Hulk Hogan: Real American [2026]

April 29, 2026

4-part Documentary (55 minutes per episode, around 4 hours altogether)

No matter what you think about not just Hulk Hogan but also wrestling, I think you’ll find this documentary interesting. I know I did. I decided to watch it after seeing a short clip in which he details his daily fentanyl intake. Yup, you read that right, Hulkster was on that fetty. And the doses he was taking were absolutely ridiculous. So, strap in because we’ve got another binger on our hands. Hulk Hogan: Real American is a Netflix documentary offering a comprehensive overview of his life with unprecedented access to a lot of stuff. We will hear from almost everybody in his life and see a lot of never-before-seen footage. The home movies, shot by his first wife, offer a look into his personal life, away from the stage. And away from the big persona.

This is also his last and biggest interview, filmed just a couple of months before his death in 2025. He was 71 years old and died after complications following his neck surgery. The four episodes chronologically follow his life, from an early age, through stardom, to finally all the scandals, health, and personal issues. There’s a lot of archival footage, shows, outtakes, and all that good stuff. So, if you’re a fan of wrestling, you will get everything you would want from a docu like this. Although I think you would already be familiar with it. If you’re not a fan, you can examine the whole thing as a societal and cultural phenomenon. To sell you this point further, I must reveal that even Werner Herzog makes an appearance here. Jesse Ventura and Brett Hart also offer insightful comments.

I remember being a kid watching wrestling on TV, thinking it was real. Man, that Yokozuna character was fucking mighty. I can’t pinpoint how old I was, but it must’ve been somewhere between 9 and 12. I was fascinated by it all but very briefly. Mostly because I quickly learned that it wasn’t real at all. After that, the whole thing lost its appeal to me, and I stopped watching it. I do have to admit that when I started smoking weed, some ten years later, I did briefly revisit it. It was just fun to get high and watch this over-the-top show with bizarre commentary and characters. Fast-forward to 2025, and I’m sitting there, totally mesmerized by another phenomenal documentary, Mr. McMahon.

Created by the same crew that brought you Tiger King, it’s eye-opening, and it lays the whole wrestling thing bare. From start to finish. With that being said, I don’t know how wrestling can survive the next ten years. Who knows, maybe it will blossom as people desperately need some sort of narrative to take their mind off the current troubles. The old Roman saying from more than 2000 years ago, Panem et Circenses or Bread and Games, still remains true. I will return to this topic at the end because we need to go over some things first. What’s the first thing you think about when you hear the name, Hulk Hogan? For me, it’s the scandals, the sex tape, and politics. They’re followed by his shitty movies that I guess belong to the So Bad It’s Good subgenre.

I still remember and use one of the lines from Suburban Commando to describe a painfully contrived and predictable situation in other movies. That line is “Even as we speak, my friends are destroying your laboratory!” The next one is also hilarious, but I’ll leave it for you to discover. If that is, you decide to watch this early nineties classic. His wrestling career is sort of a given. We all know he’s one of the biggest, if not The Biggest, names in the “sport”. I guess I didn’t realize how big it was until I watched the above-mentioned documentary about Vince McMahon. Just to be perfectly clear, I’m not shitting on wrestling here by calling it a “sport”. I’m just making a distinction between two different things. I would compare wrestling (WWE, WWF…) to ballet as it requires the same sacrifices.

Although it’s far more taxing, not just on the body but also on the soul. However, judging by all these interviews, for the performers, it’s the best thing in the world. And the same goes for their fans. Hulk Hogan: Real American does go into some of the controversial stuff, but only briefly. It’s not like we’re going to be seeing clips from the infamous tape or anything like that. Or his union-breaking tactics, Marvel lawsuit, racism, or any of that. This is countered by an honest as it can be interview with the big man himself. An interview that spans all four episodes as he reflects on his turbulent past. I think that’s the biggest selling point of Hulk Hogan: Real American. We get the opportunity to hear from a 70-year-old Terry Bollea, a man who lived an extraordinary life.

Humbled by numerous physical injuries and emotional turmoil, he’s able to relatively impartially look at certain events and decisions. With the old Hulkster still poking his head every now and then. I also have to note that the man looks incredibly fit for a 70-year-old with a broken back. Just how broken his back is, you might wonder. Well, I’ll put it at the Ronnie Coleman levels. The title of the documentary, Hulk Hogan: Real American, is also ingenious. Hulk Hogan, AKA Terry Bollea, has that real American life rags-to-riches story. Well, I guess it’s technically a rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-some-riches-to-yeah life story, but you get my point. We will also go back in time to a totally different world. How can a bald blonde man with long hair and imposing physical presence capture this much attention? Could he do it now, in the year of our lord Satan 2026?

Well, I guess the answer is currently sitting in the White House. And yeah, Hulk Hogan was seriously considering running for president. Finally, I just want to briefly touch upon what I mentioned earlier about wrestling being akin to ballet. If you want to take this comparison further, you might even call it theater for the general population. I don’t want to use the word uneducated, gullible, or something like that because it doesn’t really fit. However, this connection between the fans and the show enables the observer, outside of the whole thing, to sort of see the zeitgeist. Before I go, I just want to make another comparison, this time between Jesse Ventura and Terry Bollea. The Body has naturally broad shoulders and a physique, which is commonly referred to as the Mesomorph build, while Hulk Hogan has “normal” shoulders or the Ectomorph build.