Forgotten Favorites 05.28.09: SmackDown 2002 - Hulk Hogan vs. Chris Jericho

Posted by Jim Grimm on 05.28.2009

Hulkamania was running wild in 2002 during the Undisputed Championship reign of the Hulkster. Check out this televised title match against the very first Undisputed Champion!

Welcome back, wrestling fans. After a week off, I have returned to continue the dropping of the knowledge. I hope I wasn't missed too badly.

If you have no idea what you're doing here, allow me to enlighten you:

The evil master of wrestling history, who rules from his titanic towers of evil, takes great joy in robbing his followers of cherished memories. He has even gone so far as to wave his billion-dollar wand on more than one occasion in an attempt to completely erase particular pockets of time. Well, we, the people, have refused to stand for such injustices, and as a result, I have been called upon to right the wrongs of time.

And since I hate the wasting of the time, let's not, uh, waste any time.

Do you like great wrestling? Me too! Please continue for more!


SmackDown - May 2, 2002
Undisputed Heavyweight Championship
Hulk Hogan vs. Chris Jericho

HOW IT WENT DOWN

2002 marked many triumphant returns to WWE, but no impact was greater than the one made by the legendary Hulk Hogan. Reappearing on WWE television along with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, the heelishly-booked Hulkster received incredible babyface reactions from audiences. Hogan wrestled one PPV match in WWE under the banner of the nWo, that beng his WrestleMania loss to The Rock, before reverting back to the red and yellow of old.

It was the night after WrestleMania that The Rock called Hogan out. Forcing him to face the admiration of the crowd, and the fact that no one wanted to see their beloved Hulkster acting like a douchebag, Rock made Hogan see that underneath it all he still bled yed and yellow. Later that night, the WrestleMania opponents were teammates in the main event, tagging against Nash and Hall of the nWo.

Also that night, newly crowned Undisputed Champion Triple H came to the ring to remind everyone of his WrestleMania victory over Chris Jericho. This led to the not-so-pleasant appearance of one Stephanie McMahon, Jericho's manager at the time. When Stephanie demanded Jericho be given his title rematch, HHH accepted under a couple of conditions. First, it was to be a Triple Threat title match, featuring HHH, Jericho, and Stephanie. And even better, if Stephanie was pinned, she was banished from WWE.

The following week on Raw it was the long-awaited draft night, where the SmackDown and Raw rosters were to be exclusively split for the first time. In the main event, HHH successfully defended his Undisputed Title by pinning Stephanie McMahon, effectively excommunicating the Billion Dollar Princess (for a little while, at least). Earler in the evening, Hulk Hogan continued his war against his former friends, tagging with The Rock once more to take on Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and the returning X-Pac.

On the April 1st edition of Raw, Triple H was presented with the brand new Undisputed Championship belt. But this dude named Undertaker took exception to the whole thing, storming out and demanding his shot at the title, citing his prior victories over the H's. It seemed that Taker was next in line for a title shot ... until three days later on SmackDown. Although Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle also came out demanding title shots, it was Hulk Hogan that Vince McMahon named as the number one contender for Backlash.

The following week on SmackDown, the Hulkster addressed the crowd regarding his Backlash title shot. He was all about giving HHH his due, at least until Chris Jericho stepped in to remind him who the real Living Legend was on SmackDown. Later that night, Kurt Angle took on Triple H in the main event, a match that would lead to a whole mess of interference both during and afterwards. By SmackDown's end, a heelishly heel tandem of Angle and Jericho stood over the fallen Hulkster and HHH.

As you might expect, the next week on SmackDown we got Angle and Jericho vs. Hogan and HHH, continuing the tension between the Backlash championship opponents while keeping Angle and Jericho mixed in there with the main event crowd. The following Sunday was Backlash, where Hogan did the unthinkable and pinned HHH to capture the Undisputed Heavyweight Championship.

With a new champion there must come a new number one contender. The April 25th edition of SmackDown was all about solving that riddle, as Chris Jericho and HHH stepped into the ring to determine the number one contender. After some interference from the Undertaker, Jericho was able to roll HHH up for the victory and earn himself a title shot.

There was no time to be wasted, as Jericho was moving right in on his title shot. One week after beating HHH, Jericho was scheduled to challenge Hogan for the title. However, before the match, Jericho had a few loose ends to tie up with HHH.



With the threat of career suicide looming, would HHH play by the rules and stay out of the title match? Could Jericho overcome the power of Hulkamania and reclaim the Undisputed Title? Check it out.





WHY IT SHOULD BE REMEMBERED

So there's this guy in red and yellow who carries an entire industry on his back for years, giving his peers an unprecedented opportunity to cross over into mainstream media. He loses his step for a couple years in other media ventures but eventually returns home to once again help revolutionize and re-mainstream his business. There's this guy named Hulk Hogan and for some reason, despite having accomplished all these things, a large portion of devout fans of his profession enjoys taking a dump on his name.

Well, I won't stand for it, kids. Not anymore. Hogan takes a lot of heat from fans regarding his behavior, all the way from critiques of his most recent (supposed) booking terms to grudges held from days of WCW past. A common complaint about Hogan is that the dude is only out to cash a check and promote himself, but there is zero validity in this complaint. Everyone is out to cash a check and promote himself, wrestlers and non-suplexing citizens alike. There's no reason why Hogan should be judged any differently from any other dude who's just trying to earn a living. Of course the flip side to the "out-for-himself" debate is the claim that Hogan doesn't care about the business or its continued success in its absence. To this I say, horse shit.

