Hulk Hogan: Real American (2026) s01e01 Episode Script
The Rise
[solemn music playing]
[reporter 1] Hulk Hogan,
who some consider to be
the biggest wrestling star of all time,
has died.
[reporter 2] Terry Bollea,
better known as Hulk Hogan,
died today after suffering cardiac arrest
at his home in Clearwater, Florida.
[reporter 3] Hogan's manager tells us
that he passed away surrounded by family.
[solemn music heightens]
[reporter 4] His wild personality,
pumped up physique,
and handlebar mustache
made him the face
of professional wrestling.
His legacy also comes with controversy.
[man] This won't surprise you, but I used
to watch him every day after school.
-[host] Like a lot of kids.
-[man] Yeah.
[host] Unlike a lot of superheroes,
Superman, Batman,
you couldn't touch them, he was tangible.
-[man] Sure.
-[host] To a lot of people.
[reporter 5] They're very sad to see
their legend, their childhood hero,
gone in what seems like such a sudden way.
[music fades]
[grunting echoes]
[grunting and exhaling]
[Hogan grunts]
[exhales]
[puffs]
[dramatic music builds]
Oh. [grunts]
That's the hardest part, standing up.
Old people take a long time to get going.
Whoo.
[grunts]
[continues grunting]
When I was the world's champion,
I had this crazy gym.
Over the years, we've kind of scaled down
to the… to the Geritol equipment here.
[chuckles]
[grunts]
[interviewer] Do you feel strong?
I feel okay,
but it's a pain in the butt, you know,
because I have my son take the tops
off water bottles all the time for me
because I can't turn them.
Kind of embarrassing in a little way.
[chuckles]
But it's all good, huh?
-[Nick Hogan] Ain't that bad.
-Could be worse.
-I don't know. It's part of the deal, man.
-[Nick] Yeah.
-You know?
-[Nick] Keep you humble.
It keeps me humble.
Keeps me very grateful.
In my mind,
I still think I'm 35 or 40 years old,
but as soon as I look in the mirror,
I go, "Who the hell's that?"
[dumbbell lands on floor]
Getting down here
is like the only real peace in my life.
Once I'd get in that ring,
I wouldn't worry about kids, wives,
bills, problems, legal, criminal.
[chuckling] Any type of problems.
[exhales, then grunts]
But I don't have that anymore.
In wrestling, you should be remembered
from the wars you've been in
and everything you've done.
[crowd cheering]
And a lot of that's been taken away
in the last 20 years.
[reporter 1] Was there
a sinister side to his success?
[reporter 2] Today, the WWE announced
they were dropping Hogan.
Hulk Hogan fired by the WWE…
[man] I think he's a liar.
I think he's a coward.
[interviewer]
There's certainly some things
that you would want to be remembered for
more than others, right?
[tape rewinding]
Yeah.
[exhales]
Of course.
["It's a Long Way to the Top"
by AC/DC playing]
[Hogan] I think people
wanna know the truth.
-Who was this guy, really?
-[Linda Hogan] Is Hulk in the building?
Look what I'm married to.
Yeah, yeah.
I believe in what I'm doing,
and people get behind that.
They get behind me.
They know I train, pray, eat my vitamins.
If you say your prayers,
if you eat your vitamins, man,
sooner or later, you get what you want.
This is serious.
Come on, Hulk!
Ridin' down the highway ♪
Goin' to a show ♪
[announcer] Beach-boy blonde,
his body of bronze,
standing 6'9", and weighing 345.
His name is Hulk Hogan.
[presenter] When you were born,
they didn't say,
"This looks like a baby Hulk.
We'll name him Hulk Hogan."
[both chuckling]
No, but I grew into the name,
that's for sure.
What you gonna do
when Hulkamania runs wild on you?
It's a long way to the top
If you wanna rock 'n' roll… ♪
[reporter 1] Today, he is
the biggest name in wrestling.
It's a long way to the top… ♪
[reporter 2] One of the most famous
athletes in the history of the world.
Man, it feels great
to be on top of the mountain!
It feels like I got
about a million volts of electricity
running through these 24-inch pythons!
[toy] Hulkster rules, brother.
[reporter 3] A man who calls himself
the ultimate male.
[reporter 4] The ultimate all-American.
Here in America, you gotta work hard,
love hard, and die hard, man.
Such a long way ♪
-[music ends]
-[clang echoes]
[Hogan] I can't predict
and tell you right now
what the final act
of the story is gonna be.
[nostalgic music playing]
I'm not looking for a legacy
pat on the back, for sure.
Not everyone is going to love you.
Some people hate me, but…
I'm definitely the greatest wrestler
of all time.
I'm Hulk Hogan.
-Mr. Hulk Hogan!
-[crowd cheering]
Here he is, Hulk Hogan!
[presenter] The man
who needs no introduction.
-Hogan!
-Would you welcome Hulk Hogan?
[crowd cheering]
I'm Hulk Hogan.
[gentle music playing]
Let's see if I can get through another day
and listen to myself talk.
-Good grief.
-[interviewer chuckles]
[Hogan] Moments away.
Makeup and hair, please.
[imitates voice of female makeup artist]
"I'm here. I can do this."
"Couple of frizzies here, Hulk."
[as Hogan] "Thank you, dear."
["Va, pensiero" from Nabucco
by Giuseppe Verdi playing]
[reporter] Fans recognize
Hulk Hogan as a hero.
[reporter 2] He's bigger than life.
A real hero who gives his all
for all the right reasons.
[interviewer]
Do you consider yourself a hero?
[Hogan]
I don't consider myself a hero at all.
But I'm very aware now,
after all these years,
what that Hulk Hogan presence means,
um, you know, to the fans.
[yelling excitedly]
"I was not a mere mortal man."
"I was the superhero Hulk Hogan,"
when I had my stature.
[yells]
The Hulk Hogan character is over the top.
It's a fake character.
You know, hopefully people
can understand that someday.
Man, I say my prayers, take my vitamins,
and everything I do is positive.
But, yeah, it's two different people.
You know, it's like me playing Dracula.
I don't come home
and bite my wife in the neck
and suck the blood out of my kids' necks.
But, duh, if you want
to believe that, go ahead.
But when I come in the house,
the headband comes off,
the bald head's there,
and my wife calls me Terry.
-[Linda] Terry! Why do you do that?
-Watch this.
Terry won't leave this part out.
We're going to take some movies of Terry,
and we're going to make a video.
There were only a handful of people
knew him as Terry.
I knew him deeply as himself.
Oh my God, look at this.
We were always tan.
I turned Terry on to a tanning bed.
He didn't even know what they were,
and he had to stay tanned for work.
Oop, Terry's naked.
["Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)"
by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel playing]
You've broken every code… ♪
[cheering]
[Linda] The fans just liked believing
that Hulk was like Superman.
[commentator] Drop it out there! One…
You spoiled the game… ♪
-Hey!
-[Linda] I know him.
When you're with somebody that long,
through thick and thin, good and bad,
tired, happy, sad, you know,
you learn that person very well.
Ooh, la-la-la ♪
And I was always the one with the camera.
This is the, uh, greatest wall,
because the greatest person
is on this wall.
When I met Terry, I asked,
"Do you have family?"
He laid out his situation.
Let's show these people the refrigerator
that took me from a mere 196 pounds
when I was 12 years old
to a whopping 305-pound Hulk Hogan.
I grew up in Florida, in South Tampa.
We were broke, and I hated it.
Especially watching how my dad slaved
in the sun as a construction worker.
-These old broken steps, man.
-[Linda] Yeah.
As a kid, I made a decision
that financially I'd never live like that.
[Linda] We got Pete Bollea.
[Hogan] My dad was that old,
hard-school Italian, you know.
And he was a little rough on me,
that's for sure.
They weren't the type of parents
that would tell you they love you.
That would never happen.
Terry was a mistake-type child.
They had Allan,
and then eight years later, had Terry.
My older brother, Allan,
he was the tough guy.
Allan was my dad's favorite.
He was always talking
about how strong he was,
and he would just tell me, you know,
"You're not like your brother," you know?
I didn't understand that
and always had a big chip on my shoulder.
But, you know, I hated confrontations.
[Linda] He wasn't
the loudmouth you see on TV.
He was very soft-spoken, shy.
No, I wasn't always this confident.
[interviewer] When did that change?
[upbeat music playing]
[Hogan] On the weekends,
Florida Championship Wrestling
would come on the TV back then.
I'd never seen anything like that.
["Over the Top"
by Graham Preskett playing]
[commentator speaking indistinctly]
I had no idea that this existed.
I was probably 8 or 9 years old
when we first went in person.
They had these great characters,
the conflict between good and bad,
how into it the fans were,
they were loyal, dedicated fans.
I love it! I love it!
[Hogan] There was this love and energy
that they were all getting there.
I could feel it, man.
And the one guy that really hooked me
was "The American Dream," Dusty Rhodes.
[announcer] Truly, the idol of the people,
"The American Dream."
[Hogan] His whole rap reeled us in.
The razzmatazz,
my new Flandango waltz hold.
I'm so quick, I'm so fast,
Terry Funk is nothing but a punk.
[Hogan] The energy
would just drag you up out of any hole.
I went there all through childhood.
I was hooked.
That's what I wanted to do.
I wanted to be a wrestler.
[music ends]
The problem was
I was scared to death of those guys.
