Hogan's Most Successful Programs

[strummer 0]

Which Hogan programs did the best business in the 80s? I would say Ordnorff is at the top of the list, then Andre, then Piper. After that, it gets sort of mirky.

 

He did do pretty damn good business with Kamala, Boss Man, and Zeus.

 

But how did he do against the Hercules, Killer Khans, Sikas, and Greg Valentines of the world. Basically how did he draw against the moderately pushed heels? Did he still do good business?

 

Meltzer mentioned that during the 80/90s, the Hogan program that drew the least was the feud with Hennig in 1990. Did he draw worse with the "smaller" heels?

[Guest LooneyTune]

I can't think of any feud in the 80's that didn't draw with Hogan. There's a reason he was champion for 4 years. Short programs with people like Sika and Hercules never really materialized on TV, so those obviously aren't expected to be big draws on their own.

 

I will say that the feud with Orndorff was the best. The two were paid several thousand dollars per night, which adds up considering they had a feud going for 6 months.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

I wouldn't call Hogan v Andre a program in the traditional sense of the word. I don't think they wrestled enough times. One of Hogan's most successful programs was definitely with Bossman. Usually, a Hogan house show program would do well on the first run, but the second and/or third match didn't draw as well. With Bossman, the second match in the program actually saw business increase.

[strummer 0]

I can't think of any feud in the 80's that didn't draw with Hogan. There's a reason he was champion for 4 years.

 

I will say that the feud with Orndorff was the best. The two were piad several thousand dollars per night, which adds up considering they had a feud going for 6 months.

Yes, I know, I was wondering how well he did against the lesser heels, such as Hercules, Sika, Warlord, Typhoon, etc. During certain periods, he would main event against midcard heels, did they do the same business as with the big guys?

[Guest LooneyTune]

I honestly don't know, but logical guessing is that business, while good, wasn't as big when Hogan was fighting with "flavors of the month" that posed no real threat. I'd assume shows like Hogan vs. for example, Butch Reed, probably had another big match on the show.

 

Hogan never had a program with the Warlord to my knowledge, and by the time Typhoon turned heel, WWF wasn't drawing much (1991 wasn't too good, people seem to forget 1992 was a horrible year financially).

 

Sika was barely a midcarder from the time frame I think you're comming from (1987-88) as his only notable moments was teaming with Kamala.

[Some Guy 0]

Hogan's best opponent ever was Savage, as far as drawing money. They drew huge money in 85-86 and again in 89, and did pretty well in 97 for WCW.

 

Hogan drew with just about everybody from 84-90. Orndorff, Bundy, Studd, Piper, Savage, Bossman, Andre, Kamala, Dibiase, Shiek, Volkoff etc...

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Yeah, Savage is #1. Wrestlemania V had more buys than any PPV in history until 1999, ten years later. That's incredible for the small PPV audience back then. Even in 86-87, they did better than most Hogan programs.

 

If you don't count Andre, because of their lack of action at house shows, then next is probably Orndorff who sold out shows with Hogan for most of 1986.

 

Pretty much everybody drew with Hogan, but Savage & Orndorff were the best opponents.

[BUTT 0]

Meltzer mentioned that during the 80/90s, the Hogan program that drew the least was the feud with Hennig in 1990. Did he draw worse with the "smaller" heels?

As far as Hennig goes, this was 1990, so business was not as strong as it had been a few years earlier. Also keep in mind that this was before Hennig had won the IC title, before his feud with Warrior, before he was managed by Heenan, and before he had beaten any big names, so he wasn't really taken seriously at the time.

[Guest LooneyTune]

To be fair for Hennig, the program really didn't go anywhere on T.V., and the blowoff was a random SNME match before Hogan took time off for Suburban Commando.

 

Also, 1990 was I think the first year where Hogans drawing powers started to decrease, and the company overall was pretty limp with Warrior vs. no one legit enough.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

1990 was the first sign of cracks in the company that would eventually lead to the Dark Ages.

