100 Worst WWE Matches Ever - 67 - Hulk Hogan vs. Sid Justice
Wrestlemania 8
WWE is at a crossroads in its history. The 80s and early 90s have been dominated by Hulk Hogan, who is main eventing his seventh Wrestlemania (with the other being Wrestlemania 4, where he was involved in the main event anyway). But as Hogan’s and WWE’s popularity ballooned, so did his opportunities outside of wrestling. Going into the match, WWE dedicated screen time to hype this as potentially Hogan’s final match within the company. Hogan is probably WWE’s greatest politician, capable of manipulating the landscape of wrestling in a way that no wrestler had done before or done since. As wrestling dipped in its popularity from the boom period that Hogan himself helped usher in, Hogan knew that leaving wrestling could be used as an opportunity to increase his value through his absence (a trick he would pull on a much shorter-term basis at various points in his WCW run to manipulate the higher-ups to inflate his value).
The problems with this Wrestlemania, and the main event, are well documented. Everyone knows that WWE had the plan for Hogan vs Flair at Wrestlemania, which would have worked on so many levels. Hell, they announced that this was the match - there exists a graphic produced by WWE for Flair vs Hogan at Wrestlemania 8. The biggest star of WWE and the biggest star of WCW in the biggest match of the year. However the match never happened. The common story is WWE were spooked by house show numbers between the two, so they changed it to Hogan vs Sid and Flair vs Savage. The more plausible story is Flair vs Hogan would have provided a logistical nightmare with the WWE Championship - you couldn’t have Flair lose to Hogan, there’s no world or universe where Hogan, WWE or Vince would allow that to happen. But you also don’t know what Hogan’s long term plans are, so do you want to put the title on him? WWE blinked, and this once in a lifetime opportunity for this Wrestlemania main event was lost forever. When afforded the opportunity two years later, WCW did not hesitate to run the very same match (excellent matches too, I might add).
Like many Hogan feuds, this one all started with Hulk Hogan being an absolutely awful human being. At the 1992 Royal Rumble, Hogan was fairly eliminated by Sid Justice, which naturally outraged the self-centred sore loser, Hogan. He would eliminate his pal Sid from the match in response. Whatever way you look at it, total dick move, especially since his actions handed the WWE Championship to the company's biggest heel, Ric Flair. Sid would turn heel himself a short while later, and the match was set - Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice - making this only the second Wrestlemania main event to this point not to be a WWE Championship match (the other being from the inaugural Wrestlemania).
Before the match starts, while Hogan’s music is still playing, Sid tries to jump Hogan and is easily dispatched by Hogan, who then continues to do his usual entrance as if nothing happened at all. I have to admit, that’s always gotten a chuckle out of me and is by far the highlight of the whole match.
The match is bad, but bad in the way that a lot of these old Hogan main events were bad. Long, tests of strength, extended restholds in a lumbering match with shitty looking offence before Hogan’s eventual comeback. Similar to some other recent reviews I’ve done, the majority of the match features Sid sitting with Hulk in an uninteresting nerve hold for minutes at a time. At least the crowd are loving this, which might be the only other positive thing I can think of. Thankfully the number of these kinds of matches in the rest of the list are limited. The real reason this match makes the list is because of the shitshow surrounding the match itself, its placement on the card, plus the finish.
The finish is infamous at this point. Hogan makes his big comeback and hits the Leg Drop onto Sid. Standard Hogan stuff, he hits his finisher, wins the match, everyone’s happy, right? Or so it should be, but WWE realised that Hulk Hogan is on his way out and they kind of need to protect their new biggest heel in that case. The choice was made that Hogan wouldn’t win cleanly with the Leg Drop, and instead would win by disqualification.
From here it depends whose story you believe. Some say Harvey Wippleman was meant to come out and cause the DQ, but missed his cue. The most popular opinion is that Papa Shango was meant to cause the disqualification but was waaaay late coming out the curtain, and he casually jogged down the massive Wrestlemania 8 ramp. This is backed up by the fact that Gorilla Monsoon mentioned on commentary that Papa Shango caused the DQ. The future Godfather would claim that it was production’s fault that nobody gave him the heads up when it was his time to shine. As I love a good conspiracy theory in these reviews, some even believe it was an intentional sabotage by the WWE to allow Sid to kick out of the Leg Drop - and Hogan may or may not believe that is the case.
Whatever the case is, the interference is not there in time, meaning that Sid has to kick out of the famous Hulk Hogan Leg Drop, becoming the first man in the history of WWE to kick out of it at this point. What’s always stunned me about this is that Sid kicks out pretty much immediately after the 2 count, which is the one thing that gives credence to the conspiracy theories. Somehow, in the midst of this absolute shitshow, the fact that someone kicked out of the Leg Drop - which should be a huge moment in wrestling history - is more renowned for being a colossal fuck up.
To me, this is karma. They had the audacity to put this match as the final match (and tried to placate Savage and Flair by calling their match a co-main event). They then had the gall to have a Wrestlemania main event end in a DQ. The fucked up finish is justice for it all.
After the match Papa Shango and Sid are beating up on Hogan, until the Ultimate Warrior makes his return - looking a hell of a lot smaller than WWE fans had seen him previously at Summerslam 1991. This led to the great 90s playground rumour that the original Ultimate Warrior had died, and this was a new Warrior. It’s a rumour that deserves its place alongside the likes of “Mew under the truck” and “Marilyn Manson removed a rib so he could suck his own cock”. Anyway, Warrior’s return was a cool moment, and I guess I can see why WWE would feel his return should go on last.
Let me just say, finally, that Hulk looks pissed after the match. If Hulk wasn’t pissed at the finish, then he is a far far better actor than I give him credit for.
Up Next - Worse than Sin Cara vs Sin Cara, better than Undertaker vs Undertaker.
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