I often wondered if this was really Vince McMahon's call or Hogan's call.
That point can be argued rather well, I don't doubt that there was definitely discussion behind the scenes and I am sure even with Hogan's fading star power at that point compared to the Hulkamania fever pitch, that he was still able to get some leeway in story lines. My reason for leaning towards Vince being the true decision maker on this one, is the fact that immediately after Hogan's departure, Lex Luger walked into the Hulk Hogan archetype, and I think that should not be disregarded, because we have to be honest here, Lex Luger for all intents and purposes was a surrogate Hulk Hogan in the summer of 1993. It was in my view that Vince just found himself trapped in that All-American hero mindset.
One could argue it might have been Vince's call since he still had a hard-on for Hogan at the time. Also Hogan did say it was not his decision to win the title at the end.
Continuing off what I said, Vince I am sure has had to compromise with big name stars in the past, and I know that Hogan being the magnitude of star that he is definitely had to use his star power from time to time, WM IX may very well be an example of that, but with the forthcoming addition of Lex Luger to the baby face side of the roster, the idea of Vince being all about Hogan getting one last title run would make sense I think.
On the other hand, it was not a very smart business move. Since Hogan was pretty much a part time guy anyways having The Champion not appear in majority of your shows for 3 months is not wise in an economical point of view. Also in his DVD Bret Hart looked like he blamed Hogan for what happened at WMXI.
It's easy for people now, even including staunch Hogan supporters like myself to lambaste Hogan for getting that last title reign in. Trust me, as Hogan was being phased out of the WWF, I was a HUGE Bret Hart booster, nothing was more magical than one Saturday morning in October when Mean Gene introduced Bret Hart as the new WWF World Champion, little did I know that Coliseum Video had thankfully recorded the whole match, which if you own the 50 Top Superstars DVD, that match is included in its entirety. It's seriously a match that should have been on the Hitman's first DVD release, why it wasn't I'll never know.
Anyway, looking at it today, it's easy as I said to just criticize this booking move, but despite Hogan's decreased presence he still had a little bit of magic and the fans were still nuts to see him. I can't explain it, but that's just what makes Hogan who he is, love him or hate him. The main thing is, I personally feel that like past champions of the WWF, Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund for instance, Vince needed to have Hogan definitively lose the title and put over a monstrous heel in the process. The last time Hogan was a WWF Champion prior to WM IX, he was stripped of the title after controversially beating the Undertaker for it. For those that say Hogan buried Yokozuna at the event, you have to think of it like this, Yokozuna had already exhausted himself in the storyline by wrestling an entire match against Bret Hart which in kayfabe he cheated to do anyway, then to boot a fresh Hogan capitalized on a botched interference attempt by Fuji when he hit Yokozuna in the face with the ceremonial salt. Hogan then used Yoko's combined state of weakness and botched interference to pin him to take the title.
Fast forward two months later, in a legit rematch, Yokozuna squashes Hulk Hogan and despite that match having controversy, it really is the way a heel does business and it led to a nine month World Title reign, something not seen with a heel since Superstar Billy Graham. In the meantime, Bret Hart would win the King Of The Ring and then the Royal Rumble (with Lex Luger who did not pan out as a suitable replacement to Hogan) and get his revenge on Yokozuna. Think about it like this people, despite how great it would have been for a lot of us hardcore fans to see Bret beat Hogan for the belt, it would have meant he'd either have to wait to get his payback on Yokozuna or that day would never have come, who really knows. Bottom line when Vince failed to package Luger as the new Hogan, I think he knew that he had a great heel champion in Yokozuna and he decided to capitalize on it, and what better way than to market the behemoth as the guy who crushed Hulkamania in the WWF once and for all, which they indeed did for quite sometime.Take for instance this cover from the OFFICIAL WWF Magazine, dated August 1994.
NOTE: To those thinking that Yokozuna was buried at WM IX, I'd beg to differ, in fact if anything Hogan was the one who looked the worst out of this by winning the belt from a tired competitor at WM IX, in the storyline, I think Yokozuna more than made it up to himself in the long run against the Hulkster, again look at the above image.
One might think of course he would say that but then reading Shawn Michaels' book (the one that came out in 2005/2006) when HBK and Bret Hart were still in poor terms it also seemed like Michael's was blaming Hogan and even siding with Bret Hart on this.
I hate saying it like this, because the books these wrestlers write and their DVDs entertain the hell out of me...BUT I feel these things are merely an extension of some blurry and ambiguous new form of kayfabe. There might be some instances of reality that these people talk about but considering the nature of their professions (that being in the entertainment business) I think a great amount of hyperbole and embellishment is often exploited with these "backstage accounts".
But then ... who really knows
Exactly, all I am presenting is a basic argument to what I think was really going on with the debacle of Hulk Hogan, Yokozuna, Bret Hart, and Lex Luger or to put it more effectively the Spring-Summer 1993 WWF World Title picture. While I disagree with many aspects of the WrestleMania IX ending, in my opinion despite the short changing of Yokozuna in his first reign that night, it was indeed in my view the stepping stone to an even better run once he got it back, and even if Yokozuna was not my favorite champion, all was well that ended well, when Bret Hart FINALLY took it back at the next WrestleMania, I was a very happy 12 year old back in 1994 when the Pink and Black attack took out Yokozuna, it was a damn good match too. Along with WM XII, XIII and VIII (Probably Bret's most underrated WM match) it had such a feel good element to it.
So basically, before any of these idiots go out and call me some Hogan mark, I lived through this era of the WWF and if anyone has an authority to speak on it, it's people like me and those who are my age and older. I'm willing to wager that most marks that bitch about this period in WM's history were probably not even born yet or were so young that they were still crapping their diapers and sucking on their mom's boob.
