Hulk Hogan's rare TV Matches

Growing up when I was a kid I used to watch Superstars of Wrestling every week and looking back Hulk Hogan never wrestled on show.  Sure he made appearances on talk shows or interview segments to enhance an angle or feud but her very rarely actually had a match on TV.

The only one I can remember is when he teamed with Orndorff against Bundy & Studd and Orndorff turned on him leading to there match at Saturday Nights Main Event.  Sure Hogan wrestled at all the PPV's and Saturday Nights Main Event but never on Superstars, Challenge, or All American Wrestling just clips of matches.

So I decided to take a look and see just how many matches he had starting from when he won the Championship.  Turns out the match I remember wasn't even on Superstars, it was on Championship Wrestling the precursor to Superstars of Wrestling.

This list does not contain matches on shows taped at MSG, Boston Garden, The Spectrum, or Maple Leaf Gardens because I did not get those channels in my area, or Prime Time Wrestling because it was a compilation of everything.

Championship Wrestling

January 14, 1984 Allentown, PA Agricultural Hall, taped 1/3/84
Hulk Hogan & Bob Backlund defeated Mr. Fuji & Tiger Chung Lee when Hogan pinned Lee with the leg drop

April 14, 1984 Allentown, PA Agricultural Hall, taped 3/6/84
World Champion: Hulk Hogan pinned Tiger Chung Lee with the leg drop

August 5, 1984 Brantford, Ontario the Civic Center, taped 7/10/84
World Champion: Hulk Hogan pinned Jerry Valiant with a leg drop

January 19, 1985 Poughkeepsie, NY Mid-Hudson Civic Center, taped 12/17/84
World Champion: Hulk Hogan pinned Johnny Rodz with the leg drop

June 1, 1985 Poughkeepsie, NY Mid-Hudson Civic Center, taped 5/7/85
World Champion: Hulk Hogan defeated Ken Patera with Bobby Heenan & Big John Studd by disqualification when Studd and Heenan interfered, Paul Orndorff made the save preventing them from cutting Hogan's hair

November 9, 1985 Poughkeepsie, NY Mid-Hudson Civic Center, taped 10/22/85
World Champion: Hulk Hogan pinned Rusty Brooks with a leg drop in 36 seconds, Randy Savage attacked Hogan after the match but Hogan cleared the ring

March 29, 1986 Poughkeepsie, NY Mid-Hudson Civic Center, taped 3/11/86
World Champion: Hulk Hogan pinned Moondog Spot with a leg drop

July 12, 1986 Poughkeepsie, NY Mid-Hudson Civic Center, taped 6/24/86
World Champion: Hulk Hogan & "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff defeated The Moondogs when Orndorff pinned Rex with a piledriver, Orndorff refused to tag in Hogan during the match

July 19, 1986 Poughkeepsie, NY Mid-Hudson Civic Center, taped 6/24/86
World Champion: Hulk Hogan & "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff defeated King Kong Bundy & Big John Studd with Bobby Heenan by disqualification when Bundy & Studd wouldn't stop double teaming Hogan.  After the match Orndorff attacked Hogan with a clothesline and a piledriver

All Star Wrestling

April 14, 1984 Hamburg, PA the Fieldhouse, taped 3/7/84
World Champion: Hulk Hogan pinned Afa with Captain Lou Albano & Sika

January 5, 1985 London, Ontario London Gardens, taped 12/16/84
World Champion: Hulk Hogan pinned Terry Gibbs with the leg drop

August 17, 1985 Brantford, Ontario the Civic Center, taped 8/5/85
World Champion: Hulk Hogan pinned Tiger Chung Lee with the leg drop, this match was also re-aired on a best of show on December 28, 1985

Superstars of Wrestling

May 23, 1987 Anaheim, CA Convention Center, taped 5/12/87
World Champion: Hulk Hogan pinned "Cowboy" Bob Orton Jr. with Mr. Fuji with a leg drop, the top rope broke during the match

May 14, 1988 New Haven, CT The Coliseum, taped 4/21/88
Hulk Hogan pinned Boris Zhukov with Slick & Nikolai Volkoff with the leg drop, post match Volkoff and Slick entered the ring, Volkoff was slammed and leg dropped while slick was given an atomic drop to the outside.

