Why Hulk Hogan documentary misses the point, Netflix should do better
If you were considering spending four hours of your life watching Netflix’s new Hulk Hogan documentary I will save you some time: don’t.
When Netflix announced that a documentary was set to cover Hogan’s life and feature his last interview before he died last year, it promised that it would ‘dive deep into his life and legacy’.
Marketing for the doc, titled Hulk Hogan: Real American, seemed to promise that it would touch on the many controversies that continue to plague Hogan’s legacy nearly a year on from his death.
Despite being four hours long and touching on some of the major parts of Hogan’s life and career the documentary does a pathetic job at papering over the most controversial moments of the wrestler’s life.
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Hogan, whose real name was Terry Bollea, has been caught on two separate occasions saying vile racial slurs on camera, stating that he found it disgusting his daughter was dating a black man, and even telling his son in prison that his hope was that the duo were not ‘reincarnated as black men’.
The Hogan documentary spends more time talking about his support for Trump than it does talking about his racism
Hulk Hogan: Real American addresses his most infamous racist comments from 2015 in the fourth and final episode.
Hogan was caught on camera in a leaked sex tape using racial slurs and was subsequently fired from the WWE in 2015. Despite being such a massive and complicated aspect of his legacy, it is touched on for less than two minutes from start to finish in the doc.
Instead, the doc’s final episode spends an extended period addressing his public support for Donald Trump in the lead-up to the most recent US presidential election.
This includes suggesting that his final ever WWE appearance in Los Angeles where he was booed was due to it being a ‘blue state’ and not acknowledging that many believe this was in large part due to his racist comments.
Hulk Hogan: Real American is an attempt to whitewash Hogan’s reputation and sweep his racism under the rug
The sentiment on Hogan’s racism is best described by wrestling journalist Sean Ross Sapp, who in 2024 posted on X: “Hulk Hogan wasn't just racist. He was so specifically and uniquely racist that after his son almost killed his friend in a wreck, one of Hogan's primary concerns was that he and his family would be reincarnated into a black family due to 'karma'. This was caught on audio.”
Hogan did not just let out an insensitive comment years ago, his racist comments were repeated, vile, and should not be forgotten. Though he publicly apologized for them, and says in the documentary he ‘regrets’ saying them, he reportedly told the WWE locker room on his reinstatement in 2018 to avoid ‘slipping on a banana peel’ because ‘people have cell phones and cameras and just be careful.’
The documentary featured numerous interviews with wrestling alumni who waxed lyrical about his impact on the business but featured none of the black WWE talent who have criticised his reinstatement into the Hall of Fame.
Former WWE star Titus O'Neill said of Hogan's 'apology' to the locker room in 2018: "What I don’t support is the apology that was given in regards to the words and the actions that he exhibited years ago.
"To me, when you have true remorse, it’s pretty simple. You don’t have to be prepped to say certain things, and you definitely don’t want to make excuses. I feel like the inconsistencies from the time that it came out to last week were all across the board. It was uncomfortable for me." Four producers of the documentary work for WWE, including CCO Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, so it is unsurprising that the doc does not then delve deep into a topic which paints one of their former most profitable stars in an incredibly negative light.
It is possible to recognise Hogan changed the industry whilst touching on his horrific comments
The documentary does touch on some of his more controversial moments, that is undeniable. Hogan admits that it was 'a mistake' to publicly deny that he was taking steroids when he was, and made the shocking reveal that after his divorce he came close to suicide.
The wrestler's last interview saw him discuss the horrific effect that wrestling had on his body, stating that he had over ten back surgeries due to the repeated strain of his job. There are also intriguing interviews with subjects as wide-ranging as Cody Rhodes and Werner Herzog discussing how the character of Hulk Hogan and the Man himself Terry Bollea changed wrestling.
No one is arguing, however, that Hulk Hogan didn’t change the wrestling industry forever, and quite possibly the entertainment industry at large. It is entirely possible however to acknowledge this and believe that a documentary that promises to cover his life and controversies should at the very least spend more than 1% of its runtime addressing the person in question being caught on tape saying vile slurs.
In the case of Hulk Hogan: Real American, it spends less than 1% of its runtime addressing this – and that is an abject failure which should be reason enough to give this documentary a miss.
LADbible Group have contacted WWE and Netflix for comment.
Topics: Netflix, WWE, Racism, Donald Trump, TV and Film, TV
Michael Slavin