Hulk Hogan Docuseries Provides Details on His Painkiller Struggle and Fentanyl Use

For a while, Hulk Hogan was one of the biggest names wrestling has ever produced. Hulk helped turn pro wrestling into a national entertainment machine in the 1980s. His run included beating the Iron Sheik for the WWF title in 1984, headlining WrestleMania, body-slamming André the Giant at WrestleMania III in 1987, crossing into movies with Rocky III, and later reinventing himself in WCW as “Hollywood” Hogan and the face of the New World Order.

However, there was a period of Hulk’s life that was riddled with fentanyl use. In a new documentary from Netflix, the late pro wrestler admits he struggled with addiction, personal problems, and physical recovery when his fentanyl use got out of control.

Hulk openly recounted his drug abuse in the 2026 Netflix docuseries Hulk Hogan: Real American, which used his final interview before his 2025 death. In that interview, Hulk said the fentanyl period happened in 2009, after his divorce from Linda Hogan, when he was in severe pain and returned to work in TNA because he needed money.

He said he took fentanyl tablets, wore fentanyl patches, and used fentanyl lollipops. A pharmacist warned him about the amount.

“You should be dead,” Hulk recalled being told. “We have never seen a human being take this much fentanyl.”

Hulk said the pain became so intense that he could not sleep in a bed. He slept in a chair to avoid triggering back spasms.

"I was taking 80-milligram fentanyls, two in the morning, stuffing them under my gums here,” Hulk revealed. “I had two 300mg patches of fentanyl on my legs, and they gave me six 1500mg fentanyl lollipops to eat … I went to the pharmacy, he goes, 'You should be dead. We have never seen a human being take this much fentanyl.'”

Hulk had already talked publicly about the drug before that documentary. In a 2023 interview with Joe Rogan, he said years of surgeries left him caught in a prescription-painkiller spiral. He described doctors continuing to refill his medications even after the worst pain had eased.

“This thing that shut me down completely where I said enough is enough, is when they hit me with the Fentanyl stuff,” he said. “They almost killed me with that stuff. So that’s when I said, ‘I’m done.’”

Hulk’s behavior during that time was questionable, but the strongest evidence points to self-destructive behavior more than a public scandal related to fentanyl. In Hulk Hogan: Real American, Eric Bischoff described Hulk’s life at that point as a mix of divorce, pain pills, and heavy drinking, saying he was taking “fistfuls of pills” and washing them down with “a quart of vodka a day.”

Another producer said it became obvious very quickly that Hulk was “in no shape” to be an active wrestler. Hulk himself later said that during the divorce buildup, he drank, took pills, spiraled for days, and hit “rock bottom.”

Hulk’s career included several major controversies unrelated to fentanyl. According to Reuters, he admitted to anabolic steroid use after years of public scrutiny. He also won a high-profile privacy lawsuit against Gawker after the outlet published parts of a sex tape, a case that ultimately shut the company down. In 2015, WWE suspended Hulk after a recording surfaced of him using a racial slur. The company later reinstated him in 2018.