Hogan vs. Flair (HVF)

Hogan vs. Flair (HVF) is a comedy based fantasy/CAW league that began in January 2010. It is produced by the same owner as EFW and is considered a “brother” league. The league mainly uses Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth for the PS2 and borrows heavily from the game’s provided roster. mDickie’s mPire Wrestling 2008 is used on all special shows such as Empty Arena.

Main YouTube PageJTV Stream

History

The league formed under 3 main influences:

In the Fall of 2009 EFW created a series of “Apple Pie” remixes based from a Botchamania ending where Hulk Hogan saying “yappa pie” is repeated in succession. The videos received excellent feedback and eventually became the most watched videos on EFW’s channel. The HVF channel feature remixes of promos from the Hulkamania Australia tour in addition to additional Apple Pie remixes.

EFW from the start has been a serious original CAW league but with a comedic edge to some parts. Ideas were formed in Fall 2009 for a 100% comedy league using Smackdown SYM and were planned on going into motion after EFW’s Urban Warfare event in March 2010. Some EFW wrestlers have appeared during streamed events but are not members of the official roster.

Around the same time that the HVF YouTube account was created was also when Hogan and Flair jumped back into the spotlight in TNA. The league would be molded into a battle between teams of Hogan’s wrestlers vs. Flair’s wrestlers with comedic surprises thrown in. Interestingly enough in TNA the Lethal Lockdown match in 2010 was Team Hogan vs. Team Flair.

Shows

HVF produces a show usually anywhere in 1-3 month spans. It does not follow a sequential episodic “TV” style format, but rather a series of shows with connected storylines.

To date, 5 shows have aired:

1) Pilot Match

2) Axshiboomba!!!

3) Final Fantasy Football

4) Good MILF Hunting

5) Empty Arena

Production

HVF was originally billed as “The show recorded on a $2 VCR and edited on a $100 editing program” because the video was recorded on tape separately from the commentary. This process changed when said $2 VCR broke and was replaced by a $13 VCR. As commentary was no longer two people in the same room, from EP4 onward the production was done all digital.

Commentary

Commentary is recorded with the match not being viewed beforehand as to add the surprise element to it.

Lead Commentator – Joe Lexington, or “Jo Lex” for short. Lexington is considered as the straight face commentator.

Color Commentator – “Caveman” Carl Touretta. Caveman is portrayed as a rough, vulgar commentator that pokes fun at the wrestlers. He has been described as “every pro wrestling guest commentator at once.” Caveman’s commentary is considered as one of the popular points of HVF.

Caveman has been known for his catchphrases including:

“BOTCH!” – One of the ideas of the show was to blatantly and obviously point out gaffs by the game’s AI instead of trying to cover it up on commentary or ignore it. This is emphasized by Caveman shouting BOTCH with text flashing on the screen. There are multiple variations of this, the most common being errors on commentary (COMMENTARY BOTCH!) or a miss from a high spot (ATOMIC BOTCH!)

'''“ANYONE! EVEN YOU! CAN DO A RUSSIAN LEG SWEEP!”''' – Slowly built up gradually in Pilot Match and first mentioned in Pilot Match’s main event. This was due to a large portion of the game roster performing the Russian leg sweep in the show. Since then the phrase usually relates to the wrestler that performed the Russian leg sweep. As a standard rule, all CAW wrestlers have the Russian leg sweep in their move set.

Various one-word commentaries – “SUPLEX!” for every time Steiner/Midget Steiner does a belly-to-belly suplex in a match, “DEATH!” when Maven uses a release German suplex, and “SLAP!” when Torrie Wilson does her women’s special slap finisher. Those are some examples of Caveman’s insightful commentary.

Lead Stream Commentator – “Caveman Camrin”, an informal cross between EFW’s Camrin Jones and Caveman.

