WrestleMania 8 or 9 - worse ending

[HeenanGorilla]

I just replayed WrestleMania IX and it is MUCH better than I remembered it. I think I initially hated it because it was outside and Monsoon didn't call the action. But, this time around, I appreciated JR's debut, I got a kick out of Savage, and Heenan was hilarious! I did not remember how funny he was. The matches were also much better than I remembered. I still feel that this is outside of "my time" as a fan (WM2-WM8), but it wasn't as bad as I originally thought. I now feel it is very underrated.

The ending sucked though. So, what do you think was worse?

WMVIII - DQ ending, Papa Shango missing his cue, Warrior not looking like Warrior

WMIX - Yoko not being able to go long in the heat, Hogan's involvement, Fuji's senseless challenge

I think if Warrior LOOKED like Warrior--his changed appearance put just enough doubt into it to take something away from his return, in my opinion--and Shango hit his mark, it would have been ok. I don't like the DQ ending, but it can be argued it was improvised due to Shango not showing up. Regardless, all things going perfectly, WMVIII would have been an exciting ending, whereas WMIX was a horrible idea that played out as bad as it was destined to.

 

[The Brain]

I think WM9 had the worse ending. I don't know why they were going with a DQ finish for WM8 in the first place. Why not just have Hogan pin Sid? What's wrong with that? Even though the finish of the match was lame and botched I think the excitement of Warrior's return made up for that. It's true Warrior didn't look like himself which hurt a bit, but I think that moment along with the crowd reaction was a great mania ending.

WM9 had a terrible finish. The WWF was pushing Bret Hart as the new top guy and built up Hart vs. Yokozuna as the mania main event. That definitely felt like a weak main event compared to years past but by the time we got to the finish the tickets were sold and the pay per views were purchased. To put Hogan in that match and take the title from Yoko after about two minutes made the main event that had been hyped for the past couple months seem completely meaningless. It made both Bret and Yoko look bad and really for no reason. If the WWF wanted the title on Hogan they should have booked either Bret vs. Hogan or Yoko vs. Hogan from the start.

 

[ilapierre]

The ending of WM8 was one of the worst ever endings. Like Brain said, why did Hogan/Sid end up a DQ? What was wrong with having Hogan pin Sid and then get attacked after? Hogan vs Sid shouldn't have been the main event either. Savage/Flair was by far the better match with a great ending. Even the Hitman and Piper could have been the main event and that match had a great ending. But Papa Shango coming out? Some undercard guy? Bringing the Warrior back was a big deal but it wasn't enough to save the ending from being worse.

In hindsight, the WM9 ending stunk because Hogan had to get his greasy paws on the title again. Yokozuna vs Bret wasn't exactly the most exciting match either. But from what I remember about how I felt in 1993 I enjoyed Hogan interjecting and beating the villain. No villain had ever won the world title at Wrestlemania at that point and it looked like Yokozuna would leave the champ. Hogan saved the day and won the title. It was a huge moment, at the time, because fans thought Hogan was back for good. Despite the fact he was gone two months later, Hogan winning the title from Yokozuna was a lot better of an ending than Ultimate Warrior saving Hulk Hogan from Sid Justice and Papa Shango.

 

[Howie Backpack]

i loved wm9. i also think it was underrated, but it had a few weak spots. The anti-climatic HBK/Tatanka match, the weak Taker/Gonzalez, and of course the horrible ending. i personally was happy that Hogan wasnt in the main event. the guy had been involved in the main event for every wm until 9 and i, personally, was ready for something new...and we 'almost' got it. but, i have also always been a big supporter of Bret Hart, so im kinda bias. wm8 was a poorly timed mistake, but wm9 was a creatively poor mistake. i think wm9 was the worse ending, becuz it was booked that way.

 

[Rabbid Wolverine]

from what I recall sid didn't want to lose to a lot of the older guys, which kind of makes sense. Sid was a monster getting into his prime, how could a 40 year old nature boy or 40 year old hogan really beat him and make it believable.

