Hulk Hogan Interview

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Who says him quietly leaving the ring is the only way to put over Warrior? Hey, let's forget all the shit Hogan did to put Warrior over in the match and let's just focus on him handing Warrior the belt and *gasp* looking dismayed over losing the title. But it's not like Meltzer would ever skew anything negatively against Hogan.

[Guest Human Highlight Reel]

It was a perfectly fine put over that has only been trumped up as sabotage well after the fact.

But...but Hogan said he was trying to sabotage Warrior. HOGAN said it. Why are you trying to deny the man did it when he admits he did?

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

If I shoot at someone and miss, does it still mean I shot them?

 

Plus, there have been several stories going around WM 6, put forth by Hogan himself, including him putting over Warrior at Mania because he was planning on retirement. With Hogan you can never tell, but it seems to me like he's bullshitting and trying to take credit for Warriors failure and falling in line with the WWE's history. Hogan didn't want to make his put over seem like the wrong move, so he changed up the story a bit. No doubt Hogan was trying to protect himself in defeat by handing Warrior the title rather than just hiding away like a loser as Meltzer would want, but that's different from trying to bury and sabotage Warrior. Hogan did so much to put Warrior over in that match I find it hard to believe that his one gesture of class was enough to bury him from the start. Nevermind Warrior became _more_ over because of his win and was made The Man because of it, oh no, it's That Evil Hogan doing the dastardly deed of looking sad and being a good loser and sportsman... what a bastard that guy is.

[bob_barron 0]

I e-mailed Da Meltz about this and here is his reply, not that it'll change the minds of the more hardcore Hogan fans:

 

Watch him when you watch a tape of it. He takes all the spotlight for himself instead of quietly leaving the ring and putting the spotlight on the new champ.

 

 

This doesn't prove anything, it's just Meltzer's opinion

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

How do you define "taking all the spotlight for yourself"? Did Hogan push Warrior out of the ring or something? If you showed Meltzer a video of Hogan saving a baby from a burning building, the first thing he'd claim is that Hogan started the fire.

[Guest Human Highlight Reel]

If you showed Meltzer a video of Hogan saving a baby from a burning building, the first thing he'd claim is that Hogan started the fire.

 

If I shoot at someone and miss, does it still mean I shot them?

No, but you're still an ass for shooting at them. Even if he didn't succeed in burying Warrior, he was trying to, and I'm just saying it was an unprofessional thing to do. I can't imagine why Hogan would lie to try and make people think he was an asshole. Fact is, Hogan says he was trying to sabotage Warrior and hog the spotlight, so you can't chalk it up as another conspiracy theory made up by Hogan-haters.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

People were saying Hogan tried to sabotage Warrior before Hogan said, and I'd be more likely to believe Hogan is just going along with it to make himself look smart for seeing Warrior would be a failure, rather than looking like a dumbass for putting a failure over in the first place. Why would Hogan do so much in the match to put Warrior over just to try and bury him in the end? Why did Hogan let Warrior press him? Kick out of the Leg Drop? Doesn't seem like something a guy would do if he was looking to sabotage someone, no?

[Guest Askewniverse]

He had Warrior kick out of the big leg drop.

Warrior didn't kick out of the legdrop. Hogan missed and Warrior hit a weak splash for the win.

[skullman80 0]

People were saying Hogan tried to sabotage Warrior before Hogan said, and I'd be more likely to believe Hogan is just going along with it to make himself look smart for seeing Warrior would be a failure, rather than looking like a dumbass for putting a failure over in the first place. Why would Hogan do so much in the match to put Warrior over just to try and bury him in the end? Why did Hogan let Warrior press him? Kick out of the Leg Drop? Doesn't seem like something a guy would do if he was looking to sabotage someone, no?

 

Warrior didn't kick out of the legdrop. Hogan missed it.

