every bringing to you every
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know it's the truth every
after show moving down this
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doing our thing what's the
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moving down the statement
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Yo.
What is up, everybody?
Welcome back to the No
Gimmicks podcast here on the DFPN.
We are outside the confines of Patreon.
We're going to follow a
little bit of the smoke pits thing.
They do this thing on a smoke pit.
I say they like I'm not a
part of the show.
Yeah, what the fuck?
We do this thing on the
Smoke Pit where the first
show of every month is
outside the walls of Patreon.
We let everybody tune in and
see what this show is like.
So you can come back, support the team,
support the home brand.
Well, I wanted to do that for no gimmicks.
and we got some we got some
new people in the group so
what better way to
introduce them than by
doing a live show so here
we are outside the walls of
patreon it is I bread like
a king made his kelvin
caley and my co-host frank
d the chosen one what's up
brother how you doing well
brother tonight we're going
to talk about the matches
that made hollywood
That is correct.
And you are decked out
tonight celebrating the occasion.
Now, for those who don't know,
we're doing this show as
part of the celebration of
40 years of Hulkamania,
which they are going to be
doing on WrestleMania.
So what better way to kick
off WrestleMania season by
doing this shit right here
on No Gimmicks.
So we got a good show planned.
Before we get into that, though.
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Now, before we jump into this top 10...
mix it would be remiss we'd
be remiss not to cover the
elephant in the room so
let's kick the show off by
saying player three has
entered the game and he
fucking Leroy Jenkins that
shit bro the rock go ahead
I was gonna say the rock
technically he didn't just enter the game
He had already been in it.
Yep.
And he decided now is the
time to pull the trigger on
the match with Roman.
But there are some things, you know,
we've been talking about
this since it happened.
And a lot of different
stories are starting to
come out here about maybe
there's more than what
meets the eye here.
What's going on with The
Rock and Cody and
potentially what The Rock is doing.
for Cody and what this may
be leading to for Cody Rhodes.
Now, here on No Gimmicks,
we have been speculating
for months as it relates to
Cody Rhodes and Cody
Rhodes' trajectory and
where we think he's going.
And I've been saying for a
while here on this show
that Cody is destined to be a heel.
I said Cody Rhodes is a heel.
He just don't know it yet.
And we're leading to that.
We are leading to Cody turning heel.
And The Rock is going to be
the person to do it.
Because here's the thing.
The ultimate goal is going
to be for Roman Reigns to be the guy.
Roman Reigns to be the head, you know,
the face of the WWE.
The baby face of WWE.
This is the reason why they
had to go down this route.
Because what happens is you
can become the biggest bad guy.
And they will love you when you turn.
Now, Cody has been the biggest good guy.
Okay.
And now when he turns,
I'm not saying that it's
going to be on the same
level of when this guy did it.
But being as how Cody has
all these people behind him
and all this support right now,
I cannot wait when he turns.
Oh, it's going to be glorious.
It's going to be magic.
Because he's basically telling you,
he sent a tweet out saying basically,
trust me.
And I remember Jake used to
say trust me a lot too.
So we're looking basically
here at Cody Rhodes being
the chosen one here.
And we're going to correlate
this once again as we do
here on No Gimmicks to Star Wars.
Cody Rhodes is Anakin Skywalker.
He is the chosen one.
He is destined to be the world champion.
Yep.
Roman Reigns and the
character Star Wars wise is Count Dooku.
He is the apprentice of Paul Heyman,
who is the wise man.
Correct.
So when it comes down to it,
the wise man needs a new apprentice.
So
So he is going to turn on Roman Reigns,
and he is going to side with Cody.
That will turn Cody heel.
Roman will then go babyface.
So then you say, well,
what does the family members do?
What does Solo do?
What does Jimmy do?
Well, they're going to turn on Roman.
That's what they're going to do.
They have to.
There is no more bloodline.
This is the nightmare family.
That's what it's going to be.
Or it could be something else.
It could be the Nightmare Family.
It could be the Nightmare Family,
but it wouldn't surprise me,
far-fetched as it sounds.
As I was talking to you earlier,
WWE owns this very popular
intellectual property.
It's three letters with a
logo somewhere to the shirt
you're wearing right now.
Yep.
They could do something with
that if they wanted to.
I'm sure Cody would get a
kick out of doing something.
I mean, his father was a part of that WCW,
and I'm talking about the NWO.
Mm-hmm.
I mean,
could you imagine here from a
storyline standpoint and
just booking Cody Rhodes
becomes a world champion
and spray paints that belt?
That would be absolutely amazing.
And it would be crazy
because it would go against
what he has been talking about.
Well,
I want to have the belt my dad never held,
but it's like,
you didn't really mean that.
Right.
But the same, you know,
you didn't mean that.
You wanted it for yourself,
not for the father, not for your brother.
You wanted it for yourself.
So there's a lot of
different ways that could
go with this story.
There is.
That would make sense.
That would turn Cody into
the ultimate douchebag,
pretty much the ultimate piece of shit.
So here's where I'm going to go with this.
And watching SmackDown,
I correlated two things, right?
Cody Rhodes in that promo
said he had been seeking counsel, right?
Right.
What do they mention on Star Wars?
A counsel.
A Jedi counsel.
He had been seeking counsel.
Now-
He wants that title.
He let it be known he wants that title.
He let it be known he's
coming for that title.
In Revenge of the Sith, on the council,
what did they tell Cody?
He's not going to be a master.
