Night two of WWE WrestleMania 39 featured the return of Shane McMahon to the sports entertainment juggernaut. Vince’s cocky son hit his famous shuffle at the top of the long entrance ramp before going to the ring to confront The Miz. The two men exchanged words, and things quickly devolved into an impromptu match between the former WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions. Before things could truly break down, Shane tore his quadriceps while attempting a leapfrog. In an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Hulk Hogan commented on rumors that he was supposed to be the one to face Shane at WrestleMania 39.
“Shane had called me, and he sent me a picture from Madison Square Garden; I guess they got a Hall of Fame walk in there,” he began. “And he goes, ‘Piper’s boots are in there,’ and some of my stuff’s in there. So, Shane sent me a picture of him standing in front of my stuff. He goes, ‘Hey, old-timer. You got one left in you?’ I went, ‘Okay, what are you thinking?’ He goes, ‘Well, I didn’t know if you had one left in you or maybe a surrogate such as Nick,’ my son.
“And so we started talking, and I said, ‘The only way I could do anything was if I was in the middle of the ring, and you just came to me because I can’t run. I can’t hit the ropes. I have a hard time really walking distance. Taking a bump, if I got up, I’d have to roll to my left. I can’t roll my right. The only way I can get up is if I rolled on my left to get up for some reason. So it’d be a stretch.
“But Nick was in Rikishi’s school for a couple of years, and he was in there with Rusev and all those guys, and I would go out to California and watch him, and Nick had it figured out. Then he blew both of his shoulders out. And I said, ‘Well, I don’t know, there’s a possibility maybe to do something. Whatever the storyline is, whether Nick is a heel and, ‘You destroyed my father’s career, so I’m gonna destroy your personal life,’ or, I don’t know.
“There’s a million ways to do it. Shane and I talked about it. There’s a million ways to do it, but then a couple of weeks later, Shane got hurt. Or something with his quad.”
As we mentioned previously, Shane blew out his quad at WrestleMania 39, so the injury would not have affected any pre-Mania plans. In an update on Hulk’s claim that a match between Shane and Nick was being discussed, Fightful has released the following statement from a higher-up in WWE:
In no way is that true. I can’t think of a time in the last 13 or 14 years that Nick Hogan’s name was brought up at all, much less in a creative capacity. There has never been a serious conversation about him being involved in anything that I can think of. Even when Hulk would mention him being involved in things, there just wasn’t an interest or a benefit to that.
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If you use any quotes from this article, please give a h/t to Haus of Wrestling and credit Chris Van Vliet