WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2006 (PS2) Hidden Wrestlers (2/12): 80s Hulk Hogan gameplay скачать в хорошем качестве

WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2006 (PS2) Hidden Wrestlers (2/12): 80s Hulk Hogan gameplay

Gameplay of the hidden character/wrestler 80s Hulk Hogan in Yuke’s/THQ’s WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2006. It’s game-y, I know, but I really like that they split up the Hogans here, rather than just making them alt costumes or something. Yes, it does seem a bit shounen-esque, but just like shounen wrestling is an endless battle against an everchanging landscape of antagonists, so it does make sense. Hogan wasn’t the original ultra-face (Bruno Sammartino was probably worse, as an example), but he might be the best remembered, and that’s probably down to him being the champion of the expansion era of the WWF. There have been a fair number of ultra-faces prior to Hogan, most notably Bruno Sammartino, who had the WWWF Championship for a period of over 10 years in total. Hogan was poached from the AWA, along with quite a few other wrestlers, during the territorial expansion and it was decided pretty early on that he was going to be Vinnie Mac’s next big thing, giving him an absolutely huge push very quickly. How quickly? He won the title in four matches. Four. That's insane. It’s funny the things which worked then that you wouldn’t get away with nowadays, but back when wrestling was more “real” to people, someone winning the top belt after four matches was something of a Rocky moment rather than shitty booking. Nowadays of course, we want something far more long-term and satisfying when it comes to the rise of a wrestler, and someone getting a big push too quickly just feels lazy and forceful. Not saying it can’t work, but people working their way up to the top-card just tends to be that much more satisfying. Hell, even looking at boxing again for a second, Mike Tyson had nearly 30 professional fights before getting a title shot. But again, this was the kind of stuff you could get away with in this era. 80s Hogan was the archetypal jingoistic All-American hero, the sort of thing which seems pretty ridiculous nowadays (especially when they’ve tried to apply it to guys like Cena), but there was a certain zeitgeist to Hogan that just made it work for whatever reason. The all-conquering American hero taking out evil foreign heels and adversaries, rising up even after being betrayed by supposed friends, teaming up with former enemies, and of course overcoming the odds, made for a gimmick that just worked at that point in time, particularly as Vince’s vision of wrestling as a larger-than-life kind of entertainment really started to come together. The pinnacle of 80s Hogan is, most probably, his match with Andre at Wrestlemania 3. It’s decent on its own, but with context it’s even better, and one of the only times up to that point where it seemed like Hogan had a real adversary to contend with, and one where the match could go either way. This was partially helped by Andre apparently being unbeaten for 15 years – although in actuality Hogan had beaten Andre when they were both in the AWA together. The only way kayfabe works is by using smoke and mirrors, and that’s a great example of it. Still, the chemistry and the story the match tells is genuinely superb, mainly boosted by how mediocre of a PPV Wrestlemania 3 actually is despite the hype (barring Savage v Steamboat of course), and despite the fact that Andre was near-on immobile they were somehow still able to have an incredibly engaging match. It’s known that Hogan could be a technical wrestler when he wanted to be, and although it isn’t the most technical match there is a je ne sais quoi to the whole thing which makes it work in the end. If anything, I’d tempted to call it the first truly great match in wrestling history, although that’s a pretty contentious proclamation I know. After Wrestlemania 3, Hogan still went on to great success although definitely started to wane a bit in terms of his mystique and prestige. He was still the top dog for years on end, basically headlining every single Wrestlemania until he went to WCW in ’94, but his schtick started to wane after a while, and in particular really fell off once the Cold War ended and America didn’t have much need for a stalwart defender of freedom in the same way anymore. Hogan tried the same thing in WCW too, but needless to say that didn’t (and wasn’t really ever going to) get over, hence his eventual decision to turn heel, in turn giving himself two distinct, unique gimmicks in wrestling history as a result, and in effect somewhat saving his career from stagnation in the way prior ultra-faces could never really deal with in the past. Of course, it’s also worth noting that a lot (a LOT) of this was politicking as well, refusing to job to numerous wrestlers (including Bret Hart for some reason), turning down or vetoing certain ideas, and even having creative control written into a number of his contracts (hence the infamous phrase “that doesn’t work for me, brother”). [Continued in a pinned comment]