[growls]
Most of them were 300 pounds and over,
and they had teeth knocked out
and broken noses and cauliflower ears.
It scared the bejesus out of me.
I believed professional wrestling
was completely real.
I knew I couldn't do it.
I was real fat.
Didn't take my shirt off, ever,
when I went to the beach
because I needed a bra.
Pretty much, I was living off, you know,
Burger King and Snickers bars.
Played Little League baseball.
But they could throw me out at second.
I was so fat and slow.
So I got into bowling.
But then my life changed when I realized
I could make money playing music.
[rock music playing]
[Linda] Terry was a talented bass player.
He would have been Guns N' Roses,
like, he's that level.
I learned that I liked being
in front of the crowd and being on stage.
But my dad was upset
that I had quit school
and was running around
in a rock and roll band
and lifting weights like an idiot.
It led to me, you know,
having a big blow out with my parents
and getting kicked out of the house.
You got it ♪
So, a few years after high school,
we had a little following in North Tampa.
Then all of a sudden,
these wrestlers were coming in the bar.
[gasps] Oh my gosh,
I'm on stage, and here's these guys.
I'm scared to death of guys
like "Superstar" Billy Graham.
You know what a fist sandwich is?
[Hogan] And Brian Blair.
My first memory of meeting Terry
was when he was playing bass guitar,
and he'd stand out so much.
He was in these platform heels
and had jewelry on,
and long blonde hair, suntan, big muscles.
I mean, he was the show.
The music was good,
but he was, like, the show.
What shocked me more than anything
was that they weren't mean to me.
[chuckles]
I didn't realize they were grooming me.
[engine rumbling]
And they took me to all the matches,
so I could get in free.
[solemn music playing]
And then one of the biggest nights
of my life changed everything.
We saw Steve Keirn
at Fort Homer Hesterly Armory.
The bad guy was just waylaying his ass,
and the referee told him to knock it off.
"Let go of me, ref."
I remember he looked right down
at Steve Keirn.
I read his lips.
He said, "Hit me. Hit me."
I went, "What?"
And Steve hit him.
And he goes, "Again, again."
And he made this comeback from underneath.
I was like, "What?!"
I just didn't believe it.
I was disillusioned for about two seconds,
and I got over it.
All of a sudden, the door opens
and I knew I didn't have to be a tough guy
to get in the business.
[heroic music playing]
[Blair] They don't want to tell you
that it's not real.
They want you to believe that it is.
But people don't realize
what your body goes through.
You get your butt kicked
in professional wrestling.
[music fades]
Wow.
I remember all too well.
This is where
Terry and I learned to wrestle.
It was called The Dungeon.
["Showbiz Kid" by Sleaze playing]
[Hogan]
I had made the decision to go for it.
And I just believed that I knew exactly
what I had to do to run with the pack.
[Blair] It was brutal. Brutal.
What you had to go through
to get into the business.
The newer guys, they have no clue.
They have no clue.
[Hogan] I spent a year in the gym
training twice a day
and laying in the sun all day long.
And like a fool, I told everybody
I was going to be a wrestler.
"I'm going to be a wrestler."
That's the wrong thing to do.
One of the teachers
put his forearm in my shin
and grabbed my toe, snap.
And they broke his leg,
literally broke it.
-[music ends]
-[bone cracks]
I was living in a hotel room at the time.
Um…
I tried to come home whenever I could,
but I wasn't welcome there, you know.
[speaking indistinctly]
When my dad would go to work,
I'd run back to the house.
Sweetheart.
[Hogan] My mom would cook for me
and take care of me.
Then I could sleep in his bed.
"You gotta get outta here.
Your dad's coming home." So I'd take off.
You know, my leg getting broke
was minuscule
compared to what he put me through, so.
Bang, bang, bang!
I had to go back.
There was no quitting for me.
[groans]
As soon as I got better,
I started showing up down there.
[intense music playing]
[Linda] That made Terry
want to try even harder.
Like, "You're not gonna keep me down."
[Blair] He just was like a Timex.
He took the licking and kept on ticking.
[Hogan] Bang on.
That's Terry.
That's the Hulkster. That's him.
[intense music continues]
[Blair] Terry's first match
was against me.
He came out with a mask on
as the Super Destroyer.
And he looked dorky.
[announcer] Super Destroyer!
[fans cheering]
[Keith Greenberg] Terry Bollea
did not complete his training
and immediately become Hulk Hogan.
I mean, you have to pay your dues,
and you have to develop your persona.
I'm a professional wrestling historian
and author.
And despite my youthful appearance,
I've been covering the sport of kings
for more than 40 years.
Terry Bollea's youth and his size
made you take notice.
He had genetic gifts.
The Super Destroyer was masked,
and I believe that was deliberate.
I was getting beat everywhere.
They didn't want
people to see me getting beat.
I had to learn how to work in the ring.
This is someone
who had the potential to be a notable.
But he wasn't there yet.
He was very green.
Put the guy under a mask.
Let him make his mistakes.
Later on,
we can make him into a real character.
[music fades]
["Va, pensiero" from Nabucco
by Giuseppe Verdi playing]
Oh my God.
Wrestling was very territorial back then.
[Greenberg] Like the American mob,
professional wrestling promoters
formed an organization
that would divide
North America into territories.
You're supposed to stay
six or seven months in each place,
then get your bags and move.
I was driving like 25,
26 hundred miles a week.
["All the Way From Memphis"
by Mott the Hoople playing]
I was finally, you know,
trading a real life for a wrestling life.
-[engine rumbling]
-Rock and roll. Yes, sir, buddy.
So I went up to Memphis.
Forgot my six-string razor… ♪
And I took off the mask.
Hit the sky… ♪
And changed my name to be Terry Boulder.
Halfway to Memphis 'fore I realized ♪
Well, I rang the information… ♪
Gonna have to buy a ticket
to see my face, brother.
Come in the ring,
full head of blonde hair.
Largest arms in the world.
Largest back in the world.
He's rock solid like a boulder,
so it's a good name.
[announcer] That's Terry Boulder,
295 pounds, from Tampa.
Oh, slammed by Boulder.
[Hogan] And this Monday night in Memphis,
Daddy, when I get a hold of you,
I'm gonna take you and bury your head
right in the mat, brother.
I'm gonna teach you
a bit of a wrestling lesson,
a little respect
for these good people here.
I'm gonna put
the super southern squeeze on you, Daddy.
"I'm Terry Boulder, and when I get
this super southern squeeze on you,
it'll be lights out for you
and whoever's around."
And I was talking like that.
I mean, seriously.
Hulk Hogan didn't exist yet.
[music fades]
[Jimmy Hart] First time I saw Hulk,
I really wasn't in the wrestling business.
That happened years later.
Come on in.
Can you believe a WWE Hall of Famer
sitting out here waiting all day for you
to get here? This is too much. Too much!
[announcer] Here is
"The Mouth of the South," Jimmy Hart.
Come on, show him what it's all about.
Show him what it's all about,
Mega-Maniacs!
Can you believe this?
Jimmy Hart, manager of Hulk Hogan.
To the fans, I was Hulk's manager.
Wrestling manager,
not real, real, real, real manager.
You've been wearing
that outfit since 1983.
[Hart] And I'll always wear it.
-[host] I'm done with you.
-Done?
-Let's talk to Hulk.
-[Hogan] Jimmy!
-[scuffling and grunting]
-[woman] Oh my God.
I want to talk about Jimmy Hart!
You wanna talk about and mess about?
If it wasn't for two people in my life,
Jerry Lawler and Hulk Hogan,
there'd be no Jimmy Hart.
Trust me on that, and I really mean that.
I went to high school with
Jerry "The King" Lawler, back in Memphis.
To the wrestling fans,
there was nobody bigger
than Jerry "The King" Lawler.
[announcer] Jerry "The King" Lawler!
[Hart] And I remember one night,
I went by the Coliseum to see wrestling.
Jerry Lawler goes, "Jimmy, come here."
I said, "What is it?"
He goes, "You see that guy?"
I went, "Yeah."
"What do you think?"
I went, "Wow, man, unbelievable."
"What do they call him?"
He said, "Terry Boulder."
And I went, "God, he looks great."
He goes, "He asked me to manage him."
I said, "You gonna do it?"
He said, "Are you kidding?"
"This guy'll never make a dime
in this business."
He was not very good.
[chuckling] I'll be honest with you.
Hogan was very big, of course.
Everybody knew that.
But not on the same level
as other wrestlers.
[Hart] He was just kind
of getting his feet wet.
[Hogan] I started making $800 a week.
You needed to make at least $1,000
to buy food and gas
and pay for hotel rooms back then.
-[yelling]
-[Hart] Hulk learned a lot from Lawler.
[Lawler] One thing I told him,
"You need to take a punch,
but you don't need to take a bump."
"You just stand there and overcome that
with your size and your strength."
-[man 1] In the elbow!
-[man 2] Not doing much damage.
[man 1] The amazing size
of this Terry Boulder,
truly one of the greats
in professional wrestling.
[Bret Hart] He was super green.
I wrestled him in Atlanta
quite a few times in that period.
[announcer] About to enter the ring,
Bret "The Hitman" Hart.
["Crazy" by Casino playing]
And the match was always
about 30 seconds long.
[Hogan] Maybe you people don't realize
what you're looking at, Daddy.
But you got 6'7" right here,
a mountain of a man.
I knew more about wrestling then
than he knew in his whole life.
