Hardcore wrestling legend and WWE Hall of Famer Abdullah the Butcher recently sat down for the Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw podcast and discussed a missed match against Hulk Hogan in WWE. As with some many Hall of Famers, both men have faced a number of opponents and there are many candidates for drawing matches.
Abdullah the Butcher Talks About Missed Hulk Hogan Match in WWE
Hulk Hogan and Abdullah the Butcher faced each other several times in New Japan during 1982. The matches all occurred in the same week and each one was an encounter. You could say that they were rarely in the same promotion at the same time and that would be true.
However, in 1980s WWE there was always a perfect time to bring Abdullah the Butcher in as an opponent for The Hulkster. From the late 1980s into the 1990s, the main way to book Hogan was as a monster slayer and giant killer. Bonus points if Hogan fought that monster in the steel cage!
It’s definitely a formula that worked for years during Hulkamania and few were as truly as monstrous and chaotic as Abby. He would explain the plan:
“I wrestled Hogan in Japan, we tore the place down. He got color for me, Bam, bam, he’s bleeding. I was just doing my stuff like that. We sold everything out in Japan and Hogan said…’I’m going to talk to Vince McMahon. I’m going to bring you in but you’re not going to wrestle nobody but me and I’ll make you so much money it’s unbelievable.’”
It sounds similar to what he told Rob Van Dam about a TNA match that never took place: it would make a lot of money. In that case, it was probably a one-off match—two if one is a tag or trios affair. In Abdullah’s case, the match was supposed to go down while both were active and drawing everywhere separately.
This is a collision that should’ve happened in WWE and didn’t happen because of scuttlebutt backstage, according to Abdullah the Butcher. He said that some wrestlers talked with Vince McMahon prior to the contract being signed. They brought his routine of using weapons, stabbing opponents, and bleeding during matches.
Depending on who told it, this had to sound like chaos or a crime scene. This was also at a time when WWE was very family-friendly and the marketing machine was in action. A character like Abdullah the Butcher would have to be adjusted significantly for WWE television.
Needless to say, the Abby contract was trashed. He would never wrestle in WWE but through his main event work in Stampede Wrestling, WWC in Puerto Rico, and in Japan, Abdullah was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011.
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