Who do you prefer: Week 5 - Hulk Hogan vs Chris Benoit

Gerard.C

Week One - Stone Cold (49) b Ric Flair (5)
Week Two - The Rock (44) b Shawn Michaels (40)
Week Three - The Undertaker (36) drew with Bret Hart (36)
Week Four - Chris Jericho (58) b Rey Mysterio (7)

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The Ultimate wrestler vs entertainer showdown this week! Benoit could very easily be the greatest pure wrestler of all time, sans going mad there a while ago. His match with Angle at the Rumble a few years ago was fantastic, one of the best of this decade. Hogan - the man who revolutionised wrestling,. a huge draw in his day, and would probably, sadly, draw more these days than 90% of the WWE roster.

For me, it's Benoit. I enjoyed him every time he was in the ring. Hogan had some very poor matches and outside of the ring I hate him.

Ye?

I've a good one for next week too btw

Bounty Hunter

discussing Hogan & Benoit in one thread =



this should be a fun thread

Rjd2

Gerard.C wrote: »

Week One - Stone Cold (49) b Ric Flair (5)
Week Two - The Rock (44) b Shawn Michaels (40)
Week Three - The Undertaker (36) drew with Bret Hart (36)
Week Four - Chris Jericho (58) b Rey Mysterio (7)

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For me, it's Benoit. I enjoyed him every time he was in the ring. Hogan had some very poor matches and outside of the ring I hate him.

Ye?

Benoit was an angel outside the ring wasn't he?
I'l actually have to think hard about this one like the previous polls.

geeky

Benoit hands down. Hogan annoyed me back when I was eight. Older and wiser now, I see some of his shocking work and cringe-inducing characterisation even clearer.

Benoit, by contrast, was amazing to watch. Always.

Gerard.C

Controversy creates cash lads! Yeah yeah they're a bit controversial, keep it handy and there shouldn't be a problem I would think?

Gerard.C

Rjd2 wrote: »

Benoit was an angel outside the ring wasn't he?
I'l actually have to think hard about this one like the previous polls.

Point taken. Hogans carry on with the media is obviously different to Benoits actions, the Benoit thing was a tragedy, Hogan is just pathetic IMO. Anyway...

Handsome Bob

It has to be the brother, my early childhood idol (with SCSA being my teenage idol :pac:). Hulk Hogan was just an absolute hero to kids and it was impossible not to be swept up by Hulkamania.

Seeing him return too back in 2002/2003 was just so surreal. WCW wasn't available all that much over here so I had gone a good few years without watching him do his thing. The crowd still loved him no matter how hard the WWE tried to make him an uber heel (I mean c'mon, they were really trying to push him as a top heel, he tried to kill the Rock by ramming his ambulance for feck sake:p). The match between them at WM gave me the oh so rare feeling of goosebumps.

It has to be Hulk. I respected Benoit for his work ethic and I was delighted for him when he won the title (that ending at WM with him and Eddie tearfully embracing should and will go down in wrestling history), but I couldn't connect with the guy.

Shaneomac

Since it is a thread "who do you prefer" I would say Benoit as his matches where unreal and he brought a lot to the product that we see today(mainly from Japan and Stampede). However if the thread was who is the better of the two I would go with Hogan in that he has done a hell of a lot more for the industry than harm unlike Benoit. Hogan could draw and despite his matches not being technically great, forgetting about his return to WWE his matches where pretty good too with a couple of awesome angles along the way.

flahavaj

Benoit by a country mile. The greatest wrestler of all time in my opinion, no one has ever matched his intensity, technical prowess, crispness and desire to produce the goods every single time he stepped in the ring. The tragedy that was his final act doesn't alter that one little bit.

Hogan on the other hand was the second biggest star ever in America and while I respect the impact he had on the business, theres ony a handful of his matches I'd ever watch a second time and his ego and playing of the political game were notorious.

Brilliant picks Gerard yet again, these threads have done more to promote debate and discussion on the board than anything anyone has done on here in years.

currythis

No contest imo,Has to be the late great Chris Benoit.

Outstanding technician in the ring and he wrestled with such amazing intensity and aggression.

I met him in 2005 or 2006 when the smackdown! tour were over here and he was a really nice guy and signed autographs for everybody that wanted one,a class act.

Terrible tragedy what happenned in 2007.

CMpunked

When the "benoit incident" went down, people were praising his in ring ability, how great of a worker he was, the respect he gauged off everyone
How he never was booked in a bad angle in the idea if he was going over, or putting over, his opponent always looked pretty dam good.

