I remember there was a TON of talk coming out of Bruce's side of the camp, rather than Maiden about a reunion. Since Bruce came back to metal with Accident of Birth, it was practically in every other interview...and his coming back to metal was probably somewhat calculated that way. He was having very little success with his solo work up until that point, so going metal was the only option if he was going to remain any kind of a moneymaking performer. It was kind of a win/win. By going metal, he probably hoped to gain some fans who were abandoning the sinking Maiden ship for a more familiar (and arguably better) sound. Either that, or he'd generate reunion talk until it happened. I don't doubt that he wanted those metal albums of his to succeed on their own and remain solo, but they weren't all that successful. He even said around the time of the reunion that he'd made the best album of his career with The Chemical Wedding, and nobody bought it.
Meanwhile, the Maiden camp was pretty silent on the reunion talks (from an official basis). I rather compulsively collected interviews from both parties, and Steve for the most part was denying it was even a possibility. That was probably true from his perspective, since it seems Steve was the last holdout who had to be talked into firing Blaze (with the most vocal reportedly being Nicko, though there's no official word on that).
From a fan's perspective, even in early internet days, there was a lot of negativity surrounding Blaze. I was a big supporter till the end, however, even if I was let down that I'd won tickets, backstage passes and I'd be going onstage for "Heaven Can Wait" during a show that was part of Maiden's North American cancellations due to Blaze being unable to perform due to some infection. I was sad to see him go, even if I knew Maiden would come out stronger for it. I was fairly certain, though, that Blaze would sink without Maiden. Post-Maiden, he put up a damn good struggle with some very strong first few albums, but there's only so much the guy could do before he could only afford to support himself and his family as he is now, rather than a full band. Though he got good reviews, there was just too much ill-will and "good riddance" vibes going on to really give him much of a chance.
Now if Rod had made good on his early promise and managed Blaze properly (which it didn't seem he managed him at all) and if Maiden had been kind enough to offer him an opening slot on the Brave New World or Dance of Death tours to showcase his quite good solo material to fans who were more or less Blaze's target demographic (um...Maiden fans!), we might be talking about Blaze's career quite differently right now.