[1991-03-16-WWF-Superstars] Interview: Hulk Hogan

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Hogan equates burning his merchandise with burning the American flag. People cheered this guy.

[PeteF3]

Standard war metaphor-filled Hogan interview. These are still better than last year's WM promos.

[Kevin Ridge]

Gene overdoes the Hulk burning shirt thing. Hogan is close to comparing this to burning the American flag. Reach! Hulkamania is American made. I always wondered how this big time USA push played in Canada and other foreign markets.

[soup23]

Time for Hogan to pump the last bit of hype in Mania and it seems weird seeing Hogan in a live setting as most of his stuff has been in the green screen. I also liked the lack of interaction Hogan and Slaughter had with each other besides the Main Event stuff. I still havent found this angle as tasteless as the hype it receives.

[garretta]

I don't see how you haven't, Soup. Comparing the burning of a Hulk Rules T-shirt to the burning of an actual American flag? Are you kidding? That alone is among the most tasteless and ridiculous things I've ever seen in wrestling, never mind Slaughter's attempt to involve Saddam Hussein in the angle earlier and all the rest of this crap. This particular promo was nothing we haven't heard before going back years; Hogan's always talked about the combat zone and used war metaphors on occasion. But they've never felt gratuitous and exploitative like they have here. Give me a couple of idiots speaking in tongues any day. At least I can laugh at their stupidity.

 

One thing I've just thought of: Vince had the perfect opportunity to really make Hogan seem patriotic and was too dumb to take advantage of it. What do I mean? Remember the "American Made" T-shirts that Hogan wore from time to time over the first couple of years of his reign, mostly with white trunks? Why not bring those back as long as you've gone this far? You'll never have a better angle for it, after all. The problem was, Vince presumably thought so little of his audience that he didn't want to confuse them by presenting Hogan out of "uniform" (that is, red and yellow).

 

That's always been the way with Vince; he's so busy trying to be edgy and hip, and making sure everyone knows just how edgy and hip he is, that he overlooks subtle and more tasteful touches that would get his point across just as well if not better.