Hulk Hogan 1993
 

Hulk Hogan's WWF Championship win in 1993 remains one of the most controversial Championship victories for WWF fans of the era. For those who don't know what happened, Hogan miraculously won the WWF Championship at Wrestlemania IX, despite the fact that he wasn't booked in the Championship match. It was a strange climax to an underwheling Wrestlemania.



Sticking the title on Hogan in such a bizarre, off the cuff way was already a strange booking choice but what followed was even stranger. Despite being the WWF Champion, Hulk Hogan didn't even appear on Raw as WWF Champion. I'm currently watching Raw from 1993 and there is a huge Championship shaped hole in most of the programming where Hogan just wasn't around.

So, where was he? In Japan, strangely, wrestling the Great Muta.




The match was pretty good, but I have to wonder why he wasn't with the WWF at the time? Why did the WWF put the title on somebody who wasn't going to be around for months? Especially when he treats the championship like this:




That's right - he refers to the WWF Championship as a 'toy' and a 'trinket'. So, I'm still wondering, why did they put the title on somebody who was uncommitted and outright disrespectful to the company?

Does anybody know? Why was Hogan allowed to behave like this? What did WWF gain from it? I know that they were planning Hogan/Bret, but even so - surely they want their WWF Champion to be present, not off disrespecting the title on the otherside of the world.

Thoughts?

Re: Hulk Hogan 1993
 

I didn't know about what he did to the title's prestige in Japan, so that is a new shocker to me. Nice post/thread.

What I think is most likely is that Hogan, with his backstage pull and politics, put himself in the title match in the last minute, convinced Vince or wheover it was incharge backstage that the ratings will go up with him as champion and it's a much better idea to have him with it again than Yokozuna. His politics and ego at it's finest.

Vince and the WWF probably didn't know about Hogan going to Japan otherwise I am sure they wouldn't have agreed to it. Hogan probably didn't tell anyone until the last moment.

Re: Hulk Hogan 1993
 

I would also like to know why wwe made that stupid move but all I can find is that the Mega-Maniacs did wrestle money inc at a couple house shows during April and May

Re: Hulk Hogan 1993
 

Here is a rare match but i'm guessing it was before wrestlemania 9

Re: Hulk Hogan 1993
 

Yeah, I only just found it myself. Couldn't believe it.

I can believe this but then, surely, if the WWF Champion isn't on TV, the ratings won't go up. You've basically got an absent Champion. Do you think that Hogan promised some TV appearances that he just didn't deliver on?

The match with Muta in Japan was held in early May 1993, less than a month after Wrestlemania 9. I imagine that the Muta/Hogan match was advertised a long time in advance and that, perhaps, McMahon put the title on him to get the WWF some press in Japan. If that was the case, I'm confused about why would Hogan trash the title at a press conference, and why he was allowed. If anybody else took the WWF title to a different wrestling organisation and trashed the title like Hogan did, there's no way that McMahon would stand for it. It all seems a bit weird.

Yeah, it was before. I guess it was a little warm up match for Hogan to work off the ring rust before his big Wrestlemania match. The guy barely broke a sweat during his 1993 WWF reign. He must've put in about a couple of hours work during his whole run that year.

Yeah, I think he did two house shows after Wrestlemania and then the next appearance was at King of the Ring, two and half months later. I know that he didn't appear on Raw again until 2002.

Re: Hulk Hogan 1993
 

From what i remember of back then Hulk Hogan told Vince McMahon that the fans would go crazy if a heel walked out of WrestleMania as WWE champion so he came up with the idea that he would beat Yokozuna after Yokozuna had beat Bret Hart so Yokozuna didn't look weak. As far as i'm aware there isn't proof because can't find them but the ratings actually went down with Hulk Hogan as WWE champion after WrestleMania 9 and i don't even remember him once appearing as WWE champion either.

If you went back to 1991 it was clear then that people had began to tire of Hulk Hogan and his all good, all american, whiter than white babyface character and he was beginning to be booed as far back as then and again although i'd have no way to confirm it i have seen stories over the years that said that was part of why Hulk Hogan left in 1992. I remember seeing that video from Japan on Youtube before and it was called something like Hulk Hogan kills WWF title credibility after he says the title belt he won in Japan was the most prestigious in the world.

Basically Hulk Hogan wanted to come back and act as if WWE in 1993 was 1984-1992 all over again but due to the steroid scandal building smaller wrestlers like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels began to lead The New Generation Era which to start with was centered around in ring skills rather than larger than life characters. Also WWE had started Raw which was a weekly show unlike Prime Time Wrestling, Superstar and Wrestling Challenge as it was to feature the biggest and best wrestlers every week and Hulk Hogan had never had to do that before so he was unhappy with his potential schedule.

