I'm not sure if I was ever a Hulkamaniac.
Sure, as a kid I enjoyed watching the Hulkster in action. I'd stay up late
on weekends just to tune into Saturday Night's Main Event (because, afterall,
Hulk never wrestled on WWF Superstars of Wrestling) to see him fight. I cringed
when Earthquake crushed Hogan's ribcage on the Brother Love show. Heck, I even
collected his O-Pee-Chee trading cards and kept them separate from the others,
even before the days of top loaders and plastic sheets.
At the same time, however, I never begged my parents for a "Hulk Rules"
T-shirt, nor did I write a letter to Hulk while he was "recuperating"
from his injuries or go to a WWF house show just to see him.
Heck, up until The Hulk Hogan Anthology arrived in my mailbox,
I did not have any sort of media solely devoted to the man behind Hulkamania.
After watching the DVD, I can't say the kid in me screamed out "Hogan!
Hogan!" The adult in me, jaded by all the stories of backroom politics, certainly did not do that.
What did excite me about the three-disc set, however, was the inclusion of
a number of hard-to-find matches. While Hogan's WrestleMania VI match against
The Ultimate Warrior is easily found on at least two other compilations (The
Warrior's bio-DVD and the WWE Championship history recording are the ones that
come to mind), there are a number here that cannot, and likely will not be found
on another WWE recording.
Paramount in my eyes is Hogan's match against Curt Hennig from the XWF (Extreme
Wrestling Federation). For those who don't remember the short-lived wrestling
organization, think of it as NWA-TNA version 1.0. Run by Jimmy Hart, the XWF
had what seemed like a solid plan with a stable of wrestlers old and new. Hogan,
being a close friend of Hart's, showed up to be part of the company, though
not as much as an active wrestler as he explains in a pre-bout description.
Hopefully WWE will unearth more of these matches on future compilations.
The second bout I blissed to was Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant. No, not the
WM III bout (which, naturally, is on this disc); instead, the match included
was from 1980 on an airing of WWF programming. Of course, this was well before
the PPV era, so you can excuse the McMahons for giving the match away on free
TV. The bout is hardly a Steamboat-Savage classic, but is noteworthy for a moment
where Hogan slams Andre. Yes, WM III was not the first time the Hulkster pressed
the Eighth Wonder of the World, and I've got to give WWE props for having the grapefruits
to show that Andre had been slammed before, by Hogan even.
The third match that I ran to will, obviously, not be as much of a rarity to
others as it was to me, that being the Hogan vs. Ric Flair matcht that occured
shortly after the Hulkster jumped to WCW. Why was this a must-see you ask? Well,
for two reasons. First, WWE, for all of the things it did right with the Nature
Boy in his first major run with the Fed, did not properly do a match between
the two arguably biggest names in the modern era. Yeah, there were the house
show bouts, but there certainly was not a PPV match, nor, if I'm not mistaken,
was there any sort of televised confrontation between the two. Second, this
was still during a time when WCW was a relatively unknown entity in Canada,
as it was still two years before Nitro would come on the air on local channels
(though TBS was available in certain cable packages). I can't even remember
if we got the PPVs or not. In any case, the match wasn't all that great (as
one might expect), but was a good retro moment.
The rest of the matches, save for Hogan's AWA Heavyweight Title bout against
Nick Bockwinkel, I had seen at one point or another. This was partly due to
my penchant for renting WrestlManias weekend after weekend and partly due to
the fact that Hogan, in one way or another, has been on virtually every WWE
DVD that has been released in the last couple years.
Of course, I'm a bit surprised at some of the non-inclusions. As you might
expect, the one that I missed the most was any of the matches that Hogan had
with Earthquake. For an angle that lasted pretty close to a year, it's surprising
that there were no matches between the two. I was also expecting, despite the
horribleness of the bouts, to see a Hogan vs. Zeus match. The last thing I wanted,
which I don't believe has been included on any WWE bio-DVD, is a Survivor Series
match. Yes those bouts are pretty long, but Hogan has been a part of some pretty
memorable ones, so hopefully we'll see a couple on what will inevitably be a
third Hogan DVD sometime in the future.
Overall though, I was satisfied with what was included on Hulk Hogan:
The Ultimate Anthology and can safely recommend it, even if, like myself,
you're not a Hulkamaniac.
Match List
DISC 1
1. 9/13/80: Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant
2. AWA, 4/24/83: Nick Bockwinkel vs. Hulk Hogan (AWA World Championship, Super
Sunday)
3. WWE, 1/23/84: Iron Sheik vs. Hulk Hogan (WWE Championship, Madison Square
Garden)
4. WWE, 9/22/84: Hulk Hogan vs. Big John Studd (WWE Championship, Madison Square
Garden)
5. WWE, 2/18/95: Hulk Hogan vs. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (WWE Championship,
War to Settle the Score)
6. WWE, 3/31/85: Hulk Hogan & Mr. T vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper & "Mr.
Wonderful" Paul Orndorff (WrestleMania)
7. WWE, 4/7/86: Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy (Steel Cage Match, WrestleMania
2)
8. WWE, 8/28/86: Hulk Hogan vs. "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff (WWE
Championship, The Big Event)
9. WWE, 3/29/87: Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant (WrestleMania III)
DISC 2
1. WWE, 4/18/89: Hulk Hogan vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage (WWE Championship
Match, WrestleMania V)
2. WWE, 4/1/90: Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior (Title vs. Title Match, WrestleMania
VI)
3. WWE, 3/24/91: Sgt. Slaughter vs. Hulk Hogan (WWE Championship, WrestleMania
VII)
4. WWE, 12/3/91: Undertaker vs. Hulk Hogan (WWE Championship, Tuesday In Texas)
5. WCW, 7/17/94: Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan (WCW Championship, Bash at the Beach)
6. WCW, 7/7/96: Formation of the nWo (Bash at the Beach)
7. WCW, 8/10/96: Hollywood Hogan vs. The Giant (WCW Championship, Hog Wild)
8. WCW, 12/28/97: Hollywood Hogan vs. Sting (WCW Championship, Starrcade)
DISC 3
1. XWF, 11/14/01: Hulk Hogan vs. Curt Hennig
2. WWE, 3/17/02: Hollywood Hogan vs. The Rock (WrestleMania X8)
3. WWE, 4/21/02: Triple H vs. Hulk Hogan (WWE Undisputed Championship, Backlash)
4. WWE, 7/4/02: Billy & Chuck vs. Hulk Hogan & Edge (WWE Tag Team Championship,
SmackDown!)
5. WWE, 3/30/03: Hulk Hogan vs. Mr. McMahon (Street Fight, WrestleMania XIX)
6. WWE, 4/2/05: WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
7. WWE, 8/21/05: Hulk Hogan vs. Shawn Michaels (Legend vs. Icon Match, SummerSlam)
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Hulk Hogan Ultimate Anthology DVD Set
Jon Waldman, a SLAM! writer since 2000, has been a wrestling fan since the
mid-80s.
