The following was sent in by Jonathan Spaits:
This was the first of the Hulkamania tour events at Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Australia. The crowd was a little disappointing with around 7000 people in attendance with the arena probably 50 – 60% full.
Had some good seats at ringside so the view was great.
The first match featured the tag teams of Rock Of Love Vs. Nick Dinsmore and the Pimp/God Fatha. It lasted about 5 minutes, pretty boring match to start off, the highlight was Dinsmore’s poem. He looked pretty much out of shape and it wasn’t hard to see why WWE let him go those months ago.
Winners – Dinsmore and PimpFatha – *1/2
The second match pit Shannon Moore against Spartan 3000 for the first of a three match $25,000 challenge. This was a quality cruiserweight matchup with both men moving really well in and out of the ring. The match went back and forth with Spartan winning after hitting a shooting star press.
Winner – Spartan 3000 – ***1/2
The third match featured The Nasty Boys w/ Jimmy Hart vs Gangrel & The Black Pearl. The match was a streetfight with chairs, metal trays, a table looking thing and some turkey basting trays. The match was really good as it got the crowd pumped after they were a bit subdued earlier on. Jimmy Hart still had it on the megaphone, the Nasty’s however looked really out of shape.
Winners – The Nasty Boys – ****
Next matchup of the evening Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake w/Jimmy Hart Vs. Heidenreich. This match was what it was, we got to see Brutus strut around the ring with the sheers and hit the sleeper for the finish. He didn’t end up cutting Heidenreich’s hair (He didn’t have much anyway) but cut some of the referees when he got in the way.
Winner – Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake – **
Next matchup (If you can call it that) was a bikini contest. I cant even remember all the girls names, Lacey Von Erich won it. I thought it was a total waste of time, they should have brought some girls out from Shimmer who can really wrestle rather than a bikini contest, it demeans the sport for women.
No Rating – Yawn
Mr Anderson Vs. Sean Morley was the next match. They both came in and did their thing on the Mic, it was strange hearing Miissssssterrrr Anderson, rather than Kennedy though. The match went back and forth with a lot of grapple holds, Morley missed his Money Shot and not long after Mr Anderson won after hitting the Mic Check.
Winner – Mr Anderson – ***1/2
Next up was Rikishi & Grandmaster Sexay vs Umaga & Orlando Jordan. Jordan looked pretty well put together, came out and worked the mic pretty well. The match went back and forth, we saw a Samoan Spike a Stinkface and Lawler’s pants fall down during the match. Rikishi got the pin over Jordan when Umaga was thrown out of the ring into the 1st row, yes, into the 1st row.
Winners – Rikishi & Grandmaster Sexay – ***1/2
Now for the main event everyone was waiting for, HULK HOGAN vs RIC FLAIR
The main event was what it was, we were never going to see any high flying or quick manuvers by two guys pushing sixty. They did their thing though, we saw a figure four and Hogan ‘Hulked up’. I loved seeing them both, and the fact that they both bladed ( I actually saw Flair do himself while face down on the walkway in front of the ring) showed that they were dedicated to putting on a serious match with blood streaming out of Flair’s forehead for the remainder of the match. Hogan won it after using Flair’s brass knuckes when the referee was distracted by Lacey Von Erich (who was in Flair’s corner) on the ring apron. I would have liked to have seen a legdrop though and have heard real american play but we saw hogan and that was great. Hogan had a huge hole in his tights from the start of the show, hard times, Linda’s taken everything.
Winner – Hulk Hogan – ****
Overall the show was great, having the matches on a big screen at the front of the entrance really added something to the show and there was much more pyro than the last two WWE Melbourne house shows combined. There were good promos before the matches to build up the atmosphere and most of the wrestlers bought their A game, or at least, as much of their A game as they still had.
As for Hogan and Flair, seeing them both was great but, they hyped it and brought it for the show, but Flair is starting to really look out of shape now and really should stay retired. Hogan, well, I can’t see him hold down a full TNA schedule if/when he comes, the crowd will get really bored with him after a couple of months as he can’t move so well anymore and can’t even do a legdrop. Hopefully he’ll stay for one ppv and then retire with grace, but as this is Hulk, he’ll probably hold the title for a year with Kevin Nash by his side.