[1995-09-04-WCW-Monday Nitro] Hulk Hogan vs Big Bubba Rogers

[Superstar Sleeze]

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Big Bubba Rogers - WCW Nitro 9/4/95

The main event of the first Nitro and probably the best possible main event they could have conjured up with. Having Hulk Hogan defend the WCW World Title in the main event of the first Nitro, instantly made Nitro feel must-see. Big Bubba Rogers who was #3-#5 Heel of the year for WCW so he was the perfect challenger with enough credibility to garner interest, but not as marquee as Flair or Giant which worthy as a PPV main event. 

Similar to the Liger/Pillman and Sting/Flair match, this felt like the hyper-compressed version of your typical Hogan match. Typical Hogan Clash of the Titans start with headlocks, test of strength and shouldertackles. Mongo saying Hogan is too much of a technician to get bested by the brawler, Bubba, while Hogan is slamming Rogers' head into the top turnbuckle is rich. The ref keeps breaking it Hogan's fists of fury. Rogers uses those breaks to take over with some great fists. Both these guys arent afraid of throwing a punch and there were a lot of good punches in this. Bubba goes for his customary slide out and punch, but Jimmy Hart gets in his way. Hogan uses the distraction plus Jimmy Hart's coat to beat up Rogers some more. Again it is more fisticuffs. Bubba gets the Bossman Slam out of nowhere and that leads to Hulk-Up! You know the drill 1-2-3. The Hulk-Up lives and dies by the nearfall preceding it. The Bossman Slam just had no heat to it. Usually Hogan sells a lot more, but I think there was directive to wrestle uptempo and just keep kicking ass. Usually the Hogan formula will peak harder through investment of Hogan's selling, but they opted for action instead. People who say Hogan wrestles slow always smacks me as strange. He is a very good uptempo wrestler. 

I am surprised they didnt just throw Rogers into the Dungeon of Doom for the hell of it to add some heat to this match and so Kevin Sullivan would be on the outside I am shocked by how little they brought up the Fall Brawl main event. This really felt like a big reset button on the company and we were now in Nitro-verse. The Dungeon (Kamala, Meng, Zodiac & Shark) attack, BUT LEX FUCKING LUGER SAVES! He goes from saving Diesel in the main event of Summerslam from Mo to saving Hogan from these Oddities. The Luger and Hogan promo is expertly done. It is pitch perfect. Luger feels immediately like a huge deal and he has not felt this hot since July 4, 1993. They set up a huge main event of Hogan vs Luger for the next week which will be the first week head to head with RAW. Great booking. The match was average.