Episode 608 | Bryan Storkel | Hulk Hogan: American Made

[00:01:37] Hey, Bryan. How are you? Hey! How's it going? Good. How are you? Doing good. Doing good. First, I want to say thank you for coming on. I'm just appreciative of that. Dude, I freaking loved it. Awesome work. Oh, great. Yeah, man. Nice. I have to say though, for me, I grew up with Hogan. I don't know how old you are. I'm 52. He was the heart of my childhood, like smack dab in the middle.

[00:02:02] 80s Hogan was a tour de force, right? He stood up to bullies. I was eating my vitamins because of him. I was saying my prayers because of him. I was doing all those intangibles. He was a superhero in the ring. And the way he was treated at the, what dome? The Intuit Dome? Is that where? January 6th of 2025? In LA. Yeah. I remember the LA arena. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, for him to get treated like that, I feel like he deserved better, Bryan. He deserved a lot better.

[00:02:30] And I don't know. Do you feel like he's getting an unfair rap as his life, you know, concludes and all the stuff you've done to look at his life? I don't know, man. I just feel like people don't really appreciate how great he was. Some people, many people do. Yeah. But it should be more universal than it is, Bryan. Am I reaching with that?

[00:02:49] I don't know. It's hard to say what's fair and what isn't fair. And I think people are entitled to their own opinions, which is kind of like why I tried to lay it all out there in the series and to kind of show, not tell people what to think necessarily, but to like, you know, show them, you know, the idea was like, let's humanize him as much as possible, right? Like, let's like, people come into this with this idea, you know, preconceived idea. A lot of people love him. A lot of people hate him.

[00:03:17] But let's like, you know, let's like, let's let them see the man. And I'm not going to try to tell them whether he's good or bad. I think that you can be, you know, an amazing, you know, person that can have all these amazing things and also have flawed, you know, human qualities about you as well. So I think it's hard to say from my opinion, whether it's how he's been treated is fair or not.

[00:03:42] Yeah, I don't know. I just feel like just watching this doc brought back so many memories and you know, he's he saved wrestling twice. You can make the argument he's the pioneer for make a wish. Like it just drives me nuts the way he's kind of like, listen, I know what Terry has done. I know I get it.

[00:03:59] Yeah, but it's like, I don't know. When we look in the rearview mirror, I lived it. You know, Brian, it's almost like the NBA, right? I listen to NBA on Sirius, the shows and it's just like, it's almost like people disregard history past like the year 2000. Like once you start talking anything before that, it's like it never existed because they don't know it. I don't know. I feel like a lot of it is just because of being uneducated and not understanding history. Am I am I the grumpy old man on the lawn at this point? Brian?

[00:04:24] Yeah, he's definitely been, you know, forgotten. I think a lot of younger people don't know, you know, don't know about the history, right? Right. I think my yeah, I have like a nephew, for instance, that is has only gotten into wrestling in the last year or so, you know, and he he didn't know anything about Hulk Hogan other than that. He probably shouldn't like him that he probably was kind of a bad person, you know, and right.

[00:04:50] Right. He started watching this and has a has a new appreciation for him, you know, because, again, like people are I don't see anyone as, you know, nothing's black or white or like, you know, there's not good and evil people really in this world. I think it's a lot more complicated than that. And we tend to put people in one camp or the other. And there's a lot of nuance and a lot of gray area. And I think we've tried to explore that in a lot of in a lot of projects.

[00:05:16] Brian, that's a great answer. But I have to also say, like, if we're being honest about who people are, like, why is Mickey Mantle regarded with such reverence? But we if we dove into his personal life, it's not awesome. But all of a sudden, Hogan's the piece of crap. I just it's just it depends. It doesn't make sense to me. Part of Hulk Hogan is that he, you know, portrayed this like it's like a pastor, right? Like in some ways, like a pastor is held to this higher level of accountability. Right.

[00:05:43] Then, you know, then Mick Jagger, like Mick Jagger can do things that, you know, the pastor can't do like, you know, very basic things. Like if you put it under one of their names, it means totally different things. So with Hulk, he's he's living this, you know, Hulk Hogan is this larger than life, like good guy. I mean, he's, you know, say your prayers, eat your vitamins like he's like, he's like the image of like what we're looking up to as a role model.

