This is the last tape in the Hulkamania series and it’s one of the more bizarre Coliseum Video releases. It covers the Hulkster’s inconsistent 1991 run, and his last true year of being the number one guy in the company. Hogan’s matches in 91 were nearly all against Earthquake and Sgt Slaughter and later in the year against the Undertaker and Ric Flair. There wasn’t much variety in Hogan’s opponents, which is really unfortunate. Back in the day, Hogan wrestled everyone up and down the card, taking on any and all villains. I really wish we could have got some wacky matches in 91 like Hogan against the likes of Repo Man, Skinner, or even the Warlord. As such, we ended up with this weird patchwork of matches.
I’ve watched this tape a ton of times over the years. I have great memories of renting it with all my various wrestling buddies. No idea why we kept going back to this tape over other volumes in the Hulkamania series. Most likely because it was so readily available. Every damn video store in the neighborhood had a copy of this sitting on their shelves deep into the late 90s. One standout memory was renting it with Matt over summer holidays in junior high school. We thought Hogan was so funny and laughed till we nearly puked at all his interviews and cartoony antics.
Sean Mooney is once again the host for this volume and is on a set adorned by Hulk’s merchandise. There’s Hogan crap piled up everywhere around Mooney! Much like Hulkamania 4, this has a scrapbook style presentation, with Mooney talking about the past and present of Hogan’s career.
1) WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan pinned the Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) at 4:34 with a roll up after Taker accidentally knocked Bearer off the ring apron (7/29/91; Worcester, MA)
This is still a real weird What The Fuck head scratcher of an inclusion. The Undertaker jumps Hogan before the bell and it’s an all out brawl to start. Undertaker dominates Hogan early and the crowd is just going bananas. Hogan battles back and we get all the expected choking and no-selling. Undertaker tombstones Hogan, but Hogan FUCKING KICKS OUT and Hulks Up! Why??? Paul Bearer tries to interfere, but Hogan dodges and Taker crashes into Bearer, leading to Hogan scoring the pin with a quick roll up. Okay, I get this was likely done to get a huge pop out of the TV taping fans in the arena, but why the hell include this total burial here?
Oh dear, it’s Hulk Hogan with his best buds Brutus Beefcake (looking like the hugest fucking spazz on the planet, making dumb bug-eyed expressions into the camera) and the Macho Man working out at the gym. Pretty cool to see Hogan and Macho being buddies again, but this segment was ridiculous. Mean Gene shows up and the Mega Powers/Maniacs start UNDRESSING Mean Gene, getting him prepped for a workout, which Gene was definitely not expecting. They have Gene lay down on a weight bench on his stomach so he can work his legs, and we get some uncomfortable grunting from Mean Gene while the camera gets in extra close to his face. Uhhh… Back in the studio, Mooney, with a completely straight face says that Okerlund was double teamed by Savage and Beefcake while Hogan critiqued their technique. Well then.
But there was a time when Hogan and Savage were no longer friends, says Mooney, segueing into an old ass match from 1989.
2) WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan (w/ Miss Elizabeth) pinned Randy Savage (w/ Sensational Sherri) with a clothesline and the legdrop at 12:01 as Elizabeth held Sherri back from interfering (10/13/89; Paris, France)
This was featured on a previous tape I reviewed and it wasn’t very good. These Hogan-Savage matches in late 89 were so different from earlier in the year. Maybe they were just sick of wrestling each other at this point, as the fiery intensity was gone, and it was all just nonsense.
3) Hulk Hogan pinned Stan Hansen with the axe bomber at 12:32 after a boot to the face (4/13/90; Tokyo Dome)
The inclusion of this rare Japanese match just baffled the fuck out of us as kids. As a dedicated Apter nerd, I knew all about Hansen from the mags even back then, but still had no fucking clue why the hell he was featured on a WWF Coliseum Video. Most interestingly, this was taken from one of the WWF/SWS supershows from the Egg Dome. Damn, I really need to dig these bizarre videos out and watch them because there is some surreal matches held under the WWF banner. Despite the weird decision, this match was damn awesome. Hogan and Hansen are a great match for each other., and Hogan was an entirely different guy in Japan. The crowd seems split between the two guys. Hansen immediately starts roughing everyone up around ringside, including bowling over the ring announcer. Hansen tries fighting Hulk to start, but Hogan starts taking him down with MAT WRESTLING! Holy shit! It’s so bizarre to see Hogan using drop toe holds and shit. This erupts into an all out stiff brawl, going in and out of the ring. Hansen’s just insane, hitting at people all around ringside and punching fans. Things just get more crazy as this goes on, with Hogan slamming Hansen through a table and even busting him open! Hansen matches the violence and Hogan is bleeding as well! To quote one of our old classic sayings – this was more ECW than ECW! Just two big hosses beating the shit out of each other. Hogan wins with his classic Japanese finisher – the axe bomber. Damn, what a true hidden gem!
4) WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan defeated King Kong Bundy (w/ Bobby Heenan) in a steel cage match at 10:18 by escaping over the top after kicking Bundy from the cage to the mat (WrestleMania II – 4/7/86; Los Angeles, CA)
The WTF parade continues with them going all the way back to Wrestlemania II. Why the fuck include this match?! What a strange and old ass choice for a collection released in 91. Since I haven’t seen this in forever I gave it a watch. Right away the weird production of Wrestlemania II hits you like a slap in the face. Hogan and Bundy are wrestling in a pitch black arena. You can’t even see the front row! It looks like it was just shot in a studio. The commentators are the oddball trio of Jesse Ventura (who sounds like he’s commentating from an old AM radio), Lord Alfred Hayes, and Elvira. Seriously, that’s your main event commentary team? This match was more action packed then I remembered, but man, what a piss poor choice for a Wrestlemania main event. Because they’re working with a short time frame, the action never slows and the cage comes into play early. Bundy is targeting Hogan’s banged up ribs, which Hogan barely sells. Elvira is so clueless on commentary, but at least adds something a little special to this goofball match. Bundy keeps going for the door, with Hogan desperately hanging on to win at times. Everything just goes into fast forward in the last few minutes, with Hogan no-selling two avalanches, then slamming Bundy like his ribs were never hurt and then climbs out while Bundy tries for the door. Ehhhh…. I guess this was alright as a fun Hogan formula match. But really, there were far better options for a Wrestlemania main event. I’m sure for the right payday, they could have had an epic Hogan-Piper blowoff in the cage, with Hogan going over.
5) Hulk Hogan defeated Gen. Adnan via disqualification at 1:04 when Sgt. Slaughter came to the ring and attacked Hogan from behind with the WWF World Title belt (3/11/91; Pensacola, FL)
6) Hulk Hogan pinned WWF World Champion Sgt. Slaughter (w/ Gen. Adnan) to win the title at 20:23 with the legdrop after a boot to the face (WrestleMania VII – 3/24/91; Los Angeles, CA)
Yeah no. I’m tired of watching Hogan-Slaughter stuff, having seen all this a year or two ago. So weird though how they warped from Hogan-Bundy to suddenly Hogan-Slaughter on this mishmash tape.
7) WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan & Jim Duggan defeated Sgt. Slaughter & Col. Mustafa (w/ Gen. Adnan) at 4:05 when Hogan pinned Mustafa with an inside cradle immediately after Adnan threw powder into Hogan’s eyes (7/9/91; Edmonton, Alberta)
Hahaha, wow, this was just AWFUL. This is the kind of exclusive crap that lures me into these tapes though. No memory of this match and that’s probably a good thing as it was just sad. Iron Sheik/Colonel Mustafa had ZERO place in the WWF at this time and it’s insane that he hangs and around and actually makes it to pay per views! Hogan and Duggan were stupidly over, but this was a complete mess from start to finish. Even the ref didn’t give a shit about this match, as Duggan was blatantly hitting Slaughter and Mustafa with the 2×4. It also seemed like Hogan and Sheik just said “fuck this” as Hogan pins him with the world’s worst inside cradle for the win truly out of nowhere. Really? No big boot and legdrop? Come on!
The Hulkamania series is so enjoyable for both great matches and moments, but also all the random garbage. It sucks that this is the last one. Too bad they never made Hulkamania 7 in 92 featuring matches from late 91 and early 92. There was easily a ton of stuff to put on there!
the RepoDan Wrestling Institution 