WrestleMania IX is widely considered the worst WrestleMania event in WWE history. It was also Hulk Hogan’s last WrestleMania before he transitioned to WCW. It was the time that WWE was struggling most and WCW was managing to surpass WWE’s popularity. WWE was a slowly losing their star power to WCW and the roster of the promotion was so weak that their grandest event turned out to be pretty stale too.
One of the worst decisions that was made at WrestleMania IX was Hulk Hogan getting involved at the end of the main event of the show. “The Hitman” Bret Hart defended his WWE World Championship against Yokozuna and lost it. The event was already pretty bad and the fans were frustrated with back to back lacklustre matches.
WrestleMania Shockwaves: WWE Icon Discusses Hulk Hogan’s Infamous Win at WrestleMania IX
Yokozuna finally got the main event push through the main event of WrestleMania IX when he defeated the Hitman Bret Hart to win the WWE Championship. There was at least something that the fans could rejoice until the unthinkable happened. Hulk Hogan came out of no wear and challenge Yokozuna for the title instantly. To surprise everyone he defeated Yokozuna to win the WWE championship.
Not only it was controversial but Hogan lost a lot of fans that night as well. It made things pretty clear that the allegations he had of being a selfish man was pretty much true. He completely killed the momentum of Yokozuna that night. WWE Hall of Famer Ted DiBiase recently talked about this incident. During the latest episode of his “Everybody’s Got A Pod” show, he said;
Hulk Hogan Challenged Yokozuna After His Title Win At WrestleMania IX
“Well, you know there’s so many ways to look at that. I mean, here was a guy who, he was the guy when everything exploded. And so, he goes away. And I obviously never talked to Vince and never talked to Hulk about it. Why he made that decision. So Hogan comes back and comes back in a big way. And my looking at that says, ‘Well, they’ve kissed it made up and now things are gonna go on as usual.’ But, you know, obviously that didn’t happen either, did it,” expressed DiBiase.
“Once he and I — I may have stated this before, but I had Hulk’s first match at Madison Square Garden. The first time he wrestled in Madison Square Garden, he wrestled me. And I put him over big time, because I knew they were gonna get him over. And so years later, after he gets to be a big star, and when this new meeting with Vince came along, and I’m gonna come back.
“I remember him coming to me and saying, ‘I told you before, but I owe you one.’ And was kinda like, he’s gonna make sure that I’m one of the guys he works with. So, we’ve always had a great relationship. It was funny, I mean I walked into the dressing room, he shook my hand and said, ‘It’s payback time. Here we go.’ So that’s all I needed to hear.” concluded DiBiase.
H/T – eWrestlingNews.com