[Hogan] Anybody who wants
to step in the ring,
I have $1,000 up for anybody
who can break the golden squeeze.
All it was was a bear hug.
That's all he could do.
Oh, what a night it's gonna be ♪
[commentator 1] Look at that.
Look at that. Can you believe that?
[commentator 2] Now with him
in the air like a piece of meat,
and a bear hug,
I suspect we'll hear the submission.
-[commentator 1] Yes, indeed.
-[announcer] Amazing!
[Bret] That's all he needed to do.
It was believable enough.
It was a sight to see a guy like that
squeeze the daylights out of you,
and throw you down on the mat
and walk around.
[Greenberg] He was unbeatable.
He was just so big.
He really didn't look like a human being.
He looked like somebody
who did step out of a comic book.
[Hogan] At that point, all the promoters,
they said, "You're bigger than The Hulk."
[Greenberg] A big muscular monster,
so that's a good name.
[Hogan] And that's where
Terry "The Hulk" Boulder started.
[commentator] Oh, there's that big leg.
Huge man.
First thing I did was
I did a video standing
on Jerry Jarrett's kitchen room table.
[man] When they see this guy,
they won't forget
that Terry Boulder is The Hulk.
Let's take a look at it right now.
[narrator] This man
is not a television illusion.
He is not an artist's conception.
He is not a figment of the imagination.
He is real.
He is The Hulk.
[upbeat music playing]
That made him into a superhero.
It really did.
"He's The Hulk." It's… It was terrible.
Not a lot was expected from Hulk Hogan
in terms of character.
He was intriguing,
and they wanted to see more of him.
-[announcer 1] And here comes.
-[announcer 2] Terry "The Hulk" Boulder.
[Hogan] I'd show up. They put me
in the main event everywhere we go.
The character didn't really have a persona
other than he was big and nasty and mean.
[commentator] We have a confrontation now.
We could have some problems here and now.
Everybody's been running scared.
They've been feeding me this Grade B meat
every week on TV.
I want the best now.
All these superstars who have been hiding
in the eye of the storm, brother.
I've been whipping everybody.
As I was becoming more popular,
all the promoters, they said,
"With your look and as big as you are,
you need to be in New York."
[dramatic music playing]
Madison Square Garden
is the epitome of wrestling.
"There was a guy
named Vince McMahon Sr. who called."
"And he wants you to come to New York."
[bell ringing]
So I went up there,
and Vince McMahon's clicking quarters,
looking at me.
"I want you to come to work for me,
work nothing but main events,
and draw money all over the world."
I said, "Oh, really?"
"First off, I would change the name."
[announcer]
Here is "The Incredible" Hulk Hogan!
[cheering]
And I said, "What is a Hulk Hogan?"
What does that mean?
Back in the day,
my dad gave him his name.
He was this big kid,
and my dad, of course, being Irish,
decided Hogan is a great name.
So why not Hulk Hogan?
It was alliterative,
so let's go with that.
[Hogan, with Italian accent]
But I'm Italiano.
Vince said, "Doesn't matter to me."
"Yeah, okay, I'll think about it."
[announcer] His opponent makes
his Madison Square Garden debut,
"The Incredible" Hulk Hogan!
The very first match that Hulk Hogan
ever had at Madison Square Garden
was with yours truly, Ted DiBiase.
Here is "The Million Dollar Man,"
Ted DiBiase!
[laughing evilly]
Money, money ♪
[cackling]
[announcer] Ted DiBiase!
When Hulk and I had that match,
Vince McMahon Sr. came to me, and he said,
"We have really high hopes for this guy."
"I really want you to get him over
as best you can."
Putting someone over means he's gonna win.
And I said, "You got it, boss."
He was brand new.
He was obviously just still learning.
But my job was
to make him look really good.
[bell ringing]
When we first locked up,
you know, he powers out.
[commentator] And Hogan
breaks the full-nelson.
Hogan is playing the strength
for which he is noted.
[DiBiase] I back up into the corner like,
"Oh my gosh."
You know, I'm trying to convey
to the people that, you know,
what do I have to do to get this guy down?
[commentator]
DiBiase tries it again. Oh God!
[Hogan] For this to be the forefront
of the wrestling business,
the main event in Madison Square Garden,
the beginning of a whole new era,
I thought I had arrived.
[dramatic music continues]
[commentator] Ted DiBiase.
Now he has him in a bear hug.
And it could be over.
[bell ringing]
That's over.
[DiBiase] He was a heel. He beats me.
I was the good guy, and they booed him.
They booed him out of the building.
[crowd booing]
[announcer] Victorious
in his very first appearance
here in Madison Square Garden.
[Hogan] And, uh,
I started running my mouth.
Everybody is looking for an idol.
From now on, I wish to be referred to,
and I demand to be referred to
as the superhero Hulk Hogan.
I knew I would be a bad guy,
and I was really good at it.
We're now going to talk to Hulk Hogan.
[Hogan] These people
want to know what Hulk Hogan's all about.
I start out every day
by looking in the mirror
and saying, "Good morning, Mr. Hulk Hogan.
I'm happy to see you again."
I would rather see myself in the morning
than somebody ugly like you.
[man] You don't like
to brag very much, do you?
Not a bit, not at all.
Magazine offers, television appearances,
they're all coming in now.
I am the new superhero.
Then one day, they brought me this note,
"Please call Sylvester Stallone,"
about a cameo role in a Rocky movie.
[music peaks and fades]
I'll be darned.
[Johnny Carson] Who's the fellow
that you do this with?
His name is Hulk Hogan.
He is a fellow
that I saw one night on television.
I was laying… Had insomnia,
and he came on and beat up four wrestlers
at the same time.
And he was a giant,
about 7 feet tall, about 350 pounds.
[Hogan] But then I told Mr. McMahon
I was leaving Fall River that night
to fly to LA to film the movie.
He goes, "No, you're not.
You need to drive all night."
Because I had to be
on Charlotte TV at noon.
I said, "No, Mr. McMahon, I told you
I was gonna do the Rocky movie."
He goes,
"If you do the movie, you're fired."
And I had a great rapport with him.
We'd talk all the time.
It was like a father-son thing.
He'd talk me down off the ledge.
But I just knew I had to do it.
He said, "You'll never work here again."
I went, "Okay, cool." Click.
[heroic music playing]
Are you really gonna fight that wrestler?
They're so big.
That's all right. It'll be fun.
[reporter] Tonight we have
a most unlikely match for you.
The boxer against the wrestler.
[Greenberg] I remember seeing Rocky III
in the theater twice in the same week.
I felt it was a slap in the face
to everybody who made fun of me
for being a wrestling fan.
[grunting]
Now they knew what they were missing.
They could see it
right there on the big screen.
[Hogan] Here we go, baby. Lights out!
The general public all of a sudden went,
"Oh my God, is that
what a professional wrestler looks like?"
"Is that what professional wrestling is?"
-[Carson] That's a large person.
-[Stallone] Okay.
-And he eats 5'10" Italians.
-[laughter]
[Carson] We ought to get
that guy on the show.
[Hogan] I'd already shot
the Stallone movie.
I was there to do
the Johnny Carson show or something.
[Carson] Would you welcome Hulk Hogan?
Looking at the size of your arms,
I don't believe this.
-[audience laughing]
-I wish I had anything that big.
-[laughs]
-[audience laughing]
-How about your bank account?
-Bank? No.
And me and my buddy went to the Red Onion.
[Linda] The very first time I saw him,
it was in the Valley at the Red Onion.
Rocky III had just come out,
and Terry was playing
the part of Thunderlips, right?
And all of a sudden,
there was Thunderlips, baby, in the flesh…
[gasps] …coming into my bar,
and I'm looking, I'm thinking,
"This can't be happening."
"I just saw the movie last night."
Thunderlips is here!
In the flesh, baby!
The ultimate male!
There's this little posse of chicks
all around him, right?
All these girls all around him.
Like, they're touching muscles and shit.
He just kind of stood there
and just sort of, like, flexed and stuff,
and I was like,
"That's cool, I like that."
Oh my God.
[Linda] It was very intriguing
to be around somebody like that.
[Hogan] All of a sudden,
Linda came walking,
and it was like everything stopped,
because everybody in the bar watched her.
It was like every single person in the bar
watched her walk across the room.
It was like,
"Oh my God, that girl's gorgeous."
And I said, "Holy smokes."
And the second
that my foot hit the dance floor,
I felt this arm come on me.
It was as big as my thigh.
"Do you want to dance?"
"Aren't you that guy in the Rocky movie?"
I said, "I am."
She goes, "Oh, yeah, you're Mr. T."
I went, "No, I'm not Mr. T."
He was like, "It's Hulk Hogan."
I was like, "Hunk Hogan?"
I thought his name was Hunk Hogan.
Who would call themselves Hunk Hogan?
I thought, "He's an actor."
And then he told me he was a wrestler.
And I said, "What… what is that?"
He was like, "Well, you have
to experience it to comprehend it."
That was his answer was to me.
I was like,
"All right, we'll see where that goes."
After that, he goes, "Let's go back
to the apartment where I'm staying."
So we go up,
and it's this rickety-ass old apartment.
He brings me a beer.
He's like, "I'll be right back."
He goes in the bathroom, right?
I'm waiting the longest time.
All of a sudden, he comes out.
He's completely naked.
I'm like, "Well, say what you want
without saying what you want."
