10 Times WrestleMania Genuinely Surprised Us
8. Hulk Hogan Headlines WrestleMania IX
Not all surprises, of course, are good ones.
From a tale of collaboration and surpassing expectations comes the story of a selfish man reverting to type. In retrospect, the climax to WrestleMania IX shouldn’t have been all that surprising. Ageing, controversial, increasingly irrelevant, Hulk Hogan was a wounded animal - and that’s a dangerous proposition.
The headline match saw rising star Bret Hart defend his title against unstoppable monster Yokozuna. Through foul means, the colossal Samoan defeated Hart for the belt, leaving the event on a solemn note.
Enter Hulk Hogan to make things better with a kiss and a cuddle for Bret, before entering the ring to take on Yoko himself. Seconds later, Hogan embarked on another (thankfully quite short) run with the big belt, having wangled his way back into the spotlight other superstars so dearly needed.
Ostensibly, the idea was to take Hogan vs Hart to SummerSlam, though cunning Terry had no intention of putting the Hitman over. Instead, Hulk was gone from the company the same year, meaning the shock finish to the show of shows benefitted precisely nobody, except maybe Mr Fuji, who probably had a very nice evening.