Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair

[6.0] "It could have been so much better but it's full of the typical hogan elements - one sided, heel interference, no selling and hulk ups - it's not my favourite formula. It's decent but doesn't hit the level it should imo. A 6 from me might even be kind."

[6.0] "Crazy to see some actual wrestling from Hogan in this, he's pulling armbars and shit. Still, a lot of this is punches and chops and the like that leads to no-selling from Hogan. There's a ref bump and flair finally gets the figure four on. After a lot of shenanigans from Sherri Martel and a couple more hulk ups, Hogan hits his finish. This went about as well as anyone could have expected and it honestly kept my attention throughout. Audience was very invested in it and they pop big for the finish. I can't abide the constant no selling though so I can't give this more than a 6."

[9.0] "A big WCW main event & world title match. Big match feel, strong announcement & presentation, standard structure, minimalist wrestling, clear face vs. heel dynamic, effective crowd, "the biggest match of all-time" hype - Hogan vs. Flair meet on PPV for the first time and it feels huge. ****"

[8.0] "I never would have guessed that Hogan would try a figure four in my life but here we are, I guess that's what happen when you are paired with one of the greatest to ever do it: Ric Flair. Now, Flair carries the match HARD with his skills and storytelling. He is the better seller, the better hitter and achieves the not so easy task to get a good match out of Hogan in the 90s. I don't like the choice of putting the belt on Hogan directly for his first match for the WCW (even though business wise it was the right thing to do) because I couldn't care less about his character at this point, he's been the baby face for + than 10 years..."

[7.0] "This is about as good a match as you can possibly get out of Hogan, especially being past his prime. The only Hogan match I've scored better than this is the 1983 Inoki match. Flair worked hard here and the big fight feel helped a lot."

[10.0] "It's not an objective masterpiece or something that most of my five stars are like but this is a wrestling main event personified. The big fight feel the hot crowd the world title on the line between the two biggest stars in the company. In my eyes its a fiver"

[8.0] "The dream match finally gets treated as such, and needless to say, this made for a legit blockbuster of a match! Proper build-up, big stage, high stakes, world title on the line; a golden opportunity WWE somehow never took advantage of. This has such a big match feel, and Hogan is so damn over! He had the crowd buzzing for everything he did, and he did great here. His selling is good, his no selling is awesome and Flair helps making him look like a world beater with his excellent selling. The match itself is alright, there's some hot sequences, lots of drama, but the electric atmosphere and Hogan dethroning Flair in his WCW debut make for such a memorable moment in time. ****"

[8.0] "Easily one of the best matches of Hogan's career - Flair's fantastic work helped him in that of course, but it was just a good opening chapter for his career in WCW."

[8.0] "The big title fight that should've happened in the WWF two and a half years earlier finally occurs in WCW, with a (temporarily) post-steroid Hogan looking less muscular and more maneuverable, which helped the quality of the match. More action-packed than most Hogan outings before or after, the only time this dragged was an extended sleeper from Flair to Hogan that was clearly the proverbial rest hold. A surprisingly spry Hogan, slightly past his prime yet still solid Flair, and the always fantastic Sherri came together to give Hogan one of the best matches of his career. Too bad that from a workrate perspective it was all downhill from here for Hogan."

[8.0] "If you watch enough of Hogan's matches, it's not difficult to understand why he would fight to stay at the top. I'm not necessarily condoning it, but listen and watch the crowds. They LOVE everything he's doing. Whether it was red and yellow or Hollywood black and white, the fans were in to whatever Hogan was doing. Here we have Flair doing a lot of heavy lifting but it's a good back and forth match. It was some of the usual trappings of American wrestling like ref bumps and Sherri getting involved, but it didn't take anything away from the match."

[9.0] "I just watched this match for the first time, and was shocked by how great it was. This may be the most "modern" Hogan match there is. Both men maintain high energy for the entire duration, and Hogan works the more technical style he uses in Japan. There are a slew of great false finishes, as well as a host of hijinks (interference, ref bumps, finisher stealing, etc.) that would later come to characterize main event wrestling, but occurred more rarely in 1994. All were executed well and added to the excitement. Despite both Hogan and Flair being guys with predictable routines, they subverted their usual patterns and found creative ways to insert their trademark spots. And it goes without saying that the star power was off the charts, and the crowd was super hot. All in all, an excellent match."

