[1994-08-24-WCW-Clash of the Champions XXVIII] Ric Flair vs Hulk Hogan

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Flair worked the mic all the way through commercial to build heat for the match. Hogan dominating Flair while hobbling around on one knee for the first half of this is just completely wrong. This is even less a Flair match than BATB, which is a weird statement to make about a match focused around destroying Hogan's injured knee. This is Hogan vs Heel Opponent, and Flair just happens to be the guy on the other side. Hogan tries to do this big selling performance which is technically fine, but he's too dominant to be sympathetic, and there's this overbearing phoniness to all of this that shines through. The finish makes Flair look stupid, as he apparently doesn't understand the rules of wrestling and thinks that titles change hands on a countout. Sherri's outfit is very proto Lady Gaga, though.

[Strummer]

this is the match that Flair was supposed to go over and win the title to build to the Havoc match, right? Hogan vetoed to a countout finish the day of the show I believe

[Loss]

Yes, this is the one. I agree that after all the hype, Hogan having a one-month title reign would have been a bad idea, but I don't think this was the solution. Flair/Hogan was still the biggest money match WCW had, and there was no reason to show it on free TV at all. They could have easily done Flair/partner (Not sure who that would be considering that Austin was being buried, Arn was otherwise occupied and Vader would have been a horrible idea at this point for quite a few reasons) vs Hogan/Sting, which would have been an equally big match with Flair getting the pin over Sting and laying out Hogan in a post-match angle to make him strong heading into Havoc.

[Kevin Ridge]

Can't believe they put the rematch on free TV. Bash match was way better. Hogan is walking like a zombie trying to sell the knee injury when he moves. They should have cut out the first part of this match when Hogan comes out and dominates Flair while being injured. They brawl for the longest time outside the ring where referee lets them get away with it. What makes it so dumb later for the finish when he does the quick ten count. Hogan was also inconsistent with the knee injury at times doing poses and moving fine and then being unable to move off more simple moves. Moment when some old lady in the front row was trying to go after Flair with her crutch. But Flair does look dumb at the finish when he thinks he won the title. Well, Buffer did announce him as new champion but even before then he was celebrating.

[Exposer]

Hogan does a good job selling the knee here but he should have been dominated the whole match by Flair. The finish was terrible and Flair comes across like a total jackass. The one positive about this match was that the crowd was extremely into it so I was at least excited and invested into the match. I think this would have been a fine match if Hogan didn't have the phony ass attack on the knee earlier in the program.

[soup23]

Crowd was defintely hot for this match. Seeing this match really shows how they had to add the career stip along with the cage for Havoc to mean anything. I have been forgiven of a lot of super hero Hulk performances but this is one of his worst. The injury was presented as such life a death the whole show that we really should have had a sting/Rude situation in my opinion. Flair looks like a complete idiot at the finish to boot and the figure four is made entirely meaningless.

[El-P]

I usually enjoy Flair vs Hogan, and depsite the fact Flair looks like a complete bitch I actually enjoyed this one too. One thing I liked was that Hulk kept on selling his leg during the hulk up, which I thought was a nice touch. Of course Hogan worked the match like he was doing the job, which is only half-true since he doesn't really does the job. One thing that hasn't been mentionned is WHY MICHEAL BUFFER WAS BROUGHT BACK AFTER TWO HORRIBLE CONSECUTIVES FUCK UPS ? He first announces that Flair is the new champ. Then announces that Hulk keeps the title because it's a DQ. And they gave big money to this idiot for years and years after this shit ? Oh, Bischoff...

 

Anyway, this Clash really was the opposite of the previous PPV and the sign that Hogan was gonna fuck WCW doggystyle until the end. First really awful Hogan angle, first show totally taken hostage by Hogan (not to mention refusing to do the job), first official apparition of Brother "let's main event Starrcade together dude" Bruti, Flair looking like a total dumb bitch, the announcers being forced to oversell left and right. Yep, this is the day things go awry. It didn't take long.

[Johnny Sorrow]

WHY MICHEAL BUFFER WAS BROUGHT BACK AFTER TWO HORRIBLE CONSECUTIVES FUCK UPS ?

Because he was the most famous ring announcer of all time already at this point, and this point being around the height of his fame amongst people who didn't even watch boxing. WCW probably didn't give a shit about his mistakes just so long as they had him to seem more mainstream and big time.