Hulk's SmackDown match with Chris Jericho is one of my many weapons aimed at the Hogan Haters. Working as the Undisputed Champion during his back comeback tour, in addition to being a damned icon, Hogan had a hell of a lot of control over the course of his career. If he called Vince McMahon aside and said he was only working one TV match a month, it would've happened. If he said he changed his mind and was strictly working PPVs, then good goddamn, that's what was going to happen. But instead Hogan did work TV matches during that time period, and a surprising number of them as well. In the case of this SmackDown match, the Hulkster could've easily told Vince that an Undisputed Title match involving Hulk Hogan was simply too big for television, and that would've been that. But Hogan did work the match, and he !GASP! seemed to care!

This SmackDown match could've easily been the textbook Hogan vs. Heel title match that we've seen over and over. And yet it wasn't. Of course, Hogan does get to Hulk Up, hit some signature spots, and display dominance, but Jericho gets in a significant amount of offense, which Hogan actually sells to the best of his old-ass abilities. When I first watched this, I wasn't expecting a Walls of Jericho spot at all (figuring Hogan's elderly qualities made him incapable of taking it), let alone the amount of time Hogan actually did spend in the hold. Jericho even has Hogan seemingly beaten with the move, and it's only the supposed imminent interference of the Undertaker that breaks the hold. And even then, Hogan wins with a SCHOOLBOY. And that sentence has nothing to do with its vaguely pedophillic undertones, but everything to do with Hogan not winning with the Legdrop. Instead of defeating the heel with the trademark Hulkster Big Boot/Legdrop combo, Hogan, hurting from the recent Walls of Jericho, is barely able to earn the victory by rolling Y2J up from behind. If you're wondering why you're feeling confused right now, it's because you just read a logically achieved victory for Hulk Hogan that put both men over. Pretty wild stuff.

When Hulk Hogan came back to WWE alongside Kevin Nash and Scott Hall in 2002, he likely had no idea how long he was going to last with the company. He could've reasonably believed that his WrestleMania match with The Rock was going to be the Hulkster's last round. In such a scenario, if following the popular anti-Hogan sentiments, you'd think that the "power-hungry" Hogan would insist on one more babyface triumph over one of the company's top heels. Instead a heel Hollywood Hogan spent three seconds on his back for the biggest babyface in the E at the time. He may have gone over Triple H at Backlash for the Undisputed Title, but Hogan lost three more times on PPV that year, a ridiculous number compared to other years of his career. He dropped the belt to Taker at Judgment Day, tapped out to Kurt Angle at King of the Ring, and put over Christian and Lance fucking Storm at Vengeance. If Hogan wasn't giving back to the business in '02, I don't know what the hell was going on.



From Brock to Edge to Angle, Hogan worked with several younger stars during his comeback

Not only does this match stand up against anti-Hogan complaints, but it's also a reasonable defense against any criticisms of the booking of Chris Jericho around this time. Despite having wrestled in the last match at WrestleMania, competing for the Undisputed Title, Jericho went without a fight at Backlash the following month. However, even though he wasn't featured on the Backlash card, Jericho remained a significant part of WWE's broadcasts, remaining one of their most over heels. And even though his title match with Hogan wasn't featured on a PPV, it was still a championship match against Hulk fucking Hogan. Holding onto the title for only a month meant that a televised title match had to be thrown in there somewhere to milk the nostalgic reign for all it was worth. When it came time to find a suitable foe for Hogan, the E went to Jericho. And in the execution of the match, as I said, Jericho got a serious amount of offense in, looking like a legitimate threat to Hulkamania. And I can't say enough about the schoolboy finish. Of all the times you'd expect a deviation from the Legdrop finish, free TV is not one of those places.


WHY IT ISN'T REMEMBERED

Hogan's reign as Undisputed Champion only lasted a month, and there are only a few standout moments for most fans. One is the Backlash victory over Triple H, where the unthinkable title win actually happened. Another is when Taker dragged Hogan around with his motorcycle backstage, and Hogan looked like the silliest of all bastards.

Another one is this:


Nastiness. Straight up nastiness.

Hogan's reign only lasted a month, and during that time he was feuding with ... a lot of people. There was HHH that he had defeated for the belt. There was the looming Undertaker who was demanding a title match. There was that pesky Kurt Angle who couldn't seem to stay out of everyone else's business. And then there was Vince McMahon always breathing down the Hulkster's neck. With all that going on, you can imagine that Hogan's short-lived rivalry with Chris Jericho is easily passed over.

Taking a look at the career DVDs that the E has released for Hogan, it seems that Vinny Mac himself may have forgotten that this match took place. The Hulk Still Rules DVD features nothing of his 2002 return, and the Ultimate Anthology DVD looks only at his Backlash match and his Tag Title victory over Billy and Chuck. Without a Jericho DVD release either, we haven't been given much opportunity to check this one out.

WILL IT BE REMEMBERED?

I'm still holding out hope for a Best of SmackDown DVD set since we're coming up on the ten year anniversary of its debut as a weekly broadcast. So maybe, just maybe, we can check out Hogan vs. Jericho on DVD. If we get a Jericho DVD sometime soon, I wouldn't be surprised to see this make it on there, considering it hasn't been released yet and a title match against Hulk Hogan is definitely a highlight of anyone's career. Aside from a SmackDown DVD or a Jericho retrospective, we might not be seeing this on DVD for a while. Therefore: YouTube rules.

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That'll do it for this week. I'll actually do feedback next week. And I kind of mean it. Until then, keep the suggestions coming. And try to stay safe and out of jail.