[7.0] "Decided to give one of my favorite hogan matches a watch today for obvious reasons. In my opinion of of the best worked matches of hogans career. Incredible match. 3.50 stars"

[8.0] "Great main event that accomplishes exactly what it set out to do. Both Flair and Hogan here are playing their greatest hits, and it works so well because that's exactly what everyone wanted. This, at this time, was maybe the most anticipated wrestling match in the world, and what everyone wanted to see was Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair do what they're famous for, but in the ring together, and I felt that was done tremendously here. Hogan is the most white meat babyface version of himself at this point, while Flair is at his most over dramatic as a heel, and for me that clash of personality is just perfect. Despite the lack of anything special happening in the ring, the action is paced phenomenally, and the back and forth story of Hogan overcoming and outmatching this cheating snake is expertly told. There's tons of chops, punches, suplexes, No-Sells, eye-pokes, and basically nothing that you wouldn't expect to be here, but that's okay, the only thing this match needed was exactly what it was given."

[10.0] "I feel like this has all you can ask for in a big main event match.Two of the biggest stars ever battling it out in front of an absolutely red hot crowd with the World Heavyweight Championship on the line. Whatever they did in the ring would always take a backseat but these two men put on a gripping match regardless. This is peak wrestling."

[8.0] "They did everything they could to give this match the big fight feeling and they did a fantastic job with it. From start to finish you felt like two biggest superstars went against each other and you just had to see it. The work there is fine, they don't do anything wrong, but it's not about wrestling moves. Just listen to the crowd that goes absolutely crazy for the whole length of the bout, which is something that you don't experience often. Hogan was a master at working the audience, but also Ric knew his position in this contest and he put his pride aside to make Hogan the star here. A fantastic spectacle, even though I'm sure I'll get tired of Hulk in the next few months."

[7.0] "A very solid match that absolutely had a big fight feel from start to finish. There was no denying The Hulkster here and Flair played the heel perfectly. They truly made this feel like a historic event and the crowd was on fire for it. Solid 3.5 stars."

[8.0] "The missed opportunity at a Wrestlemania main event finally happened and it did not disappoint. They did everything to make this match big time, and the crowd was going crazy. The wrestling in the match was your typical face/heel wrestling with Hogan dominating and Flair cheating to get the upper hand. Hogan hulked up and dropped the big leg to win."

[9.0] "The dream match that everyone wanted in the '80s is finally realized a few years after Vince McMahon fucked it up with his overinflated ego and fascination with steroid users (Sid). This should have happened at Wrestlemania 8 but didn't because the Hogan/Flair pairing didn't sell out Madison Square Garden or something. So they didn't do it on television despite hyping it up for weeks. But WCW ended up doing it a million times and this is the first and may be the best outside of the cage match at Halloween Havoc. This was a dream match that lived up to the hype."

[7.0] "This match just feels like a big time with Michael Buffer doing his thing, and also they have Shaq and MR T at ringside! Flair was great in this and delivered a typical performance that you'd expect from him working on Hogan's leg, using dirty tactics and Sherri getting involved a ton. Hulk wasn't bad in this match, but I felt like he did so many no-selling spots during this match and it reached a point where it just felt excessive to me. The overbooking works a ton here to get Hogan over when he won the title.***1/2"

[8.0] "This match is surprisingly very very good. Flair's selling was absolutely awesome, and they played the perfect classic Heel/Face roles to a tee. The crowd also goes absolutely wild for every bump. Even with all the sideshow stuff that may have been too much for some, it makes the match feels as big as it should be. Very fun"

[7.0] "This was one heck of a first night for Hogan in WCW, as the crowd were JAZZED to see him and Flair did everything in his power to make Hogan look like a conquering hero. This gave the live crowd exactly what they wanted and sent them home happy"

[7.0] "Good main event. Flair was great as the cheating heel and Hogan was great with his comebacks. Good stuff."

[7.0] "This somehow lives up to the insane expectations that WCW was building for this. They go all out with the presentation, by bringing in Michael Buffer for his over-the-top announcements and having Shaquille O'Neal and Mr. T ringside to really put over that this is a big-time match. Hogan actually has his working boots on, busting out a drop toehold and that float-over arm wrench that he brings out when he wants to prove that he can wrestle when he wants to. This eventually transitions to a more traditional Hogan match, with Flair stooging for WCW's biggest signing. Flair does his usual heel shtick and Sherri was great when she got involved. Sherri dives off the top rope onto Hogan but falls flat on her face when she tries that move again. Mr. T soon puts an end to Sherri's interference by carrying her out of the arena. Hogan no-sells at just the right times, sending the tame crowd into a frenzy. Even the smark fans were cheering for Hogan at the end, myself included! This might be lacking the workrate of your usual Flair big matches, but they go together surprisingly well."

