Skip to main content

Worst in the World: Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage-Uncensored 1998

Just a quick heads up, I've created a Patreon. If you like what you read and want to support this blog and my other one, Where I Stand on Whatever, click here.
In 1988, the WWF began one of the best rivalries in wrestling history. In a year long build to WrestleMania V, Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan went from friends and tag partners to bitter enemies. Hogan helped Savage win the WWF Championship at WrestleMania IV, and the two formed the Mega Powers. Though they stayed on the same page for almost an entire year, the issues were very clear. At Survivor Series 1988, Savage was clearly upset with the way Hogan and Elizabeth got along and at the 1989 Royal Rumble Hogan had accidentally eliminated Savage from the Royal Rumble. The group came to an end after Hogan abandoned Savage to help an injured Miss Elizabeth to the back, which caused Savage to attack Hogan when he came back. Savage attacked Hogan again backstage, and the two were set for a match at WrestleMania V. It was truly great storytelling, and arguably the biggest match in WWF history at the time....Too bad WCW didn't understand how to do that. Much like Hogan-Warrior, WCW tried to replicate the magic of Hogan-Savage in the main event of Uncensored 1998, nine years later, in a Steel Cage match, and it stank.
So, as soon as the match starts, the lights go dim:
Which is immediately fixed:
WCW, everybody!
Hogan takes control early on, stomping on and beating down Savage. Hogan takes a NWO t-shirt and starts choking Savage with it, before hitting a big boot and making the cover for a two. Also, Hogan keeps screaming "WHO'S THE MAN!" throughout the match. He's done it three times at this point Hogan continues to whip Savage around the cage, and it goes on forever. Savage finally gets some offense in after dodging two elbow drops, and starts beating down on Hogan, throwing him into the cage and punching him a bunch.
Hogan takes off his belt and starts whipping Savage before choking Savage with the belt and yelling "WHO'S THE MAN!" two more times. Hogan goes back to whipping Savage with the belt, which prompts Bobby Heenan to correctly point out "You (Savage) have a belt, use yours.". Hogan misses a big leg drop and drops the belt, allowing Savage to start whipping him with it. If you haven't noticed, this match pretty much goes like this:
-Hogan beats down Savage
-Savage beats down Hogan
-Hogan whips Savage with a belt
-Savage whips Hogan with a belt
They just trade the exact same offense the entire time. It's almost like wrestling is scripted?
Savage continues to beat down Hogan by throwing him into the cage and throwing some strikes, but gets back body dropped into the cage wall by Hogan. Hogan goes back at it with the belt before...putting it back on. Yeah...why? It's not like having it one helps him in anyway. Hell, he was doing better without it.
Hogan throws Savage into the cage wall with Snake Eyes, and continues to throw Savage around the cage while Savage bumps like a boss. Now, you might be thinking "This match doesn't sound too bad, why does everybody hate it?" Well, I was thinking that too. Then this happened:
"They're out of the cage. The match is over, what's the big deal?" you might be asking. Well...the match isn't over. Yeah, in a STEEL CAGE match, they left the cage, which is how you win a steel cage match, but it's still going on. And no, it was never specified that you had to win by pinfall or submission, so this makes absolutely no sense. This is the Doomsday Cage Match all over again; the rules aren't clear, and nobody has any idea what is going on. WCW, everybody!
Hogan starts throwing Savage into the cage outside the ring, and sends him back in the cage, with the referee locking the cage this time. After a horribly convoluted spot where both Hogan and Savage get their heads rammed into the cage wall, Savage, despite being battered for the better part of 13 minutes, springs up, scales the cage in record time, and hits a double axe handle from the top of the cage, but that only gets a two count.
Savage goes on the offensive, body slamming  Hogan and going back to the top of the cage for the elbow drop. But outcomes THE BOOTY MAN...OK, he's not the Booty Man anymore, he's The Disciple, who unlocks the door and enters the cage, throws referee Charles Robinson into the cage wall, and saves Hogan. Savage s down to fight 2-on-1, but from the rafters comes Sting. The four have a standoff...but SWERVE! Randy Savage clotheslines Sting, followed by a piledriver. Vince Russo's doesn't even work there yet but SWERVE! Savage spits at Hogan (DOUBLE SWERVE!) and leaves, ending the match...I guess.

The Verdict

I'm so confused, what even happened. The match started off OK (probably the best I've seen on this list so far), but then it just went completely insane at the end. The match didn't end when both guys left the cage, but did end when Savage left. What the f*ck. This match was just utterly bamboozling

Rankings (Best to Worst)

