411 Video Review: Best Of Nitro: The Hulk Hogan Edition (1998)

Best of Nitro: The Hulk Hogan edition (1998)

This is for the tons of requests I got after the Best RAW show ever. People asking “Well, what about Nitro? What was the best Nitro ever?”

No, I’m kidding. Nobody asked about Nitro, nobody requested it. But this happens to be the first of a rather large number of tapes I’ve gotten in the past few days, and provided I get the time, I’ll have a few more than my bi-weekly columns in the weeks to come, you lucky, lucky people.

This is the TNT presentation that aired at the end of 1998, when WCW was starting to lose its grasp for good. Actually, this should be around the “fingerpoke of doom” match which along with Goldberg’s first loss against Kevin Nash, really was THE final straw and it was the moment that WCW’s audience started to leave in droves.

The show starts with a retrospective of Hulk Hogan’s career with the phrase “like it or not, Hulk Hogan made pro wrestling what it is today.” Which I guess indicates that Hogan wasn’t very well liked at this point. Hogan 1998 is like HHH 2002. Shoved down your throat until you choke. Hogan was getting heat, but it wasn’t “Boo Heat,” it was “Go AWAY” heat, something WCW and right now Vince McMahon seem incapable of distinguishing between. Hogan had announced his “retirement” to run for President in a bizarre situation usually saved for guys like Mike Tyson.

Tony Schiavonne welcomes us to the Best of Nitro which will highlight the WCW career of Hulk Hogan, two thoughts that seem to contradict each other.

Match #1

Hulk Hogan vs. Big Bubba

It’s the first Nitro from late summer of 1995, and what a way to start as Hogan makes his way to the ring and gets pelted with a piece of trash. Say what you will about Hogan and Bubba, the two had a damn hot feud in 1988 culminating in a SNME cage match where Hogan superplexed Bossman from the top of the cage in a total WTF? moment. But those days were LONG gone at this point. Hogan slams Bubba into the turnbuckle, and in a total “editor who doesn’t give a crap” moment, suddenly Bubba is slamming Hogan. No fancy wipe, no dissolve, just suddenly Hogan’s on the ground. Bubba misses a splash, but he gets the side slam instead. Hogan Hulks up, blah blah blah. Jimmy Hart celebrates in the worst pair of workout pants I’ve ever seen. And that’s saying a LOT. That’s like accusing someone of living in the trashiest trailer.

Match #2

Hulk Hogan vs. Sting

This was the show where it became obvious that Hogan’s day as a face was winding down. Sting comes out wearing yellow and red to massive cheers. Randy Savage comes out to introduce Hogan which allows Hogan to come out through the crowd to a chorus of boos. Hogan’s wearing a Lone Ranger mask for some reason too. Hogan rips off us mask to reveal NO MUSTACHE!!! This stemmed from the classic “Sullivan shaves off Hogan’s facial hair except Hogan can’t seem to grow it back” angle. Now keep in mind, this was back when Hogan was supposedly the #1 face, and there are obvious “Hogan SUCKS!” chants from the crowd. Sting attacks Hogan with chops and kicks to an appreciative crowd. Hogan responds by almost blowing a clothesline and the fans have completely turned on Hogan. Hogan controls for a while, until Sting dropkicks Hogan to the floor.

Hogan yanks Sting out and throws him to the guardrail. Back in, and Hogan blows another clothesline. You stick your arm out, how hard is THAT? Hogan goes to the backrake which seems pointless because Hogan is wearing gloves. Sting responds with a bodypress for two. Hogan goes to wrestling as he busts out his WMV offense with a hammerlock/ droptoehold sequence. Hogan works on the arm, but Sting returns the favor. Hogan applies a full nelson, and then seems confused what to do next so it’s back to the side headlock. Sting hits the Stinger splash but Hogan catches him and applies a bearhug. Hogan hits an elbow for two. Bischoff welcomes the “RAW viewers who’ve switched from commercial” just so we know who he’s watching. Back suplex gets two.

Sting Hulks up and he works on the leg and just as suddenly he gets the scorpion deathlock. Hogan suddenly Hulks up and powers out, and the fans aren’t letting up for a second. Punch, punch, punch, boot to face, and then Hogan blows the legdrop. So Sting applies the scorpion deathlock again and suddenly the worst heel group in wrestling history interferes, the Dungeon of Doom which makes zero sense to anybody as the DoD HATED Hogan. Why would they prevent Sting from beating him? So Hogan, who was half-crippled five seconds earlier and Sting fight off all five guys with relative ease. So The Giant (Big Show minus about 100 pounds) comes out and destroys Hogan and Sting by himself. He beats up Randy Savage for good measure too. The crowd made this match though. I see a match like this and I pray to God the WWE crowds would be this smart. Sadly, it took WCW another seven months to finally turn Hogan heel.

