Hulk's Greatest Match of the Glory Years

[SK3]

Referring of course to the time period designated for this board: his legendary World Wrestling Federation run from 1984 to 1993. What would you call the Hulk's greatest match from this period?

I'll start this one off. A lot of people may select Hulk's celebrated win over the Iron Sheik in Madison Square Garden or his WrestleMania III triumph over Andre the Giant, and yes, both of these are historically important in their own right. However, my pick goes to WrestleMania V, on April 2, 1989. On this night, Hulk challenged his former tag team partner "Macho Man" Randy Savage for the World Wrestling Federation Championship.

To me, Hogan-Savage at WMV embodied everything a classic WWE match should be. It had drama, athleticism, strong crowd reaction, and the biggest prize of all at stake: the championship. The whole "Mega-Powers Explode" storyline was a forerunner to the soap-opera driven storylines WWE fans would become accustomed to in later years. The match itself was a classic, the finest match the two ever had with each other. Their manager, the late Miss Elizabeth, chose to stay in a neutral corner, supporting both men equally. Whenever Elizabeth would tend to Hogan, though, Savage would flip out, yelling at Elizabeth and threatening to strike her. Even when she'd try to aide Savage, he'd still get upset with her. Eventually, referee Dave Hebner ordered her away from ringside.

Savage scored his signature flying elbowsmash off the top rope, but he only got a two-count. With 20,313 Hulkamaniacs cheering their hero on, the Hulkster fought back, and won the match - and the title - by pinning Savage after the Hogan Legdrop. Hulk Hogan became the third man to regain the World Wrestling Federation Championship. The Mega-Powers had indeed exploded...and only Hulkamania survived.

So, what's your pick?

[DanC]

WMIII with Andre is hands down my fave. Just for the sheer atmoshphere with over 90,000 fans in attendance. I remember my parents would always let us rent a video on the weekends when we were kids and of course, as soon as WMIII showed up on the shelves, it was my pick. I'll never forget watching it all that night. I think I fell asleep somewhere during the middle but woke up in time for the main event.

My top 5 Glory year matches:

1. Hogan v. Andre - WMIII
2. Hogan v. Warrior - WMVI
3. Hogan v. Savage - WMV
4. Hogan v. Slaughter - WMVII
5. Hogan v. Yokozuna - WMIX

Don't know if you can really call that last one a "match" but it does stick out for me.

[Dog Fan]

wrestlemania III against andre was a great spectacle, but my favorite match was against savage at wrestlemania V.

[meangreen]

Yeah, that WMV match against savage was a classic, possibly my favorite from that era. Of course the warrior match was good, too, along with some that he had with mr perfect. How about some of the slaughter matches? Personally I liked the WMVII match quite a bit and the boot camp matches that followed.

[SK3]

I remember the series of "Desert Storm Matches" Hulk had with the Sarge. Those were original hardcore classics.

[meangreen]

There's a World Wrestling Federation coliseum video that shows one of those matches, i think right before summerslam and hogan wins by submission with the camel clutch.....great match, extremely surprising ending.

[HULKAMANIA]

My fave match would have to be Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant at Wrestlemania III, so that's my vote.

[tradewynd]

Personally, I was impressed with the carry job Hansen did on Hogan. Obviously, it doesn't get the attention his Wrestlemania matches did, because it's harder to find a copy and 99% of American marks have no idea who Stan Hansen is. It's also much less of a spectacle like Hogan vs. Andre at Wrestlemania III was. This was a wrestling match.

I think it's a shame that Hogan never had a run with Brody or Michael Hayes. Brody was a great brawler who could adapt to many different styles, which would have blended perfectly with Hogan's "get my ass kicked and then make the big comeback" style. I also think he would have meshed very well with Michael Hayes. Both guys were tremendous talkers and their ring work concentrated on furthering their character, as opposed to telling a story in the ring. I shudder to think how much money Hayes vs. Hogan would have drawn at a Wrestlemania if it was built properly.

[sci]

Easy. WM6 against the Warrior.

[meangreen]

wow yeah his matches with stan hansen were awesome. hansen is almost a god in japan...one of the biggest monsters that country has ever seen. almost acheived vader-like status over there. hulks matches with muta were good also. i agree with the brody and hayes comments tho i dont think hayes was quite at main event level at the time. the freebirds were quite the team but maybe if they had given hayes the push he needed it could've worked. another thing about brody....he had a reputation for shooting on people, i.e., lex luger, do you think he would've done the same to hogan? my gut says yes. brody was way too undependable.