It was like when you go to the zoo,
and you see, like, a mammy wooloth,
or whatever they're called,
a woolly mammoth… He was huge.
We drank a couple of bottles of wine
and just hit it off great.
And how many people can say
they got fucked by a giant?
And we were together ever since.
Love brought me such a magical thing… ♪
[Gene Okerlund] Hulk,
just exactly how do you lock up?
I'm training in the bedroom.
Goosebumps from head to toe.
He was such a force of energy
and excitement and a new wave of life.
I, like, sort of got addicted quickly.
All-star wrestling action continues,
a one-fall match.
"The Incredible" Hulk Hogan.
[Hogan] When wrestling
was just territorial,
two of the big places
that everybody wanted to go was New York,
where I'd just been fired.
[bell ringing]
The other place
everybody wanted to go was Minnesota.
[epic music playing]
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,
from here in the Twin Cities, Minnesota…
[Hogan] So I sent
some 8x10 pictures from Rocky III
to a promoter named Verne Gagne
in Minnesota.
I got a message back,
"How soon can you get here?"
[Okerlund] What a welcome.
The red carpet out for you,
"The Incredible" Hulk Hogan.
[Hogan] When I went to Minnesota,
I came in as a bad guy, as a heel.
If you'd like to face them
and give our television audience
an opportunity of seeing you firsthand.
[Hogan] I'll look any way I want.
They had a real popular wrestler there
named Jesse Ventura.
And so the whole thing was they wanted
me to come in and beat Jesse up.
I'm Jesse Ventura.
Known in the world of wrestling
as Jesse "The Body" Ventura.
[announcer]
He is Jesse "The Body" Ventura!
[commentator] Jesse "The Body" Ventura,
flamboyant, gregarious, outspoken.
Let me tell you something, Chump Hogan,
you are not ready for me.
I'm pumped up. I'm excited.
You're bleeding, man.
I ain't got time to bleed.
And also ended up a mayor and a governor.
[reporter] Governor Ventura
has a new career.
I learned in the world of pro wrestling,
you never say never.
The Rocky movie came out,
and he started getting
bigger, bigger, bigger.
[commentator] "The Incredible" Hulk
taunting Jesse "The Body" Ventura.
They brought Hogan in as a villain.
[commentator 1] "The Incredible" Hulk.
Jesse "The Body" lets Hulk have one.
[commentator 2]
Jesse looking over the crowd.
[Ventura] The people really,
in a way, turned Hulk.
[crowd chanting]
Hulk! Hulk! Hulk! Hulk! Hulk! Hulk!
[Linda] The reception
was something no one had seen.
Nobody had ever seen it.
[commentator 1] The crowd
all for the one and only Hulk Hogan.
It was a great moment
because the fans were writing the plot.
There's nothing else like it.
That's why I fell in love
with the art form.
[Ventura] The people wanted to cheer him.
People wanted a hero.
[Hogan] The audiences throw that vibe out.
They'll tell you
when to be evil and aggressive.
[commentator] Arm twist.
[crowd] Hulk! Hulk! Hulk!
They'll tell you when to get even.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator]
Now some of his own medicine.
Tell you when to turn it up.
[commentator] Do you see what's happening?
The Hulk is coming alive, so is the crowd.
[Hogan] And they'll tell you
when to turn good guy.
[commentator] And Jesse into a bear hug!
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] Out goes Ventura.
Hogan is right on his tail.
This one is no contest.
The Hulk driving his fist
to the head of Jesse "The Body" Ventura.
Is Ventura going back to the locker room?
It looks like he is.
[Hogan] I became the good guy.
Hulk Hogan!
[commentator] His thousands
and thousands of fans are saying,
"Hey, you're the one."
This is the happiest day in all my life.
Once I was a sinner, and now I'm a saint.
The reason is because of Dusty Rhodes.
Dusty Rhodes, "The American Dream."
Dreams that you saved up for a lifetime,
and that's things
that you couldn't reach out and get.
"The Dream" taught me
what it was all about.
He taught me about loving, living,
fighting, and getting down to war.
About ten years ago,
I left Tampa, Florida, my hometown,
with a big chip on my shoulder.
I took on all the top contenders, Daddy.
And then the day of reckoning came.
The only way to really grow
in the professional wrestling business
is to make yourself bigger.
Not just physically bigger,
but bigger as a personality.
And that's what he did.
Man, oh, man.
What time is it, little dude?
What time do you have right there, man?
-[man] Eight o'clock.
-Eight o'clock?
I feel like I've been awake
for 40 days and 40 nights, man.
And the reason why…
[Linda] He got it, you know?
And it was crazy because I remember
listening to him
kind of cut through a promo.
Where does this redneck get off at?
Where does he get off at?
He started getting creepy, and weird shit,
you know, and I'm like…
And for one moment, I felt a power
like I've never felt before.
A lightning bolt hit me.
He had a great promo.
On a scale of one to ten,
Hulk Hogan was a ten.
[Hogan] If your Richter scale
spins around three and four times,
it's not an earthquake.
It's just me pressing that big Elijah
over my head in the Sun Dome.
[Bret] Hulk Hogan would talk
for 59 seconds exactly,
and it was like, "Cut, that's a take."
I don't like to overthink things.
There's nothing to think about either.
You either can dance and play the guitar
and play the fiddle, or you can't.
[announcer] At the age of 30,
Hogan is one of the most colorful
good guys in the game.
[Hogan] I figured my entrance out.
I had the music.
I had it really, really rocking,
if you watch the old Minnesota tapes.
But I didn't have
the most important thing.
I needed a gimmick.
[chuckles]
[Linda] He was a super smart guy.
He could figure out the big picture
more than other people could.
His wheels were turning,
and the character
was never not on his mind.
[Hogan] Whether it's a big guy, fat guy,
hairy guy, bodybuilder shape, whatever,
a great gimmick
needs to transcend the wrestler.
And patriotism back then meant everything.
[crowd] USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
[Hogan] I wasn't
into politics at the time,
but we were in a situation
where our country
was starting to make a comeback.
It is time for us to realize
that we are too great a nation
to limit ourselves to small dreams.
Those who say that we're in a time
when there are no heroes…
[crowd cheering]
…they just don't know where to look.
[Linda] And the fans were so, like, "USA!"
All that "USA" and stuff.
Of course he comes out with a flag.
You know, it was just so pro-America
that he couldn't even
make a mistake, honestly.
[heroic rendition
of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" playing]
[crowd cheering]
So it was all timing
and being there with the sun,
moon, the stars, everything aligned,
and doing everything at the right moment.
The American reality,
I'll tell you what it's about.
It's believing in yourself.
I say my prayers,
I eat my vitamins every day.
And the life I live isn't a lie.
It's what I believe in.
And people can get off on that
because I'm for real.
They look at me and say,
"He's not a phony."
When I bench press 550 pounds
before your eyes, little dude,
you say that's real.
Everything I do is for real,
and I never tell a lie.
[commentator] "The Incredible" Hulk Hogan,
he hears them.
Oh, does he hear them.
Oh, the crowd loves this man.
[reporter] Hulk Hogan is here,
and everything is right
with the wrestling world.
[commentator] Ventura goes over.
Enter Hulk, "The Incredible" Hulk.
[crowd cheering loudly]
[Hogan] I was becoming a huge force
in the wrestling business.
It just so happened, during that time,
this kid came through the curtain.
He gave me a card, says, "Call Vince."
"I'm not calling Vince. He fired me. "
He goes, "No, Vince Jr. Call Vince Jr."
"He's getting ready
to take over for his dad in New York."
We're honored to have with us
the voice of professional wrestling,
Vince McMahon.
[Hogan] And Vince Jr. said,
"Look, I see what you're doing
with this Hulk Hogan character."
[commentator] Hulk Hogan,
I'd say that there has never before
ever been any individual
in the history of professional wrestling
that brings a crowd to their feet
with that enormous electricity.
[Hogan] The masses and the general public
still didn't know
anything about wrestling.
It wasn't mainstream yet.
And he said,
"Look, I've got this idea
to make you the biggest star
that this wrestling business
has ever had."
Our main event…
[epic music playing]
[Hogan] All of a sudden,
I started going, "Okay,"
you know,
"this Hulk thing is starting to work."
[cheering]
Hulk Hogan!
[interviewer]
How was your ego at the time?
Um…
Anybody out there
who doesn't know about Hulk Hogan,
slap yourself in the side of the head.
Look into the camera,
there's a man talking to you.
To be completely honest with you,
it was way, way, way,
way bigger than it should've been.
[Linda] Hulkamania!
Superman!
I just didn't realize the responsibility
that came along with it.
[Linda] Yeah, let's party!
He is a nightmare.
["Hulkster's In the House" by Hulk Hogan
and the Wrestling Boot Band playing]
The Hulkster's in the house ♪
Check him out, check him out ♪
Get up off your seat ♪
He's got a brand new beat ♪
When the going gets tough
The tough get rough ♪
Hey hey, oh oh, come on, let's go ♪
Hey hey, oh oh, come on, let's go ♪
The Hulkster's in the room ♪
You know he's on the move ♪
I can feel it in my feet ♪
We're moving to the beat ♪
When the going gets tough
The tough get rough ♪
Hey hey, oh oh, come on, let's go ♪
Hey hey, oh oh, come on, let's go ♪
When the going gets tough
The tough get rough ♪
Hey hey, oh oh, come on, let's go… ♪
[reporter 1] Hulk Hogan,
who some consider to be
the biggest wrestling star of all time,
has died.
