Hogan's Book

[Guest EdwardKnoxII]

Hey, here's a pile of Meltzer posts from the Wrestling Classics message board about Hogan's book. This shows just how much of a liar Hogan is.

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[re: Hulk Hogan's book, where he claims he wrestled Ric Flair in 1983]

 

Flair never wrestled Hogan in 1983. I was following wrestling very closely long before that and the Observer was already around. They were the biggest star in the AWA and the biggest star in the NWA and such a meeting would have been gigantic news.

 

It took me five pages just to correct the biggest whoppers Hogan told in his book. It would have taken a double issue to correct the entire book's fabrications. To say Hogan was honest is the biggest joke in the world. I suggest reading the article. Even his friends called me after reading it asking why he would lie about things that had no relevance to making him look good.

 

Flair told me many times in the 80s he had never wrestled Hogan. We all thought it was possible they had wrestled in 1978 because Hogan worked Georgia and Flair occasionally came. After that it would have been impossible because once Hogan came to New York, he was a big, charismatic star (not as big as he'd get) and a match with Flair, which theoretically could have taken place in Toronto or St. Louis, would have been a big deal.

 

Their first match was scheduled to be in Oakland in 1991. I was at the show. It was a real big deal to Flair, not as big a deal to Hogan. Then with no build-up or warning, Vince decided to have them wrestle in a dark match at a TV taping in Dayton a few days earlier which was actually their first ever match. It was a short DQ deal, and they considered Oakland (a longer match with the same DQ ending) as their first "real" match.

 

A lot of wrestlers do forget a lot of their matches. But nobody forgets their first match against Hulk Hogan, or their first match against Ric Flair for that matter.

 

As for why Hogan lied so much in his book, I don't know why anyone is surprised. Hogan comes from the era of wrestling weaned on the con, where all of life is a work. He's been working people for 25+ years because that is what the people who taught him the business taught him it was about. The younger wrestlers aren't brought up with that mentality (as much, they are to a degree). Unlike some who have adopted to the changes, Hogan probably feels he's the smartest guy around, and part of that is almost working everyone. He's outworked Vince time after time.

 

Still, I have no idea why he claimed he wrestled on the Wembley Stadium show. That was a bit much.

 

He never said he and Andre was the main event at Shea in 1980. He said that nobody cared about Bruno-Zbyszko, which was pushed as the main and he and Andre drew the house. That's totally untrue, but that's how he said it. Hogan doesn't like Bruno or Zbyszko. They don't like him. A lot. At the time, Bruno-Zbyszko was the main event. The second most pushed match on the show was Backlund & Morales vs. Samoans for the tag title. Hogan-Andre was pushed at the level of the IC title match with Patera and Tony Atlas. You have to remember that at the time, both Patera and Atlas were bigger stars than Hogan.

[Guest EdwardKnoxII]

[More on Hogan's book!]

1) Hogan and Flair never worked together until Dayton, OH in 1991. That's a fact. Never in a tag either. There is no confusing that issue because both Hogan and Flair were probably the two biggest stars of their era and anything involving them would have been a major story.

 

2) There is so much made up in that book that has nothing to do with protecting the business. I thought the book was well written, but I'm not into praising well written lies, or excusing them when the excuses don't hold any water. For all the very deserved knocks Scott Keith has taken for his book, remember that Scott Keith was writing about a business filled with lies and from his book his doesn't know all that much about its history. He made mistakes, a few of which showed how little he knew and others which showed how little he researched. However, the number of mistakes in his book were miniscule to Hogan's book, and Hogan was writing about himself, a subject he should know.

