WWF Wrestlemania IX

WWF Wrestlemania IX

Venue: Las Vegas, Nevada
Date: 4/4/93
Attendance: 15,045
Commentators: Jim Ross, Bobby Heenan & Randy Savage

In stark contrast to the previous year's event Wrestlemania IX was held outdoors at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas with a Roman themed set including toga outfits for the announcers and ringside crew. It was certainly different. Due to the falling pay-per-view numbers Hulk Hogan was brought back into the fold to be a part of a special double main event as he teamed with Brutus Beefcake to challenge Money Inc for the World Tag Team Title while Bret Hart defended the WWF Heavyweight Title against Royal Rumble winner Yokozuna.

Review
In the opening contest, Shawn Michaels retained the Intercontinental Championship despite a count out loss to Tatanka in what turned out to be the best match on the show. The finish was perplexing however as Michaels tripped up the referee from outside the ring to prevent being counted out which was surely a disqualification, except Howard Finkel announced that the champion had in fact lost via count out. It was an easy way out as Tatanka could then remain undefeated without taking the title from the "Heartbreak Kid". After the bout Luna Vachon attacked Sensational Sherri who was in the corner of Tatanka. She assaulted her again in the medical room later in the show.

The Steiner Brothers defeated The Headshrinkers in a decent match-up won by Scott Steiner's Frankensteiner which didn't connect that well. There were a few cool manoeuvres in this one including Rick Steiner's belly-to-belly suplex on Fatu while sat on Samu's shoulders. This was one of two matches on the show that had a clean finish.
Crush was looking for revenge after being put out of action back in December by Doink, only he didn't get it. After a ref bump a second Doink attacked Crush from behind with a prosthetic arm allowing the original Doink to score the pin fall victory. Following the decision two referees looked for the second Doink under the ring but he was nowhere to be found. Apparently it was some kind of illusion. For a grudge match built quite well it got a pretty tepid reaction. There were some cheers for the finish which didn't bode well for Crush.

Razor Ramon beat Bob Backlund with an inside cradle in a rubbish match that did nothing for anybody. Backlund looked awful. Ramon was cheered despite being the heel and it's not hard to understand why.

Hulk Hogan's big return ended in defeat as he and Brutus Beefcake were disqualified in their tag title match with Money Inc. Jimmy Hart had switched allegiances to Hogan & Beefcake after an angle on Raw where Beefcake's nose was broken by Ted Dibiase & IRS. Hogan then made his return to television and vowed revenge for his best friend. The match however did not feel like a big enough deal for the long awaited return of Hogan. It was an okay bout but the finish was pretty stupid. After KO'ing the champions with Beefcake's protective face mask, Hogan and Beefcake apparently thought that Jimmy Hart had the authority to count the pin fall simply by turning his jacket inside out to reveal black and white stripes on the inner lining. The faces were rightly DQ'd but they celebrated regardless after the match. It should also be noted that Hogan worked the match with a nasty looking eye injury caused by a boating accident (or Randy Savage's fist if you believe the rumours). Speaking of boating accidents this was Beefcake's first pay-per-view match for three years after shattering his face in 1990.

Mr Perfect's showdown with Lex Luger was a disappointment. It was a very ordinary bout which Luger won with a backslide despite both of Perfect's feet being on the middle rope. Luger then knocked Perfect out with his steel plated forearm before Perfect tracked him down backstage only to be attacked by Shawn Michaels. This was more exciting than the match itself. Incidentally Luger had also knocked out Bret Hart during the Wrestlemania brunch event but strangely it didn't lead to anything.

The Undertaker defeated Giant Gonzales by disqualification after Gonzales decided to use chloroform to incapacitate the "Dead Man". Taker did the first stretcher job of his WWF career only to charge back to the ring soon after and take down Gonzales with a series of clotheslines. Predictably the match was awful.

In the main event Bret Hart had a decent bout with Yokozuna until yet another lame ending. Hart (sort of) locked Yokozuna in the Sharpshooter only for Mr Fuji to throw salt in his eyes which was enough to keep the champion down for the three count. Couldn't Yoko have also dropped a leg on him or something? Hulk Hogan then stormed down to the ring to protest the injustice but ended up being challenged by Fuji to an immediate title match with 'Zuna. Hogan asked for Hart's permission, which he granted, the salt trick backfired, Hogan clotheslined Yoko, dropped the leg and just like that picked up his fifth WWF Heavyweight Title. Despite the obvious flaws in the way it went down I felt this ending brought about the only memorable moment of the show. A lot of people rightly felt bad for Hart but the reality is he wasn't drawing well enough as champion so McMahon decided to pull the plug. Supposedly the idea was for Hart to challenge Hogan for the title at Summerslam but that didn't happen as Hogan would leave the company in the summer. McMahon clearly did not want to go back to Hart as champion as he instead attempted to make a new Hogan in the form of Lex Luger.

