The Hulkamania Tour of Australia: Details of the Second Show In Perth and Other Wrestling News From Australia

Hulkamania invaded Perth in Western Australia over the last couple of days in which the public saw not only the Hulkamania event, but also several radio spots, some charity work, and more.

The Lead Up To The Event

Image Credit: news.com.au

Shortly after arriving in Perth, Hogan was already mingling with the fans when he met several young children as a part of the Make-A-Wish foundation.

Hogan has worked with the charity for over 25 years now and he was more than happy to take some photos with the dis-advantaged kids while also getting some publicity for the Hulkamania show a couple of days later. When asked about his work with the charity, the Hulkster had the following to say to the Perth Now newspaper:

“Sometimes I will be tired from the road or tired from all the traveling, but whenever I get around those kids they give me the energy. These kids want to see me get in the ring. It doesn’t matter if I’m 100-years-old, the kids want to come and see me tear the shirt and wrestle around and have a good time. It’s just amazing to see these kids and realise this is the priority.”

Image Credit: The UK Sun

While Hogan was posing for photos, the rest of the internet wrestling community seemed to all be talking about Ric Flair and his match from the previous night.

Almost immediately after the last show had finished there were rumours being flung around the internet that Ric Flair had actually used fake blood during the main event match against Hulk Hogan due to the sheer volume of claret on his face.

While Ric Flair is well known for having blood pour out of his forehead and having his hair turn a sickly shade of red, what happened during this match was either pointless or extremely dangerous.

Should a man of his age, who’s making his long awaited (*cough**cough*) return to the ring, be blading just to cover the lack of wrestling ability throughout the match? Isn’t that a bit over the top, even for Ric Flair?

In the few days leading up to the second Hulkamania event, both Hogan and Flair were interviewed on separate local radio stations with very different results. While the guys talking to Flair were making a mockery out of pro wrestling in general, the man interviewing Hogan was actually asking some insightful and pressing questions about his role in TNA, his current relationship with Vince McMahon, and the wrestling industry in general. Here’s a few quotes from the interview, courtesy of PWInsider:

Question: Can I ask you about your relationship with Vince McMahon? Is it still good?

Hulk Hogan: “Brother, it’s a love-hate relationship, you know. I talk to him once in a while when he needs a main event for WrestleMania but right now, once I get done with this Australian tour, I’m going back to the Unated States where I signed a deal to run a company called TNA – Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. It’s another promotion that you guys are very familiar with here in Australia and I’m getting ready to take over the helm and it’s going to be the number one wrestling company in the world just like when I did back in the 90s when I formed the nWo and we took over the wrestling business. I’m gonna do that again.”

Question: Can you give us any information about what your role in TNA will be? Will we see you as a wrestler in the ring? Will you be behind the scenes? What would your on-air role be? Can you let us in on a little bit?

Hulk Hogan: “Well, I signed a deal with Dixie Carter to come in as her partner. I know there are several people on the show – storyline-wise – who say they are part of TNA (management) such as Mick Foley and Jeff Jarrett, but this situation is for real. I’m going in to turn this thing upside-down. I’m gonna pick the whole wrestling business up and bodyslam it and whoever’s not on my team – on Team Hogan at TNA – they’re gonna be at the bottom of the pile. Just like I did in the early 90s, once I went to work for Eric Bischoff and Ted Turner they became the number one wrestling promotion in the world.”

Question: Hulk, if there was one thing you could change about the wrestling industry at this point in time what would it be? How will Hulk Hogan revolutionize the wrestling industry yet again?

Hulk Hogan: “Well, the one thing I would change and I’m going to change is..I hate the writers. I cannot stand that they have a writing team sitting in the back telling the wrestlers what to say and telling the wrestlers what to do in the ring. That’s one of the reasons why I went to TNA because the other promotion that’s what they’re all about – scripting the verbiage and scripting the matches and telling the wrestlers what to do. They have a team of writers in the back that don’t understand this business, that have never been to the big show, that have never been in the big main events.

All the writers are either wrestlers that are midcard wrestlers or they were family members that were handed a pen and paper and told, “You’ve learned what you’ve learned from our family now keep writing”. They’ve never learned the wrestling business from being in the middle of the ring in the main event in front of 20, 30, 40, 90 thousand people.”

Hogan also mentioned how he ran into Steve Austin at a California gym roughly a week before leaving for Australia where he called him out and challenged him to a match any time, any place, any where. Austin didn’t even dignify the question with a response. I guess that shows you how much Austin thinks of Hogan at this stage in Hogan’s career.

Results

Brian Christopher (aka WWE’s Grandmaster Sexay) & Solofa Fatu, Jr. (aka WWE’s Rikishi) d. Rock of Love (Billy Blade & Kaden Anthony) in a Tag Team match

This tag team Rock of Love seem to be on this tour for the sole purpose of jobbing to the bigger name wrestlers, but my question is why? Could this be some sort of extended trail audition for a TNA contract now that Hogan is associated with the promotion? They seemed to have been plucked from obscurity so Hogan must see something in them. I guess only time will tell.

