Hogan was not a far bigger draw than either of them
Yes he was. It's not really debatable.
the reason he got the last match was because Hogan was teasing retirement due to the federal investigation into steroids in WWE. McMahon was sending everyone away including Hogan and Piper.
Source?
Also, Hogan did not want his match too close to Flair and Savage on the card because he knew their match would be way superior and if he immediately followed them his match would be a dud.
Source?
Hogan did the same thing at SummerSlam 2006 when he asked that his "legend vs Legend Killer" Match with Randy Orton be bumped to the mid card because he did not think his match would be preceived well if he followed Flair/Foley or the DX/McMahon cage match.
Source?
He knew his limitations and played to them. That makes him smart but not a great wrestler.
Source?
You make all these statements, but mostly you are talking out of your ass.
When you have multiple main-events, many times promoters WILL NOT put them back to back. Why? Because you tire out a crowd. That's why at the last few WM's, one title match would happen, then a filler match, and then another main-event. It has nothing to do with Hogan's ego or anything like that, it has to do with good booking. Take, for example, Wrestlemania 7, Savage vs. Warrior. That was one of the biggest promoted matches on the card. However, look where it was placed. Before an IC title match, and a bunch of squash matches. Why? Because you separate your main-events.
You're basically talking out of your ass. Vince McMahon has shown consistently that he will not put main-events back to back, regardless of who is in them. If you can show one iota of proof that anything you said was anything more than blind love for Flair, then maybe I will take your argument seriously.
Flair was a huge draw. For most of the 1980's WWF shows were consistently outdrawn by NWA shows headlined by Flair in the Carolinas, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and The Virginias. Even with McMahon's promotional machine and Hogan on the card WWE shows did not compete with the NWA in those areas.
OOOOH.
The NWA, which used Ric Flair to work matches against the regional top draw, outdid the WWF in 7 out of 48 states. Well, maybe we should re-think this here.
Hell, Ric Flair was the biggest draw in the NWA. Nobody is denying that. But being the biggest draw in the NWA is like being the biggest draw in ROH right now. Still doesn't mean anything. And when you figure that Ric Flair never worked consistently on a national scale, or in one place, AND was always wrestling a promotion's top draw, I think it kind of makes sense that he would be the big NWA draw. I mean, he got to face every promotions best draw.
Second, the highest rated wrestling show on TV for most of the 1980's was was WCW Sat Night on TBS, far out distancing Hogan and company on USA network. Hogan and Andre did do a major rating for their Friday Night Prime Time re-Match but subsequent WWE prime time ventures failed even with Hogan on the card.
Not a single WCW Sat Night came close to competing with Saturday Night Main Event. Of which, Hogan was on the majority of those.
Third, Hogan gets a lot of credit for the WWE expansion in the 1980's that he does not deserve.
You're kidding me with this right? Hulk Hogan WAS wrestling in the 1980s. I mean, not just the WWF, WRESTLING. Hulk Hogan was as synonymous with wrestling in the 1980s and Kleenex is to tissue wipes.
Hogan rarely wrestled more than 6 or 8 shows per month once he became big even though WWE ran house shows at least 6 days per week, plus filmed more than 6 hrs of TV each week (syndication, USA, WWOR).
Could you explain what years you are referring to when you say "became big"?
Hogan was an infrequent guest on TV, usually for interviews only
And was the only wrestler to do so in front of a national audience.
and was not a factor in house shows.
His name brought recognition to the WWF. You hear WWF, you think Hulk Hogan, you think greatness. That translates into ticket sales.
Flair on the other hand was on TV and doing house shows 5-6 times per week. WWE had a great promotional approach courtesy of Vince McMahon that enabled them to be make superstars and be popular even though Hogan was not not around that much. Flair on the other hand was the most visible main event star during the NWA's heyday early to mid 80's and appeared on virtually all of their TV programing weekly.
Their programming was regional programming. WCW Sat Night did not feature Flair regularly until the late 80s if I'm not mistaken. And tell me, once Flair was on TV to a wider audience consistently, what happened to him? His drawing power decreased, fans got tired of him, and he wasn't as effective. Go figure.
Then he went to the WWF in late '91. How well did he do there? Was he a big draw? Or did he flop? Yeah, I'm going with a flop. WWF was a nationally broadcasted program. Are you starting to see the similarities?
Fourth, Hogan rarelty wrestled during the NWO heyday either, even less than he did during his Hulkamania days a decade earlier. In 1998, WCW did PPV events every month. How many times did Hogan wrestle, maybe 4 ? He faced Jay Leno, particiapted in a War Games, fought Ultimate Warrior, and had a re-match with Sting. WCW did big business all year with Hogan basically participating in about a third of their shows. Kevin Nash was the public face of the NWO and he and Scott Hall did the bulk of the matches against the WCW roster along with Savage. In 1997, WCW's biggest year during the NWO storyline, how many time did Hogan wrestle on TV ? Did ever wrestle on TV that year ? The only time I remember him actually wrestling on Nitro in 97 was when he lost to Lex Luger that year.
