Ric Flair v Hulk Hogan

[Loss]

Ric Flair v Hulk Hogan - 08/18/94 (WCW)

 

This wasn't a dream match at quite the magnitude it would have been headlining Wrestlemania in 1992, but it's still special seeing Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan in the same ring, considering that they were both the top stars of their respective companies for a decade and for years before they finally met up, fans always wondered what would happen and who would win. They were the ultimate contrasts to each other in so many ways, and they had a long-running unspoken rivalry. Hulk Hogan showed up in the company two months prior and just a month previously had defeated Flair to win his first WCW World championship; it was the first high-profile singles match between the two. Longtime fans of Flair and the company were outraged, feeling they sold their history down the river in the name of making a buck, but wrestling is all about selling and making bucks. That said, Hogan's arrival didn't have a major impact on the company for about two years.

 

Hulk Hogan was being portrayed as the same Hulk Hogan he always had been, but Ric Flair was being portrayed as something totally different. They gave him a face-painted WWF valet and turned him into an exaggerating buffoon, a title he manages to hold to this day. It was less like we were seeing Hogan v Flair and more like we were seeing Hogan against someone who walked like Flair, talked like Flair and even wrestled like Flair, but you'd swear the real one was either locked up in a basement somewhere to live on his own flesh or taking a big limo all over some big city, picking up beautiful women and living the high life of a world champion. That guy wasn't in this feud. That guy needed to be in this feud. It's what his fans demanded, not this other guy who is dumb enough to let this happen.

 

Flair's home promotion wasn't interested in keeping those fans though, as they were hoping they could just trade them out for all of the old Hogan fans. Problem was, most of the Hulkamaniacs clung to him because he was cool, and Hulk Hogan in 1994 just wasn't cool anymore. Granted, he still was the same guy, but he was a 40-year old wrestling in some two-bit company coming out to some dumb song called "American Made". With Hulkamaniacs in the crowd conspicuously holding up pre-printed professional signs that merely say "Hogan WCW". And Jimmy Hart was his manager? Something was fishy.

 

Earlier in the evening, they ran an angle to play off of the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding scandal ongoing at the time where a masked man attacked Hogan from behind and injured his knee, so Hogan entered this match with a huge bandage on his knee, still selling the attack. To his credit, he did it quite well, and that's what makes this match pretty damned entertaining. You wish he wouldn't have dominated Flair as easily as he did considering that he's essentially without use of one of his limbs. So, he sells it, in that he doesn't forget that it's hurt and his facial expressions are great, but he doesn't sell it as in it making it anymore difficult to beat this small-time bad guy's ass. For that reason, Flair doesn't get the opportunity to do much here. Most of what he does is feed Hogan offense, which is typically what a babyface does early on anyway, but he did it far too long without getting anything in of his own. Hogan totally no-sells his chops, and when Flair does one of the most beautiful vertical suplexes ever seen by a man, Hulk is up and at 'em immediately, shaking his finger in Flair's face.

 

The one good thing about this match is that a match where a huge babyface is selling a horrible knee injury is almost tailor-made for Ric Flair. He does what he can, when his opponent can be bothered to let him, and works toward putting in a figure four. Hogan, to his credit, sells the move like death for the time being, grabbing the referee by the shirt and screaming in pain. He also lets Flair totally undo the bandage on his knee, and the Hulk Up is one of the better Hulk Ups I've seen, because even when he shakes his head and blocks the three punches and does the big boot and legdrop, he continues to sell that knee. He's too injured to capitalize on the opening he's created, and for that reason, Flair absorbs the best of his offense and beats him to his feet to boot. Now, *this* is when we should have seen Flair totally move in for the kill, but Hogan will have none of it and after powering out of the first figure four simply by moving Flair's leg, he reverses this one into his own, which gives Sherri the chance to take a shoe to his leg. That puts him outside the ring and Hogan is counted out, which gives Flair the victory. Flair thinks he's won the title, because this new Flair is dumb enough to think championships can change hands on a countout. This match is hardly pure, but it still finds a way to be satisfying, and Hulk's totally consistent selling is what makes all this come together in the end, in spite of itself.

 

***1/4

[goodhelmet]

Is this a PPV match or a Clash match? Also, you said something that raised my eyebrow...

 

but wrestling is all about selling and making bucks. That said, Hogan's arrival didn't have a major impact on the company for about two years.

 

One of the Observers I picked-up was the History of WCW issue. I may have to see what Meltz says about this ime period. I thought he said Hogan spiked PPV ratings huge. I may be wrong. I am sure he was def. helping WCW PPVs match what WWF was doing.

[Al]

This was a Clash match. There are subtle hints in there, such as the topic subtitle.

 

Yeah, that's bitter sarcasm. I'm not mean, but I think I'm entitled to a cheap shot. No hard feelings.

[goodhelmet]

I am a complete idiot.

 

 

This is what I read when I was responding. Ric Flair v Hulk Hogan - 08/18/94 (WCW)

 

I don;'t even think I read the title.

[Loss]

Hogan, at his most, spiked PPV buyrates to *half* of what they were during the Flair/Funk feud of '89. So, while he did positively affect the bottom line, it wasn't the windfall change they weren't hoping for or that they hyped it to be, as Hogan merely kept them only slightly less in the red.

[goodhelmet]

I'll type up whatever Meltz said in the article when I get home.

[Loss]

You already did. He said that Hogan was the big PPV draw in 1994/1995, which is true, but the business was cold at that point anyway, and since Hogan didn't go on the road unless he felt like it (which was extremely rare), the difference was minor at best.

[Loss]

Expanding more, they turned a profit in 1995 for the first time in company history, but they had to do some major fenagling to make that happen, the biggest of which was moving Hogan's salary away from WCW books and over to Turner Home Entertainment. They were called on the carpet about that during the Billionaire Ted skits Vince was doing at the time. When Hogan's plusses don't even cover his salary, it's hard to say he was an effective draw during this time period for WCW.

[goodhelmet]

When did I type up Meltz's comments?

[Loss]

In the WCW thread.

[goodhelmet]

OK, that was only the portion that led up to the Monday Night Wars. I think Meltz expanded on it later in the article but I don't know if I will be typing up those things anymore. It takes alot of time and usually don't generate enough conversation to be worth it.