[1996-01-08-WCW-Nitro] Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage vs Ric Flair & Arn Anderson

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This is a really good match! All four guys seem fired up and having fun and pull out all the stops, with Flair even letting Hogan pull his trunks down on live TV! I love the dual figure fours and assisted abdominal stretch spots in any tag match, and it's well done here. There's nothing groundbreaking, but this is a better match than you'd think considering the timeframe. Arn also does one of the better reactions to the Hulk up of anyone this side of Lanny Poffo.

 

The Giant singlehandedly lays out both Hogan and Savage after the match, which cracks me up when I think about the story of Vince making fun of how WCW used the guy.

[Hollinger.]

This is really fun in contrast to the Billionaire Ted skits airing right before it. That whole campaign just reeks of desperation looking at it now. Hogan and Savage weren't all that old and could still really go. In 1996, their runs on top were within a couple years of where HHH, Undertaker, Rey Misterio, Edge, Big Show and Kane are right now, and while they are getting older, no one really looks at them as old men to that degree.

 

I always liked Hulk in WCW because he was a lot of fun against guys like Flair and Arn. I wish he'd used some of his chain wrestling sequences more often, because he was plenty capable of working that style. The money was in the monster challenger formula, so he didn't get to do this kind of thing very often. It's kind of a shame.

[shoe]

Decent tag match which I would have enjoyed more if the crowd didn't shit all over Hogan as a face. It's hard to get behind a face who is being booed by the crowd. Work was done well with Arn and Savage really sticking out here. I loved Arn's blind DDT on Savage as the transition to Savage going into FIP. Giant is booked strong here in the postmatch, plus they further the Dungeon of Doom/Horseman feud.

[Kronos]

Count me as another fan of this match. Savage as FIP really worked well. I like how he teases a comeback with the sleeper, only to be shut down. Arn and Flair get felled by their overconfidence in the face of the hulk up, which was done beautifully for laughs. How long has it been since Hogan moved that fast?

 

All four guys look to be having a lot of fun, and it makes the match that much more fun.

[Jack_Briscoe_Is_My_Hero]

In the megapowers wasn't Savage normally the FIP? I thought Hogan taking a spinebuster looked kinda odd. That isn't a move I have ever seen him take before. I remember Bischoff saying something along the lines of the Billionaire Ted skits motivating the WCW crew to work harder at beating the WWF. These four had a fantastic match, and a nice gem that has been mostly forgotten about over time.

[Tim Cooke]

Good match. Flair/Arn/Savage work very hard and Hogan is best at this point in supporting roles (hot tag guy). Really liked the reversal sequence on the apron with Arn and Savage which ended with Arn getting run into a big Hogan punch. The South Carolina crowd was all about Arn/Flair.

[fishbaugh]

Fun match, with the highlight being Arn's reaction to the Hulk Up after the spinebuster. If Hogan would have brought that level of work to most of his WCW matches, the crowd probably wouldn't have turned on him so strongly.

[Kevin Ridge]

Lots of football references by the announcers at the start. A Jim Ross/Steve McMichael broadcast team could have been lethal on my liver. Decent TV match with Hogan looking lively. The Giant was so skinny.

[El-P]

Hogan brings pretty much nothing to the table, and sells nothing either. This was decent because it got time, Arn & Savage being the standouts, but really, even Heenan was wondering why Flair & Arn didn't work on Savage's injured arm at all. Just lazy storytelling here, it was totally by-the-numbers. Well, at least Giant got some nice heat in the post-match. Zodiac is acting weird. I mean, even weirder. Great, more Ed Leslie storylines.

[BruiserBrody]

I'm a Hogan mark and even I was appalled watching him no sell the spine buster here.

[soup23]

This would have been huge in 1988. Now, the fans really don't give a shit about Hulk and give him a response to echo that. Arn once again shows why he is one of the best tag workers of all time being excellent here and doing little things to keep Macho cut off. Big schmozz happens at the finish but it puts Giant over huge and we get some heel on heel action with Horseman and DOD going at it. (**3/4)

[PeteF3]

Fun little match here--Hogan as the guy on the apron working the hot tag is a Hogan that I can tolerate. He gets the pin on Arn, as the Dungeon of Doom run out to prevent Benoit & Pillman from saving, which has the two-pronged effect of allowing the Giant to come in and do the damage himself. We then get a continuation of the fascinating Zodiac babyface turn that mercifully went nowhere.

[skipps04]

Fun little tag match here. People were really starting to turn against Hogan big time during this time. Some weeks it wasn't so bad, and others it was really loud. While the crowd wasnt crazy for him at the start, you could hear them groan after Hogan no sells the spine buster. The act was old and outdated, and the fans were letting him know. I thought Flair was awesome, he kept messing with Hogan on the apron and then taking off, i loved it

[Stiva]

A nifty little main event tag. I really like this period of WCW and always felt that Savage in particular was always working really hard. Even Hogan, outrageously stale and lame bullshit aside, seemed to try much more around this time. And then he goes and ruins it all by no-selling Arn’s spinebuster to widespread disgust from the live crowd.