After WrestleMania 9 and depending on who you believe the plan was then to build towards Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan for the WWE title at SummerSlam with Bret Hart going over in a passing of the torch match. Hulk Hogan was said to be very unhappy with this because Bret Hart was a much smaller babyface and not as popular as the likes of The Ultimate Warrior or Randy Savage were when he worked with them so he refused and then said he would drop it to Yokozuna at King Of The Ring but then wanted out of WWE again. This is why he left WWE as soon as King Of The Ring was done and Vince McMahon scrambled to replace him with Lex Luger in the all american, whiter than white babyface role.

Whatever way you look at it the reality is this was Hulk Hogan politics at it's worst and him not caring about the long term future of the company which at that time Bret Hart very much was as he was the face of the company for the following years after Hulk Hogan and prior to Shawn Michaels. When Hulk Hogan returned in 2002 he is said to have done a similar thing and only agreed to lose to The Rock after refusing to put Stone Cold Steve Austin and being given a WWE title run a month later which he got when he beat Triple H at Backlash but after dropping the WWE title to The Undertaker a month later he complained he wasn't happy in how he was being used and left but this time Vince McMahon only agreed to this on the condition he lost to Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar first, here is a few bits from 1993 and 2002 i got from a site called Burning Soul and which i posted on here before.

1993 - Hogan agrees to return to team with Brutus Beefcake against Money Inc. at Wrestlemania and it appears to be the first time he will NOT be in the main event.

When Hogan learns that WWE Champion Bret Hart is scheduled to drop the title to Yokozuna, he informs McMahon that this will be the first Wrestlemania that a face doesn't win the main event and the "people aren't gonna like it". Hogan suggests "surprising" the audience by challenging Yoko immediately afterward and beating him to win the WWE Title. Vince McMahon agees. Hogan beats Yoko to regain the title.

1993 - McMahon and WWE creative suggests Hogan and Bret Hart engage in a face vs face match at Summerslam that will see Hogan "pass the torch" to Hart and drop the title.

Hogan turned the idea down, and agreed to drop the title back to Yokozuna, who in turn would drop it to Hart at SS. Some critics believe, however, that Hogan simply didn't want to drop the title to the new flagship of the company.

Hogan drops the belt to Yoko at KOTR (but doesn't drop it cleanly), while WWE goes with the failed Lex Luger "US Express" idea. Hogan leaves WWE two months later and does not appear at Summerslam.

2002 - Hogan accepts an offer to return to WWE and reunite the original NWO, with the understanding he would be in a featured match with The Rock at Wrestlemania X8.

Hogan scored a huge deal from WWE, and agreed to put over The Rock. He suggests they close the show as he felt "they had drawn the crowd" - but McMahon and specifically Triple H refuse to put the WWE Title match in a secondary role.

Hogan is later booked to win the title from Triple H, but is dissapointed when it comes with the condition he drop it to Undertaker a month later.

After being booked to lose to Kurt Angle at KOTR 2002, Hogan decided he needed time off again. Despite only having been back for all of four months.

Hogan is convinced to stay long enough to get in a quick tag team championship win with Edge. He is then asked to put over Brock Lesnar, which he does.

He is dissatisfied with his role, because he isn't be portrayed the way "he thought he would". He takes another "extended break" after the Lesnar match.

Re: Hulk Hogan 1993
 

That probably has an awful lot to do with it, to be honest. Maybe Hogan was resentful about the fact that his era in the WWF was clearly coming to an end and in his uniquely egotistical and jealous way, he trashed the company title out of spite.

I can't believe that McMahon was stupid enough to believe that bullshit. Even if the fans had gone home disappointed about Yokozuna taking the title, a storyline involving Bret chasing Yokozuna for the title would have been better than not having a Champion at all.

.

I remember WWF Magazine running an article in the summer of 1993 comparing Bret Hart to Hulk Hogan and asking the question 'who would win?' It all seemed to be building towards a Summerslam match between the two.

Re: Hulk Hogan 1993
 

Vince was losing money and worried about how serious things were getting involving Dr. George Zahorian. He went back to what made him rich - Hulkamania. Hogan himself has a big ego and probably considered himself the golden touch of wrestling, as business dropped when he wasn't there. The relationship with McMahon was deteriorating.

Re: Hulk Hogan 1993
 

I don't know what to say about that cause when it comes to wrestlemania the WWE Title has been put in a secondary role more then a few times starting with wrestlemania 8 hell it was even in a secondary role at this years wrestlemania.

Re: Hulk Hogan 1993
 

I think that Hogan/Rock should have been the main event. The crowds were dead after it finished and it kind of made the event end on an anti-climax.