Talk about it here.

Hogan vs Undertaker with the WWF basically guaranteeing that Flair will be involved is a pretty strong PPV hook, I will give them that.

Rewatching this, did you get any sense that having these programs run almost simultaneously diluted their impact?

Rewatching this, did you get any sense that having these programs run almost simultaneously diluted their impact?

Yes. Flair/Piper could have gone much longer, and Hogan/Undertaker could have wrapped up on its own too. I'm not sure why they were in such a rush to run Flair vs Hogan on house shows.

That's what I thought. It didn't make sense as an 11 year old why these stories were being crossed and still doesn't today.

When was it decided that Hogan would go on hiatus after WM8? I wonder to what extent that affected the booking--better to rush Flair/Hogan than to risk not being able to book it at all.

I don't think that started until maybe January/February.

I wonder what it was that precipitated Hogan's leave of absence, and more importantly why it was treated as a retirement. My first guess is that it was to maybe have more of a serious go at acting on Hulk's part (something I say very loosely). I'm guessing the end-game to it was to always bring him back, like they did do in '93.

I wonder what it was that precipitated Hogan's leave of absence, and more importantly why it was treated as a retirement. My first guess is that it was to maybe have more of a serious go at acting on Hulk's part (something I say very loosely). I'm guessing the end-game to it was to always bring him back, like they did do in '93.

Steroid scandal. Hogan took time off, thinking he could come back and his image would be okay.

Was this around the time Disney supposedly offered him a deal to make a few movies? Or was that later (or earlier)?

He did get a deal around this time, yes.

Brutus even gives a lousy intro for his best buddy Hogan. Hulk has been running off all challengers for 8 years. Undertaker will be no different.

I agree that the Hoga/Flair/Taker/Piper overlap was too much and made this whole period seem more scattered than it needed to be. Hogan says he needs God to help beat Taker at Survivor Series. Standard promo from the Hulkster here.

Actually, the idea of multiple feuds at once wasn't so bad; Flair himself had done it in JCP for years. What made it a bad thing in the end was that neither program got the blowoff it really deserved. Both of them had the potential to be WrestleMania main events. All Vince had to do was pick one and watch the tickets fly. The ideal for the longtime fans would have been Hogan/Flair, but Savage/Flair was nothing to sneeze at when it came to dream matches either. Combine that with Hogan/Taker in a bodybag or casket match and you have a Mania for the ages. Instead, neither feud was blown off, and we got Hogan/Sid instead, which was basically a way to give Hogan a "retirement" win with no lasting consequences for the WWF long-term.

 

As for this particular interview, we're back to Hogan in Immortal mode, dealing out the death references thick and fast. Beefcake's in the role he plays best, which is chief stooge and cheerleader, and the whole thing's as cheesy as you'd expect.

 

To Kevin's point, Beefcake's intro for Hogan seems a bit off because he has to shoehorn a "survivor" reference into it, since we're talking about Survivor Series. That event alone has produced some of the most tortured interviews in wrestling history, as everyone involved MUST use the word "survive" about every third word during any promo they cut from late September on, lest the marks forget the name of the card.

 

No sound from Gino and Bobby at all? Were they taking a mutual bathroom break or what?

Standard fare from Hulk, which is to say I didn't care for it. I'm not thrilled at the feud overlap, but it seems like they did that with Warrior for a while too. Teddy also had some of that going on as well.