Flip side is hogan.

Money hungry, some say created the lockeroom/backstage politics, had about as many moves as Ken Kennedy had injuries.
Great wrestler when your a kid, "superhuman" some say.

But when he dies people will be on about the movies, the persona, the "Hulk Hogan".
How many times did Hogan do hour long iron man matches?

But i bet they will rarely mention his wrestling.


So therefore as who i prefer as the wrestler?

I picked Benoit.
Because Hogan was just an "entertainer". Chris was a Wrestler and an entertainer.

gimmick

Easily Benoit for me.

As a kid I never really liked Hogan. Even when I was 8 or 9 and it was WM3, I did not buy into his superpowers and the older I got the more I got to dislike him, so I aint jumping on any bangwagon here. I do not like how he politicked to hold the belt constantly in the 80s and early 90s in WWE. I do not like anything about him, though i do have to admit professional wrestling probably would not be the same today without him.

Benoit for his part was the consumate pro. Great worker. One of the greatest. No such thing as a below par Chris Benoit match. Helped others along the way, most notbaly MVP in recent years. Had Benoit been around in the 80s he would be spoken of in the lore of Dynamite Kid, Tiger mask etc.

I can see this one being very one sided as well.

Bubs101

Hogan Hogan Hogan. Hogan is king and anybody who sees the big picture could never not vote for Hogan. People complain about how Hogan did business or how he could have made things better for other wrestler but if benoit had done business as well as Hogan he might not have had to kill himself every night and Hogan made the sport much bigger and breached World markets for the WWE making more money for everyone. He was the best face of the 80s and best heel of the 90, still holds the WWE's best PPV number and introduced tons of kids to the business.

Capable of decent matches (Japanese stuff for example) but normally put in there with absolute bricks like Bundy and Andre while Benoit got to work with Eddy, Liger and Jericho.

As for the stuff he did outside the ring, Hogan sold out and tried to launch his childrens careers by pulling a reality show. He cares so much for his kids that he won a father of the year award and still tried to get Nick sorted financially when he got into jail forgiving him instantly. Benoit killed his son

flahavaj

Bubs101 wrote: »

Hogan Hogan Hogan. Hogan is king and anybody who sees the big picture could never not vote for Hogan. People complain about how Hogan did business or how he could have made things better for other wrestler but if benoit had done business as well as Hogan he might not have had to kill himself every night and Hogan made the sport much bigger and breached World markets for the WWE making more money for everyone. He was the best face of the 80s and best heel of the 90, still holds the WWE's best PPV number and introduced tons of kids to the business.

Capable of decent matches (Japanese stuff for example) but normally put in there with absolute bricks like Bundy and Andre while Benoit got to work with Eddy, Liger and Jericho.

As for the stuff he did outside the ring, Hogan sold out and tried to launch his childrens careers by pulling a reality show. He cares so much for his kids that he won a father of the year award and still tried to get Nick sorted financially when he got into jail forgiving him instantly. Benoit killed his son

Its personal preference, not how influential that we're voting for though.

Iron Hide

Benoit. hands down.. hogan played to the crowd, benoit just wrestled

Bubs101

flahavaj wrote: »

Its personal preference, not how influential that we're voting for though.

Oh I realise that but it annoys me how somebody said this is going to be another landslide. Hogan is the most popular wrestler ever (at least in English speaking markets) and Benoit doesn't come close

flahavaj

Bubs101 wrote: »

Oh I realise that but it annoys me how somebody said this is going to be another landslide. Hogan is the most popular wrestler ever (at least in English speaking markets) and Benoit doesn't come close

Its an internet forum though, not your average wrestling fan on the street being polled. Benoit will win by a fair margin, I'd say.

Bubs101

Red Storm wrote: »

Benoit. hands down.. hogan played to the crowd, benoit just wrestled

Much more great wrestlers than eternal great faces. Playing to the crowd that well is much much harder

Bubs101

flahavaj wrote: »

Its an internet forum though, not your average wrestling fan on the street being polled. Benoit will win by a fair margin, I'd say.

Put this is after hours and there is one winner, depends how often I can bump this to the front

Mr.Nice Guy

Hogan.

As for Benoit...well the less said the better.

orestes

Another great choice of opponants by Ger, well done dude

If the results of Bret/Taker are anything to go by, this one should be pretty close if it follows the same wrestler vs entertainer route.

