New Hulk Hogan Documentary Criticized for Whitewashing Racism and Failing to Hold Him Accountable

The four-part Netflix documentary Hulk Hogan: Real American is one of the platform’s most-watched shows, promising to examine the complicated legacy of Terry Bollea—better known as Hulk Hogan. However, the series falls short of its goal, delivering a sanitized, WWE-approved narrative that repeatedly shields Hogan from accountability.

Spanning nearly five hours, the documentary frames Hogan as a victim of circumstance, his racist remarks, steroid use, and professional misconduct excused as products of his upbringing, the wrestling industry’s pressures, or fleeting moments of poor judgment. Rarely does the series allow Hogan’s actions to stand on their own without a flimsy justification:

• Steroid use: Hogan claims everyone was doing it.
• Racism: He attributes it to the era in which he grew up.
• Career destruction: He insists it was merely business as usual.
• Lies in court: He insists they were to protect a friend.
• Threats of violence: He dismisses them as drunken ramblings to a journalist he mistook for a friend.

The documentary repeatedly gives Hogan the final word, rarely countering his claims with opposing perspectives. Key moments in his life and career are omitted entirely to preserve a more favorable image:

• Hogan’s role in suppressing Jessie Ventura’s attempt to unionize WWE wrestlers in the 1980s, which endeared him to Vince McMahon.
• His professional jealousy and creative control in WCW, widely blamed for the company’s collapse.
• His nearly 11-year second marriage, reduced to a brief mention between his 2007 divorce and 2023 remarriage.
• The absence of his eldest daughter, Brook Hogan, who publicly distanced herself from him.

Despite Hogan’s 2023 public claims of being "saved," the documentary offers no meaningful reckoning with his decades of harmful behavior. Instead, it leans on excuses, leaving viewers with a version of Hogan that is more myth than man.