Quote from bluedevil71 on May 22^nd, 2009, 11:01am:
There was ZERO chance of Hogan being in the finals, regardless of the positioning in the brackets. It was obvious from the nanosecond that the Hogan/Andre match was set that neither of those two were going anywhere. I was 13, and even I knew the moment that match was a DQ that Savage was going to win the belt.
 
The tournament was a brilliant move by Mcmahon, but it wasn't handled very well and the strategy used was horrific.  Giving Hogan and Andre a bye showed neither would win and was simply a way for the eventual winner to have an easy road to the title. Steamboat losing in the first round to Valentine was moronic, and let them avoid a Savage/Steamboat rematch of Wrestlemania III. While it was obvious Savage would win, they really made it obvious with Steamboat not getting out of the first round.
 
Bigelow was on fire at the time, and having him lose in the first round to One Man Gang was simply a way to get another real contender out of the way.
 
The Rude/Roberts draw simply offset the Hogan/Andre 1st round bye and was only an extra cushion for Savage to be propped up as champion. One Man Gang gets into the semi finals for nothing? Are you kidding me?
 
Lets look at that first round in hindsight. With how it played out, the only viable champions remaining are Savage and Dbiase, and its no shocker that's who met in the finals. This tournament would have been much more exciting had Bigelow and Steamboat been allowed to advance, the Rude/Roberts match having an actual winner, and the Hogan/Andre match either leading to a clean win or not even being in the bracket in the first place.
 
I know various "insiders" have said either Hogan or Dbiase were supposed to win this but Savage was chosen last minute, and that might be true, but the moment that bracket was drawn up, it had Savage written all over it.
 
If Hogan was gonna win there is no way in hell his run for victory would have started in the 2nd round, they weren't gonna put the belt on a heel(Andre or Dbiase) at this event, and with Steamboat and Bigelow out of contention, only way Savage wouldn't have won is if he died during the event.
 
Best match on this card was Demolition vs Strike Force.

Quote from bluedevil71 on Jun 5^th, 2009, 2:46am:
I think that can easily be written off as an error that they later corrected. Like I mentioned in the previous post, the only two legit contenders in this were Savage and Dbiase. Nobody else. Steamboat was not as hot at the time, so that rules him out. Rude was not worthy of the title, or even the final match.
 
Placing Savage and Dbiase in the same bracket would have been a huge disaster for that event, which is why it didn't happen. With Savage and Dibase battling it out and then immediately seeing a Hogan/Andre DQ, building would have been empty for the final round.
 
I know its fun for us old timers to speculate on various "What if?" scenarios, but its a bit of a reach in this case because the initial bracket made no sense and was immediately changed.