Hulk Hogan: Real American | Key Points

• Director Bryan Storkel and Hulk Hogan’s son Nick talked about the Netflix documentary with Storkel discussing his process for vetting Hogan’s many tall tales while Nick Hogan talked about what people get wrong about Hogan’s legacy.
• Surprise participants in Hogan’s documentary include President Donald Trump and Bret “The Hitman” Hart.

Hulk Hogan: Real American, directed by Bryan Storkel, was a fitting sendoff of pro wrestling’s most ubiquitous and polarizing figure. The Netflix documentary grapples with wrestler identity and how Terry Bollea transformed into Hulk Hogan without an escape plan.

Storkel filmed Hogan in March and April of 2025, and planned one final interview with Hogan to tie up some loose ends before the two-time WWE Hall of Famer’s sudden passing in July.

“The goal was just to to tell as much of his story as possible and to really humanize Hulk Hogan and really get to know Terry Bollea,” said Storkel in an exclusive interview.

“We filmed a lot in March and April. We filmed his interview. We went on the road with him. We filmed around Clearwater. We filmed in the gym with him. We did a lot. I would say 90% of what I wanted to got get, we we got. There was going to be a couple more pickup days. I wanted to do one more little interview with him. We went through his whole life and we did a very comprehensive telling over five days.”

Storkel was filming with top WWE official Bruce Prichard when he received the news.

“We were we were set up for the interview and ready for Bruce to come in, and then we got the news and everyone was in shock,” said Storkel on learning about Hogan’s death. “It was interesting to see from inside of WWE headquarters just kind of the buzz and things happening and just the impact. It was a really odd place to be that day.”

Nick Hogan was by his father’s side in Hogan’s final days and served as just as much of an eyewitness to Hulkamania as he did Terry’s son. Though the two were close at the time of Hogan’s death, “sharing Hulk Hogan with everyone else” was a theme of Hogan’s relationship with, not only his son, but his entire family. Hogan’s relationship with his family was further complicated during his inescapable racism scandal of 2015, where an ugly, anti-Black rant cost him his job and made him a pro wrestling pariah.

Despite Hogan’s polarizing nature while he was alive, the wrestling world came together in support of Nick Hogan and his family. Hogan received an outpouring of messages, from childhood friends to A-1 stars like Cody Rhodes. As Hogan’s son, Nick has much fonder memories of his legendary father.

"There’s so many things that I’d love to say about the character. [He was] so dynamic, from being a good guy to a bad guy to everything in between," said Nick in an exclusive interview. “The television characters, the movies that he did, everything, but the person was also just as dynamic—if not more dynamic. The one thing that—I don’t want to say people get wrong—but people may not fully know or understand is just how much he cared about people around him, and about his fans, and about the people that support him and just people in general. [He cared about] His community and people that were less fortunate than him and people that he could help. He did.”

Real American shined a bright light on what once seemed like a harmless and campy superhero whose dark underbelly made him both an icon and an outcast. This is what makes Hogan the perfect subject for a wrestling documentary.

Hogan is known for his tall tales, and this documentary had no shortage of them, but it deftly balanced Hogan’s penchant for exaggerations with more level-headed commentary from those adjacent to Hogan’s rise-and-fall. This included WWE champion Cody Rhodes, Bret Hart, Jesse Ventura and pro wrestling author and historian Keith Elliot Greenberg, who served as the resident Hogan fact-checker.

“I think part of his character was just these things that he did that were larger than life,” said Storkel. “Was that real? Was that not? I mean, it’s a myth. I think that’s part of the magic of Hulk Hogan. And I think for us, obviously, there was too much to cover. We couldn’t get into everything but you know we were able to interview a wide you know cast of subjects. I think around 30 people. Everybody from interviewing Bret Hart. Bret is known for not loving Hulk but I Bret had a couple hours of like really amazing, great stories and positive things to say. Even wrestling with him in Georgia back in the day, in Japan [Bret] had a mix of things to say.”

The most surprising participant in Real American is President Donald Trump himself, who chronicled Hogan’s surreal political turn toward the end of his life. In never-before-seen footage of Hogan’s funeral featured in Real American, WWE COO Triple H goes as far as to say Hogan’s actions during Trump’s 2024 campaign got him elected.

Real American caught several strays for its tireless commercials during a deliberately corporate WrestleMania 42, but the documentary is a thorough recollection of Hulk Hogan’s delicate legacy. The doc’s ‘80s aesthetic adds a nostalgic flare for WWE’s most important wrester in his final interview.