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[1995-07-16-WCW-Bash at the Beach] Hulk Hogan vs Vader (Cage)


Loss

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  • 2 months later...
  • 5 months later...
  • 7 months later...

The match is a steeming pile of shit. Hogan at his ego-stroking worse. Yes, this isn't as godawful as the strap match, but nothing is. Hogan makes Vader look like a bitch, doesn't work hard at all and basically blows. The post-match is kinda funny though. Vader is dead for WCW, his firing was a blessing. Compared to his feud with Hogan, his entire WWF stint looks all kinda great.

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"The beach was nice. The wrestling sucked."

-Dave Meltzer & Wade Keller & Bruce Mitchell about the day at Huntington Beach

 

John

Yeah, except Flair vs Savage which was *good* but very disapointing after their last match, pretty much nothing on the card was worth anything. Pretty terrible PPV, despite the cool setting.

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  • 1 year later...

Another shitty by-the-numbers finish for a Hogan PPV match, what else is new. Weirdly executed post-match angle as Tony and the Brain immediately sign off after the match and act like they're off the air for Flair & Arn's confrontation with Vader. Vader immediately cuts a promo to the camera demanding a 2-on-1 match. Yeah, this wasn't rushed as hell or anything. That made the Michaels babyface switch look like a slow burn.

 

I don't mean to keep repeating this point, but ECW's appeal is growing with every single Big Two segment.

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  • 1 month later...

"I can't believe this, but this was what was reported" addendum: when Vader was officially let go by WCW and he was prepping for shoulder surgery while deciding his next career move, Dave reported that the planned finish of this match was for Vader to attempt and miss a shooting star press (!!!) and for Hogan to escape. But Hogan was too far away from the corner, so Vader tried to improvise a senton thing and fucked up his shoulder.

 

I think we're all, especially Vader, better off that that attempt didn't take place. Sounds unbelievably scary just thinking about it.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1995-07-16-WCW-Bash at the Beach] Hulk Hogan vs Vader (Cage)
  • 4 years later...
On 12/1/2014 at 5:25 AM, PeteF3 said:

"I can't believe this, but this was what was reported" addendum: when Vader was officially let go by WCW and he was prepping for shoulder surgery while deciding his next career move, Dave reported that the planned finish of this match was for Vader to attempt and miss a shooting star press (!!!) and for Hogan to escape. But Hogan was too far away from the corner, so Vader tried to improvise a senton thing and fucked up his shoulder.

 

I think we're all, especially Vader, better off that that attempt didn't take place. Sounds unbelievably scary just thinking about it.

Feeling bad for quoting an 8-year-old post, but I would almost tend to believe that because the spot looked so weird that the only other explanation would be that Vader had no idea how to do a senton (when he was jumping off he was even leaning a bit forward which I think you do if you try to gather momentum for a SSP).

Anyway, this was a weird-ass show. In certain aspects I would even call it a success. They had a nice crowd size-wise (Wikipedia says 9.500 which sounds about right, I remember WCW claiming some insane number like 25.000), the crowd shots could have played great with sponsors (most people seemed to be in the 18 to 34 demographic). On the other hand, the product they presented was clearly not the right one for the crowd. They lost more and more interest as the show went along. Also, they not necessarily were into the presented faces, e.g. Paul Orndorff was the crowd-favorite in his match against the Renegade. Not sure if this was due people remembering Orndorff from 80ies WWF or if they just realized how much the Renegade sucked. In a way it was a 95 WCW card in front of a 97 WCW crowd.

It would be interesting to know how much this show played into WCW going to Club La Vela for spring break in 97, 98, 99 and 01.

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  • 2 years later...

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Vader - WCW Bash at the Beach 1995 Steel Cage

Vader cuts all-time great bully, dumb jock promo. He says brutha about 64 times, chump about 8 and says he is from Compton and that Hogan is a fake ass beach poseur. It was fucking epic. The Roadkill Roadtour where Vader murders Jobbers at your local house show was a great concept. Hogan Donald's him saying the Compton thing is fake-news, fuck you Hogan and he has Rod The Bod with him. Hogan and Rodman have some weird chemistry as you would expect. Rodman is a better promo than I expected. 

The SuperBrawl match is the crown jewel of the Trilogy, but this whole feud killed Vader shit is pretty overblown. Hogan and Vader had great chemistry and the Clash that follows this, babyface Vader is wicked over. The match is better than Uncensored, but not by a huge amount, what helps is that it has a proper finish, but the finish is the worst part of the match. 