Shannon Moore d. “Spartan 3000″ Matt Cross (aka M-Dogg 20)

This was the second match in a 3 match series with the eventual winner earning themselves a handy $25,000. Shannon Moore was always going to win this match to send it to a tiebreaker after Cross won at the last show, but nonetheless it was a great match that further showed off the talent that these two cruiserweights possess.

Big Daddy Row Row (aka WWE’s Rosey) d. “Pimp Fatha” Charles Wright (aka WWE’s Godfather) and Sean Morley (aka WWE’s Val Venis) in a Triple Threat match

Row Row was seen by some fans at the last show on Saturday but it wasn’t expected that he would be wrestling on the tour, let alone winning a match. He was a surprise entry on the card but it will be interesting to see whether they reunite two thirds of the 3 Count trio.

Vampire Warrior (aka WWE’s Gangrel) & Black Pearl “The Count of California” & Heidenreich d. The Nasty Boys & Nick Dinsmore (aka WWE’s Eugene) in a Six Man Tag Team match

By all reports this was by far the worst match of the night. Featuring 3 winners from the last event facing off against 3 losers from the last event, and I think the right decision was made in regards to the winner of the match. Now all participants can say that they’ve had a win on the tour. If only the same could be said for the main event…

Orlando Jordan d. Ken Anderson (aka WWE’s Mr. Kennedy)

This is one match that appeals to me. I’ve been a fan of Anderson’s work for a while now, but I can’t help but wonder what his position would be in WWE right now if he had continued on with them.

Uso Fatu (aka WWE’s Umaga) d. Brutus Beefcake

Good lord, I’m glad I didn’t have to sit through this one! Sleeper hold… sleeper hold… Samoan Spike. Awesome…

Hulk Hogan d. Ric Flair w/ Lacey von Erich in a No DQ match

I still don’t understand why Ric Flair would come out of retirement to wrestle in the Hulkamania tour, especially if he’s only there to seemingly put Hogan “over” at each show, but I won’t get into that. You can read Rob Siebert’s latest edition of Inside The Wrestler’s Studio which talks about this very subject and brings up some thought provoking points.

Even worse was having Lacey von Erich standing by his side. What’s she gonna do? She’s no J.J. Dillon, who coincidentally was just recently interviewed by The Wrestling Daily’s own Mike Bessler.

On to the match however, for the past couple of days Hogan had been telling the press that he and Flair were going to throw out the rule book in this match, further evolving this “intense” rivalry of theirs.

The match itself reportedly spilled into the crowd and was yet another bloodbath which left blood on the floor and on some ringside seats. While it didn’t last quite as long as their first match in Melbourne, it did include some interference from the likes of The Nasty Boys, Heidenreich, and Uso Fatu, even if it was after the referee was taken out which defies logic seeing as it was contested under No DQ rules and they could have done the run in at any stage of the match…

I’m predicting right now that the main event of the fourth and final Hulkamania show in Sydney will be a Steel Cage match, hopefully using one of the “old school” steel cages.

Quick Hits

- The most common thoughts that everybody in attendance seemed to share was that the crowd was absolutely dead at the start of the show, but slowly built to a fever pitch by the end.

- The attendance figure, similar to the last show in Melbourne, was nowhere near sold out but somewhere in the 5,000 area. Not too bad really for a school night where they were hardly any kids there, but seeing as there was a 2-for-1 ticket promotion that was running for days before the event, there should have been WAY more people in the building.

- There was a spot during the main event when Jimmy Hart apparently pulled down Lacey von Erich’s dress and (accidentally I think) her underwear to expose her naked behind for a brief moment. Expect to see pictures surface sometime over the next few days.

- Also involved on the card was a pillow fight between the 3 no name women from the bikini challenge at the last show, but who really cares?

Other Wrestling News From Australia

- Ken Anderson’s entrance from the first show in Melbourne also surfaced on Youtube in the past couple of days. Be sure to check it out and listen to his comments about the Mr. Kennedy character.

- Some fans were thoroughly disappointed with the first Hulkamania show in Melbourne. As reported by The Age newspaper, one fan even said that he left within the first hour of the event. ”It started just before 8pm and I’d left by 9pm. As I was walking out, a security bloke was laughing and said, ‘Trust me mate, we’ve had a few leave already’.”

- Dixie Carter announced just recently on her twitter page that the Australian free-to-air sports channel One HD would begin airing TNA Xplosion in December.

I think that this is a great move by TNA for two reasons. Firstly, this will make them the only wrestling promotion on Australian television to be featured on both free-to-air and cable TV, giving them more exposure and building on the loyal Australian TNA fanbase that often make IMPACT! the highest rated wrestling related show ahead of RAW, ECW, and Smackdown.

Secondly, with TNA’s touring Australia for the first time early next year, this will give a big boost in the arm for their ticket sales. They’re dreaming if they think that they’ll sell anywhere near as many tickets as WWE does on a yearly basis, but this will be a great step in building the promotion in Australia and gaining some new fans.

- On a random note, TNA has now opened the poll on their website for the fans to vote for the 2009 Match of the Year. You can choose your favourite from the list by clicking here.

Be sure to check back later when we update the recap as more details become available.

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