André the Giant–Hulk Hogan rivalry

answer? Is this the oldest match we've ever covered? I don't think so.

I thought we had an Andre Hogan match.

Dude! Man, I'm really

impressed with you.

with their huge feud and Savage using the ring bell on Steamboat's throat.

And then that being just between Piper Adonis and Steamboat Savage at WrestleMania III and Hogan Andre, those three matches were just, to me, the best three matches you could have ever had as far as an event.

And so WrestleMania III will always stand up there for me as far as being the biggest event of all time.

the most important to wrestling history in my mind at least or at least in my fandom and then the last one is uh savage even as a heel as intercontinental champion i just loved watching him and when i went

The Honky Tonk Man and Macho Man Randy Savage has just gone through a feud for basically all of the back half of 87, I guess, right? After WrestleMania, kind of the summer, into the back half.

So we're starting in now, there's the main event, the infamous two referees Hogan-Andre match.

And on the undercard of that was supposed to be Hulk Hogan and the Honky Tonk Man.

The Honky Tonk Man refused to do the J-O-B.

But this was a huge event.

because this is where the Piper's Pit took place that kicked off the Hogan-Andre program for WrestleMania III.

And not only did it have that start of the program where Tunney gives out two trophies, one to Andre and one to Hogan, and Hogan's was bigger, and Andre ends up just kind of sauntering off, later on in the night, There was another Piper's Pit where Ventura stokes the flames and says that he'll have Andre on Piper's Pit if Piper can produce Hogan.

So this was a huge show.

I remember I was with...

No, I wasn't quite with the magazines at that point, but people forget that the next program after Hogan Andre was Hogan Harley Race.

Yes.

And they went around the horn with at least, uh, I'd say two match series at the major arenas with Harley Race and Hulk Hogan.

Let me throw, let me throw King Kong Bundy.

Let me throw André the Giant." Now, every once in a while, those feuds would become very personal between the wrestler and, and Hogan, like André Hogan.

But at the end of the day, it was Bobby "The Brain" Heenan whispering things in André's ears to get him to go after Hogan.

So I came up with a list of the next challenger for Oba Femi.

I wanna take some of that into my match"? Is there one or two that c- like, come to mind?

Every time you see me wrestle, you will see in one way or another Hogan/Andre-

Okay

...

I love the first five minute...

Everything that you just said I agree with, by the way, and I can see how the Hogan-Andre thing comes into play, the face-to-face and the talking trash, absolutely.

But from a physicality point of view, in the first five minutes of the match, what did we see? We saw two shoulder tackles.

We saw a hip toss, we saw a blocked hip toss, and we saw a clothesline.

The crowd is like nuts.

And that's the biggest kind of financial swoon, if you will, for WWE, even more than Hogan Andre.

Hogan Savage made the most money for WWE.

So I'd go those five.

yes, yes, definitely, definitely.

I love that you threw out there the mega powers.

I mean, that to me, that obviously Hogan Andre just was that boom match, the slam herd around the world that brings in the era of professional wrestling the way that we have it today.

But then that mega powers, everything that they had going on from the friendship to them exploding and throughout their career, those two always had that chemistry inside the ring, knew how to take care of business to get things done.

It doesn't really deliver for whatever reason, you know, whether it's great in the ring work or, you know, like maybe the finish is one of these things that's awesome that, you know, leaves everyone, you know, like, you know, kind of like, okay, that really was, you know, good.

I really enjoyed the finish because, you know, like Hogan and Andre, okay.

It was a horrible match.

I was going to bring that one up.

The buildup was amazing.

I mean, obviously they sold all those tickets and stuff like that.

Hogan picks Andre up.

He slams him.