Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Match # 131: Hollywood Hogan vs. Randy Savage (Nitro 7/12/99)

Hogan is out to the NWO Wolfpack theme with an NWO T-shirt I don’t remember. At this point they could be anywhere with on the NWO timeline. I didn’t even think they were still together at this point, but Eric Bischoff is out with gray hair doing commentary, so he’s involved. This was a month or two before he was fired. Who knows where Macho is in this whole mess, but this is a “classic” match up for WWF 1980s kids, so you know WCW Nitro is giving it to ya!

First things first. If you are wondering who is the bigger neon sign for P.E.D.s, it’s actually looking like Savage, who has gone to the slicked back pony tail look. Hogan is still huge, but he’s just as much a warning for skin cancer as he might be for anything else. This match is odd, as the fans don’t react for anything the guys do at first, and then pop huge for Hogan smacking two of Macho’s THREE valets against each other (they end up attacking each other and leaving). Bish is such a real like a-hole that I thought Hogan was the heel, but apparently it’s Macho. They move decently for old men. This will probably be a very simple heel-face dynamic. They mastered this a decade earlier.

There’s just something so fake and cartoony about Hogan’s offense that even when it’s smooth it looks dull and lifeless to me. I know I’m in the minority, but I never thought what Hogan possessed was charisma, so much as obnoxious energy and odd movement. Hogan tears Macho apart on offense, uses a chair at some point, and I try to stay awake. The crowd is into it from time to time, usually not when they stay in the ring though.

Really odd moment when they do the reversal to get the heat, as Macho recklessly tosses his third valet, Gorgeous George, into Hogan. Macho and women make me nervous. He wears out Hogan was some hard belt shots and a chair. Really basic slow moving stuff – and not Ric Flair or Bret Hart basic – but I like Macho’s control segment more than Hogan’s. Taste is most likely the culprit. The crows somewhat commits to booing this, and I somewhat commit to paying attention.

Bischoff is excruciating to listen to on commentary. What a geek, especially as Hogan does the comeback. Hogan is far too concerned with playing to the crowd than winning, and that’s a whole ideological argument in and of itself, but it allows time for Sid to interfere. This went from boring to terrible fast. Sting is out to save Hogan for no reason. This match must be no DQ. Macho hits Hogan with a chain and Hogan drops like he’s dead. It was his best movement all match. Nash is in to power bomb Macho. It’s a fine line between brilliantly woven and over booked, and over booked it when no one cares about the feuds woven together in a federation. This is that, though Hogan gets a pop for winning the title from Macho here. I believe this was the third time Macho won a title on a PPV and lost it to Hogan the next day. How did Hogan fuck him politically like that so often? 1 ¾ stars and 3/10.