Personally, I'm torn. Benoit is definitely one of the greatest wrestlers in the history of the industry, but for years Hogan pretty much was the industry, we simply wouldn't have wrestling as we know it today without him (whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is up to personal opinion).

I'm voting Benoit

Max Power1

Hulk Hogan.

/poll

(this could be a whitewash)

Diabhal Beag

At least Benoit didn't whore himself out to the media on every possible occasion. Both are terrible people though.

orestes

Austin and Hogan discussion moved to a seperate thread. Please try and keep this thread on topic folks, Hogan or Benoit, thanks

dlofnep

Hogan by a long shot. Much more popular. Benoit was a better technical wrestler, but he never attained any sort of status that made him overwhelmingly popular. He was the "Good wrestler, boring on the mic" guy.

Podge2k7

Has to be Benoit. One of the best pure wrestlers of all time. I never liked Hogan, he's a boring wrestler and a terrible person. So for me it has to be Benoit.

Mr.Nice Guy

Podge2k7 wrote: »

I never liked Hogan, he's a boring wrestler and a terrible person. So for me it has to be Benoit.

I hope this is a joke!

Bounty Hunter

going just by what they did in Wrestling im going to go for.... Chris Benoit!

if it wasnt Who do you prefer, id have probably picked Hogan, i.e if it had been who was bigger or more important or drew more or whatever but I was never that much of a Hogan fan, he didnt entertain me much although i knew he had entertained Millions for years but not me so much whilst although i knew Benoit wasnt the best on the Mic put him in the ring with anyone and i was entertained so I preferred Benoit.

even if most of those that leave comments say Benoit though im predicting Hogan to win this. This is the best poll for the hidden results too imo

Max Power1

dlofnep wrote: »

Hogan by a long shot. Much more popular. Benoit was a better technical wrestler, but he never attained any sort of status that made him overwhelmingly popular. He was the "Good wrestler, boring on the mic" guy.

What he said!

orestes

Podge2k7 wrote: »

Has to be Benoit. One of the best pure wrestlers of all time. I never liked Hogan, he's a boring wrestler and a terrible person. So for me it has to be Benoit.

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

I hope this is a joke!

Let's not go there guys, please, it's been done over and over and it never ends well, we all know that

chopperbyrne

Hogan.

Nobody could work a crowd and get them involved in the match like him. He could also cut good promos and managed to go from being so stale to the biggest heel in pro wrestling and was great at it.

Sunset V

Fantastic pairing. Absolutely brilliant. Benoit sneaks it for me.

Jolt2007

Benoit for me, simply because if I'm bored I'm more likely to say to myself "I think I'll watch some Benoit" than I am "Must stick on some Hogan".

Shaneomac

Dont think I remember Benoit having a great match the last 3 years of his career. Very repetitive albeit probably out of his psycho scumbag killer control.

Bubs101

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

At least Benoit didn't whore himself out to the media on every possible occasion

Nobody would have cared if Benoit did

orestes

Shaneomac wrote: »

Dont think I remember Benoit having a great match the last 3 years of his career. Very repetitive albeit probably out of his psycho scumbag killer control.

This is the last warning in this thread on this matter. Keep to the subject, do not turn this into another Benoit-case thread. This game is the best thing to happen to the forum in a long time, I will not let it be messed up by by references to subjects that have been dealt with here ad infinitum.

Any further attempts to refer to the Benoit tragedy/Hogans personal affairs will result in a ban. No exceptions.

The subject is who do you prefer, as a wrestler or regarding the wrestling industry, their personal lives are not relevant or up for discussion.

gimmick

I thought we were meant to be keeping these guys' outside the ring persoans out of this? because it seems many are holding Hogans lifestyle and Benoits "incident" to skew their judgements.

Penn

Benoit has it for me. I respect everything Hogan did for the industry and all, and I know he was pretty much the man in the 80's and 90's. But I didn't watch wrestling in the 80's and 90's.

First saw Benoit when he joined the WWF with The Radicalz, and I was immediately impressed. Some of the matches he went on to have with Jericho and Angle were mindblowing. Hogan, even after he came back with the NWO in 2002, just never impressed me. I never found his promos entertaining. He wasn't great in the ring. His finisher was terrible. Hulking up was terrible. He was a lot of show but with no real talent. Benoit had the talent. He didn't have a lot of show but he didn't need any. His ringwork spoke for itself.

