[1997-01-13-WCW-Nitro] Hulk Hogan vs The Giant

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

The infamous Robin Hood match. As much as I would have loved to have included the entire episode of Robin Hood, that's a lot of real estate on a yearbook. A fan throws a rubber chicken at Hogan on his way to the ring! Hogan decides to play Lawler and do some stalling on the mic at the start of the match. Hogan selling the bodyslam in his sunglasses is awesome. Everyone knows the story with this match, right?

[goodhelmet]

No, what's the story?

[Loss]

Big ratings ploy. They started the match with about two minutes of airtime left. The same night, TNT was debuting a new Robin Hood series. They told viewers they would continue to air the match during commercial breaks of Robin Hood, in an attempt to drive up Robin Hood ratings. They made the match seem like it lasted 45 minutes through all the breaks even though it was only a five minute match. Tony Schiavone kept calling it and saying it was happening in real time. They never did that again after lots of fan complaints, and the WWF poked fun at them for a while too.

[ajtroma]

I watched the replay of Nitro. Instead of Robin Hood, they showed the movie "The Lost Boys' and did the same thing.

[soup23]

Hollywood Hulk Hogan is amazing. His entrance with him reigning in the attention of all the NWO members is great. I had forgotten that the Giant still didn't have any music which is a cool touch still. His stalling techniquest leading to him being slammed into the ring was great. I think having this all spliced together made it show how ridiculous it was for Tony to insist they had been fighting for 50 minutes without Hogan breaking a sweat. Pretty fun squash match of Hogan getting destroyed until the predictable NWO run in ensues.

[Kevin Ridge]

Ross would always talk about La Femme Nikita (show on USA) being tougher than that skinny legged Robin Hood. I think he was trying to tell him to get on the juice. Tony right away lets us know there is only a few minutes left in the show and sets things up that they will show the match during commercial breaks of Robin Hood. Hogan gets on the mic to waste time. Maybe WWE will release the unedited 50 minute match some day.

[stomperspc]

Tony reminds the audience over and over that the broadcast will be switching over to the debt of the new TNT Robin Hood show shortly, but the match will be rejoined during commercial breaks as long as it continues. This created quite a stir when it aired since it is an obvious ratings ploy but I didn’t find it that offensive. Tony makes sure it is abundantly clear what is happening, so nobody can claim they didn’t see it coming.

 

I also thought that in a way it made the match seem like a really big deal. WCW was a promotion that always yelled “we’re out of time!” and cut off at the top of the hour regardless of whether a match was finished. This match felt like a bigger deal than the usual main event match because they stuck with the match (in a way) rather than simply showing the rest the next week (or not showing it at all).

[TheMike520]

On one hand, I thought it was an interesting promotional tactic. But the main problem with this, as mentioned above, is that no one believed the match was going 45 minutes. I mean, if anything, they should have shown some footage in the first Robin Hood break then wait a few more breaks and said something like "We couldn't get the satellite hookup until now." It might have been a sleazy move but at least it would have been more realistic and believable. I remember when they aired this episode on WWE Classics on Demand, they showed all the clips that aired during the Robin Hood commercials together and it wasn't more than a few minutes in total. Crazy.

[El-P]

One year before, Hulk Hogan was unbearable. And at this point, Hollywood Hogan is just great. He's basically playing bitch here like nobody's business. The Robin Hood story is classic pro-wrestling carny shit. Pretty hilarious.

[PeteF3]

In a way this actually *does* make kayfabe sense, since this match was added and announced during the broadcast itself, at a time when doing that was actually fresh and innovative. A year later and no one would even bother trying to explain how a card could be made up on the spot. Hogan is fantastic again here, declaring that there's no piece of paper that says he has to wrestle tonight and blathering about how the NWO does whatever they want whenever they want--only for Giant to cut him off and turn him into a blubbering, begging fool. This match is a testament to the outstanding conditioning of these two athletes, as they go 30-45 minutes into the airing of Robin Hood with neither man breaking a sweat and Hogan not getting in any offense in that time--a normal competitor would be dead if they received punishment for that long. Usual NWO run-in ending by the B-teamers and Syxx, but Giant shrugs them all off and Hogan wants them to get out of dodge!

 

The Robin Hood tie-in was cheesy as hell and critically lambasted at the time, but WCW has really never felt hotter. A big, hyped Dome crowd, a new babyface star born earlier in the night, and for the past few weeks the WCW-NWO battle has felt much more even, giving the shows even greater urgency because they once again feel unpredictable after a rash of long NWO beatdowns.

[KB8]

WCW continue their roll and this was a total blast. Hogan is on another level as a character right now, having Bagwell hold the belt while he poses, all of the B-level nWo guys worshiping at the alter of Hollywood. He's hammy as fuck in this once the match itself starts, wide-eyed and slack-jawed in disbelief as he low blows Giant to no effect. That back row could've been twelve miles away and it would've been fine because Hulk was playing to aaaall the way back there. Naturally we get the nWo run in and Syxx takes the bump of the match as he gets launched clean across the ring (as was his wont, tbf). I also had never heard that ratings grab story and man that's some amazing carny horse shit.