[Promoter 0]

Have you actually SEEN the match? At the end of the night Warrior was The Man. That was clearly established. He was put over. Warrior closed the show, he won the match, he got the title. Hogan didn't club Warrior after the match, or have his foot under the rope, or claim he didn't lose, or have Warrior cheat to win. None of those things happened. It was a perfectly fine put over that has only been trumped up as sabotage well after the fact.

 

Rudo is completely right imo. You have to take things in context of the time of the event. Warrior was on Hogan's heels as a super champion in popularity, yet people are forgetting this. Magazines and people were saying Warrior was the wrestler of the 90's. Hogan was the "All-American" who could do no wrong and he bowed out gracefully by jobbing and handing the belt over. Warrior just bombed. Vince wanted Warrior as the new Hulk Hogan and that was the big problem. Warrior was doing a poor man Hulk Hogan routine with the shaking of the leg which was a copycat of Hogan's superman shake to end matches. The angle at the end of the match was Pat Patterson booked along with the camera shots. This is kayfabe heavy wwe we are talking about in the early 90's. Hogan and Warrior were booked as equals and that ending was suppose to set up Hogan/Warrior 2 at LA Coliseum where Hogan would return and win the title to retire. This was in our meda for crying out loud when Tunney use to leak storylines such as Hogan dropping the belt to Andre on NBC and Dibiase winning the title at Mania 4. Of course, they did them as rumours back in the day, but for the most part they leaked this stuff to Toronto sports departments.

 

Warrior WAS BOMBING that is why they did the Hogan comeback angle. Vince was afraid that SummerSlam would not sell out and it would have made Warrior's reign look like a failure. This was covered even in TV Guide a bit that audiences were dropping and Warrior was getting booed in some arenas for beating Hogan. Hogan's interview could very well be Hogan trying to make himself look smart by knowing Warrior would bomb which he clearly didn't. It would make his comments about choosing the right man to carry the business look wrong with Warrior's failure on his resume.

 

If you want a case about someone saboting someone's title reign after putting them over it's Bret Hart after WM 12. I quote "I feel betrayed everytime I lose that belt". He also kept bringing up the fact that he lost in overtime when it was clearly stated by Piper that there MUST BE A WINNER. The wwe did revisionist history on the HBK DVD by eliminating that statement by Piper during the promo. I have the original tape where Piper made the statement. Bret then went into a tirade about the company having the wrong representative for kids and whatnot and he was a friggin babyface champion even going so far as saying Vince made him wore out by wrestling all over the world, while HBK rested at home during the "collapse" angle. THAT IS SABOTAGING someone's reign after putting them over and he RETURNED and still ran down HBK by saying Austin was the #1 guy in the world.

[jester 0]

I think that:

 

1. Hogan didn't really deliberately sabotage Warrior's reign, at least not that night. He's just taking credit for it now because it makes him look smart.

 

2. Hogan is always on the hustle, and will work everything until the day he dies. Whatever will get him another high-paying job or publicity, he'll say it or do it.

 

2. Even if you accept that Hogan stole all of Warrior's thunder that night (which I don't), that was hardly the reason Warrior's title run flopped.

 

4. Even Warrior is not solely to blame for the weak run. It was more to do with the fact that WWE couldn't find a meaningful program for him with a credible heel after his big title win. (To be fair, how do you top beating Hogan for the belt back then? They were pretty screwed from the get-go).

 

5. Hogan's ego is such that he would probably claim that it was his own politicking that REALLY destroyed WCW...if Bret Hart took credit for it first.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

"how do you top beating Hogan for the belt back then? They were pretty screwed from the get-go)."

 

Have Earthquake brutalize Hogan and deliver an Earthquake Vertical Splash at some point to Miss Elizabeth.

 

Put over how Warrior can't press slam him and have Quake pin Warrior clean in a tag and lead into SSlam with that.

