Mack, digging the thread. Been a long time since I contributed to one of yours, but glad to in this case. Randy Savage would have been an awesome nWo leader. And for a fan like me, I would have gotten into the storyline. Hell, Savage was one of the reasons I tuned into RAW EVERY week despite how down business was in the WWF. During the 90s, prior to the second boom as they sometimes call it, I was a wrestling fan to a fault despite how lackluster many aspects of the product were. Therefore, I would have gladly supported a Macho Man led nWo. Unfortunately, the whole idea of betrayal with Macho Man would not have resonated the way it did with Hogan. Because as others have said, Macho Man already went back and forth with his disposition a few times during his heyday of popularity. And as we also saw mentioned on here and in other posts, Hogan had been so hard to think of as anything other than a good guy. So few remember his heel run in the territory days, and unless you really paid attention to stuff like the Wrestling Observer and Pro Wrestling Illustrated or were someone that was born in the 80s, you'd be hard pressed to ever recall Hogan as a heel character.
I don't think Macho would have done bad as the leader but he wouldn't have that much impact either. Hogan was the right choice IMO, although he should have ended his reign as leader after starrcade 97. The greedy cunt that he is.
Agree, but the last part is very nonconstructive. I hate to make assumptions, but I'm pretty sure you are in the camp of people that think Hogan paid Nick Patrick off to botch that pinfall spot right? Yes, I will admit that Hogan has done much to protect his best interests, but I'm hard pressed to think of there being too many humanitarians in the wrestling business in the first place. I'm pretty sure that you're also going to bring up the creative control card that Hogan used to play and play often. Which again, I will acquiesce and not be in denial about. I'm confident Hogan has stepped in when he's felt it necessary to have creative input on his character. However, on the flip side of that when you look at some of the moves that were in place during Hogan's time there, I sincerely doubt he had control over EVERYTHING. Pardon me for assuming but with your label of "greedy cunt", I'm pretty sure this is going to come back to the whole Hogan creative control thing.
But let's break down some aspects where Hogan's creative control is probably the most overrated and overanalyzed bit of farce that I would put up there with the Stephanie and Macho Man tryst rumors.
1) Goldberg's streak ending. I heard something once that Hogan lost the title to Goldberg with the sole intention to then end the streak down the line. That does have some weight, I won't lie. But as we know Kevin Nash did that instead. And there were plenty of opportunities for them to do another Hogan and Goldberg match, and again with "creative control" Hogan had years to politic himself into another match with Goldberg, but that never happened. And for years afterward Hogan's career didn't suffer. In fact he went on to have other high profile matches with wrestlers the likes of Triple H, Chris Jericho, and The Rock to name just a few upon his WWF return. And I will mention that in the case of Triple H and The Rock he lost matches against them. Also, in his first match with Triple H that he won, he wasn't booked to have this aura of invincibility like he had in years past. All around, Hogan was booked to win by the skin of his teeth and luck. Years later in his matches against Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton people still belly ached about Hogan's ego but then again you can thank WWE for a lot of this occurring. Blaming Hogan and saying this and that is just an easy way out.
2) David Arquette's World Title win, this one right here should say it all. Hogan's creative control clause that the IWC as a whole bitches about, well the all mighty and powerful Hogan creative control card couldn't stop this farce from happening. After all, he is Hulk Hogan if he had the god like power we all think he had at that time, then this move would have been prevented immediately. Hogan was still under contract then, and I'm sure if he was as powerful as they say in a political sense (not to say he didn't have his clout) this would have been vetoed.
3) Vince Russo's World Title win, let's be honest here the whole Russo and Hogan thing was a farce too, and I don't care what they say, I don't buy into it being "real". Everything seemed too convenient for that to be a legitimate occurrence. Anyway, when Russo won the title Hogan was still under contract, if the heat was as bad as they say between the two, and if Hogan really did have that clout, I see this being something else he could have vetoed. But anyway, people will believe practically anything on the internet sad to say.
Bottom line is this, I think the whole idea of Hogan wanting this title or that title or having this spot or that spot is an often overrated and blown out of proportion bit of discussion. Now I'm not say that Hogan doesn't have his ego, but I think as long as Hogan was getting his guaranteed money in his contract and allowed to take the time off he wanted to (considering the guy was already pushing the 20 year mark as a performer when he went to WCW) he's allowed himself the right to get those provisions in his contract. I know in a lot of ways that sounds shitty, but I really do wonder what we would do in that position. Bottom line, Hogan could have done a lot worse of things with his contractual status if his creative control card was as powerful as we are often led to believe. For example, if things like the title meant so much to him how come he just didn't keep it for his whole stint in the company? I think we often forget that WCW was spending money left and right, and that there was more than one ego to contend with, Hogan was far from the only one.
Tying back into the discussion about Macho Man, if there was anything I could be a little dissatisfied with regarding The Hulkster is that he never did lose to Macho Man via pinfall or submission. It was disappointing. However, in a kayfabe sense it was awesome to know that Macho Man did one thing Hogan never could do and that was defeat Sting via pinfall for the WCW World Title. Granted it was shitty to see Hogan just beat Macho Man the day after, but I still liked seeing the fact that Macho Man got that distinction even though it was via dubious means. But at the time Macho Man was still a heel, and that's how the heels are supposed to do business, and Hogan was in the same status when he beat Macho Man that night. If there was any consolation it was that for the majority of their WCW career, Hogan could never beat Macho Man in a fair sense. I'm just disappointed that they didn't do more with Macho Man in that respect.
Anyway, I digress and thank you once more for your contributions Mack, great discussion point. Sorry that I detoured into such a pro-Hogan stance, but sometimes I just gotta call out the nonsense when I see it.
