The collision of two wrestling icons—Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair—was set to be the match of the century at WrestleMania VIII (1992). But it never happened. According to veteran WWF broadcaster Sean Mooney, it wasn’t just one issue that killed the bout—it was a “perfect storm” of problems.
“I still go, how did that not really happen? Maybe the timing…the perfect storm…an earthquake, a tornado, and an avalanche happening all at once,” Mooney said during a conversation with Ten Count Media.
From poor ticket sales and steroid scandal backlash to Ric Flair’s unfamiliarity with WWF fans, the company never got the groundswell it expected.
The problem, Mooney explains, wasn’t Flair’s talent. Upon his arrival in the World Wrestling Federation (Summer 1991), he was still the same ‘Naich that led the Four Horsemen and had classic rivalries with Dusty Rhodes and Ricky Steamboat. The main issue was the new audience he’d be wrestling for.
“He was as great as ever—hadn’t lost a step,” he said. The real issue was visibility. “There were a lot of people that didn’t know who the F he was,” Mooney recalled Flair saying about his early house show reception.
Flair was a household name in the South, but the WWF’s Northeast-heavy audience didn’t grow up watching the “Nature Boy.”
“They thought all we got to do is get him here. People will just go crazy…they took it for granted,” Mooney explained. “They needed to tell people who he was, what he’d done, why he mattered—and they didn’t.”
Unlike stars like Mr. Perfect or The Undertaker, Flair didn’t receive the signature vignettes WWF used to launch characters.
“If they could’ve maybe done it in a historic way, showing his path…maybe it would’ve connected,” said Mooney.
By the time the Hogan vs. Flair dream match made it to WCW years later, the reaction proved there was a demand.
“Everybody knew who Hulk Hogan was…and WCW already had a base that loved Ric Flair,” Mooney said. “In WWF, it was different. It just wasn’t the right setting.”
Mooney, like many fans, still wonders what could’ve been.
“I wanted it to work. I really did. It should’ve been magic.”
Here’s what Hogan said about the matter last year:
