Netflix’s Vice President of Sports, Gabe Spitzer, recently appeared on The Varsity podcast with John Ourand, where he discussed several topics.
One key point was that a documentary focused on the late WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan is currently in production. The documentary has already captured 20 hours of footage, which was completed shortly before Hogan’s passing in July.
Spitzer explained that Netflix has become more selective in choosing sports documentaries, especially as the market becomes increasingly crowded. Instead of prioritizing quantity, the company is focusing on fewer projects with broader appeal and deeper access. He cited the Hogan documentary, along with upcoming films about Mike Tyson and Deion Sanders, as examples of this new strategy.
Spitzer said, “We have reached sort of a tipping point in the ‘follow doc genre,’ as we call it, where maybe there are too many of them, so we have to be a bit pickier in terms of the ones we’re doing. We still have Quarterback. We’re still doing many seasons of Drive to Survive. We have America’s Sweethearts on the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Outside of that, there are incredible other docs coming. Hulk Hogan, Mike Tyson, Deion Sanders. There are plenty of good ones still out there. Hulk Hogan, we had been filming with Hogan for 20 hours around the time of when he passed. We think that can be a good one.”
Hogan’s career spans multiple eras of professional wrestling. Following his tragic death, his family has raised legal questions related to his passing, which adds a real-world context that could influence how the documentary is framed. Netflix has not commented on how these elements will be addressed, and no release date has been announced.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
