Starrcade 94 & The Butcher

By Scott Keith on 17th November 2022

Good morning Mr. Keith, hope all is well.

As bad as the feud and match between Hogan & Butcher was, I can at least get by some idea of the story behind it. Longtime Hogan friend who hasn't been a heel in forever betrays him, out of jealousy, money, whatever. Not the hardest booking to screw up in the history of wrestling. And I get Hogan even wanting to bring an actual friend in to work some shows, some tv time for both.
What I don't get is Hogan is def. all about the money and the draw and the attention. How did he see money in this compared to the who else was on the card at the time; Sting, Vader, Flair, to an extent Anderson.
Even if he was trying to recapture the magic he previously had, you had John Tenta there who he drew money with not too long before. Mr. T was even on the card, he could have done a celebrity tag match on the biggest show of the year. Was Orndorf still working? Not saying any one of that would have been an even decent match, but the results worked prior.
Who, besides Hogan, and how did even Hogan think, Hogan vs. Ed Leslie at Hogans first Starrcade was money? Did everyone involved think he was that bulletproof from the ppv numbers they did at Bash & Havok, it didn't matter who was in the main event?

That appears to be exactly what they thought. That being said, Butcher wasn't the first plan anyway, it's been pretty well documented that Curt Hennig was intended to be the guy in the black bodysuit. Originally the idea was Hennig costing Hogan the title to Flair at the Clash, but then the Hennig thing fell through and Hogan didn't want to drop the belt and we ended up where we did. I presume that Starrcade would have looked much different before Hulk rebooked the whole deal. I presume Flair defending the belt and Hogan seeking revenge on the Horsemen?