I believe the Hogan vs Zeus @ Mania 6 idea was based on very early booking plans, before Zeus had even debuted, and had been long scuttled by the time the cage match happened. Of course it may have been just some made up rumor, I don't remember if there was any fact to it or not

I recently watched Halloween Havoc 1994.

So the main event is Hogan vs. Flair for the WCW championship in a retirement cage match, so the loser must retire. Sure. Also, Mr. T is the guest referee. I’m sure he’ll be totally impartial. Actually, though he’s obviously been buddies with Hogan in the past, I guess there was some intrigue when he was seen leaving a restaurant (or somewhere) with Ric Flair, so there’s speculation that Flair bought him off.

I suspect that this was held in Detroit because if it were held in a traditional WCW city, Hogan would have gotten booed out of the building.


The first match is for the World TV title: Johnny B. Badd (champ) v. The Honky Tonk Man.

Yes, all of Hogan’s buddies get title shots 5 minutes after joining WCW.

This is for the TV title, and there’s a 10 minute time limit. In spite of this, the challenger, Honkey, spends most of the match with rest holds. This match of course ends in a time limit draw. A pretty dull match that made Honkey look stupid for using all of those rest holds in a match with just a 10 minute time limit. There wasn’t even a flurry of activity at the end as time was getting close to expiring. Just not a very good match. It looked like Honkey wasn’t trying too hard to win.


Next match is for the World tag team title match: Stars N Stripes (champs) v. Pretty Wonderful.

Stars & Stripes won the title from Pretty Wonderful at the last Clash of Champions. These teams also met at Fall Brawl.

This was a pretty good match. Pretty Wonderful recapture the belts when Roma comes off the top rope with the elbow to Bagwell (who had applied his finishing bridging suplex to Orndorff) allowing Orndorff to crawl atop Bagwell (the ref had been distracted by the idiotic Patriot, whose stupidity also cost them the match at Fall Brawl) for the win.


Next match is Dave Sullivan vs. Kevin Sullivan.

The match that nobody wanted. Oh brother. To be honest, I don’t see the appeal of either of these guys.

Dave/Evad is supposed to be the world’s biggest Hulkamaniac.

Dave wins by countout. Bad match with a bad finish. ‘nuff said.


Next match is Dustin Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson (w/ Col. Parker & Meng)

This feud continues from when Anderson betrayed his tag partner Rhodes. It’s a bit weird that they’re doing this now, though, since WarGames felt like the blowoff to that feud. Anyway, this was a pretty good match. Not great, but good. Rhode wins in just under 10 minuteswhen Anderson is pinning him, but using the ropes for leverage, but the ref sees this and stops the count and while Anderson is arguing with the ref, Rhodes rolls him hup. Made Arn look pretty dumb. Good storytelling overall here. Also, I’ll just say again, Dustin’s “Natural” song is just awful. I want to hit the mute button when I hear it.

Of course, Anderson attacks Rhodes after the match. Love those heels!


We get a typical Hogan promo, with Okerlund, Jimmy Hart, and Brutus.


Next match is for the US Championship: Jim Duggan (champ) vs. Steve Austin.

Needless to say, this was much better than their last PPV match when Duggan got the belt. This was actually a decent match, but the ending was stupid (how often do I say that for WCW matches?) as Duggan goes into his 3 point stance, charges at Austin, who is on the ropes, then goes over the top rope. Austin is DQ’d for that stupid over the top rope rule. First of all, it was mostly Duggan’s own momentum that carried him over. Austin did make contact with him but didn’t really do that much. Why, oh why, do I look for logic in wrestling? Second of all, retaining the title this way works better for a heel champ, not a babyface champ. One annoying thing in this match is when the fans started chanting “USA” to support Duggan. Uh, Austin is just as American as Duggan. I hate stupidity like that.


Oh, we’ve got a PPV and Sting isn’t wrestling for…reasons. Sigh.

Also, Sting says he’s sitting in the front row because he wants a bird’s eye view of the match. Uh, that’s not really a bird’s eye view, Sting. More like a gopher’s eye view.



Next match is Guardian Angel vs. Vader.

Their feud continues as well. Angel comes out accompanied by several (real?) Guardian Angels.

