WWE WrestleMania IX

WWE WrestleMania IX

April 4, 1993

Ceasars Palace

Las Vegas, Nevada

WrestleMania IX is generally regarded as the worst WrestleMania of all time. Not sure I agree with that, but it is certainly a big disappointment. 1993 was just a weird year in general, and I suppose the biggest show of the year is a prime example of that. One interesting thing about the show was that it had a Roman theme and all of the commentators and agents were dressed in togas. It made for a unique atmosphere I personally liked it. This was also the WWE debut of Jim Ross. Ross was the main play by play commentator in NWA/WCW for years and was renowned for it. The main problem with the show though is that all of the matches had no redeeming value to them as the WWE would be going in a completely different direction, mostly due to Hulk Hogan returning. More on that later.

Commentators: Jim Ross, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Heenan comes out on a camel, and adds some humor to the show early. Savage calls him “Camel Breath” for the rest of the show. Have I mentioned how brilliant Heenan is?

WWE IC Championship

Shawn Michaels (champion) w/ Luna Vachon vs. Tatanka w/ Sensational Sherri

Prime example of the odd booking. Tatanka was on his undefeated mega push, but they didn’t want to take the IC title off of Shawn. So there was no way that this match wasn’t going to end in some sort of disqualification or count out win for Tatanka. The match itself is quite good with Shawn selling an arm injury and they had a nice pace going. The main point of the match though was to debut Luna Vachon, who would soon be joining up with Bam Bam Bigelow. Sherri was still mad at Shawn for dumping her but added nothing to this match. Luna attacked Sherri in the back, which I remember on the live PPV broadcast Sherri being shown selling the attack afterwards but not during any of the taped editions of the show. ***1/4

Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) vs. Headshrinkers (Fatu and Samu) w/ Afa

This is actually quite a fun little match albeit a bit sloppy at times. Both teams are big and powerful, but very athletic and it made for some very cool high impact spots. Scotty takes a nasty bump to the floor after basically been dumped through the middle rope. Match is back and forth until Scott hits the frankensteiner for the finish. The two teams were pretty much thrown together to give them something to do. Steiners were pretty much destined at this point to eventually take the tag straps off of Money Inc. The Headshrinkers wouldn’t get their run with the belts until a year later. Still, despite the match having no redeemable value, it falls under that hidden WrestleMania gem category. ***1/2

Crush vs. Doink

Ah yes, Doink the Clown. Pretty much the symbol of this era of silly gimmicks. In this case, a clown. Although it should be pointed out that “evil” Doink was pretty damn cool. It is of course Matt Borne dressed up as a clown and he does a great job with the gimmick. He spent the first half of 1993 playing tricks on Crush. Crush was the perfect victim too. A big guy who the fans wanted to see kick Doink's ass. Crush would pretty much do just that here, until a 2^nd Doink came out and helped Doink win. Bobby Heenan going crazy calling it an “allusion” was just great stuff. I’ve found an appreciation for this match, and hey, at least these guys continued their program which is more than you can say for some of the other matches on this show. **

Bob Backlund vs. Razor Ramon

Total filler here. Razor needed someone to go over against, and I guess Bob fit that profile real well. Razor wins as expected. Nothing match. *1/2

WWE Tag Team Championship

Money Inc. (“Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase and IRS) (champions) vs. Mega Maniacs (Hulk Hogan and Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake) w/ “Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart

You see? Hogan is safely tucked in the mid-card in a tag team match with Beefcake. Nothing for Bret to worry about. This match got set up on RAW in February when Beefcake made his in-ring return and faced Ted Dibiase. The story was that his face is put together by nuts, bolts, and screws. After the match, Money Inc. nailed Beefcake with IRS’s steel briefcase, and thus Jimmy Hart turned baby face and joined up with Beefcake. This led to Beefcake calling out help, in the form of Hulk Hogan. In 1989 this actually would have had the potential to be a very good match up. Four years later, it is pretty much a train wreck.   It’s pretty much an out of control mess with Money Inc. trying to take a walk and get counted out. The match gets re-started and the train wreck continues. The ref takes a bump, so Jimmy Hart turns his jacket inside out and it is has black and white stripes and he counts 3. Of course, you would think two seasoned professionals like Hogan and Beefcake would know that they in fact did NOT win the titles that way, but they celebrate anyway. Somehow through the craziness, Money Inc. gets declared the winners by disqualification. *1/2