I get both promotions views too, Sid really hadnt established himself as a top dog yet but on the other end maybe it was vets like hogan and flair that didnt want to put him over. But if you do recall the royal rumble that flair won, when hogan and sid are in the ring yelling at eachother afterwards, a lot of the crowd is cheering for Sid. That to me explains the WM8 ending. It was just botched really bad lol and I'm sure Sid had no problems kicking out of hogans leg drop, pretty sure he enjoyed doing it and just said shango missed the cue so he did what he thought was best.

As for which ending was worse, I gotta say I didnt like hart losing to yoko just to give the belt to hogan. If yoko beat him and that was it I would have liked it better. Mcmahon got scared when numbers were down so he went back to what got him the $$$.

IMO WM 9 had the worst ending between the 2.

 

[The Butcher]

I love both shows and don't think either one had a bad ending to begin with. So, as it pertains to which had the better ending, I'd give the nod to WrestleMania VIII. No matter what revisionist history may say about the Ultimate Warrior now, he was huge back in the early 90s. I went nuts when his music hit. The match between Hogan and Sid was utterly forgettable, and I say that having watched WM8 dozens of times and not being able to recall much about the match at all. That said, though, Warrior's appearance and the ending with him, Hogan, and the fireworks, was tremendous and is an indelible memory in my mind.

 

[boozinjedi]

VIII had the worst ending of the two,technically.
Having Sid kick out due to a missed cue/mark was crazier than IX,that ending I think was a gift to Hogan or maybe he pulled a string or two with Vince to get the strap back.

Overall VIII had a better show,
Hart/Piper,Flair/Savage,LOD w/a returning Paul Ellering.
NOthing about IX stands out in my memory

 

[Pedigree1]

I think the ending to WM9 was the worse in recent memory and still is IMO. Nothing wrong with the Main event at the time Hart Vs Yoko. Hogan by that time was well on his way out of the E only had a few months left. Bret was white hot going into that main event and Yoko was the beast from Japan. Like the brain said i had no problem with Yoko winning but Hogan taking the title from him in what a 2 minute reign for yoko that made no sense.

Hogan has done a lot of great things in his career but that one he flexed his muscles and wanted the belt one more time. I thought then and still do it was cheap and very underhanded by the WWE and Hogan.

 

[stemo316]

wow, great post. I love old school wrestling from early 90's. I think mania 9 is underrated. Not a great mania but i dont think it was a terrible mania. 11 was a terrible mania. To the question i think mania had a weaker ending. Savage flair could have ended the show

 

[relentless1]

the ending of WM8 was horrible, botched finish and whats with the DQ to end the show anyways?? WM9 wasnt too bad it was a crazy twist and i actually didnt mind it at all, now if only hulk had done buisness with bret we might all be singing a different tune about how that whole thing went down

 

[HBsam31]

I agree with The Brain here. The Mania 8 ending was always weird to me. The DQ ending never made any sense to me as. Why not just have Hogan go over clean? The saving grace to the ending though was the return of the Warrior which really sent the crowd home happy. I think the Mania 9 ending was worse in the fact that why not just have Hogan apart of the match. Yoko and Bret didn't do a bad job in there match, and having Hogan come down and steal their thunder I thought was an insult to Bret and Yoko and also the fans. I would have much rather seen Hogan vs Bret or a 3 way with all three of them rather than just a ramdoom Hogan appearance and taking the title.

 

[The Warlord]

I didn't have a problem with Hogan winning the title....I had a problem with the Yoko/Bret match in general, it sucked.

Wrestlemania 8 ending wasn't bad...I was jumping up and down marking out like an SOB for Warrior's return. I can't sit here 21 years later and talk shit, it was one of the most memorable nights of my childhood.

