Quoted from E_N_3:That would have been cool if it would have been Warrior, but I'm going to guess that it might not have been meant to be him. I am of course guessing, but here are my "clues" I'm using to make my hypothesis....lol
In 1991, Warrior left on really bad terms, as he demanded more money to go out to the ring for a really big pay per view match. Vince was steamed and Warrior was gone ASAP. Then he returned, but was gone again in 1992, as he tested positive for steroids, and as it says on IPDB, one of the revised was that the WWF wanted the art redone to reflect less "steroid looking" bodies. In 1991, the steroid scandal really hit the fan, and in 1994, it was in high gear. Granted, Hulk was also seen as one of the "steroid" looking guys, however, I am guessing they were more willing to do a less steroid version of Hulk and use him, as they were going with Hulk already because of his iconic appeal ...even though he was technically not with the company....combined with the bad blood with Warrior, I am guessing Warrior wasn't going to get that prominent spot on the game.
I also put the pics together and although we only have the tip of the boot on the prototype version.....it is the HULK yellow, and when you put it next to the artwork used in the production run, the tip if the boot looks identical, which leads me to further believe it was Hulk in both versions.
Again.....all of this is just a guess on my end...and I just enjoyed thinking out loud about it.....lol
The matching boot does look like a Hogan boot but here's a few guess's in favor of Warrior. And like you said just guesses lol.
Warrior changed up his gear a lot so him having yellow boots on wouldn't be too far fetched.
Having Hogan twice on each side would seem too repetitive in my opinion. You have macho man Hogan and flair already Warrior would be the next natural one.
Looking at the original translite DE and the WWF were fine with using the Warrior on that and he's even shown as one of the 3 major stars being bigger and on top. But all of the real life Warrior issues is what kept him off the final design.
I also feel that they just changed the Warriors head to Hogans head and colored his tights a different color. Those backbox Hogan bodies look way more like Warriors body. Hogan was always a big guy but he wasn't as cut up as the Warrior.
Again fun guesses of what might have been