Hulk Hogan: Real American (Aka WWE Propaganda)

Hulk Hogan: Rea American is a glorified fluff piece designed to whitewash Hogan's entire career for the sake of the WWE.

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Episode 1099: Holk Hogan: Real American: Aka WWE Propaganda
As a fella with nerdy interests, I've always had a few friends that are really into wrestling. It was never my thing, but over the years I've come to appreciate the spectacle, talent and physical toll the profession dictates. I also think that wrestling fans tend to get a bad rap as if grown men who watch professional wrestling don't understand that the matches are more or less scripted and that what they're watching is a meat-headed version of a soap opera. They do and they love it anyway. For me, I never got into it, but I do find the performance of wrestling and the behind the scenes drama of wrestling fascinating. So if you tell me, you've got a four-part documentary all about perhaps the most famous pro-wrestler of all time Hulk Hogan that was basically filming up until his passing? I'm all ears. Or at least I would be in theory. Because the longer I watched this series the clearer it became that this wasn't meant to be an in-depth documentary. This is a glorified fluff piece designed to whitewash Hogan's entire career for the sake of WWE.

The Setup

Told by the man himself, the series follows Terry Bollea, from his poor Florida upbringing into international superstar via his signature creation and character Hulk Hogan and then back down to earth as he discovers that his fame and his body in this profession have a shelf life.

I think there's an audience for this series...but it's not me. Despite running nearly four hours the doc functions less like an analysis or deep-dive into Terry's life and everything around him, but more like an autobiography told directly to camera by the source, with a couple of choice comments from friends, rivals and family sprinkled in.

So if you really want to know all about how Terry Bollea became Hulk Hogan and want to fondly reminisce about his career and see his best highlights with some glances to his human foibles, this will do it.

But as a documentary about a notable public figure, this is ass. Pure propaganda funded and produced by the WWE, seemingly to profit off of the image of one of their biggest money makers of all time when the company's public image and reputation has never been lower.

To the point that it was actively pissing me off for the last two episodes.

So let's get into why this doc is so egregious.

Reason #1: Why Is Hogan Getting To Tell His Story Unfettered?

The series starts where I think you should start with a documentary about a single person. You get that person in a room and you get them to tell their story. And depending on what they say, you can probe them with additional questions and follow-ups before using the additional interviews to provide more color and most importantly contradict anything your main subject says.

Because if your goal is to tell an honest version of this person's story, you can rely on the person to tell it how they remember it, but you can't rely on them to tell a completely accurate version of it.

And in this case we're talking about Hulk Hogan: documented liar.

If you know anything about Hulk Hogan/Terry Bollea as a person you know that he was a fabulist who would constantly change his stories and lie depending on who he was talking to and when. He's not alone in the wrestling world, but if you're making a series about him, finding people ripe and ready to contradict his wild claims about his personal feats and the extent of his misdeeds are not hard to find.

Hogan also didn't go through the business without developing enemies including people who are featured in the doc in footage, but are not interviewed, including a man Hogan credited with being the villain that set his career off, The Iron Sheik.

The contradiction between the public image Hogan put out into the world versus how it was to work with him is something I'd expect a competent doc to do.

That's also something that would be interesting and relevant to interrogate considering how much the series likes to talk about the differences between Hulk Hogan and Terry Bollea and how those lines blurred. If you've got steroid infused men who are trained to lie to crowds about the reality of their business, it only makes sense that they'd apply that in other aspects of their life doesn't it? So when does the kayfabe end? Or does it?

A bunch of interesting questions here. None of which this series is interested in. But maybe you can ignore all of that by interrogating what Hulk Hogan said about American culture during his heyday....or maybe not.

Reason #2: Completely Lacking Cultural Context

Like most of the items I'm going to refer to here, the series does make a couple of nods to Hulk Hogan's cultural context. In this case, we have Hulk saying he realized that patriotism was kicking off as Ronald Reagan entered the White House and he was turning from heel to hero so he became "The Real American Hero." And we also lay out how him beating the Iron Sheik was like a metaphorical victory over Iran after the hostage crisis...which is timing too on the nose to even get into.

However, the framework here isn't to explain why Hulk exploded in popularity or even explain how wrestling went from regional novelty to nation-wide phenomenon, it's to fluff up Hogan's skills of observation. Like it was a genius move to embrace patriotism and being a "Real American Hero" when Born in the USA was the biggest album in the country (despite nobody really taking in the lyrics). 

The series seems incurious about the entertainment engine and cultural forces that would allow Hulk Hogan to become this gigantic marketable star, including deregulation on advertising to kids (hence how you get all the merch), the general beefiness of almost all of the major action stars of the era including Sylvester Stallone who is featured as giving Hogan a big break or how his image had to shift to match the cynicism present in late 90s culture. 

Hell this isn't even a full portrait of wrestling in Hulk Hogan's heyday and beyond. Or how the politics that Hogan claims he never really cared about, had an awful lot to do with his rise to fame.

No analysis. Just celebration.

Reason #3: What It Leaves Out

For a series that claims to capture Hulk Hogan's highs and lows, the lows seem rather absent. Hell any critical assessment of anything whether it's Hogan as a man, wrestling as a business, and especially the WWE aren't there. 