Lex Luger vs. Mr. Perfect

Never quite understood the booking of this feud. Lex Luger clearly came into the fed as a guy that was going to be a hot heel, but Mr. Perfect had returned 2 months before that and clearly wasn’t going to be a guy that would be a jobber to the new heel. The roster was thin, and this match had no heat other than Bobby Heenan still being mad at Perfect for turning on him and Flair. When Flair left though, it lost all heat and this became just another match with little to no build. Luger gets a cool entrance with 4 beautiful women holding mirrors that shot off sparklers. This match was one of the most underrated WrestleMania matches, mostly thanks to Curt Hennig being amazing. Even though he had lost a step during his 1993 run, he was still pretty damn good. Luger ultimately gets the win and then knocks Perfect out after the match with the steel plate forearm. *** After the match in the back, Perfect goes looking for Luger, but instead gets attacked in the back by Shawn Michaels setting off their 4 month program, that was supposed to lead to one of the greatest matches ever at SummerSlam… but turned out to be one of the most underwhelming matches of all time.

Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez

Giant Gonzalez’s debut was fairly impressive at the Royal Rumble, but unfortunately that led to him actually having a wrestling match, and poor Undertaker gets stuck trying to work something good out of him. Wasn’t going to happen. This match is absolutely putrid and one of the worst in WrestleMania history. There isn’t anything remotely good about this match and to make matters worse, Undertaker doesn’t even get a clean win. He wins by disqualification, because you see, Vince loves giant slugs like Giant Gonzalez and thought this was going to be a great opportunity to get more “money” out of this match. They would have a rematch at SummerSlam. Yes folks, they stretched this feud on for four more months. DUD

Main Event

WWE Championship

Bret “The Hitman” Hart (champion) vs. Yokozuna w/ Mr. Fuji

I didn’t know what to expect here going into this show. The mark in me said that Bret was in big trouble, because Yokozuna was just an unbeatable monster. It was only a few weeks before where Yokozuna was actually knocked off his feet on television for the first time. Knowing that, I actually started counting how many times that Bret got Yoko down in this match. It was a really nice build to a match of this nature. Bret was always the best of the “smaller” guys against these monsters, as his style made everything believable. Not saying this match was a classic by any stretch, but it was easily Yokozuna’s best match of his career to that point. The end comes when Bret has Yoko in the sharpshooter and Fuji throws salt in Bret’s eye, and Yoko rolls him up for the 3 count. **1/2 Yokozuna becomes the first heel ever to leave WrestleMania with the WWE Championship… but wait! Hulk Hogan comes out and protests. So Fuji calls him a coward, and has Yoko put the newly won title on the line…

Yokozuna (champion) vs. Hulk Hogan

Yoko attacks Hogan and then holds him for Fuji to throw salt in Hogan’s eye. Hogan ducks, clotheslines Yoko down, drops the leg for the 3 count, and all is right with the world. DUD

Final Analysis: Truth be known, at the time I marked completely out, and even today re-watching it I can see why Vince did what he did. The payoff was supposed to be at SummerSlam with Bret Hart getting his big win over Hogan. Hogan balked and then dropped the title back to Yokozuna at King of the Ring and Bret was left with the consolation of winning the King of the Ring tournament. No one really knows why Hogan didn’t want to job, but Bret himself thinks it would be because Hogan would lose baby face heat against Bret in a match. He’s probably right. Bret was the master of getting that sympathy heat, and then making the big heroic comeback. It’s too bad, because there weren’t too many North American workers left that could get a true classic out of Hulk. Bret was one of those guys. As for WrestleMania IX… look it’s easy to look back and call it the worst ever. I for one think that WrestleMania XXVII is right up there as being the worst with a similar nonsensical finish. At least here, Hogan DID put Yokozuna over. Granted it was the wrong guy, but it would turn out to be the biggest win in Yokozuna’s career, and he would hold onto the title for almost a year.