Hogan in the 80's

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revo333

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You mean Sting should have joined NWA. Would have been good.

Wrestling died a bit when Sting beat Hogan in that title and lost to Randy Savage the next week.

Hogan gave the crowd what they wanted.

Pretty simple.

Sounded like Sting was dealing with mental issues at the time.

They were expecting him to turn up to the Hogan match tanned and in peak condition which he didn't do.
 
From what I've read, 80s wrestling is almost unrecognisable to today. Star wrestlers virtually never wrestled one another outside PPVs (which there were less of) and periodic "Saturday Night's Main Event" specials in the WWF and "Clash of the Champions" specials in NWA/WCW. Weekly shows were short, and the matches name vs jobber were done quickly. Hogan didn't wrestle on TV often and the stories for everyone moved far, far slower. There was less opportunity and reason to get shitty over Hulk Hogan. Also, John Cena came after what were easily WWE's best years where they tried a heap of new and cool stuff. Once the 21st century audience worked out what was going on they were right to be fuming. Roman Reigns was more salt in the wound. WWE has lost millions of viewers.

and you had to attend an event (house show) to see your favourite wrestler.

Yep the squash match format was used throughout the business to terrific effect. It allowed a promotion to get a guy over (and not at the expense of another established star). It allowed an audience to understand the wrestler (particularly a new guy) - what their finisher was, whether they were a heel or face, a brawler, a flyer, etc. It allowed promotions to build matches so they meant something - which resulted in big business. You still did get to see the odd match between top guys (WWF had Prime Time which would show arena matches between semi-main guys) but they were careful in how much they fed the audience.

Now everything is given away for free. In many ways, Raw/Nitro was the worst thing to happen to the business. Why buy a PPV or go to the arena when you get the blow-off to a feud on your TV?

and why buy the PPV when they do the rematch for free the next night/week after?
 

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Bomberboyokay

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Yep the squash match format was used throughout the business to terrific effect. It allowed a promotion to get a guy over (and not at the expense of another established star). It allowed an audience to understand the wrestler (particularly a new guy) - what their finisher was, whether they were a heel or face, a brawler, a flyer, etc. It allowed promotions to build matches so they meant something - which resulted in big business. You still did get to see the odd match between top guys (WWF had Prime Time which would show arena matches between semi-main guys) but they were careful in how much they fed the audience.

Now everything is given away for free. In many ways, Raw/Nitro was the worst thing to happen to the business. Why buy a PPV or go to the arena when you get the blow-off to a feud on your TV?
and you had to attend an event (house show) to see your favourite wrestler.



and why buy the PPV when they do the rematch for free the next night/week after?

I think WWE would benefit from a couple months offseason each year. It would cut fan fatigue and give the bookers/writers the chance to really plan ideas out.
 
I think WWE would benefit from a couple months offseason each year. It would cut fan fatigue and give the bookers/writers the chance to really plan ideas out.

it feels like their writers have an offseason every year between WrestleMania and Royal Rumble ;)
 

Nugett

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For mine it’s the different era’s.

Back in 80’s to mid 90’s you still had the territories in operation. The big 2 were the WWF and NWA/WCW, but you still had the smaller territories, with their own set of fans, with SMW, Stampede, Memphis, AWA ect. Which had their own loyal fan base. By the time Vince brought out WCW and ECW the Territories had all but gone.

Also back then you still had kayfabe in full swing, where the faces had their locker room and the heels theirs. The TV format was different where you had a lot of squash matches. It was up to the wrestlers that was brought in, to establish their own characters, the more popular the character the more they made. So the organisation’s didn’t have that level of control which they do now.

Enter the Monday night wars, where they had main event matches, that were once used for PPV’s eg. Hogan vs Goldberg for the WCW Championship, Rock vs Cactus Jack for the WWF championship for the championship, with PPV’s from the companies going from 2-3 each per year, to 12-13 each per year. Each trying to up their game in trying to be better than their competitor.

So Hulk Hogan built his reputation up in the AWA and other promotions before he went to WWF. Making the necessary changes he needed to make, in order to build himself up. Cena and Reigns are WWE products, that went through the factory to establish themselves without ever being in the bingo halls or Indies in establishing their characters. It’s a huge difference. Hogan also had the advantage of not wrestling for a few weeks, as he had the name recognition and the championship, that he only had to wrestle every now and again on house shows or Main event. All he had to do was appear at the PPV’s. Cena and Reigns are on tv every week, pre covid they still had to do their fair share of house shows, so are more over exposed than what was required of Hogan. Also back in the 80’s Finishers were protected it was really only Hogan that was allowed to no sell a finisher. Now every man, child, woman and their dogs kick out of 3-4 finishers per match, so it’s not a huge thing anymore for somebody to do that.

