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On This Date in WWF History (Apr. 24): Hulk Hogan defends the WWF title against Sgt. Slaughter

The WWF toured Europe around this time back in 1991 and taped a show from the London Arena called "Rampage", which featured the main event of Hulk Hogan defending his WWF Championship against Sgt. Slaughter in front of a fantastic UK crowd.

By June M. Williams
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On this date in history, the WWF was touring Europe on their UK Rampage Tour of 1991. The venue was held at the London Dockland Arena, London, England, and occurred in between WrestleMania VII and SummerSlam IV. The main event saw none other than Hulk Hogan defending his WWF Title against one Sgt. Slaughter in front of a spectacular Brit crowd.

Commentary for the event was provided by the big man himself Vince McMahon, accompanied by Rowdy Roddy Piper, who acted as his on-air sidekick and play-by-play guy. The two did a decent job hamming it up for the at-home audience, with plenty of energy and enthusiasm, but spent most of their night working on getting their bad jokes over, more than actually putting anyone in the ring over.

We did get a break from Piper and Vince on commentary for a few decent interviews conducted by Gene Okerlund throughout. Touch of trivia: the refs on the tour were Mike Chioda and Earl Hebner, and the ring announcer was Niall Phillips. Also worth noting, the event was plagued by production issues, including lighting being intermittent throughout some matches, issues with the entrance and intro themes in the beginning of the show, as well as with the ring announcements:


The main event itself was certainly one worth watching, it ran between 15-20 minutes; featured Hogan choking Slaughter around the ring with a Union Jack flag from the crowd before finally slamming him head first into the corner post, Hogan's distracting bandage hanging from his forehead, and an insane UK crowd which made the match far better than it would have been elsewhere.

There were plenty of hammer fists and shenanigans throughout as well, including the ref being taken out and Slaughter's several failed attacks on Hogan in ring with a chair. Check out the match, complete with the Big Boot and an All-American Leg Drop:


Hulk Hogan vs. Sgt.Slaughter-WWF Title by Stinger1981

Other matches on the UK Rampage '91 card included Jim Neidhart defeating The Warlord, The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase (with Sherri Martel) defeating the Texas Tornado by countout, Greg Valentine defeating Haku, The Rockers (with André the Giant) defeating The Orient Express (with Mr. Fuji), Jimmy Snuka defeating The Barbarian, The British Bulldog defeating The Berzerker, and the Earthquake defeating Jake The Snake Roberts by DQ.

Any of you Cagesiders remember this one from back in the day? Was there anything that stands out in your memory, perhaps I forgot to mention? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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And now, from the desk of our CSS Senior Editor; for your viewing pleasure we bring to you, additional posts dusted off from the --

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