Bossma…uh, Angel gives Vader the Bossman Slam, but raher than covering for the win, he goes to Harley Race, standing on the paron, and suplexes him into the ring. Vader immediately splashes Angel for ths win . This was a good match – two talented big guys pounding on each other – but the ending made Angel look pretty dumb. Angel got what he deserved for being so stupid. There was an odd sequence where Angel is laying down, the ref is distracted with Vader for a while, and Harley, stading next to Angel unwatched for a while, does…nothing. It seems like maybe he was supposed to do something but just forgot? I don’t know Anyway, entertaining match.


Next is the Nasty Boys vs. Bunkhouse Buck & Terry Funk.

This was a fun match, though technically not good at all. It was a lot of Funk and not a lot of Bunk, which is fine with me. Funk got the Pit Stop, and his reaction to that was funny. He also went out of the ring, hit himself in the head with a chair ten times, and went over the barricade to yell at some fans. He must have been outside the ring for nearly 2 minutes, so I have no idea how he wasn’t counted out. There was also a stop where Bunk & Funk were double teaming one of the Nasties and in addition Bunk was strangling the Nasty with a rope, so I don’t know how there wasn’t a DQ, but whatever, I guess. Anyway, the match ends when Meng gets on the apron and tries to punch Sags but Sags ducks to he punches Funk instead. Funk staggers and Sags piledrives him on the pumpkin that the Nasties had brought with them, which perhaps doesn’t make a ton of sense but looked kinda cool. The Nasties get the win in just under 4 minutes.


Finally, we get the main event. It’s for the championship, and it’s a double retirement match (loser must retire) and it’s a cage match!

Hulk Hogan (champ) w. Brother Brutai (God how I hate that name) and Jimmy Hart vs. Ric Flair w. Sensual Sherri (or Infamous Sherri, as Michael Buffer calls her)

This match gets a bit crazy towards the end. Sherri tries to crawl in the ring, Jimmy Hart tries to stop her. He takes her out. Then Sting comes to stop her. The mysterious man in the black mask with the steel pipe who had previously damaged Hogan’s knee comes and hits Sting from behind then he runs off. Sherri gets in the ring and helps Flair to take down Mr. T and handcuff him to the rope. They then attack Hogan in tandem but of course he eventually overcomes them and takes down Flair with the same old leg drop and wakes up Mr. T in time for him to count 1-2-3 and Hogan wins again and all is right with the world!

Overall, this was a pretty good match. It was overbooked, but better than your usual Hogan match. Also, Flair kept trying to climb out of the cage, which made absolutely no sense at this was a pinfall or submission only match. Getting out of the cage does you no good. Anyway, pretty good match overall. Too bad that Ric Flair will never wrestle again.

Hogan was very heelish in this match, as usual. One cool move was when he picked up Flair and ren him into the fence like a battering ram.

After the match, the cage goes up and Hogan is doing his usual posing when the masked man comes back and is about to hit him with the steel pipe (he had to stand there and wait a while for Hogan to turn around) when Hogan finaly turns around, disarms the guy, punches him, then unmasks him. The mysterious black masked assailent is…his best friend Brutus! Okay, I thought that was a really good swerve. Obviously, Hogan is shocked. Then Kevin Sullivan and Earthquake/Avalanche show up and attack Hogan, then they beat on Hogan until Sting (in a suit, since, again, he didn’t wrestle in this PPV) comes out for the save. Bobby Heenan is in tear that Flair’s career is over. Heenan was great. I did not expect Earthquake to show up. I think this might have been his WCW debut. Hey, this was the first time I ever rooted for Brutus!


All in all, I thought that this was a decent PPV. Better than I expected. Mostly pretty good matches. The only match I thought was truly awful was the Kevin Sullivan/Dave Sullivan one but that was to be expected.  Well, and the Badd-Honkey Tonk Man match was bad as well. I still don’t understand why Sting wasn’t wrestling here, unless he didn’t kiss Hogan’s butt enough. Was he injured?

Oh, and does every big WCW match have to have a ref bump? There were a couple more at this PPV. The booking at WCW doesn’t seem very creative.