[Sonic Reducer 0]

1990 was the first sign of cracks in the company that would eventually lead to the Dark Ages.

And oh, how dark they would be.

[Guest PlatinumBoy]

To be fair for Hennig, the program really didn't go anywhere on T.V., and the blowoff was a random SNME match before Hogan took time off for Suburban Commando.

 

Also, 1990 was I think the first year where Hogans drawing powers started to decrease, and the company overall was pretty limp with Warrior vs. no one legit enough.

It did have the great moments of The Genius beating Hogan (HULK DOWN) and Perfect destroying the belt though.

[Guest Trivia247]

The Feud with Andre might not been a Program...but you have to concede that alot of Time was spent in that feud. From Wm 3 to pretty much the Summerslam of the following year was centered around Hogan and Andre.

 

Which of course led up to another feud that seem to have been forgottened that began the Last year of the 80's Hogan vs Savage!

[Guest HTQ's Personal Bitch]

To be fair for Hennig, the program really didn't go anywhere on T.V., and the blowoff was a random SNME match before Hogan took time off for Suburban Commando.

 

Also, 1990 was I think the first year where Hogans drawing powers started to decrease, and the company overall was pretty limp with Warrior vs. no one legit enough.

It did have the great moments of The Genius beating Hogan (HULK DOWN) and Perfect destroying the belt though.

As people mentioned, there was a bit of a build-up to the Hogan-Perfect program in late 1989. It drew very poorly but this should be blamed on what a weak challenger Perfect was.

[Guest Sturm316]

Hogan never had a program with the Warlord to my knowledge, and by the time Typhoon turned heel, WWF wasn't drawing much (1991 wasn't too good, people seem to forget 1992 was a horrible year financially).

Hogan had a short house show program with Warlord in the summer of 1991, I believe in July/August 1991. I don't think any of their matches were ever televised.

[Precious Roy 0]

No Holds Barred grossed $16,093,651, Summerslam 89 did a 4.8 buyrate (better than the previous years show), and the No Holds Barred movie PPV did a 1.6, better than the first Rumble show.

 

I don't know how much it cost Hogan and McMahon to produce the movie or what they payed Tiny Lister to wrestle, but from the numbers it looks like a moderate financial success.

[Guest LooneyTune]

That 4.8 is a high number because of limited PPV access at the time. Every year the markets got bigger, so the buyrate number became more accurate. 4.8 in 1989 would be somewhere around a 2.0 now (of course, that estimation is completely random, but probably somehwere close to it).

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

Well, I personally consider Mr. Perfect a non-WWE-factor until he broke out the Olympic Style Singlet at WM 5.

[Guest Frank_Nabbit]

No Holds Barred grossed $16,093,651, Summerslam 89 did a 4.8 buyrate (better than the previous years show), and the No Holds Barred movie PPV did a 1.6, better than the first Rumble show.

 

I don't know how much it cost Hogan and McMahon to produce the movie or what they payed Tiny Lister to wrestle, but from the numbers it looks like a moderate financial success.

NHB cost 24 million to make IIRC

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

"What's that smell?"

[Guest LooneyTune]

"What's that smell?"

Emphasis on the "smell", and the drivers response should've won him... something.

 

Limo Driver: Doo---Dooooooooooookiiiiiiiie!

[Betty Houle 0]

Well, I personally consider Mr. Perfect a non-WWE-factor until he broke out the Olympic Style Singlet at WM 5.

Which occured before everything we're talking about in reagrds to Perfect.

[Guest LooneyTune]

Hennig didn't even have a program leading up to Wrestlemania V, and he didn't even have a confrontation with Hogan until sometime around Survivor Series that year (6-7 months later).

[Jericho2000Mark 0]

Hogan-Piper was the main program when WWE wen't national in 84/85, and drew really well for WCW a decade later.