1992 proved to be a very mixed year for the WWF, producing two very memorable shows with WrestleMania 8 and SummerSlam in Wembley Stadium, but also a year that saw plenty of high profile departures and continued loss of revenue. By the time 1993 rolled around, it was obvious that the company was in free fall and desperately needed a significant change in product and presentation to turn things around. The debut of Monday Night Raw was intended to be that momentum shift, a weekly, one hour live wrestling show, a first for the company. But one new television show wasn't going to be enough to bring many lapsed fans back to the product, and so Hulk Hogan returned. Hogan had gone nearly a full year between WWF appearances and was back for a classic "Golden Age" feud with Ted DiBiase, his most consistent rival throughout the 80s outside of Bobby Heenan. But Hogan's big return couldn't have come at a worse time, with the steroid trial still looming and a new top face crowned in his absence, as Bret "The Hitman" Hart had defeated two-time WWF Champion Ric Flair at a Superstars taping with Vince now fully intending to push into a new era. Hogan certainly wasn't here for another man taking his spot as the face of the company, and his backstage politicking was a huge contribution to the disaster known as WrestleMania 9.
- First off, let me say that the promotional poster looks awful, there's way too much black, this isn't the Attitude Era yet.
- I also need to mention the elephant in the room, the Roman theme for this event which literally everyone who knows of this event's existence is legally required to comment on. Personally, I mostly enjoyed it, especially Heenan's entrance on top of a camel, a perfect comedy heel. Yes, this look is extremely cheesy, but it does help 'Mania 9 stand out, and I prefer flawed but unique to boring and forgettable any day of the week.
- For the second year in a row, Shawn Michaels is opening WrestleMania, as he defends the Intercontinental Championship against the still undefeated Tatanka. The challenger has Shawn's former manager Sensation Sherri in his corner after she turned on the Heartbreak Kid a few months prior during his title match with self-admitted murderer Marty Jannetty. This match can be more than a little slow at times, as neither man's offensive repertoire is terribly interesting at this time, but really picks up down the closing stretch, as they trade near falls. The crowd bites on a couple of them and it seems like this match is destined to be a really quality opener, until Shawn crashes and burns on the outside to lose by countout, a very deflating finish. Luna Vachon, a very weird fit for Shawn as a manager, then batters Sherri on the outside and their brawl backstage gets brought up a couple more times later in the show. This had all the potential to at least be a good way to get the night going before the finish, but did at least show what Shawn was capable of when it comes to really engaging a crowd.
- In the best match on the card, the Steiner Brothers picked up a win in tag team action over the Headshrinkers, Samu and Fatu(the future Rikishi). Rick and Scott are one of my favorite teams to watch and they are in peak form here, with the most impressive spot of the night coming when Rick, seated on Fatu's shoulders, is able to catch Samu in the air and slam him down, a true holy sh** moment. Scott's match ending Frankensteiner was unfortunately botched, but this was otherwise a great match and a real showcase for the Steiners, who were probably the best team of the 90s.
- Get your OSW Review memes going brahs, because our next contest is Crush versus Doink. The evil clown is portrayed by Matt Borne, who is making his second WrestleMania appearance, having lost to Ricky Steamboat 8 years prior. It's a great gimmick, and I love his mannerisms during this match, laughing to himself whenever he performs a move and doing everything possible to try and agitate the crowd. Crush is way too basic to take seriously, and I really do hate his Cranium Crunch finisher, it looks weak as all hell. A second Doink, Doink brah brah if you will, interferes to let the first Doink get the win, which the commentators hilariously play off as an illusion. This is a gloriously campy feud, and while the match wasn't anything special, I still enjoyed myself.
- Razor Ramon made his WWF pay-per-view debut last year at the Survivor Series, teaming with Ric Flair to take on Randy Savage and Mr. Perfect, before unsuccessfully challenging Bret Hart for the WWF title at the Royal Rumble. From all the names he's already been in the ring with, it's obvious that Razor is intended to be a legit main eventer, so who better to let him squash than one of the faces of early 80s WWF, Bob Backlund. Backlund is well past his best days by this point but still does have at least some prestige to give up, the man did have the second longest world title reign in company history. Ramon getting a big win over a former world champion does make sense, but I thought they went about it all wrong, as rather than delivering anything too devastating, he instead triumphs with a roll-up. It's a fluke win instead of a convincing one, a very dumb booking decision.