[Black Lushus 0]

his match with Rude at Summerslam should have been better than it was, if 1989 was any indication of things. As far as heels go, there was Earthquake, as UTSU mentioned, Mr. Perfect, Savage (who, ironically, he didn't fued with until AFTER he lost the belt) and wasn't Dibiase still around fulltime? They had plenty of heels for him to work with between WM and his loss to Slaughter at the Rumble.

[ryankeast 0]

What was the main reasoning for The Warrior's title reign bombing as much as it did? As from what I can tell he was the top face in the federation especially when Hogan was out "injured" at the hands of Earthquake.

 

Was it simply a lack of credible challengers to the title.

 

Also how would you have booked his reign better?

[Black Lushus 0]

well that's what I'm saying, they had enough challengers to stretch his reign as far is it was (WM6 to RR91), they just didn't book it correctly...he had a lackluster match at SSlam90 against a guy he was having great matches with just a year earlier (Rude). I'll try to come up with a better way of booking it a little later when I have more time...there probably should have been a match somewhere in there with Savage which would have lead up to him cheating Warrior out of the title at RR91 and the final blowoff at WM7. The booking they went with made no sense because it didn't lead Savage to a title match.

[Jericholic82 0]

come on, how can you hate Hogan after dropping THIS line?

 

"Bret Hart had a case of the ass at the Hall Of Fame,"

yea that ruled, now its my sig

[Promoter 0]

Yeah, it was not ALL of Warrior's fault for the failed reign. I mean it is hard to top beating Hulk Hogan back then. Other problems were....

 

Warrior crushed Andre the Giant the year prior. Andre the friggin Giant even though he wasn't anything compared to even 1986 or 1987 at the time. He defeated Rude handedly and going back to the feud exactly a year later out of nowhere didn't help. The wwe also watered down Warrior by taking the full face paint off because they felt it scared off some of the kids. They brought in The Road Warriors with their face paint(some might say this is silly, but it took away some of Warrior's uniqueness as the orginals came aboard). Texas Tornado came in and he resembled Warrior too with the boots and add Warrior doing the poor man Hulk Hogan routine.

 

I actually think around Royal Rumble they started to book the guy properly and he was getting over as champion, but they pulled the plug. He had a fresh fued with Sgt. Slaughter and there was a reason for fans to get behind him like they use to with the Iraq storyline. Warrior vs. Savage at WM 7 should have been the title match and even on the history of Mania DVD Vince tries to do revisionist history by saying it was a title match.

 

What I think the wwe should have done with Warrior as champion is this. Mind you some of this were actual rumours at the time as well, but it never went this way. It's said Vince was talking to Ric Flair around WM 6 and he was going to be brought in along with a main event boxer. I can't remember his name right now exactly. Vince could have slowly built up a NWA invasion angle(in the fall of '90) where SID, Flair, Road Warriors, and Kerry Von Erich all came in to try to take over with Warrior not having Hulk Hogan on the roster due to being out of action. The fans would have got behind Warrior a lot more with this angle.

 

 

They could have done the Warrior/Rude feud they way it went down, but blew it off on SNME and gone with Piper turning heel to face Warrior at SummerSlam. Piper turning heel was the rumour and possibly facing Warrior at WM 7. Anyways, if Piper turned heel and won the strap they were also thinking about Hogan/Piper at LA Colisuem in a battle of hollywood stars for the world title. If Warrior retained he should have then started a feud with Dibiase for the fall. Warrior vanquishes Dibiase and then battles Sgt. Slaughter on SNME and goes over him. All the time building Warrior up as the champion of the 90's going over guys like Piper and Slaughter who were big stars of the 80's and then run the Savage feud for Rumble or Mania.

 

Now, this is hindisght, but I think Hulkamania was losing steam big time in 1991 anyways. If Vince really wanted to fill that arena with how things were going down then Russo style should have taken over and have HULK HOGAN turn on America and face Warrior in a rematch. Add in the 80's star being upset that he is no longer the man for the 90's and I'm sure they could have packed the LA Coliseum with heel Hulk Hogan against Ultimate Warrior or vice versa.