Back to Wrestlemania 9, I liked Yoko, but he shouldn't have main evented that Wrestlemania. It was the perfect time for a Bret/Hogan match, and a Yoko/Undertaker co-main event. They had all the talent to make that Wrestlemania great....but the poor booking and match making made it lousy and forgettable..

Steiners should have been matched up with Money Inc as well..but I'll save my steam for another thread dedicated to Wrestlemania 9 only..

 

[Judah's Lion]

Mania 8 had the better matches. i'm looking at you Piper/Hart and Flair/Savage. but the ending was way unbefitting a Mania Main Event. i'm a big believer in the idea that either the World Title or the World Heavyweight Champion should be involved in the Main Event of the show, especially the biggest show of the year. so even though the WHC wasn't defended in the Main Event of Mania 1, the champ (Hogan) was in the Main Event, so that works for me. the rare exceptions, and they should be rare, is for those mega dream matches that occur after years of build and history. Hogan/Sid does not fit that bill in my opinion. so i think Flair/Savage should have ended Mania 8. then Hogan/Sid could either keep their DQ ending with the Warrior returning, or they could simply rewrite the match and have Hogan win clean. that would have made Mania 8 much better i think. simply switch the matches that closed the show. do you think people would complain about Mania 8 as much as they do if Flair/Savage closed the show? i doubt it. crowd goes home happy and Mania doesn't end in a poor DQ decision.

Mania 9 had the better finish. yeah, Hogan looks like a jerk to the fans that got tired of him holding the title, but it does set up the next year kinda nicely. Yoko still looked strong at the end of Mania 9. he got beat by the biggest face in the history of wrestling after being blinded. his biggest weakness was that he had an idiot for a manager, first for making the challenge and second for throwing salt/rice in his champion's eyes. but i actually kinda liked the swerve. Hogan wasn't even advertised to be in the World Title match but walked out that night as the champ. Hogan/Yoko was a decent feud for how short it was, and Yoko walked out as a 2 time champ looking like a million bucks and a very dominant champion. his program with Lex during the summer was really fun too. then the rematch at Mania 10 with Bret was a great climax to an over year long feud. which in turn made Bret look like even more than a million bucks.

Bret/Hogan should have happened somewhere, either WWE or WCW. most definitely. not sure when that should have happened. but i don't think the answer was Mania 9. both men were huge faces and nobody ever thought either would ever go heel.

so my vote is definitely that Mania 8 had the worse ending. in fact, it might even be on my short list of worst Mania endings ever.

loved the question by the OP. thanks for the thread.

 

[EastCoastFan]

The DQ ending for WM 8 was messy, but the ending of WM 9 had fans screaming for blood after Hogan's impromptu challenge and winning the title with no buildup or anything, not to mention fans were already getting sick of his "invincible superhero" persona.

I've heard that Hogan talked Vince into WM 9 on the belief that WrestleMania needed a face standing tall at the end, but I've also heard that Vince gave into it because he knew Hogan was leaving soon after and he also knew fans would not accept him becoming champion like that, devaluing his stock with them.

 

[JJ15776]

For me, this is a no brainer. It's WrestleMania VIII for two reasons:

1.As others have said, It was botched. That's never a good thing.
2.Nobody else has pointed this out, but that shouldn't have even been the ending to begin with. Remember, that match wasn't even for the WWF Championship. Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage was the title match, earlier in the show. There's no reason for that not to be the main event and end the show properly - with the WWF Champion celebrating. Especially given the fact that Flair/Savage was a better feud than Hogan/Sid going into WrestleMania, and obviously Flair/Savage was a MUCH better match.
2a.There's really two reasons it shouldn't have been ending. Seriously. They had Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan on the same card. At WrestleMania. HOW DID THEY SCREW THIS UP??? That is the kind of match that could main event without the title being involved(though it would've had the title on the line here). Not Hogan/Sid or, ugh, LT/Bam Bam. know the stories about why it supposedly didn't happen, but you have to find a way to make it work.

