WWE stops Hogan-Lawler from happening

[Hawk 34 0]

Before seeing that the crowd was the same of a ROH show and thinking it would be around the mark of a TNA show, I was thinking Hogan should consider doing a touring type deal. Do a show every other month in different markets in "big" matches with the names not with WWE (Sting, Angle, Jarrett, Wight among others) and thinking by writing his own ticket and doing stand-alone nostalgic indy shows, he could make some decent money that way. Now, my stance is changed.

[Downhome 0]

I wonder what the people in the box office at the FedEx Forum would say if we called to ask how many people are there, heh.

[Downhome 0]

UPDATE:

 

-----Well, I put my foot in my mouth. The fans have arrived!! Looks like 5500 to 6000 people in the building.

 

----Moondog Cujo with "Big Cheese" Sal Corrente beat The Barbarian in pretty much a hardcore match. Crowd was into it. Barbarian had Cujo pinned, but Sal got on the ring apron with Cujo then pinning him.

 

----Greg Valentine beat Mr. Hughes with a roll up. Hughes had Valentine pinned with his feet on the ropes, but then ref Bill Rush seen it. Hughes had his back turned and Valentine rolled him up.

 

----Jazz performed her own entrance song on the way to the ring.

 

----Jazz beat Christie Ricci & Miss Passion in a triple threat Ladies Match.

 

----Abdullah The Butch vs Big Al Greene was No Contest in a match that never got into the ring. A bloodbath. The fans got into it.

 

----Bill Dundee/Dutch Mantell with Jimmy Valiant vs Koko Ware/Bobby Eaton with Slick in the ring. Jimmy Hart came down from the announcer's desk to have the formation of the First Family with Koko/Eaton back together [they were a team a long time ago], then in called out Slick to manage them.

 

----Koko had Frankie and got Lance Russell to dance with him.

 

I went ahead and called the FedEx Forum box office just for the hell of it, and they told me that the building does indeed look packed, with empty seats scattered about. This is f'n great news for Hulk Hogan.

[Hawk 34 0]

Oh, okay good. Guess that changes my stance. If he didn't have his original main event yanked, he might have drawn much more. Hogan doing a tour system would be a good move. Starting another promotion would an mistake but nostalgic shows with legends/old timers and maybe some local talent and a special guest could be good things.

 

I wonder what names are out there for Hogan to pair with in a main event? I'd assume TNA might be willing to let names like Christian, Steiner or Abyss work that big of a match. Outside of the TNA main event acts and the never going to happen (Warrior, Savage etc, etc)...I can't think of many.

[Downhome 0]

I know many of you guys wouldn't care, but I'd be willing to bet that Hogan/Goldberg could draw as well, and it's a match that could happen without any holdups.

 

I'm really happy for Hogan, MCW, and everyone involved with the show tonight.

[Hawk 34 0]

Yeah, Goldberg is a name I totally forgot about. That's about as big as it gets with the non-contracted WWE names out there. Maybe Sting and Angle can enter the arguement. Nash and Page could easily be slotted with Hogan. It's not like it has to be a good match. So that leaves a wide range of names.

[Downhome 0]

It sounds like there's some cool shit going down on the show tonight:

 

----Abdullah The Butch vs Big Al Greene was No Contest in a match that never got into the ring. A bloodbath. The fans got into it.

 

----Bill Dundee/Dutch Mantell with Jimmy Valiant vs Koko Ware/Bobby Eaton with Slick in the ring. Jimmy Hart came down from the announcer's desk to have the formation of the First Family with Koko/Eaton back together [they were a team a long time ago], then in called out Slick to manage them.

 

[Hawk 34 0]

Who is booking this show anyways? Looks like they made the effort here instead of the usual legends convention show or even worse, the Legends PPV.

[Downhome 0]

Here's the full results:

 

http://rasslinriotnews.blogspot.com/

 

MATCH BY MATCH COVERAGE - CLASH OF THE LEGENDS!!!

 

----Stay tuned right here for the match by match coverage. You may need to REFRESH your browser to keep the matches updated.

 

----It looks like we got about 1600 to 1800 people in the building. The 5200 number that Hogan was saying looks like was just a work.

