Returning to WWE in February, 2002, Hulk Hogan was going under the guise of 'Hollywood Hogan', aligned with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall as the nWo. Brought in as part of a storyline which had Vince McMahon going nuts and wanting to kill the company, due in no small part to his ongoing feud with Ric Flair, Hogan and pals were hot news, and many fans were excited to see the guys they dearly wished had been part of the Invasion storyline the previous year. It made sense that Hulk would face one of the promotion's top stars at WrestleMania X-8, but just who would it be? The likes of Triple H and The Undertaker would come later, and it was quite the shrewd move to program the man up against The Rock. Apparently, Steve Austin had been approached about a match, but wasn't interested, but regardless of any truth to that rumour, things turned out just fine for the fans in Toronto at 'Mania. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6hyNU4SElw Maybe WWE should have seen it coming, but even The Rock seemed legitimately surprised by the love being shown to Hulk Hogan by the thousands in attendance. In fact, so over was Hogan that Rocky was even hit with boos at points of the match, and it was obvious that Hulk was being treated like a returning hero. The smartest move of the night was to award victory to The Rock, even though the fans were desperate for Hogan to come up trumps. At this point in his career, it wasn't necessarily about wins for Hogan, who would have been over had he simply come out and posed for the crowd. Losing out to the People's Elbow, Hulk still left to a standing ovation, and must have realised then that he had the chance to be on top of the mountain once again.
