Paid Members stumobir Posted May 13, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted May 13, 2014 What an outstandingly well written post that completely captures everything that's great about wrestling. If we're considering the Streak to be an angle then you couldn't be more right, there's never been and never will be anything like that again, when the ref counted to 3 I refused to believe what I was seeing, I've never felt anything close to that feeling with wrestling before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gold76 Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Not an angle as such, but my favourite bit of shit bastardry was Teddy twatting the basketball out of the poor kids clutches just as he was about to get the moolah. Â Amazing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronSheik Posted May 15, 2014 Share Posted May 15, 2014 Rock v Hollywood Hogan icon Vs icon was the single biggest angle for me... The only time I've shouted at the TV like a football match urging the underdog (Hogan) to defy the odds.... The crowd participation was fucking brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted May 15, 2014 Share Posted May 15, 2014 That's pretty much my favourite match, and angle I guess. They'll never have that combination of factors again. Â When I first heard Hogan/nWo were on their way back, my main thought was "how bad will Hogan be in the ring?" I'd never really seen him apart from in old 80s WWF tapes, and the internet was unanimous that he was shit in WCW, old, past it and barely mobile. Could he even take bumps? Â Then the nWo walked down the ramp on Raw, and looked utterly cool. Hogan was pumped, huge and on top form. I loved the wonderful, insincere speech they gave that was immediately followed by them walking around backstage dissing the WWE superstars. Â Hogan's little throwaway comment about his son liking the Rock "for some reason" was the spark that ignited the feud but it was Hogan taking a Rock Bottom that really made me go "oh shit". The Rock was such a huge star, and all of a sudden you had this even BIGGER star and the Rock's position as top dog looked vulnerable. Â Add to that that the crowds were so happy that Hogan was back that he was starting to get face pops, so there was this meta-story about how the WWF were going to deal with that. They tried having Hogan be as evil as possible, even down to running a truck into the ambulance carrying the Rock. Hogan's "cripple ass" line was delivered with all the nWo bluster he could summon. Â In the end though, they wisely decided to go with the crowd reactions, and allow the feud to develop into more of a face v face affair. And if any 2 guys could pull that off, it was these two. The commentators started pushing the icon v icon, the old lion v the young lion, and that gave the feud that added "legendary" feel. Â In the end, the match was awesome. Despite a cracked rib, Hogan was still young enough to take some bumps, and was still a master at selling. They both toyed with the crowd, Hogan teasing surprise to his face reaction and the Rock teasing heelish actions. I was convinced Hogan would win after all the interntetz talk of how loath he was to ever take the fall, and selfish and all that. But he put the Rock over hugely, they turned him face by the end of the match, the crowd was ecstatic and they'd successfully delivered what in retrospect was probably the hottest fantasy feud of all time. Â It's just a pity that they never managed to do Austin v Hogan, but if I'm honest I don't think it would have been as good. This was lightning in a bottle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane O' Mac Version 2 Posted May 15, 2014 Share Posted May 15, 2014 I always had a massive problem with that feud, as a 12 year old then and it still irks me now... Â They tried having Hogan be as evil as possible, even down to running a truck into the ambulance carrying the Rock. Â How the fuck can you shake hands/hug someone that literally TRIED TO KILL YOU!?!? I didn't watch the weekly shows at the time to see if it was addressed, but nothing could rectify that in my mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshC Posted May 15, 2014 Author Share Posted May 15, 2014 I wouldn't call the Hogan/Rock thing at WrestleMania an angle. It was a fantastic match though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members ColinBollocks Posted May 15, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted May 15, 2014 Austin has said that he's not sure he and Hogan would have had as good a match, due to the way both men work. The Rock was great at playing off what Hogan was doing, with all the taunting. Â It was the 2002 run that made me a fan of the Hulkster. When I was growing up he was always the old cheating bloke that I didn't get into as much as Warrior, Bret or Sting - my Gran used to always call him all sorts when he came on the TV too, which probably tainted my view of Hogan. In 2002 he worked WAY harder than he probably should have, but he was fantastic. It's a shame another falling out between Vince and Hogan cut it a bit short. A golden period in Hogan's career that wiped out how shite he was during his last year or two in WCW (although, that wasn't all his