 

----I forgot to mention that Dave Meltzer reported that this match by match coverage was starting at 7:50 EASTERN time earlier today, but does have it corrected now. If you came to the site one hour early, then my apologies.

 

----Bubba The Love Sponge promised 1000 tickets - I guess Hogan was only good for 800??

 

-----Well, I put my foot in my mouth. The fans have arrived!! Looks like 5500 to 6000 people in the building.

 

----Moondog Cujo with "Big Cheese" Sal Corrente beat The Barbarian in pretty much a hardcore match. Crowd was into it. Barbarian had Cujo pinned, but Sal got on the ring apron with Cujo then pinning him.

 

----Greg Valentine beat Mr. Hughes with a roll up. Hughes had Valentine pinned with his feet on the ropes, but then ref Bill Rush seen it. Hughes had his back turned and Valentine rolled him up.

 

----Jazz performed her own entrance song on the way to the ring.

 

----Jazz beat Christie Ricci & Miss Passion in a triple threat Ladies Match.

 

----Abdullah The Butcher vs Big Al Greene was No Contest in a match that never got into the ring. A bloodbath. The fans got into it.

 

----Bill Dundee/Dutch Mantell with Jimmy Valiant beat Koko Ware/Bobby Eaton with Slick in the ring. Jimmy Hart came down from the announcer's desk to have the formation of the First Family with Koko/Eaton back together [they were a team a long time ago], then in called out Slick to manage them.

 

----Koko had Frankie and got Lance Russell to dance with him.

 

----They are at intermission now with four more matches to go. NBA's Memphis Grizzlies Mascot - The Grizz came out and was shooting t-shirts out to everyone.

 

----Before the show started, it was announced that "Too Cool 2" [Flex/Tim Grind] had regained the Southern Tag Team Titles from The Moondogs [Cujo/Spike]. That was one of those phantom changes, but they have Flex/Grind in the second part of the show defending against Ricky Morton & a partner. They actually announced it as "Rock n Roll Express", but as of late last night Robert Gibson was still off the show.

 

----Show has been fun and fans have been into everything up to this point.

 

----Brutus Beefcake/Bubba The Love Sponge beat The New Assassins with "Big Cheese" Sal Corrente. Assassins looked just like the guys working in Memphis as Fire/Flame. Bubba was horrible in the ring. He did a splash from the second rope for the pin. Beefcake put Sal in the sleeper and they cut his hair after the match.

 

----After the match they brought some kid from St. Jude down and Bubba had the kid on his shoulders. VH1 cameras captured that and it was a kewl moment for the kid and the crowd.

 

----Brian Christopher beat Buff Bagwell with the hip hop drop. Bagwell talked about how bad Memphis was and heeled the crowd. Christopher came out to a huge pop.

 

----Southern Tag Team Title Match: Ricky Morton/Kid Kash beat "Too Cool 2" [Flex/Tim Grind] for the titles. I got to say "great job" to Corey Maclin and crew for putting the local guys - Flex/Grind in the semi-main event. All my bitching about them not featuring the local guys and they do this -- perfect way to get them over being seen by so many fans. I would have loved have seen them win, but apparently they got plans for Morton/Kash and Flex/Grind down the road. Match was good.

 

----Hulk Hogan beat Paul Wight slamming him and dropping the leg on him. It was around a 10 minute match with the crowd so nuts for Hogan!!

 

----I would like to thank Randy Dailey with very appreciated help in doing this coverage. It would have not happened without him. He said it was a fun show and the crowd had a good time with it. Thanks to all of the visitors for joining me tonight. I hope to have an official figure sometime in the next few days. Congrats to Memphis Wrestling cast and crew for a recording breaking crowd and setting a new standard for indy wrestling.