Rules

1) NO FUCKING TITLES – No title belts are recognized in HVF, regardless if they were won in another fantasy/CAW league or in real life. Multi-league titles, such as the CoC Championship, can be defended on the HVF stream but does not acknowledge title holders in the league and on commentary. A person’s win-loss record is easier to follow and is more important that a piece of shiny metal around someone’s waist.

2) Win/Loss Record counts – the number of wins and losses coupled with their entertainment value determines a person’s spot on the card.

3) Hogan and/or Flair are in the Main Event at all times, as either managers, referees or wrestlers.

4) All matches are CPU controlled to provide an unbiased outcome to the match. The only exceptions to this rule were the Kevin Nash Burial Gauntlet Match and Mongo’s and Caveman's special refereeing in Empty Arena.

5) Popcorn Match – The match before the main event is booked as a throwaway match with jobbers, typically Hardcore Holly and other undercard talent not assigned to a team. The match is normally interrupted with other matches or footage, or has been ignored on commentary and fast forwarded in the past. Past game footage that has interrupted popcorn matches have included “Saturday Afternoon Bowling” (Ten Pin Alley) and “The Mid-South Implosion” (Legends of Wrestling II)

6) HVF JTV stream matches do not count towards a person’s win/loss record. JTV matches are considered house show/test matches used for experimenting with combinations and wrestlers.

Spin-Offs

MEAT Stasiak’s Seasoned Mode – A non-canon JTV stream that followed the game’s season mode with running commentary. Caveman plays through as MEAT Stasiak through 2 years of Smackdown Shut Your Mouth’s season mode. The non-canon mode saw a number of created wrestlers that either were not designated to debut in HVF or have not yet appeared either.

Teams

Team Hogan – Leader: Hulk Hogan. Hogan’s team is considered as the primary face team. Colors are red and yellow.

- Rookie Orton – Randy Orton’s rookie year. Known for having an incorrect entrance video and unfitting piano music as his intro.

- MEAT Stasiak – a portmanteau of Sean Stasiak’s WWE gimmicks. Known for his spastic running style and beef-themed finishers (Beefspin and Meaty T)

- Torrie Wilson – her intro borrows from her “corpsing? Send for the man” gimmick from Botchamania. Commentary has been critical of her lack of wrestling skill and intelligence.

- Scott Steiner – a CAW recreation of Scott Steiner that frequently uses belly-to-belly suplexes.

- Midget Steiner – a smaller scale version of Steiner that uses a similar move set but uses stiffer finishing moves.

- Brutus Briefcase – Brutus Beefcake portrayed as Hogan’s defense attorney in Good MILF Hunting. Wears pink tights and boots with a business suit at the top. Shares an identical moveset and intro to Hogan.

Team Flair – Leader: Ric Flair. Flair’s team is the main heel team that has incurred the most losses of any other team in HVF. Colors are Blue and White.

- Ric Flair – portrayed as a heavily medicated version of his actual self, sometimes dancing and jumping to the ring.

- DDP – described as an old single jobber that performs a “self low five.” Part time yoga instructor as well.

- Maven – Flair’s rookie that does frequent dropkicks and diving headbutts, sometimes unintentionally onto an opponent’s anus.

- Jenna Morasca – one-time TNA wrestler of Survivor fame known for possibly the worst wrestling match ever. Throws her vagina and caution to the wind at any moment.

- Miss Handcok – WWE’s Stacy Keibler. Currently carries David Flair’s miscarriaged love child. Known for her frequent feud with Torrie Wilson.

- Linda “Troll” Hogan – Hulk Hogan’s CAW ex-wife that is known for her brutish looks and power wrestling moves. Possibly the ugliest CAW wrestler ever created.

- Team Third Dimension – The former Dudley Boys/Team 3D. They are named simply after their clothing attire due to legal reasons that WWE and TNA both own their respective names. The wrestler names were actually formed in the main event of Pilot Match.

o Bowling Shirt - Brother Ray/Bubba Dudley. The fat one.

o Camo Pants - Brother Devon/D-Von Dudley. The black one. Currently out of action following third degree burns suffered at Empty Arena.