[reporter 2] Terry Bollea,
better known as Hulk Hogan,
died today after suffering cardiac arrest
at his home in Clearwater, Florida.
[reporter 3] Hogan's manager tells us
that he passed away surrounded by family.
[solemn music heightens]
[reporter 4] His wild personality,
pumped up physique,
and handlebar mustache
made him the face
of professional wrestling.
His legacy also comes with controversy.
[man] This won't surprise you, but I used
to watch him every day after school.
-[host] Like a lot of kids.
-[man] Yeah.
[host] Unlike a lot of superheroes,
Superman, Batman,
you couldn't touch them, he was tangible.
-[man] Sure.
-[host] To a lot of people.
[reporter 5] They're very sad to see
their legend, their childhood hero,
gone in what seems like such a sudden way.
[music fades]
[grunting echoes]
[grunting and exhaling]
[Hogan grunts]
[exhales]
[puffs]
[dramatic music builds]
Oh. [grunts]
That's the hardest part, standing up.
Old people take a long time to get going.
Whoo.
[grunts]
[continues grunting]
When I was the world's champion,
I had this crazy gym.
Over the years, we've kind of scaled down
to the… to the Geritol equipment here.
[chuckles]
[grunts]
[interviewer] Do you feel strong?
I feel okay,
but it's a pain in the butt, you know,
because I have my son take the tops
off water bottles all the time for me
because I can't turn them.
Kind of embarrassing in a little way.
[chuckles]
But it's all good, huh?
-[Nick Hogan] Ain't that bad.
-Could be worse.
-I don't know. It's part of the deal, man.
-[Nick] Yeah.
-You know?
-[Nick] Keep you humble.
It keeps me humble.
Keeps me very grateful.
In my mind,
I still think I'm 35 or 40 years old,
but as soon as I look in the mirror,
I go, "Who the hell's that?"
[dumbbell lands on floor]
Getting down here
is like the only real peace in my life.
Once I'd get in that ring,
I wouldn't worry about kids, wives,
bills, problems, legal, criminal.
[chuckling] Any type of problems.
[exhales, then grunts]
But I don't have that anymore.
In wrestling, you should be remembered
from the wars you've been in
and everything you've done.
[crowd cheering]
And a lot of that's been taken away
in the last 20 years.
[reporter 1] Was there
a sinister side to his success?
[reporter 2] Today, the WWE announced
they were dropping Hogan.
Hulk Hogan fired by the WWE…
[man] I think he's a liar.
I think he's a coward.
[interviewer]
There's certainly some things
that you would want to be remembered for
more than others, right?
[tape rewinding]
Yeah.
[exhales]
Of course.
["It's a Long Way to the Top"
by AC/DC playing]
[Hogan] I think people
wanna know the truth.
-Who was this guy, really?
-[Linda Hogan] Is Hulk in the building?
Look what I'm married to.
Yeah, yeah.
I believe in what I'm doing,
and people get behind that.
They get behind me.
They know I train, pray, eat my vitamins.
If you say your prayers,
if you eat your vitamins, man,
sooner or later, you get what you want.
This is serious.
Come on, Hulk!
Ridin' down the highway ♪
Goin' to a show ♪
[announcer] Beach-boy blonde,
his body of bronze,
standing 6'9", and weighing 345.
His name is Hulk Hogan.
[presenter] When you were born,
they didn't say,
"This looks like a baby Hulk.
We'll name him Hulk Hogan."
[both chuckling]
No, but I grew into the name,
that's for sure.
What you gonna do
when Hulkamania runs wild on you?
It's a long way to the top
If you wanna rock 'n' roll… ♪
[reporter 1] Today, he is
the biggest name in wrestling.
It's a long way to the top… ♪
[reporter 2] One of the most famous
athletes in the history of the world.
Man, it feels great
to be on top of the mountain!
It feels like I got
about a million volts of electricity
running through these 24-inch pythons!
[toy] Hulkster rules, brother.
[reporter 3] A man who calls himself
the ultimate male.
[reporter 4] The ultimate all-American.
Here in America, you gotta work hard,
love hard, and die hard, man.
Such a long way ♪
-[music ends]
-[clang echoes]
[Hogan] I can't predict
and tell you right now
what the final act
of the story is gonna be.
[nostalgic music playing]
I'm not looking for a legacy
pat on the back, for sure.
Not everyone is going to love you.
Some people hate me, but…
I'm definitely the greatest wrestler
of all time.
I'm Hulk Hogan.
-Mr. Hulk Hogan!
-[crowd cheering]
Here he is, Hulk Hogan!
[presenter] The man
who needs no introduction.
-Hogan!
-Would you welcome Hulk Hogan?
[crowd cheering]
I'm Hulk Hogan.
[gentle music playing]
Let's see if I can get through another day
and listen to myself talk.
-Good grief.
-[interviewer chuckles]
[Hogan] Moments away.
Makeup and hair, please.
[imitates voice of female makeup artist]
"I'm here. I can do this."
"Couple of frizzies here, Hulk."
[as Hogan] "Thank you, dear."
["Va, pensiero" from Nabucco
by Giuseppe Verdi playing]
[reporter] Fans recognize
Hulk Hogan as a hero.
[reporter 2] He's bigger than life.
A real hero who gives his all
for all the right reasons.
[interviewer]
Do you consider yourself a hero?
[Hogan]
I don't consider myself a hero at all.
But I'm very aware now,
after all these years,
what that Hulk Hogan presence means,
um, you know, to the fans.
[yelling excitedly]
"I was not a mere mortal man."
"I was the superhero Hulk Hogan,"
when I had my stature.
[yells]
The Hulk Hogan character is over the top.
It's a fake character.
You know, hopefully people
can understand that someday.
Man, I say my prayers, take my vitamins,
and everything I do is positive.
But, yeah, it's two different people.
You know, it's like me playing Dracula.
I don't come home
and bite my wife in the neck
and suck the blood out of my kids' necks.
But, duh, if you want
to believe that, go ahead.
But when I come in the house,
the headband comes off,
the bald head's there,
and my wife calls me Terry.
-[Linda] Terry! Why do you do that?
-Watch this.
Terry won't leave this part out.
We're going to take some movies of Terry,
and we're going to make a video.
There were only a handful of people
knew him as Terry.
I knew him deeply as himself.
Oh my God, look at this.
We were always tan.
I turned Terry on to a tanning bed.
He didn't even know what they were,
and he had to stay tanned for work.
Oop, Terry's naked.
["Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)"
by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel playing]
You've broken every code… ♪
[cheering]
[Linda] The fans just liked believing
that Hulk was like Superman.
[commentator] Drop it out there! One…
You spoiled the game… ♪
-Hey!
-[Linda] I know him.
When you're with somebody that long,
through thick and thin, good and bad,
tired, happy, sad, you know,
you learn that person very well.
Ooh, la-la-la ♪
And I was always the one with the camera.
This is the, uh, greatest wall,
because the greatest person
is on this wall.
When I met Terry, I asked,
"Do you have family?"
He laid out his situation.
Let's show these people the refrigerator
that took me from a mere 196 pounds
when I was 12 years old
to a whopping 305-pound Hulk Hogan.
I grew up in Florida, in South Tampa.
We were broke, and I hated it.
Especially watching how my dad slaved
in the sun as a construction worker.
-These old broken steps, man.
-[Linda] Yeah.
As a kid, I made a decision
that financially I'd never live like that.
[Linda] We got Pete Bollea.
[Hogan] My dad was that old,
hard-school Italian, you know.
And he was a little rough on me,
that's for sure.
They weren't the type of parents
that would tell you they love you.
That would never happen.
Terry was a mistake-type child.
They had Allan,
and then eight years later, had Terry.
My older brother, Allan,
he was the tough guy.
Allan was my dad's favorite.
He was always talking
about how strong he was,
and he would just tell me, you know,
"You're not like your brother," you know?
I didn't understand that
and always had a big chip on my shoulder.
But, you know, I hated confrontations.
[Linda] He wasn't
the loudmouth you see on TV.
He was very soft-spoken, shy.
No, I wasn't always this confident.
[interviewer] When did that change?
[upbeat music playing]
[Hogan] On the weekends,
Florida Championship Wrestling
would come on the TV back then.
I'd never seen anything like that.
["Over the Top"
by Graham Preskett playing]
[commentator speaking indistinctly]
I had no idea that this existed.
I was probably 8 or 9 years old
when we first went in person.
They had these great characters,
the conflict between good and bad,
how into it the fans were,
they were loyal, dedicated fans.
I love it! I love it!
[Hogan] There was this love and energy
that they were all getting there.
I could feel it, man.
And the one guy that really hooked me
was "The American Dream," Dusty Rhodes.
[announcer] Truly, the idol of the people,
"The American Dream."
[Hogan] His whole rap reeled us in.
The razzmatazz,
my new Flandango waltz hold.
I'm so quick, I'm so fast,
Terry Funk is nothing but a punk.
[Hogan] The energy
would just drag you up out of any hole.
I went there all through childhood.
I was hooked.
That's what I wanted to do.
I wanted to be a wrestler.
[music ends]
The problem was
I was scared to death of those guys.
[growls]
Most of them were 300 pounds and over,
and they had teeth knocked out
and broken noses and cauliflower ears.