[00:06:09] And he's with these make a wish kids. And he's like, he's like the perfect, perfect, like image of, you know, both physically, like mentally everything like of what, you know, a hero should be. And I think that's, that's kind of an impossible standard to live up to, like, no matter what, no matter what he did, I'm not making a statement as to whether or not his the things he did, you know, what level of bad they were.

[00:06:37] But I'm just saying no matter what he did, I don't think he could have ever lived up to, you know, Terry Bollea, the man could have never lived up to this, this mythological character, Hulk Hogan. Yeah, that's such a great answer. You know, it's like he did for wrestling what Bird and Magic did for the NBA while they didn't like, you know, I guess save it is a good word. Like, cause he did, he saved it, you know, and I remember just being in awe of that Mr. T match and Piper's music coming down, man.

[00:07:02] It's just like, I don't know. It's just that I almost wanted to stop the documentary after the second part and just go home with it. Like, cause I don't want to, you know, you know, and that's not just being a bias, you know, but I don't know. Is there anything that you were really surprised by during this? Let me, let me rephrase that. Is there a guest that surprised you with their answer? Not necessarily somebody who was maybe open or whatever, but somebody that gave you a lot more than you thought was going to give you.

[00:07:27] Yeah. I mean, it is interesting cause you go into some interviews and you think like this, this one's going to be gold. And then you like get not much out of it at all. And then you go into other ones and you just aren't expecting what you get out of it. I think, you know, I, I hadn't, you know, talked to very many of these people personally at all.

[00:07:48] So I think Bret Hart was surprising that he had so many positive things to say. I thought that was interesting. Cause you know, the whole first half of their relationship was like really good. Like he looked up to Hulk, he respected him. He like, he really liked him, you know? And then there came a turning point where all of a sudden he hated him for, you know, for probably like good reasons.

[00:08:12] I mean, whether or not he should hang on to the grudge is another thing, but like he, like that turned and shifted. So I was surprised at how many good things he had to say. I was surprised. Um, I mean, I didn't know a lot about Cody Rhodes, but that guy is like so smart and just the conversation with him and how deep he went with both, you know, his, you know, analysis of, of Hulk and of wrestling, but also just his knowledge of that world.

[00:08:38] Like he, you know, grew up in it and it's just like a master historian, but he's engaging to listen to. He's so, yeah, he was, he was such a great one. Um, I think I got a lot from Kevin Nash too, that it was just one of my favorite interviews ever where I just, you know, wasn't expecting that from him. And I wish I could have included a lot more cause there was, he, he just, uh, he just had so many, I just was like, it was this back and forth of just like this.

[00:09:05] I like really enjoyed talking to him. So yeah, there's a few. Yeah. Those are, that's a great answer. You know, I have to say though, like, so Brett Hart is funny because he's the same guy that will say he's the 10 out of 10 on the mic, but then call him like a piece of shit. Like, like, what is that? Like, so then I was reading comments that Jim Cornette put, and I feel like wrestling fans nitpick, but I feel like this has been a smash hit.

[00:09:26] So Jim Cornette puts his post on Reddit and he says something to the effect of, you know, uh, he was wondering why they didn't include, uh, there was no mention of Hogan's resistance to join the NWO or how Hogan took digs at Shawn Michaels at SummerSlam. And people in the comments defend this. This is a great doc. And it, and it's like, you can't include, like, is this going to be 40 episodes? Like what? Those are minor things. Yeah.

[00:09:48] Yeah. You can't include everything. So a lot of things were cut for time. And then also you just have to frame it under like, this is the whole Hogan story. And it is his, you know, a lot of it is his perspective. Yes. We have counter perspectives, but this is like his biography. You know, it's like, uh, if you go off on some of the tangents there, you know, that the wrestling fans might want, they, it's just too far to go for, for Hulk Hogan.

[00:10:12] So like, but of course there's things I wish I, you know, I wish we could have included that, um, you know, and, and you kind of have to, you get a lot of opinions about the NWO and how the heel turn happened and, you know, who was where went that night and like, who knew about it and, you know, who didn't. And like, and on a lot of these stories, there's just, there are multiple thoughts on how it happened.

[00:10:37] And you kind of have to pick, at times you have to pick one and just, you know, head down that road. Cause you just don't, you can't, you can't just have five people saying different things either. So, um, people are very opinionated. And I think, and sometimes, you know, I'm not saying that the depiction of everything that happened in this documentary is, is like completely accurate. I'm saying that this is, this is Hulk Hogan's story and this probably close, close to his version as possible.

