When Ken Patera made his return in the spring of 87 he was heavily pushed as a fan favorite vowing revenge on Bobby Heenan and the Heenan family.
Now obviously Patera had regressed in the few years he was away, but he seemed to be pretty over at first, even getting his own Coliseum Video upon his return.
He suffered a bad injury to his arm over the summer and never seemed the same.
Would a heel turn and return to Heenan have salvaged his comeback?
I am pretty sure the Observer or the Apter mags reported he was rumored to face Hogan at Wrestlemania 4 around that time.
Yeah, if I'm remembering correctly the general plan around the time of his return was that he would still be awesome and would go heel to be the Hogan dead body of the month at some point, but he was such a spectacular flop upon his return that they just dropped all those ideas completely and jobbed him out. Even before his arm injury he completely lost all his intensity and drive and just looked like a guy instead of a star. Apparently when you're NOT high on drugs 24/7 you tend to be a calmer person. Who knew?