It scared the bejesus out of me.
I believed professional wrestling
was completely real.
I knew I couldn't do it.
I was real fat.
Didn't take my shirt off, ever,
when I went to the beach
because I needed a bra.
Pretty much, I was living off, you know,
Burger King and Snickers bars.
Played Little League baseball.
But they could throw me out at second.
I was so fat and slow.
So I got into bowling.
But then my life changed when I realized
I could make money playing music.
[rock music playing]
[Linda] Terry was a talented bass player.
He would have been Guns N' Roses,
like, he's that level.
I learned that I liked being
in front of the crowd and being on stage.
But my dad was upset
that I had quit school
and was running around
in a rock and roll band
and lifting weights like an idiot.
It led to me, you know,
having a big blow out with my parents
and getting kicked out of the house.
You got it ♪
So, a few years after high school,
we had a little following in North Tampa.
Then all of a sudden,
these wrestlers were coming in the bar.
[gasps] Oh my gosh,
I'm on stage, and here's these guys.
I'm scared to death of guys
like "Superstar" Billy Graham.
You know what a fist sandwich is?
[Hogan] And Brian Blair.
My first memory of meeting Terry
was when he was playing bass guitar,
and he'd stand out so much.
He was in these platform heels
and had jewelry on,
and long blonde hair, suntan, big muscles.
I mean, he was the show.
The music was good,
but he was, like, the show.
What shocked me more than anything
was that they weren't mean to me.
[chuckles]
I didn't realize they were grooming me.
[engine rumbling]
And they took me to all the matches,
so I could get in free.
[solemn music playing]
And then one of the biggest nights
of my life changed everything.
We saw Steve Keirn
at Fort Homer Hesterly Armory.
The bad guy was just waylaying his ass,
and the referee told him to knock it off.
"Let go of me, ref."
I remember he looked right down
at Steve Keirn.
I read his lips.
He said, "Hit me. Hit me."
I went, "What?"
And Steve hit him.
And he goes, "Again, again."
And he made this comeback from underneath.
I was like, "What?!"
I just didn't believe it.
I was disillusioned for about two seconds,
and I got over it.
All of a sudden, the door opens
and I knew I didn't have to be a tough guy
to get in the business.
[heroic music playing]
[Blair] They don't want to tell you
that it's not real.
They want you to believe that it is.
But people don't realize
what your body goes through.
You get your butt kicked
in professional wrestling.
[music fades]
Wow.
I remember all too well.
This is where
Terry and I learned to wrestle.
It was called The Dungeon.
["Showbiz Kid" by Sleaze playing]
[Hogan]
I had made the decision to go for it.
And I just believed that I knew exactly
what I had to do to run with the pack.
[Blair] It was brutal. Brutal.
What you had to go through
to get into the business.
The newer guys, they have no clue.
They have no clue.
[Hogan] I spent a year in the gym
training twice a day
and laying in the sun all day long.
And like a fool, I told everybody
I was going to be a wrestler.
"I'm going to be a wrestler."
That's the wrong thing to do.
One of the teachers
put his forearm in my shin
and grabbed my toe, snap.
And they broke his leg,
literally broke it.
-[music ends]
-[bone cracks]
I was living in a hotel room at the time.
Um…
I tried to come home whenever I could,
but I wasn't welcome there, you know.
[speaking indistinctly]
When my dad would go to work,
I'd run back to the house.
Sweetheart.
[Hogan] My mom would cook for me
and take care of me.
Then I could sleep in his bed.
"You gotta get outta here.
Your dad's coming home." So I'd take off.
You know, my leg getting broke
was minuscule
compared to what he put me through, so.
Bang, bang, bang!
I had to go back.
There was no quitting for me.
[groans]
As soon as I got better,
I started showing up down there.
[intense music playing]
[Linda] That made Terry
want to try even harder.
Like, "You're not gonna keep me down."
[Blair] He just was like a Timex.
He took the licking and kept on ticking.
[Hogan] Bang on.
That's Terry.
That's the Hulkster. That's him.
[intense music continues]
[Blair] Terry's first match
was against me.
He came out with a mask on
as the Super Destroyer.
And he looked dorky.
[announcer] Super Destroyer!
[fans cheering]
[Keith Greenberg] Terry Bollea
did not complete his training
and immediately become Hulk Hogan.
I mean, you have to pay your dues,
and you have to develop your persona.
I'm a professional wrestling historian
and author.
And despite my youthful appearance,
I've been covering the sport of kings
for more than 40 years.
Terry Bollea's youth and his size
made you take notice.
He had genetic gifts.
The Super Destroyer was masked,
and I believe that was deliberate.
I was getting beat everywhere.
They didn't want
people to see me getting beat.
I had to learn how to work in the ring.
This is someone
who had the potential to be a notable.
But he wasn't there yet.
He was very green.
Put the guy under a mask.
Let him make his mistakes.
Later on,
we can make him into a real character.
[music fades]
["Va, pensiero" from Nabucco
by Giuseppe Verdi playing]
Oh my God.
Wrestling was very territorial back then.
[Greenberg] Like the American mob,
professional wrestling promoters
formed an organization
that would divide
North America into territories.
You're supposed to stay
six or seven months in each place,
then get your bags and move.
I was driving like 25,
26 hundred miles a week.
["All the Way From Memphis"
by Mott the Hoople playing]
I was finally, you know,
trading a real life for a wrestling life.
-[engine rumbling]
-Rock and roll. Yes, sir, buddy.
So I went up to Memphis.
Forgot my six-string razor… ♪
And I took off the mask.
Hit the sky… ♪
And changed my name to be Terry Boulder.
Halfway to Memphis 'fore I realized ♪
Well, I rang the information… ♪
Gonna have to buy a ticket
to see my face, brother.
Come in the ring,
full head of blonde hair.
Largest arms in the world.
Largest back in the world.
He's rock solid like a boulder,
so it's a good name.
[announcer] That's Terry Boulder,
295 pounds, from Tampa.
Oh, slammed by Boulder.
[Hogan] And this Monday night in Memphis,
Daddy, when I get a hold of you,
I'm gonna take you and bury your head
right in the mat, brother.
I'm gonna teach you
a bit of a wrestling lesson,
a little respect
for these good people here.
I'm gonna put
the super southern squeeze on you, Daddy.
"I'm Terry Boulder, and when I get
this super southern squeeze on you,
it'll be lights out for you
and whoever's around."
And I was talking like that.
I mean, seriously.
Hulk Hogan didn't exist yet.
[music fades]
[Jimmy Hart] First time I saw Hulk,
I really wasn't in the wrestling business.
That happened years later.
Come on in.
Can you believe a WWE Hall of Famer
sitting out here waiting all day for you
to get here? This is too much. Too much!
[announcer] Here is
"The Mouth of the South," Jimmy Hart.
Come on, show him what it's all about.
Show him what it's all about,
Mega-Maniacs!
Can you believe this?
Jimmy Hart, manager of Hulk Hogan.
To the fans, I was Hulk's manager.
Wrestling manager,
not real, real, real, real manager.
You've been wearing
that outfit since 1983.
[Hart] And I'll always wear it.
-[host] I'm done with you.
-Done?
-Let's talk to Hulk.
-[Hogan] Jimmy!
-[scuffling and grunting]
-[woman] Oh my God.
I want to talk about Jimmy Hart!
You wanna talk about and mess about?
If it wasn't for two people in my life,
Jerry Lawler and Hulk Hogan,
there'd be no Jimmy Hart.
Trust me on that, and I really mean that.
I went to high school with
Jerry "The King" Lawler, back in Memphis.
To the wrestling fans,
there was nobody bigger
than Jerry "The King" Lawler.
[announcer] Jerry "The King" Lawler!
[Hart] And I remember one night,
I went by the Coliseum to see wrestling.
Jerry Lawler goes, "Jimmy, come here."
I said, "What is it?"
He goes, "You see that guy?"
I went, "Yeah."
"What do you think?"
I went, "Wow, man, unbelievable."
"What do they call him?"
He said, "Terry Boulder."
And I went, "God, he looks great."
He goes, "He asked me to manage him."
I said, "You gonna do it?"
He said, "Are you kidding?"
"This guy'll never make a dime
in this business."
He was not very good.
[chuckling] I'll be honest with you.
Hogan was very big, of course.
Everybody knew that.
But not on the same level
as other wrestlers.
[Hart] He was just kind
of getting his feet wet.
[Hogan] I started making $800 a week.
You needed to make at least $1,000
to buy food and gas
and pay for hotel rooms back then.
-[yelling]
-[Hart] Hulk learned a lot from Lawler.
[Lawler] One thing I told him,
"You need to take a punch,
but you don't need to take a bump."
"You just stand there and overcome that
with your size and your strength."
-[man 1] In the elbow!
-[man 2] Not doing much damage.
[man 1] The amazing size
of this Terry Boulder,
truly one of the greats
in professional wrestling.
[Bret Hart] He was super green.
I wrestled him in Atlanta
quite a few times in that period.
[announcer] About to enter the ring,
Bret "The Hitman" Hart.
["Crazy" by Casino playing]
And the match was always
about 30 seconds long.
[Hogan] Maybe you people don't realize
what you're looking at, Daddy.
But you got 6'7" right here,
a mountain of a man.
I knew more about wrestling then
than he knew in his whole life.
