Hulk Hogan's Unreleased Collector's Series

In recent years on this blog my wrestling entries have been dedicated to recent releases from the past year or two. I am dipping deep into the backlog today however by covering a 2009 WWE Home Video release: Hulk Hogan’s Unreleased Collector’s Series. I purchased this upon its release just over a decade ago and finally viewed it this past week. I remember the peculiar timing of this release because a couple weeks before its scheduled release TNA announced the signing of the Hulkster for his four year run there. That did not stop the WWE from still releasing this match anthology which at the time in 2009 consisted of previously unreleased matches on home video spanning Hulk’s entire career.

Since 2009 some of these matches here have appeared in other collections and many can be tracked down conveniently on the WWE Network. Throughout the 80s and well into the 90s WWE filmed major-market live events and only aired them in that market around their original recording. A lot of these old-school cards either feature c or d-list announce teams or no commentary at all. I have seen interviews and reports from and about WWE’s archivists over the years on how they take tremendous care of their video library and the result here is 27 matches and six promos/interviews comprising the collection.

Since past Hogan DVD releases featured matches dominated by PPV and supercard main events we primarily associate with Hogan’s career, Unreleased Collector’s Series specializes in the aforementioned major-market live events and long forgotten TV main events from Nitro, RAW and Smackdown. There are brief 30-to-60 second narration packages setting up the next match and quickly touching on major moments that happened in Hulk’s career such as various world championship reigns and switching promotions. I greatly appreciate these quick video packages setting the table for Hulk’s next rival and showing where he was at in his career at the time.

Another nice touch is each match has a quick graphic at the beginning listing the commentators. This compilation has one of the most diverse line of announcers ever. A lot of the major-market live events that feature c and d-list announcers are names I can barely recall, and some surprise past wrestlers I had no idea who take a stab at announcing. Here is a quick list of some of the announcers present throughout – Vince McMahon, Nick Bockwinkel, Bruno Sammartino, Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schivane, Jimmy Hart, Alfred Hayes, Mongo McMichaels, Eric Bishoff, Michael Cole, Tazz, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. What stands out is that WWE brought in Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross to record all new commentary for three of the older matches that saw Hogan square off against Bob Backlund, Andre the Giant and Kamala. Both provide great insight on Hulk and how he evolved in those early stages in his career.

As far as highlights from the 27 matches included I will touch on several that stood out the most for me. There are four matches from Hulk’s first run in WWF in 1979 as the “Incredible” Hulk Hogan. Aside from a couple squash matches, there is that previously mentioned bout against Bob Backlund I highly suggest checking out which features all sorts of school technical prowess until Backlund winds up on the wrong end of an airplane spin. There is also a pre-Wrestlemania III encounter against Andre the Giant from 1980 that has a far-less broken down Andre and Hulk deliver a more intriguing match than their carefully paced Silverdome ‘epic.’ I was a little bummed to see only one match from Hogan’s AWA run included, and it is regrettably a dud handicap match against Bockwinkel & Heenan that sees lots of villain tomfoolery.

The Hulk-a-Mania WWF era is unsurprisingly where the bulk of the content is. There is a must-see match against a fresh in his WWF run Macho Man from 1986 that marked the first time I saw a pinfall from a common ‘lift-the-leg’ counter to a top-rope move. Big Boss Man and Rick Rude also face Hogan here early in their WWF runs and have fairly good matches on the Hogan curve and mix in interesting spots with handcuffs and an impromptu arm wrestling contest, respectively. I had no recollection of seeing a Killer Kahn match before, so seeing him against Hogan was fascinating. What was not fascinating was about several of these matches have the standard formula of Hogan’s early fired up offense followed by a long villain beat down until eventually Hogan ‘Hulk’s Up’ for his comeback and hits the leg drop for the W. Some of the latter matches in this collection however found fun ways for Hulk’s opposition to counter his finishing sequence to freshen things up a bit.