Kess73

Based only on wrestling related issues, it is Benoit by miles for me.


Hogan the wrestler I disliked as a kid, and when I grew old enough to rewatch those matches from the 80's, my opinion of him dropped even lower.



Benoit, on the other hand, was an amazing wrestler and I can still watch old matches with him in them and still sit there and think that as a wrestler he was top class.

michael.etc...

I abolutely have to choose Chris Benoit in this.

I never, and I mean... NEVER like Hulk Hogan. As a kid, i preferred the smaller, more athletic guys like Savage, Hart, Hennig, Michaels and Dynamite. Unquestionably, Hogan was a wonderful showman, who engaged the crowd like nobody else. But that said, I didn't enjoy his brand of entertainment (with some notable exceptions), and couldn't percieve him as cool once his flamin' bandana fell off, exposing that ridiculous "skullet".
I appreciate Hogan's upside alot more now, but it still remains that the majority of his work would not be something I'd revisit.

Meanwhile, Benoit was one of the few guys who helped bring me back into the fold, by producing matches that enabled me to believe in the stories he told. Benoit was almost without peer in the history of North American wrestling in terms of being utterly believable throughout his matches. I also think he was underrated as a personality. Yes, he struggled to deliver a decent promo, but he was often scripted like a complete tool. For me, he was phenomenal at playing a silent, aggressive technician, and the creative team often failed to fully capitalise on this. I fully believe his world title reign would have been more successful had he came out and destroyed people, rather than smiled goofily as he stepped through the curtain.

So, yeah, Benoit.

JP Liz

Chris Benoit - he did all his talking/entertaining in the ring

Lone Kimono

I never liked Hogan as a child, and that was before I even knew about him outside of the ring. Benoit was probably my 2nd or 3rd favourite wrestler when he was in the WWE. One of the greatest wrestlers ever. TBH I don't think Benoit was a bad person. Yes what he done in his last few hours was terrible, I don't know what caused him to do it, but going by reports from people that knew him they all painted a picture of him being a really good sort of person. His last few hours though, is how he will be remembered.

As for this poll, I haven't voted and to be honest I think I might sit on the fence. If I was asked this question over two years ago I would have answered Benoit in a second, but now I don't know. I loved watching Benoit matches over and over, his match against Angle at Royal Rumble 2003 was one of my favourite matches ever, but since his death I haven't watched one of his matches.

Another great poll, but the one I have found hardest to answer.

Bounty Hunter

Lone Kimono wrote: »

As for this poll, I haven't voted and to be honest I think I might sit on the fence. If I was asked this question over two years ago I would have answered Benoit in a second, but now I don't know. I loved watching Benoit matches over and over, his match against Angle at Royal Rumble 2003 was one of my favourite matches ever, but since his death I haven't watched one of his matches.

Another great poll, but the one I have found hardest to answer.

i agree 100% with the above as I only voted after stating that I was only basing it on their in ring stuff and it wasnt who i prefered as a person or anything as tbh that isnt a road anyone wants this thread to go down.

orestes

Lone Kimono wrote: »

I never liked Hogan as a child, and that was before I even knew about him outside of the ring. Benoit was probably my 2nd or 3rd favourite wrestler when he was in the WWE. One of the greatest wrestlers ever. TBH I don't think Benoit was a bad person. Yes what he done in his last few hours was terrible, I don't know what caused him to do it, but going by reports from people that knew him they all painted a picture of him being a really good sort of person. His last few hours though, is how he will be remembered.

As for this poll, I haven't voted and to be honest I think I might sit on the fence. If I was asked this question over two years ago I would have answered Benoit in a second, but now I don't know. I loved watching Benoit matches over and over, his match against Angle at Royal Rumble 2003 was one of my favourite matches ever, but since his death I haven't watched one of his matches.

Another great poll, but the one I have found hardest to answer.

Banned for a week.

geeky

A poster made the very good point that, while Benoit got to work against some of the best in the business (Eddie G, Angle, etc.) Hogan spent his prime working with total planks: I doubt if anyone could have had a great match with Warrior, Andre the Giant or King Kong Bundy.

Can anyone recommend a match with Hogan against one of the best workers around? I've seen him w/ Savage at WM4 and I don't think the Michaels one counts because HBK was taking the mick through most of it.