  1.  Too Much vs Al Snow & Head-King of the Ring 1998
  2. Vampiro vs Sting-Great American Bash 2000
  3. Konnan vs One Man Gang-SuperBrawl VI
  4. Ultimate Warrior vs Hercules-WrestleMania IV
  5. The Chamber of Horrors-Halloween Havoc 1991
  6. Nikita Koloff vs Bobby Eaton-Bunkhouse Stampede
  7. Total Divas vs Other Divas-Survivor Series 2013
  8. The Oddities vs Kaientai-SummerSlam 1998
  9. Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice-WrestleMania VIII
  10. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Hog Wild
  11. Jake Roberts vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania V
  12. Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage-Uncensored 1998
  13. Al Snow vs Big Boss Man-Unforgiven 1999
  14. Mickie James vs Ashley-Royal Rumble 2006
  15. Christy Hemme vs Big Fat Oily Guy-Against All Odds 2007
  16. Vampiro vs Oklahoma-Starrcade 1999
  17. Junkyard Dog vs Moondog Spot-Wrestling Classic
  18. Hiroshi Wajima vs Tom Magee-All Japan Pro Wrestling 1988
  19. Kevin Sullivan vs Dave Sullivan-SuperBrawl V
  20. Steve McMichael vs Brian Adams-Road Wild 1998
  21. Scott Steiner vs Sid Vicious vs Jeff Jarrett vs Road Warrior Animal-Sin
  22.  Sable vs Tori-WrestleMania XV
  23. Sid Vicious vs The Nightstalker-Clash of the Champions XIII
  24. Greg Valentine vs George Steele-Heroes of Wrestling
  25. Abdullah the Butcher vs One Man Gang-Heroes of Wrestling
  26. Hollywood Hogan vs The Warrior-Halloween Havoc 1998
  27. The Royal Family vs Clowns R' Us-Survivor Series 1994
  28. Sting vs Jeff Hardy-Victory Road 2011
  29. Ultimate Warrior vs Andre the Giant-Saturday Night's Main Event (11/25/1989)
  30. The Doomsday Cage Match-Uncensored 1996 
  31. Kaitlyn vs Maxine-NXT (10/19/10)
  32. James Storm vs Chris Harris-Lockdown 2007
  33. John Laurinaitis vs John Cena-Over the Limit 2012
And up next in the Worst in the World is...

Oh great, a Hawk singles match.
Thanks for reading. Be sure to share if you enjoyed
H

Comments

More from The Wrestling Section

Worst in the World: The Gimmick Battle Royal-WrestleMania X-Seven

(Special thanks to Frost for suggesting this match. If you'd like to see a match covered on the Worst in the World, leave a comment down below.) WrestleMania X-Seven. Heavily considered the not just the best WrestleMania, but the greatest wrestling show of all time, WrestleMania X-Seven took place during the hottest period in the WWF's history, and features just about every one of the hottest acts in wrestling at the time. An undercard featuring the likes of Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, William Regal, Kane, and the Big Show. One of the biggest female stars in the history of wrestling in Chyna. A killer TLC match between the Dudley Boyz, the Hardy Boyz, and Edge & Christian. A wild brawl between The Undertaker and Triple H. A massive main event between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. Hell, even the father vs son Street Fight between Vince & Shane McMahon. It's a star-studded affair. However, there's one match that sticks out like

Worst in the World: The Last Rites Match-TNA Destination X 2007

(Special thanks to an anonymous user for suggesting this match. If you'd like to see a match covered on the Worst in the World, leave a comment down below.) An often discussed aspect of professional wrestling is the backstage politicking of Hulk Hogan. Throughout his career as a major attraction in wrestling, Hogan's philosophy has always been to protect Hulk Hogan...OK, sometimes he'd help Ed Leslie, but most of the time it was to protect Hulk Hogan. Because of that philosophy and Hogan's influence as a top guy, there have been multiple instances where a company's booking and other wrestlers have suffered as a result. Would having Mr. Perfect win the 1990 Royal Rumble made sense and could have elevated a rising star and potentially created a new main event player? Yes, but that would require Hogan to not win, and that doesn't work for Hogan, so he wins the Rumble even though he doesn't need elevating. Would booking Randy Orton to beat Hogan at SummerSlam 20

Worst in the World: D-Generation X vs Brothers of Destruction-Crown Jewel

This match didn't need to happen. After Triple H and the Undertaker had one of the most brutally bad matches of 2018 at Super Show-Down not even a month earlier, nobody wanted to see them try to wrestle again. Also, nobody wanted to see Shawn Michaels come out of retirement after his fantastic sendoff in 2010, especially for a match like this. But here we are, Triple H & Shawn Michaels facing The Undertaker & Kane in 2018. The combined ages of these four at the time is 206. That's a number you'd expect to see from a match at Heroes of Wrestling. And anyone can come up with their own reason as to why this match is happening, but that would just be ignoring the actual reason. For those of you who don't know, Crown Jewel was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That might not seem like important information, but you can't really discuss this match without mentioning it. Despite the numerous reasons that running shows in Saudi Arabia is morally wrong (their abuse

Worst in the World: Nia Jax's Worst Matches

Click the link here to vote in the poll and help decide the next edition of the Worst in the World. Nia Jax's first run with the WWE can really only be described as hard to watch. Sure, she had a few stand-out matches, most notably (and surprisingly) her match with Ronda Rousey at Money in the Bank, and an underrated gem with Bayley at NXT TakeOver: London, but those were always outshined by her most infamous matches and moments. She's since returned to WWE and, for the most part, seems to have improved a bit, but the reputation she got from her initial run is gonna be hard to shake off. This week, I'll be looking at some of Jax's worst matches. These include just flat-out bad matches, and matches that have become infamous examples of her reckless in-ring work. Match #1: vs Charlotte Flair-April 10th, 2017 Raw The first match we'll be looking at is from the April 10, 2017 episode of Monday Night Raw, when Nia took on Charlotte Flair. The two had been on the losing e

Worst in the World: Eric Young & Shark Boy vs Generation Me-TNA Destination X 2011

Click the link here to vote in the poll and help decide the next edition of the Worst in the World. Throughout the late 2000s and 2010s, few tag teams made as much noise on the independent scene as the Young Bucks. Really breaking out at a time when WWE made their tag division a borderline afterthought, Matt & Nick Jackson were almost unmatched in terms of elite matches on the indys, most notably in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla & Ring of Honor before joining New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Bullet Club, becoming mainstays of the group as it reached its peak throughout the mid-2010s. Sure, their style hasn't endeared them to old-school wrestling fans, but you can't deny their impact on wrestling. And with the arrival of All Elite Wrestling in 2019, North American fans would finally get to see the Young Bucks on national television for the first time... However... In what has become somewhat of a footnote in their careers, the Young Bucks had been on a nationally televised wrestlin