411’s WWE Rivals Report: Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock

-I spent most of the day at Dave and Buster’s celebrating my oldest son’s birthday. We spoiled him as he had a small “party” with family on his birthday, and then an actual party with family and friends yesterday, and today his first trip to Dave and Buster’s. I am getting old as my arm is killing me from the carnival games and basketball. Sad that I apparently need to stretch now before playing games. Tonight’s episode should ease my discomfort as it’s Rock vs. Hogan. Let’s get to it!

-Gabriel Iglesias is our host and is joined at the table this week by Kofi Kingston, Sean Waltman, JBL, and Natalya.

-Kofi notes it’s the guy from the 80s against the guy from the 90s and you are never supposed to see something like this. JBL knew people would be talking about it for the next 50 years and Nattie brings up that Rock was likely inspired to do something like this by Hulk Hogan.

-REAL AMERICAN! Seth Rollins talks about Hogan’s charisma and how he connected with the youth of America. He a presence that sucked everyone into his orbit. John Cena says he saw Hogan and that was when he was hooked. WRESTLEMANIA III! 93,173 PEOPLE! YEAH, I SAID IT! Hogan talks about the base of fans he had that believed in what Hulk Hogan stood for.

-The Rock says he idolized Hulk Hogan and wanted to be him. We get home video of Dwayne Johnson at age 14 cutting promos like Hulk Hogan. Rock tells the story of being 12 in MSG and catching Hogan’s white head band when he threw it in the crowd. Hogan says he didn’t think about it at the time, and he knew Dwayne was Rocky Johnson’s son, but never dreamed he would be wrestling him in a ring one day.

-WrestleMania IX: Hulk Hogan wins The WWF Title from Yokozuna. 11 year old me cheered like crazy as I didn’t care at all about Bret Hart’s feelings. Hogan says he had a 10 year run as the top guy, but WWE was moving in a new direction with a youth movement.

-Hogan heads to WCW and Roberts notes it was Earth shattering. It seems Hulk-a-mania wasn’t as big of a hit for WCW as it was 5 years earlier in WWF. Hogan says he needed to switch gears.

-Bash at The Beach 96: I LOVE THIS MOMENT SO MUCH! “You can call this the New World Order of Wrestling, brother.” Tony: “Hulk Hogan you can go to hell.” Nash says that they left the building in a limo together that night and Hogan was elated that he got that much heat. Hollywood Hogan is born and it reinvents his career. The Rock calls it a recipe for phenomenal success. I love, love, love the nWo.

-Meanwhile in the WWF, Rocky Maivia is getting booed out of every arena, but is told to keep smiling. Hogan says he saw Rock’s first match and could see he was taught well as far as movement and where to be, but the character failed face. The finally gave The Rock a mic, turned him heel, and let his loose. Rock says he was flying by the seat of his pants, but that was a good thing. SLIDING PEOPLE’S ELBOW! Austin says Rock was driven to be the best he could be, and he did whatever it took to get there. Tom Rinaldi talks about crossing over into pop culture and hosting SNL being one of the major deals. Hogan did it with Mr. T in March of 1985 (right before Mania I), and Rock did it March 2000 (right before WrestleMania 2000). We see Rock on all the talk shows and Hogan was on them as well in the 80s.

-We jump to 2001 and WCW is for sell and WWF makes an offer. Brian Gewirtz says he polled most of the producers about the idea of bringing Hogan back. The Rock and Pat Patterson wanted it done as they Rock vs. Hogan had to happen as Icon vs. Icon matches don’t grow on trees.

-Hogan, Hall, and Nash returned to the WWF in 2002. JBL says nobody had issues with the nWo guys coming because when they were in WCW they were just fighting to make a living like the guys in the WWF were. Hogan says he was doing his job in WCW to make money and he wanted to do the same when he returned to WWF.

-No Way Out 2002: The nWo meet The Rock backstage to get pictures. This was great as Rock just destroyed all three members with a 30 second promo. “Toot Toot.” Everyone knew something was brewing.

-Commercials!

-The next night on RAW, Hogan heads out to cut a promo alone and the crowd loves him. JBL mentions Hogan looked like The Hogan of 1986. I wouldn’t go that far. Waltman says Hogan was leaner and in better shape and also “tanner.” That got a chuckle from the table. Gewirtz says he expected some nostalgia pops for Hogan, but it was more than that. D-Von Dudley was wondering how Hogan as a heel was going to work. Hogan cuts a heel promo saying the fans turned on him and takes all the credit for creating the wrestling business. The Rock interrupts and it’s just fantastic! The talking heads mention having goosebumps watching live. Hogan says it was easy to play second position to someone as great on the mic as The Rock. The Rock lays out the challenge for Mania and I remember ripping my shirt off and throwing it across the room when I watched this live. They then had a stare down with the crowd in Chicago losing their minds. Dueling chants and both men knew how to milk this for every second. You can tell the talking heads are fans as they are beaming talking about the moment. Hogan accepts the challenge and then The Rock is a dick and cheap shots Hogan after a handshake. The Rock gets what he deserves as Hall and Nash attack and Rock gets his ass beat by Hogan and his weight belt. The idea was to make the heel as hot as possible, so Hogan hits Rock in the back of the head with a hammer.

-Commercials!

-Back with Hogan assaulting Rock with a hammer and you think that would be enough, but they wanted to add more as they chain Rock inside an ambulance and hit it with a semi-truck. Kofi: “Hogan tried to end this man’s life.” JBL laughs as I am sure he wished he could so something like that. Nash says Hogan got heat from it.