Match #3

Hulk Hogan & Sting vs. Ric Flair & Arn Anderson

Okay, so beating up the Dungeon of Doom got old, so the Four Horsemen got thrown in the mix too. Now Hogan got to beat up NINE guys by himself.

JIP to Hogan beating up Arn while Sting beats up Flair on the floor. Flair runs in and pops Hogan in the eye. Meanwhile commentator Steve “Mongo” McMichael delivers simultaneously the worst simile AND worst metaphor in one breathe: “Hogan’s getting worked over like a red-headed stepchild!” followed by “They’re [Horsemen] a fistful of sharks!” Arn works over Hulk’s arm and we clip to Sting tossing Anderson off the top rope and applying the scorpion but Flair interferes so he gets the hold too. So Arn DDT’s Hogan and suddenly Lex Luger comes out and torture racks Hogan in his classic “I’m a face except against Hogan” angle. Clip to Sting in the figure-four. Flair and Arn work on the leg some more. But Sting Hulks up so Arn puts a stop to it. So Sting gets a faceplant and he makes the hot tag to almost no fan fare. Arn gets a spinebuster to a huge pop, but once Hogan Hulks up, the crowd dies. Hogan drops the leg, and while he covers Sting gets a Stinger splash on Flair to a huge reaction, and Hogan thinks it’s for him. But once he gets the pin, the boos start again. And a piece of trash smacks the pair as we fade out. Okay match, though it’s a damn **** compared to the latest RAW matches.

Match #4

Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair

Hogan comes out with Elizabeth and Woman. God, Elizabeth was such a hottie even in her WCW days. That whole quiet, awkward demeanor. The shy librarian attitude is SO underrated and underappreciated. Apparently for a woman to be hot these days she has to be of the drunk whore, show my tits to any random stranger variety. But man, Liz was a hottie. Of course, finding out she was shacking with Luger kinda made her lose her luster a bit. It’s like Stacy dating Test. I mean, these chicks are so hot, yet they date these muscle bound losers. Okay, I’ll get off my high-school nerd rant here and move on.

This match has quite a bit of infamy behind it which is better than the match was which we’ll get to in a bit. Flair chops Hogan but Hogan no-sells it, and he beats Flair up. Hogan dominates for the whole segment but as we come back from break, Flair is in control working on the knee, but Flair goes to the top rope like an idiot and he gets slammed off. Hogan Hulks up, Flair begs off, Flair gets a cheap shot. Repeat three times. That’s right, Hogan Hulks up FOUR times in this match. Finally Arn Anderson’s had enough and he grabs Elizabeth’s shoe, gives it to Flair and Flair pops Hogan in the face for the SHOCKING PIN!!!! Yes, after about five years, Ric Flair FINALLY pins Hulk Hogan. Okay, now that’s pretty infamous in its own right. But here’s the backstory:

While the Hogan / Flair war was starting over, over on RAW, Vince was starting up his “Billionaire Ted” sketches where he made fun of Ted Turner and the “old fogies” of WCW. Vince was getting flack because quite frankly, the bits weren’t funny. But then Vince started making Hogan and Randy Savage the targets, and THEN things got interesting. When the Hogan / Flair match was promoed on Nitro, Vince made allegations in one of his “Ted” sketches that Flair would lose yet again because “Hogan NEVER loses to Flair.” So voila! Hogan jobs to Flair. So Vince crowed in the next sketch that it was a one time deal, and that Hogan had done his yearly loss. And this leads to…..

Match # 5

Hulk Hogan vs. Arn Anderson

Hogan wrestles with a patch over his eye due to the devastating SHOE attack. JIP to Hogan tossing Arn to the floor and he catapults Arn to the post. Hogan then rams his shoulder to the post for good measure. Back in, and we jump ahead to a Hogan clothesline but he blows a blind charge and Arn takes control. Flair comes down with a newly turned Elizabeth while Hogan applies a really sloppy figure-four and to further humiliate the Horsemen, Hogan grabs an attacking Flair and he small-packages him for a pin while STILL locking the figure-four on Arn. Woman jumps on the apron, throws powder in Hogan’s face, and Arn hits Hogan AGAIN with a shoe for the pin! Yes, Arn Anderson pins Hogan and it only took him about 100 less attempts than Flair. And due to all the “Ted” sketches, in an indirect way, Vince was booking for WCW.

