Another Summerslam approaches and it appears as if Hulk Hogan is about to make another comeback, this time against the legend killer himself, Randy Orton. Is this a good thing for WWE or just another desperate attempt to use the past to build up the future?
Sadly I think it’s the latter because I just don’t have any enthusiasm left at the moment for Mr Hogan. Face it, this man does not care about wrestling anymore and probably hasn’t for a few years now. Didn’t he make some comment about that “fake stuff” he used to do in a recent interview? That’s really going to please the fans isn’t it Hulk?
The simple fact is that Hogan only cares about himself and his family. Apparently his daughter Brooke can string together a few notes and is desperate for a singing career and Daddy Hogan will do anything he can to help her. Now that’s not a bad quality in a father of course but does he have to inflict himself on WWE and VH-1 to do that? He’s just back to promote Brooke and make yet more money out of the business.
Hogan v Orton is a logical match if Vince wants to carry on with this legend killer storyline which I thought had gone bust after Undertaker beat Orton but hey logic is often absent in WWE at present. But why Hogan and why at Summerslam, perhaps this means Hogan might be getting ready for the Austin showdown at next years Wrestlemania?
This is a match that’s extremely risky for WWE. Hogan isn’t going to come back again unless he’s considered to be the main event or at least sharing that position. Just look at the two wrestlers though, Hogan is a broken down wrestler with dodgy knees and could break down at any time. Heaven forbid that might just be in the actual match and what a way for Hulkamania to end if it’s seeing Hogan stretchered out of the ring. As for Orton, he’s a guy who has a great future ahead of him as long as he learns to behave himself and that just can’t be guaranteed can it? Orton can’t keep getting himself suspended because sooner or later Vince will realise he’s just not worth it. How can you have a future WWE champ who might do something that forces him out of the company at any time. Then again look at RVD, how can he moan about not being given a main event run and then mess it up so spectacularly due to his out of the ring behaviour.
There’s another reason I don’t want to see Hogan v Orton, I’m just fed up of all these former stars coming back and hogging the limelight. Is it just a need for nostalgia or a realisation that very few new stars are being created at the moment? I think it’s the latter and the changes that have been happening recently with the introduction of ECW to the WWE has just damaged the WWE product even more. Taking Angle, RVD and Big Show out of the WWE equation isn’t going to help anyone and Big Show really isn’t wanted by the ECW fans.
Do we really want to see Hacksaw Jim Duggan wrestling on Raw? Are we desperate to see Tatanka back again? Of course we’re not, if Vince really wanted to have the old stars back again why not give them their own programme? A bit of chat with the legends, a classic match and if we have to get those who are able to wrestle put on a match, then so be it. Keep them out of Raw and Smackdown though because face it most of the new fans haven’t a clue who Doink and Kamala are.
Vince is spending too much time looking at the past. He resurrected ECW and created a show no true ECW fan will support for too long. He brought back DX but only with Triple H and Shawn Michaels and the way it’s going if there were to be new members they’d be recruited from Tiswas or any other Saturday morning show that loves the use of gunge.
It’s time Vince looked to the future by creating stars of the future. Bringing back the past doesn’t work, certainly not on a long-term basis. Why have OVW if you’re going to give a main roster spot to a wrestler like Tatanka who has spent most of the last five years wrestling on very small Indie cards because not even TNA or ROH wanted to use him. Vince has to make a major decision soon on how he sees the future of his company, let’s hope he looks to the future not the past.
Stephen Ashfield