The laundry list is too long to count, but let's get into some of the most obvious ones.

Racism

Accusations of blatant racism followed Hogan for almost his entire life as a public figure. He was infamous for casually using racial slurs, and in particular appeared to harbor a deep disdain for black people. So much so that his WWE produced-movie No Holds Barred made a point of showing Hogan being friendly with black folks as a token display of tolerance.

Whereas the series treats the Gawker tape where Hogan says that he'd kill his daughter for sleeping with a black man using racial slurs, as an aberration. A one off incident that of bad judgment from when the Hulkster was at a low point. When in reality this surfaced an ugly underbelly that had been simmering beneath the surface for decades. Much like his beloved President, Trump tore the bandaid off of the nation's anti-racist attitudes and Southern strategy for overt bigotry.

Anti-Union Behavior

I got a touch excited when I saw Jessie Ventura included in the doc. Because Ventura, for all of his oddities, has a unique perspective. Because he attempted to get the WWE wrestlers to unionize after seeing the benefits afforded him via SAG-AFTRA while filming Predator. And according to Ventura, he and the wrestlers had a great position because WrestleMania was around the corner and Vince McMahon had leveraged everything he had to get it done. It was the best negotiation advantage they could possible have. And then someone...told Vince.

It was Hulk Hogan. Because while unionizing and getting his fellow wrestlers health insurance undoubtedly would've helped him in the long run, it would've cut into his share of the pie in that moment. So he ratted on his fellow wrestlers and deteriorated their working conditions for the foreseeable future.

And despite Ventura being on camera and getting a couple of light jabs in...never brought up.

Steroids

The hand waive that the series has towards steroid abuse is irresponsible to say the least. Not only because they wait until the third episode to talk about Hogan's steroid use, but also because the series truly fails to discuss the impact Vince McMahon had on emphasizing steroid use and why Hogan was pushed in the first place. He was the biggest muscley man and that's exactly what McMahon wanted. And if you wanted to maintain that, an irresponsible level of gear was required. Dangerous drugs that were handed out by doctors that worked for WWE, while Hogan told kids to drink milk and take their vitamins to get as big and strong as he was.

Again, lot of room for discussion and deep-diving that I've seen other platforms including Behind the Bastards and Dark Side of the Ring do, but nowhere to be seen.

The Gawker Trial

You could honestly make an entire series about Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker and the ripple effect it had across our media landscape.

Because while Gawker wasn't a great publication and you could argue that their actions in this case were over the line, this was a lawsuit funded by literal demon in human flesh Peter Thiel, specifically designed to weaponize litigation against media outlets that do not portray public figures in a flattering light.

Which it did. And whether he was a pawn in need of money, or was fully on board with the decision, this is something you should press Hogan on.

No surprise. They do not.

Good god, is there any more? Oh yeah.

Trump Endorsement

Anyone who publicly endorses Trump, in my mind, has an obligation to explain why they like him so much and which of his public comments and policies they agree with. Do they agree with his blatant racism? His portrayal of immigrants? The lengthy list of sex crimes he's been found liable for and accused of? That's basic journalism stuff.

Whereas the series portrays Hulk's decision as simply "defending a friend's honor" after someone tried to kill him and him and others being surprised that people weren't a fan of him speaking at the Republican National Convention.

Classic "put politics aside for a moment" nonsense coming from people clearly speaking their mind politically. Which is doubly wild since the series insists that wrestling fans are smart but then calls them dumb for booing a man who put his weight behind a bigot. Like what a shame they couldn't support a 70 year old man who decided to publicly put his weight behind a man who called immigrants dog eaters. Don't you know he's a wrestling legend.

But this all boils down to the core issue. This isn't a hard-hitting documentary. This is a fluff piece for the WWE.

The Main Reason: What's Being Sold vs. Reality

Almost everything wrong with this documentary can be boiled down to one issue: this is co-produced by the WWE.

Which means that anything that would make WWE, Vince McMahon, or Hulk Hogan look less than mildly troubled or flawed is excised or glossed over.

The on-air assault of Richard Belzer? Framed as a guy defending his industry from an asshole who lied to him to get him in the studio and got what was coming to him versus...an on air assault that could've given Belzer a catastrophic injury. He was well within his rights to sue.

There's never another side offered up or a counterweight to the claims that Hulk makes. 

Just to paint a full picture as to how egregious this is, this series gets Donald f***ing Trump to sit down for an interview in what appears to be the White House, after discussing his relationship with Hogan for 10-20 minutes, only to lob a couple of softball questions to him about the WWE events he hosted and his relationship with Hogan. It's pure cowardice

Because this isn't a documentary series. It's a celebration. A nostalgia bomb meant remind you why you liked wrestling back in the day so you'll go watch the latest WrestleMania or Raw when it comes to your city. Maybe get you to buy a vintage TV print of the Hulkster. 

In a true bit of irony the documentary is an awful lot like Hogan himself as a wrestler. All style. No substance. Technical and artistic mastery sacrificed at the alter of an image.