March 10, 1990 Phoenix, AZ, Veterans Memorial Coliseum taped 2/13/90
World Champion: Hulk Hogan pinned Dino Bravo with Jimmy Hart and Earthquake with a leg drop, after the match Earthquake attacked Hogan with Warrior making the save.

He had no matches on Wrestling Challenge and only 15 matches on these three primary shows in the 9 years he was in the promotion since his first championship.  That's not a lot of matches because back then you had to go to the house shows to see Hogan live.  TV was used to build the house shows unlike now where TV is the primary and house shows are just an opportunity to see the wrestlers live.

Let's put this in perspective, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair who wrestled in the WWF for 17 months had 15 matches on Superstars and Challenge during that time.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, check out my other posts, and like my Facebook page.

Later Readers!

Random Wrestling: Jim Breaks

I don't ever recall hearing or reading about Jim Breaks before, but after hearing Daniel Bryan talking about him during Zack Sabre Jr's matches in the Cruiserweight Classic Tournament I wanted to look into him but forgot until recently.

I've always been very fond of the British style of wrestling and many of my favorites are from that style of wrestling.  Dynamite Kid, William Regal, Fit Finlay, Dave Taylor, Zack Sabre Jr to name a few.  One of the things I like most about Sabre Jr is his unique arm locks and wrist joint manipulations that he does and Daniel Bryan called it the Jim Breaks Special.

Searching the internet I couldn't find out much about Jim Breaks:

Born March 25, 1940, he hails from Bradford, England, he's short at 5' 5", has the nickname "Cry Baby" and began wrestling in 1954.  He wrestled for both Joint Promotions and Brian Dixon's All Star Wrestling and the last recorded match I can find is June 8, 1988 where he defeated Peter Bainbridge at the Civic Hall in Bedworth, England for All Star Wrestling.

Step one of the Jim Breaks Special

Championships Held

10 time British Lightweight Champion
winning his first title on October 16, 1963 and is tenth on March 22, 1984

8 time British Welterweight Champion
winning his first title on June 11, 1967 and his last on September 12, 1983

16 time European Lightweight Champion
winning his first title on March 9, 1967 and his last sometime between March 12, 1990 & February 5, 1991

Jim Breaks Special locked in on Young David (Davey Boy Smith)

I also found him listed as a World Lightweight Champion with him winning the title May 11, 1985 but the lineage was questionable.

I couldn't find much of anything else out so I watched some matches on You Tube and I must say I was thoroughly entertained!  He's a heel and the nickname "Cry Baby" came from his tendency to cry out, throw tantrums, and argue with the referee and the crowd during his matches.  He used comedy and trickery in his matches getting the ire of the fans. During the matches, especially the one with Dynamite kid, when he delivers a joint move you can hear a popping or cracking noise and I all I can think of his he's making the noise with his mouth or someone at ringside is, but if that is the case the timing is amazing.

Here is the links to the matches that I watched:

 Jim Breaks vs. Johnny Saint - March 14, 1973 World of Sport simply and amazing match by two of the best in the business.

Jim Breaks vs. The Dynamite Kid - World of Sport sometime in late 1978, Kidd was the Lightweight Champion at the time and Breaks was the Welterweight Champion.  Kidd would later beat Breaks for the Welterweight Championship January 25, 1979.

Jim Breaks vs. Tom Thumb - World of Sport maybe early 80's not really sure.  Thumb was shorter than Breaks and this was primarily a comedy style match.

Jim Breaks vs. Sammy Lee - World of Sport about 1980.  Sammy Lee is the legendary Satoru Sayama the first Tiger Mask in NJPW.

Jim Breaks Special Compilation - A video of Jim Breaks locking on his finisher to many different wrestlers

You can find numerous more videos of Mr. Breaks in action on You Tube.  I would really like to know more about Jim Breaks and I'm going to keep searching because maybe I'll find something and If I do I will share it here.  Currently he resides on the Canary Islands,

Thanks for reading, please check out my other posts, leave a comment, and like my Facebook page.

Later Readers!