fault). Â Anybody brought up the Mark Henry Olivier-esque performance during his phoney retirement? Genuinely don't think I've witnessed better acting on a wrestling show. He had everybody fooled and he was wearing a great suit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vamp Posted May 15, 2014 Share Posted May 15, 2014 Yeah, I don't think Austin vs Hogan would have been as good a match either really. Not least because The Rock seemed genuinely in awe of wrestling Hogan and I'm not sure Austin would have, either as a person nor as a character. There's other clashes between how Austin and Hogan work, much like I think there might be between Cena and Sting to tell the truth (although Cena can be surprisingly versatile at times), but I think a big difference between what we could have had and what we got is that Rock and Hogan were willing to give each other far more than I suspect Hogan and Austin would have. Â I think Hogan vs Rock is probably as pure a wrestling match as you can possibly get. Wrestling is a spectacle and that was full spectacle. I certainly think it's one of the better wrestling matches of all time, and proves why those two were two of the best. Hogan gave it his all that night as well. Â But then I like the contentious Hogan vs Vince match too so what do I know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Undefeated Steak Posted May 15, 2014 Share Posted May 15, 2014 I missed the Hogan - Rock match when it happened but even now I get goosebumps during the stare down and when Hogan starts Hulking up towards the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted May 15, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted May 15, 2014 The only real "angle" in that Rock/Hogan feud was absolutely terrible. Match showed it didn't need any angle though. Just two legends. Same with Rock/Cena. All the interviews just took it down a notch. Just let it be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted May 15, 2014 Share Posted May 15, 2014 You gotta do something during the long sell up to Wrestlemania though, you can't just have them not interact. Hogan/Rock was traditional heel/face and Cena/Rock was face/face, but which worked better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane O' Mac Version 2 Posted May 15, 2014 Share Posted May 15, 2014 I came out of that Cena/Rock feud disliking both guys, they came across as total petty arseholes, rather than selling it on who the biggest icon was, they spent the entire build-up trying to make each other look bad- and succeeded. Neither man looked like a heroic, iconic babyface, more like a couple of pre-teens having an argument on the playground. A good blueprint for a big time face vs. face match, in my book, was Cena vs. HBK for Wrestlemania 23. There was dissension and a good feud, but a certain level of respect that made both guys look strong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted May 15, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted May 15, 2014 You gotta do something during the long sell up to Wrestlemania though, you can't just have them not interact. Hogan/Rock was traditional heel/face and Cena/Rock was face/face, but which worked better? Cena/Rock had too long to build it. They tried something and it didn't really work. If Rock had come back at the Rumble, we'd had a couple of interviews each and a brawl at some point, that would have been quite hot. Â Nobody wanted to dislike Hogan. They tried to make him a mega-heel but he got huge cheers anyway so they embraced it. Â I don't think either worked at all but as Hogan/Rock was utterly unique at the time, I think you'd have to say that was by far the bigger match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshC Posted May 15, 2014 Author Share Posted May 15, 2014 The angle with Michael Hayes and the blinding of the Junkyard Dog, leading to JYD being unable to see the birth of his child. Wow! Pro wrestling at its most emotive. I can only imagine just how white-hot the crowds were live for their matches after that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vamp Posted May 15, 2014 Share Posted May 15, 2014 The problem with Rock vs Cena was that the majority of fans saw Cena as the heel but he was, for large parts, the only one of the two actually around busting his arse for the fans. It's have been a far better story if Rock was the heel, because he was undoubtedly the arsehole in that whole situation but they could never tell that story with the way the fans were. Â Cena's character is usually pliable but it just didn't have anything great to respond too. If you watch the build up video to the second match its pretty important to note Tee Cena's antagonist there is himself and the year he's had. The Rock is just the body for all of that at that point. Â The time exaggerated all the problems they had with that story ten fold but The Rock's character is a lot of the problem. I think it'd have been helped somewhat if The Rock'a character had evolved more. Certainly if he showed a bit more weakness. Â I say all that as someone who was a big fan of The Rock. Far more so than I am a Cena fan really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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