Favorite Hulk Hogan matches in the WWF and WCW

[Mental Lee ILL]

My favorite Hogan matches in the WWF were against Randy Savage, Ted Dibiase, & Sgt. Slaughter. My favorite Hogan matches in WCW were against Ric Flair.

What are you favorites?

 

[Valeyard]

 

[BruiserBrody]

Hogan/Andre @ The Main Event was likely the biggest moment of my young wrasslin' life. I still remember the little teaser's NBC ran where Hogan growled about revenge over the clip of Andre strangling him at the previous SNME. They probably lasted 10 seconds, but I'd love for that to pop up on YT.
I also remember the Mike Tyson The Main Event teasers pretty well. Another clip I'd like to see again. I don't think anyone really cares now, but seeing Buster Douglas on TME right after beating Tyson seemed like the coolest thing in the world. I was 7 1/2, but I knew Tyson was a really big deal.
I still genuinely enjoy watching Hogan/Genius for their wacky match that took Hogan out of his formula. I was mortified watching it live as Hogan was counted out. I remember freaking out at my parents "THEY ARE DQing Mr Perfect for cheating, RIGHT!?!?!"
The spot went nowhere, but when BN Brown brought a shovel out from the back before an ad break on SNME vs Hogan, I once again had a big meltdown.
I legit cried when the WWF did the WM 7 recap on Superstars and they revealed Sarge had fireballed the Hulkster. Sarge had really ramped up the evil since Jan and seeing a bloodied Hogan then burnt in his moment of glory was too much.
Oddly, I do not have a particular memory of when Quake smashed Hogan on the Brother Love show. I was invested in the Tugboat friendship bracelet stuff and whatnot, but the actual event didn't stick in my head.
Much like the Bossman attacking Hogan on Brother Love in late 88. I remember watching the nightstick attack, but totally blanked out the fact that Hogan no sold it right way and stood up, grabbed the guardrail and stormed to the back to find the Bossman.
Maybe my final answer is Mega Powers vs Twin Towers? I still mark out for Vince's intro to The Main Event special.
If not that, then Hogan/Andre WM 3 for how it was the biggest thing of my childhood and I had been invested in Hogan and Andre as babyfaces when I was a little turd. My neighbors and I argued at a wedding over the possible result only a week or 2 before the event, as much as little kids can "argue". SERIOUS BUSINESS.
--
WCW wise...? I enjoyed the build to Hogan/Piper, especially the Alcatraz vignette. But I didn't see the match until the WWE Network became a thing (Maybe I had a bootleg DVD?)
I didn't see any of his PPV stuff until the later 90s made VHS copies easier to rent/find so my picks would all be Nitro/Clashes.

 

[snuffbox]

He did have quite a few good and/or fun WWF matches. The 1990 match in Tokyo vs Stan Hansen is my favorite. It was on a later Hulkamania vhs, I'm not sure if it's on the Peacock.

WCW is tougher.. It was mostly bad matches, bad booking, or both. I'll go with the 1997 Nitro match with Luger.

 

[King Kamala]

I really think there are 4 or 5 stages of Hulk.

Obviously the early heel stuff.
Then the early Hulkamania stuff from '83 to '86 where he was legitimately an objectively pretty damn decent brawler.
Then there's stage from '86 to '91 where he was worn down from the road and started relying more on schtick but could still occasionally a pretty damn decent match when he wanted to. Started acting a bit like a heel at times.
Then '91 to '96, same as above except more schtick and less decent matches. Started wrestling like almost entirely like a heel even though he mostly wasn't.
'97 and on...relying entirely on schtick and audience goodwill.

 

[King Kamala]

His best WCW match is against Vader at SuperBrawl V but no one remembers it justifiably cause of how crappy and immensely disappointing & frustrating the rematches were. Praising that match feels like saying "Yeah but it was a great production of Our American Cousin before the shooting."

(I feel like Dennis Miller with that reference. Hey babe)

 

[Mental Lee ILL]

I know that Hogan was not necessarily a purist's dream. I mainly made this thread for fun and nostalgia purposes. I love watching classic wrestling stuff and sharing memories.

 

[Laz]

WM18 is my favorite Hogan match.

 

[Super Leather]

Favorite Hogan matches from what I remember:
- Hogan vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper, War to Settle the Score, 1985.
- Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, WrestleMania III, 1987.
- Hogan vs. Stan Hansen, AJPW, 1990.
- Hogan vs. "Dr. D" David Schultz, St. Paul Massacre, 1985.
- Hogan vs. Terry Funk, SNME, 1985.
- Hogan vs. Paul Orndorff, SNME cage match, 1987.
- Hogan vs. Harley Race, SNME, 1988.

Honestly, I love watching Hogan face off against the heel of the month at house shows between '84-'87 the most. Those matches are almost always fun.

 

[King Kamala]

The Desert Storm match with Sgt. Slaughter from the June '91 MSG show is p. underrated.

I think Sgt. Slaughter feud is opposite of the Vader feud I talked about a few posts before. No one was expecting anything good cause well, it's '90s Sgt. Slaughter (@BruiserBrody murmuring) and the controversy surrounding the angle (and the fact angle wasn't very good) but all of their singles matches actually ended up being pretty damn good.

