Chris, you are marking out over here. I understand that you are a Hogan fan, but still, he alreeady did put the red and yellow back on already and it FLOPPED. Its old and cheesy. Will it be good for a cheap pop? Of course. But so is this whole NWO angle if they don't get any new high up recruits in there.
But if they start building the NWO "B" team like they did in WCW, this will just fail eventually. It has been proven again and again in this industry, you CAN'T go home again.
As for Flair not getting the same pop? You're definitely marking out for Hogan there. Flair was the FIRST heel to get face pops in the history of wrestling. Did Hogan inspire the entire wrestling fan community to spontaneously shout "WHOOOO!!" everytime anyone knife-edge chops someone? No, that was Flair. Plus Hogan might have dissed the crowd, but you could tell his heart wasn't in it. His body language wasn't that of a heel at all. He STILL played up to the crowd, but then again thats about it for him in the ring anyway. That is a no-no if you're truly trying to get over as a heel. He doesn't WANT to be a heel. He wants the crowd to like him. As long as he is a likeable heel, that will work. The red and yellow WON'T.
Wrestling fans become programmed over time to react a certain way to wrestlers. For example, whenever The Undertaker comes out on his hog with "Rollin" playing, the crowd face-pops for him, but they boo everything else he does afterwards (except for the hardcore Undertaker fans). That is because the fans have been programmed in the Skinner Box that is profressional wrestling arenas to react that was to that stimulus. The same is true for Hogan. When he looks at the crowd and cups his ear with his hand, the crowd would go nuts even if he clubbed a baby seal in the middle of the ring. He isn't playing the heel, no-matter what half-assed heel promo he gave.
Also, notice his chants didn't really get that loud until AFTER the Rock got in the ring and confronted him? They were chanting for the match-up more than just for Hogan.
Plus, that episode of Raw was in the mid-west, Chicago I believe. The mid-west is pretty much known as mark-central. If that Raw was broadcast from Philly or NY, the pop would have still been big, but the NWO fans would not have been out in such full force. The WWF knew this and thats why they fully debuted the NWO when they did. They didn't get that much of a reaction the night before in Jersey. Not even close.
With that said, Hogan and The Rock will make for an ELECTRIC Wrestlemania. But the WWF will be hard pressed to keep the angle going after that. Hell, they had to wreck a Semi and an Ambulance to really get it started.
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