[8.0] "Hogan who now was the lead face against Ric Flair. The torch would now be placed in Hogan's hands. For better or worse. The match had it good points, and the crowd was mostly involved in the match. The crowd was clearly on Hogan's side. It was one of Hogan's better matches in WCW."

[7.0] "A black cloud moved over WCW this night. As the old school NWAWCW fans watched their champion Ric Flair go down in defeat against disowned WWF champion Hulk Hogan. This match did garner a lot of interest back in the day when Hogan first arrived, but things soured pretty fast once Hogan started getting his hands on the booking and making a main event match against his buddy Brutus Beefcake and helping create the Dungeon Of Jobbers for him to beat on. Flair worked a great match and Hogan shows when he tries he can put on a good match. Hogan wouldn't get lazy until a few months later when everything just started looking like glorifed squash comedy matches. Then he got REALLYl lazy during the NWO years, wrestling 3-7 minute matches if that and those matches ending in no contests or DQ's. Heck! Hogan barely defended the world title after winning it from The Giant at Hog Wild 96."

[9.0] "Time has been very kind to this match. Flair bumped around like crazy for Hogan, the overbooking worked really well, and Hogan looked like he was having the time of his life in there against Flair. I DEFINITELY could have done with out Hogan punching Sherri in the face, but other than that this match was bonkers good. And underrated banger. ****1/4"

[5.0] "The novelty is the driving force in this match and everything else is secondary. I'm not sure anyone can expect any interesting wrestling from Hogan anyway, especially in 1994."

[9.0] "Call me crazy but this was pretty damn great. Flair vs Hogan in 94 sounds like a bad match but this turned out to be a very good, exciting match. Flair doing a Flair, cheating and working over Hogan? s leg, using anything he can to get a win. Hogan making some awesome comebacks and Sherri on the outside - she was the best part of the match which is saying a lot. Gah, love it. ****Œ"

[9.0] "I haven't watched this match in years & I'm pleasantly surprised at how good this actually is-definitely Hogan's best match in his entire WCW career, as others have mentioned, he really gives it his all in this one. I also agree with others that have stated this is Flair's last overall classic when you really think bout it. What more could you really want from these two in a singles match opposed to each other? When Hogan gets the final three~count on Flair, you almost feel a strange bit of sadness come over you, because from this point forward WCW would never be the same and Hogan would pretty much begin WCW's slow process to complete destruction; also because you could say this was the last match in the still "Great" chapter of Flair's career, from this point forward he'd pretty much be a mid-carder & sadly enough at times a joke. Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan Bash at the Beach 1994, last great match from the "classics" in each their respective ways. **** match in my book."

[8.0] "**** Hogan's best match BY FAR of his WCW tenure, and one of Flair's last true classics. Solid match, even with the interferences. The only real issue with it is the fact that it happened WAY too early in Hogan's WCW run."

[7.0] "In my opinion this is the best match these two had in WCW. In this one match Flair showed how he is a performer of unparalleled work ethic. Crowd was red hot, Hogan was the perfect babyface & Jimmy Hart & Sensational Sherri played their roles to a Tee as well. I do highly recommend if you have the chance to look up their match from Madison Square Garden in 1991. That match is just as good and entertaining."

[9.0] "The crowd was red hot for this battle between two of the biggest stars in wrestling history - and the match was great. Flair made Hogan look like million bucks with his selling, and I loved the simple heel vs. face dynamic between the two. Hogan timed his no sell comebacks well, and as I mentioned, Flair's selling was outstanding. ****"

[9.0] "Very, very good. Two of the finest ever to step into the ring. They did it all. They were at their peak. The only reason it is not a 10, was because it came after their classic MSG encounter, when Hogan reversed the figure four on Flair. One of the best moments in wrestling ever, and they say he can't mat wrestle!"

[4.0] "Not a big fan of this one. On the one hand both guys played the roles that were expected at the time, but it's really discouraging to see Hogan roll over Flair with his cartoonish mannerisms, his constant no selling, his unsufferable finger wagging, the whole deal... it gets a good pop but honestly I don't find it too enjoyable. Not really bad or anything, just not that great. I do want to shout out Sherri Martel, who did a fabulous job managing and getting even more heat on the match with all her antics."

[7.0] "Back to the end of the '80s with a match that surpasses time. It's straight in the gimmick era, with a clear distinction between the top face Hulk Hogan and the cheater heel Ric Flair. Enjoyable, without great moves, but with the right psychology, and a good work by the manager Sherri. The conclusion of the match is strong, with the unavoidable Atomic Leg Drop. ***1/4"

[9.0] "Exactly what you would expect when you see the names of the biggest stars of the 80's, a true classic."