There is no doubt that long time WCW fans didnt embrace Hogan because essentially they'd been on "Team Flair" for a decade. Many of them had abandoned the product during the mass exodus of WCW guys to WWE, including Flair, in the early 90s. Ratings and attention were on the upswing once Flair returned and was spotlighted in feuds vs Vader & Steamboat. Simply, they werent going to fall in love with Hogan, not without a lot of help.
I still see Bash At The Beach as historic, Hogan coming out of retirement to face his biggest rival for wrestling dominance once and for all with The World Title on the line. As far as Hogan winning the title in his 1st match, I doubt they could have gotten Hogan in any other way. Im sure this was discussed when Flair was recruiting Hogan to sign.
I agree the initial feud could have been handled better. Hogan insisted Flair turn heel before hand to make sure the crowd was behind him although I think originally matching them up as fan favs with the tease of a Flair turn would have made the initial match more intriguing (instead of assuming Hogan goes over the potential of a heel turn and screw job would have added some much needed intrigue). Also, it would have benefited WCW (and maybe gotten fans behind Hogan) if they would have had an intense, drawn out feud. After the Aug Clash re match, they had Flair disappear, I guess to help Hogan establish himself and not be overshadowed by Flair. However, with a roster largely devoid of Hogan level competition, this was a mistake. Hogan needed Flair in his business, obsessed with destroying him and getting his belt back, not in Las Vegas partying (that is how his absence was presented on TV). Even if you buy Hogan getting the belt in his debut, the lack of a feud moving forward killed Hogan's momentum.
The "retirement" match, designed to ignite interest in Hogan that disappeared when he faced anyone other than Flair also was handled poorly. The original plan had Flair regaining the title in the Clash re match, then dodging Hogan like mad until the tiebreaker at Halloween Havoc. However, when Hogan changed that (he had considerable creative control) there was little interest in a third match, Hogan prevailed twice, why bother, especially when you sent Flair's character to Vegas insead of keeping him around to torment Hulk ? The retirement angle was added to spike ticket sales, the new plan having Hulk prevail only to petition for Flair's reinstatement the following year to be his partner against some to be announced villain. Instead having Hogan trump Flair again allienated some fans, plus WCW hadnt built anyone else up to be a realistic challenger to Hogan going forward. Consequently Hogan couldnt draw without Flair who was brought back much sooner than expected to be Hogan's nemisis.
However, the question isnt did WCW mismanage or fail to properly capitolize on the initial interest of Hogan-Flair, it is was Bash At Beach hirtoric and yes it was, the 1st PPV battle between the two top guys of the 80s.