BTW, there was one hilarious moment to come out of this, as a future Billionaire Ted sketch showed “Hogan” no-selling everything in an attack only to run away screaming at the sight of a high heel.

We switch gears to the Hogan heel turn at Bash of the Beach, THE move that turned the tide for WCW and kept it that way for a year and a half. Yeah, Hall and Nash got the ball rolling, but when Hogan turned heel, WWF seemed like they left for dead.

We check out the old school B&W promos, where apparently WCW was trying out their new AVID editing system throwing in tons of effects for no particular reason.

Schiavonne tries to explain the Hogan / Sting feud with varying degrees of success. Apparently Sting didn’t feel appreciated, so he ran off to the rafters. So not only did Sting steal the Crow gimmick, he swiped Raven’s too by that explanation.

Match #6

Hulk Hogan vs. Lex Luger

This was from the 100th episode of Nitro, and after getting their asses handed to them for a year, RAW was starting to pull itself together. So to crush them even further, Nitro went to three hours to further eat at RAW’s audience. And this was the match designed to do it. And really, prior to the Hogan / Goldberg match, this was THE definitive Nitro match. As much as I hated both men, the match just had that FEEL to it, like you knew something big was going to happen. And no, I’m not saying that because Michael Buffer’s the ring announcer.

Luger comes out totally focused as Buffer refers to his “torture rack of doom.” Buffer’s ring entrance almost lasts longer than his theme music.

Hammerlock sequence starts as Hogan challenges Luger to see who can outsell the most. Hogan pounds away on Luger and he crumples in the corner. Hogan chokes away and hits a clothesline with Luger screaming with every shot. Clothesline in the corner sends Luger down again. Hogan slams Luger and chokes away. Back suplex gets two, and Hogan is completely dominating the match. More chokes, punches, kicks. Boot to the face gets two. But Hogan blows the legdrop and the nWo swarm the ring. Luger beats up Hall, Nash, and Savage all by himself, and then in his only offensive move of the match, he racks Hogan for the submission. The crowd explodes and the locker room empties in celebration. But man, I don’t remember the match being THAT lame. *.

And here comes Goldberg……

Match #7

Bill Goldberg vs. Hugh Morrus

It’s Goldberg’s WCW TV debut and we JIP to Goldberg kicking out of the moonsault. He powerslams Morrus and he gets the jackhammer for the pin. Wow, that guy seemed promising. Wonder what happened to him.

We switch gears to Sting who spent about six months pouting and about six more destroying the nWo with a baseball bat. And we get a nice montage to show that.

Match #8

Hulk Hogan vs. Sting

This is the rematch from Starrcade ‘97, the biggest WCW PPV ever, a show that WCW managed to completely screw up by botching the finish to the Hogan / Sting match. So here we have the bout again.

Hogan attacks Sting before the bell with the belt. He chokes away at Sting. Sting gets dumped and slammed to the floor. Sting Hulks up and beats Hogan up. Hogan tries to fall to the floor, but he can’t get the energy to do it. So Sting helps him and the two brawl on the floor. Back in, and Hogan regains control with an eyerake. Clothesline gets two. The two hit head to head and Sting lowblows Hogan by accident. Hogan pretty much no-sells THAT and he goes for the legdrop but he misses it. Sting Hulks up and he hits the Stinger splash…..

And suddenly we go to commercial, no finish shown. The match went to a no-contest, Hogan would win a second rematch, thereby wasting a year-and-a-half of storyline buildup for what ultimately became ZERO payoff, and the WCW slide had begun.

How bad was wrestling in 1996? How bad? While the WWF was sucking the big one in the fall and winter, getting its lowest ratings in RAW history, WCW was ruling the roost with one of the lamest feuds to headline a PPV, the Hulk Hogan / Roddy Piper war. Piper was like the recently deposed Phil Donahue, way past his prime and completely unaware of it.

We take a look at one of his promos as he spends a week in Alcatraz to “toughen up” for his match with Hogan. Basically he growls and runs around the prison. Yeah, I’m ready to pay my $30 for the show now.