 

Don't get me wrong, I always hated him as a wrestling ring announcer but the fact remains that his fame superseded his fuck-ups in the eyes of management.

[El-P]

Yeah I know. My question was rethorical. In 1993 WCW spended more money to get Gene, Heenan and Buffer than they did taking care of its loyal workers. No wonder they got frustrated. Buffer was of course the worse.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

Shouldn't we blame WCW for not telling Buffer what to announce once the match ended? Or maybe they did and he was too busy counting his money to listen.

 

Buffer might make for a strangely interesting shoot interview.....

[BruiserBrody]

Shouldn't we blame WCW for not telling Buffer what to announce once the match ended? Or maybe they did and he was too busy counting his money to listen.

 

Buffer might make for a strangely interesting shoot interview.....

iirc His bro did a mini shoot on tape that is/was on youtube that was way more interesting than expected.

[Smack2k]

How about a tag where Flair pins Hogan in the match, leading to the Havoc Main Event?

 

I would have made this non-title due to teh injury and had Flair win clean.....god forbid there is ANY doubt about who may win at Havoc.....We gotta get Flair out of the way so my boy Bruti can feud with me for the biggest show of the year.....MONEY MONEY MONEY brother....

[goodhelmet]

Man, I understand the complaints about this booking but I thought this was awesome as a standalone Hogan match. I don't think Hogan was inconsistent at all with the leg injury. Just like the Regal-Arn match, Flair knows he has the leg in the back pocket so why go to it too early? Before Flair jacks the knee mid match, Hogan is selling the leg but he is still moving gingerly because it fucking hurts. Not enough to keep him from beating Flair's ass. I love how early on, Flair came to wrestle but Hogan came to fight, stuffing the bandana down Flair's throat, using the towel to swing Flair into the ringpost, as a clothesline device. All good shit. Even when they were brawling in the aisle, Hogan was throwing fucking headbutts. If you accept that rationale, Flair doing the delayed suplex and Hogan no selling didn't even bother me. After Flair takes over on the leg, Hogan's selling was awesome. He falls after the big boot which visually looked great. He can't cover after the leg drop. He should have tapped to the figure four. I agree with the stupidity of the booking but I thought the match before the end was great, one of Hogan's best. I also don't think Flair holding the belt made him look stupid. The announcer just said he was the new world champ. He just fought and got his ass kicked for 20 minutes. Might not have snapped right away. His reaction was appropriate once it was corrected. Overall, loved this Clash and this main event.

[Matt D]

Per WON, in May, 1994:

 

In other highlights of the Disney tapings, Hulk Hogan & Brutus Beefcake appeared on 5/16 doing an interview, while on 5/17, Ric Flair did a lengthy interview for airing in late July talking about having gotten past Vader, how Hogan wouldn't sign for a match with him (which basically means plans for the first Flair-Hogan match for 7/17 are out the window and it will take place later in the year) and plugged an 8/26 Clash of Champions title defense against Mr. Perfect which will take place in Wichita. Kevin Sullivan & Cactus Jack did interviews as tag team champions, since due to Jerry Sags' broken shoulder, the Nasty Boys will largely be out of commission for a while. Sags is expected to appear in Philadelphia to drop the straps, but not be a factor in the match. It is believed that Paul Orndorff & Paul Roma will quickly win the belts from the makeshift Jack & Sullivan team, and start a feud with the new team of "Stars n' Stripes" consisting of Marcus Bagwell & The Patriot.

I'm trying to decide if the person reporting this was confused, outright lying or if Flair actually did cut a promo at the disney tapings mentioning Mr. Perfect for the Clash.

[PeteF3]

Hogan actually put on a hell of a selling performance here, but now we're getting to see Flair start to get bitched out. He doesn't touch the injured knee at all to start despite it being the focal point of the match, which goes against Flair's entire MO--to the point where Heenan has to basically call him out on it. Hogan no-selling Flair's chops and suplexes on one leg is pretty absurd even if he does sell the actual knee. This finally does pick up once the knee comes into play, and Hogan being unable to finish his Hulk-Up routine because he can't execute his trademark moves is pretty clever and well-done. Then a ridiculous clusterfuck of a finish that wasn't executed well even before Michael Buffer's horrible announcing (and it doesn't do much for making WCW "mainstream" and "big time" if the announcer can't be bothered to comprehend the basic rules). Hogan gets jumped by the masked man again and in hindsight the Arn Anderson mannerisms are obvious. Mercifully Sting is the one who makes the save and not Bruti.