Halloween Havoc ‘94 was a pretty decent PPV, but not as good as other 1994 cards. What a difference a near-year makes, eh? When 1994 started, Austin’s star continued to rise, Hogan wasn’t a part of WCW, and Ric Flair was a babyface. By the end of 1994, things changed.

I did hear (at the time) that Honky was supposed to lose the bout against Badd, but refused to do the job. True or not? I don’t know. It was rather underwhelming (I’d love to know how true it was that Honky, in both the WWF and WCW, had a personal “no televised pinfall losses” policy; if true, who did he think he was?)

Stars & Stripes were always dependable in bouts with Pretty Wonderful.

Dave Sullivan vs. Kevin Sullivan? Next!

Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson was pretty reasonable, I guess.

Was there any point to Austin/Hacksaw (other than the kayfabe sense of a rematch)? Wait until you see their bout at the next event, Clash of the Champions XXIX.

Guardian Angel vs. Vader felt like a match that was unnecessary. Didn’t this feud peak at Fall Brawl ‘94? Why prolong the agony?

And didn’t Nastys vs Bunkhouse Buck and Funk wear out its welcome, too?

So, Ric Flair retired, eh? Good. Haven’t seen him since November 1994. Hope his retirement was fruitful, and that he enjoyed it. It was good to see him end his career in 1994. I’m sure we won’t see him show up again and, say, battle Hogan again or bleed in countless WWE matches in the 2000s. I’m sure the USA must have a different definition for retirement.

Still, the cage match was rather heated even though Hogan’s victory was a foregone conclusion. I guess there was a bit of a heat with the betrayal by Brutus.

Incidentally, an issue of Inside Wrestling featured the thoughts of Brutus after this (I know, I know, those mags made up quotes). It was something along the lines of, “When I was in hospital after the parasailing accident, all I heard was Hogan, Hogan, Hogan. It was me in the hospital bed, but he seemed to get a lot of credit for my recovery!” Whoever wrote that Brutus quote, well, let’s pretend Brutus said that, dbutler69 , can you blame him?! In a sarcastic way, Hogan did seem to lose a lot of friends. In a kayfabe sense, maybe he was the problem!

I know it was all kayfabe and fun, but when you think of the likes of Bobby Heenan calling Hogan a phony, or the likes of Mark Madden calling Hogan selfish, well it was all part of the show and the heel commentary back then, but through older, non-kayfabe eyes, maybe there was some truth in that.

I’m enjoying revisiting Coliseum Video releases, so last night, I watched Supertape II:






We begin with Macho King vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan from Saturday Night’s Main Event, January 1990. It was a gripping contest, and both men had good chemistry. Thanks to help from Sensational Queen Sherri, Savage defeated Duggan via pinfall.

We are then treated to a profile on The Rockers. Oddly, unlike other profiles we’ve seen on tapes, the duo lose one of of their bouts, to the Powers of Pain (Barbarian pins Michaels). They wrestle Dino Bravo & Greg Valentine and win via DQ. The second match is poor, but the first match is great, as the Rockers bump tremendously for the Powers of Pain. Also, some tapes feature 3 matches for superstar profiles, but we only got 2 for The Rockers.

In a match requested by a fan (allegedly), Hercules took on Akeem. This was a good bout as both men held nothing back. Hercules got a hard-fought victory via pinfall.

We get a “Call of the Action” segment, featuring Lord Alfred Hayes describing moves during a squash match (between the Orient Express and Jim Powers and Jim McPherson). Pointless and redundant.

We then see Demolition vs. The Orient Express, prior to WM VI. This is an intriguing bout as Demolition would be back with Fuji by the summer, meaning that Fuji would be managing both teams. This was a solid bout, but as became the norm with compilation tapes, we got an inconclusive ending. Orient Express won by count out.

Bret Hart battled Rick Martel to a time limit draw at MSG. Perhaps these two didn’t have chemistry because nothing seemed to click here.

Slick features in a very brief manager profile which tells us…little.

My favourite WWF cage match ever was next, Roddy Piper vs Rick Rude at MSG in late 1989. They held nothing back. It was back and forth. Heenan interfered. The referee bizarrely began to count both men out as they lay down on the mat (you can’t do that in a WWF cage match, surely?) - even Gorilla Monsoon, on commentary with Hillbilly Jim, called that out. All the fun ended with interference from Heenan backfiring, leading to a Piper victory. Match of the tape!

