What's the big deal with Hogan winning at WM9?

[skillz]

May 25, 2008 2:01:55 GMT -5 Rocky Van Heineken said:

I just finished watching WrestleMania 9 tonight (yeah, I really didn't have much else to do). I normally see a lot of Hogan-hate on these boards especially with him going over Yokozuna at the end of this event. After watching it again and seeing the crowd's reaction, what's the big deal with it?

Supposedly the WWF wanted to build toward a Hogan/Hart match at SummerSlam and we all know that never happened. But I know that as a wrestling fan in 1993, I wanted anybody but Yokozuna as world champion.

Say what you want about politics, but Hogan made for a better world champion than Yokozuna, even if that only lasted a few months. And for those who say "Oh, Hogan was champion before, that had been done to death!" ... take a look at the current WWE champion.

In my opinion, Hogan winning the belt was the highlight of WrestleMania 9, next to Mr. Perfect calling Lex Luger the "Larcessist."

Replace Hulk Hogan in the WrestleMania 9 scenario with Mr. Perfect, and it would have been the best booking in the history of modern wrestling. I haven't watched wrestling in a while, so correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Edge beat Cena in about 10 seconds a few years ago after Cena had already wrestled? If so, did Edge "bury" Cena and Cena's opponents according to Wrestlecrap logic? Probably not.

Hogan winning got the biggest pop of the night. So the crowd went home happy. Bret lost due to outside interference, so he didn't lose any credibility. Yokozuna lost due to salt in the eyes after wrestling a 15 minute match with the world champion, and he got all his heat back (and more) at KOTR 1993. In other words, what's the big freakin' deal? They were planning Hogan/Bret, which never happened, so Yoko got the belt back as the alternative and Luger ended up getting the Summerslam push (at least that's what I can piece together based on hearsay). Be angry that Hogan/Bret didn't happen. The WM finish was completely logical given the alternatives (Bret killing off Yoko's heat or Yoko killing the crowd by leaving with the belt).

That night is revisionism at its finest.

[littlenaitch]

What Edge did two years ago was just about the same as Hogan but what Edge did made sense in the storylines. Edge was just starting to come into his own as the ever opportunist heel which he became at New Year's Revolution. Plus, Edge had a contract that said he could wrestle the champion at anytime he so chooses which happened to be when Cena was at his weakest. Also, Mr Fuiji challenged Hogan to a match so that's what made the whole debacle confusing. One more thing, how did Hogan cheat to beat Yoko? Hogan ducked the salt, punched Fuiji, bounced off the ropes to clothesline Yoko and then proceeded to hit the leg drop for the pin. So how is any of that Hogan cheating?

[Mayhem]

Yeah, Hogan coming out to check on Hart seemed really strange to me...

[BlackJackRobby]

I've heard Vince and Hogan were going through the on again off again problems. This was when they were on again though, and I've heard in a WWE WrestleMania book that Vince was backstage watching Hogan with the biggest smile in the world thinking he got his baby back.

Plus I don't think that Bret vs. Hogan would ever work, and pretty sure Vince would know that also. They are about as oppisite as you get.

And both of them are my wrestling GODS.

[gimmieabreakbrain]

I was there live and when Hogan came out it was really weird. We are were sitting there thinking "huh??" he was just in a program with Money INC. As soon as we saw Hogan we knew Hart was gonna lose but nobody saw the Hogan title win after the match. The pop would have blew the roof off the place if it had a roof.

[horsemen4ever]

May 25, 2008 11:17:51 GMT -5 Mac said:

I never got the WWFs facisination with Yokozuna. He was titanicly fat even at his "lighter" weight in 93. And people say he's agile for his size, which is great and all but all i really remember him doing was vulvan neck pinches, that horrible elbow drop that he always missed, and a weak looking legdrop. Why wouldnt the WWF just push Lex Luger to the moon right out of the gates? He already had Main Event ability. Wasn't the greatest wrestler, but his gimmick at the time where he was just KOing everybody he came across put him over as a killer. Why waste all that in the mid cards?

I think they were just trying to outdo WCW. WCW had Vader as its champion and they promoted as the greatest big man world champion ever, and Vince wanted to outdo them and get someone even bigger than Vader to be their champion.