What did that, I mean,
what did they tell Anakin?
That he's not going to be a master.
Yeah, you can have,
we'll grant you a seat on the council,
but we do not recognize you as a master.
This is essentially what
happened to Cody Rhodes.
He won the Royal Rumble.
He did everything he was supposed to.
The right way.
Only to be denied.
This is going to do something to him.
Correct.
You saw the look in his face.
Oh, he was dejected, bro.
Exactly.
It's like, yeah,
and this is what I was
saying in the No Gimmicks
group on Facebook.
Your World Rumble win meant nothing.
You're basically saying,
I can go out there and bust
my ass and throw out 29 other guys.
It's going to lead to nothing.
Stone Cold would say,
29 pieces of trash over the top rope.
And it doesn't mean shit
because all of a sudden,
The Rock could come out
there or Stone Cold Steve
Austin could come out there and say,
I'm taking this title shot.
So move along, Jabron.
Move along.
Yeah, right.
That's essentially what happened to Cody.
Yep.
You can go.
You can challenge for this other title,
but it ain't going to be this one.
Oh,
and let me say something right quick
about that, too,
when you mentioned this title.
So something that made me
laugh my ass off on
SmackDown is when Cody was
cutting that promo.
I know you're about to go.
Yeah, I'm going there.
So Cody was cutting that promo.
And he says, that belt, you know,
it's a belt that my father didn't have.
Bullshit.
That championship has no
lineage to the WWF winged eagle.
The WWF championship has no,
it's not the belt that San
Martino had or Pedro
Morales or Bob Bagley.
or superstar Billy Graham, or Hulk Hogan,
or Bret Hart, or Macho Man, Warrior,
Sergeant Slaughter.
So many others.
Shawn Michaels, Hunter, Austin.
It's not the same.
So, miss me with that bullshit.
And the thing about it that
I kind of find funny the most is, like,
on your own website,
it shows two different lineages, bruh.
it does it does and that's
what so I caught that I
caught that a long time ago
but I went back and look
because I was looking for
how long Roman had been the
champion I forgot I was
like oh yeah they don't
even they don't even
recognize that lineage
right they don't they have
him carrying the belt but
it's only for like 600
something days which would
make him like number seven
or some shit like that
Which isn't bad,
but you ain't creeping up on a record.
No,
it's like the only record that matters
is Gunther's record.
Yeah.
Which they got to fix that.
If that's the story you're
going to go with, you have to fix that.
You have to say, this is the title.
This is the lineage.
This belt now carries that.
They don't outright address that.
Yeah.
And just like Cody's belt,
it doesn't have any lineage
to the big gold belt.
So it's just like,
I don't know what the hell they're doing.
If you want to trace the
history back for the belt
Roman's carrying,
it goes back to SummerSlam,
and Finn Balor was the
first Undisputed Champion.
Correct.
That's what it goes down to.
Correct.
And you know what's crazy to
me is how when I think
about Finn Balor and when
he won the Undisputed title,
he's never gotten back close to that.
I think about the matches
that he could have had with
Seth Rollins being a heel.
I thought they were going that route,
and they ultimately didn't.
I really wanted them to go that route.
Yeah.
They just, for whatever reason,
they didn't.
But it would have made all
the sense in the world,
because I never lost this belt, man.
Yeah.
And it would have made sense,
because Seth is a babyface.
Finn is a heel,
and he's in control of a faction.
It would have made all the
sense in the world.
Actually,
he's not in control of the Judgment Day.
Not anymore, but at the time,
it was perceived that he was the guy.
Yeah.
I mean,
we already know Rhea Ripley is in
control of the Judgment Day.
Right, right.
So she is the leader of the Judgment Day.
Right.
Absolutely.
But yeah, man,
WrestleMania is going to be wild.
I think it's wild.
WrestleMania is going to be
interesting because The
Rock threw a ripple in the feather there,
but CM Punk did too when he came back.
And I'm going to tell you,
the CM Punk thing.
For all the wrong reasons.
It's horrible.
For all the wrong reasons.
Punk being hurt.
It messed up the plans,
but at the same time,
they're talking about right
now that they're going to
probably be moving punk to
commentary is what he's
going to be doing while
he's rehabbing his injury.
And that makes sense, though.
Yeah, it was pretty good.
Drew McIntyre is a monster.
Bro, savage.
Absolute savage.
Ever since Punk got hurt,
I don't know what it is.
I don't know who's giving
him the green light, but I love it.
I absolutely love it.
It was before that.
It was when they started with Jay.
And now Jay is going up
against Gunther for the IC belt now.
It's like,
I don't know what the hell they're doing.
It's like, they have direction for Jay,
but none for Jimmy.
I think...
I think that's the plan.
Have them go,
and which it makes sense for
Jay to challenge and
possibly win because if
you're going to bring him to prominence,
Gunther I'm talking about,
you can have him challenge for the title.
Whoever wins that, if it's Cody,
they had a banger at the
end of Royal Rumble last year,
so throw them in there.
What's up, Total of Time?
Total of times in the house.
What's up, buddy?
But, yeah,
you can have him challenged for
the title.
You know, I was going to say,
the ultimate thing with
Gunther that I would have done was, yeah,
no, man.
Another guy,
and I'm going to go back to Gunther,
but another guy that I
think they're wasting is
Damien Priest with that
money in the bank briefcase.
I would have much rather had
Gunther carrying that
briefcase and the
Intercontinental Championship.