I was delighted to see one of Hogan’s matches against Ric Flair towards the end of 1991 in Flair’s first WWF run. This took place during a run of several untelevised matches the two had only on live events to prepare for their expected Wrestlemania VIII battle until plans changed and opponents for both were swapped in the final weeks leading up to the event. I am still bummed those two never had a PPV clash from this moment in their careers, but was glad to finally see this match get resurrected from the archives. It is not paced like a traditional PPV headliner like one would assume, but instead as a brawl with the two frequently dueling outside the ring and exchanging more fists, chops and chokes than traditional holds. It resulted in a fired up encounter I was on board for from beginning to end. Definitely make that 1991 clash between the two one of the first to see from this collection.

From there the Unreleased Collector’s Series transitions into Hogan’s WCW run. Unlike WWE, WCW did not film many of their live events/house shows from this time so the five WCW matches are from WCW PPVs and episodes of Nitro that were not released on WWE Home Video before. Highlights include the ’95 Slamboree main event I never saw before with Hogan & Savage taking on Vader & Flair with Arn Anderson and The Renegade as special ringside enforcers. There are two Nitro main events against Sting in 1995 and Bret Hart in 1998 that both feature actual good wrestling, but have screwy finishes that dominated Nitro at the time. I believe this Bret Hart match was the first time the two faced each other in the ring in singles competition and it was disheartening to see the ridiculous over-booked catastrophe it turned out to be.

From there the collection wraps up with four matches from RAW and SmackDown from Hulk’s first WWF return in 2002. For a well-aged Hogan at this point, he still managed to have watchable and borderline good matches against Ric Flair, Triple H and Kurt Angle. The match with Hunter stood out the most from his WWF return matches. Sadly, no matches from his 2003 run as Mr. America are included, or his handful of matches he did for WWE in 2005 and 2006. Also interspersed throughout the collection are six Hogan promos/interviews. A few of them are vintage backdrop solo promos from syndicated shows like Challenge where Hogan is in full on ‘Hulk’ mode which only Hulk can pull off and got me amped up reliving them again for this collection. In the bonus features are eight additional promos/interviews. Some of them are more Hogan nonsensical shouting against rivals like Sid Justice and Vader, and others have Hogan donning a creepy costume taunting the feared Dungeon of Doom. Part of me wanted more of these whacked-out solo backdrop Hogan promos, as I am obviously super nostalgic for them, and for younger fans unaware of them I highly suggest going down a YouTube hole of them immediately!

Hulk Hogan’s Unreleased Collector’s Series is mostly a gratifying compilation of previously unreleased gems from Hogan’s career. There are certainly a few duds sprinkled in throughout, and it can be a bit of chore seeing several of the standard Hulk-Up comeback formula matches in a row. Other than that however I dug the variety of opponents and see Hulk evolve over the years and eventually barely hang in there for his 2002 return. I have a few more ‘Unreleased Series’ DVDs WWE released over the years I would like to cover soon that have been sitting in my backlog for a while. These are for Shawn Michaels, Randy Savage and a recently released one for Roddy Piper so be on the lookout for more entries in this series in the near future!

Past Wrestling Blogs
Best of WCW Clash of Champions
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
DDP: Positively Living
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
Eric Bishoff: Wrestlings Most Controversial Figure
Fight Owens Fight: The Kevin Owens Story
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Impact Wresting Presents: Best of Hulk Hogan
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
The Kliq Rules
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
NXT: From Secret to Sensation
NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History
Owen: Hart of Gold
RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Scott Hall: Living on a Razors Edge
Sting: Into the Light
Straight Outta Dudley-ville: Legacy of the Dudley Boyz
Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
Then Now Forever – The Evolution of WWEs Womens Division
TLC 2017
TNA Lockdown 2005-2016
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns
Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe
War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28-Present
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money
Wrestlings Greatest Factions
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017