Typical Hogan street fight tactics here using the shirt and doo-rag to choke Vader and throw him into the Cage. The Huntington Beach crowd is pretty into Hogan. Hogan does a ten-count punches the crowd counts along, then he goes up another rung and stomps to 9 and the double axehandle off the top was supposed to be ten. Hogan keeps pounding Vader, but Vader very wisely never bumps. He is a rockin' and a reelin' but he wont fall down, which is smart. They start fighting over who will send the other into the cage. Vader mounts his comeback. Nice big heavy blows by Vader. There were some really good Stand & Bang exchanges between these two. Hogan runs Vader into his Big Van Vader Helmet and Vader bumps off that! Nice! Hogan puts it in on and very gingerly headbutts him with it. Vader gets the big Splash in the corner that looks great. VADERBOMB~! 1-2-NO! Five minutes into the match, crazy! There is a great spot where Hogan is trying to quell Vader by hooking in a front chancery but Vader organically transformed into a vertical suplex without taking a bump. Someone crib that highspot baby! Hogan fires up but his bodyslam attempt fails epically. Vader does some sort of weird top rope Senton. I was expecting him to miss the forwards splash. He seemed hesitant about the Senton and looked like he wiped out. Reading some comments apparently he was supposed to do a SHOOTING STAR PRESS?!? and belly flop, but I guess he got freaks out went Senton. It looked ugly and gnarly. Hogan second slam attempt but Hogan collapses under the sheer mass of the Mastodon Vader. I will say there was some good trash talk on both side here. Vader was hitting some good stiff shots and honestly Hogan was giving as good as he got. Hogan tries his darndest to whip the crowd into a frenzy for the Big Slam. It is weird because watching other matches on the show, the crowd was clearly into the wrestling and even earlier they were with him, but when they needed the crowd the most for the finish it petered out. 

I would say I was thinking *** 3/4 before the finish. I was pretty impressed with the hard-hitting action. There was a clear narrative of Hogan trying to slam Vader, Vader missing big high-risk moves. The action was hard-hitting and heated. The finish just had no oomph. Hogan FINALLY Slams Vader, but he hurts his back. I get it they didnt want to go right to the finish because they wanted to do the Hulk-Up. I think as you will see later, they should have replaced the big boot with the Bodyslam. Lets get back to reality and then I will explain my solution. Hogan's back is injured. Vader recovers stiff short-arm clothesline, middle rope Vader splash gets two. Thats the Vader nearfall. I think a chokeslam or a Powerbomb there would have elevated the heat. Hulk-Up~! They really milk the Hulk-Up Vader tries a couple punches, three cage shots to Hogan before Hogan finally lets loose. Ugly Big Boot. Vader does NOT bump. Even worse Big Boot to the gut this time gets Vader down. A weirdly timed Dungeon of Doom run-in (Sullivan & Zodiac (Beefcake)) Rod The Bod beats them back with a chair. Legdrop NO POP! So Hogan is like fuck it. Everything is mistimed. He hits the reset. Plays to the crowd. Now he hits the real Legdrop, better pop. He looks to go out over the top, but Vader meets him (Vader popped up after Hogan's finish, where's all the bitching about that, wrestling fans get worked up over the strangest things). Hogan beats him back with chops. Vader takes one last gnarly from the top of the cage, twisting on the top rope to the canvas. Hogan wins and parties with Jimmy Hart and Dennis Rodman. He's government-inspected (no more government to do that) and he's US-grade, Tony signs off, BUT WAIT...

Ric Flair is in the ring accosting Vader for losing to Hogan saying he was banking on him to get his retribution vicariously through Vader. He puts his hands on Vader, bad idea, Naitch. The Enforcer comes in and Vader shoves him off too. Flair takes an INSANE BUMP off the cage in his haste to escape Vader. Like what the fuck? He could have seriously hurt himself. Vader says he wants both of them and this Vader's babyface turn baby and he will get both of them at next Clash. Lets unpack this and we will go back to the match. GENIUS! Fucking Genius! I am so sick and fucking tired of feuds just getting started because someone just attacks someone else. It is so fucking lame. THIS is how pro wrestling booking should be done. You establish a matrix of relationships that you can leverage to start feuds. Flair had been retired by Hogan and began championing Vader's cause to vanquish Hogan and win the title. They had alliance at Slamboree and Flair was continue to trumpet Vader. Flair being the egomaniac that he is cannot stand the failure. He wanted this so bad. He snapped. So he berated and belittled a very strong and very proud man. Vader in turn gave a little something to think and spooked him. Now we got a freshly minted babyface Vader based on the natural progression of the story. It is NOT hard, people. This is how pro wrestling should be. Now you can pick nits that should this been shoehorned at the end of the PPV and Vader should have been selling getting beat up by Hogan. All valid points, but the nucleus of the story is perfect. I would have done it on the next episode of Saturday Night, but I can also see the value of having a chaotic ending to the PPV. It foreshadows the booking of Nitro really well. This felt like the end of an early Nitro.

Back to the match, the finish just felt anti-climatic. I think if they just had an editor re-arrange some things they could have made this worthwhile. I think you do the Dungeon of Doom run-in first. They feel like Vader cant get the job done. Rod the Bod beats them off but Hogan is distracted so here comes the Big Vader nearfall first either a Chokeslam or a Powerbomb. Hulk-Up. No Big Boot. This is where you put the Bodyslam. Drop the Leg. I'd do the 1-2-3 honestly or just have him go out over the cage. The whole thing with Bodyslam hurting him leading to Vader nearfall was weird. The Big Boot was terrible. The Dungeon run-in distracted the crowd and they missed the first Legdrop. It was a shockingly mis-paced Hogan finish run, but I think if they rearranged in the above way it would have hit better. I still thought this was very good, but not as good as SuperBrawl or Hogan/Yoko KOTR 93. *** 1/2 

 

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