Can you imagine the story
that he could have had there?
That's OP.
But then again, at the same time,
if they had been pushing Drew as a heel,
then Drew McIntyre could
have had that briefcase as well.
And now he's talking about, well,
I want to go to
WrestleMania and challenge for a title.
So, hey, Cody, yeah,
go after Roman so I can go
to WrestleMania to face Seth Rollins.
That's what he tried to do Monday.
Right.
And I'm like,
this is the most sinister thing.
I've ever seen a Drew McIntyre.
I love it because the
villain Drew McIntyre is
better without the sword
and all that other goofy shit.
Just straight up savage.
I'm not a religious person,
but I prayed for this to happen.
And I was like, yes.
Wow.
I was like, yes.
I love this.
They're just hitting on all
cylinders right now with everything.
I was like,
WrestleMania is looking like crap.
I'm like, nah,
I'm interested in getting
what they're going to do in WrestleMania.
Here's the thing.
With all of this going on,
they've actually achieved something.
The Dirt Sheets don't know
what the fuck to do.
I love it.
Yeah, that's the part about it.
That's the funny part about
this is that they literally
don't know what's going on.
All it is, really,
is just all it is is
speculation from everybody.
Sean Ross, Sab, you got Meltzer.
Everybody's just speculating.
They don't know anything, and I love it.
No one knows a thing.
I want to be surprised this
time around because I'm
thinking I know what's
going to happen here.
But I don't know.
Even trying to predict it,
I'm okay being wrong.
Because that means it's not predictable.
If I can't tell you what's going on,
then yeah.
I like that.
I like being surprised.
And I like the prospect of,
I don't know what's going
to happen at Mania.
Right.
I actually don't know.
I like it.
Because...
Ever since Punk came back,
it's like this weird, you don't know.
Because there was a plan.
Punk screwed that up.
Then he got hurt.
So now you really don't know
what's going on.
Cody won the Rumble.
But then Rock came back.
And then now that's all out of control.
Yeah, we might get Rock Roman.
But what if we get a triple threat?
We don't know.
We actually don't know.
And I'm like, yes,
I've been needing this for a while.
Well,
essentially what's going on right now,
and I mentioned this once
again in the group,
was what you're seeing
right now with Cody and the
Cody movement is the yes movement.
It's what you're seeing right now.
Essentially.
And it worked to perfection.
Oh, it does.
Because basically what you
got here is you really have
The Rock playing the role of Batista.
Right.
Yeah.
Coming in and the crowd is
like that crowd Monday.
What a difference between
Friday and Monday.
Yeah.
And supposedly they weren't
expecting that.
That was like, no.
No.
Yeah, they were like,
that kind of took them back a little.
So I'm interested to see
what's going on here.
Exactly.
Controversy sells and
controversy creates cash,
as Eric Bischoff says.
So they're doing everything
they can right now to bank
on this situation and also
take the focus off of another situation.
Everybody knows what we're talking about,
so I'm going to mention here,
but you know what I'm talking about,
taking the focus off of that situation.
And speaking of that situation,
before we move on to the meat here.
So Brock Lesnar,
not going to be a part of
WrestleMania this year, obviously,
because of reasons.
And WWE and 2K have made the
decision to take him off
the WWE 2K24 WrestleMania edition cover.
They took him off and
replaced him with John Cena.
Now,
we don't know if he is going to be in
the game still and if Vince
McMahon is still going to be in the game.
They might pull both of them.
We don't know yet.
It's very hard to erase
Vince McMahon from WWE.
That's just what never happened.
It will never happen.
It is hard.
He will not get the Benoit treatment.
It's not going to happen.
So, in saying that...
We talked enough.
We've been saying this for weeks,
what we're going to do.
So, brother, let's do it.
Let's do it.
Let's get into our meat and
potatoes of tonight.
40 years of Hulkamania.
Tonight we're doing the top 10 matches.
Now,
we're going to do this a little
differently.
Frank D is going to give his five.
I'm going to give my five.
And then if you guys have
top 10 Hulk Hogan matches
you want to throw out in the chat,
throw them up there.
We'll talk about it.
So with that being said,
let's jump into it.
I'll let you go first.
I went first on the last top.
All right.
So for me,
I am going to go with WCW Bash
the Beach 94 Hulk Hogan's
debut match against Ric
Flair for the WCW World Championships.
And I thought that was one
of Hogan's best matches.
And they previously did this
match in the WWF.
And a lot of people thought
that it would have been the
main event of WrestleMania 8.
It didn't happen.
They supposedly didn't say, well,
it wasn't the attraction we
thought it was going to be, whatever.
They did it at WCW.
As a matter of fact,
they did it a couple of
times at WCW because they
did it at Bachelor of the Beach.
And then later on in the year,
they would do it at Halloween Havoc,
a retirement match in which
Mr. T was a referee, was a steel cage.
And then Brutus Beefcake
became the butcher.
Our brother Brutai became
the butcher and started to
feud with Hogan.
So I'm going to go with that match there.
Hogan versus Ric Flair, WCW championship.
Of course, Hogan wins the match.
Shaquille O'Neal with a ring,
raises his hand with the big gold belt.
Okay.
I like that.
I'm going to go Hulk Hogan
versus Bill Goldberg Monday
Nitro in the Georgia Dome.
40,000 fans.
Should have been a pay-per-view match,
but we got it on a Monday Nitro.
It was during the ratings war, obviously.
But
The buzz that they built for
this match was absolutely insane.
