12 Biggest "What If" Scenarios In WWE WrestleMania History

Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair were easily two of the – if not the – biggest wrestling stars of the 80s and early 90s. When they finally battled in a one-on-one match at WCW’s Bash at the Beach in 1994, it was a huge deal.

But the Hulkster and Nature Boy were originally tapped to face off a couple years earlier – in the WWF at WrestleMania 8. Flair won the WWF Championship in an all-time performance in the 1992 Royal Rumble. Hogan was still the WWF darling, though his popularity with fans – and Vince McMahon – was waning. Still, a clash of these two titans while they were under one company’s umbrella seemed inevitable.

WWF went so far as to run 30 house show matches between Hogan and Flair in the three months before the Rumble, and a title match between the two at a house show the night after the Rumble. However, the matches didn’t captivate fans at the time in the way we would assume today. Those diminished returns and Hulk’s flagging relationship with the company led to WWF pivoting to a “double main event,” with Flair defending his title against “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Hogan closing WrestleMania 8 against Sid Justice.

Had the Hogan/Flair match happened as originally planned, it could have surprised WWF and fans. The build could have been centered on the outsider Flair holding WWF’s prized possession, with Hulk carrying the company banner to win it back. Flair would have bumped his a** off, and Hogan might have emerged with newfound popularity. There’s also a chance the Nature Boy would have come out of it as a top adversary for Hulk and been in more high-profile matches (he wasn’t even on the SummerSlam card that year). Maybe he would have hung around in WWF longer.

Regardless, the Hogan/Flair Bash at the Beach match in 1994 also would have lost some luster as a “first time ever” clash and would have forced WCW to change tactics to make it a big deal, such as Flair getting revenge on Hogan.