411’s Hulk Hogan: Real American Report – Episode One: ‘The Rise’

-Written: 4.22.26
-Source: Netflix
-Run Time: 45:16

-Netflix released all four parts of their documentary on Hulk Hogan this morning. As always, I am down for any wrestling documentary but this a big one. I set my alarm to get up early so I could get episode one done before heading off to work. I’ll get episode two later and then three and four tomorrow. I may be able to do three after Evolve tonight, but we will see.

-If you have ever read anything from me, you will know I am a wrestling fan because of Hulk Hogan. He is my favorite wrestler of all time and gets my vote for Greatest Wrestler of All Time. His passing was rough and I totally understand those that did not feel the way I did. Instead of going over all this again, I wrote a piece after Hogan’s passing last year and it sums up my thoughts on him and what he meant to me and pro-wrestling. There was a TMZ special about Hogan that aired as well. Vice TV also had a Hogan 9 Lives special to get everything out there.

-We start with Hogan’s casket (oh man) being brought into the church and see wrestlers hugging and shaking hands (Flair, Jimmy Hart, Brutus Beefcake, Big Show, Kevin Nash). Dennis Rodman is shown wearing an nWo shirt and crying his eyes out. Linda Hogan is there crying as well.

-That leads into the opening show credits as we hear news coverage of his death. Bryan Storkel is the director of the series.

“In early 2025, a documentary crew was given unprecedented access to Hulk Hogan. It would be the last time he was on camera.”

-Hulk Hogan is working out in his gym, pumping iron. “That’s the hardest part, standing up.” Hogan says when he was the World Champion he had a crazy gym, but he has scaled down to the Geritol edition. He says he feels okay, but notes he has to have Nick take the tops off of water bottles because he can’t turn them anymore and chuckles that it is embarrassing. It keeps him humble and grateful. In his mind he is still 30 years old and wonder who that is when he looks in the mirror. The ring was his safe place and he doesn’t have that anymore. He says as a wrestler you should be remembered for all the wars, but a lot of that has been taken away. News footage going over Hogan being fired by the WWE and being removed for their Hall of Fame. Hogan confirms to the producer there are some things he would like to be remembered for more than others.

-Video montage set to AC/DC (It’s A Long Way to The Top) of Hogan in the ring, on talk shows, and with his kids. Hogan was seen as the ultimate All American and we cut back to the older Hogan struggling to get around with a cane in his home. We see him get mic’d up for an interview. “Not everyone is going to love you. Some hate me, but I am definitely the greatest wrestler of all time. I’m Hulk Hogan.” Yes, I agree with him being the greatest pro-wrestler of all time. Everyone has a different definition of what that means and I would never shout down anyone else’s answer.

-Hogan says he doesn’t consider himself a hero, but he is aware what the Hulk Hogan presence means to the fans. The Hogan character is over the top and is a fake character and he hopes people can understand that. He says that he and Hulk are two different people (Gawker sure knows) and when he comes home the bandana comes off and his wife calls him Terry.

-Linda Hogan up next and says she turned Hogan onto tanning. She is credited as Hogan’s first wife. We get photos of the two of them in the early days and some home footage from Linda. We get a video of Hogan with his mom.

-Hogan grew up in South Tampa, Florida. They grew up broke and he hated it. He saw how his dad slaved (his word) in the sun as a construction worker. His dad was a hard, old school Italian and his parents were never the ones to say “I love you.” Allen was the older brother and was a tough guy that his father loved best. That put a chip on Hulk’s shoulder. He says he hated confrontation and was a shy kid/teen. He didn’t start getting confidence until he first saw Florida Championship Wrestling on TV. He had never seen anything like it and was hooked by “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes. We get Dusty footage from Florida. Hogan says his energy would drag you up from any hole. “I was hooked. I wanted to be a wrestler.” The problem he was scared to death of the guys. He believed wrestling was completely real and knew he wasn’t tough enough to do it.

-He was a fat kid and was living off Burger King and Snickers. He played Little League Baseball and noted earlier he had to wear a bra and never took his shit off. He started taking up bowling and then his life changed when he got into music. Linda puts over how great of a bass player he was and says he was like Guns N Roses (man, the Metallica reference was right there for her). He learned he like being in front of the crowd and on stage. His dad was upset he quit school and led to him being kicked out of the house.