Goldberg was on his incredible run.
He was undefeated.
He had ran through pretty
much the entire NWO to get to Hulk Hogan.
And finally got to Hulk Hogan,
setting up a showdown on Monday Nitro.
The commentary,
the only person I remember
on the commentary, oddly enough,
was Bobby the Brain Heenan.
Because he was talking so
much shit on commentary.
But just remembering...
The spear and the crowd going crazy.
And they did a very nice
thing during that match too.
They zoomed out,
showed the crowd how
everybody was reacting.
People already throwing
stuff in the ring because
they know Jack Hammer's coming.
And...
Bobby the Brain said when he gets him up,
this place is going to explode.
And it absolutely did.
That night, I believe,
I think Goldberg was pretty
much made before that night,
but that night solidified
the stardom that was Goldberg.
So it's one of mine.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean,
they were right in the middle
of the Monday Night War,
and at this point, WCW had been losing,
and that's the reason why
they pulled the trigger on
Goldberg and Hogan.
It was actually Hogan's idea to do it.
So, if you remember earlier in the night,
he wrestled Scott Hall to
get the match with Hogan
later on in the night.
So, yeah, I mean,
it was a great moment in the war.
I think it was probably the
last time WCW actually beat the WWF,
if I remember correctly, in the ratings.
Yeah, I think so.
So my next match,
we're going to go all the
way back to 1990 at SummerSlam.
It's Hulk Hogan versus The Earthquake.
with Dino Bravo in
Earthquake's corner and the
Big Boss Man in Hogan's corner.
So I thought that was a great match,
very good storytelling.
They did a whole campaign of
everybody sitting there, you know,
writing for, you know,
cards and shit for Hulk Hogan, basically,
because he had got the Earthquakes,
you know, drops, the Earthquakes,
you know, splashes on, what was it,
the Brother Love Show or
something like that.
Yeah.
So,
This was just a great angle.
Originally,
I believe Tugboat was supposed
to be in Hogan's Corner,
but that got changed,
and then it became the Big Boss Man.
So I saw it.
I mean, Tenta, John Tenta,
God rest his soul.
Tenta was just a beast.
So underrated.
Yeah, so underrated.
Was a beast, you know?
And from what I hear from people...
One of the nicest guys.
I was just about to say that.
Hated being a heel.
Yeah.
That's crazy.
But that's what made it so good.
It made it so good.
And he actually loved it.
You know, and Bret Hart said this story.
He's like, Tenta hated being a heel,
and he loved it when he became Faces.
Really?
Because he got to interact.
Yeah,
he got to interact with the kids and
all that.
That's what he liked to do.
He was just like a teddy bear.
He was like a real nice guy.
Mm-hmm.
I heard that too.
He was a great guy.
Good one.
I'm going to go a little bit left field.
I had this one in my top 10.
I almost didn't want to talk about it,
but I'm going to because
it's absolutely hilarious.
Hulk Hogan versus Shawn Michaels.
Oh, jeez.
You're talking about SummerSlam, right?
Yes.
Ah.
Jeez.
I almost didn't talk about this,
but I'm going to talk about it.
Hulk Hogan versus Shawn Michaels.
The selling in this match by
Shawn Michaels.
Yeah.
It's an absolute master class in selling.
It's an absolute master
class of being a prick.
Yeah, it's a prick move.
It was a prick move.
But it made Hogan look like
every move was just, oh,
he's killing him.
He's killing him.
Yeah.
It was good.
It was good, man.
That promo segment they did
before that with Michaels
dressed up as Hogan, that was good.
That was good stuff.
They don't do stuff like that anymore.
No, they don't.
They don't.
But, yeah.
One of my favorite – I don't
know if it's actually a top
match because of how, you know,
the selling was,
but I think for me it's one
of my favorite matches watching him in.
Because it was supposed to
be like this grand.
It was supposed to be like
Hogan and the Rock.
Right.
It was supposed to be like that,
but it ended up being.
What it was.
Yeah.
So my next one on the list
is going to go back to WCW.
And I'm going to go with
Hulk Hogan versus Sting, starting 97.
Now, people will be thinking like,
why the hell would you pick that match?
Well, it's very simple.
If you actually go back and
watch the match for what it was,
it was actually a pretty good match.
It told the story,
but it didn't do any favors
for Sting because Hogan
dominated the entire match.
And had they not did, the finish they did,
because, I mean, legitimately,
Hogan won the match.
I mean, there was no fast count.
Hogan legitimately won the match.
He beat Sting.
Right, right.
And you can tell by the crowd.
The crowd was like, what?
Right.
We waited a year for this?
Right.
So I'm going to pick that one.
Okay.
All right.
I am going to go to the
beginning of Hulkamania.
Hulk Hogan versus the Iron Sheik.
40 years ago.
And we got a comment here.
I'll get to it in a second.
But that match, that match,
a lot of people don't give
it enough credit, I don't think.
Because the Iron Sheik was
the guy to beat Bob
Backlund into one of the
longest streaks in WWE history.
WWF, you know what I mean.
But he had like lava heat on him.
And that set him up
perfectly for Hulk Hogan.
And not a long match at all, man.
That match was maybe five minutes.
Right.
And for that to be the
testament of a generation of
of people and their fandom.
Like, it's crazy.
It's crazy.
Storytelling in that amount
of time is nuts, bro.
It's nuts.
Five minutes.
And we're talking about the
legacy of the next 40 years of this man.
