[1990-07-28-WWF-Saturday Night's Main Event] Interview: Hulk Hogan

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Hogan promises to respond to every letter sent to him during the Get Well campaign. Did anyone here write him and get a response? I'd love to see what the WWF sent out. Hogan is tremendous, and this is one of those moments where you see him and totally get his appeal. There are obnoxious things about Hogan generally speaking, but he was great in this feud.

 

Earthquake, Jimmy Hart and Dino Bravo surround him, but Tugboat comes out to even the sides. Really good segment that made every point it needed to make.

[PeteF3]

I'm guessing they got a shiny new merchandise catalog, at least.

 

Unique setting to this, with Vince doing a rare-for-the-time in-ring interview and Ventura alone on commentary. It's not quite as good, but Hogan hits a lot of the same notes as he did n his comeback speech and he's still more low-key than usual. Earthquake and Bravo try to corner Hogan, but Tugboat comes to help get them to back off.

[soup23]

Don't remember getting anything and will confirm with my mom to make sure my letter was not sent and this wasn't a case of the time I sold lemonade down our deserted street and she put money in the box while I wasn't looking.

 

Really awesome promo by Hogan and he is firing on all cylinders around this time.

[shoe]

Great interview. Hogan is at his best in this feud. Tugboat is a chump though.

[Kevin Ridge]

Hogan again thanks the Hulkamaniacs for their prayers and thoughts. Hogan is going to respond to all those letters he got. Yeah, right. Here’s Earthquake and Bravo but Tugboat backs up Hogan and chases off the heels.

[garretta]

After the crap that was the buildup to Mania VI, it's nice to hear Hogan sound semi-human again. We get one of those confrontations-that-isn't, as Bravo and Quake come down to menace Hogan before Tugboat makes the save. Jesse's less virulently anti-Hogan than usual at first, merely pointing out that Hogan may be making a big mistake in returning, which isn't exactly a controversial viewpoint given the injuries he's recovering from. (Great sign from the fan, by the way.) Of course, he then decries Hogan's use of his weightlifting belt, so all's back to normal fairly quickly.

 

There's just something jarring about sincere, semi-human Hogan against cartoonish Quake/Bravo/Hart. I'm not sure what they could have done to make it better, though. Frenchy Martin would have made it a million times worse with his "USA is not OK" horseshit, and Heenan couldn't manage every heel in the promotion. It's just that it seems like they have an opportunity to go grittier than usual here which they're not fully taking advantage of. Maybe it's Tugboat; maybe Hogan needed a more serious cornerman, like Jake or Piper, and maybe that's one of the reasons Bossman got stuck in at the last minute. Or maybe this whole thing would have felt more substantial if Jimmy wasn't such a joke as a manager by now. Regardless, I remember the SummerSlam match as being pretty good, so maybe that will make it all come out right.

[dawho5]

Hogan again uses real, actual emotion to fuel a promo and it does wonders. What a great, great promo and I'm starting to understand why a program like Hogan vs. Earthquake actually made some money.

[TheDuke]

This was great as a kid. It was a moment where Hogan seemed like a real life hero that you could really believe in. Wrestling seemed more fun to me as a child, as I really was worried Hogan might lose or get hurt, and really wanted to see him win. I don't tend to feel those same kind of emotions watching wrestling as an adult except for maybe a few exceptions which are few and far between, and that makes wrestling over all a little less enjoyable for me.

The promo itself is the best part of this. The angle at the end with Bravo, Earthquake, and Tugboat coming is a little disappointing as there is no actual violence shown here. I hope WWE uploads more episodes of Prime Time going into the summer of 1990, as it would be fun I think to see the week to week promos of Tugboat and Jimmy Hart discussing Hogan's injury and comeback leading into Summerslam.