-The band had a following in North Tampa and wrestlers would come to the bars. Hogan was blown away that wrestlers were watching him on stage. Brian Blair is up and he says he first saw Terry on stage playing bass. He stood out because he was so huge and was in platform shoes with blonde hair. Hogan was shocked the wrestlers weren’t mean to him. They started taking him to matches. Hogan says he saw a match in Fort Homer Hesterly Armory. Steve Keirn was in the match and he saw the bad guy say “hit me” to Keirn and that blew Hogan away. He quickly learned he didn’t have to be a tough guy to get into the business. Blair says they don’t want to tell you it’s not real. They want you to believe it is, but people don’t realize what your body goes through. “You get your butt kicked in pro-wrestling.”

-The Dungeon: Blair takes us to the building where they learned to wrestle. He says the newer guys have no clue what they had to do. Hogan says he was working out twice a day and tells the story where Matsuda broke his leg to run him off from training.

-Hogan’s mom would let him sleep at home, but would have him leave before his dad got back from work. Hogan knew he had to go back and returned. We see early footage of Hogan training in a ring. His first match was against Blair. Hogan was The Super Destroyer with a mask. Keith Elliot Greenberg says he has been cover “The Sport of Kings” for more than 40 years. He says the masked gimmick was deliberate as they were hiding Hogan’s face so he could learn and get beat before being turned into a real character.

-Hogan talks about the territory days and we see the US Map of the various territories. I really need to get a version of that map for my game room. Hogan left Florida for Memphis and took off the mask. He went by Terry Boulder and we get more great photos and videos of those early days. This is great stuff! Current day Hogan cuts a promo as Terry Boulder and laughs about it as “Hulk Hogan did not exist yet.”

-Jimmy Hart is next and we see video of his run with Hogan. He says to the fans he was Hogan’s wrestling manager, but not real manager. Hart says there would be no Jimmy Hart without Jerry Lawler and Hulk Hogan. He went to high school with Lawler and says there was nobody bigger in Memphis. Lawler told Hart to look at Terry Boulder in the ring. Lawler told Jimmy that guy would never make a dime in this business.

-Jerry Lawler is here and it’s great to see him doing well. He jokes that Hogan was not very good, but he was big and had a look. Hogan says he was making 800 a week and needed to make at least $1000 to break even with all the travel, food, gas, and hotels. Lawler told Hogan he needs to learn to take a punch, but doesn’t need to bump.

-Bret Hart is next and yeah, we will see how this goes. He says Hogan was very green and they worked matches in Atlanta. “The match was always about 30 seconds long.” Oh Bret: He says he knew more about wrestling then, than Hogan ever knew in his life. He says all Hogan knew how to do was a bear-hug and that’s all he needed to do because it was believable enough. Keith says Hogan didn’t look like a human being and someone who did step out of a comic. The promoters joked he was bigger than The Hulk and that led to Terry “The Hulk” Boulder. We see video of him beating Sonny King.

-We get the famous video of Hulk’s first promo where the camera pans up from his feet. He says the video was filmed in Jerry Jarret’s kitchen. I believe Cornette covered this video in detail during his podcast about Hogan’s passing. Lawler says that video made Hogan into a superhero. Hogan laughs and says it was terrible. Not a lot was expected as Hogan as a character, but he was intriguing. He was basically big and mean and that worked for him to be put in Main Events. We get Georgia Championship Wrestling footage and Hogan cutting a promo with Solie. Sweet! Hogan was told by people that with his size and look he needs to be in New York.

-Hogan says MSG is the epitome of wrestling. Vince McMahon Sr called and wanted to bring him up to New York. He talks about Vince Sr clicking quarters in his hands. We hear that a lot from people. He was given the name Hulk Hogan and we hear Vince Jr telling the story of his dad giving Hogan the name. No mention of it being an Irish gimmick or Hogan saying he was asked to dye his hair red. We don’t see Jr, so I am not sure if it was old audio.

-Ted Dibiase is next as he had Hogan’s first match in Madison Square Garden. Vince Sr. told Ted they had high hopes for Hogan and wanted him to put him over as best as he can. Ted says his job was to make Hogan look really good. We see footage from the match and you can see Ted working to make the crowd believe Hogan is the strongest man in the world. Hogan gets the win with the bear-hug and interesting to see him drop the leg, but it only be a transition move. It’s like when you would watch Shawn hit a superkick, but it didn’t mean much as his finisher was the teardrop suplex.