We're celebrating 40 years
based off five minutes.
Well, let me tell you this.
So
None of that would never
have happened had Hogan not
gone to New York first to
work for Vince Singer.
Yep.
And then did the Rocky movie,
which got him to the AWA.
Started Hulkamania in AWA.
Yep.
Then went on to the WWF and
had to match with The Sheik
and then went on.
And, uh, hell yeah.
Rocky.
Absolutely.
Thunder lips, brother.
Yeah.
That was just, yeah, that,
that was just great there.
See Hogan with a full head of hair.
My God.
But, uh, um, yeah, man, it's just, it's,
it's just crazy how it
exploded after that.
And Hogan was grinding.
He was hustling.
You know what I'm saying?
Like big time.
Yeah.
But Hogan did some heel work before that.
I remember seeing a match with Hogan was,
um,
The Incredible Hulk Hogan
managed by classy Freddie
Blassie versus Andre the
Giant at Shea Stadium.
And he slammed Andre like it
wasn't nothing.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
So the next match on my list,
which I thought was a good Hogan match,
and it actually-
made somebody it was some
controversy there for a
little while because hogan
said you know this guy did
something to him which
turned out to be bs and
this guy carried guilt for
years about it until he
watched the tape and saw
that he didn't do anything
wrong he was protected I'm
talking about hogan versus
the undertaker survivor
series 91 wwf championship in which
Hulk Hogan lost the belt to the Undertaker,
did the favors.
Taker tombstoned Hogan on a steel chair.
But if you watch the tape,
Hogan's neck never hit the chair.
He was in Taker's knees, okay,
in between his legs, his thighs.
So Hogan's on the mat
selling this and holding his neck,
whatever, and he's like, oh, brother,
you know, you really hurt.
So Taker felt like shit for
a while because he thought he hurt Hogan.
And so he actually went back
and watched the tape and said,
wait a minute.
I had that dude like that.
They had some heat for that for years.
So, yeah, but that's better for me.
Young kid.
Watch that match.
Yeah.
Taker is a young kid, man.
Yeah.
Got to make him feel bad.
Right.
But I like that one.
So we have a comment here that says,
no bigger reaction to a
title win I ever saw.
I'm going to go one real quick.
It's not my number one choice,
but I'm going to say this one.
I'm going to put a bonus one
in real quick.
Okay.
So it was Hogan.
Once again,
it's another Hollywood-Hogan match.
Hollywood-Hogan versus Lex
Luger from Monday Nitro, Detroit.
When Luger beat Hogan for the belt,
that place went crazy.
Banana.
Oh, hell yeah.
That was crazy.
We talk about reactions,
just good reactions.
Go back and watch that.
You can find it on YouTube.
You can find it on WWE Network,
on Peacock.
That episode of Nitro, Hogan versus Luger.
It's probably one of Luger's
best matches he ever had.
That place exploded.
And then it all went to shit
because Hogan won the belt
a couple days later at Road Wild.
Yep.
It sure did.
That doesn't work for me, brother.
So I'm going to go.
My next one's going to be
Hulk Hogan versus The Rock.
Of course.
Listen, man, this is me in my teen years.
This is two of the biggest
wrestlers of that generation.
Right.
And the way they built that was like,
you're never going to see
Ali Tyson again.
But you're going to see Hogan Rock.
And that shit... Because I was a boxer.
I'm still a boxing fan.
But that shit hit me like a ton of bricks.
Like, yeah, man.
That was a what if.
Tyson versus Ali is the biggest what if.
And what if they fought?
What that fight would look like?
I don't know.
But I do know that I get to
see The Rock versus Hulk
Hogan at WrestleMania in Toronto.
And...
That crowd, legendary.
Legendary.
So let me ask you this question.
So when you go back to that
match between Hogan and The Rock,
remember Hogan came in that
year in February as part of the NWO.
He was back to being Hollywood Hogan.
Right.
So do you think that the
reaction would have been
bigger if Hogan had came
back in the red and yellow?
Oh,
that's such a tough question to answer.
I don't know.
But I do know... I do know
you needed... You kind of
needed Hogan to be the heel.
Yeah.
Because the whole thing is like,
he had to be... So when
Hogan's last appearance...
In WCW, at Bastion Beach 2000,
he was Hollywood Hulk Hogan.
Right.
He had reverted back to that gimmick.
So that's the last time you saw him.
Right.
You know, before, you know,
and the little stuff he did after.
Because remember,
after Bastion Beach controversy,
he never went back to work for WCW.
Right.
He showed up with Jimmy Hart with the XWF,
which he was back in the red and yellow.
But then when they got the call, they said,
okay, we're going to do the NWO angle.
They brought him back as
Hollywood or whatever.
But you're right.
Hogan had to come back as a heel.
It only made sense because
Rock was just too popular.
But once again,
they kind of misjudged the crowd.
Bro, once they got in that ring,
all the bets were off.
No one knew that was going to happen.
All the bets were off.
And that's what made it a great match,
honestly.
And that spoke a lot to The Rock, too.
At the time, I didn't realize this.
Actually, I realized it,
but I didn't really grasp
it like I do now.
For The Rock to flip on the
drop of a dime is some of
the most legendary shit ever, bro.
Ever.
He turned at the drop of a hat.
Once he figured out, oh,
they're really with Hulk Hogan.
Okay.
Well, you be the good guy.
I'll be the bad guy.
They did this shit mid-match, man.
Mid-match.
No talking to nobody.
