This day in wrestling history, April 4, 1993, was one of the more memorable WrestleManias for a few reasons. The main one being it was the last time fans would see Hulk Hogan until WrestleMania 18 where he’d face the Rock.
Changing of the guard
The WWE had decided to go in a different direction from Hulk Hogan as the heavyweight champion and had begun pushing other stars to the forefront. Some would come over from WCW like Ric Flair and Lex Luger, but mainly it was his homegrown talent Vince McMahon was relying on.
For years, Bret Hart had been one of professional wrestling’s greatest commodities as he teamed with his brother-in-law, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, to form one of the best tag teams in history, the Hart Foundation. But as the ‘90s started, Bret began transitioning to singles competition, as did Shawn Michaels of the Rockers tag team.
Bret surpassed everyone as McMahon’s choice to be the next face of the promotion, so he became champion. To be fair, Bret deserved it. He worked his tail off to be the best at what he did, and the fans were behind him from early on in the WWE.
Yokozuna was simply a phenomenal person and performer that gave McMahon something he and other American promoters really hadn’t had in a sumo wrestler turned professional wrestler. Especially given his size, Yokozuna moved like a man a fraction of his size, and when combined with his girth made him the type of figure that could remind people of Andre the Giant. At least, that’s what some saw and possibly hoped. Though he never reached Andre’s status, and really wasn’t close, Yokozuna was the promotion’s future heel and he was a great one, and with Mr. Fuji as his manager the sky was the limit.
Hulk Hogan has survived a couple of transition periods before. Tom MaGee was supposed to supplant him. Never happened. The Ultimate Warrior was supposed to take the reigns following his victory over Hogan at WrestleMania VI. He did for a while, but within a year McMahon was forced to rely on Hogan once more.
But this one came about as Hogan and Vince finally agreed it was time. For Hogan, he’d go to WCW in a few months and be part of the biggest explosion in popularity professional wrestling had ever seen, as well as one of the most intense wars between promotions.
Passing the torch
There generally isn’t a clean break with history without a passing of the torch. It just tends to make things easier and smoother than they’d be otherwise.
The problem with it is the one passing the torch usually isn’t doing it willingly or out of the goodness of their heart, as Hulk Hogan explained how he won his 5th World Heavyweight Championship in 22 seconds.
(Special thanks to @awrestlinghistorian for the excerpt.)
“I was going to wrestle at WrestleMania IX at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas not in the main event, but in a tag-team match. It would be me and Brutus Beefcake against the team of Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster, who called themselves Money Inc.
“The main event would pit Yokozuna, a seven-hundred pound challenger against the champion, Bret Hart. Yokozuna was slated to win that match and take the heavyweight belt.
“But when I got to the building, I told Vince, ‘Look man, we both know I’m done here. The moment has passed, the love affair is over. But I’ve got an idea that will allow me to pass the torch.’ ‘And what’s that?” Vince said.
“’After my tag match is over, when Bret Hart gets beat by Yokozuna, how about if I come out to protest the way Bret lost? Yokozuna’s manager, Mr. Fuji, can challenge me to get into the ring against Yokuzuna—and boom, I can beat Yokozuna to win the title. Then I go to the next Pay-Per-View and drop the belt right back to Yokozuna and I’m out of here.’ That was the deal.
“Vince agreed to it and I thought, ‘Boy, I just stole me a couple more big paydays.’ And I didn’t mind doing a job for Yokozuna because I loved the guy to death. It was all set.
I took the belt from Yokozuna for my record fifth championship. I pinned him one-two-three, paving the way for our rematch.” – Hollywood Hulk Hogan book
There we have it. Hogan has taken a lot of heat over the years for being selfish and taking the spotlight from other wrestlers, but whatever his reasons were, in doing so he actually created some of the most memorable moments this day in wrestling history has seen. It appears he knew what he was doing after all.
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