[1996-07-15-WCW-Nitro] Lex Luger vs Big Bubba Rogers / Interview: Hulk Hogan

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

The action is pretty good in the last couple of minutes of this match. Hall and Nash come down to beat up Luger, then Hogan slaps him around.

 

Hogan offers a hand to Big Bubba, who accepts, only for Hall and Nash to immediately beat him up.

 

Hogan does a great interview to close things out, talking about how 10 years ago, Sting shook his hand in Venice Beach and was a skinny little bodybuilder shaking in his boots.

 

"For three years, I heard the Macho Man blame his divorce on the Hulkster, not mentioning that he couldn't rise to the occasion, brother."

 

Gene Okerlund says the letters "N-W-O" for the first time.

 

Hogan seems to be doing some semi-shoot venting here about everyone blaming him for his problems, double standards in wrestling loyalty, everyone knowing that where Hogan goes, so goes the money, etc.

 

The Steiners, Faces of Fear and Arn Anderson come out and have a staredown with the NWO to close out the show.

[shoe]

This was a cool segment. I liked how WCW just didn't stay in the back and get punked.

[Superstar Sleeze]

I was a little underwhelmed by the match. Luger seemed to be in full on lazy WCW babyface mode. Take heat for the whole match and then comeback with a couple moves. Bubba looked gassed halfway through.

 

Hogan's promo ruled. I really liked Nitro's format at this point as it was still very wrestling-oriented and used the matches to explain why people were in the ring to talk rather than just randomly having people walk out. Like last RAW before the PPV, where they were advertising Cena/Ryback Face-TO-Face. It is a live show how do you know that it is going to happen? Why should it happen? Matches should be booked, but promo segments for the most part should be motivated by matches. Hogan's promo was also bitchin as all hell.

[El-P]

Hall & Nash punk both heels and babyfaces. Hogan's promo was excellent, he took everything annoying about his character and real life personna, and turned it into a terrific heel character. Semi-shoot stuff thrown in, but in a total pro-wrestling, heat inducing way. It was still kinda odd that all of a sudden Hall & Nash don't get to talk, but it was still the time for Hogan to establish his heel character, and he was the ultimate draw for the nWo. Cool to see WCW guys surrounding the ring at the end. The nWo angle is slowly developping, and it's awesome so far.

[PeteF3]

Not-bad action between Lex and Bubba, but that's not the story here. Hogan delivers another classic interview that's great for all the reasons already mentioned--shooting without breaking kayfabe, turning every negative about Babyface Hogan into a positive, and using the past negative reactions to him as justification for it all. Hulk ties this back into business, challenging the Giant for the WCW title at Hog Wild. Incidentally Bischoff attempts to cover for the lack of babyface saves, pointing out how far away the locker rooms are in the MGM set-up.

 

One thing Dave pointed out in the mid-'96 WONs is how the Outsiders always came off as babyfaces, standing up to huge throngs of the WCW locker room.

[(BP)]

This is lean, weird mustache Hogan coming off of shooting a movie. He's already a pretty great heel promo, but there's always something awkward about him palling around with Hall and Nash. He's a little older than them and just not as witty or slick on the mic. Even them highfiving looks weird. I know we get some Meng and Barbarian vs Outsiders eventually, but them coming to the ring makes me wish they were a bigger part of the NWO/WCW war.

[soup23]

Action looked fine but I really enjoyed again the Outsiders offering allegiance to Bubba before beating him up. Hogans promo here was again wonderful and he has some firing shots to both Sting and Savage. NWO continues to roll.

[tim]

Another great angle. How successful it is is really a testament to the quality of the booking, because, really, WHAT are the WCW guys so worried about again? If this were a WWF invasion angle, Hall and Nash as some kind of "threat" to WCW makes sense, but as it is it really doesn't make sense. But the booking is so good it all works. We finally get a Hogan follow up promo and he more than knocks it out of the park again. Hogan's new look is great, so simple but so distinctly different. Bischoff does a good job actually bothering to explain why the lockeroom isn't emptying to take them out. The mid-carders coming out to surround the ring and the chaos in the announcing to end the show is a great cliffhanger. Man, who was booking this angle week to week? Incredible work.