Why didn’t Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan ever happen at WrestleMania? Flair isn’t completely sure, but he seems to think it was related to how over he might have been in the WWF.
On the debut episode of his WOOOOO Nation! podcast, Ric Flair spoke about his initial WWE run with co-host Mark Madden. Flair was with WWF for the first time from August 1991 until January 1993, and he competed at WrestleMania VIII against “Macho Man” Randy Savage. Many fans believe WWF missed a major opportunity to book Flair vs. Hogan, and the decision has been questioned over the years.
Hogan was announced as Flair’s original opponent during a WrestleMania VIII press conference and advertised on television, but the card was soon after switched to feature Flair versus Savage and Hogan versus Sid Justice. Flair speculates the reason the match didn’t take place was due to drawing power, adding that it’s not something that he questions, either.
“I don’t know. I’ve heard two stories. One is that they were having a cash flow problem… let’s say we sold out Boston and sold out [Los Angeles], Oakland we sold out, the Garden we didn’t sell out. Our first show in the Garden, we did not sell out, so I don’t know whether people thought I couldn’t draw, because it’s funny, my whole career had been Southern-based until I got the belt and then I’m traveling across the country. I still was never mainstream TV on the east coast, so being the NWA Champion, I was never in New York, I never was in Philadelphia until this small building came along and then we were there every night and went against those guys [WWE] when they were in the Spectrum. We got together afterward, which was a good time — but I don’t think, maybe they didn’t perceive me as being over enough. Everybody’s speculation [says] it would have been the biggest thing ever,” Flair noted, “but you never know. I’ve heard Hulk wanted to go off and do TV, he did that Thunder In Paradise show, who knows?
“I’ve never questioned it,” Flair said. “To this day, [people ask] ‘Aren’t you mad about that?’ I said mad about what? I spent a year-and-a-half [there], I wrestled Bret Hart, I wrestled Hogan, I wrestled Jake [Roberts], I win the Royal Rumble, I wrestled [Randy] Savage, I win the world championship twice, and then I go back [to WCW]. How could I be mad? I traveled with [Ted] DiBiase, [Roddy] Piper, the Nasty Boys, the Road Warriors, I mean look at the crew we traveled with.”
Flair and Hogan faced off in singles action at WWF live events nearly forty times before WrestleMania, with Madden noting that one match between the two took place at a [November 1, 1991] house show in Pittsburgh. Madden said that he believed Flair’s comments had some validity, but also pointed out that the reaction Flair got at live events against Hogan could have played a role in the decision as well.
“I saw that match at a house show in Pittsburgh, which was very close to sold out, by the way. And they booed Hogan and cheered you,” Madden stated. “It wasn’t universal, but it was definitely a mixed crowd, and I don’t think WWE wanted that to get on pay-per-view, I don’t think they wanted that to get on TV. You look at the Royal Rumble, which we’ll talk about at length on a later podcast, Ric, but that Royal Rumble that you won, they cheered. They booed Hogan with that routine at the end and I don’t think that Vince ever wanted that on TV in a singles match.”
“I don’t know for sure,” said Flair.
Flair also spoke about wanting to see Steve “Mongo” McMichael in the Pro Football Hall Of Fame; read his comments about Mongo’s career at this link.
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