Hyorinmaru
Sit Upon The Frozen Heavens
and his name is DBK
This is a very, very good post!
First let's look at Hogan....
He was pretty much portrayed as a super hero, up there with Captain America and Superman. The guy even had his own cartoon series. He had very few people to go up against and in fairness it was those he did have that made him look as good as he did (which wasn't that good anyway). Hogan was Vince's greatest ever creation because he got the ball rolling, and rolling fast. Hogan was EVERYWHERE. He was the poster boy, he had the look, the talk and everything else that needed to be successful in America and elsewhere in the world at that given time. The merchandise was ridiculous, there was so much available. And even when someone did pop up to put it under threat (Ultimate Warrior), between Warrior's own shortcomings and Hogan's politics (read his book), Hogan made sure he remained on top. All the while, Vince is pulling the strings here, counting the cash. People loved Hogan because he was fan friendly, he did TV shows and then you saw him at main events beating whoever the heel was at the time.
However................
Not too much longer after the drug scandal and his move to WCW, Monday Night RAW began. You have to question, how popular would he have stayed doing the same thing he did in the ring and cutting the same old promos every Monday night??? WWE also switched to a monthly PPV not too long after (In Your House, plus all the usual biggies), and that's a lot of exposure, a lot of TV time, ready to show up all a wrestler's limitations. It's been said on here, the NWO saved Hogan's ass for a long time, Nash's great mic work, added in with all the others, covered Hulk's shortcomings again. He HAD to go heel, to try something different, because people had stopped caring. Hogan doesn't have now, nor did he ever have, the ability to be on TV, week in, week out, in the same way Bret and Shawn had. When you look at Hogan now, he pops up now and again, to have a war with Vince at Mania, or to have the Rock carry him at Mania or to have Shawn carry him to his best match in god knows how long (and notice they all played the bad guy against him to sell the event). And his programme with Shawn would've been even better had he not ruined it with his out of control ego/creative control. A factor that helped ruin WCW in the end. It's a good thing that Hogan is so secure in life that he stopped needing full time wrestling quite some time back. Because it's been a LONG, LONG time since he could actually make it a successful FULL TIME occupation.
This is a problem that's never, ever faced.......
SHAWN MICHAELS:
Here we have a guy that, whether in the ring at Wrestlemania, or in outback Mongolia, you know he's going to perform like no one else can. When it comes to wrestling, whether it's main event at PPV, monday night, a match, a promo, standing alone or within a faction such as DX, he is going to perform and always be a main player. He can switch and change from from Face to Heel as easy as anything and even be both and play in the middle. Shawn Michaels has it all and more. It's been said that he could get a good match out of a broomstick and on past form, it's hard to argue with that.
But why was 1996 seen as less successful than it perhaps should have been?
Firstly, if you look at Shawn's title matches, we have Bret at Mania, Diesel at IYH 7, Davey at IYH 8 and then KOTR, A 6 man at IYH 9, Vadar at Summerslam, Foley at IYH 10, the entire year's worth of Monday nights and then his Sid programme running into 1997.
This series of matches were generally of a superb standard (IYH 9 aside, but that was a 6'er). That CANNOT be doubted or argued, just watch them. The bulldog matches were great, the Foley match is what Mick considers his best match EVER!
Bret was away on his break while deciding where to go next (WWF or WCW) and it was left to Shawn to carry the can, whilst the NWO burned the house down on the other channel.
The problem was that everyone had left and most were in WCW, the only real players left were Shawn and Taker and wrestling had been in a serious slump for over 2 years, and this is why Bret Hart found things so hard, feuding with Lawler to KISS MY FOOT and then with a Pirate over his jacket was ridiculous for a man with Hart's talent.
The house shows numbers for WWF that year weren't bad at all, considering that people were only really going out to see HBK. Him and Taker pulled the company through that period single handedly and it led on to MAJOR things. Do you think at this time, if NWO had been in WWF and Shawn had led it, that Hogan could have got WCW through a period like Shawn did for Vince??? With next to nothing to work with? And the same promo every week??? Never!
Yet Shawn kept them going, and that led into the real start of WWF's comeback........
The Royal Rumble 1997. A packed out hometown crowd watch Shawn regain the WWF Title from Sid and Stone Cold cemented the bad boy spot by screwing Bret Hart out of the rumble, setting up their storming submission match at Mania.
The only problem Shawn had here was that being top man, with no one getting near him had made him even more selfish and more of a cock backstage than ever before, and he's since admitted that. He left for a while to " Find His Smile" and by that time, people were pulling the company with him, so he wasn't as missed as he could have been, once he saw this, he was back. He did the same thing Bret did after Mania 12, he took time off to prove his worth to the company, but like Bret found out, the company survived without him, the only other difference was that Shawn had an additional reason.........he didn't want to look at the lights for Bret at Mania 13.
As it turned out, this didn't really hurt Bret at the time, he started his feud with Austin and soon enough, had the title back. 1997, was a good year for WWF fans. Between Shawn, Bret, Taker, Austin and the rising Rock and HHH, things were looking up. Dx were on their way in and the Hart Foundation was doing well. Then we hit the decision that Vince will let Bret go and, right or wrong, it set the path that WWE would then follow. DX running wild leading into Survivor Series and Vince preparing to play the mad, evil boss who hated Austin. Once Shawn got through Hell in a Cell with Taker and they'd decided to put the title on Austin (or the fans made the call for it) that was it. The only thing that caused a prob was Shawn's back injury which left Vince without a real heel to go against Steve. Shawn would've been it (he his ego allowed it) and it would have been a hell of a programme. Two great mic men and with Shawn's ability in the ring and Austin's drawing power...........well, you can imagine what we missed. But it allowed Vince to become a real on screen character and led to the WWE getting back on top. In Stone Cold, WWE found a wrestler they could promote like Hogan but who could use the mic and run with the ball and we all saw the results.
Summed up, Hogan was great for wrestling, he put it on the map and he will always be treated as a hero and in a way that's deserved. But he was a cartoon figure, Austin showed what a real guy in the Hogan mould would've been like, but different times call for different things, 10-15 years changes society and what it wants.
Bret and Shawn were real wrestlers, with real all round talent and versatility, on the mic and in the ring. Their feud was great, and 1996 and 1997 weren't bad times at all, it just came at a bad time. They were coming off the back of a bad slump already due to the drug scandal etc and it wasn't a product anyone wanted to be associated with. But Bret and Shawn carried on, Bret passed the ball to Shawn who ended up passing to Stone Cold. Those two years shouldn't be overlooked, they should be seen as a crucial time where the mentioned wrestlers kept a company that many people love afloat. Without the work they did in those 24 months, John Cena and Co may have been painting your house rather than performing on that square thing in your living room!
. No That is Will and NoFate together.
