Hogan’s life is efficiently and occasionally exhilaratingly laid out before us, from cradle to grave, showing how a pudgy boy from Florida who was scared of wrestlers became a global superstar and financial juggernaut. A host of talking heads – wrestling greats, Hogan’s ex-wives, his son, Nick, even the president of the United States – talk us through the rise and fall (and rise and fall again) of Hulk Hogan. But it is the man himself who captivates.
Seventy-one years old, skin like biltong, eyes like Droopy Dog, walking with a cane in his final days yet still pumping iron in the gym, Hulk Hogan/Terry Bollea is a figure you can’t tear your eyes from. His interviews with Storkel are comical, heartbreaking and charismatic.
It’s no hagiography. It’s made clear that during his early career, the 6ft 7in “freak” was considered a lousy wrestler, though a good showman, and there are enough former colleagues happy to go on record with their dislike of him. Yet no one denies that Hulk Hogan wasn’t just the biggest star of professional wrestling, at one time he was professional wrestling. Storkel gives us all the hits of Hulkamania: beating the Iron Sheik in 1984 and scoring a PR victory in the aftermath of the Iran hostage crisis (yes, really), the seminal first WrestleMania in 1985, bodyslamming Andre the Giant at Wrestlemania III, the money, the fans, the fame.
However, the controversies surrounding Hulk Hogan – both in and out of the ring – are so numerous that the series doesn’t have time for them all. Perhaps the biggest was Hogan’s first fall from grace, when, in the early 1990s, it was revealed he had been taking steroids for his entire career. This all-American hero’s catchphrase was: “Train hard, say your prayers, eat your vitamins.” Hulk Hogan was a liar. In 2024, Hogan publicly campaigned for Donald Trump, with whom he had been friendly since the 1980s (Trump Plaza hosted two Wrestlemanias). When Hogan was subsequently booed at Netflix’s WWE launch event in Los Angeles, it was all grist to his mill. Trump empathises: “He’s fairly controversial, but that’s OK, I am too. And I don’t think he cares about that – and neither do I.”