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Hogan vs. Dusty: More televised clean jobs?


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This is a question that's nagged at me for awhile:

 

Who did more clean jobs on TV in the 1980s with no outside interference or use of foreign objects?  Hulk Hogan or Dusty Rhodes?

 

I'm assuming it's Hogan, jobbing to Andre as they did their original 1980-81 feud in the various territories.  As far as I'm aware, the only televised clean job Dusty did was when they showed 8mm footage of Rhodes losing the NWA title to Flair the very first time.

 

Did Dusty do any clean jobs on the MSG/PRISM/NESN broadcasts of WWF house shows in 1989?

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Dusty was a star and got into power sooner, he was already a top guy when the 1980s began.  Hogan was just a green heel travelling the circuit, an attraction but not yet a superstar.  So you'd think Hogan would've still been doing jobs at least until Rocky III came out, while Dusty was so busy dodging jobs that you'd think he would have lost a few pounds from sheer fancy footwork.  

 

(BTW, one of the most surreal things I've ever seen in my life was a Lawler/Dusty match from 2002... it was in Tennessee, so Dusty worked HEEL, doing a great job at it and Lawler eventually pinned him with his feet in the ropes.)  

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Dusty was a star and got into power sooner, he was already a top guy when the 1980s began.  Hogan was just a green heel travelling the circuit, an attraction but not yet a superstar.  So you'd think Hogan would've still been doing jobs at least until Rocky III came out, while Dusty was so busy dodging jobs that you'd think he would have lost a few pounds from sheer fancy footwork.  

 

(BTW, one of the most surreal things I've ever seen in my life was a Lawler/Dusty match from 2002... it was in Tennessee, so Dusty worked HEEL, doing a great job at it and Lawler eventually pinned him with his feet in the ropes.)  

But was Hogan generally televised doing this? Or was he going over jobbers? I didn't watch WWF pre-WM2, so I don't know how their TV format was then.

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Dusty was a star and got into power sooner, he was already a top guy when the 1980s began.  Hogan was just a green heel travelling the circuit, an attraction but not yet a superstar.  So you'd think Hogan would've still been doing jobs at least until Rocky III came out, while Dusty was so busy dodging jobs that you'd think he would have lost a few pounds from sheer fancy footwork.  

 

(BTW, one of the most surreal things I've ever seen in my life was a Lawler/Dusty match from 2002... it was in Tennessee, so Dusty worked HEEL, doing a great job at it and Lawler eventually pinned him with his feet in the ropes.)  

But was Hogan generally televised doing this? Or was he going over jobbers? I didn't watch WWF pre-WM2, so I don't know how their TV format was then.

 

All squashes, all the time. Once in a blue moon you got name-vs-name but enhancement matches were the overwhelming order of the day.

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What makes the question tougher is that there were plenty of local TV shows that didn't go elsewhere.  A lot of the Madison Square Garden Network stuff got saved, for example; somewhere I've got a tape with Savage and Dibiase having three different matches on eight different occasions.  I know that TV was mostly squash city (and of course we're counting PPV), but you'd think that a midcard heel would be taking the fall in a tag match every once in a while, certainly more often than one of the top babyfaces in the country.  

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Looking at History of WWE, it's amazing how massively Dusty was buried on his way out in 1990.  He spent most of November and December doing 30-second jobs to Virgil of all people.

Remember where that character and that name came from...

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It's kind of tricky because WWF used to show MSG shows on TV.  The old pattern was usually villain wins 1 or 2 matches against Hogan via countout or DQ before they did the rematch. 

 

From watching old stuff on Youtube and my own memories of going to shows:

 

1984: Big John Studd beats Hogan by countout in Bobby Heenan's MSG debut, next month Hogan pins Studd via clothesline in a "title can change hands on a countout" match.

 

1985: Randy Savage beats Hogan by countout at MSG, loses cleanly via pinfall in rematch, loses cleanly via pinfall in lumberjack match.

 

1986: Kamala beats Hogan by DQ at Boston Garden when Hogan steals The Wizard's horn and attacks everyone with it, Hogan pins Kamala in a NO-DQ rematch after throwing powder in his face AND hitting him with the horn again (and then Kamala ends up in a jobber tag team with Sika two months later, so the need to keep him strong was all for naught).

 

1986: From the Richfield Coliseum, King Kong Bundy beats Hogan by countout, Hogan wins by DQ after Heenan interferes, Hogan beats Bundy and Heenan in a handicap match, pinning Heenan.

 

-----------

 

With Dusty in Crockett, there were no structured booking "patterns" like Vince had in WWF where you would build up a feud over two or three house shows and every night had the exact same results.  Dusty tended to do "shotgun" booking where you'd get a totally different house show every night.  One month in Greensboro you'd have Dusty winning via DQ against Flair for the World Title, then the very next month he'd be jobbing via countout to Tully in a TV title match.

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Wasn't that pretty much the routine for every heel in WWF circa 1974-1989?  Heel wins first match via CO/DQ, face/heel wins 2nd match in controversy, face wins 3rd match convincingly, moves on.  Once SNMEs came on you couldn't do that as much, and especially once RAW started.  But it's not as if Hogan started the three match series.

 

As far as the answer to the original question, since Hogan and Rhodes virtually never cleanly jobbed on TV (and I'm talking "1-2-3" in the ring no controversy) they are probably tied at 2-3 pins.  Even's Andre's televised pins on Hogan are suspect since Hogan kicked out at 2 at the Shea show, and Monsoon intentionally fast counted Hogan at their MSG match.

 

If 1990 counts, then Rhodes wins easily.  He probably did more jobs from Sep-Dec 1990 than in the entire 1980s.

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In WCW there was also Goldberg for the belt, Piper at Starrcade (which they conveniently never mentioned was non-title)... I dunno, did Sting, Flair, or DDP ever pin him clean?  I'm running out of examples reeeeal quick.  I think maybe HHH and Jericho might've pinned him during the 2002 run as well.  

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Kurt Angle made hip tap, Lesnar beat the piss out of him... internal bleeding scenario...  The Rock pinned him. Of course these were all well past his prime.

 

 

In WCW there was also Goldberg for the belt, Piper at Starrcade (which they conveniently never mentioned was non-title)... I dunno, did Sting, Flair, or DDP ever pin him clean?  I'm running out of examples reeeeal quick.  I think maybe HHH and Jericho might've pinned him during the 2002 run as well.  

 

I knew I forgot some. .. Piper and Goldberg were very big back in the day, and I wasn't watching wwe that much at the time, but still, not very many clean jobs for virtually his entire career. . .Dusty's 80's run was very impressive, but bow down to the king!

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Pretty sure Luger made Hogan tap clean to the rack on a Nitro for the belt (I can't remember any shenanagans that weakened Hogan before that)

 

Pretty sure post Rocky III until the Andre title loss Hogan didn't get pinned, period.

 

Ok, run to a site that has Hogan's whole history, he barely dropped falls at all, and I'm not out of 81 yet.  Few pinfalls to Andre, and one to Inoki in a tag match.  Actually lots of pins to Andre in 80-81.  Dropped a couple falls to Atlas in 81 too.

 

http://hulkhoganhistory.weebly.com/match-history.html

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Pretty sure Luger made Hogan tap clean to the rack on a Nitro for the belt (I can't remember any shenanagans that weakened Hogan before that)

 

It was the week before Road Wild 97. Luger made Hogan tap and it was so awesome. Then a week later at the PPV, Hogan won the belt back in the usual screwy NWO fashion at the time. If I remember, Luger had a guarenteed title win in his contract and it was coming up or something at the time.

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