Hulk Hogan vs The Undertaker (WWF, 11-27-1991)

WWF Survivor Series, Detroit, MI

This match is for Hogan’s WWF title. Undertaker is undefeated and this match was chiefly set up, as the video package before reminds us, by a Funeral Parlor segment where Ric Flair confronted Hogan with The Real World Title, and then Undertaker attacked Hogan until Randy Savage and Roddy Piper saved him with chairs. This is THE GRAVEST CHALLENGE.

Taker out first, lots of shots of kids being scared of him or whatever. Lots of shots of kids, at any rate. Hogan comes out and fucks up the casket that’s sitting ringside. Hogan has folks going nuts and he’s pointing at Undertaker, who is emotionless. He has yet to start talking with a Texas accent or wrestling like a normal wrestler again.

Bell sounds, Hogan circles, Undertaker just follows him, standing in the center of the ring, turning, turning, turning. They lock up, Undertaker shoves Hogan halfway across the ring into the corner, but misses an elbow charge. It has no effect, though.

Hogan tries to figure a new approach, circling some more. They lock up, Hogan to a side headlock, he’s a technician. Hogan off the ropes, ducks a clothesline, but runs into a shoulderblock from Taker and bails to the floor before Undertaker can take advantage.

Hogan looks around, puzzled, a bit nervous. He’s doing his “aren’t I so pitiful against this monster?” selling that he excelled at for years. It worked for a long time, too. And he made a lot of money, obviously. Yay for him.

Back in, Undertaker gets a chokehold on in the corner. Referee distracted by Paul Bearer so it goes past a count of five would have allowed. Taker claws at the face of Hogan in the corner, pulling back from behind. Throat thrust from Undertaker, he’d stopped throwing normal punches by this point. In fact it’s weird to watch his debut at Survivor Series ’90 where he does throw normal punches in this gimmick.

More face clawing, then some choking from Paul Bearer. Gorilla calls Bearer a piece of garbage. Throat thrust. Scoop and a slam from Undertaker in the center of the ring. Taker backs to the corner, comes out, but misses an elbow drop. Hogan springs up to life — right, right, right, off the ropes, big lariat, but Taker stays up. Hogan goes for a slam, which in theory should be easy for Hogan after years of slamming Andre, Earthquake, Bundy, etc., but instead of making it a weight thing, they make it that Undertaker’s body just doesn’t go up right for it, too stiff, and Taker gets out.

But Hogan stays on the advantage, still unable to actually hurt Taker, more keeping him a bit dazed with the assault. Right hands, clothesline sends Taker over the top, but he lands on his feet, which Gorilla calls “lucky” instead of something Taker just does every time.

On the floor, Undertaker grabs the advantage again, slamming Hogan’s head off the steel steps, and then uses the microphone cord to choke Hogan, Bearer again distracting Earl Hebner. Hogan feebly rolls back in, and Taker climbs the steps to re-enter the ring behind him.

Hogan down, Taker with a shot to the throat. Now choking again. He’s clearly not breaking in time, so Hebner just re-starts the count. And then Bearer chokes again from outside, Taker intimidating Hebner to distract him.

Taker chokes Hogan over the middle rope. Again, Taker isn’t breaking, so Hebner just starts counting again at three. “One, two, three, aw c’moooonnnn, man, one, two–” etc. FACELOCK from Undertaker, the same one from his great great Coliseum Video match with Ultimate Warrior. Hogan goes down for a couple two counts in the FACELOCK.

We stay in the dumb FACELOCK for what feels like forever, until Hogan’s arm drops twice but not thrice, and then he’s back in action, breaking the hold with shots to the breadbasket. Hogan off the ropes, tries a shoulderblock, tries one again, but Taker bounces back off the ropes and hits a flying clothesline.

Taker lifts Hogan for the tombstone, and hits it! Hogan no-sells it, and he’s HULKING UP. Right hand, right hand, right hand, off the ropes, right hand, Taker stays up. Right hand, right hand, Taker still up. Down to a knee! But he’s quickly back up. Hogan rakes the eyes, the cheap fuck.

Hey, here comes Ric Flair, in full robe and all. Hogan slams Undertaker. Hogan distracted by Bearer again. Flair is trying to take Hogan’s belt, and Hogan punches Flair in the head. Back in, Taker off the ropes, big boot! Bearer trips Hogan on the legdrop attempt, but Hogan has Bearer, only to turn around into the grip of Taker, who hits a tombstone … somewhere near a steel chair that Flair slid into the ring.

1, 2, 3, new WWF champion. Hogan greatly sells the damage to his neck. More on that in a moment.

Rating: 2/5. I like the match OK. It’s not very good in a technical sense, but works with the characters, even though Hulkamania was kinda running on fumes by this point. I remember being nine years old, hearing about the result of this match, and being absolutely stunned that Undertaker had beaten Hulk Hogan to win the WWF title. I was young, but I was familiar with the Hogan script, and Taker seemed like just another big monster challenger that the Hulkster would vanquish. I’d seen it with Bundy and Earthquake and Big Boss Man and Kamala and Andre and whomever the fuck else.

My favorite thing about this match today is that Hogan, in typical Hogan fashion, lied to Undertaker and accused Taker of botching the tombstone, causing permanent damage, and Taker just believed him for years until he finally saw tape of the match and realized, as is quite obvious, that Hogan’s head came nowhere near the mat, let alone the chair. If anything, Undertaker was TOO cautious with Hogan. Hogan is a genuine piece of shit person in SO many ways, and that’s just one of them, and compared to others (like the fact he’s an admitted racist), it’s a relatively small one. He lies just to lie, no matter how easy it is to prove he’s a liar.

Hogan would regain the title six days later at the shitty This Tuesday in Texas PPV, then the belt was declared vacant after all the controversy, and Ric Flair won it at the 1992 Royal Rumble, which ruled in most ways, other than the fact that the WWF was too chickenshit to just have Flair beat Hogan for the belt.