Made during the height of his fame, No Holds Barred is the film that was supposed to launch Hulk Hogan’s career into the stratosphere. I can recall begging my parents to take me to see this film more than once and always being given a laughing reply followed by “We’ll see.” Well, I didn’t see it until I was older and now I’m kind of wishing I hadn’t. For the most part it’s a giant WWE Hardcore match with just as much drama behind the scenes and just as much bad acting in all facets of the movie. Terry Bollea, Hulk Hogan as we know him, was a much better actor in the WWE, or WWF as it was called then, and honesty should have stayed there since he was a lot more believable. This wasn’t the last film he starred in or the first, but it was one that he probably should have walked away from.
Really, no joke. I was so psyched for this movie that I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
10. Hogan and Vince McMahon came up with this script.
Both men produced it and after seeing what New Line Cinema did to the script stayed up for 72 hours rewriting and fixing the script. Chances are it would have been better being left alone.
9. Zeus was actually brought to the WWF.
The problem was that he wasn’t a real wrestler. He only lasted three matches and they were pretty lame all around.
8. There were a few accidents on the set.
Hulk Hogan accidentally broke Zeus’s nose and cut his hand up pretty badly on the leftover shards from a broken mirror.
7. Jim Ross made a quip about the movie.
The legendary announcer made the comment when the film was mentioned that it should have been titled No Profit Allowed.
6. The movie was named for a specialty match in the WWF.
The No Holds Barred match is a special kind of match in which there are no disqualifications, meaning that the wrestlers can do most anything and use anything they need to in order to win the match.
5. Hulk Hogan did wear blue and white at some point in his career.
His normal color scheme is red and yellow and instead of Rip ’em his shirts usually said American Made.
4. The shape of the ring was obviously different.
The ring in a wrestling match is usually square, but Global Force Wrestling did come up with a six-sided ring.
3. Hogan’s finishing maneuver in the film is a double jackhammer.
This is a pretty standard move that is used by a lot of wrestlers, or was back in the day. Now it looks a little contrived and can ruin a match due to the move being telegraphed.
2. Zeus was angry about losing in the movie.
It was an act of course to try and promote the movie. He came in claiming that he could beat Hogan in real life but the match never happened.
1. The movie could have determined the main event for Wrestlemania VI.
Had No Holds Barred done anything at the box office other than flop it would have set up Hulk Hogan vs. Zeus for the coming Wrestlemania. But obviously that didn’t happen.
If you’ve got spare time to kill or need something to fall asleep by, then I’d recommend this.
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