[Jericholic82 0]

Have you actually SEEN the match? At the end of the night Warrior was The Man. That was clearly established. He was put over. Warrior closed the show, he won the match, he got the title. Hogan didn't club Warrior after the match, or have his foot under the rope, or claim he didn't lose, or have Warrior cheat to win. None of those things happened. It was a perfectly fine put over that has only been trumped up as sabotage well after the fact.

 

Rudo is completely right imo. You have to take things in context of the time of the event. Warrior was on Hogan's heels as a super champion in popularity, yet people are forgetting this. Magazines and people were saying Warrior was the wrestler of the 90's. Hogan was the "All-American" who could do no wrong and he bowed out gracefully by jobbing and handing the belt over. Warrior just bombed. Vince wanted Warrior as the new Hulk Hogan and that was the big problem. Warrior was doing a poor man Hulk Hogan routine with the shaking of the leg which was a copycat of Hogan's superman shake to end matches. The angle at the end of the match was Pat Patterson booked along with the camera shots. This is kayfabe heavy wwe we are talking about in the early 90's. Hogan and Warrior were booked as equals and that ending was suppose to set up Hogan/Warrior 2 at LA Coliseum where Hogan would return and win the title to retire. This was in our meda for crying out loud when Tunney use to leak storylines such as Hogan dropping the belt to Andre on NBC and Dibiase winning the title at Mania 4. Of course, they did them as rumours back in the day, but for the most part they leaked this stuff to Toronto sports departments.

 

Warrior WAS BOMBING that is why they did the Hogan comeback angle. Vince was afraid that SummerSlam would not sell out and it would have made Warrior's reign look like a failure. This was covered even in TV Guide a bit that audiences were dropping and Warrior was getting booed in some arenas for beating Hogan. Hogan's interview could very well be Hogan trying to make himself look smart by knowing Warrior would bomb which he clearly didn't. It would make his comments about choosing the right man to carry the business look wrong with Warrior's failure on his resume.

 

If you want a case about someone saboting someone's title reign after putting them over it's Bret Hart after WM 12. I quote "I feel betrayed everytime I lose that belt". He also kept bringing up the fact that he lost in overtime when it was clearly stated by Piper that there MUST BE A WINNER. The wwe did revisionist history on the HBK DVD by eliminating that statement by Piper during the promo. I have the original tape where Piper made the statement. Bret then went into a tirade about the company having the wrong representative for kids and whatnot and he was a friggin babyface champion even going so far as saying Vince made him wore out by wrestling all over the world, while HBK rested at home during the "collapse" angle. THAT IS SABOTAGING someone's reign after putting them over and he RETURNED and still ran down HBK by saying Austin was the #1 guy in the world.

agreed, even though I like Bret and all, he was a complete jerk in that matter. I know he wa sbooked as a lame duck transistional champ, but Shawn was hot at the time and deserved the title.

[notJames 0]

Since we're on the subject, how would you guys characterize Taz handing the belt to Mike Awesome after he won the ECW Championship? Spotlight-hogging or good sportsmanship?

[Black Lushus 0]

I think it's always in good taste for the former champion to hand the belt over and shake the victors hand following a hard fought match. Regardless of being a heel or a face. Showing respect where it's due is cool shit to see. When Benoit did it to Orton, it was a great visual, almost like passing the torch to the next generation of wrestlers (we won't get into the insuing title reign fuckup). That's what SHOULD have happened at WM between Rey and Angle...no Orton in the picture, just those two going all out and Angle handing the belt over to Rey and shaking hands, hugging, whatever.

[Guest Legend & Icon]

I agree Hogan did try to get the spotlight back on him at the end of the match but he did a huge job of getting the Ultimate Warrior over. Warrior getting that win over the biggest star at the biggest stage for the world title was really special.