We'll start off with the subject that was on a lot of people's minds, and my rebuttal:
I'm man enough to admit it. I marked out when Hogan came out in the Red and Yellow. Yes, his ego has ruined WCW. Yes, he's past his prime. Yes, he needs to retire. I still loved it.
Earlier, when his kid pulled out the yellow tights, I thought "Okay...that's kind of goofy". Then after his announcement of putting his career on the line at Road Wild, I figured he'd put on the Red and Yellow for that fight.
I didn't see it coming. I marked out. For just a little while, I felt 12 years old again. The biggest indication the gimmick worked on me: I didn't switch to Raw once during the Main Event. I was hooked. The match wasn't too bad either. Kudos to Nash for jobbing well.
Hogan should WIN at Road Wild and retire anyway.
I enjoyed your Nitro report, as usual, but I do have one bone to pick with you. I'm not crazy about Hogan myself, but who can deny that he can get the crowd into a match. Remember the days when he first joined the nWo? Now, say what you want about his wrestling ability, he generated real heat. His appearance last night produced the most fan reaction I've noticed in WCW in months.
The whole idea of the business is to entertain the fans and keep 'em coming back for more. Hogan does that. I'm not even sure why, but there are evidently millions of Hulkamaniancs still out there and if that pays the bills and garners ratings, who am I to criticize?
I, along with the fans, was excited by Hogan donning the yellow and red. Perhaps he will complete the face turn, ride it for a month or two and then finally get the hell out of the business. He might even take the rest of the over 40 crowd with him. Or am I just dreaming?
You gotta ease up on your Hogan bashing. DDT digest is a great site but your hatred of Hogan forces a lot of people to read nitro reports elsewhere. What do you have against him? He is the most popular wrestler ever and everyone knows the yellow and red Hulkster. Were you a Warrior fan or something?
first of all hogan is great he made mistakes but he has followed it up with good judgment secnd of all hogan is the best so dont diss hogan
I was a little upset by the report of Nitro this week. I know we all run smack on Hogan most of the time, and deservedly so. He is not a technical wrestler, we all know that. One huge thing he brings to the ring in this Hulk Hogan character is a hero, an ultimate face, which is what wrestling has been missing these last few years. You don't have to go far into my various reports for DDT Digest to see that that one thing is what I think wrestling has been missing for a while, and one reason I don't enjoy it as much as I used to.
Maybe I enjoyed it more as a kid because I was naive, but what do kids today see when they see wrestling? Val Venis, a supposed former porn star, Mach Man Randy Savage slapping around women, Lodi and Lenny Lane being ambiguously gay on TV, to name a few things. I, for one, miss just a little the days when wrestling had "real" heroes like the Von Erichs, like Magnum T.A., like Dusty Rhodes even, and yes, like Terry "Hulk" Hogan. I know all the problems, which I don't particularly like: that he refuses to put young guys over (which I hate), that he puts himself in the spotlight (which I hate).
The last and maybe biggest complaints: that he is not a good technical wrestler, and that his character is more out of a comic book and is way over the top are true too. Hulk Hogan is a comic book character, plain and simple. He is supposed to be over the top. I can get around his overacting and his bad moves. He was a bad heel, but the Hulk Hogan persona makes for the ultimate face.
You may not agree with me on this, and that's fine. But I think the blatant criticism of this apparently final hurrah for Hulkamania was nice. It sort of made me remember why I loved wrestling so much as a kid. The ol' titanic struggle of good vs. evil. We cheered like hell for the good guys to win and it really, naive as this sounds, made me feel good when they won.
If you'll notice, a common thread running through the letters with punctuation was that the return of the yellow and red took them back to memories they had of wrestling as a young fan, back in their childhood before Internet dirt sheets, breaking of kayfabe, and whatnot. Back to the more "innocent" days of wrestling, if you weeel.
Well, seeing Hogan in the yellow and red did the exact same thing for me. Only difference is, back in the 80s in my younger wrestling-fan days, I HATED Hogan. Couldn't stand him, couldn't watch him. Hogan is the number one reason I switched to watching the NWA over the WWF.
Even in my 10-year-old brain, I knew there was something stupid about a guy you could beat up for 20 minutes, hit with everything in your arsenal, run over with a car, etc., only to have him start shaking like an epileptic on crack, hit three punches, a crappy kick, and a crappier legdrop, and win the match.
Hogan was garish, cartoonish, and completely uninteresting to watch. Now guys like Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Sting, Barry Windham, Muta, the Steiners, and others - now THERE were some athletes who put some drama into their matches. You didn't see Flair or Windham pulling crap like that. You didn't automatically know who was going to win the blowoff match between Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes.
So when Hogan came over to WCW with the same old crap that I hated for years, it just fueled my fire. At least "Hollywood" Hogan would do something different.
So there you go. If you expect me to lighten up on Hogan anytime soon, you'd best look somewhere else. I dislike him as a wrestler, and feel that the promotion's focus on him is a really bad move. I will certainly grant that he's probably the most popular wrestler in history. But that means absolutely nothing to me. I write this report based on my thoughts and opinions, not consensus.
So, hopefully, this will give you some insight as to why I rag on Hogan as much as I do. We now return you to your regularly scheduled report.