Sadly, the classic “Piper picks his family” segment isn’t on here. One of the worst segments in wrestling history. Someone really needs to start up the Netcop Busts series again, methinks.

Now we move on to the Hogan / Savage feud, further evidence that WCW really didn’t know what the fans wanted. They wanted Sting, they wanted Goldberg. But two months after the huge Hogan / Sting brawl, we get stuck with this:

Match #9

Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage

Savage jumps Hogan in the aisle and we’re underway in the battle to see whose bandana can stay on longer. And Savage wins as a right hand knocks Hogan’s off thirty seconds in. Savage chokes Hogan and we’re off to break?

We’re back and Savage is still in control, but Hogan gets a thumb to the eye to regain control. A blinded Savage takes a swipe at the ref as Hogan taunts him. Hogan chokes away and a right hand drops him. The crowd indicates how restless they are by chanting “We want Sting!” Clothesline drops Savage for two. Savage gets a low blow, but Hogan gets his back suplex for two.

Now we get a “Hogan sucks” chant as Hogan drops a weak elbow. Savage gets dumped and Hogan follows. Savage goes into the railing. Hogan tries again but Savage reverses and Hogan goes in instead. Schiavonne delivers the weakest “What a fight!” you’ll ever hear. With Hogan lying over the railing, Savage goes for the axehandle off the top, but Hogan moves and Savage totally BITES it. His throat just SLAMS into the railing and he looks PISSED. Savage clutches his mouth and I don’t think he’s faking here. Hogan grabs a chair to use on Savage but Elizabeth grabs it. So Savage takes the chair and hits Hogan with it.

Savage preps for the elbowdrop and he hits it, so as every Nitro had ended for the past year and a half the entire nWo comes out and they destroy Savage. Savage somehow fights off eight guys though, and he attacks Hogan on the rampway. BTW, the nWo angle did a good job of killing the stable beatdown for, I don’t know, EVER.

A promo for the Age in the Cage I, Hogan vs. Savage with a killer line from Savage:

Hogan: I’m gonna give you THE BEATING OF YOUR LIFE!!!

Savage: That’s exactly what’s NOT gonna happen!!!

Savage was a pretty poor worker at this point, but his ad-libbing was priceless sometimes in the Scott Steiner-vein. Even better is a Savage promo from the crowd with a guy totally mocking him to his left, and it’s IN the MONTAGE!! I mean, Savage looks like an idiot here as a result, but I guess it WAS WCW at the time.

Match #10

Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage

This is from April 30, 1998, which is a pretty infamous date as this was the main event of the show where WCW’s rating dominance ended. While Hogan and Savage brawled yet again, Steve Austin was challenging Vince McMahon to a match, and it was goodbye WCW audience.

The two have a virtual move-for-move reply except when Savage goes for the elbow, Brutus Beefcake interferes and the two work on Savage’s leg. Fascinating stuff here, as it’s obvious no one has a clue what they’re doing here.

Match #11

The Outsiders & Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage, Sting, & The Giant

Would you have EVER guessed five years after this match aired, the only one still main eventing PPVs is HOGAN? And don’t tell me Big Show’s a main eventer. His cup of coffee came and went last fall. Sting’s the champion here which is a big surprise to me. Giant’s got a neckbrace on, and all six men brawl everywhere. It ends up with Sting and Hogan brawling. Sting gets a right hand and Hogan begs off. Thumb to the eye stops Sting. Jeez, why didn’t somebody wear glasses against Hogan? Back from break and neither man has made a tag apparently. Giant tags in, so Hogan runs off and tags Nash. Giant turns his back and Hogan and Hall attack. So Giant bearhugs BOTH of them but then Nash attacks. Nash manages to do one move without injuring himself and tags Hogan while he’s on a roll. Triple-team beatdown of Giant goes WAAAAY too long but Giant Hulks up and tags Savage. Nash runs away and Giant follows. So we’re down to a tag match.

Sting faceplants Hall and gets several Stinger splashes. Savage pops Bischoff and suddenly Brutus Beefcake pops out again with brainiac Schiavonne screaming “Who is this guy? I’ve never seen him before!!!” Even though he had appeared in WCW already as Brother Bruti, The Butcher, The Man with no Name, The Zodiac, and The Booti Man. Suddenly he grows a beard and he’s unknown. Tony’d be a good pal for Clark Kent. He attacks Savage, Hogan wins. Great way to set up a cage match you knew Savage had no chance of winning.