All of the "what could've been" scenarios around WrestleMania VIII make it the worse ending, for me. Especially when you look back with hindsight - Hogan/Flair never happened, Ultimate Warrior's big return was almost all for naught, Papa Shango being pushed into the main event didn't really lead to anything. But WrestleMania IX? Sure, it was kind of lame, but it worked. A face still walked out of WrestleMania as champion(this was important back then) and they were able to help set the stage for one of the BEST endings a year later. Hart finally taking the belt off Yokozuna, and all of the faces coming out to congratulate him. So, when you add in the benefit of hindsight, it makes VIII look that much worse while IX kind of turns out ok.

 

[MWRedskins]

no doubt Wrestlemania 8. Wrestlemania 9 was bad, but the only reason that ending sucked was because it made Hogan look like the biggest jerk in the world by having to take the spotlight, but Wrestlemania 8's ending was worse as 1) it looked botched, 2) it wasnt even for the title, 3) it wasnt the best match on the card and 4) WWE missed the boat on a feud that later WCW would use in Flair and Hogan. that's why WM 8's ending was worse. WWE could've made a lot more money with Flair vs. Hogan.

 

[tom9422]

8 and 9 were both about satisfying Hogan's massive ego.

He had to be in the main event and take the spotlight both times, once over Flair/Savage for the fucking title and once where he literally had zero reason to be there.

At 9 though, he wasn't even involved in the main event and he had to go over there and take the title in the most worthless of squash matches. I'd say that was worse.

 

[Jonyboyuk2]

I feel that WM 9 had the worst ending. Here is why; WM 8 ending was botched. Sid was not meant to kick out of the leg drop of doom from Hogan, and it made the match collapse at the end. Papa Shango had missed his que to enter. And it ended sloppy. Ultimate Warrior turning up after losing a lot of weight meant that people did not recognise him as the original warrior. Even though he was. All of this was scrambled together and all done by the bad timings of all the performers.

WM 9 ending was awful because A) Yokozuna no sold everything Bret Hart did and made Bret look bad in defeat. Not only that, he also cheated to beat someone he had just made look bad. Bret had a very exciting match laid out for Yoko to go over in and Yoko unfortunately did not follow the script. Then for Hogan to come in out of nowhere, with very little build up at all, and steal the match from Yoko, made it look phoney and upset a lot of fans of Bret, who was carrying the company at the time. The reason 9 is worse than 8 is because 9 was planned and executed by Hogan and Vince. They knowingly did this and it was rubbish. WM 8 was accidental and ill thought out but at least it was done to try and get Sid and Shango over.

 

[jrush1978]

the ending of WM8 was horrible, botched finish and whats with the DQ to end the show anyways?? WM9 wasnt too bad it was a crazy twist and i actually didnt mind it at all, now if only hulk had done buisness with bret we might all be singing a different tune about how that whole thing went down

I couldnt agree more. I was a kid at the time so I'm man enough to admit I had a complete markout moment when Hogan pinned Yoko. Looking back though had Hogan went over Yoko in the rematch at KOTR and then put Hart over at SummerSlam this could have turned out much better than it did. To answer the posters question i think VIII was the worse ending. All the things thats been said. Why have the last match at mania go to a DQ? Either Hogan could have pinned Sid and then gotten attacked after. Or Sid could have went over Hogan and then had Warrior save him from a post match beat down to set up a fued with Sid since Hogan was out after that anyways for almost a year.

 

[Antichrist]

The ending of Wrestlemania 9 is why i stopped watching wrestling between 94 and 98, i missed the nwo, bret v shawn, the start of austin 3:16, dx versions 1 and 2, i hated that Bret Hart lost, but when Hogan was given a title that was too much for me to stomach. I was glad when Hogan and Brutus formed a tag-team and Jimmy Hart became the manager, and i was more than happy for him to become a tag team champion, but then this. Wrestlemania VIII should have been Flair v Hogan. Savage and Flair was better but Hogan had of beaten Flair at Wrestlemania the monday night wars would never have happened, everyone would have known WWF was better.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Fact is, Hogan wasnt comng back for WM 9 with business in decline like it was so that he could he could wrestle a one of tag match with Beefcake, you knew going in he was going to be involved in the main event some how or another and set up at least one more match to make money off him. I was in High School at the time and even I knew this. To that end, the Mania 9 ending wasnt bad, it was a surprise and set us up for another big event, which YokoZuna went over, solidifying both his spot as champion and as the company's top heel.