[tradewynd]

I highly doubt Brody would have shot on Hogan. In the business there is a mentality that getting paid is the most important thing about your work. It's difficult to explain to outsiders. How did Gorilla Monsoon put it - "If you're in this business for anything other than money you're a fool." And if you were working with Hogan on a regular basis, you would be getting lots and lots and lots of money. During the boom guys made $70,000+/week to lay down for Hogan on house shows. For that kind of money I would tap out to an abdominal stretch every night. The people who really knew Brody always said he was a businessman, first and foremost. If you pay him well he'd do whatever you asked of him. Knowing that Japan was the highest paying place to work outside of a run with Hogan, and since no Japanese promoters ever had problems with him I can only come to conclusion that he has no problems with doing jobs as long as he's being paid well and being treated with the proper respect. And it's not like losing to Hogan at that time would have killed his career. Everyone lost to Hogan.

The Luger cage incident was Luger's fault. He did not show Brody the proper respect, and if Brody would have killed him out there because of it no one would have said anything.

The Freebirds, and especially Hayes, were HUGE before they went to the World Wrestling Federation. They headlined for World Class every night for years. When they came in World Class had better TV than the World Wrestling Federation. It's probably fair to say that Michael Hayes was the most over heel in the world. Their success got to them and they walked out of the World Wrestling Federation when they asked to job in their first few house show matches. If Vince hadn't asked them to job or they didn't think they were the biggest stars money could buy (and to be fair, they were) the business they would have done during the Rock and Wrestling era would have been mind-blowing. Wrestling and promo talent aside, Hayes can sing, which they could have done a lot with during the Rock and Wrestling Connection they were pushing.

For longevity, Hansen is bigger than Vader in Japan. He was huge long before Vader started, and was the top gaijin for a long time. Vader won more titles and his merchandise did better, but speaking purely about their work Hansen was the man for a long time. Hansen also became office, which is something Vader never did. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Vader's work more, but if it wasn't for Hansen's success Vader would have never received the opportunities he did. It's a shame that there isn't a huge gaijin drawing now, because the business has never boomed in Japan without strong gaijins (whether it is a coincidence or not). Josh Barnett should have been the next great gaijin, but New Japan screwed it up.

[meangreen]

all of that is true but hayes really never got a big singles push inhis entire career. there are stories of him headlining a wcw show that 800 attended. he never got booked in a way where he couldve escaped the freebird shadow. the transition from tag wrestler to singles champion is a long one.

from what ive heard sometimes brody was very much against doing jobs, and if he didnt get his way, someone would be in trouble, especially against someone who wasnt a legit tough guy. i honestly could never see vince signing brody or even if he did, brody jobbing to hogan. i could see him headline with hogan but with piper-like results.

[tradewynd]

Brody was easy to work with as long as he was getting paid well. Baba paid very well, so there no problems with him doing jobs in All Japan. Other places didn't pay quite as well, so he was less willing to lay down for lower paydays because the Japanese magazines would be all over it, and make him worth less money to Baba, since he would be damaged goods. The reason why guys like him, Terry Funk, Stan Hansen, Dory Funk Jr., etc. primarily wrestled in All Japan was because Vince couldn't pay what Baba did unless you were getting bonuses for laying down to Hogan on house shows, and doing World Wrestling Federation jobs would hurt their All Japan paydays.

Yes, Hayes did headline a house show that drew 800 people. So did Lex Luger, who the fans didn't give a crap about as World Champion, even with Harley Race managing him. Luger blamed Hayes to the pizza guy and Hayes' push disappeared. The real cause was of course Ric Flair leaving for the World Wrestling Federation, taking 90% of WCW's fans with him, combined with no one caring about Luger. No one drew better than that with Luger after Flair left. Simmons did just as poorly with the belt.

But that was 1991. The Freebirds were in the World Wrestling Federation in August of 1984, right after their insane run in Texas ended. At this point World Class was the world's largest wrestling company from a TV perspective, so everyone who watches wrestling buys all three of The Freebirds as headliners. They headlined and sold out the Sportatorium every week for 3 years. He couldn't leave his hotel room when they toured Israel because someone was always trying to kill him. When they come out on 8/25/85 in MSG they were getting such a strong babyface reaction that they had to muffle the crowd noise on the broadcast. Vince even screwed them on their music, making them use that awful "Freebird" song instead of Hayes awesome "Badstreet USA". In one funny spot in the six man on 8/25/84, Gorilla says that Hayes is "trying to make a name for himself in the world of professional wrestling" while everyone in MSG is going absolutely apecrap for him. Put the tag belts on the Birds for 6 months, have Hayes run down guys like Sammartino, Morales, etc. while complaining about all of the BS "Rock & Wrestling" that gets promoted while leaving out the greatest Rock & Roll band on the planet - The Fabulous Freebirds, have Hayes attack Mr. T to really solidify the heel turn, make Buddy and Bamm Bamm his goons, send him after Hogan for the belt and you can run Hogan vs. any Freebird on house shows for 2 years.

When a worker with talent does not become a star it is the fault of the booker for not giving him the opportunity, not the fault of the worker for failing to turn horse manure into ice cream.