Hulk Hogan vs. Vince McMahon (WWE - 3/30/2003)

Now this is my style. There's some matches that I can watch and acknowledge their technical greatness in an analytical sort of way, and then there's other that draw me in in a visceral from the opening bell. Considering my face muscles were sore from how much I was smiling while watching this, I'd say this falls in that latter camp. Stylistically, it's pretty much the closest thing you'll see to an old man bum fight on WWE's stage, made surreal by the fact that it's WWE's founder it's biggest star having such a match. They brawl, bleed all over the place, and kill each other with nasty chair shots all the while moving at 3/4's speed and bumping in the most gingerly way possible. I'm cheap, so I could only find the Spanish language version online in decent quality, but I think I might have actually preferred it to the English language version from how the guy goes crazy when his colleague gets nailed by a wild Hogan chairshot and how he calls the rest of the match in a tone of exasperated disbelief. People who dig Black Terry's brawls really ought to check this one out with fresh eyes as it hits all the same chords of watching old men doing things they really shouldn't be doing but from which one can't look away.

Through all this, there's actually a pretty compelling story underlying it that's set up by the fantastic video package addressing the question of who ultimately created Hulkamania. To McMahon, Hogan was just a random guy slotted into the top spot of the promotion that he built with his hands alone. He sets out to not only beat Hogan but to do through stealing all of Hogan's trademarks to really drive his point home. I thought McMahon put on a heel performance for the ages here. First, we get him working Hogan's arm a bit just so he can try (and fail) to beat him in a test of strength. Later, he hits that leg drop from the top rope that he plays perfectly with how he half-assedly cups his ear Hogan-style being doing it. Then he really starts selling his disbelief. That shot of him pulling the steel pipe out from under the ring legendary. I also have to mention him going crazy on the ref with him botching the toss out and of the ring and getting even angier just adding to the old man spectacle. I don't mean to cut Hogan short, though, as his presence added a lot to the match and he did exactly what you would want him to do.

Structure-wise this is basically a Hogan formula with the heel dominating most of the match and being responsible for much of the match's entertainment value until Hogan wins with a leg drop. If there were ever a match that should follow such a formula, though, it would be this one. I mentioned before the story about McMahon wanting to show Hogan as just another guy, and that leads to an incredible irony. We see all kinds of crazy things in the name of McMahon overcoming Hogan like the aforementioned leg drop off a ladder, an awesome Piper run-in, and some crooked shenanigans. After all that, though, it ends just like any other Hogan match with him pointing the finger, hitting the leg drop, and then posing. After McMahon tried so hard to show that Hogan was ultimately just another face, Hogan proved that McMahon was just another heel. ****1/2