Diego Peralta
Hulk Hogan was one of the most recognizable figures in the history of professional wrestling. Over the course of decades, he defined an entire era of the WWE, which was the WWF back when the Superstar was in his prime. After striking an impressive media rights deal with the giant promotion, Netflix came up with the idea to create Hulk Hogan: Real American. There’s no denying that Hulk Hogan will remain a topic of controversy in the industry for years to come.
The documentary takes a look behind-the-scenes of Hulk Hogan’s life. Giving audiences an opportunity to see who Terry Bollea was outside the ring is a very different experience from the regular programming WWE has to offer. Awards Radar had the opportunity to interview Bryan Storkel, the director of Real American.
The filmmaker acknowledged Hogan’s influence on the industry. Storkel had a personal reason to cover Bollea’s life in this documentary: “I just think he’s fascinating. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. There’s not too many people that were larger in the 80’s or early 90’s than Hulk Hogan. He was pop culture. He was the man. He was a mythical creature. I don’t think I knew much about the man behind the moustache, though. It was interesting to get to know Terry. Not too many people even know that his name was Terry. For me, it was as if taking this guy who is like a cartoon character. The muscly guy with the moustache. Let’s humanize him and get to know the real man.”
Storkel doesn’t shy away from the controversy of Bollea’s life. According to the BBC, the wrestler was even dropped from the WWE back in the day due to some remarks. Nevertheless, the director of the documentary reminded audiences that the sports industry is filled with questionable decisions: “The interesting thing for me is that some of the lines get blurred between character and reality. In the Vince (McMahon) documentary we get into that a lot. Which things that Vince are doing are part of the character and which ones are real life? I think, in another sport, you don’t have that blurring of the lines. They’re just out there playing baseball or shooting baskets. Off the field, they’re human. I think you do have these blurred lines. At some point, with Hulk Hogan and Terry Bollea, the lines got blurred more and more. He’s living his life as Hulk Hogan, which is a hard standard to live up to.”
The filmmaker boiled down Terry Bollea’s situation to the presence his wrestling persona had over his real life: “Hulk Hogan is like a perfect hero. He’s the Make-a-Wish guy. “Say your prayers. Eat your vitamins.” He can do no wrong. As a human, that’s a really hard standard to live up to. Why does wrestling still work? I don’t know. How are we able to get past that? I don’t know. There’s definitely been other athletes who have had scandal who are allowed to continue doing their thing. Look at music even. Look at the Michael Jackson movie that just came out. People have very mixed thoughts on that. Despite all the controversy, that’s still succeeding. It’s a complex question. I don’t know if there is an easy answer to that.”
Vince McMahon, the former owner of the WWE, resigned from his position within the organization after being hit with a sexual misconduct lawsuit from a former employee (via ESPN). Netflix also produced a documentary focused on the executive in recent memory. Storkel is aware of these unspoken narratives that take place within professional wrestling and the WWE, with long-time fans of the company’s product also being aware of multiple tragedies that have taken place beyond the ring mat.
Bryan Storkel expressed his final thoughts regarding the not-so-flashy aspects of Bollea’s life: “For me, it’s about separating (…) In some ways, you just have to realize that nobody is perfect. I’m not making an excuse of any of these people (McMahon, Bollea and Jackson). I’m just saying that good and bad things co-exist. You can look at Hulk Hogan and say that he a lot of incredible qualities and a lot of amazing things about him. He also was a flawed human and had bad things about him. I think that, too often, we’re just like: “That person is evil” or “That person is good”, when the reality is that there’s good and bad. They co-exist. And you can decide what you want to do with that. If you personally want to be a fan or you don’t. We have to admit that it’s possible for these things to co-exist.”
What the director describes is merely the burden of what some wrestling fans carry in their lives. Some people grew up watching the WWE every week without having access to the internet. At the same time, the wonder of a child can’t process real life disasters in the way that grown adults do.
Fans spend their youths idolizing these larger-than-life characters for decades, without having the slightest idea of this world functions beyond television. The struggle is real, and Storkel nailed the nature at the base of it all.
Bryan Storkel enjoyed his time in the ring, but he’s ready to take his career into a different direction after the success of Real American: “I don’t think I could do another wrestling thing. I don’t know how I could top Hulk Hogan. I’ll never say never but, for me, it’s about the person and the character. It’s not necessarily about the sport or the topic. I’ve done a number of sports films. It’s always crime or comedy stuff. It’s always about finding the right person. People who are interesting. I’d like to do a Weird Al (Yankovic) documentary. I think it’s fascinating how he stuck around for 30-plus years. And he has this fan base that is so loyal. It would be something you could creative with, as well.
Real American also allowed the artist to access and incredibly detailed footage archive, which is something the WWE has had the privilege of building thanks to their weekly programming: “Venturing into different worlds. A lot of my projects have actors doing reenactments. With wrestling, the archival footage was so incredible. I just really wanted to lean into that. This one (Real American) was more of a traditional documentary. We had more archival in this than anything I’ve ever worked on. I’d like to do something that is not the typical documentary, where you can play with the art form and do something unexpected with the film itself.”
Hulk Hogan: Real American is now available for streaming on Netflix. This interview has been edited for length and clarity purposes.
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