[Downhome 0]

Here is some actual footage from the show:

 

http://www.appealtv.com/%2079_hulk_hogan_i..._the_fedexforum

 

More from PWInsider:

 

SECOND LIVE REPORT FROM MEMPHIS SUPER SHOW WITH HULK HOGAN AND PAUL WIGHT

by Zach Legg @ 5:09:00 PM on 4/28/2007

 

I was in attendance last night; had 4th row ringside seats and a great view of all the action. The entrance was to my right, which during a normal WWE show would put me on the camera side, but all throughout the night security kept telling everyone in my section to sit down, which led me to believe the main camera must be behind us, as the other 3 floor sections were standing all night with no interference whatsoever. This was frustrating, as who comes to a wrestling show (or concert) to sit down the whole time, especially one with so many legends as this? I would think that promoters would love taping shows where everyone ringside was so hyped for the match that they were standing-room-only as it adds exponentially to the appearance of the match, but it wasn't the case tonight. During the Hogan/Wight match, my brother and I even got into a confrontation with a guy behind us who had been yelling for us to sit down the entire night. Sit for a Hogan match? Go home and watch it on TV/DVD from your couch. Despite security having to briefly get involved, I wasn't going to let that situation ruin the night for others around me and/or make us get kicked out and miss out on a match of a lifetime.

 

For starters, despite the Forum being a huge venue, I was a little shocked at how small the crowd size was upon arriving. I assume that is where the early low number reports of only 1,800 came from. Needless to say, as the show went on many more people showed up and the event looked to draw an impressive number. Five to six thousand seems accurate (although I'm not an expert at judging crowd size). Jimmy Hart was out first, and after hyping up the crowd announced Lance Russell and Dave Brown, which I thought was an extremely classy way to begin the show. Any wrestling fan in the Mid-South has fond memories of these two calling the action every Saturday morning, including myself. After talking to the crowd for a bit and getting some much deserved respect, they brought out Corey Maclin. He introduced Memphis mayor Willie Herenton, who was to ring the bell to start the night. After numerous scandals, Herenton is widely loathed by much of the city, and he definitely heard it tonight. We practically booed him out the building during his entire entrance and time in the ring. It was announced that the show was being taped, but not what for. I'm not sure if it will air at some point on television or be released as a DVD (hopefully). It was also announced that VH1 crews were there as well taping for Hogan Knows Best.

 

The Moondog/Barbarian match got a good reaction from the crowd, probably due to it being the first of the night. Despite looking slow and excessively planned, the hardcore spots of Barbarian shattering numerous wooden boards over Cujo's back were impressive live and got good reactions. As much as I read you guys complaining about unprotected chair shots, you may be relieved to know that all of them in this and the following matches (including Hogan's) were done with chairs having a padded seat. This only flew with us because it was the same chairs as what the crowd was seated in, but it still made them look pretty weak and unimpressive compared with the impact of the usual metal chairs.

 

Mr.. Hughes did a great job heeling the crowd and getting heat on himself all throughout his match with Valentine. Tons of interacting with the crowd and responding to all the heckling aimed at him. This made the match much better as Valentine was very much showing his age (still great to see him though). The crowd popped HUGE for Valentine throwing on the figure-four. Lots of "WHOOOO!" and "tap out!" chants. Despite Valentine's fame, the heat Hughes got on himself accounted for much of the crowd reaction after the roll-up finish. Fun match.

 

Jazz rapped her own entrance music on the way to the ring. When they announced her and said she would be performing her own entrance theme I started to cringe, but she didn't sound bad at all. Almost like Shawnna from Ludacris's DTP label (for those of you who follow hip-hop). The 3 way with Christie Ricci and Miss Passion was decent; much better than the typical WWE 'diva" match. Wasn't on the level of a Trish/Mickie/Lita/Melina match, but it definitely beat the usual "bra & panties" stuff we get on Raw. Ricci took a nice looking DDT early and was outside the ring for most of the ending, which saw Jazz get the win.

 

Abdullah the Butcher/Big Al Greene was most definitely a bloodbath! Abdullah was busted open right at the beginning, at the end of the entrance ramp. He quickly took control and spent the rest of the time dragging Greene around ringside stabbing him in the head with a fork and busted beer bottle....seriously. No blade jobs here (although I didn't see how Abdullah got busted); Greene was definitely bleeding hardway. Being 4th row ringside, a good amount of the fork shots was within feet of me and they were pretty nasty-looking. It appeared the plan was for Greene to just take as many jabs in the head as he could bear before leaving, as once he got free of Abdullah he simply left back up the entrance, resulting in the no contest. However they booked it, the effect worked and had the crowd into it for nothing else than the sheer brutality of the fork stabs. Afterwards, Abdullah threatened Hart (who was ringside, possibly announcing), taking his microphone at one point before leaving.

