A bloody Ric Flair pinned Hollywood Hogan in the main event of the Mar. 14 WCW Uncensored pay-per-view event in Louisville, Ky. The “first-blood” cage match was the site subtle and not-so-subtle signs of heel turns by Ric Flair and referee Charles Robinson and a babyface turn by Hollywood Hogan.
The match was bizarre because it was a first-blood match, but the referee ignored that Flair suffered a cut and began bleeding rather heavily. The fans almost didn’t catch on at that point that it was a heel turn by the ref (who was protecting his job because Flair was president of WCW and thus his boss), but the fans did see the injustice when Robinson failed to count a pin when Hogan had Flair covered. That, along with Flair’s overall demeanor and the style of the match, did actually lead to some fans cheering Hogan and chanting his name. It wasn’t overwhelming, but WCW didn’t book it so it would be at this point.
Hogan put in one of his best efforts in the ring in years at the PPV (and the next night on Nitro), fighting aggressively, not playing the cowardly role that he has for so long that he no longer seemed the least bit tough (just lucky). Flair, at 50 years old, fulfilled a dream of his which was to hold the title at age 50. He won his first (NWA) world title from Harley Race in 1981 at age 32. Now he has held the NWA/WCW Title (which are tied together historically, although technically different titles today) in three different age decades. Now he just needs a reign in 2000 to have held the title in at least three different decades. Flair and Hogan put in a good performance in that they got their points across, had a match that didn’t look too “light” (like almost every Hogan match the past few years), and got the crowd to respond how they hoped.
To set the stage for the ref turn, when Flair got to the ring before the match, with a heelish demeanor, he told the referee not to stop the match for just an incidental cut or scrape. He told a phantom heckler in the crowd to “shut up if they don’t like it,” an old Flair trick to get the crowd to turn on him or begin booing. The transformation of Flair to a heel, though, has yet to be explained. All that has happened is that he has suddenly become obsessed with his own career and becoming a “14-time champion” (it’s actually a higher number than that) at the expense of his son and fellow Horsemen. It still is coming across somewhat sudden without any seeds being plants in recent months to make his sudden change of attitude make sense.
Hogan has not turned full-fledged babyface, either. He continued to align himself with Kevin Nash. Even though he is playing to the crowd and making Superman comebacks, it could reasonably be interpreted as him mocking the fans and his old babyface style. On Nitro the day after the PPV, he and Nash remained enemies with Goldberg, who remains a full-fledged babyface. On Nitro, Flair & Goldberg hesitantly agreed to team against Hogan & Nash. Flair played the heel role, Hogan & Nash tweener roles, and Goldberg the babyface role. So rather than an immediate full-fledged turn by Hogan, he may be trying to freshen and toughen his image, invite crowd cheers, but not pander or beg for them.
Hogan continues to plot against David Flair, but David continues to be oblivious to it (if only he watched Nitro he could see the video footage in recent weeks of Nash and Hogan scheming against him). At Uncensored, David sided with Hogan and against Flair. Arn Anderson, despite his problems with Flair’s attitude lately, sided with Flair and helped him beat Hogan. Anderson tossed Flair a tire iron which Flair used to knock out Hogan. Flair then covered Hogan and ref Robinson gladly counted to three.
The entire scenario is slated to play out with Flair and Goldberg feuding, but in the process gaining respect for each other. Flair will then turn babyface again and invite Goldberg to join the Horsemen. In the process, eventually Hogan is expected to regain the title from Flair. However, depending on politics behind the scenes and how the storylines play out and how fans react to the various semi-turns and turns, any of the plans could change.