No nothing.
Just, all right, you're the good guy now.
That's just how you feel the crowd,
you feel the energy, you go with it.
And that's what they did in that match.
And I guess my last one I'm going to pick,
and there's just so many Hogan matches,
you can't do it justice.
But this one here,
it's not so much the match,
but it's the story that's
in the match of what's going on here.
Because it was something cool they did.
So my final match is going to be
The WWF Championship is the
debut of the winged eagle belt.
It's Hulk Hogan defending
the championship against
the eighth wonder of the world,
Andre the Giant.
With the million dollar man,
Ted DiBiase and Virgil in his corner.
And if you remember,
they pulled the twin referee deal here.
They had Earl Hefner.
Yeah.
Earl Hefner made his debut
as the evil referee.
And then him and his brother
got into a big thing and
Hogan was like, oh,
they did the plastic surgery, brother.
So that's also when Andre
Giant did the bodge and says,
I want to give, you know,
present Mr. DiBiase with
the world tag team championship.
So you're talking about the
Saturday night one.
The main event.
Yeah.
Correct.
Not WrestleMania 3.
Because that would be too cliche.
Everybody knows WrestleMania 3.
I'm talking about the match
that was the biggest
drawing match in television history.
Which was the main event.
Okay.
I like that.
I'm not even mad at that.
And historical reference is
the debut of Wayne Deagle.
I like it.
The big one.
I just said that.
That's what I'm saying.
I'm...
I'm agreeing.
Yeah, I mentioned that.
Yes, sir.
I'm agreeing.
Yes, sir.
All right.
I am also.
I'm going to go cliche.
Go ahead.
Because if we don't get here.
So two matches that I stated,
we don't get Hulkamania
without these two matches.
And I know where you're going.
We get WrestleMania three.
Hulk Hogan versus Andre the Giant.
I'm not sure if we're
sitting here talking about
Hulk Hogan if it wasn't for that match.
Maybe we are, but- We are,
but that was a big one.
That was a big one.
Yeah.
That was a big one.
Yeah.
That match probably made
WrestleMania what it is.
Right.
The sheer spectacle.
Well, it was that match-
It was that match that made it what it is,
a spectacle, just what WrestleMania is.
But there was another match
on that show that from a
work rate rise that it surpassed.
Are you talking about Macho and Steamboat?
Absolutely.
That's one of my favorite matches ever,
bro.
Honorable mention here.
It's not even an honorable mention.
What the hell with it?
It's not a game.
We do what we want.
The mega powers explode.
WrestleMania 5.
Hogan versus Macho Man.
The match that was built in
a year to build.
Yep.
You know?
So that's another one.
Then you want to talk further.
Let's talk Ultimate Warrior
versus Hulk Hogan.
WrestleMania 6.
It was Warrior's best match he ever had.
Yep.
I was just about to say that.
Yep.
Get on the plane, Hulk Hogan.
Talk to the pilot, Hulk Hogan.
What the fuck is he saying?
I don't know,
but I want to see this match.
Yeah.
Look, Total of Time says,
he said the same thing.
Credit to Hogan.
He gave Warrior the best
match of his career.
Too bad that it could not be
duplicated in 1998.
Oh, my God.
Oh.
That match is terrible.
Yeah.
Another honorable mention is
Hollywood Hogan versus
Triple H. Back last 2002
for the WWF Undisputed Championship.
Why don't I remember that, Matt?
I was deployed a lot.
I don't remember that match.
Well, he beat him.
Hulkamania was born again.
This was after Mania?
Yeah, this was 2002.
Hogan was basically wearing
a red and yellow,
but he had the black beard,
so he was still Hollywood Hogan,
but he just wore a red and yellow.
Huh.
Yeah, Voodoo Child was his theme song,
which you cannot hear, obviously,
on the WWE Network.
Yeah.
I'm going to have to look for that.
I don't remember that.
Yeah, if you go on the WWE Network,
it's called Backlash 2002.
And it's the main event.
Huh, okay.
Oh, look at this.
This comment is, this is up there.
I actually agree with this one.
Any match Hogan wrestled in Japan.
Yep, yep.
So you can do Hogan versus Noki,
Hogan versus Buddha.
That's one of my favorite
matches I saw in Japan.
Hogan in Japan was different.
Yeah, hell yeah,
because he said he can go
over there and work.
He said it himself.
He doesn't have to.
He can go over there and actually wrestle.
He doesn't have to do any of
the bullshit he has to do here.
That's what he said.
Right.
Yeah.
Hogan in Japan.
Yeah.
And shout out to the tape
traders because I didn't catch this.
I didn't catch these until I
was older and knew about shit like that.
But I had one of my shout out to Tracy.
He was a tape trader.
from where I grew up.
And that's how I found out
about All Japan and all
that shit they had going on over there.
But yeah.
Shout out to Hogan.
I'm going to mention another
honorable mention match.
And it's going to go back to
No Way Out 2003.
The Rock Hogan 2.
Oh, yes.
Yes.
Shout out to Total of Time.
He said he was a tape trader.
But yeah.
Yes,
the build-up to that match was amazing,
too.
Oh, it was Hollywood Rock?
Hollywood Rock, yes.
I think Hollywood Rock is
the best version of The Rock.
I do.
So Hollywood Rock was, yeah,
he was good there,
but I like Nation Rock.
Nation Rock was good, too.
Yeah, Nation Rock was good, too.
I'm not talking about Nation
or Domination.