-We get a montage of Hogan cutting promos as a heel. You can see why promoters were drooling over him and just hoping they could turn him into something. Hogan says he got a call from Sylvester Stallone for Rocky III. We see footage of Stallone on Johnny Carson and he says he had insomnia and watched wrestling where he saw Hogan beating up four guys. Hogan told Vince Sr he was going to do the Rocky movie, but Sr said no, as he had to go to Charlotte. He told Hogan would never work there again if he went to Hollywood. Hogan went to Hollywood.

-We see Rocky III footage and Hogan was chewing up scenery like crazy. Keith says it was a slap in the face to everyone who made fun of him being a wrestling fan as know they knew what they were missing. It was right there on the big screen in a Rocky movie. Carson tells Stallone: “We need to get that guy on the show.” We see Hogan’s appearance on the show and Carson is in awe of Hogan’s muscles and jokes he wishes he had anything that large. Hogan: “How about your bank account.” That’s a great line!

-Linda talks about first meeting Hogan in The Valley at a bar called The Red Onion. She was working and saw all the girls around Hogan. It was Thunderlips in the flesh. She saw him flex and thought it was intriguing to be around someone like that. Hogan saw her and thought she was gorgeous. The second she hit the dance floor, Hogan was right there to dance with her. She knew him from Rocky III and called him Mr. T. Funny if true! She didn’t understand Hulk Hogan and thought he said “Hunk Hogan.” She thought he was an actor and had no clue what a wrestler was. He invited her back to the apartment he was staying and brought her out a beer. He told her he would be back and came out completely naked. “He was huge.” Linda: “How many people can say they were fucked by a giant.” Classy! She calls him a force of energy and she got addicted quickly.

-Hogan wanted to work in Minnesota and sent photos from Rocky III to Verne Gagne. He was asked how soon he could come out and he started out as a heel. He worked a lot with Jesse Ventura. Oh man, they have Jesse for this documentary. PREDATOR FOOTAGE: “I AIN’T GOT TIME TO BLEED.” Ventura says Hogan was getting bigger from the Rocky movie and he was brought in as a villain, but that didn’t last as the fans were turning Hogan. We see footage of Hogan vs. Jesse and you can hear the crowd cheering like crazy for Hogan. Hulk talks about listening to the crowd and how they will tell you what to do and when to do it. “I became the good guy.” He cuts a promo saying he was once a sinner and now a saint and credits Dusty Rhodes. Using Dusty as a way to make sure the people know you are a good guy is rather smart.

-We see early Hogan promos as Hulk Hogan. Bret gives Hogan a 10 on his promos as he says he was great. He would talk for 59 seconds and that was a take. Hogan says he doesn’t need to over think things as he can fiddle and dance or you can’t. He had the entrance down and had it rocking in Minnesota but didn’t have the important thing: a gimmick. He says a great gimmick needs to transcend the wrestler and patriotism meant everything back then. He wasn’t into politics at the time but says the country was making a comeback and we get video of a Ronald Reagan speech. Linda: “He was so pro American he couldn’t even make a mistake.” Things are falling into place as he carrying around a flag and talks about training, saying prayers and eating vitamins. You know, that just might stick! We see a magazine that wanted Hogan as President.

-Hogan was told Vince and thought they meant Sr, who fired him, but it was Jr as he was taking over the territory. Hogan makes the call and as we know, Hogan was everything Vince was looking for in a pro-wrestler. He pitched to Hogan that he wanted to make him the biggest star in the history of the business. “This Hulk thing is starting to work.” The producer asks Hogan how his ego was at the time. Before answering we get a montage of Hogan’s big moments in front of packed houses and stadiums in those early WWF years. “To be completely honest, it was way bigger than it should have been.” He didn’t realize the responsibility that came with it.

-Credits!

-This was the tone setter for this series. It was here to lay the groundwork and get us from Hogan’s early days to just as he was about to explode and take the WWF with him. The talking heads were fine and they got who you would expect. Bret seems to live for popping up in documentaries, which is fine because he was there for all of it. Linda had to be there and I know people groan over her, but she’s a must in something like this. Same with Jimmy Hart. The old footage and photos are a high point for this episode and any wrestling history fans out there should enjoy all of it. Everyone will have an opinion on what Hogan is saying. I will wait until the end of the series for overall thoughts. For now a good start that touched on most things we have already heard.

-Thanks for reading!