What all 3 have in common is their limited move set, same kind of similar promo’s, back stage influence very few matches that exceed being good. Hogan- Warrior WM6, savage WM 5. Cena - Punk in 2013, cesaro in his US title challenge. Reigns I honestly can’t think of a great match he has been in. All 3 have been in an era where technical wrestling is just an after thought. you also know that 99% of the time they are going to win or get screwed over. The last common thing, is most of their matches are repetitive, it’s just the same match with a different opponent.

with Hogan having the benefit of establishing his character, having the freedom to work to his strengths, having kayfabe to help protect his image, it helped to establish him as the number 1 guy.

With Cena, the only time he was ever interesting was his doctor of thugonomics gimmick, which is a part of who was, which made him. Unfortunately the WWE needed a corporate champion, someone they could rely on to do make a wish, appear to charity events, do the chat shows ect, so he couldn’t be that edgy character.

Reigns, I added, even though he is currently heel, you know that when fans start coming back, he will be the face again. Same character when he debuted. Can’t see his in ring work improving either.

That’s where I loved the mid 80’s to mid 90’s NWA, Flair was champion, but their matches were so much more compelling and enjoying to watch over the WWF matches. WWF did have better storyline’s though.
 

Selim

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Reigns I honestly can’t think of a great match he has been in.
you been watching wrestling lately buddy? dude has literally had so many great matches since he has been back. his matches with Jey incredible. match with Drew and Owens also really bloody great
 

The Dougster

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I think you'd find that Cena would of been over in the 80's though, obviously with a gimmick to suit that era like Hogans. Not taking anything away from Hogan at all though, he made wrestling a big name as they gave him a massive push. He was a larger than life character and was bright, different and had the pythons brother!

Would Hogan of went over in the Attitude Era? Negative.
Would Cena of went over in the Attitude Era? Negative.

Scale of rating a star should always be rated against the Attitude Era ;)
You're dreaming mate. Hulkamania at its peak would of ran riot in the attitude era. The Hulkster was impervious to pain once he Hulked up.
 

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Rusty Brookes

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Flapjacks

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33 years ago, 33 million people tuned in to watch Hulk Hogan lose the WWF Title to Andre the Giant.

Yep, you read the TV audience number correctly.


Yeh but what was the demo? 😄
 
you been watching wrestling lately buddy? dude has literally had so many great matches since he has been back. his matches with Jey incredible. match with Drew and Owens also really bloody great
So better talent carrying him like usual.
He's slightly less s**t than he's always been. Why am i caring about a heel doing a SuperMan punch again?
 
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33 years ago, 33 million people tuned in to watch Hulk Hogan lose the WWF Title to Andre the Giant.

Yep, you read the TV audience number correctly.


Amazing. Everyone remembers Wrestlemania III but the next match (and especially the rating) isn't as well known.

Slight tangent, it would be fascinating to calculate how many territories Hogan and Andre worked together in outside the WWF. Mid-South for sure (the August 2nd, 1980 Superdome show with Hayes v JYD that drew 30,000 people is one), Florida I'm guessing at some point, maybe Memphis too?

On the subject of ratings, better not mention the Thesz v Rikidozan match. That's a whole other level again.
 

Rusty Brookes

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Amazing. Everyone remembers Wrestlemania III but the next match (and especially the rating) isn't as well known.

Slight tangent, it would be fascinating to calculate how many territories Hogan and Andre worked together in outside the WWF. Mid-South for sure (the August 2nd, 1980 Superdome show with Hayes v JYD that drew 30,000 people is one), Florida I'm guessing at some point, maybe Memphis too?

On the subject of ratings, better not mention the Thesz v Rikidozan match. That's a whole other level again.

Pretty sure they worked in New Japan as well. Thesz/Rikidozan match did an 87% share.

And it wasn't quite 2-3 people per TV at the time. This is an actual photo of people watching the match on TV.

51522.jpg
 
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33 years ago, 33 million people tuned in to watch Hulk Hogan lose the WWF Title to Andre the Giant.

Yep, you read the TV audience number correctly.


Channel 10 broadcast it at around 10.30pm. Think it may have been a week night? Think my interest in WWF died shortly after. Be great if we could erase the past 30 years of McMahon nonsense and have 80s NWA/Mid South/AWA/World Class/WWF again.
 

The Dougster

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For mine it’s the different era’s.

