[1991-03-24-WWF-Wrestlemania VII] Hulk Hogan vs Sgt. Slaughter

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

They really wanted to have a great match, and tried to make it special. I really liked the layout of this, and both guys worked hard. I think they had a good match, but it seemed like something was missing to really put it over the top. The crowd was hot, but not as hot as you would think. And Adnan distracting the ref during a Slaughter pin attempt was just completely awful and made no sense. Still, it's obvious what they were going for. The skeleton of a great match was there. They just didn't quite achieve it.

[shoe]

They had a lot of good elements in the match like Slaughter working the back, the burying of Hogan in the flag was good,Slaughter still had the turnbuckle bump in his holster. Hogan seemed energized for the match. Still both guys seemed to plod through the match at times . Maybe if they went a tad shorter they could have trimmed the fat. The interference spot was so bad.

[PeteF3]

Hogan is much more tolerable in this interview. Oh, here's the Prime Time attack. Not an angle of the century or anything but Adnan shoving the WWF title belt in Hogan's face as he's in the camel clutch was an effective visual.

 

Adnan had two badly blown spots here--first he grabs Hogan's leg early as he's on the second rope, which messes up the timing of that spot before he grabs it properly when Hogan goes back up. Then that shit where Slaughter has him pinned. Immediately after that Sarge brains Hulk with a chair and clearly that was supposed to be the distraction. This is another standout performance from Slaughter himself, especially his early bumping and his actually living up to his promise of trying to get DQ'd or counted out, which was a smart touch. I also liked the set-up for the Iraqi flag burial, with Hogan powering out of the camel clutch but Slaughter countering Hogan's counter. I think I liked this better than the Rumble match, and despite all the icky build-up it really does somehow feel "right again" when Hogan regains the title--there's no feeling of a reset button being pushed, even though that's exactly what they did.

[Superstar Sleeze]

This one is a tough one for me to rate definitively. There are some really bad botches from Adnan that have already been noted. In addition, I didn't like the transition of Hogan getting press slammed off the top. It just doesn't make sense. He hadn't run through his arsenal yet so there was no reason to bust out a "big bomb" only to be caught. Then there was the whole Hogan being next to the ropes during the Boston Crab and only to grab the ropes when they were there the whole time (I thought he was going to power out). My other big problem is my general problem with 80s WWF (much like the fact 80s Metal didn't really die until 91/92, I think the same can be said for 80s WWF): neatly defined control segments with no sense of struggle within them. For that ordained amount of time, this wrestler will be a ragdoll for the other. It is not that matches can't transcend this handicap for me. It is that they are handicapped by it.

 

At one point Gorilla says "We are seeing the Hogan of the 90s", I couldnt disagree more. I felt like we are seeing the brief return of 80s Hogan in this feud that had left us in late '87. It was not just the return of the Bleeding Hulkster, but a Hulkster, who himself was out for blood. He seemed more violent and grittier than he had been since Harley feud in '87. I absolutely loved the Hogan no-sell of the chair. It just sent that message of "Not today, scumbag. Your ass is grass and I am about to smoke it." One of my favorite stretches is when Hogan whips Slaughter into doing the Slaughter bump, high knees him and then catapults back into the turnbuckles. It was that type of urgency I felt was missing from most of Hogan's matches. There was two stretches of punches that kind of took me out of the match before Slaughter got on offense as they just felt weak. Though of course what made it was Slaughter bumping like a madman for Hogan. Hogan is always at his best when someone is there ready to bump like crazy for him. From the get-go, Slaughter is ready to bump off the collar-elbow tie-up and a shoulderblock, you just know this is going to be good.

 

Slaughter was actually really good on offense too. They blended "I will get DQ to retain the belt" and back psychology really well. The Boston Crab wrecked Hogan's back and the chair busted him wide open. This all culminated in the Bloody Camel Clutch, which I feel like would be a more iconic scene if Savage/Liz didn't precede it and Hart/Austin did not supersede it. The hope spot out of the Camel Clutch rather than a full-fledged comeback was a nice wrinkle. It allowed to get that extra bit of heat when he covered him with the Iraqi Flag to get that extra bit of heat to really drive the finish home.