[00:11:05] So, yeah. Uh, Jim Cornette's the only person that makes Bret Hart look joyous. You know, it's like, come on, you can't put it. Is there anything you left on the cutting room floor you wish you had, you wish you hadn't? Yeah. I wish I'd included the Jesse Ventura stuff about the union, um, where, you know, cause there was a whole thing where there was a union that was trying to be formed and, um, Hulk basically like ratted him out.

[00:11:27] And, uh, like we, we found, they found out years later, you know, like from Vince that it was Hulk that had turned him and Jesse was pretty upset about that. And like, there was a great edit that we had about that, but ultimately it was, it w it was too much of a tangent for that episode.

[00:11:44] It didn't, it would have been an episode two, which was this height and this rise of Hulkamania and to stop down for a negative story about the union in the middle of it just didn't work with the structure, unfortunately. Right. Uh, but that's, that's one I wish I had included, uh, for sure. Brian, was that you at the white house interviewing Trump? Yeah. How was that man? How was that experience?

[00:12:07] It was surreal. Yeah. It was quite surreal. It was very, um, it was definitely, um, yeah, you're sitting there. Donald Trump again is, you know, love him or hate him. You know, again, people are pretty extreme, right? Right. Black or white back to the black and white. That was one of my questions to him. What to, to the president was, yeah, a lot of people love you.

[00:12:30] A lot of people hate you just like, you know, Hulk Hogan. Like, I feel like people are kind of in one camp or the other and there's not too many neutral people for, you know, for either of you. Um, I was like, why do you think that is, you know? So I, that was one of my questions for him, but yeah, sitting there, he's this person, you know, that's kind of a character, right. That you see on TV or in your, you know, social media streams all the time that again, love him or hate him. He doesn't really seem real.

[00:13:01] Sometimes he seems like a, like a wrestling character. He does right out of the rest. Well, he was in the wrestling world. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is why it was kind of important to put him in here. But when you sit down, you know, five feet away from him and all of a sudden he's looking at you and you're having a conversation, you're just kind of like, what is going on here? Like, where am I? This is not, this does not feel real. Um, this feels like, yeah, like I'm in a movie or something.

[00:13:29] Yeah. Yeah. It's funny because I, again, I was reading, just read it because I tried to do my research and you know, they were like a Trump made it about himself. I watched that twice and I felt like he was all about Hogan, the showman. I mean, listen, he's, he's, he is who he is. Right. But I always thought I did think watching, like he was really complimentary of Hogan and kind of made it all about Hogan. I thought people were like, he made it about himself. I didn't, I didn't see that part of it.

[00:13:53] I mean, that's the biggest thing from all this is like, um, the aftermath of this being released is just like, people are looking for the headline, you know? Like, so whether it's Trump made it about himself or, you know, the documentary was more interested in exploring Trump than exploring Hulk Hogan. It's just like, it's like, you don't have to let those pull off your back. Cause you're like, really? Like he was in there for like a few minutes and you're going to say that like the four hours that it was like, that was thanks to the Hollywood Reporter.

[00:14:23] Um, who had a wonderful, um, a wonderful, uh, review of the, of the projects that, um, I think that Mr. Feinberg that reviewed our film, uh, I think he kind of hates movies. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely isn't into our films. I think he complimented our last two films in the review. So, um, that was interesting.

[00:14:46] So like I was telling you, but onto what you're saying, like when, when the cornet put that like negative post, people were like, I love the doc. I really, I have to tell you, Brian, and I'm not just kissing your ass. Cause we're speaking now, dude, you had me in tears and multiple times the way you were, the way you put it to. Yeah. It's like, like, I'm glad you did. Yeah. And there's a lot of people that do, but I'm also fine. If you don't like, it's not that I think it is mixed. He's a polarizing person. And, um, I think that people have a visceral, like emotional response to him.

[00:15:15] And sometimes it's crying and you're emotional and you're remembering your childhood and sometimes it's negative. And I think that that, I think that's okay. I think that, you know, it's projects like that. It's hard as a, it's hard, like, um, as a filmmaker to put yourself out there, but I also have to remind myself, like, this isn't about me and people have strong feelings about him. And I think that good films are going to be, you know, have invited audience at times.