Back in 80’s to mid 90’s you still had the territories in operation. The big 2 were the WWF and NWA/WCW, but you still had the smaller territories, with their own set of fans, with SMW, Stampede, Memphis, AWA ect. Which had their own loyal fan base. By the time Vince brought out WCW and ECW the Territories had all but gone.

Also back then you still had kayfabe in full swing, where the faces had their locker room and the heels theirs. The TV format was different where you had a lot of squash matches. It was up to the wrestlers that was brought in, to establish their own characters, the more popular the character the more they made. So the organisation’s didn’t have that level of control which they do now.

Enter the Monday night wars, where they had main event matches, that were once used for PPV’s eg. Hogan vs Goldberg for the WCW Championship, Rock vs Cactus Jack for the WWF championship for the championship, with PPV’s from the companies going from 2-3 each per year, to 12-13 each per year. Each trying to up their game in trying to be better than their competitor.

So Hulk Hogan built his reputation up in the AWA and other promotions before he went to WWF. Making the necessary changes he needed to make, in order to build himself up. Cena and Reigns are WWE products, that went through the factory to establish themselves without ever being in the bingo halls or Indies in establishing their characters. It’s a huge difference. Hogan also had the advantage of not wrestling for a few weeks, as he had the name recognition and the championship, that he only had to wrestle every now and again on house shows or Main event. All he had to do was appear at the PPV’s. Cena and Reigns are on tv every week, pre covid they still had to do their fair share of house shows, so are more over exposed than what was required of Hogan. Also back in the 80’s Finishers were protected it was really only Hogan that was allowed to no sell a finisher. Now every man, child, woman and their dogs kick out of 3-4 finishers per match, so it’s not a huge thing anymore for somebody to do that.

What all 3 have in common is their limited move set, same kind of similar promo’s, back stage influence very few matches that exceed being good. Hogan- Warrior WM6, savage WM 5. Cena - Punk in 2013, cesaro in his US title challenge. Reigns I honestly can’t think of a great match he has been in. All 3 have been in an era where technical wrestling is just an after thought. you also know that 99% of the time they are going to win or get screwed over. The last common thing, is most of their matches are repetitive, it’s just the same match with a different opponent.

with Hogan having the benefit of establishing his character, having the freedom to work to his strengths, having kayfabe to help protect his image, it helped to establish him as the number 1 guy.

With Cena, the only time he was ever interesting was his doctor of thugonomics gimmick, which is a part of who was, which made him. Unfortunately the WWE needed a corporate champion, someone they could rely on to do make a wish, appear to charity events, do the chat shows ect, so he couldn’t be that edgy character.

Reigns, I added, even though he is currently heel, you know that when fans start coming back, he will be the face again. Same character when he debuted. Can’t see his in ring work improving either.

That’s where I loved the mid 80’s to mid 90’s NWA, Flair was champion, but their matches were so much more compelling and enjoying to watch over the WWF matches. WWF did have better storyline’s though.
Just curious to how you watched NWA wrestling in the mid 80's? The only exposure I had to the NWA back in the mid 80's was wrestling magazines.
 

Rusty Brookes

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Just curious to how you watched NWA wrestling in the mid 80's? The only exposure I had to the NWA back in the mid 80's was wrestling magazines.

In the very late 80s, a number of videos made their way here so you could at least watch the PPVs. That's where I saw Ric Flair, Sting, the Great Muta, the Steiners, etc.

Out of the blue and for no apparent reason, Wide World of Sport televised the Ric Flair vs Sting match from the first Clash of the Champions as well.

Other than that, there was a tape trading circle where you could watch matches from NWA, Japan, etc
 
In the very late 80s, a number of videos made their way here so you could at least watch the PPVs. That's where I saw Ric Flair, Sting, the Great Muta, the Steiners, etc.

Out of the blue and for no apparent reason, Wide World of Sport televised the Ric Flair vs Sting match from the first Clash of the Champions as well.

Other than that, there was a tape trading circle where you could watch matches from NWA, Japan, etc

yes, I bought WCW Halloween Havoc 1991 and Starrcade 1991. In hindsight, I should have bought Superbrawl I and something else. :poo:
 

The Dougster

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In the very late 80s, a number of videos made their way here so you could at least watch the PPVs. That's where I saw Ric Flair, Sting, the Great Muta, the Steiners, etc.

Out of the blue and for no apparent reason, Wide World of Sport televised the Ric Flair vs Sting match from the first Clash of the Champions as well.

Other than that, there was a tape trading circle where you could watch matches from NWA, Japan, etc
Every time I went to the city with my mum or auntie they would buy me a wrestling magazine from flinders st station. They had the rankings and Flair would always be number 1 and the Hulkster at two. As a hulkamaniac, I'd be very annoyed🤣
 

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