[2000-02-14-WCW-Nitro] Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair

[soup23]

It really feels weird seeing Hogan in 2000 cutting promos with Jimmy Hart. You can almost see him searching around for an exit so he is no way held responsible for what is inevitable happening to the company right now. Hogan comes out for the match and the reaction is huge. I mean the people won’t stop chanting his name throughout the whole match. It really is incredible to watch and one of those moments where no matter how much bullshit the Hulkster has (and it is A LOT) I have to just sit back and smile as he was transcendent for pro wrestling. An all time gif worthy shot of Nick Patrick happens when Hogan chokes Flair in the ring. Flair plays dirty and goes low and for the leg of Hulk to take advantage. Madden is going nuts on commentary. They do a generic Hogan vs. Flair match but that is a pairing I seem to be more in favor of than most. Jimmy Hart runs down and gets decked by Flair, Luger and Liz come down to cause the DQ to a chorus of boos. Luger stomps on the already broken arm of Hart. Funk comes in with a chair but gets slammed with it. Hogan fights off Luger and Flair by himself with the crowd cheering him on. Hogan with the posedown but here comes Luger to lay him out with a baseball bat and he takes it to the arm too. Really here to see how big Hogan could still be for the right crowd. Again, there isn’t near as many people as they used to be, but the ones that are there in WCW are pretty invested in at least seeing these guys. ***

[Loss]

Flair cuts a great fired up promo before the match. This match is red hot, which is both good and bad. It's good because red hot matches are exceedingly rare for WCW, especially involving major stars where the crowd reacts in the intended way to everything. However, Dave has talked about this match many times, and it's right -- it completely sent the wrong message to WCW brass about where the company needed to go. These guys can work a crowd better than anyone, and both guys, especially Hulk, get a thunderous reaction at Nassau Coliseum. But they couldn't build around Hogan and Flair anymore. They still had value for sure, but they needed to build up some other guys and they just weren't. A lot of the obvious choices that were around six months earlier were gone, and the most obvious choice, Goldberg, was sidelined with an injury. But focusing on the match, both Flair and Hogan still look like the same Flair and Hogan they always did -- same guys, just older. It's amazing how much Flair aged in the 2000s, because he doesn't look bad at all here. A little older, sure, but still doing most of the stuff he's known for, even a perfectly executed Flair Flip, which he couldn't do two years prior. Hogan was still as over as ever, still hitting his spots and looked fine. The match was an abbreviated version of their usual match and there's nothing here you haven't seen in other Flair-Hogan matches, but it's probably the last absolutely electric match WCW ever had. It's so obvious from these crowds that people who attended shows at this point were not people who followed the weekly TV, but instead were people who just saw the names that were in town and decided to go to the show. So selling storylines was pretty much impossible because the TV was so bad and they were competing with a Monday night show that was clicking on all cylinders with younger, better talent. I really enjoyed the match. I'm not sure the match happening was a good thing, though. ***1/4

[Strummer]

Always had a question about this match. As you mentioned Dave always talks about this match but he also mentioned talking to Bischoff about it. But Bischoff was gone at this point so I'm wondering if Dave got his timelines screwed up. He told Bischoff to watch the match on TV and not in the arena to see the difference but yeah Bischoff was out of power around this time. I'm wondering if he got it mixed up with the 99 program between the two

[Loss]

That I'm not sure about, but I think talk had already started by this time of bringing Bischoff back in a consulting role, so that timeline would make sense if he knew he'd be returning within a couple of months.

[Strummer]

 

 

Dave mentions it around 2:25 in

[goc]

I was really surprised by how over red and yellow Hogan was in 2000 WCW, although I acknowledge that a lot of that was probably due to them being in the Nassau Coliseum. Hogan is noticeably slimmed down from his Hollywood Hogan run & looks pretty good in this match. He looked a lot more mobile here than he would in his 2002 WWE run, at least to my eyes. This was a pretty good match and I liked the postmatch where Hogan ran off Luger & Flair and started his posedown which you thought would be the end of it only for Luger to come back and kick his ass & break his arm.

 

I get the criticism of putting so much of the focus on these guys in 2000 but judged on it's own merits this all worked really well.

[Laney]

This is a lot better than you would think it would be given that it is 2000 WCW. Both guys really clicked this night and were able to put together something good. It's surprising to hear the red and yellow Hogan get such a strong face reaction here. Although you do still have some of the detractors that you can see in the crowd with the "Hogan Please Retire" sign.

 

***

[GSR]

Hot crowd and theyre chanting Hogans name before theyve even locked up. Collar and elbow tie up, Flair backs Hulk into the corner but he powers through and sends Ric flying backwards. A couple of shoulder charges from the Naitch and he comes out on the short end of things, and his bad decision making continues as goes for a test of strength. Hogan clotheslines him over the top rope to the floor and the two fight on the outside for a bit until the Hulkster throws him back in the ring. Flair with some chops that have no effect, Hulk grabs him around his neck and the Naitch with a low blow. He then turns his attention to Hogans bad knee (hes wearing a bandage under his knee pad) and concentrates his attack there. Fugure Four, however Hogan is able to turn it over and reverse things. Flair goes to the top turnbuckle but the Hulkster catches him and slams him to the canvas. Irish whip, Flair with a knife edge chop and Hogan just walks through it. A series of punches in the corner with the crowd counting along to every one. He whips Flair to the opposite corner and he takes his flip over the turnbuckles to the apron, and Hogan follows up with a clothesline. He suplexes Flair back into the ring and the Naitch with a poke to the eyes. Flair tries to suplex Hogan but his back gives way and he cant manage it. He KOs him with some brass knux and Jimmy Hart is out to tell Nick Patrick what just happened. Flair drills Hart, elbow drop to Hogan and he kicks out with authority then Hulks up. Big boot and the leg drop when hes attacked by Lex Luger for the DQ. Post-match brawl sees Hart attack Luger in trying to help Hogan, Liz get involved, Terry Funk come out but just get waffled over the back with chair shots and Hogan saving Hart from Lex trying to re-break his hand. He finally runs the heels off before posing in the ring for the crowd. When you think its over, Lex Luger runs back down the aisle and nails Hogan over the head with a bat laying him out. He injures Hogans hand with the chair and attacks him again with the bat until security are able to get him out of there.

 

The crowd were super hot for this throughout and made the match. Nothing you wont have seen before, and you probably know how this goes without watching as they run through all their trademark spots. Hogans pulled punches and kicks look bad, but he does a tremendous job selling the knee. Biggest downer to the match is Mark Maddens commentary as his incessant cheerleading of Flair grates early and gets more tiresome as the match goes on. The post post-match attack from Luger was great as I didnt see it coming at all and thought Hogan had run them off. Highly enjoyable from start to finish.