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October 17th was a busy day for WWE, its fans and fans of the old WCW or NWO, Why? Because Oct. 17th was the official release date of both the new Eric Bischoff book, “Controversy Creates Cashâ€ÂÂÂ, and “HULK HOGAN: The Ultimate Anthologyâ€ÂÂÂ. I actually took the day off from work. I wish I was kidding about that, but I’m not. I realized on Monday that there wasn’t a lot going on Tuesday, so I would sleep in then head to my local Wal-Mart to get the new HULK HOGAN DVD. I choose Wal-Mart because it had the 4th Bonus disc included. (If you can get the 4th disc, do it, I think it’s the best one!)
So by 9am I had the new HULK HOGAN DVD and I had all day to check it out, which is what I did. I also got to go to a book signing with Eric Bischoff in
Review of HULK HOGAN The Ultimate Anthology –
I would like to start by saying that this review is just one man's opinion, and not a professional one at that. I hope that we do get to hear Dave, Buck and Mike's opinions of this DVD. I like trying to see things from other peoples perspective. This perspective is coming from a 22 year long Hulkamaniac. I grew in AZ, so we had little to no access to any of the other territorial wrestling of the early 80’s. We didn’t get the WCCW, NWA or AWA. Later on as the late 80’s and early 90’s came around I was exposed to some WCW. But as far as I was aware or cared for the first 10 years there was only one wrestling company, the WWE (then it was WWF). So the greatest wrestler in my eyes was the Immortal Hulk Hogan. I think and feel differently in today’s wrestling climate, and from 1996 to now, myself and a lot of wrestling fans were exposed to a whole new world of wrestling. However, its nostalgic and fun to sometimes forget about all that we now know and go back to being a chubby 10 year old again. Glassy eyed from the illusion that Hogan is some sort of superhuman being that receives his strength from the cheers of all those Hulkamaniacs begging him to fight back against the “bad guys†who would mislead and oppress us. Man, we were clueless, but it was a great time.
This DVD set starts off with only a couple minutes of talking before we jump into our first match. The whole set will be that way, and I really like the format. This DVD is everything I sometimes wish RAW & SMACKDOWN! were right now. There is a brief introduction and then we are into our first match, one from 1980 between Hogan (only 27 years old at the time.) and Andre the Giant. I had never seen it before and it was great to see. Andre was so much younger then I remembered him and very mobile too. Only two minutes into the match and Hogan picks up Andre and slams him. I had heard that Andre had been slammed by Hogan before their Wrestlemania 3 encounter, but I had never seen it. That was when I knew this DVD set had some great potential. The next 7+ hours didn’t disappoint. There were great matches that were laid out very well. The first disc takes us from the first televised encounter of Hogan and Andre in 1980 through to their Wrestlemania 3 match in 1987. All matches are full length, and with complete commentary, even the ones with Jesse “The Bodyâ€ÂÂÂ
In between matches we have alternating commentary between Gene Oakerlund and Jimmy Hart in the WWE studios. There is also interviews with wrestlers about their memories of Hogan when they were just fans and after the got in the business. The WWE does a great job of filling you in on storylines and events that lead from one match to the next, stringing everything together in a nice time line. The other thing that I loved about this set was their use of AWA, WCW and even XWF footage. They stuck strictly to his wrestling career and other then a brief Rocky 3 mention, there was no other mention of Hogan’s other movies, his old TV show or his new reality show. On disc 3 we get his full Hall of Fame induction speech and the audio is great. I will write a brief recap of the set for those who care to read it. But I will end this review by saying; this was the best $20 I have spent in a long time. The production quality is great, the sequence of matches and the story they tell is just as I remember it. This is a “Must Own†for any old or new Hulk Hogan fans. I give this DVD 5 out of 5 “Leg Drops†– Brother!
Here is a Brief Recap –
Disc 1
Match 1 – 1980 WWWF, Hogan’s first run for Vince McMahon Sr. A televised match between him and Andre, Hogan is the heel with Freddie Blassie in his corner. Hogan and Blassie cheat, and Andre gets color.
Match 2 – 1983 AWA, one of, if not the, last match for Hogan in the AWA, where he has been for a few years since leaving the WWWF to go make Rocky 3. He is facing the champion Nick Bockwinkel. Hogan gets the pin and wins the belt, but controversy causes the Hulkster to lose the belt. Shortly there after he leaves to go back to the WWF after a 3 year absence.
Match 3 – 1984 WWF, the now infamous Hogan and Sheik match in
Match 4 – 1984 WWF, Hogan vs. Big John Studd in the Garden, your classic WWF “Big Man Matchâ€ÂÂÂ.
Match 5 – 1985 WWF, Classic Hogan vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper match in “The War to Settle the Score†which was aired on MTV.