[Hogan] Anybody who wants
to step in the ring,
I have $1,000 up for anybody
who can break the golden squeeze.
All it was was a bear hug.
That's all he could do.
Oh, what a night it's gonna be ♪
[commentator 1] Look at that.
Look at that. Can you believe that?
[commentator 2] Now with him
in the air like a piece of meat,
and a bear hug,
I suspect we'll hear the submission.
-[commentator 1] Yes, indeed.
-[announcer] Amazing!
[Bret] That's all he needed to do.
It was believable enough.
It was a sight to see a guy like that
squeeze the daylights out of you,
and throw you down on the mat
and walk around.
[Greenberg] He was unbeatable.
He was just so big.
He really didn't look like a human being.
He looked like somebody
who did step out of a comic book.
[Hogan] At that point, all the promoters,
they said, "You're bigger than The Hulk."
[Greenberg] A big muscular monster,
so that's a good name.
[Hogan] And that's where
Terry "The Hulk" Boulder started.
[commentator] Oh, there's that big leg.
Huge man.
First thing I did was
I did a video standing
on Jerry Jarrett's kitchen room table.
[man] When they see this guy,
they won't forget
that Terry Boulder is The Hulk.
Let's take a look at it right now.
[narrator] This man
is not a television illusion.
He is not an artist's conception.
He is not a figment of the imagination.
He is real.
He is The Hulk.
[upbeat music playing]
That made him into a superhero.
It really did.
"He's The Hulk." It's… It was terrible.
Not a lot was expected from Hulk Hogan
in terms of character.
He was intriguing,
and they wanted to see more of him.
-[announcer 1] And here comes.
-[announcer 2] Terry "The Hulk" Boulder.
[Hogan] I'd show up. They put me
in the main event everywhere we go.
The character didn't really have a persona
other than he was big and nasty and mean.
[commentator] We have a confrontation now.
We could have some problems here and now.
Everybody's been running scared.
They've been feeding me this Grade B meat
every week on TV.
I want the best now.
All these superstars who have been hiding
in the eye of the storm, brother.
I've been whipping everybody.
As I was becoming more popular,
all the promoters, they said,
"With your look and as big as you are,
you need to be in New York."
[dramatic music playing]
Madison Square Garden
is the epitome of wrestling.
"There was a guy
named Vince McMahon Sr. who called."
"And he wants you to come to New York."
[bell ringing]
So I went up there,
and Vince McMahon's clicking quarters,
looking at me.
"I want you to come to work for me,
work nothing but main events,
and draw money all over the world."
I said, "Oh, really?"
"First off, I would change the name."
[announcer]
Here is "The Incredible" Hulk Hogan!
[cheering]
And I said, "What is a Hulk Hogan?"
What does that mean?
Back in the day,
my dad gave him his name.
He was this big kid,
and my dad, of course, being Irish,
decided Hogan is a great name.
So why not Hulk Hogan?
It was alliterative,
so let's go with that.
[Hogan, with Italian accent]
But I'm Italiano.
Vince said, "Doesn't matter to me."
"Yeah, okay, I'll think about it."
[announcer] His opponent makes
his Madison Square Garden debut,
"The Incredible" Hulk Hogan!
The very first match that Hulk Hogan
ever had at Madison Square Garden
was with yours truly, Ted DiBiase.
Here is "The Million Dollar Man,"
Ted DiBiase!
[laughing evilly]
Money, money ♪
[cackling]
[announcer] Ted DiBiase!
When Hulk and I had that match,
Vince McMahon Sr. came to me, and he said,
"We have really high hopes for this guy."
"I really want you to get him over
as best you can."
Putting someone over means he's gonna win.
And I said, "You got it, boss."
He was brand new.
He was obviously just still learning.
But my job was
to make him look really good.
[bell ringing]
When we first locked up,
you know, he powers out.
[commentator] And Hogan
breaks the full-nelson.
Hogan is playing the strength
for which he is noted.
[DiBiase] I back up into the corner like,
"Oh my gosh."
You know, I'm trying to convey
to the people that, you know,
what do I have to do to get this guy down?
[commentator]
DiBiase tries it again. Oh God!
[Hogan] For this to be the forefront
of the wrestling business,
the main event in Madison Square Garden,
the beginning of a whole new era,
I thought I had arrived.
[dramatic music continues]
[commentator] Ted DiBiase.
Now he has him in a bear hug.
And it could be over.
[bell ringing]
That's over.
[DiBiase] He was a heel. He beats me.
I was the good guy, and they booed him.
They booed him out of the building.
[crowd booing]
[announcer] Victorious
in his very first appearance
here in Madison Square Garden.
[Hogan] And, uh,
I started running my mouth.
Everybody is looking for an idol.
From now on, I wish to be referred to,
and I demand to be referred to
as the superhero Hulk Hogan.
I knew I would be a bad guy,
and I was really good at it.
We're now going to talk to Hulk Hogan.
[Hogan] These people
want to know what Hulk Hogan's all about.
I start out every day
by looking in the mirror
and saying, "Good morning, Mr. Hulk Hogan.
I'm happy to see you again."
I would rather see myself in the morning
than somebody ugly like you.
[man] You don't like
to brag very much, do you?
Not a bit, not at all.
Magazine offers, television appearances,
they're all coming in now.
I am the new superhero.
Then one day, they brought me this note,
"Please call Sylvester Stallone,"
about a cameo role in a Rocky movie.
[music peaks and fades]
I'll be darned.
[Johnny Carson] Who's the fellow
that you do this with?
His name is Hulk Hogan.
He is a fellow
that I saw one night on television.
I was laying… Had insomnia,
and he came on and beat up four wrestlers
at the same time.
And he was a giant,
about 7 feet tall, about 350 pounds.
[Hogan] But then I told Mr. McMahon
I was leaving Fall River that night
to fly to LA to film the movie.
He goes, "No, you're not.
You need to drive all night."
Because I had to be
on Charlotte TV at noon.
I said, "No, Mr. McMahon, I told you
I was gonna do the Rocky movie."
He goes,
"If you do the movie, you're fired."
And I had a great rapport with him.
We'd talk all the time.
It was like a father-son thing.
He'd talk me down off the ledge.
But I just knew I had to do it.
He said, "You'll never work here again."
I went, "Okay, cool." Click.
[heroic music playing]
Are you really gonna fight that wrestler?
They're so big.
That's all right. It'll be fun.
[reporter] Tonight we have
a most unlikely match for you.
The boxer against the wrestler.
[Greenberg] I remember seeing Rocky III
in the theater twice in the same week.
I felt it was a slap in the face
to everybody who made fun of me
for being a wrestling fan.
[grunting]
Now they knew what they were missing.
They could see it
right there on the big screen.
[Hogan] Here we go, baby. Lights out!
The general public all of a sudden went,
"Oh my God, is that
what a professional wrestler looks like?"
"Is that what professional wrestling is?"
-[Carson] That's a large person.
-[Stallone] Okay.
-And he eats 5'10" Italians.
-[laughter]
[Carson] We ought to get
that guy on the show.
[Hogan] I'd already shot
the Stallone movie.
I was there to do
the Johnny Carson show or something.
[Carson] Would you welcome Hulk Hogan?
Looking at the size of your arms,
I don't believe this.
-[audience laughing]
-I wish I had anything that big.
-[laughs]
-[audience laughing]
-How about your bank account?
-Bank? No.
And me and my buddy went to the Red Onion.
[Linda] The very first time I saw him,
it was in the Valley at the Red Onion.
Rocky III had just come out,
and Terry was playing
the part of Thunderlips, right?
And all of a sudden,
there was Thunderlips, baby, in the flesh…
[gasps] …coming into my bar,
and I'm looking, I'm thinking,
"This can't be happening."
"I just saw the movie last night."
Thunderlips is here!
In the flesh, baby!
The ultimate male!
There's this little posse of chicks
all around him, right?
All these girls all around him.
Like, they're touching muscles and shit.
He just kind of stood there
and just sort of, like, flexed and stuff,
and I was like,
"That's cool, I like that."
Oh my God.
[Linda] It was very intriguing
to be around somebody like that.
[Hogan] All of a sudden,
Linda came walking,
and it was like everything stopped,
because everybody in the bar watched her.
It was like every single person in the bar
watched her walk across the room.
It was like,
"Oh my God, that girl's gorgeous."
And I said, "Holy smokes."
And the second
that my foot hit the dance floor,
I felt this arm come on me.
It was as big as my thigh.
"Do you want to dance?"
"Aren't you that guy in the Rocky movie?"
I said, "I am."
She goes, "Oh, yeah, you're Mr. T."
I went, "No, I'm not Mr. T."
He was like, "It's Hulk Hogan."
I was like, "Hunk Hogan?"
I thought his name was Hunk Hogan.
Who would call themselves Hunk Hogan?
I thought, "He's an actor."
And then he told me he was a wrestler.
And I said, "What… what is that?"
He was like, "Well, you have
to experience it to comprehend it."
That was his answer was to me.
I was like,
"All right, we'll see where that goes."
After that, he goes, "Let's go back
to the apartment where I'm staying."
So we go up,
and it's this rickety-ass old apartment.
He brings me a beer.
He's like, "I'll be right back."
He goes in the bathroom, right?
I'm waiting the longest time.
All of a sudden, he comes out.
He's completely naked.
I'm like, "Well, say what you want
without saying what you want."
