21 replies to this topic

[Phil Schneider]

Hulk Hogan vs. Abdullah the Butcher (5/26/82)

[stunning_grover]

I can tolerate Abdullah the Butcher in a six-man tag when there are 5 good workers involved (see the first match on this disc), but Abdullah singles matches are definitely not the type of matches I like. Abdullah is fun to watch for maybe one or two times, but after a while, his gimmick gets old real fast. Hulk Hogan was pretty good in this match though and I think it is always nice to see that his work in Japan usually shows that he was definitely not nearly as bad as people once claimed he was. He actually makes this match watchable. I understand why this match was on the set, because this is quite a rare match between two of the biggest stars in the history of pro wrestling and it was not bad, but this was not a good match and it is one of my least favourite matches on the set so far. Luckily, it lasted only nine minutes.

[BxB Andy]

I thought this was pretty fun. I guess it depends on how much you can tolerate Abby doing his "fuck wrestling; stabby time, bitch" shtick, but I certainly enjoyed it more than the Tiger Mask/Black Tiger match before this. Hogan hulking up and getting the crowd well and truly behind him was pretty cool, too. Post-match isn't something most of us haven't seen already if we've seen an Abby in Japan match, but I always get a kick out of seeing people scamper like that, even if the Abby six-man post-match brawl was better.

I'm psyched for Hogan/Andre.

[goodhelmet]

The entire panel enjoyed the hell out of this one. I made the comment that it would probably make someone's 175 sight unseen but that wouldn't be doing the match justice. Hogan and Abby have one of those matches where they entertain and brawl enough for you to want to watch the rematch. It will finish somewhere middle of the pack on my final ballot but this was a blast. Not as fun for me as Abby-Dick but I would not heistate to recommend this to anyone who likes either guy or wants to check out a unique match-up that actually delivers.

[Tim Evans]

This was good as it was something different compared to the other matches. The crowd helped a lot being huge for Hogan and the after match brawl was great. Won't rank high but again it was fun.

[DylanWaco]

I really hope no one bitches about this being on the set because while it's not a great match, it's a unique match between two of the most charismatic performers in the history of wrestling.  Watching Hogan and Abby play off of each others schticks was really enjoyable to me as it's a once in a life time sort of thing.  I really loved Abby's delayed bumps for Hogan's big offense and I thought the initial bearhug spot was a really smart way to get over the strength of Hogan.  Hogan's juice job was a wonderful touch as well.  I've been a mark for Abby since the first time I saw him on tv and i thought he was the most terrifying person alive.  The older I get the more I become a mark for Hogan as well.  Not likely this will rate high for me, but this is something I can safely call "good."

[PWChron]

I hated Abby's delayed bump off the clothesline (sorry Dylan), and Hogan's splash on Abby off the ropes, but everything else was well done and tried to be entertaining. The matchwas well layed out for how simple it was. The bear hug was good. The brawling was good. Abyy's spiking and control segment was excellent stuff. Hogan's bloody come back resonated. I don't even like Abby or Hogan and I dig this match. There isn't much to hate. As was already said, it's not a top match, it's a well done unique match.

[Log]

Tons o' fun.  Man, it's kind of refreshing to go back and see just how over Hogan was in those early days.  That crowd was HOT for him.  I found myself enjoying the match, but then really enjoying the post-match brawl.  Anyone notice SD Jones (I think) egging Abby on when everyone else is trying to break it up?  

It was also cool to see the proto-Hulk up.  There were just a lot of little things here that Hogan would go on to polish and make his template.  

Fun match.  Don't know how high it'll go, but I'm glad I watched it.

[stunning_grover]

I have re-watched it and I must say that my initial reaction was far too negative. It has moved up a little bit on my list now. But I think I still like the Murdoch vs. Abdullah match slightly better though (that match also moved up a little bit on my list).

[Curt McGirt]

Screw SD Jones, did anyone notice Playboy Buddy Rose as Hogan's second?!

[DocSarpolis]

This is one of those matches that makes you wish some of the true great big men of the era such as Abby, Hansen and Brody had come over to WWF for a run with Hogan during his lengthy reign with the belt. Sure, when Hogan worked a smaller guy who could go (Funk, Savage, Orndorff, etc.) the matches were good, but there was so much crap against guys like Bundy or guys like Andre & Nikolai when they were past their prime. Can you imagine this match as a Saturday Night's Main Event resulting in a rematch at a WrestleMania?