- Wedding Stinger – Sting dressed up as a lounge singer. The majority of his original mannerisms are still in tact including his finishers.

- Jay Leno (inactive) - Late-night talk show host that served as DDP's tag team partner and manager. Had a brief run in Good MILF Hunting and Empty Arena as a single's wrestler but was released citing creative issues.

Team Weed – Leader: Rob Van Dam. They are a two-person team consisting of Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy that was originally considered for Team Hogan. RVD and Hardy missed the captain’s draft because they got high and instead formed their own team. During their matches they have been known to randomly pull out a ladder (The Ladder of Weed) and jump off for no apperent reason. Colors are green and white.

- RVD - Unofficially holds the record for largest Botch-to-move ratio. Became the first person to "Atomic Botch" in HVF by missing a frog splash from atop a ladder during Axshiboomba!!!.

- Jeff Hardy - Currently maintains the best win-loss record in HVF at 5-0 (as of Empty Arena.) Commentary is again critical of his sloppy wrestling style, teen fan base, and drug usage.

The Cover Band – Leader: Kevin Nash. Originally Nash was an individual member of Team Hogan but broke off to form his own group after Hogan’s roster grew too large. They are known for their theme song and quick replacement of roster members due to outside forces. They are a parody of “The Band” from TNA and of the NWO from WCW/WWE. Colors are Black and White.

- Kevin “Lucha” Nash – Kevin Nash portrayed as having lucha libre skills. This joke was formed in Pilot Match during the Gauntlet Burial match when he backflipped out of a suplex. Since then he has done the 450 splash in matches.

- King of HotSoup – Original CAW asian martial artist who uses submission skills and frequent strikes to the groin. When Sean-Pac was injured at Axshiboomba!!! HotSoup arrived as the mystery new member of the Cover Band. From Final Fantasy Football on he has stayed as a member of The Cover Band.

- Bubba the DJ – CAW parody on Bubba the Love Sponge. Usually serves as an outside manager of the group and advertises his radio station Y93 “The Wolf” on his shirt. Normally gets into matches against other wrestlers of lesser or equal quality.

- Sean-Pac (inactive) – Sean Waltman as a combination of his name and X-Pac. Won the Money in the Botch Ladder Match at Axshiboomba but landed on his neck and is currently out of action.

- Scott Hall – Considered an unofficial member of the Cover Band. After being released from rehab, Hall watched Final Fantasy Football to find that King of HotSoup was named the new Cover Band member. He fought HotSoup at Empty Arena in a 99 Bottles of Beer Deathmatch but lost.

Jobbers – They are a group of wrestlers that are used for Popcorn Matches and minor roles in HVF. Mostly their matches do not get a lot of attention. Val Venis was the only jobber to date to be offered a tryout spot with one of the teams, but did not win.

Val Venis – the only jobber who was almost offered a team spot, but lost a tryout match against Team Flair’s Maven.

DEFAULT – the default CAW selection and moveset from the game.

Hardcore “Bubba” Holly – he is known for having no entrance graphics or music. His matches get interrupted with much more entertaining stuff.

Scotty 2 Hotty – He dances. That’s about it.

Awards Received

Something Cawful 2010 Awards

Won:

Best Production Value

Match of the Year: Scotty 2 Hotty vs Val Venis (HVF Axshibooomba)

Best Commentators: Joe Lexington and Carl "Caveman" Touretta

Best CPV: Empty Arena

Funniest CAW Show

CAW League to watch out for in 2011

Nominated:

Best CPV: HVF Final Fantasy Football, HVF Axshibooomba

Most Underrated CAW Show

Best CAW Theme: 2001 A Space Odessey Metal Theme (Ric Flair) (from HVF Empty Arena)

Something Cawful CAW Show of the Week - Final Fantasy Football (Week of September 4th)