Which reminds me, in thirteen years of matches, did Savage EVER pin Hogan? I mean, just ONE time? Hell, even the freakin’ MOUNTIE pinned Hogan once.

Schiavonne mentions that segment as “crumbling, falling apart at the seams.” Oh, he meant the nWo, not WCW at the time.

Now we look at the nWo Wolfpac, one incredibly brain-dead idea that completely contradicted the last two years of WCW storylines as Lex Luger and Sting, the two men who had been warring with the nWo constantly, suddenly decide “Hey, these guys aren’t so bad after all!!!” and they join. For you see, the nWo isn’t bad, it was the color scheme that was evil. So now red and black becomes all the rage, blah blah blah. The point was, your old nWo shirt was lame. Buy the new one for $20. But seeing loner Sting buddying with Kevin Nash was just a bit much.

Match #12

Hulk Hogan vs. Goldberg

Once in a while, WCW did something right. And boy did they ever here. July 6, 1998 in front of 39,000 fans, this was WCW’s last BIG Nitro main event if you ask me. Undefeated Goldberg vs. Hollywood Hogan whose days should have been numbered six months prior, but he was still dragging along. Would the torch FINALLY be passed?

Goldberg’s going at 107-0, and I think 70 of those were against Jerry Flynn. The entrance take about ten minutes, and Hogan looks really dated standing next to Goldberg. The crowd is totally buzzing here as Goldberg applies a headlock. Goldberg knocks Hogan down. Hogan applies a front facelock but Goldberg backs him into the corner. Hogan loses a test of strength and suddenly whips Goldberg with his belt. But Goldberg no-sells it, grabs the belt and tosses it. Goldberg locks on a full nelson, but Hogan low-blows him to get out. Hogan blows an elbowdrop and Goldberg tosses him.

Hogan slowly gets back in the ring and regains control. Quick kneelifts and now Goldberg gets tossed. Goldberg gets rammed to the rail and hit with a chair. Back in, slam and three legdrops and meanwhile Curt Hennig comes down to ringside for no particular reason. It doesn’t matter as Goldberg kicks out and freakin’ Karl Malone (the man who I will despise more than any basketball player when he ends Jabbar’s NBA points record in a few years) runs out to give him a diamond cutter. But Goldberg’s up with a spear and the crowd is going INSANE. Jackhammer, and goodbye Hogan.

Aside from the unnecessary Malone run-in, THIS is how WCW should have been booked. Match was average, but **** for the heat and emotion of this one as this SHOULD have killed the nWo angle once and for all. But you know how wrestling goes…..

Really, the Best of Nitro needed to end here, but no, we had to keep going here.

We take a look at the Hulk Hogan / Jay Leno feud in one of those angles that made me think, really, was the Katie Vick angle THAT bad? I mean, The Tonight Show feud had millions of late night non-wrestling fans thinking “How can people WATCH this crap?” I mean, how can you defend wrestling when it looks this cheesy and fake? At least the necrophilia was regulated to those that knew better.

Then things got worse.

We take a look back at the painful, so bad it was good, Hogan / Warrior feud which led to the biggest ratings freefall as WCW went from killing the WWF on the Warrior’s return to losing by upwards of 2 points a month later. Why this is even profiled is beyond me as Warrior was out of WCW when this aired, but oh well.

Moving on to Hogan’s presidential run…….

End of show.

The hell? WCW ends on THAT note? Well, whatever. Actually, that seemed kind of fitting as WCW was on its way to hell at the end of 1998 anyways. I remember watching this show way back when and remembered how lame a show it seemed. But now with WCW dead and buried, it can be given a more proper perspective and that is, this is a damn good recap of Nitro from its first four years. Aside from virtually ignoring the glory days of the summer of 96 to summer 97 where it ruled the roost, this summed up Nitro quite nicely.

From the awfully booked yet fascinating Hogan matches from late 95 and early 96 to the nWo days to the Goldberg era to the “Let’s see what sticks” period, we get good chunks of all that was right and wrong in WCW. And a big kudos for leaving the crowd noise in, no matter how bad it makes some of the talent look

Granted no ***** matches here or anything, but the Horsemen/Hogan stuff is really interesting in how WCW had NO idea how to market Hogan, and the Goldberg / Hogan match is just down right chilling in the heat it got.

Look for this tape, it’s on the Net, please don’t ask me for a copy, I can’t help you this time.

Thumbs up, recommended, B+.

-Sydney Brown