Overall
An awful Wrestlemania. The only memorable things about the show were the setting and the ending with Hogan's surprise title win which like it or not got a big pop and sent the fans home happy. The other positives were new signing Jim Ross' performance on commentary, and Bam Bam Bigelow versus Kamala being cancelled. Besides that, an abundance of dodgy finishes and average matches made this show one to forget. Wrestlemania IX drew a 2.1 buy rate equating to 430,000 buys. While still slightly down from the year before it was a much healthier number than the past three pay-per-view shows.

Results
1 Tatanka def Shawn Michaels (c) by count out. Michaels retained the WWF Intercontinental Title (18:13) ***1/4
2 The Steiner Brothers def The Headshrinkers by pinfall (14:22) **3/4
3 Doink pinned Crush (8:28) *
4 Razor Ramon pinned Bob Backlund (3:45) 3/4
5 Money Inc (c) def The Mega Maniacs to retain the WWF Tag Team Title (18:27) **
6 Lex Luger pinned Mr Perfect (10:56) *3/4
7 The Undertaker def Giant Gonzales by disqualification (7:33) DUD
8 Yokozuna pinned Bret Hart (c) to win the WWF Heavyweight Title (8:55) **3/4
9 Hulk Hogan pinned Yokozuna (c) to win the WWF Heavyweight Title (0:21) SQ

Rating
14.25/45 = 31.67%

WWF Royal Rumble 1993

WWF Royal Rumble 1993
Venue: Sacramento, California
Date: 24/1/93
Attendance: 16,000
Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan


The fifth annual WWF Royal Rumble pay-per-view took place in Sacramento, California and was headlined by Bret Hart's WWF title defence against Razor Ramon and of course, the Royal Rumble match itself. This would also be the final PPV that Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan would call together.

Review

The Steiner Brothers made their WWF PPV debut with a victory over The Beverly Brothers in a good opening match. Rick & Scott got a great reaction from the WWF fan base proving they did watch the competition's product... Shawn Michaels pinned Marty Jannetty to retain the Intercontinental Title after Sherri accidentally hit Jannetty in the face with her shoe. Sherri's hysterics after the bout were very believable as she sold being distraught over her miscue. The match may not quite have been the high flying spectacle some expected from the former Rockers but was actually a very good contest featuring a mixture of cool manoeuvres and good wrestling. This match was about a year later than it should have been due to Jannetty being fired and their planned rematch at Wrestlemania IX had to be scrapped as well with Jannetty being dismissed once again...

Bam Bam Bigelow made his first WWF PPV appearance in over five years as he defeated The Big Boss Man. Boss Man was on his way out of the company and did the clean job here. The match wasn't much cop (no pun intended)... Unlike at Survivor Series Bret Hart's WWF Heavyweight Title felt like it might be under threat as he faced Razor Ramon who had attacked Owen Hart to help build heat for this one. Like Michaels/Jannetty this was another very good bout with good heat. Hart went over by submission with not the best applied Sharpshooter. Ramon would be permanently dropped to the upper mid-card after this.

Lex Luger debuted as "Narcissus" (later changed to "The Narcissist" Lex Luger) after the WBF went down the pan. The story was that Bobby Heenan had brought in Luger to take care of Mr Perfect who had turned on him and Ric Flair back in November.

The Royal Rumble match was easily the worst to date and was massively lacking in star power especially compared to previous years. Bob Backlund, who was completely lacking in charisma (at least until he discovered his crazed heel gimmick in late 1994) was chosen as the man to break Flair's longevity record. The trouble was Backlund had no chance in carrying the match in the way Flair had done in 1992. His style was very awkward and dated and he was not over in the slightest. Flair did a decent job early on. His showdown with Perfect, although brief, was one of the few highlights of the match. Perfect was inexplicably eliminated like a mid-carder soon after. Giant Gonzales' debut was at least intriguing as he laid waste to The Undertaker and eliminated him despite not being in the match. The match came down to Yokozuna and Randy Savage which wasn't too bad until the finish which made the "Macho Man" look like a complete moron. Savage managed to take Yoko off his feet and hit his patented top rope elbow drop before going for a pinfall. Yoko then pressed Savage from the canvas up and over the top rope which was just not believable. The backstage face-to-face between Yokozuna and Bret Hart was a nice touch though.

Overall

After a good undercard the show was let down by a humdrum Royal Rumble match which at least brought to the fore a new top heel in Yokozuna. The Ric Flair/Mr Perfect feud came to an end the next night on Raw as Perfect defeated the "Nature Boy" in a match where the loser left the WWF. Flair would return to WCW where he would remain until the bitter end. Bret Hart was set to collide with Yokozuna in the main event of Wrestlemania IX for the WWF Heavyweight Title. The downward spiral continued as Royal Rumble 1993 pulled a 1.2 buy rate which was approximately 240,000 buys.

Results
1 The Steiner Brothers def The Beverly Brothers by pinfall (9:10) **3/4
2 Shawn Michaels (c) pinned Marty Jannetty to retain the WWF Intercontinental Title (14:20) ***1/2
3 Bam Bam Bigelow pinned The Big Boss Man (10:10) *
4 Bret Hart (c) def Razor Ramon by submission to retain the WWF Heavyweight Title (17:52) ***1/2
5 Yokozuna won the Royal Rumble match (66:35) *1/2


Rating
12.25/25 = 49%