Match 6 – 1985 WWF, Hogan & Mr. T vs. Piper & Orndorff at the first ever Wrestlemania
Match 7 – 1986 WWF, Hogan and King Kong Bundy in a (Big Blue) Steel cage match from Wrestlemania 2
Match 8 – 1986 WWF, Hogan vs. Orndorff for the Title at “The Big Eventâ€ÂÂÂ
Match 9 – 1987 WWF, Famous Hogan vs. Andre match from Wrestlemania 3 – In front of aproximately “9 million fans in attendance, Hogan lifts the 1300 lbs Andre with one arm above his head for 7 minutes then slams him to set up the leg drop and the win.†Or something like that…
EXTRAS – Great interview with Hogan about his early days in the business, and a brief interview with The Iron Sheik about his thoughts on his match with Hogan.
Disc 2
Match 10 – 1989 WWF, Hogan vs. Savage at Wrestlemania V in the blow off to the “Mega Powersâ€ÂÂÂ.
Match 11 – 1990 WWF, Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior, he drops the belt at Wrestlemania VI to the painted one. Great interviews with Edge during this segment.
Match 12 – 1991 WWF, Hogan vs. Slaughter at Wrestlemania VII, great interview with the Sarge about this one.
Match 13 – 1991 WWF, Hogan vs. Undertaker at “Tuesday in
Match 14 - 1994 WCW, Hogan vs. Flair at “The Bash at the Beach†for the Title. Lots of interviews and comments before this match explaining how Hogan got to WCW from the WWF.
Match 15 – 1996 WCW, “Bash at the Beach†Hogan comes out and joins the “Outsiders†to form the NWO.
Match 16 – 1996 WCW, Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. The Giant at Hog Wild for the WCW championship.
Match 17 – 1997 WCW, Hogan vs. Sting at Starrcade. Great build up and stories told leading to this match.
No EXTRAS on Disc 2
Disc 3
Match 18 – 2001 XWF, Hulk Hogan vs. Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig. This was not a planned match, but was brought on as Hennig and a few other wrestlers were ribbing Hogan telling him he is told old and couldn’t go anymore.
Match 19 – 2002 WWE, Hollywood Hogan vs. The Rock at Wrestlemania X8 – going in The Rock was the baby face and Hogan was the heel but the fans cheered the Hulkster and booed the Rock. (One of my personal favorite matches)
Match 20 – 2002 WWE, Hulk Hogan vs. Triple H. at the Backlash PPV, in the interview leading up to this match. Hogan gives Hunter the biggest rub ever! He says that Triple H is the BEST he has ever been in the ring with, and his favorite person to wrestle. He goes on to say that Triple H knows where he is at all times in the ring and is a true student of the game.
Match 21 – 2002 WWE, Hogan and Edge vs. Chuck and Billy for the WWE Tag Team Titles on SMACKDOWN!
Match 22 – 2003 WWE, Hogan vs. McMahon in a street fight at Wrestlemania XIX, great promos and build up shown before this match.
Match 23 – 2005 WWE, Hulk Hogan vs. Shawn Michaels at Summerslam. There were great promos, build up and interviews from Shawn and Hogan before this match was shown. Shawn shows a lot of respect and has good things to say about the entire story line and outcome, which surprised me. Although it shouldn’t have, this is WWE and a tribute to Hogan.
Bonus Disc
Match 24 – 1980 WWWF Incredible Hulk Hogan vs. Tito Santana – great classic match!
Match 25 – 1981 AWA, Incredible Hulk Hogan vs. Sonny Rogers AND Chuck Greenly. It is funny to see how they really were trying to push Hogan as he was some sort of Monster.
Match 26 – 1986 WWF, Hulk Hogan vs. Terry Funk at Saturday Night’s Main Event. I forgot this match even existed and as a huge fan of both men, I watched it first! It wasn’t Terry’s best work, but it was still great to watch!
Match 27 – 1988 WWF, Hogan vs. Harley Race at Saturday Nights Main Event. It would be cool if someone would stop cloning farm animals and invent a freaking time machine already so we could start getting some real dream match ups! Like Race in his prime against Hogan in his prime, I think this could have been a lot better match. (OK I know Race and Hogan probably isn’t the first match you would have IF you had a time machine, I was trying to make a point!)
Match 28 – 1990 WWF, Hogan wins the Royal Rumble… Good old school Royal Rumble match.
Match 29 – 1990 WWF, Hogan vs. Earthquake at Summerslam … It is exactly what you think it is, Hogan vs. Earthquake, nothing special about it.
Interview – In stead of a 30th match we get the Mean Gene Okerlund Interview from the RAW Homecoming on 10/03/2005. Not quite the ending I would have liked for an otherwise AWESOME Bonus Disc!!!
If you buy This DVD set, get the BONUS DISC. You won’t regret it.
Any questions or comments you can reach me at Geoff@cox.net
