10 Things You Didn't Know About WWE In 1991
8. Something For Bret Hart To Smile About
To fast-forward to 1993 briefly, Yokozuna went over WWF champion Bret Hart in the main event of WrestleMania IX.
The f*ck finish - Mr. Fuji threw salt in Bret's eyes - acted as pretext for the controversial impromptu main event, in which Yoko was immediately dethroned by Hulk Hogan, who had made an extravagantly racist challenge to the winner earlier in the night.
The decision was made to revert to the easy shortcut that was Hulk Hogan because, while his act was tired, he was a bigger name. Bret was a great custodian of the WWF, the man who drew WWF fans deeper beyond the superficial fad level, but he was not a crossover name capable of leading the company into a new boom period.
The thing is, Bret had replaced Hogan for a good reason: the fire had gone out, and Hogan's box office magic had waned.
It was a desperately upsetting night for Hart, less than a 4/10, but as disastrous as WrestleMania IX was in general, it actually outdrew the night that Hogan became passé.
WrestleMania VII drew 400,000 buys on pay-per-view, with the medium well established by that point - 'Mania V drew a staggering 767,000 - where Mania IX drew 430,000. That incidentally was up 40,000 on the number Hogan drew for his main event against Sid Justice at 'Mania VIII in 1992.
This is not to state that Bret was a bigger draw overall than Hogan - but fans were more interested in seeing Bret reclaim his title than they were in the death rattle of Hulkamania.