- The tag team titles are on the line in one of the biggest matches of the night, as Money Inc. defend against the Mega Maniacs, Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake. Bruti is wrestling his first match in over 2 years following a devastating parasailing accident and he's wearing a red and yellow protective mask to give him a very distinct look. This is also a unique look for Hogan, who has an ugly black eye, which is explained in kayfabe as the result of a beatdown from DiBiase-hired thugs and has been attempted to be explained by many different stories in reality. The match is standard Hogan fare, he batters the heels to a big pop, they use cheap means to gain the advantage then isolate one guy to build up to a hot tag, the whole nine yards. It's nothing I haven't seen a million times over by this point, but the finish is something else entirely. Hogan attacks DiBiase and IRS with Beefcake's mask, then Jimmy Hart, now a face and managing the Hulkster, jumps in to count the pinfall. Everything collapses into confusion, until Danny Davis announces that Hogan has been disqualified and the faces lose it. They threaten to assault Davis, a real noble babyface move there, before Hart tosses him out of the ring and they celebrate by opening IRS' briefcase and tossing wads of cash into the crowd. A bizarre ending and one that really made Hulk look like an absolute heel for no reason. Still, the crowd was into it, and if this was all that Hogan was doing on the night, it would be perfectly fine.
- 1993 was set to be Lex Luger's year, and he starts it out as a heel, known as "The Narcissist". He's facing Mr. Perfect, and Lex's entrance is quite something, as he's accompanied by four women wearing golden bikinis, who hold up mirrors with sparklers on them for Luger to admire himself in. As for the match, it was completely acceptable but nothing special, which you can say for most everything on this night. Perfect does get a nice pop for a absolute belter of a chest slap, but that's about it for enjoyable offense here. Lex scores a cheap win with his feet on the ropes, before knocking out Perfect with his steel plated forearm which is a gimmick I've always loved. Perfect then brawls with Lex backstage and Shawn Michaels gets involved, a neat way to transition Hennig into a new feud.
- Up next, it's The Undertaker against Giant Gonzalez, and the most positive thing I can say about this match is that it existed. It happened, and the world was certainly worse off for it. I feel bad for 'Taker, who was asked to perform well above his abilities, especially this early into his career, as there are likely very few guys on the roster who could've gotten anything respectable out of Gonzalez. That weird bodysuit thing Gigante was wearing will haunt my nightmares. Vince, what were you thinking?
- Main event time, or at least that's what we were told, as Bret Hart defends the WWF Championship against Yokozuna. Yoko had been given a monster push in late '92 as a kayfabe former sumo wrestler, managed by Mr. Fuji. He won the Royal Rumble and became the first man to be granted a world title shot for winning it, last eliminating Randy Savage in a bizarre finish, as the "Macho Man" went for a pinfall and got tossed out. Now, the evil Japanese monster who is actually Samoan is being set up to be beaten by "The Excellence of Execution" in his first WrestleMania main event, to really put over Bret Hart as the true face of the WWF. At least, that's the story Bret was told going in. The match itself is very basic but tells a good story, as Bret is a true underdog in the way guys like Hogan and Warrior could never truly be, as the size mismatch makes it easy to root for the champ. I really loved Bret tying up Yoko in the ropes to take him down, one of those very creative spots that you know he came up with himself. The champion takes advantage of an exposed turnbuckle to get the challenger down on the mat, applying the Sharpshooter and now all that Yokozuna needs to do is tap out to cement Bret as the man to lead the company forward into it's uncertain future. But it all falls apart here in the most infamous ending to any WrestleMania ever. Fuji throws salt into Bret's eyes, which is all that's needed to pin the supposed best wrestler in the world, then Hogan comes out and Hart is completely forgotten as Hulk accepts Fuji's challenge for a title match, drops the leg on the new champ and reigns supreme. That's all folks, drive home safely and remember, f*** Bret Hart.
0/10
For most of WrestleMania 9, it is a perfectly acceptable show, probably a 4 or a 5 on my rating scale. Outside of the tag match, nothing is particularly special but nothing is too terrible, all the right people went over. But then the final hour just kills everything good this event could've offered. Taker-Gonzalez is a trainwreck, and having the supposedly undead monster only win by DQ because of a chloroform rag is so bush league. The main event isn't really worthy of a WrestleMania main event on it's own, but it's the way it ends that really earns the 0 rating. Hogan winning was dumb enough in the moment but seems so much more harmful in hindsight. Bret really needed that 'Mania main event win, he was supposed to be the guy to lead the WWF into the future, Hogan absolutely wasn't going to be that, it was already known at the time that this was going to be an abbreviated run. Generally the biggest negative used against Bret is that he couldn't draw, and while that was absolutely true, I believe this one WrestleMania ending killed all of his potential as a top face. Why should fans show up to see Bret wrestle, he's a loser who couldn't handle some salt being thrown at him and was just a placeholder for the more important star. Business was going to drop off a cliff in the years to come, and while I have no proof that trusting Bret could've saved the WWF from sinking as low as it did, this show's ending guaranteed the dismal future that was to come. Vince McMahon has no one to blame but himself.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: I want to move forward to something actually good, and that doesn't mean going too far, as we jump ahead a few months in the timeline to take a look at King of the Ring 1993. See you soon.
- Henry
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