Hogan At Mania IX

Scott,

Why did Hogan agree for his big comeback at WrestleMania IX to be a mid-show tag fiasco with Ted DiBiase and IRS of all people?

Did he know he was always going to be champion at the end of the show so it didn’t matter? Was it a leg-up favour to Beefcake,DiBiase and IRS? Did Bret Hart air a view that influenced matters at the time?

Why not just go all-in with him winning the Rumble and facing Bret? Or enticing Flair to stick around for a few months more? Or Luger or even Savage/Taker in a face/face match?

​The assumption when Hogan was making his initial deal to return is that he didn’t want to be full-time by any stretch. They knew he was doing Thunder in Paradise and that the whole steroid scandal was still hanging over him, so there was no plan to make him World champion and then have him leave right away. And then, as we see in this week’s Flashback, he and Beefcake popped a rating and boosted houses a bit, so I bet in Vince’s mind Hulk was going to save the WWF’s failing business again and we got what we got. Vince tends to be impulsive, in case you haven’t noticed.​