Talk about it here.

The whole "come back Hulk" angle was fairly cheesy, but this video package was very well-executed. I particularly liked the maudlin, instrumental version of "Real American" playing underneath the footage. Whatever you want to say about the WWF, they were on a different level of sophistication with this kind of stuff.

This video is fucking genius. This is one of the best things the company has ever produced. So manipulative and emotional. I love it!

Shameless as all hell, from the blinking "HULK RULES" which comes off as downright sinister, to the funereal string version of "Real American," to the worried children with Hulk Hogan Friendship Bracelets^TM, to the cool shot of Hogan's t-shirt and crucifix hanging in a locker (which real sports teams usually reserve for dead teammates) with the door slamming shut on it to close things out. Not that it's not completely brilliant at the same time. This went a long way to saving an angle that came off incredibly flat live.

The frigging subliminal HULK RULES.

Thought this video was great and showed all sorts of cool clips mixed in with earthquakes destruction of Hulk. They at least made Earthquake look like a threat so far.

This was a 5 * video package.

Gene is still wearing his friendship bracelet. So Saved by the Bell. Keep sending those letters to Hulk. Gene is making this out like Hogan has a terminal disease. His music video was done pretty great though as they go into the archive and play a different version of Real American. Dramatic.

This really did feel like a tribute to a dead man, which I guess in wrestling terms Hogan almost was. What I liked more than anything else was pulling out clips of guys like the Iron Sheik and Freddie Blassie, who by 1990 were known to most WWF fans only through Coliseum Video and weren't mentioned on TV anymore. Liz also got more face time than I expected, since she's strictly working house shows at this point and is aligned with Dusty and Sapphire.

 

As for the attack, seeing replays of it only reminded me of how much more dramatic Hogan's original "squashing" by Bundy prior to Mania 2 felt. Not only was it better done, it felt a lot more important because Hogan was still champion, and also because the Heenan Family was behind it. As big as Quake was, he never saw the day when he was as scary and mean as Bundy. All the constant talk of tremors and Richter scales made him just another interchangeable gimmick in Vince's endless supply, and Jimmy Hart was a laugh-out-loud joke by then whose biggest claim to fame was being the Honky Tonk Man's head stooge. Nothing he dished out could really derail Hulkamania in my eyes, and I wasn't even a true mark by that time. Heenan and Bundy inspired dread; the only question about Quake was how long he'd last before Hogan put him away.

 

All that said, this piece was effective in ways that all of today's elaborate video packages can't even hope to be. Excellent work.

‘Update is brought to you by Coliseum Home Video, the exclusive distributors of Wrestlefest!’

 

Gene Okerlund is still wearing his Hulk Hogan friendship bracelet, just as millions around the world are doing! He says that Hulk Hogan is on the mend, and the cards and letters that he is receiving are making a difference. He has suffered great adversity recently but has provided everyone with so many special moments over the years, and with that in mind, Gene says they would like to pay tribute to him.

 

We get a music video set to ‘Real American’ featuring clips of Hogan posing, cupping his ear and Hulking up, before it segues into more sombre, ominous music and footage of Earthquake leaving him layed out on the Brother Love show. From here we get clips of some of Hogan’s greatest moments like defeating the Iron Sheik, Wrestlemania I, Rocky III, slamming Andre the Giant, with Miss Elizabeth, all interspersed with more footage from the Brother Love show. The video closes with Hogan’s wrestling gear and cross hung up in a gym locker and the locker door slamming shut.

 

I thought they went all out with the original angle on the Brother Love show and they did it again here. This video and its content certainly gives the impression that it’s touch and go as to whether the Hulkster will ever be back. It’s almost like a career retrospective highlighting some of his finest moments and we’re to almost wonder if something like these will ever happen again for Hogan. The final scene of the locker door slamming shut is another wonderful touch, symbolising slamming the door shut on Hogan’s career.

This si the kind of manipulative that anyone selling anything strives for. Just amazing stuff with the way the video was put together and the sad version of Real American.

They even used that shot of the locker slamming in the promo package for Hogan/McMahon at WrestleMania 19.