The penultimate feature showcases some bloopers. Nothing left an impression.

Things end with a rather underwhelming tag bout featuring Hulk Hogan & Brutus Beefcake vs. Mr. Perfect & The Genius. MSG again. Hogan pins the Genius for the win. It did seem that the WWF were often implying the Genius was gay - and mocked him for it. I’m glad we live in more enlightened times, WWE would hopefully not do that today.

In summary, another good Supertape compilation, which did feature some decent bouts.

That does sound like something Honkey would do, and considering that he was a friend of Hogan and that the inmates ran the asylum at WCW, I wouldn't be surprised if that tale is true.
Yes, Angel v. Vader was a bit unnecessary but at least this was still a pretty good match, and yes, Nasties vs. Funk/Bunkhouse had worn out its welcome by now.

And it is hilarious the way all of Hogan's friends betray him and does lead one to believe that the problem is him, not them. And I do hope that the NAture Boy has enjoyed his retirement over these past 30 years. I wonder what he's been up to?

Look at this:

As usual with Dutch and James, some good points, some gross generalizations and some total BS.  I watched a lot of their clips; Dutch tells stories that he didn't witness, as if they were first hand and gets them wrong, passes judgement on stuff, while admitting he didn't see it and then James uses clickbait headlines, for many things.  There is some good content and he has a nice mix of interview subjects, like Alex Wright, in one of the few I have ever seen, with him.  However, its the same gimmick questions and he is ignorant of earlier stuff, beyond what he can find on Youtube or research on the internet (as you would expect, given his apparent age).  Like everyone else, he seems to follow the lead of Cornette's podcast, in terms of subject matter, with the other interviews giving him better content than a lot of other channels.

Dutch is certainly entitled to his opinion; but, the first time I saw Memphis tv it was dull as hell, apart from a couple of interviews and Dutch's match was pretty damn slow, too.  By that point, I had a regular diet of ICW and the tv was a hell of a lot more exciting.  Now, to qualify that, what I saw was the one hour "bicycled" show, sent to other tv stations, not the 90 minute live Memphis Channel 7 show.  At the time, though, they were not drawing big crowds.  They soon would be, but not then.

The AWA depends a lot on what era you see and who is there, for the shows.  They didn't do big angles as much as other territories, on tv; but they had some damn good talkers, like Heenan and Bockwinkle and anyone who says Ray Stevens was boring never saw him in the ring or give a promo.  Greg wasn't a bad promo, either and the High Flyers, with Jim Brunzell, were a great tag team.  I never cared for Bruiser and Crusher; but, The Texas Outlaws, Dusty Rhodes and Dick Murdoch, were entertaining as hell, as you would expect (I've seen old footage, as we didn't have access to it, back then).  When Hogan was there they were on fire, which is why they were one of the first places Vince went for talent and tv markets.  It wasn't all Hogan, either.  McMahon took Hogan, David Schultz, Jim Brunzell, Heenan and Gene Okerlund.  The show was on par with anybody else....just traditional.  Now, Indianapolis was boring as @#$%, with Bruiser replaying the same old match clips, a bunch of veterans running the clock out and a few young guys who didn't know how to really work yet.  The only young guys who got a push were Spike Huber & Steve Regal (Mr Electricity, not Darren Matthews, aka Lord Steven and William Regal), because they were the sons-in-law of promoters Dick the Bruiser (Huber) and Wilber Snyder (Regal).  In the early 70s, when Heenan was there, they had some good stuff; but, not after 1975.

After the talent raid, the AWA was in bad shape, though the Road Warriors livened it up and then by the time they were on ESPN, they had some good young talent and a few key veterans, like Bockwinkle and Larry Zbyszko.  Curt Hennig and Scott Hal breathed a bit of life into them (more Hennig, at that stage), then Shaw Michaels & Marty Jannetty and Badd Company, with Dallas Page (and Madusa and Sherri Martel).  The problem was that Verne stayed with traditional presentation and kept losing talent to better money, with Vince.

