The Iron Sheik © vs Hulk Hogan
WWF World Heavyweight Title Match
01/23/1984
Some of the choices that are made for each day of this project are pretty self-explanatory and choose themselves. Good booking at times is looking to give the crowd what they want as to do anything else would be antagonistic for the sake of being difficult. A good example of this is Steve Austin winning the 1998 Royal Rumble; it never made any sense to be someone else, so obvious booking is obvious. In a similar vein, it would be remiss not to speak about the birth of Hulkamania, even if it is something that has been covered ad nauseum across the wrestling community. It is a moment you can’t avoid.
Having seen the finish to the match multiple times on WWE television over the years, it was only in recent time that I was able to see the build up to the contest. Unsurprisingly, seeing the syndicated TV shows and the booking that surrounded such an important event only adds another layer to the legend. This was the very epitome of strapping a rocket to a wrestler, all played out in less than a month.
After an injury caused by The Iron Sheik’s Arabian club challenge, Bob Backlund was always vulnerable in the subsequent WWF World Title match. Famously, Arnold Skaaland felt he had little choice but to throw in the towel, effectively awarding the Iron Sheik the WWF World Title. Per the usual contractual obligations, Backlund was pencilled in to have a rematch at the end of January to see if he could regain the title he had held for so long.
In a sequence of segments that would play out on WWE syndicated television, Backlund would first be declared unfit to wrestle having not yet recovered from the injuries sustained in the Camel Clutch, before Hulk Hogan found himself inserted into Backlund’s place in the main event, facing off for the world title. Hogan hadn’t yet been back in the company for a month up to this point and was seemingly head for confrontations with The Masked Superstar or Big John Studd. Now, he was taking on the Iron Sheik to be the number one guy in the promotion.
The match was booked expertly and seemed to showcase what would effectively become the Hogan formula that WWF fans became used to over the years. No five stars. No MOTYC. It isn’t what this match was designed to be. As a way to launch Hogan into the stratosphere, however, you couldn’t have asked for much better.
To their credit, the WWF made it seem like a big deal in the way it was handled before, during and after the match. The Iron Sheik and Blassie are rightfully annoyed about the switch, but don’t seem too worried about the task they will be facing – and for the most part of the match, they are right. After Hogan attacks The Iron Sheik with his own robe (a move that is a bit on the illegal side in my eyes, but I digress), Sheik works over Hogan, using a loaded boot and a couple of slams/submissions to put the big guy in real danger.
The importance of a well built finish is evident here – the Camel Clutch was a match ender, period. When Hogan gets locked in, there is legitimate fear from the crowd that their hero might not be able to defeat the evil foreigner. When Hogan is able to get up and slam Sheik back into the turnbuckle, there is an audible release of emotion, one part joy to one part relief. That The Sheik ends up on his back long enough for a legdrop off of this one move is a little ludicrous, but it could be argued that it makes the moment sweeter – the breaking of the Camel Clutch, the unbreakable submission, leading directly to the leg drop and the new champion.
The post-match continues to put the moment over the top. Andre the Giant, Ivan Putski and Rocky Johnson all join Hulk Hogan, and many a bottle of champagne is doused over the new champion; a champion who would reign for over four years as the WWF empire was built around him.