 

[AA484]

Even the WM VII match is pretty good. Despite the terrible feud, it still produced pretty good matches.

Hogan always gets a bad rep work-wise, but most of his MSG and SNME main events -- while not classics -- are still fun and smartly worked within context. Of course there is the occasional turd, but Hogan was having good matches with a wide variety of opponents (Kamala, Rude, Slaughter, Savage, Funk, Race, Earthquake). Even the two "big" Andre matches are re-watchable for historical purposes, if not technical.

 

[King Kamala]

Even the WM VII match is pretty good. Despite the terrible feud, it still produced pretty good matches.

I think people just judge it from the terrible angle and the similarly awful SummerSlam '91 main event (even though they were saddled with two semi-retired wrestlers and a guy literally looking for the exit as partners). MATCH MADE IN HELL ASIDE, it was probably the last Hogan feud to produce consistently good matches. Props to Slaughter too who gave the rest of what he had to make his last main event run work.

 

[Valeyard]

I've come around on Hogan really hard in recent years. He was a brilliant worker. He knew to work smart, that he didn't need to go whole-ass every night when the crowd didn't mind because of his charisma, and when he did bust out he was always solid. I don't go in expecting anything much than the usual Hogan shtick and when it isn't that, it's always a welcome surprise.

Thinking about it, in terms of ppv main events (of the actual ppv era), his WWF run is rather impressive given his rep.

 

[AA484]

I think people just judge it from the terrible angle and the similarly awful SummerSlam '91 main event (even though they were saddled with two semi-retired wrestlers and a guy literally looking for the exit as partners). MATCH MADE IN HELL ASIDE, it was probably the last Hogan feud to produce consistently good matches. Props to Slaughter too who gave the rest of what he had to make his last main event run work.

I'd probably vote for the brief, 91-92 house show quasi feud with Flair (come to think of it, the 1994 feud had good matches but was another terrible feud), but the Slaughter feud definitely had the more high profile matches.

 

[King Kamala]

I forget about the WWF Flair feud because only two of those matches were taped.

Part of the reason why we never got Flair Vs Hogan in their primes is so disappointing is that they did have damn good chemistry when they were finally able to lock horns. Even their '99 series was pretty good for what it was (again despite horrible and confusing booking).

 

[Valeyard]

The Hogan/Savage SNME match with Buster Douglas is severely underrated. I remember being a little kid and watching that live, so admittedly it has more value to me than others, but watching it since both guys worked harder than they probably needed to at the time.

 

[King Kamala]

The Hogan/Savage match was the last time WWF did really well on network television until...Idk. You might have to go to Smackdown!'s debut?

 

[Valeyard]

I have a major affection for almost all their matches together, honestly. Even the dire ones later on (I will defend Uncensored '98 if I have to). But honestly I think Savage deserves some credit for helping Hogan as a heel, just because I never felt like he found a groove in ring until Halloween Havoc. Two were made for each other.

 

[King Kamala]

I was going to mention when I discussed Hogan's matches with Flair...Hogan's early Hollywood matches are odd as hell. He kind of just wrestles like the dickish face he had been the past 3 or 4 years in the Hog Wild match against The Giant and the August '96 COTC match against Flair. That HH96 match is really where he went from acting like a heel to being a heel.

 

[Valeyard]

I watched that weird Flair match from the Clash live, and in my kid-brain thought it was that Hogan was still Hogan. Like yeah, he was against WCW, but that technically he still was able to do all the classic Hogan things. Just because he's supposed to allegedly be a bad guy doesn't take away the power of Hulkamania, and that him working like WWF Hogan made total sense.

Now I just see it as somewhat awkward, confusing, and some good work from Hogan to try and steal all the heat from everyone.

 

[King Kamala]

What's the best match Hogan had as a heel? Let's not count Hogan/Rock since that'd make it too easy (and even though he came into that match as a heel, he definitely wrestled it like a face).

It's probably his Spectrum match against Bob Backlund from '80/'81?

I feel like part of Hogan's heel technique is "I'm not supposed to do anything remotely exciting or entertaining as a worker cause that'd make the audience like me." which might be technically the right way to do but NOT FUN to rewatch.

 

[Valeyard]

Has to be Sting in TNA. That was beautiful work from a guy with significant limitations.

 

[Super Leather]

I like some of the Hogan/Andre matches from the early '80s, particularly the bloodbath at the Spectrum. Not sure who's the heel in their New Japan bouts, but I like those too.

Forgot to add Hogan vs. Abdullah from New Japan to the favorites list.

 

[BruiserBrody]

I like some of the Hogan/Andre matches from the early '80s, particularly the bloodbath at the Spectrum. Not sure who's the heel in their New Japan bouts, but I like those too.

Forgot to add Hogan vs. Abdullah from New Japan to the favorites list.

Hogan was def the face. He and Inoki were the Mega Powers 1.0 in New Japan. Andre was Inoki's foil for like a decade.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Hogan was def the face. He and Inoki were the Mega Powers 1.0 in New Japan. Andre was Inoki's foil for like a decade.

Fuck. Just thinking of Hogan and Stan Fucking Hansen being tag partners makes me want to youtube binge all of that goodness.