Anyhow, yes, I enjoyed this for what it was. Neither guy can touch Hansen, but I knew that going in. It was a simple story and they told it well. Pus, it was short enough and fast paced enough that I wasn't removed from the story long enough to remember just how limited these two are. 4th on the dsic so far for me, putting it right in the middle of the pack behind TM-DK, TM/Inoki/Fujinami-BabyFace/DK/Abby, and TM-Wright.

[Marcos]

I thought it was really solid. I like watching both of these guys Japan work and 80's work. What's funny about Abdullah, watching him over the years, is everytime I saw him wrestle he seems the same as I remembered him last time, IE he does nothing and I first saw him in the 80's. But now go back and watch some of his work from when I first saw him and he was actually moving a lot.  This was one of those matches like Hansen-Andre where you have two big guys and they work like they should for maximum effectiveness doing what they do well. So while it's sandwhiched in between a bunch of fast paced Tiger Mask stuff i didn't really give it a lower ranking because it's so good for what it is rather than seeming lousy like Kane vs. Khali does on Smackdown.

[1JoshI]

I was predisposed to hate this match, as I don't particularly care for either Hogan or Abby.  Halfway through the match, I was ready to #175 it, then Abby did his routine on Hogan and that got it past TM vs Black Tiger.  The post-match brawl is my favorite brawl so far, and that got it past several more matches.  Did you notice the 10 year old nerdy boy who was going to get that awesome photo while the adults scattered?  This is definetely lower third material, but should stay out of the lowest rungs of the table.

[martysugar]

This match was pretty bad.  I love big fat guys beating the shit out of each other, but until Abby started spiking Hogan this thing was atrocious.  Why bother working an “eat the knees on a splash” spot when your opponent is too fat/lazy to get his knees up?  It made Hogan look retarded: no wonder you got hurt, you dove AT his knees, fucktard.  Everything after the shitty splash was solid, but Hogan’s comeback was lacking any sort of fire for a guy that had just been used as a cutting board.  Not the worst, so far, but no great shakes.  Post-match brawl was cool, but maybe they should've cut out some of the crappy match if the brawl was the desired end-result, anyway. It worked in Memphis!

[Grimmas]

I didn't expect to see so much negativitiy for this match. I watched this and started to think about Hogan being the greatest babyface ever. I really loved this.

If only Abby had Bundy's spot for WM2, that would had been one of the greatest WM main events ever! This match also made me want to get the new Hogan dvd.

[The Victator]

Quote

but there was so much crap against guys like Bundy

Almost all of the Bundy matches are good. The problem is people pre judging them.

[S.L.L.]

After hearing Dean rave about this in the last Segunda Caida podcast, I was ready to be blown away by this. I ended up being kinda let down, though. This is a great match, and a worthy inclusion on the set, but probably not a necessary one or one that will rank that highly for me. There will be an Abdullah/Brody match on the Texas set that absolutely blows this out of the water. Kudos to Abby for gouging at Hogan's eye, though. That was nasty.

[Ditch]

Only Abby singles I've liked was really short and featured him butchering Yoshinari Ogawa, so my expectations on this were rock-bottom. This was MUCH better than Abby's norm of endless stabbing and choking, but still a good ways away from 'high-end'. Makes a certain amount of sense on a set that's 175 matches long but that's about it. Bottom fifth.

[WrestlingPower]

This had its moments.  I enjoyed seeing Abby being mobile and actually taking bumps.  I enjoyed seeing Hogan in a "still trying to get over" mode.  He was certainly really popular but you could tell he was still working hard to actually try to become the superstar with that body that he eventually became.  I was especially happy to see him work so hard to get the blood flowing.  Even with its positive points, while intriguing to watch, I thought it was the least of the 29 matches I've watched so far.

[jkeats]

I really enjoyed this match and, I'm not going to lie, a lot of that probably had to do with the novelty of seeing Hulk Hogan and Abdullah the Butcher in the same ring together.  The match was fun and I really loved the brawl at the end.  Since the brawl is included as part of the match, that goes into my ranking of it as well.  I had it at #5 for disc three.  I loved DocSarpolis' SNME comment.  This would have been a perfect SNME match set up to Wrestlemania (although for that the match itself would have been much shorter).  

It was a fun match between two iconic figures in wrestling.  A blast to watch!