HBK.
Hogan knew who the fuck he was dealing with. The premise is that it could have been three matches stretched out over a year, but somebody had to get the first loss in order to justify it. Who's it gonna be? Hogan? And then have HBK feign illness or injury in order to get out of not returning the favor or even the then promised follow-up matches which was his favorite card to play in the 90s? To finally get a clean win over Hogan who likely put Shawn in the same category he put Bret in that he was too small to even be in his league, never mind getting a win?
Hogan during that run put over Brock, Rock, Taker, had a great run with Edge with the tag belts and had a banger of a match with Vince at Mania. He gained nothing by either beating or losing to Michaels, only money, which is the whole reason for the match in the first place. Hogan had seen Shawn's type and tactics before and nipped that shit in the bud by letting Shawn go ahead and put over Orton, Edge and Cena like he wanted to and said he would. Didn't want to lose to a semi-retired wrestler? Shawn retired 2 years before Hogan did, what a piss poor excuse. It was all ego and nothing more.
The build-up and hype to the match was great and the match itself was good in its own way, but Shawn antics in the ring were childish and was a sign of what the other matches would have become and Hogan knew it. It was a tantrum and probably nothing compared to the tantrums Shawn threw leading up to it. If it was really for the reasons Shawn said it was, he wouldn't have acted the way he did. What he really wanted was a win over Hulk before making money, and that's mark shit, brother.
