[1991-11-16-WWF-Superstars] Funeral Parlor: Hulk Hogan

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Hogan looks all over the set for Undertaker and can't find him. Eventually, Ric Flair comes out and cuts an amazing promo on Hogan, which is pitch-perfect. Hogan tears his shirt off and the crowd pops huge. They are amped to see these two lock up. Undertaker ends up coming out of a coffin and attacks Hogan from behind with the urn. Flair gets in some shots but Savage and Piper quickly leave the broadcast booth with chairs to run them off. Undertaker yanks the cross off of Hogan's neck and drops it on his chest. This is quite the collection of stars that would be hard to match today, and this was a great segment.

[Kevin Ridge]

Flair confronts Hogan on the Funeral Parlor! He really is a sight to see both guys face to face with their title belts. Great Flair promo. Undertaker pops out of a casket and hits Hogan with the urn. Flair joins in. Hogan wasn’t so clever this time trying to avoid an attack from Undertaker. Piper and Savage come to Hogan's aid. A six man with Hogan/Savage/Piper versus Flair/Roberts/Undertaker would have been awesome.

[PeteF3]

Has Vince viewed any interview segment in the history of the company as anything less than "most interesting"? Hogan is quickly weirded out upon entering the set and seeing his personalized casket. Nothing inside that except a Hulk poster, but before he can check the stand-up casket, here's Ric Flair out for a face-to-face confrontation. Regardless of what one might think of Hulk's mic skills, it's incredibly, incredibly difficult for any other performer to overshadow him in a segment, but Ric shows himself to be the Man here. Everything he says resonates and Hogan's response, even accounting that it's delivered with Undertaker sneaking up behind him, comes off as inconsequential. The WWF can be shameless and manipulative as can be seen in the previous Slaughter segment, but this illustrates what they do better than any other promotion you can imagine. Just an abundance of great images: Flair and Hogan face-to-face, UT coming from behind and the crowd screaming, Flair holding up both titles, Undertaker facing two men with chairs and standing tall, Undertaker yanking on Hogan's crucifix necklace and then dropping it like it's acid, and the cross laying on Hogan's prone body.

[soup23]

Iconic scene with a big collection of talent all around and Piper maybe being the least recognizable which is odd. The promos Flair/HOgan cut on each other were really well done and Taker breaks Hogans cross necklace to set up Survivor Series.

[garretta]

There are parts of this I liked and parts that I didn't.

 

The main part I liked was Flair's promo. You can tell that he's been waiting a long time to say what he said right to Hogan's face, and in a way it's a shame that he had to say it merely to set up a Taker attack. I would have loved to hear a sustained promo battle between these two at some point before now, with Mean Gene moderating and no excess crap. Flair would probably win, but it would be nice to hear how Hogan would reply to Flair's taunts face-to-face, which he hasn't really done so far.

 

I'm not sure if someone told Flair to do "Whatcha gonna do?" right in Hogan's face or whether it was done on the spur of the moment, but either way it took major guts that I don't see many heels scaring up. Flair may be one of the few heels whom I can legitimately say doesn't fear either Hogan or Hulkamania, and Taker's definitely another.

 

I understand the symbolism of the undead tearing a cross off of their victim's chest, but I think Andre did it better before Mania III. There was definitely more emotion involved, and Andre threw it away like garbage, while Taker was forced by his character to show fear of it (which directly contradicts what I said above).

 

Once and for all, the "be a professional" lectures from Vince to Piper and Savage have definitively been shown as a cover for the fact that the commentary is being done in the studio instead of live. You'll notice that he didn't say a mumblin' word when Piper cracked Flair over the back with a chair and Savage did the same to Taker, even though he has specifically said in the past that any sort of physical confrontation by these two while broadcasting will result in a suspension for the combatant. Then again, who else was far enough in Hogan's bubble at this time to save him? In true WWF fashion, none of the other faces have a thing to do with either Flair or Taker feudwise, so they can't be involved. I guess if Piper and Savage hadn't been there live, Taker would have locked Hogan in the casket and no one would have done a thing about it.

 

Vince's shilling is getting sickening. His World champion is being taken off the Parlor set, having to be assisted by two guys who just put their broadcasting careers (and, in Randy's case, a chance to avenge the terrorization of his wife) on the line, he could have possibly been stuffed in a casket, and all Vince can do is not just hype Survivor Series, but spit out the hype in that godawful half-growl, half-retch that he's been using more and more when the time to hype comes along. There's no selling of how close Hogan came to being buried alive, no concern for Piper and Savage directly disobeying Jack Tunney's edict against getting physically involved (and doing so to help Hogan, of all people), not even a moment to wonder just what kind of physical and mental condition Hogan will be in come the twenty-seventh. I guess he doesn't think that what we just saw counts for much, so why did he put it on TV? Why should we even watch the weekly TV shows if that's the way he's going to act?

 

I remember the masterful job he did with things like Orndorff's turn on Hogan, Andre getting a haircut from Studd and Patera, Honky throwing Liz to the mat and breaking his guitar over Savage's head, and countless others. Where did this Vince go, the man who sold an angle better than anyone else in the business except Lance Russell? There's no one else on the broadcast team who could step in for him and do as well, and that's what's really sad; as bad as he's gotten, he's still the best play-by-play guy the WWF has right now.

 

This is probably the second-best Funeral Parlor to date after the one where Warrior gets stuffed into his casket. Almost every other one is tied for third.

[JKWebb]

This was a great moment. I too love Flair's promo, but Hogan's glare back at Piper is pretty damn awesome. Overall, one of my favorite moments of the year.

[dawho5]

This was great. Flair cuts an all-time great promo on Hogan and Hogan can't match it. But Taker coming up from behind and the save by Savage and Piper keeps everything rolling. Finally you have Taker with a beyond-his-years performance stopping a couple of guys with chairs and doing some character work with the cross. Extremely well-done segment that shows how the WWF could use goofy shit like the Funeral parlor and still create meaningful results out of it.