#5 The death of Hulkamania
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If Wrestlemania 9 was not going to signal the end of Hulkamania, it would have to be left to King of the Ring 1993 instead. The story goes that Vince’s initial plan was to have Hogan drop the WWF Championship to Bret Hart in a passing of the torch moment to move WWF into the new generation. Hogan, still not quite ready to give back to the company that had made him a Superstar, refused to do the job for Bret, claiming that the Hitman was too small and therefore unworthy of ending such a historic era.
With Hogan planning to leave the company, Vince managed to convince him to drop the belt to Yokozuna at King of the Ring instead. This was not the kind of moment fans were hoping for, but at least it gave Yoko the honour of being the man to finish off Hulk Hogan once and for all (or so we thought at the time).
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The match itself wasn’t anything special, and the booking of the finish was typical of the WWF. Rather than have Hogan succumb to a Yokozuna pinfall, the title ended up changing hands due to a dodgy cameraman who temporarily blinded Hogan with the flash of his camera, allowing Yoko to roll the legend up for the victory.
It’s hard to look back on the career of Hulk Hogan and not feel a little aggrieved at the man for failing to do the job for others. Even as he was leaving the company, he couldn’t help but make himself the hero and make the rest of the roster look undeserving of cleanly defeating him in the process. At least Yoko’s victory kickstarted a genuinely new era for the company, one in which guys like Bret, Shawn Michaels and Undertaker could truly excel.
It wasn’t the original plan for the death of Hulkamania, but at least we got it eventually.