 

Hogan was making up things because he thought the public would be so gullible to believe him. And it's sad that people will make excuses for him that he doesn't deserve. A memory error here and there is exusable. Saying there were 93,000 at the Silverdome is no big deal. For all I know, he believes that number and even if he doesn't, it's an indoctrinated part of his shtick by now. Everyone in wrestling quotes that number. His story about them wanting to cancel the show was a complete lie, however. This is just one example:

 

3) page 255 of the book talks about the famous 1992 show at Wembley Stadium. "Before the show, which was sold out to the walls, I met a Make-a-Wish kid with cancer. he had a doctor and a nurse with him, a whole medical entourage. he was supopsed to be sitting ringside when I went out to wreste, but I didn't see him there. After the match, I came back and said, "Where's the kid?" They told me, "Oh, he died before the match got underway." Jimmy Hart was with me that night and wrote a song right away in the dressing room, Another Hulkamanic in heaven, there's one empty seat in Wembley Stadium, the little Hulkamaniac that can to see me. It's a ballad, a slow song."

 

I would love to see people attempt to justify that not only did he make up being on a huge show he was not even at, but that he pretended a kid died that he went to visit earlier in the day in a place he wasn't at, and wrote a song about it to get himself over. That can't be excused by confusion or a faded memory, as a show that drew like the Wembley show isn't something you forget or confuse.

 

There were stories like that throughout the book. Stories of situations that didn't take place. It's one thing for him to excuse or justify his behavior in 1991, it was quite another to pretend he drew houses he didn't. He claimed he was on the card where Lawler piledrove Kaufman. He claimed he walked into a secret meeting between the two of them. He claimed he was working on a loading dock in Florida and had quit the business when Terry Funk came to the loading dock and talked him into coming back. How can you excuse totally made up stories, one after the other, just because he had a ghost writer that wrote them in an entertaining fashion?

 

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The agreement when Hogan came in, a lot of which was Flair's doing, in 1994, was Hogan would win clean the first time, Flair would win on a screw-job the second time, and Hogan would win the rubber match. Two PPV's and one Clash. They'd be brought back together down the line.

 

Flair did his part in match one. Hogan refused to do his part in match two. Hogan can make excuses like he always did what was asked (not true), but this was a specific incident where he was supposed to lose the title to Flair as part of an agreement months earlier and he refused. They did the Nancy Kerrigan spoof (that was the agreed upon screw job) with Hogan going into the match with the knee injury from the Kerrigan attack. Flair would use the figure four and Hogan would pass out and refuse to submit (Austin-Hart mania finish years later) so he'd look strong, but Flair would get the belt back. Then Hogan would have a reason for a third match, to get his belt back, which he would. Hogan refused to drop the belt. WCW panicked, thinking so much heat was off the program that they couldn't draw for a third match, and because Hogan's contract guaranteed him $600,000 for that match, they had to draw. That's when they came up with the career vs. career stip, where Flair lost and they ended up paying Flair a ton of money to sit home for months before bringing him back.

[Guest jm29195]

Although Hogan wasn't at Summerslam in 1992 he did go on a wwf tour of England in 1993 (his last contractual obligation to the wwf) One of the dates there was at Wembley Stadium and he did wrestle so maybe that is what he's going on about??

[Guest The Hollywood Fashion Plate]

Although Hogan wasn't at Summerslam in 1992 he did go on a wwf tour of England in 1993 (his last contractual obligation to the wwf) One of the dates there was at Wembley Stadium and he did wrestle so maybe that is what he's going on about??

Nope, checked cawthon777's WWE records....Hogan didn't compete in London in 1993; the closest he came was Sheffield Arena on 8/6/93 (where he lost to World champ Yokozuna via DQ in his last WWE match for 9 years).

[Guest Vyce]

I would love to see people attempt to justify that not only did he make up being on a huge show he was not even at, but that he pretended a kid died that he went to visit earlier in the day in a place he wasn't at, and wrote a song about it to get himself over. That can't be excused by confusion or a faded memory, as a show that drew like the Wembley show isn't something you forget or confuse.

 

I have no clue about the dates / events, but Hogan DID meet with some kid who later died, and a song WAS written about it, because I've HEARD the song.

 

Hogan sings it himself.

 

It is unbelievable. You must hear it for yourself. If "Wrestlecrap" ever had a theme song, this would have been it.

[Guest Dangerous A]

What can we deduct from this children?

 

 

Hogan is a douchebag.