-Hogan wanted to get a few matches in before Mania to get the nerves out. He calls Rikishi a dream to work with and get still photos on a match they worked in Tampa on March 1, 2002. Cool! Hogan remembers seeing his kids in the front row and made a face at them, and forgot Rikishi was coming with the backsplash in the corner. He didn’t have a chance to tighten his abs and ended up hurting some of his ribs. Waltman remembers Hogan taking injections to help block the pain. JBL says Hogan didn’t complain and Nattie puts over that Hogan knew he was a massive part of the show. We see the doctor working on Hogan in the back to help alleviate the pain.

-We jump to SmackDown where The Rock returns from nearly dying, and Kevin Owens says at that moment The Rock had the fans on his side. The Rock: “Who would have thought the man with 24-inch pythons would have ½ inch testicles?” I don’t remember that line at all.

-We jump over the handicap tag match before Mania, which kind of sucks as that was the one instance where Hogan and Austin were in a match at the same time in the WWF.

-Commercials!

-Hogan says The Rock wanted to make sure the match was good, so they set up a ring in Miami. The Rock walked him through a match. The Rock knew they had about 30 minutes and he calls Hogan a ring general, and they could take their time and tells a great story. They wanted Hogan to do the match, but Hogan said there was no way he could do a match in a warehouse with no fans without getting hurt as he needed the fans and their energy.

-WrestleMania Axxess: We see Hogan meeting the fans and there is a shift as the fans are cheering Hogan.

-WrestleMania X-8: Here’s my old review of the show. Kevin Owens says he was in the crowd that night and he wasn’t a die hard fan of Rock or Hogan. He couldn’t help but get caught up though because of the crowd. Prichard says he was on the floor and wanted to take the match in with the fans. Gewirtz says he was not expecting an entire stadium cheering for Hogan. He remembers yelling, “he hit him in the back of the head with a hammer, what is wrong with you people?” Hogan says it didn’t go the way he thought it would as he was thinking the fans would be booing him. The Rock says the audience was 100% invested in their match. JR has to play dumb and call it a split reaction. THAT STARE DOWN! THE LIGHT BULBS FLASHING! Again, these two know how to milk this moment for everything and it’s AWESOME!

-Commercials!

-Back to WrestleMania X-8 as Hogan talks about the match and how they listened to the crowd. The Rock says the crowd makes you sink or swim. Owens says he has never seen a crowd so engrossed in a match and isn’t sure if he has seen it since. Nattie puts Hogan over for being a pro and pushing through the pain. Waltman says the match was perfect as far as pace as nothing they did was wasted. JBL puts over that Hogan came from the era where you did something and gave it time for the crowd to ask the person next to them if they saw it. Owens admits to going crazy for Hogan during the match. THAT’S RIGHT KO!

-The Rock feeds into the reaction and goes heel as he starts beating Hogan with a weight belt. Gewirtz says both men realized what was happening with the crowd and they went with it. Hogan puts over Rock as being the perfect guy to pull this off with. THE GREATEST HULK UP OF ALL TIME! LISTEN TO THAT CROWD! I LOVE PRO-WRESTLING! Jim Ross with one of his greatest calls of all time is sadly omitted here: “He beat Andre The Giant with that move.” Rock kicks out and Hogan talks about his ribs. He was shot up before the match and was told he wouldn’t feel anything, but that sadly didn’t happen. He says he was dying after the first Rock Bottom.

-Commercials!

-Back to WrestleMania 18 and Hogan takes another Rock Bottom before The People’s Elbow finishes the match. Amazing match and yes, I did give it ***** when I reviewed the show, and I stand by that rating. Hogan says the handshake after the match was from his heart and he has a great amount of respect for The Rock. The Rock says he is very grateful to Hulk for that.

-We skip over Hall and Nash attacking Hogan and jump to Rock, having Hogan stay in the ring to pose. The Rock is beaming as he says they told a pretty damn good story. Hogan says The Rock had it all and he was glad to get in the ring with him and they created some magic. They sure did! The Rock and Hogan leave the match together while Hogan says it was an honor to pass the torch. The Rock says the passing of the torch for him was the privilege of putting on the match. JBL says all the great matches that year at Mania, this is the one they remember.

-The next night on RAW in Montreal, Hogan gets one of the greatest ovations you will ever see. Hogan calls it a touching moment!

-Hogan was soon back in the red and yellow in the WWF as they could not fight it any longer. Hogan says the love he was getting made him realize again that he made the right choice to quit college and chase the wrestling dream.

-WrestleMania XXX: The show opens with Rock, Hogan, and Austin. That was just so surreal! Hogan says it was cool but he was so rattled he said the wrong name of the building. He can laugh about it now and of course The Rock has to mock him for it. That was amazing and Hogan took it in stride while Austin was cracking up. I still smile seeing the three of them in the ring together.

-The Rock says the goal was to put on the greatest marquee match-up of all time and it is one of the greatest nights ever in his life. Hogan says it was perfect and he realized they made history that night.

-This was fantastic, but I mean, it’s Rock/Hogan. Sure, it was an hour dedicated to one match, but it’s one of the most famous matches of all time. They could have spent a few minutes on the rematch in Montreal, but I can see why they wanted to leave the memories alone so to speak. The talking heads were good this week as they were just fans geeking out over the match while Hogan and Rock covered the main points. I appreciate they didn’t try to feed into the idea that the crowd was split and discussed how Rock and Hogan knew how to listen and adapt to what the fans wanted. Gewirtz being upset the crowd cheered Hogan in Toronto was kind of funny as well. Good stuff this week and I am not sure if this is the last episode of this season, but if it is, thanks for following along with me through all these episodes. Thanks for reading!