The fights sequences throughout the Rocky franchise have always been deeply engaging but outrageously ridiculous in their mechanics, and sternly serious affairs throughout. So it was refreshing that old Sly decided to break the formula for Rocky 3, by inserting some humour with the Charity Fight between Rocky and Hulk Hogan’s ‘Thunderlips’, bringing together valiant art of pugilism with the dubious entertainment of wrestling. Of course, pretty much everybody has seen wrestling doc’s like ‘Beyond the Mat’ or heard Mickey Rourke talk about his training for ‘The Wrestler’, with the general conclusion being that yes, these battle are highly choreographed, but the physical side is brutal stuff.
The Charity Fight in Rocky 3 is a great example of this. You get the feeling that it was Sly’s intention to script a statement on the argument regarding wrestling’s dubious qualities into the film. It’s certainly relevant considering that Rocky 3’s subplot revolves around the ‘Stallion’s’ ascendancy to an entertainment superstar, merchandised to the hilt for the icon greedy public, something the likes of Hulk Hogan knows all about.
Of course, everybody remembers how the fight runs. Rocky thinks it’s all horseplay, laughing off Thunderlipps’ pre-match insults and expecting the Hulkster to ham it up. A succession of bodyslam’s and suplex’s later, Rocko’s shell-shocked in the crowd, getting his gloves cut off so that he can grapple with the bigman on even terms, eventually tossing Thunderlips into the baying audience with the ref calling a draw just to end the madness.
As a fight scene, the wrestling scenes specifically, it’s pretty physical stuff. Yeah, of course it’s all choreographed, the ring in sprung and blah blah blah, but the whole scene took 10 days to film ($$$$ for the extras), with the Hulkster giving Stallone a bit of a hammering, as relayed by the guys themselves in an excerpt from an interview that Hogan conducted with Sly for the WWE website in 2006.
Hogan: Okay. WWE Superstars like me are always getting injured in the ring. As an action star – the greatest action star of all time – what is the worst injury you’ve ever suffered in front of the camera?
Sly: Truthfully, the hardest I was ever hit was actually by you, Hulk Hogan. We didn’t put it in the movie (Rocky III) because I was so traumatized. It was where you threw me into a corner and you leapt up, and you were really, really light on your feet that day, for 310 pounds. You went up and caught me with your shin, believe it or not, on my collarbone. I collapsed to the ground. I’ll never forget, I was laying there and I was thinking, “I don’t want to look. I don’t want to look because that bone is sticking through my flesh and it’s over. Here’s the end of the movie.” So that was the worst actual impact I ever had that was instantaneous, spontaneous, eruptive, absolutely mind-boggling pain at that time. When people tell me, “Oh, wrestling isn’t traumatic,” I say, “Trust me. He was going easy on me and I couldn’t see straight for three days.”
The Rocky 3 match is good fun, though the WWF tried it for real at the inaugural Wrestlemania, in one of the most ridiculous match-up’s in sporting history: Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorfff versus Hulk Hogan and Mr T, with Muhammad Ali as guest referee and FUCKING LIBERACE ringing the bell!!
Soak it up Fight Fans!
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