10 Totally Soul-Crushing WWE Title Changes

1. Yokozuna Vs Hulk Hogan (WrestleMania 9)

Akira Tozawa Titus O'Neil Apollo Crews
WWE.com

Burying both main event talents having already dominated the middle of the broadcast his own, pre-arranged, title match, Hulk Hogan played an absolute blinder in his utter decimation of WWE's topline following his controversial early-1993 return to the company.

Slotted into best friend Brutus Beefcake's rivalry with Money Inc, it was a pleasingly understated spot Hogan would occupy at April's WrestleMania 9, especially as new WWE Champion and company figurehead Bret Hart required space away from the old guard to flourish against top new heel Yokozuna in their titanic clash.

'The Hulkster' had other plans. Falling short of tag title glory via disqualification, Hogan made a nuisance of himself following the screwy finish to the title match that saw Yoko rob Hart thanks to Mr Fuji throwing salt in the champion's eyes.

Idiotically challenging the comparatively fresh Hogan on behalf of his sumo behemoth, Fuji's mouth wrote a check his new champion couldn't cash. Hulk left 'The Hitman' to blindly stagger to the back, hit the ring and won his fifth WWE Title in just 22 seconds.

Other than the Vegas car park attendees drunk on nostalgia, just about everybody suffered from the decision. That included Vince McMahon, who lost a visual champion for two months thanks to Hogan's external commitments keeping him off television outside of one return at June's King Of The Ring. There, he dropped it right back to Yokozuna and departed the company for good.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett