Hulk Hogan's Unreleased Collector's Series

Tell anyone you are a wrestling fan and the first thing they say (after they have finished pointing and laughing) is 'You mean Hulk Hogan?' No one in the history of any sport has the worldwide recognition of Hulk Hogan and the fact is it is doubtful whether anyone ever will. Hulk Hogan's Unreleased Collector's Series is essentially all the stuff that WWE didn't put on Hogan's previous set. The set takes the form of a collection of matches, promos and vignettes from Hogan's career up until 2005 and with his recent defection to WWE's rival TNA, it is unlikely that another collection will be released anytime soon.

The three disk DVD is simply a collection of matches and promos that cover Hogan's career. There are no comments from other wrestlers or Hogan himself it is simply just a collection of matches. These include matches against such wonderful stars as Angelo Gomez, Kamala, Killer Khan, One Man Gang and King Haku. Don't recognise any of those names? Then you obviously didn't watch wrestling during the 80s... Actually, if I'm honest even I only had a rough idea who any of these were and none of these particular matches are masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination. Of course in amongst the twenty-nine matches, there are some wonderful ones against Andre the Giant (No, not the Wrestlemania III match) Randy 'Macho Man' Savage (No, not the Wrestlemania V one) and Ric Flair (Nope!). Of course, those who have bought this set will already own the 'Hulk Hogan Ultimate Collection' and so there should be no real gripes about the inclusions and I can't think of anything from Hogan's career that isn't represented in some way between the two. As much as I'd like to say that everything on the set is watchable, I simply can't do it, with many of the matches simply awful and other than for curiosity I can't imagine why anyone would watch some of them. A number of times during the set, the matches have a new commentary by Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, but if I'm honest I wish they had done this on all matches (even if it was just as an alternate commentary) so that at least I may have some reason to watch all of them.

One of the odd things about the set is the decision to include random promos throughout which outside the context of the match (other than a brief clip) makes it seem a bit pointless. I understand them wanting to show how good a promo man Hogan was, but really what is the point having the Snake Pit with Hogan discussing the Wrestlemania III match or a promo about the Ultimate Warrior if you don't follow this with the match? However, one of the highlights of the entire set is a scene with Mr T and Hogan grocery shopping. I kid you not. This shot in one take is almost like a Saturday Night Live sketch with Mr T telling Hogan what to buy including a protein shake which and I quote 'Will put hair on your head!' It's a wonderful scene and at times you can see both of them at almost the verge of laughing at each other which is just great to watch. What did surprise me was the inclusion of almost an entire disk devoted to his WCW days which is represented by five matches of varying quality, but then you could make that comment about the entire set.

Hulk Hogan's Unreleased Collector's Series is an odd beast; they really should have called this Hulk Hogan: The Deleted Scenes. You know how with many films they will include a number of deleted scenes and most of them, you can understand why they were cut, but there is always one or two that you think 'That would have worked'? Well, imagine a company releasing a full set of just deleted scenes; this is what watching this DVD felt like. There is a lot of stuff I could happily watch again, such as his matches against Savage, Flair and a number of his promos, but the rest feels almost like WWE have just raided the archives and found anything they could without a thought about whether anyone would acting want to watch them in the first place. At times you can understand perfectly why some of this was unreleased and really it probably should have remained so. A good set for Hogan fans, but those who aren't may be a little disappointed by the lack of polish and quality on most of this set.