 

Superstar/Mantell/Valiant got a great reaction from the crowd....Dundee looked pretty good for his age. He seemed to really enjoy the crowd, acknowledging cheers aimed at him (including one from me). Match saw Dutch taking most of the damage from Eaton (who looked really good as well) and Koko before making the hot tag to Dundee. The crowd was really into this match as well, and had me hoping that the taped version of the show does a decent job at reflecting how hot the Memphis crowd was practically all night.

 

For all of his troubles that have been reported lately, Beefcake was in really great shape physically, especially compared to other guys today from his era. I will say that Memphis had no love for Bubba the Love Sponge and let it be known. Huge pop for Beefcake throwing on the sleeper after the match to take out Sal for the haircut.

 

Bagwell was out next, and after a big ovation heeled the crowd big time by talking bad about Memphis. It did the trick as we were all over him for his match with Brian Christopher. Before the match, Christopher did a prolonged routine of hyping each side of the crowd up for who he would throw his bandana to. He eventually spotted an 8 or 9 yr old kid in the front row (right in front of me) with his mom and had the kid lifted over the barricade so he could pull him up on the apron and let him throw out the bandana. I thought that was really cool of him to do as I'm sure the kid will remember that for the rest of his life. My brother next to me caught the bandana and after he was lifted back over to his seat, we yelled up the 3 rows to get his and his mom's attention so we could toss him the bandana back. Only seemed fitting he have the souvenir of something like that. His mom was really grateful to us. The match was a really good one, with Christopher getting his top rope/goggle routine for the finish.

 

Ricky Morton was up next, and announced that Robert Gibson couldn't be there, which really disappointed the crowd. We were all pretty hyped to see them together again. Morton apologized and announced his partner as "the future". Kid Kash did a great job using his athleticism to make up for the crowd's reaction over Gibson not being there. Tag champs Too Cool 2 had a ton of heat, both for their "white gangsta" gimmick as well as being from Union City (100 miles north of Memphis and definitely somewhere that no gangsters come from). Our section was especially brutal to them. The title change was really surprising and got a huge reaction. After winning they were announced as "The NEW Rock & Roll Express", so I guess reports I have read of plans for the duo are true.

 

Everyone knew there was only one match left, and after the new tag champs left chants of "Hogan" immediately began. Paul Wight was obviously out first and looked to be in better shape than his last months in WWE. It looked like the time off has definitely done him a lot of good. As soon "Real American" hit, the roof blew off the FedEx forum. It was deafening! The ovation was so loud I couldn't hear my brother next to me yelling and could barely hear myself (note: after ripping off his shirt and throwing it into the crowd my brother and I came THIS CLOSE to catching it, with the guy in front of us managing to snag it down). With Hogan's age and Wight's size, I completely expected a slow spotfest much like the opening match. While anyone with any knowledge of previous Hogan vs. big man matches (or Big Show vs. anyone) could have easily predicted the match's booking, the two of them really busted it and put on a good match. You could tell that Wight's time off and Hogan's desire to prove McMahon wrong on drawing power definitely improved this match, as despite following somewhat of the predictable course, both guys added an amount of physicality that I didn't expect. The crowd was hot throughout the entire match, which saw Hogan kicking out after a choke slam. He hulked up, then sent Wight over the top rope with a big boot. Once back in the ring, Hogan nailed the expected body slam (which looked AWESOME in person). That and the following leg drop for the pin had the crowd going insane! Anyone with respect for Wrestlemania history and every 20-something yr old's inner Hulkamaniac was in Heaven for that 30-second period of their lives. It's a shame that Wight's contract expiration/desired time off and Hogan's falling out with WWE prevented this match from being on Wrestlemania 23, as they put on a great one that would have been worthy of being the 20th anniversary tribute to the match that made WWE what it is today. My hat goes off to both of them for giving us in Memphis what everyone should have seen on April 1st. Afterwards Hogan ate it up with the crowd doing his usual routine before leaving.