I'm talking about The Nation.
Yeah.
I'm talking about
You know, with Owen Hart on him,
that's what I'm talking about.
That version of The Rock, yeah.
He was good.
He was good there.
Damn.
Might have to come back to
that conversation.
What's the best version of The Rock?
Yeah, that'd be a whole show in itself.
Yeah, it would.
Yeah.
That's a good debate.
That's a great debate, actually.
And I'll mention another
match that was pretty good.
So I think it was the war to
sell the score.
Hogan versus Roddy Piper.
I got one.
Hogan versus Vader.
Yes.
Super Raw, 95, Baltimore.
Where Hogan no sold the Vader bomb.
Yes.
Killed Vader just like that.
Absolutely.
Destroyed him.
What do you think about
Hogan versus Brock Lesnar?
I think for what it was,
and this is the thing that
kills me with people when they say, well,
Hogan didn't want to do the
favor or say anybody.
He did.
You remember how many people
Hogan put over in his return that year?
Hogan wasn't winning many matches.
Hogan was losing to Jericho.
He was losing to Angle, Lesnar.
I mean, The Rock.
I mean, dude, he lost to The Rock twice.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
So people can say, well,
Hogan didn't want to do business.
Whatever.
You know what?
That's kind of similar.
It's kind of similar to what
they're saying about CM Punk.
Yeah.
CM Punk doesn't want to do business.
But if you look at CM Punk in a rumble,
he was getting his ass whooped.
Handily.
He did business.
So...
It just depends.
I guess if WWE is that kind of last stop,
I guess people, they do the favors.
Well,
Hogan had something to prove anyways.
Yeah, true.
Yeah, I mean, because McMahon told him,
you got to bring it.
You know what I mean?
I agree with that.
I will agree with that one too.
Worst match of all time is
the finger poke of doom.
We had that discussion.
We did.
It's in the archive.
But you notice when we're
talking here about Hogan and WCW,
we're only bringing up a few matches.
Because Hogan did not have
many memorable performances
during his run at WCW.
Yeah, yeah.
Any match he ever did with
the Giant was horrible.
Hogan was trying to be the
big match guy in WCW.
He was trying to do WWF
matches is pretty much what
he was trying to do.
Right.
He was trying to do that,
but it wasn't going over well.
Sting, great.
Flair, great.
But these are like all-time
great wrestlers that he's
going to the ring against.
Savage.
Yeah.
Like, if you put them in there,
you put them in there with
someone and it don't go well,
then whose fault is it really?
Well...
They'll say that it's a
person that's working with Hogan,
not Hogan.
Right.
Exactly.
Yeah.
But yeah,
the more memorable matches were in WWE.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I think we all can agree with that.
Yeah.
I mean-
And I don't know what it is, man.
Maybe it's me as a fan
because I grew up watching him in WWF.
And going into my teen years,
he was in WCW.
And those are two completely
different products.
And if you're trying to do
the same thing that you did
during that time frame,
you're catering to a
different type of fan.
Right.
It's no different than now.
Like the majority of the
fans now grew up with John Cena.
So if they look at some of
this stuff going on now,
it's not going to be the same product.
It's just not.
Yeah.
It's just like it's the rock is here now.
Exactly.
Rock was from our era.
Right.
But the era now is the era of Cody.
Seth Rollins, so you have this last relic,
quote unquote,
from the that just showed
up because he's on the
board of directors now.
He's a big Hollywood actor,
and he just shows up and he says,
I'm gonna do whatever hell I want you.
Jabroni,
you get your monkey ass out of the
ring before the Rock lays a
smack down on you.
Right, now fans hate it.
Right.
But back then, it was like,
you got to be as piss and vinegar, bro.
Your spot is never secure.
Ever.
Yep.
Whatever.
It is what it is.
Four words, man.
Card subject to change.
Yeah.
I said this in a group the other day.
The card is subject to change, man.
You just... Fans nowadays...
I grew up in a rural area, which means...
The big stars didn't really
come out there that much.
So those four words meant a lot.
Because if they advertise
somebody and they don't come,
they ain't fucking coming.
You getting whatever they got.
Right.
And that's because we had a
WF with you shit.
So they would run the A-Town, the B-Town,
and your C-Town would be, you know.
You getting scraps, my guy.
Exactly.
You want a filet mignon,
we're giving you fish.
Yeah.
Take this and be happy.
Yeah, it's not even good fish either.
Right.
So, but yeah, it's like that, man.
All right, man.
Final shots and thoughts.
What do you got?
Well, basically,
I mentioned a couple weeks
ago on the show, been mentioning here,
plugging it,
but we are going to be
presenting another podcast here,
the one that's going to be
about Star Wars and all that.
And originally,
we were going to go Rogue Empire.
We're not calling it that anymore.
We are going to be
officially the Rogue
Scoundrels is what the show
is going to be called.
And we'll be debuting that in a few weeks.
We're just going to be fine
tuning some stuff and we're going to
Basically, we're talking about Star Wars,
Marvel, Disney, DC,
all the controversies going on.
So look forward to that
because the Rogue Scouts rolls.
It's on its way.
Correctamundo.
Very excited for that, too.
Very excited.
Yeah, so it'll be fun.
It's going to be fun.
It's going to be a good time.
So I do want to shout out.