It was like when you go to the zoo,
and you see, like, a mammy wooloth,
or whatever they're called,
a woolly mammoth… He was huge.
We drank a couple of bottles of wine
and just hit it off great.
And how many people can say
they got fucked by a giant?
And we were together ever since.
Love brought me such a magical thing… ♪
[Gene Okerlund] Hulk,
just exactly how do you lock up?
I'm training in the bedroom.
Goosebumps from head to toe.
He was such a force of energy
and excitement and a new wave of life.
I, like, sort of got addicted quickly.
All-star wrestling action continues,
a one-fall match.
"The Incredible" Hulk Hogan.
[Hogan] When wrestling
was just territorial,
two of the big places
that everybody wanted to go was New York,
where I'd just been fired.
[bell ringing]
The other place
everybody wanted to go was Minnesota.
[epic music playing]
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,
from here in the Twin Cities, Minnesota…
[Hogan] So I sent
some 8x10 pictures from Rocky III
to a promoter named Verne Gagne
in Minnesota.
I got a message back,
"How soon can you get here?"
[Okerlund] What a welcome.
The red carpet out for you,
"The Incredible" Hulk Hogan.
[Hogan] When I went to Minnesota,
I came in as a bad guy, as a heel.
If you'd like to face them
and give our television audience
an opportunity of seeing you firsthand.
[Hogan] I'll look any way I want.
They had a real popular wrestler there
named Jesse Ventura.
And so the whole thing was they wanted
me to come in and beat Jesse up.
I'm Jesse Ventura.
Known in the world of wrestling
as Jesse "The Body" Ventura.
[announcer]
He is Jesse "The Body" Ventura!
[commentator] Jesse "The Body" Ventura,
flamboyant, gregarious, outspoken.
Let me tell you something, Chump Hogan,
you are not ready for me.
I'm pumped up. I'm excited.
You're bleeding, man.
I ain't got time to bleed.
And also ended up a mayor and a governor.
[reporter] Governor Ventura
has a new career.
I learned in the world of pro wrestling,
you never say never.
The Rocky movie came out,
and he started getting
bigger, bigger, bigger.
[commentator] "The Incredible" Hulk
taunting Jesse "The Body" Ventura.
They brought Hogan in as a villain.
[commentator 1] "The Incredible" Hulk.
Jesse "The Body" lets Hulk have one.
[commentator 2]
Jesse looking over the crowd.
[Ventura] The people really,
in a way, turned Hulk.
[crowd chanting]
Hulk! Hulk! Hulk! Hulk! Hulk! Hulk!
[Linda] The reception
was something no one had seen.
Nobody had ever seen it.
[commentator 1] The crowd
all for the one and only Hulk Hogan.
It was a great moment
because the fans were writing the plot.
There's nothing else like it.
That's why I fell in love
with the art form.
[Ventura] The people wanted to cheer him.
People wanted a hero.
[Hogan] The audiences throw that vibe out.
They'll tell you
when to be evil and aggressive.
[commentator] Arm twist.
[crowd] Hulk! Hulk! Hulk!
They'll tell you when to get even.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator]
Now some of his own medicine.
Tell you when to turn it up.
[commentator] Do you see what's happening?
The Hulk is coming alive, so is the crowd.
[Hogan] And they'll tell you
when to turn good guy.
[commentator] And Jesse into a bear hug!
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] Out goes Ventura.
Hogan is right on his tail.
This one is no contest.
The Hulk driving his fist
to the head of Jesse "The Body" Ventura.
Is Ventura going back to the locker room?
It looks like he is.
[Hogan] I became the good guy.
Hulk Hogan!
[commentator] His thousands
and thousands of fans are saying,
"Hey, you're the one."
This is the happiest day in all my life.
Once I was a sinner, and now I'm a saint.
The reason is because of Dusty Rhodes.
Dusty Rhodes, "The American Dream."
Dreams that you saved up for a lifetime,
and that's things
that you couldn't reach out and get.
"The Dream" taught me
what it was all about.
He taught me about loving, living,
fighting, and getting down to war.
About ten years ago,
I left Tampa, Florida, my hometown,
with a big chip on my shoulder.
I took on all the top contenders, Daddy.
And then the day of reckoning came.
The only way to really grow
in the professional wrestling business
is to make yourself bigger.
Not just physically bigger,
but bigger as a personality.
And that's what he did.
Man, oh, man.
What time is it, little dude?
What time do you have right there, man?
-[man] Eight o'clock.
-Eight o'clock?
I feel like I've been awake
for 40 days and 40 nights, man.
And the reason why…
[Linda] He got it, you know?
And it was crazy because I remember
listening to him
kind of cut through a promo.
Where does this redneck get off at?
Where does he get off at?
He started getting creepy, and weird shit,
you know, and I'm like…
And for one moment, I felt a power
like I've never felt before.
A lightning bolt hit me.
He had a great promo.
On a scale of one to ten,
Hulk Hogan was a ten.
[Hogan] If your Richter scale
spins around three and four times,
it's not an earthquake.
It's just me pressing that big Elijah
over my head in the Sun Dome.
[Bret] Hulk Hogan would talk
for 59 seconds exactly,
and it was like, "Cut, that's a take."
I don't like to overthink things.
There's nothing to think about either.
You either can dance and play the guitar
and play the fiddle, or you can't.
[announcer] At the age of 30,
Hogan is one of the most colorful
good guys in the game.
[Hogan] I figured my entrance out.
I had the music.
I had it really, really rocking,
if you watch the old Minnesota tapes.
But I didn't have
the most important thing.
I needed a gimmick.
[chuckles]
[Linda] He was a super smart guy.
He could figure out the big picture
more than other people could.
His wheels were turning,
and the character
was never not on his mind.
[Hogan] Whether it's a big guy, fat guy,
hairy guy, bodybuilder shape, whatever,
a great gimmick
needs to transcend the wrestler.
And patriotism back then meant everything.
[crowd] USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
[Hogan] I wasn't
into politics at the time,
but we were in a situation
where our country
was starting to make a comeback.
It is time for us to realize
that we are too great a nation
to limit ourselves to small dreams.
Those who say that we're in a time
when there are no heroes…
[crowd cheering]
…they just don't know where to look.
[Linda] And the fans were so, like, "USA!"
All that "USA" and stuff.
Of course he comes out with a flag.
You know, it was just so pro-America
that he couldn't even
make a mistake, honestly.
[heroic rendition
of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" playing]
[crowd cheering]
So it was all timing
and being there with the sun,
moon, the stars, everything aligned,
and doing everything at the right moment.
The American reality,
I'll tell you what it's about.
It's believing in yourself.
I say my prayers,
I eat my vitamins every day.
And the life I live isn't a lie.
It's what I believe in.
And people can get off on that
because I'm for real.
They look at me and say,
"He's not a phony."
When I bench press 550 pounds
before your eyes, little dude,
you say that's real.
Everything I do is for real,
and I never tell a lie.
[commentator] "The Incredible" Hulk Hogan,
he hears them.
Oh, does he hear them.
Oh, the crowd loves this man.
[reporter] Hulk Hogan is here,
and everything is right
with the wrestling world.
[commentator] Ventura goes over.
Enter Hulk, "The Incredible" Hulk.
[crowd cheering loudly]
[Hogan] I was becoming a huge force
in the wrestling business.
It just so happened, during that time,
this kid came through the curtain.
He gave me a card, says, "Call Vince."
"I'm not calling Vince. He fired me. "
He goes, "No, Vince Jr. Call Vince Jr."
"He's getting ready
to take over for his dad in New York."
We're honored to have with us
the voice of professional wrestling,
Vince McMahon.
[Hogan] And Vince Jr. said,
"Look, I see what you're doing
with this Hulk Hogan character."
[commentator] Hulk Hogan,
I'd say that there has never before
ever been any individual
in the history of professional wrestling
that brings a crowd to their feet
with that enormous electricity.
[Hogan] The masses and the general public
still didn't know
anything about wrestling.
It wasn't mainstream yet.
And he said,
"Look, I've got this idea
to make you the biggest star
that this wrestling business
has ever had."
Our main event…
[epic music playing]
[Hogan] All of a sudden,
I started going, "Okay,"
you know,
"this Hulk thing is starting to work."
[cheering]
Hulk Hogan!
[interviewer]
How was your ego at the time?
Um…
Anybody out there
who doesn't know about Hulk Hogan,
slap yourself in the side of the head.
Look into the camera,
there's a man talking to you.
To be completely honest with you,
it was way, way, way,
way bigger than it should've been.
[Linda] Hulkamania!
Superman!
I just didn't realize the responsibility
that came along with it.
[Linda] Yeah, let's party!
He is a nightmare.
["Hulkster's In the House" by Hulk Hogan
and the Wrestling Boot Band playing]
The Hulkster's in the house ♪
Check him out, check him out ♪
Get up off your seat ♪
He's got a brand new beat ♪
When the going gets tough
The tough get rough ♪
Hey hey, oh oh, come on, let's go ♪
Hey hey, oh oh, come on, let's go ♪
The Hulkster's in the room ♪
You know he's on the move ♪
I can feel it in my feet ♪
We're moving to the beat ♪
When the going gets tough
The tough get rough ♪
Hey hey, oh oh, come on, let's go ♪
Hey hey, oh oh, come on, let's go ♪
When the going gets tough
The tough get rough ♪
Hey hey, oh oh, come on, let's go… ♪