He has since admitted in interviews
that a big part of his success was his ability to navigate the political landscape backstage and noted in the interview that McMahon had trouble trusting some of the other stars of the era if they weren't willing to lose matches. He specifically named "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.
"So I called Vince up. 'Hey, Vince, just talked to Mr. Wonderful. He says he doesn't want to do the job, one-two-three.' (Vince said) 'Okay, well, then, if he doesn't want to do the job, you figure it out.' Great! That's how it was in the beginning," Hogan said (
h/t Cageside Seats) while describing an instance where Orndorff refused to "put over" Hogan with a loss.
"Piper wouldn't do a job. Orndorff wouldn't do a job. The reason 'Macho Man'
Randy Savage was a champion so many times, he'd do business," he added. "If I said, 'Brother, I need to beat you,' he would be there. And then here's the belt, I'm gonna go do a couple of movies, here's the belt, go make a bunch of money. When I come back, I knew he'd drop the belt back to me...Yeah, but you know, Vince didn't trust Piper or other guys who wouldn't do a job