 

Nothing post-show to report, as we were thanked for coming and that was it. I didn't have any lofty expectations going in wrestling-wise, as a good amount of the appeal was nostalgia alone. But the guys at Memphis Wrestling outdid themselves and booked a show worth every penny. It almost makes me want to get back into watching the promotion, despite their horrible weekly 10 PM Saturday airing....guess that's what DVR is for.

 

Thanks again for the great site, hopefully my live report does the show justice and if it is usable will be as enjoyable a read as most of the others I frequent your site for. Now that I'm done it seems a little long-winded, so feel free to edit out anything you don't think fits should you decide to use it. I love reading really detailed reports of live events, so I tried to put in as much as I could remember without it being a novel.

[Corkscrew_Senton 0]

I'm not a big Hulk fan, but it's good to see something beside WWE draw well. Hulk - Angle and Hulk-Goldberg would be fun as one-time deals.

 

Lacey Winters, the hostess of that recap video, is scrumptuous!

[tekcop 0]

Well, I was just two rows behind whoever wrote all that and he got most of it right. It was pretty great. The women's match disappointed me the most as it lasted a whole minute and a half and was mostly just Jazz beating on the Passion chick. The lack of Jazz vs. Ricci upset me.

 

Lawler, Dundee, and Christoper all wrestled at my local high school the night before. Some sort of benefit for the new football team. I decided to keep all my snide comments about Lawler having to miss the show to myself though. No need in ruining the poor man's night anymore.

 

Oh, and the security thing was shitty. People (mostly kids) would run over to the barrier for the walk way to get close to the wrestlers and no one said anything until the main event when two guys started waving flashlights in our faces and telling everyone to sit down. Being a bit of a pussy, I sat down until I noticed the two old men next to me weren't paying attention.

 

I'll try to post pictures soon probably. There are some good ones of the main event, the opening match, Mr. Hughes, and Abdullah.

[Downhome 0]

I'm glad you had fun. From the sound of things I think it's fair to say it was a much better show than people thought it would be, and everyone had a blast. Here is something from Frankenmullet posted on the WC board:

 

Just got home from the show-- the Forum looked about 1/3 full to me, and the building seats in the neighborhood of 20,000, so I can buy the 6,000 estimate.

 

Crowd was pretty much into everything. Curtis Hughes came out to practically no reaction, but got the crowd hot by calling us "Tennessee porch monkeys," and got great heat from that point forward.

 

The moment of the night for me was during the intros before the card, when "Also Sprach Zarathrusta" sounded over the PA, and Lance Russel and DAve Brown strode out to ringside together.. gave me chills, I tell ya.

 

Abby juiced mere seconds into his match, and yes, he never once entered the ring. Once the fork came out of the boot, though, I was marking out like an eigh-year-old all over again. He was gigging Greene HARD with that thing, the first crimson mask I've seen live in eons.

 

Buff vs. Brian Lawler got the crowd pretty hot after Bubba the Love Sponge and Beefcake had killed all the momentum with a 20-minute crapfest that ended with a sleeper and a haircut for the Assassins' manager, the Big Cheese or something.

 

Valentine did the face-first bump a couple of times... way cool.

 

Hogan had the place eating out of the palm of his hand. Show got an OK reaction, but it just wasn't what it could've been if Lawler had been on the show.

 

Also, very nice to see Bobby and Koko teaming again... another markout moment.

 

Some poor dude about my age had his kids in tow, trying to school them about Lance, DAve, Dutch, Handsome Jimmy, the First Family, etc., and all the kids kept talking about was John Cena. The kids started whining about when the show was going to over at around 10:15, and their dad ended up having to leave before the main event.

 

Definitely a fun night at the matches...

[Downhome 0]

Here is a fan-cam of the entire Hogan/Wight match from the Memphis show last night, complete with commentary by the fans:

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2...47942&hl=en

[tekcop 0]

Hogan pantomiming slitting his wrists at the small group of people booing him during his post match shtick was awesome. I just remembered that.