I put this announcement out.
uh earlier today but I do
want to shout it out on the
show we do have an
interview series coming up
I do want to shout out
metroplex wrestling and uh
they do have an event
destiny march 16th here in
grand prairie texas they
will be uh they they were
going to be moving to a
bigger venue for this show
it's going to be the
biggest show they've done
They always do great shows
when Wrestling Revolver comes around.
Wrestling Revolver does
their they pick some of their talent,
put them in the shows,
give them a great experience.
They're in there with bigger
stars on another level.
It gives them great experience.
But we're a class
organization that they have over there.
Shout out to Matthew Palmer.
He's heading that whole thing up.
So shout out to him.
But he offered No Gimmicks a
chance to interview some talent.
And we took that opportunity.
We're going to be bringing
the series Path to Destiny.
So we'll be interviewing
guys here on the No Gimmicks podcast.
promoting this event.
Starting next Wednesday,
we have the former MPX champion,
Tatum Manning.
He's going to be stopping by.
We'll talk to him, promote the event.
He's just coming back to
Metroplex Wrestling,
so we'll catch up with him,
see what he's been doing,
and promote this event.
But
Um, shout out to everybody over at MPX,
man.
They're, they're just,
their fan base is awesome.
Uh,
they're really loyal to their fan base.
Uh, when those guys go out, uh,
AW came and, uh,
a bunch of those guys were on
ring of honor and uh
collision and the mpx
faithful came out supported
heavy so it's one of the
best fan bases here in
north texas um so show
those guys some love when
they come through get to
know some of these guys
because they've already
been doing big things on on
another level I expect a
lot of these guys to be
seen on another level
because they are just
They are awesome, man.
They really are.
They are the superstars of tomorrow.
And No Gimmicks Podcast, DFPN, we are very,
very friendly to the indie.
So,
if there's any independent organization
out there that wants to do
business with No Gimmicks,
we are always open.
Always.
Also, this Saturday, February 10th,
Mission Pro Wrestling.
They're gonna be doing their
Sleepless in San Antonio event.
I was gonna try to go down
there and check that show out.
Won't be able to.
I will be here for the MPX event.
MPX is doing an event here, so...
uh I'll be supporting that
but we are sponsoring that
mission pro wrestling show
so make sure you guys uh
catch that on
titlematch.com if you're
unable to go there's still
tickets remaining so go to
missionprowrestling.com and
get your tickets for that
if you're in the san
antonio area it's right by
lackland air force base so
Go check those girls out, the ladies.
They always have a great
show with a lot of those guys.
Wren Sinclair,
who was a former tag
champion over at Mission Pro.
She's in WWE now.
And she also did work with
Doll Pound Championship
Wrestling in San Antonio as well.
And that's headed up by
Rodney Mack and Jazz.
They are the trainers for Doll Pound.
So just, you know,
it's just basically what I'm saying.
Just go out there and support Doll Pound.
He says, once again,
these are the superstars of tomorrow.
These are the superstars
you're going to see in WWE
that you're going to see in TNA.
You're going to see AEW and
so forth and so on.
But, yeah, man, I mean,
it's popular right now,
and we are definitely on
the road to WrestleMania.
We're going to be checking
out the Elimination Chamber
that's coming up.
We got Singh's last match at Revolution.
So much.
There's so much stuff going on.
Then we have, once again,
we got our stuff going on here.
No gimmicks.
We got the Rogue Scoundrels
podcast coming up, like I said before.
We're going to do a deep dive here, people,
into Star Wars lore.
That's what we're doing here.
It's going to be off the chain.
Trust me.
You're going to want to
listen to the Rogue Scoundrels.
We pop it here on the DFPN.
And once again,
if you'd like to join us on Patreon,
he mentioned earlier we have a free tier.
But if you want to be down with the boys,
$3 will get you everything
from the Dad Filming Podcast catalog.
You've got the No Gimmicks Podcast.
You're going to have Make It Make Sense,
the Smoke Pit.
the Queen is a third of the USC.
And you're going to have the
rogue scoundrels podcast shortly.
All basically before anybody else.
So check us out.
Come check us out.
Support your boys.
Other than that.
Oh, put up that message there.
What's that?
Oh.
Shout out to Total Atom.
Total Atom, he's up on the East Coast.
I am going to be going there.
I'll be there for WrestleMania.
Total Atom, we got to meet up, man.
We definitely got to meet up.
But shout out to him.
Cool.
Appreciate the support.
Everybody that's joined us
tonight listening to No Gimmicks,
you know, outside of Patreon,
so I think we're going to
wrap it up and say, basically,
in order to help control
the pet population here, don't forget,
people,
have your pet spayed or neutered
because if you don't,
I'll force choke you.
Oh, yeah.
And also, remember, always remember
The dark side will be with you always.
May the force be with you, people.
Oh, fuck you.
Don't listen to this guy.
There is no dark side.
There's just the force.
Oh, bullshit.
You see Yoda behind me.
You're going to hit me with
that lightsaber.
There's only the force.
But thank you guys for tuning in.
We'll debate that on Rose Councils.
Okay, we can.
I'm going to win this debate.
Oh, bullshit.
I will.
All right, guys.
For us over on the No
Gimmicks podcast for
everybody over at DFPN.
Thank you guys for tuning in.
You guys have a wonderful time.
And until then,
enjoy what the fuck you want to enjoy.
Peace.
And I know it's all business, all business,
all business.
We give them no gimmicks.
Yeah.
And I know it's all business, all business,
all business.
We give them no gimmicks.
Yeah.
And I know it's all business, all business,
all business.
We give them no gimmicks.
Gimmicks.