WM 8 ending was just plain bad. For starters, there were two high profile., heavily promoted matches that were way more entertaining (Piper/Hart & Savage-Flair). Typically WM was careful not have more than one match that people really cared about that might overshadow Hogan. Putting him against Sid, about as big a stiff as a worker as they could have found, made things worse. The botched ending, the nonsensical "Who The H#$% IS That??" ending with the never before seen Papa Shango, it was just plain bad. Add the fact that Hogan-Sid was a hastily put togother match, almost last second, after WWE ran Hogan-Flair WM Promos ON TV because Hogan now was leaving (along with Piper) with the Federal Steroid Investigation heating up, it was a veritable circus.

Granted, Flair-Savage was also hastily thrown together but the makings of that fued, playing off a similar NWA angle between Flair & Jimmy Garvin circa 1987, was much better played than Sid's Ho Hum Heel Turn. Those two, particularly Flair, really worked the TV shows and promos hard to generate interest and made that encounter, an 80s Dream Match Scenario almost as good as Hogan-Flair, much more interesting. The fact the match had a fan pleasing ending, it got more promotion on TV leading into the event, and was a much better performed match made it the perfect choice for show closer. Simply put, no matter what Hogan did, the feud with Sid wasnt played out as well on TV, didnt get the air time Savage-Flair did, and they couldnt compete performance wise with both Piper-Hart & Savage-Flair on the same card, it was doomed to disappoint.

Of course, Hogan wasnt leaving WM and WWE on a loss after all he had done, especialy since it was unclear how long his hiatus would be so Sid (who got fired shortly afterwards anyway) wasnt going over. Flair, the biggest Non-WWE star in wrestling, wasnt beating Vince's No. 1 All Time Guy at Mania, at least not without some sort of immediate re-match like at SummerSlam which wasnt happening with Hogan leaving, but it made even less sense for Hogan to beat Flair and become champ if he wasnt staying on the show.

Tough situation all around but they would have been better with Hogan's match next to last, Savage-Flair as the show closer, then Hogan comes down to the ring and helps Savage celebrate to end the show on a high note and give Savage that "Seal Of Approval" going forward. Plus, this would have potentialy set up a Hogan return (If he wanted one) both by "Stealing Savage's spotlight" and/or "Rubbing it in Flair's face" giving him a reasonable match/feud if he came back.

 

[dxraider]

That ending sounds nice but we saw that exact same thing 4 years earlier at WM 4 so no thanks. The bottom line is that this was quite possibly going to be Hogans last match (it was billed that way) and there was no WAY he wasn't going to go on last.

The problem was that he was switched up last second to be put against Sid, a mediocre worker at best and someone who just wouldn't have had a great match with Hogan. I still feel that the match should have been kept Hogan/Flair, regardless of WWE's concern that Ric was never getting over with the WWE fanbase.

At the time I too wasn't big on Ric Flair at all in WWE. I only knew WWE and Flair being thrown into the main event always rubbed me the wrong way. I was too young to understand. STILL, it would have been a great match I think, just like they proved they could do at Bash of the Beach 1995.

Whether or not Hogan should have won the belt is another story but i still think Warrior comes down and saves the day do to interfearance of some sort.

 

[Weems2k]

This is a bit off topic, but speaking of WM IX, what was the attendance for that one? I was watching the main event, and it looked like it couldn't have been more than 9000? Considering how all the mania's are now in stadiums, I thought the setup was kinda cool, especially being in Vegas.