10 WrestleMania Main Events The Royal Rumble Almost Promised Us

A 1987 meeting on WWF Main Event remains the only televised singles encounter ever staged between Bret Hart and Randy Savage. But if the 1992 Royal Rumble had panned out slightly differently, we could have seen these two titans go toe-to-toe for the WWF Championship in the main event of WrestleMania IX.

Bret was the reigning champion at the time. He ultimately defended against Yokozuna at ‘Mania, but if we look back at the way in which Yoko secured his spot in that match, it arrived via the narrowest - and most bizarre - of margins.

With Yokozuna and Savage our final two participants, Savage was seemingly in the ascendancy, but after nailing his elbow drop from the top rope, he inexplicably went for a cover on Yokozuna. Pinfalls, of course, don’t count in the Rumble match, and after an over-zealous kick-out from the gargantuan Yokozuna, Savage was launched over the top rope, out of the ring, and thus out of the main event of WrestleMania.

Subsequently, this was something of a double-whammy. Not only would Hart vs. Savage have been a great main event, it would also have saved us from seeing WrestleMania IX degenerating into the Hulk Hogan show. Hart lost to Yoko, only for Hogan to come out and goad the champ into a second title match, which the Hulkster promptly won in 22 seconds.

At least it was longer than Bryan lasted.