nash thought wrestling was “fake as shit” as a kid. He saw Hulk and knew if Hulk could make money, so could he. Hulk saw the edgy Hall and Nash stuff and knew the fans were ready for “some gangster stuff. I think I get it now.” Cody remembers the energy in the building at Bash at the Beach and Bischoff calls it the best high he’s ever felt. Nash says he didn’t know until Hulk walked through the curtain. Hulk leg drops Savage and the New World Order is created. Kevin remembers the moment of silence and it turning into a riot situation. Cody felt it as innocence lost. Hogan saw Gene Okerlund’s nose start bleeding from trash and kicked into the fans. “It was so much heat it was incredible. I knew I could rule the business.”

Linda remembers Hulk taking her black leggings for the look. Booker T saw it as Hogan fitting into the new world and Cody calls it one of the greatest changes in the history of the industry. Nick Hogan calls him a Batman villain and calls it his favorite era of the career. Hulk felt like Hulkamania in 1984 again as WCW beat WWF for 83 weeks on Monday nights. “I ended up showing Vince McMahon he was wrong.”

1997. Linda doesn’t remember who Hulk was wrestling because she was having to handle the kids. When he was home, he became cold and distant. She was lonely and by herself. Booker thinks Hogan was going through a midlife crisis. We go to 1999 and Hulk gets his knee scoped. He asks the doctors if he can drink after the surgery. Hulk decides he wants to be the President and tells the interviewer he believed he could win it. He pushed hard for three months and then got scared, thinking he might win. Booker laughs at it, feeling like nobody was in control. Nash knew his job was to get as close to creative control as possible and we go to the ol’ favorite, the Fingerpoke of Doom. Shoemaker thinks it was WCW playing with the fans and not taking them seriously.

Vince Russo joins WCW. Hulk says Russo wanted to fire anyone over 40 and started doing stuff like Viagra on a Pole. Hogan: “Russo was the poison, the final nail in the coffin.” WCW is put on the market and Vince buys it. Hulk shakes his head as we see footage of him on vacation with his family. Linda could sense something was off. She knew he was looking for something else but she was married to the Hulk character more than Terry. Hulk says Hollywood Hogan was the man, still is to this day, and when he left WCW, he thought he was done. Then the phone rings and it is Vince McMahon saying, “I need you to come home.”

Vince wanted Hulk to wrestle The Rock at WrestleMania. Hulk saw Rock peaking as a wrestler and thought it would be very interesting. The voice of Dwayne Johnson tells us he thought he accomplished everything to do in wrestling but then a run with Hulk was big. Hulk says he had been hurt two weeks before WrestleMania X8 but the doctors shot him up with meds. Cody calls it the greatest match of all time. The fans cheered Hulk instead of Rock to the surprise of all. Hogan felt like he won the match because it put him back on the map. Vince tells Hulk to put the red and yellow back on and Hogan gets those big nostalgia pops. Hulk knew he could hang out as long as he wanted in WWE.

Greenberg says Hogan was a mark for his own character. Linda knows Terry got lost in the character. And we run through quick clips of the reality show, Hogan at the RNC, and the fans chanting “fuck you Hogan” at the Netflix Raw debut as Jimmy Hart says, “and there’s your reality check.”

And THAT’s the hype for the final episode as it all goes wild. Again, an interesting episode that didn’t break much new ground. We knew pretty much all of this, and we’ve told the rise and fall of WCW story many times. The next episode though? That one is going to be fun to review.