10 Most Fascinating Stories In WrestleMania History
7. An Inescapable Fate
If it often feels futile, existence as a WWE fan, look back to the events spanning WrestleManias IX and X. WWE controls everything, but it cannot stop the rain.
In a Las Vegas parking lot Vince McMahon had conflated with a real, open-air stadium, he reverted to Hulk Hogan in a fit of nostalgia-induced desperation. The Hulkster issued an impromptu challenge to the winner of that night's forward-thinking main event: WWF Champion Bret Hart, or "the J*p, brother." The Californian won, after Mr. Fuji interfered, though why Vince went to these lengths is unclear. He buried the Hitman to put over his old favourite, a star fading in both profile and musculature. He literally vanished immediately afterwards; Hogan didn't appear on the nascent Monday Night RAW as WWF Champion.
In the meantime, without the Real American deal, Vince experimented with a diet successor in the form of the profoundly miscast Lex Luger, who struggled to get over much in his own right, much less as the wildly optimistic Hogan successor. The fans famously chose Hart as not the successor but the alternative at the 1994 Royal Rumble. Following his disputed win, he schooled younger brother Owen in a heart-wrenching classic of an opener before emerging from his David Vs. Goliath sequel as the WWF - and the people's - undisputed Champion.
To underscore Hart's brilliance, with which he bonded with the core loyalists, this expert double-duty shift wasn't even Bret's greatest show-long triumph. The events of the King Of The Ring, at which he was originally scheduled to reclaim the Winged Eagle, saw him win something greater than that: McMahon's trust.
A precursor to the events of 20 years later, this marked the first epic clash between the office and the fandom - the WWF's first heel turn, and the great babyface comeback.