 

This was all pretty well-done and a fairly strong running story throughout the Clash that makes you want to keep watching television to see where it goes, but there are also lots of red flags about what WCW is going to be about going forward. Hogan took over the whole show and Schiavone is now firmly up his rear end after being a Flair mark for most of his career, and lots of empty talk about WCW being the new "#1."

[flyonthewall2983]

Per WON, in May, 1994:

 

In other highlights of the Disney tapings, Hulk Hogan & Brutus Beefcake appeared on 5/16 doing an interview, while on 5/17, Ric Flair did a lengthy interview for airing in late July talking about having gotten past Vader, how Hogan wouldn't sign for a match with him (which basically means plans for the first Flair-Hogan match for 7/17 are out the window and it will take place later in the year) and plugged an 8/26 Clash of Champions title defense against Mr. Perfect which will take place in Wichita. Kevin Sullivan & Cactus Jack did interviews as tag team champions, since due to Jerry Sags' broken shoulder, the Nasty Boys will largely be out of commission for a while. Sags is expected to appear in Philadelphia to drop the straps, but not be a factor in the match. It is believed that Paul Orndorff & Paul Roma will quickly win the belts from the makeshift Jack & Sullivan team, and start a feud with the new team of "Stars n' Stripes" consisting of Marcus Bagwell & The Patriot.

I'm trying to decide if the person reporting this was confused, outright lying or if Flair actually did cut a promo at the disney tapings mentioning Mr. Perfect for the Clash.

 

 

All good questions because around this time Curt had the big comeback at WrestleMania, which started a program with Lex Luger that never went anywhere and he wasn't to be seen in WWF again until late next year. Was there any hubbub that he was talking with WCW? It would make sense to try and get him because he was as identifiable with WWF as anyone and could have fit in with the more competitive in-ring nature at the time.

[PeteF3]

The three most red-hot rumors around (from my Prodigy account and one mid-level dirt sheet I subscribed to) were: Perfect to WCW, Bundy to the WWF, and Rick Rude to the WWF. All three were perceived to be done deals, but as we know only Bundy came to fruition.

[DMJ]

I just saw this match for the first time and enjoyed it a good bit...until the ending.

 

The way Buffer screws up the call (was he told to make the announcements or not?) is just mind-numbingly stupid. Did Bischoff think that new viewers would be so unfamiliar with disqualification/count-outs that they would believe the title WOULD change hand, thus it was necessary to have Buffer declare Flair the winner and new Champion, only to be corrected later on? Was it just a gaffe on Buffer's part? Also, why did Buffer announce that Hogan lost by DQ when he lost by count-out?

 

Ugh...why, again, did they not just have Flair win the title back here?

[Mrzfn]

Just watched this match for the first time and didn't much care for it, the fact that Hogan takes so much of it despite coming directly from the hospital is just too much, but what nobody has mentioned yet is Sherri, god bless her, at one point does a full on Jeff Hardy double leg drop to Hogan's balls, in heels no less. Whether her pairing with Flair is perfect or not, I'm really enjoying Sherri in this period.

[flyonthewall2983]

Ugh...why, again, did they not just have Flair win the title back here?

 

Not good for merch, brother.

[DR Ackermann]

This is so frustrating. Yeah, the match was good, but in context everything was wrong. First of all, it took them too long to transition to Flairs segment. Hogan is supposed to be in the hospital. When Flair does take control it's not decisive enough. He should have been more vicious and dominant.  Their first match was hyped as the two best wrestlers in the world finally matching up, but they never treat Flair like that in the booking. If Flair is that good and can't handle his own against a crippled Hogan even in the slightest then who can??? They had so much to gain by doing things differently than how they had been done for the last 10 years with  Hogan. So what if Flair won the title back in the rematch?? Hogan had an excuse and it establishes Flair as his equal. It would be different and fresh. They'rehrowing everything away. Seriously why watch the rest of the movie, the hero is invincible. Inoki and Baba jobbed more than Hogan. Yeah I know he lost, but not really. Not in a way that mattered to the botttom line.

[JKWebb]

Put me in the boat of loving this match and this Clash.  The crowd was super hot, and I thought they worked this match stiffer than the match at the Bash.  I thought this was a fun ride, and really entertaining.  I can understand why they wouldn't want to take the belt immediately off Hogan after just winning it.  The biggest name in wrestling history had just joined their company.