[1998-09-28-WCW-Nitro] Hulk Hogan vs Bret Hart

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

It's all come to this. Hogan vs Bret Hart in a completely forgettable Nitro main event. This couldn't even beat RAW in the ratings. This is worked strange with Hogan outwrestling Bret in repeated sequences. Bret is still selling a knee injury from War Games and Hogan targets it. Hogan does some pretty solid limb work, but this seems like something simply designed to make Hogan look like the better wrestler. Dumb Sting and the Dumb Wolfpac come to Bret's rescue and Bret is escorted out on a stretcher. This strangely turns into a Hogan-Sting match. Immediately, this is far more energetic than any of their previous matches. Bret is being loaded into an ambulance as they show the match on a split screens. But orderlies come out of the ambulance and attack Luger and Konnan, and they are revealed as Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell. Bret gets off the gurney and limps back to the ring. Crowd boos that as they can see where this is going. Sting gets a splash on Hogan and is locking in the Scorpion when Bret attacks him and shows that he's been faking the knee injury. He and Hogan laugh about it and beat up Sting. This got awesome heat. This is half great angle and half mess. I can't figure out which. But in less than a year, Bret had already turned too many times. And I don't know why Hogan has to be part of this since he ends up taking a big part of the heat a Sting-Bret feud should have with him. I loved this overall, but the politics are also pretty apparent. Hogan got to show his superiority over everyone involved.

[Zenjo]

Okay so Hogan and Bret knew that by faking a leg injury it would guarantee that Sting would come out to help the Hitman. Not only that but they knew that Sting would feel compelled to take Bret's place in the match. They also knew that the referee would allow this ridiculous thing to happen. The nWO also knew that Bret would be accompanied back to the ambulance by Wolfpac members so they could be attacked. This attack could clearly not be carried out unless the nWO was disguised as orderlies, so they arranged that in advance. Back to the ring and I should point out that the wrestling here is actually real. The Bret vs Hogan match was actually fake because Bret was not injured at all and they were just pretending the whole time. Bret turns for the ? time (I've lost count).

 

Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Obviously. Crap. WCW.

 

WCW sure knows how to pull off a dream match.

[soup23]

So it has come to this. A swerve on what should have been the Starrcade main event and for sure one of the biggest main events of the year. WCW has really felt more desperate as the year has progressed. They have done some things well but it seems like the gaps are widening and we are starting to see the end game for the main braintrust involved. I was amazed that this turn by Hart still got heat and he is in the main event here but certainly is second banana to Hulk and in a upper mid card feud with Sting. (*1/2)

[Superstar Sleeze]

Hollywood Hogan vs Bret Hart - WCW Nitro 9/28/98

 

By far the worst WCW main event shit, I have seen so far and when this bullshit is coupled with Jay Leno in August and the ongoing Warrior bullshit, this is territory killing shit. Shit. Bret Hart has a bad wheel from Wargames, but he is out to get the match he has wanted since Day One in WCW. He does not need your Civil War. He is above Hollywood and Wolfpac. He is overcoming this knee injury to kick Hogan's ass and reclaim his former glory and reclaim his damn pride. And it is all one big swerve on Sting, fuck WCW! I mean I love WCW, but I am calling a spade a spade, this is some world class stupid booking.

 

Hogan dominating Bret Hart because of the leg injury with solid body part work having used the railing to set up the heat segment is great booking. Then you have the clusterfuck finish where Sting & Da Wolfpac need to save him. This is a great way to whet the audience's appetite and build to Hogan/Hart at Starrcade '98. Hogan/Sting has new life and is way hotter than in the early part of 1998 because Sting has gone back to just being Sting instead of trying to play the silent badass. But Fuck Hogan! He dominates Sting. What the fuck, dude! Shine that muthafucka up. Dominating the injured Bret Hart makes sense, but Sting is hot coming off the save and should have had you pinballing. Bret Hart is about to be loaded into the ambulance when the EMTs (Big Poppa Pump & Buff) attack Luger & Konnan. Bret Hart is back out because he won't be denied his piece of Hogan. At least Nitro will go off the air with the faces standing tall. Hogan misses the Legdrop and Sting gets him the Scorpion. OH YOU HAVE TO BE FUCKING SHITTING ME!!! Bret Hart DDTs Sting. The crowd boos, but it is just like two weeks ago, I firmly believe they are booing the company not Bret and Hogan. It is all ruse, Bret's knee was not hurt. So Hogan was just play wrestling, but with Sting he was real wrestling. Gimme a break!!!

 

Hollywood Hogan is one of my all-time favorite characters, but he needs to go fucking away. This is he exact moment when Bret Hart was permanently fucked. Poor Sting yet another fucking turn against him. The Jay Leno and Warrior shit were bad, but it almost feels like it is extracurricular because they aren't regulars. Now you are messing with two of your lead babyfaces and basically killed them off for a year at least. Bad, bad, bad booking.

 

This was about the exact time I started watching the WWF again as a kid, right around Judgment Day 1998 to be exact. WWF had been banned in my house after the Dustin/Terri/Pillman bullshit. My mother really hated how they had treated women in late 1997 and the D-X antics did not help. Thus I missed Wrestlemania in Boston, which I didn't even know was happening in Boston at the time, but we got a fancam from my Dad's friend so I saw Austin's victory. Austin never really resonated with me as a kid. I never had anti-authority streak in me and honestly he seemed like a mean bully to me at the time. The NWO was way cooler and the people wanted to hang out with at the time. But after seeing WCW Nitro live in September, I realized how boring WCW had gotten. I started going on WWF.com and after enough urging I got WWF re-established in my household, but only the Saturday morning Livewire at first. By January, we ordered Royal Rumble 1999 and while I was always loyal to WCW, WWF had ensnared my interested. Bullshit like this and the Warrior really pushed me towards WWF.

[PeteF3]

In a vacuum this could actually be defended as a hell of an angle and a strong way to set up Bret vs. Sting for Starrcade, but It Was a Setup All Along is so, so, SO tired, across both promotions. And this setup is particularly ridiculous because why would Bret and Hogan be costing themselves matches just to create a ruse for a month later? This pretty much leaves the Wolfpack as the same ineffective ninny babyfaces that WCW was in 1996 and ends them as a major babyface faction.

[zep81]

So in Bret's first 8 or so months in the company, he's face-heel-face-heel.

[Beast]

Shocked Bret was game for this, in what ended up being the only televised match he had versus Hogan.

Hogan dominates both Bret and Sting to a laughable extent. Even with the Bret match being a fraud, the seven minutes feature Hogan outwrestling him before going after his leg. Bret doesn't get anything. If this had played out as a legit Sting save, with Bret having a big match and win over Hogan at Starrcade, this wouldn't be so bad.

But what a horrible bait and switch for the match they'd built up the entire show as a first-time dream match. 

And a fresh Sting takes over and Hogan still kicks his butt until he misses the leg drop. Why is the heel having two matches against face main eventers and looking strong against both?