The Ultimate Hulk Hogan Anthology is a four disc (well, three discs plus a bonus disc which adds up to four but only if you shop in certain stores around the world) which covers much of the orange icon’s wrestling career. The first three discs go in chronological order from 1980 to 2005 – a worrying twenty five years of Hulkster action.

I’m going to skip the brief vox pops between matches as they add nothing – it is time which could’ve been spent showing clips of other stuff and – perchance – revving up interest in a second Ultimate Anthology. If he gets to three, he would be on a par with the Beatles (ahead of them if one includes the bonus disc) and he would like that.

Our opening match is Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant. Not the uber-famous match from 1987’s Wrestlemania III. Nor the semi-famous match on the undercard of Sammartino vs Larry Zbyszko. This was a TV match from 1980, recorded in a small arena before a few hundred fans. Overwhelming it was not. The confrontation which would become iconic just seven years later was pedestrian and more than a little strange. The bodyslam heard round the world? Nope – Andre picked Hogan up and slammed him to not much reaction, Hogan responded by picking Andre up and slamming him. Hogan then used a foreign object in his elbow pad to bloody Andre up and the match just ended. I mean just ended. Hogan hit the move, Andre went down and Hogan rolled out of the ring and did an interview with the waiting (and extremely young looking) Vince McMahon Jr.

Next we go to 1983 and a huge match between AWA champion, Nick Bockwinkel and number 1 contender, Hulk Hogan. Hogan was by now a huge babyface and the ten or fifteen thousand in attendance were desperate for him to unseat the long time heel champ. The match was booked well for the most part – Hogan bounced Bockwinkel around for several minutes, Bockwinkel got some heelish moves in and took over for a bit, Hogan made his comeback et cetera. The crowd was loving it and could sense that this was the night when Hogan would win the world title. They screwed it up of course – the AWA was nothing if not guaranteed to screw everything up eventually. During a tussle in the corner, Bockwinkel fell over the top rope to the floor. He got back in, Hogan hit the big boot, leg drop and pin. The crowd erupted, everyone was celebrating, Hogan held the world title and did that thing he does when he wants you to think he is crying with joy. WWE dubbed "Real American" over whatever music was playing in the arena and it was weird to hear a song apparently playing two years before it was written but it was still an impressive moment. If they’d stopped there, the AWA might’ve survived longer. But Mean Gene Okerlund announced that, because Hogan was adjudged to have thrown Bockwinkel over the top rope (illegal in those days, as hard as it is for a modern fan to understand), he was being disqualified. Therefore Bockwinkel retained the belt. Everyone was angry – a riot nearly broke out and it is regarded by most observers that this was the night the AWA began to die. Never again would they have a moment that big. Never again would people talk about the AWA as one of the Big Three. An AWA with Hogan on top and all the money and momentum he brought to the table in 1983 could’ve competed – maybe not with the McMahon juggernaut (although it is debatable whether the WWF would’ve got so big without Hogan as there wasn’t another obvious leading man – but certainly with the NWA of Ric Flair, Lex Luger and the Road Warriors.

As a complete contrast, the next match is Hogan’s WWF title win against the Iron Sheik. In five and a half minutes it demonstrates just how easy and effective a title win can be. Hogan starts at a pace – bouncing the Sheik around to the delight of Madison Square Garden. The hated Arab being demolished by the American super hero was what they’d paid to see and by god they loved it. But Sheik gets a comeback – Hogan made a mistake and Sheik was able to use his loaded boot to inflict punishment. He locked on his devastating submission hold –the camel clutch, the move that had won him the title only a month before – and Hogan appeared doomed. But he Hulked up, sent Sheik flying, hit his leg drop and pinned him. No swerves, no controversy, no reversal by the referee, no ambiguity, no disappointment, no nothing. Just exactly what the people wanted, a new champion winning by virtue of being clearly the better man and an era was born. There have been better matches over the years but perhaps never has there been a more perfect match. It achieved everything it needed to and even without the benefit of hindsight, even if Hogan had subsequently flopped as champion, his reign got off to the best possible start.

We end this column with one of Hogan’s early title defences. He’s facing "Big" John Studd – a six foot ten inch monster who was part of the Bobby Heenan Family. The match was pedestrian at best – Hogan tried to work round the lumbering Studd but nothing was doing. He even juiced to try and liven things up. Hogan ended up being counted out and Studd left as if he won the title as well as the match. He would remain a thorn in Hogan’s side for another couple of years. Yes, they really did use MSG main events as angles and got away with it as well. This entry on the Anthology is only really of interest because it is very early WWF appearance for Bobby Heenan. The announcers spent most of the bout explaining who Heenan is and why he’s a nasty piece of work. Bobby the Brain was part of the WWF furniture for so long that it’s interesting to see him as the new boy.

We’re not even half way through the first disc in the set and I’m already done. We’ve seen how not to treat the world title (or your audience), how to do a title change and the time Hogan and Andre fail to arouse much interest at all.