Scott,
Hulk Hogan feuded with Mr. Perfect in late '89-early '90. At the same time, I remember an angle run on TV where Brutus Beefcake had a run in with "The Model" Rick Martel
, cutting up his clothes that he had been modelling, kick off a feud between those two. Then it seemed that it was abruptly changed, when Beefcake had a run in with Mr. Perfect at the Royal Rumble, totally no-selling the run in he had with Martel a couple weeks before.
It seems to me that Beefcake was being put in a feud with a guy who was a hot heel at the time, with the heat from the Hogan-Perfect feud now being transferred to Beefcake-Perfect. Then Beefcake gets into the career-defining accident, cutting everything off.
Given that Hogan got his feud with Beefcake at Starrcade '94, do you think that Beefcake was being groomed as yet another "Hogan friend turned enemy" run, if he had not gotten into the accident?
I doubt it. Beefcake already had his run with Hulk in 85 and didn't do any business, so I don't see them bothering with another try in 91. Clearly Beefcake was someone who the fans wouldn't buy as a heel anyway, as WCW discovered many times. Plus you would think Beefcake would have been smart enough to know that his bread was clearly buttered on the Hulk side. Although try clearly missed an opportunity by not having him ever betray Hulk so that we could someone crying 'ET TU, BRUTI?' in the context of a wrestling angle.