What if Hulk Hogan faces Rusev at WrestleMania 35?
WrestleMania is returning to the New York-New Jersey metro area this spring, WWE’s most traditional stomping grounds after building so much of the foundation of their business there. Though Madison Square Garden won’t be a formal part of WrestleMania festivities (booked for an ROH/NJPW event instead), it remains a part of the company’s history. It was the site of many of Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund’s most legendary world title events, the home of the original WrestleMania, and the place where Hulk Hogan won his first world title to become the original face of the company for its national expansion.
Hogan is back in the WWE fold now after the scandal of the tape of him using racist epithets came out and got him exiled for a time. The window is closing on their being any chance of Hogan working any kind of match in a WWE ring. So what if WWE were to book him for WrestleMania 35, and particularly tap into his roots as an American hero by pitting him against Rusev?
#5 Truly, The Hulkster’s last match
Hulk Hogan is now 65 years old, well past the point when most people would think about working a pro wrestling match, not to mention that he has had his share of injuries over the years. If WWE were to book him for this match, we have to assume it would truly be the last time they would put Hogan in the ring.
More than a point of shame about a guy being too old to go in the ring, this WrestleMania appearance could be a fitting tribute to who The Hulkster is and what he did for WWE. Hogan represented the US against a range of evil heel foreigner characters like The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff, in addition to guys representing other countries a bit more spuriously like Sgt. Slaughter and Yokozuna. Moreover, Hogan is synonymous with WrestleMania, having main evented seven out of the first nine shows, and factored into the other two significantly in helping Randy Savage win the WrestleMania 4 closer and winding up being Yokozuna in an impromptu match at the end of WrestleMania 9. Hogan vs. Rusev at WrestleMania would be a fitting cap for his WWE legacy.