 

I was actually a little disappointed by the lack of Hogan cheating in this. I only remember a solitary eye-rake and one back scratch. If there was ever a time for Hogan to "heel" it up, I feel like this was the time. I remember seeing the last 10 minutes of the Desert Storm rematch these guys had in MSG that seems like wild, chaotic brawl between the two you wanted and they delivered in spades in that one. So I know they can get more violent, but this was a very good Wrestlemania-type match with great visual imagery.

 

I thought this was a really good 80s style match by two of the biggest 80s workers in the context of early 90s WWF. I would say this match is definitively (not that I am opposed to arguments for the other matches) Hogan's best match at Wrestlemania.

[Kevin Ridge]

I had to look up Marla Maples as I don’t know what makes her a celebrity besides being married to Trump later on. Her wikipedia page says she was having an affair with Trump at this point.

 

Anyways, the match which I figure to be an okay one. I use to hate the match when I first saw it but do see the good stuff now with Slaughter bumping around. There was blood but I would have expected more violence from Hogan to get back at Slaughter. Adnan was atrocious in this. His timing was off and his distracting the referee why Slaughter had the cover was one of the dumbest things ever for a heel manager to do to his guy that wasn’t part of some turn. It was a lengthly distraction too and he had clear view of Slaughter pinning Hogan. Just bad.

 

What was up with Hogan wiping the blood off his face with an American flag? Brain fart or just giving some fan a souvenir?

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

I thought this was a great match. Slaughter works his ass off. Best Hulk Up ever too.

[soup23]

I didn't see a thread for it but Hogan's pre match promo was awful. He really harbors a grudge for burning ones of his shirts.

 

I want to comment on how good Regis is on commentary in this match. He comments enough to know he is aware of who these guys are but also stays enough out of the way when he gets into any grey area where he might not look knowledgeable. I especially like him deferring to Gorilla on how Hogan can escape the cobra clutch. It is unfortunate how bad the Adnan interference was, but the rest of the match was very good. I agree with Superstar that Hogan can be great in a brawling, gritty environment and we got a lot of that here which works better than him blowing off Savage's high impact offense. Great main event style match and the pop was pretty huge for the win.

[garretta]

I watched the pre-match stuff to see Hogan's promo, and as usual, Vince won't stop clubbing us over the head with the idea that this is almost literally supposed to be a battle in the Gulf War. It wouldn;t be so vas except that there's no subtlety in the sriting wha

[garretta]

Let's try this again.

 

I watched the pre-match stuff to see Hogan's promo, and once again I was struck by the utter lack of symbolism or subtlety anywhere in it. They're all but calling this an actual battle in the Gulf War, to the point of Hogan actually trying to somehow adapt the lyrics of the national anthem to fit the WWF promo style. Needless to say, that idea falls flat on its head. The average SNME punfest is classic Greek oratory compared to this mess.

 

Then come the intros of the celebrities, which are fine. Gino gets on Bobby's case concerning some things he supposedly said about Regis Philbin, and Bobby comes back with a crack about Kathie Lee Gifford being a loudmouth. Marla Maples gets a mention; Alex Trebek gets nothing except a nice intro from Finkel. Gino tells us that Regis will be siting in on commentary.

 

Then come the intros of the wrestlers. Alex isn't bad, though he pronounces the name of Sarge's manager as "AD-NANN". The problem is, Gino and Bobby are blathering about Regis instead of setting the scene for the titanic struggle to come. I usually enjoy their act, but if we're talking about a battle in the ongoing Gulf War that's going to start in just a few minutes, shouldn't they be just a little more focused?

 

Now on to the match. This was Sarge's baby all the way; he had one more big match left in him, and this was it. He took an impressive beating from a fired-up Hogan at the start, and while his offense was limited and looked suspiciously like the Iron Sheik's offense circa 1/23/84, it was effective in the moment. He was also sly enough to constantly tease the crowd with the idea that he'd get intentionally counted out or DQed just to cheat them out of the ending that he knew they wanted to see. In terms of Hogan's Mania opponents during his first WWF run, his may be the best overall performance, though Savage at Mania V is probably the best bell-to-bell match.

 

Hogan was by-the-numbers here except for a few tries at aerial moves, but by-the-numbers was exactly what was called for. The crowd wanted vintage Hogan to bring it all home for America, and that's exactly what he did. The only thing I would have changed was him wiping his face with the American flag in the postmatch; why wouldn't they keep the Iraqi flag Sarge brought in if they wanted that spot so badly?

 

Adnan was passable here, not much more. I don't think that "distraction" spot was a botch; it was designed to show that all Iraqis and Iraqi supporters are too freakin' stupid to live. I mean, who else but a Godless Iraqi would distract the referee while his own man is attempting a winning pinfall? Gino hammers that point home on commentary as well; one time when Heenan's complaining about a slow count, he jokes that you only need a two-count to win a match in Iraq, to which Gino replies, "That's all the higher they can count anyway!"

 

Speaking of Gino, this wasn't one of his best calls; he was obviously pulling for Hogan, which he was supposed to do, but his disgust for Sarge spilled over into his interactions with Heenan. He wasn't in the mood to indulge Bobby's whimsies at all, and when he isn't, this partnership (which, don't forget, is almost all about comic timing, not the matches in the ring) is a non-starter.

 

Bobby actually did better than I thought; he walked a kind of tightrope between his well-known dislike for Hogan and his.......patriotism isn't the right word, but he seemed to understand that Sarge's reign continuing spells bad things for all Americans, including him. I liked how he outlined his dislike for Hogan to Regis, and when Regis teased him that if Hogan got the belt back, his men would never get title shots, he was right there with "Probably not". Speaking of Regis, he was okay, a typical celebrity commentator. Uecker was the best of the bunch, because he actually grasped what was going on a bit; most of the celebrities Vince used for commentary never got that far. Remember Susan St. James (Mrs. Dick Ebersol) imploring George Steele to eat Randy Savage's leg at Mania 2?

 

One last complaint: Did Vince (through Heenan) really have to plug Prime Time while the action in the ring was ongoing? It made Bobby look ridiculous (not in a productive way), and did he (Vince) really think that anyone gave even a sliver of a damn at that point? It showed how his priorities had changed even since last year, and that was a terrible thing for the business.

[soup23]

Excited to see what you think of the desert storm match when you get there

[flyonthewall2983]

What is it with them doing mini-angles after the show that would air on PTW or the syndicated shows? Like the Savage/Liz wedding party or here with Hogan getting burned backstage?

[Loss]

I think Vince had a mentality at that time that the paying customer should get a happy ending.

[JKWebb]

I think I agree that this is Hogan's best match at Mania. Sarge really put on a show here and fed into Hogan. His bumps were so damn entertaining. Even in 2017, and Hogan has never been my guy, but even in 2017 I found myself getting into and totally buying into that Hulk up. I agree with some of the complaints, but on the other side, I do think Hogan looks pretty cool with red, white, and blue bandana brother.

[dawho5]

Not a Hogan guy by any means, but it works. Problem for me is Savage/Warrior was on the same card.

[Hawkeye12]

I actually like this match itself better than Savage/Warrior, it's the Elizabeth angle added on that makes that more special. The Adnan mistake kind detracts from it, but the story they told was great. Wrestlemania 7 is probably my second favorite WM behind 3.

[cactus]

Slaughter has always been a good hand and he is a more interesting opponent than the majority of Hogan's foes during his first title run. He stalls well and is great at playing the chickenshit heel. Although this is worked miles better than Andre/Hogan, this was a far blander and duller main event. No one believed Sarge was winning this and not even the electric crowd and a nasty Hogan bladejob could pull me into this. The amount of blatant chair shots in front of the referee also had me rolling my eyes. At least this was decisive and sent the crowd home happy. 

★¾