10 Wrestling Feuds That Borrowed From Unlikely Inspirations
2. The Undertaker Vs Hulk Hogan (The Undertaker Vs Hulk Hogan)
Unlikely not because of the combatants, but because of the quality (or lack thereof) of the work, The Undertaker Vs Hulk Hogan - in entirely different guises - somehow had horrendous matches a full decade apart.
At Survivor Series 1991, the pair were being themselves right around the time the audience were starting to need a little more steak underneath the sizzle. Undertaker was all gimmick and theoretically a perfect Hogan heel, but suffered from fans being less attached to 'The Hulkster' than ever before. In contrast to his matches with Andre The Giant and The Ultimate Warrior, Hogan's style looked exposed rather than celebrated.
11 years on, both looked long past their best, but were booked to go again at May's Judgment Day. 'The Deadman' was yet to find his mid-2000s form, whilst Hogan's nostalgia comeback had worn as thin as his follicles about a second after he'd defeated Triple H for the WWE Championship the prior month.
A lousy feud between the two needed to lean on their history for heft, but it probably should have left out the Survivor Series' glacial workrate. Hogan struggling to get up for a chokeslam is the saddest visual, but somehow about as mobile as he looked in the original outing.