I'm sure I've made this argument before, but Hogan was way better in the ring than he gets credit for and maybe one of the best ever for a man his size. The WWF limited everyone's wrestling ability at that time to begin with, but also Hogan just kept getting bigger and bigger guys to bodyslam for a while. Hogan vs. Tenryu in WAR in 1993 was a MOTY candidate in Japan (although I could probably easily find 10 matches from that year alone that I would probably rate higher), Hogan vs. Mutoh was relatively well-worked and if you want to go back further Hogan/Inoki, Hogan/Hansen, and Hogan/Andre in the early 1980's are good examples of what he COULD do in the ring given the opportunity.

The WWF part of it is pretty apparent when you watch other WWF guys work in Japan and see a completely different wrestler.

Indeed; it's quite possible Hogan, while in the WWF, even intentionally wrestled 'poorly' as he and McMahon knew that was what was most attractive to the most people. I wouldn't consider Hogan to be among the best big 'workers' of all time, but clearly most of his best work from a smark technical perspective was in Japan.

Even so, the "technical" Hogan matches I've seen still largely involve him laying around in restholds and hulking up.

In terms of what gets people big and over, you guys focus entirely way too much on the technical wrestling aspect of it.

In today's market, that is one of the less important qualities.

In the 80s/90s market, it wasnt particularly important.

We are more of a niche fan that, frankly, doesnt put the buts in the seats.

American crowds have no appreciation for grappling, for techinical masterpieces. To us, a great match has a great story; in the end, all wrestling is story telling.
To have a great story, you need to have good characters and a good plot; the actual physical telling of that story isnt important.

Which is why I loled at everyone saying Punk/Y2J was better than HHH/Taker at Wrestlemania. HHH/Taker is the perfect American style wrestling match.

i missed cena's entire career as i didn't watch wrestling from 1999-2011, so perhaps he's gotten worse over the years but from what i've seen in the last few months i'm generally unimpressed. he certainly has some "presence" but he really doesn't have much else going for him (unspectacular ring work, okay mic skills but nothing special), so i have a hard time agreeing with anyone claiming that he's on the same level as hogan because hogan's presence is completely unparalleled (except some obvious legends such as austin).

i was really, really disappointed with rock v. cena at WM and it has very little to do with the lack of great technical wrestling. plenty of superstars lacked great mat skills but were still great at telling stories in the ring. cena just doesn't do that for me (and yes, i've watched some other cena matches on youtube). he's a fine talent but definitely not a top-tier guy imo.

to be fair he was wrestling against a random celebrity that appeared to fall asleep in an stf

gin

WWE announced that Rey Mysterio (a/k/a Oscar Gutierrez) has been suspended for 60 days for a second violation of the Wellness Policy.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Oh wow.

Not excited for HHH

HHH burying his injury

LOL seriously, the piece of **** cant even stop his stupid ass hand motions when selling an injury

Heyman already saving this show.

Heyman sososo good

am i the only one now terrified that h v lesnar is going to be a match for lesnar's old contract? no chance lesnar wins that

Heyman = Awesome

HHH is the worst. I'm sure Brock is pleased he is getting what he deserved as HHH just said.

RAW IS LAWYER!

looooooooool 10 seconds of lawler and cole's faces in silence while something's happening in the ring

This is soo stupid. Brock breached his contract and assaulted HHH but they ignore that and say they r suing for the exact same things. Enjoying this LKJ?

Triple H even no sells the law, god damn just get off television already

awesome Big Show vs Kane

Cole: If Big Show does not apologize for making fun of the boss's voice, he will be fired!
King: That's right, because Big Show goes one-on-one with Kane!

..........

Tag Team main event the first match of the night?

WWE Champion Jobber entrance.