Well, duh? Why would you have your biggest draw wrestle on free TV, when you want to get fans to pay for it? That's stupid. But, was Hogan not on the majority of Nitros, both in 96 and 97? Umm, yeah. Was he their biggest draw? Umm, yeah.
Now, let's go through the PPVs. Did he wrestle on 5 of the last 6 PPVs of 1996? Umm, yeah. Was his match the big draw? Umm, yeah. Was the WCW title considered the most important thing in wrestling? Umm, yeah.
On to 1997. Did he appear in the first 3 PPVs of the year? Umm, yeah. Did he still appear on 8 PPVs that year? Umm, yeah. Was his feud with Sting the biggest drawing angle of the 1990s to that point? Umm, yeah.
On to 1998. Did he appear in 8 of the first 10 PPVs of the year? Umm, yeah. Was his feud with Sting driving Nitro for the first two months of the year? Umm, yeah. Was his celebrity matches not the focus of WCW in 98? Umm, yeah.
So, basically, what we've determined is that you're just making stuff up to suit your case.
In 1998 other than facing the Giant how many times did he wrestle on TV? Remember when Hogan, upset about the arival of Brett Hart in WCW, purposely sat out the January Souled Out PPV allowing Flair/Hart and Luger/Savage to be the main drws in the hopes it would tank against Feb SuperBrawl PPV when he would return for his re-match with Sting ?
Source?
When business started to decline after the spring of 99 Hogan did wrestle on TV more often, although it didn't generate the numbers he would have liked. Nitro won the ratings 83 consecutive weeks and Hogan probably wrestled on maybe a tenth of those shows. Certainly he was not a factor in WCW's PPV growth during that time since he only appeared in about a fourth of those. I wonder how may RAW PPV's will be held this year with a healthy HHH and John Cena just chosing not to wrestle ?
I love how you make up information, just so you can make a case. I've already shown how he wrestled on most of the PPVs. And I've already explained why you don't have your champion wrestle on free TV. However, was Hogan not on TV most of the time? Of course he was. Was he not the big draw to WCW? Of course he was.
And when Hogan was taking WCW from a company losing $5 million a year to a company making $300 million (Controversy Creates Cash) a year, where was Ric Flair?
No doubt Hogan has been successful. However, ppl can't take away from the role Vince McMahon's promotional genius played in the WWE expansion. PPl cetainly can't place the lions share of credit for WCW's success with the NWO on Hogan since he wasn't wrestling that much. That would be like saying Flair made Evolution big, he certainly helped but since he rarely wrestled any matches during that time you can't give him more credit than HHH or Batista or even Orton, they fought almost all the matches.
Oh, so because he didn't wrestle in matches every week, he cannot be a draw?
Are you telling me, then, that the Undertaker is not a big draw for the WWE? Because, how often do you see him wrestle for free? Obviously, the Undertaker cannot be a factor in the WWE's success, because he doesn't wrestle on free TV very often. Your position is ludicrous, and reeks of desperation.
Hogan is clearly the best at protecting his image, but Flair was the more influential wrestler by far. I don't fault Hogan, wrestling is a tough business and he did well with limited abilities. There are no pensions to fal back on or unions backing your play so you have to manipulate mgt and take care of yourself the best you can. Hogan was a genius at this. Flair's character and performances have made him, not Hogan, the guy today's stars look up to and emulate. Nobody ever compares The Rock, HHH, HBK, or Y2J to Hogan. The fact that Flair earned a reputation for being more of a company guy than Hogan has cemented his status with his peers. Still, as a business man Hogan is terrific, kinda like HHH but with less in ring ability. Flair was the bigger wrestler, his influence is far wider on today's product.
I don't even know what to say to such blatant bias.
The wrestlers who are actively participating in the WWE today have Hogan to thank for making the WWF such a household name. Those wrestlers like Jericho, Benoit, Eddy, etc. all have Hulk Hogan to thank for making WCW big enough to afford to hire them and give them national TV jobs.
The simple fact is, had not the WWF hired Flair back in 02, and had he not been such great friends with Triple H (if you want to talk politics, let's talk about how Flair became so buddy buddy with such an influential member backstage. My, how convenient it is that Flair became friends with the husband of the bosses daughter. But, no, politics had nothing to do with that, right?), then Ric Flair would have been left as a minor memory in the course of professional wrestling. You talk about the promotional machine that the WWE is, there is no better place to look first than to see what the WWE has done for Ric Flair. They took a man who was of minor importance from 1990 on, and made fans think he was actually this huge superstar. You want to talk about promotion, let's start with Ric Flair.