Bubs101

I missed the massive part of his early career but his match with Kurt Angle is probably the best example of what you want because he was desperatly trying to get him over (gave him the only submission victory over him) and Kurt is ****ing great. It's not a masterclass but considering how far Hulk was away from his prime and comperable matches Angle had with other wrestlers considered Hogan's technichal peers (Kane debacle anyone) it's pretty good-decent

Jolt2007

geeky wrote: »

A poster made the very good point that, while Benoit got to work against some of the best in the business (Eddie G, Angle, etc.) Hogan spent his prime working with total planks: I doubt if anyone could have had a great match with Warrior, Andre the Giant or King Kong Bundy.

Can anyone recommend a match with Hogan against one of the best workers around? I've seen him w/ Savage at WM4 and I don't think the Michaels one counts because HBK was taking the mick through most of it.

I'd be willing to bet Hogan wrestled as many great workers as Benoit. Savage, Roddy Piper, Ted DiBiase, Antonio Inoki, Terry Funk, Bob Backlund, Nick Bockwinkel, The Great Muta, Stan Hansen, Paul Orndorff, Tatsumi Fujinami... so on and so on.

Bubs101

Jolt2007 wrote: »

I'd be willing to bet Hogan wrestled as many great workers as Benoit.

Yeah but I'd put my house on the fact that Benoit wrestled ten times less the amount of trash Hogan did and alot of Hogan's matches with good wrestlers followed the same formula that got him over against the **** .Benoit got stuck in divisions like the Japanese juniors, ECW and the WCW cruiserweights and then worked with Angle for a large part of his WWE career which were havens for great matches.

Regardless, pose, Hulk up and LEG DROP OF DOOM. That's what the Hulkamaniacs everywhere wanted to see and messing with that would have been insane. He had the greatest match ever to kids on the WM 3 card. Or his match with Warrior. Everyone remembers them for a reason and that's because they're perfect for kids. Power Rangers may be awful TV when you 20 but when your 6 it's amazing. Hogan may not have catered for adults well at all but for kids there is nobody alive who could touch him and that's no easier a skill then technichal masterpieces. Just because kids can't write the Observer

Tricity Bendix

I'm voting for Hogan. The wrestling business has always been about entertaining people. Hulk Hogan has entertained more people than any other North American wrestler. Its not about knowing a hundred different ways to escape a hold, its about getting the crowd to care about whether the worker can escape the hold or not. Just listen to the crowd go crazy during Hogan and Warrior's test of strength. Benoit couldn't get a reaction like that, not even by jumping head first off a steel cage.

flahavaj

Bubs101 wrote: »

Yeah but I'd put my house on the fact that Benoit wrestled ten times less the amount of trash Hogan did and alot of Hogan's matches with good wrestlers followed the same formula that got him over against the **** .Benoit got stuck in divisions like the Japanese juniors, ECW and the WCW cruiserweights and then worked with Angle for a large part of his WWE career which were havens for great matches.

Regardless, pose, Hulk up and LEG DROP OF DOOM. That's what the Hulkamaniacs everywhere wanted to see and messing with that would have been insane. He had the greatest match ever to kids on the WM 3 card. Or his match with Warrior. Everyone remembers them for a reason and that's because they're perfect for kids. Power Rangers may be awful TV when you 20 but when your 6 it's amazing. Hogan may not have catered for adults well at all but for kids there is nobody alive who could touch him and that's no easier a skill then technichal masterpieces. Just because kids can't write the Observer

For the first time in months I'll agree with the bauld Bubs on the Hogan point. Putting him in with smaller, more mobile, so called "better" workers would have been ridicuous in the extreme. The whole Hogan persona was based around him beating monster opponents, taking a beating and feeding off the crowd to launch his comebacsk and get the win. Its a simple formula, which I personally don't particularly care for, but by God it was popular back in the day. Why would they have booked him any other way, when it was a tried and tested booking ploy that made money like no other (Austin aside of course:pac:).

Benoit on the other hand was booked for the most part to his particular strengths, which was to consistently have the best match on the card, wit athletic wrestlers of a similar size and ability. Any promoter who didn't do that was a f*cking idiot to be perfectly honest.

Theres little point therefore in saying one guy had better opponents or not. For the most part they were both booked with the opponents that suited their particular skill set. If they had swapped roles, they'd both have been disasters in every way possible. Whether you enjoy what Benoit produced with his particular set of opponents or what Hogan did with his is totally a matter of personal opinion after that.

Mossy Monk

Hogan never entertained me. Benoit did.

Hogan is an asshole