Kansas City was another that depended on the talent, but the presentation was pretty dull.  However, they got some really good people to do shots there and in St Louis.  St Louis was its own animal, until Sam Muchnick retired and Geigel and partners took it over and killed it.  In the mid-80s, Central States was deadly dull, which led to them selling out to Crockett.  However, a little before that, with Len Denton booking, with himself and Tony Anthony, as the Gapplers, against Marty Jannetty and Tommy Lane (as Tommy Rgers) as The Uptown Boys, they had some great matches,  Shawn Michaels was also lighting up the ring.  That is where he and Jannetty hooked up and went to the AWA.

As for the Fullers, Ron was the promoting mind; Robert damn near killed Memphis, as the booker, until Jarrett fired him and took it over, himself, to get it back where it had been.  They did fine in Pensacola and Knoxville was good until the All-Star bunch split and the subsequent war killed the town for everyone.  Fuller's genius was hotshotting the territory to get big houses, then sell the territory to some money mark, let them run it down, then buy it back for a song, like they did with Continental.  he did the same thing with the USA Knoxville promotion, and did it again in the 90s, with Knoxville.  Southeastern and Continental depended on who was there, at any time and I have seen great stuff and some dire stuff...like any smaller territory.  It wasn't a big money territory, but trips were short and expenses low, plus you could live on the beach.

Dutch worked a lot of territories, but his name really only meant something in Tennessee and Puerto Rico, when he was booking there.  Outside of that, he was part of the crew, but not a big draw.  He worked both WCW and WWF, but not as a top wrestler or manager.  He has a good booking mind and for good young talent and was part of the TNA group that didn't have his head up another orifice.

Pre-Expansion and cable becoming dominant, the different territories had different styles, depending on what the promoter and the crowds liked.  The Northeast was about monsters and ethnic heroes, big arenas, with crowds further away and broader movements.  The South was smaller venues, the crowds closer up, with faster action and wilder fights, but with tighter work, so the crowd couldn't see through it.  Detroit was about the Sheik and blood, until they had their fill and it died.  Even then, there were other guys who wrestled and had fast-paced matches.  The Midwest was more about mat wrestling and legit athletes, as pro wrestling largely grew out of that region.  Chicago was the big city, for a long time, as well as St Louis, the Ohio Valley, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa.  the AWA had some of the bigger cities, spread out, but with smaller populated states.  They didn't run all year, either.  Texas was about blood and fights.  Oklahoma was about wrestling, with the amateurs that came out of that area, with a bit of Texas blood.  Portland was more smaller guys, though not always, spread out a bit, but a regular thing for their bugger cities and same for Vancouver (under Gene Kiniski), with the two trading talent (and with Stampede).  San Francisco was about battle royals, Ray Stevens and Pat Patterson.  LA was about the big fights, the glitz, tv and movie stars, with Patterson, Blassie, Tolos, The Destroyer and guys like Count Billy Varga.  Plus some Japanese and Mexican imports.  By the 70s, it had lost that and survived on young guys and Mexican talent, like Roddy Piper, the Guerreros, Goliath and Black Gordman; and, especially Mil Mascaras.

Hawaii only drew under Ed Francis, with guys going to and from Japan.  Once he sold out, it never drew again, other than one or two shows.  Canada was Toronto and Montreal as the big areas, due to population, Stampede for excitement and developing talent and the Maritimes was a place for some guys to make some decent money on top, instead of working underneath, in the US, like the Poffos and Rip Rogers.  They were a seasonal territory.

Cable is what killed the territories, as it revealed who was weak and who was strong and a small territory couldn't compete with a bigger one, especially with tv production, if any money was spent.  Verne didn't spend on his regular tv; but, the ESPN show was able to take advantage of the Vegas location.

Like I say, Dutch is entitled to his opinion; but, I still think he is living in a glass house.  Your mileage may vary.  He won't find many defending Kansas, who saw it regularly (except Harley Race and some talent that passed through); but, the AWA still has a ton of fans who loved it, across a long period of time.  Plus, Verne was not what you would call a boring wrestler, in his heyday.  He clung onto the top too long, and his last run with the belt should have never happened; but, he was a massive draw in the 50s and 60s and was still able to go, in the bulk of the 70s.  Verne was believable, as was Bockwinkle.