Yokozuna vs. Hulk Hogan vs. Bret Hitman Hart (Apr 1993 – Jun 1993)

Background

Bret Hart won the WWF Championship from Ric Flair in October 1992 and spent the following months as the company's steady, unglamorous top babyface, a technician carrying the title through a roster increasingly built around bigger, more cartoonish acts.[1] Hulk Hogan, the company's dominant star through the 1980s, had stepped back from a full-time schedule but remained under contract and available for select appearances, including WrestleMania IX.[2]

Yokozuna, managed by Mr. Fuji and booked as a nearly 600-pound unstoppable force, had won the 1993 Royal Rumble to earn his WrestleMania title shot against Hart.[3] The stage was set for a fairly conventional big-man title challenge, decided, as it turned out, by neither man's own offense.[4]

Build-up

Two days before the show, on April 2, 1993, Vince McMahon called Hart to his suite with a plan Hart hadn't been told about in advance. Hart has recounted the conversation directly: "Vince said, 'This is what I want to do. I want you to drop the belt to Yoko tomorrow.'"[4] The finish McMahon described involved Fuji throwing salt in Hart's eyes to set up the pin, followed by Hogan storming the ring afterward to "avenge" the loss and immediately challenge Yokozuna for the title himself, despite not being on the card.[4]

Hart has said he was blindsided and hurt by the news, describing himself as "totally crushed" and worried the finish would "completely backfire" with an audience that had genuinely gotten behind him as champion.[4] When he asked McMahon whether he had done something wrong, McMahon reportedly brushed the question off and assured him of future opportunities.[4]

The match itself played out at Caesars Palace on April 4, staged as "The World's Largest Toga Party" with the arena dressed as a Roman coliseum, live animals, and announcer Howard Finkel introduced as "Finkus Maximus."[3] Hart had Yokozuna in the Sharpshooter and appeared to have the match won at 8:55 when Fuji threw salt in his eyes; blinded, Hart was pinned under Yokozuna's leg drop moments later.[3]

Hogan, who had been at ringside checking on Hart, then accepted an impromptu challenge from Fuji on Yokozuna's behalf. When Fuji tried the same salt throw again, it missed Hogan and hit Yokozuna instead; Hogan hit his leg drop and pinned Yokozuna in 22 seconds to win his fifth WWF Championship, without ever being scheduled for a match that night.[3]

Hart's own account of what happened immediately afterward is specific. He has said Hogan approached him excitedly and told him, "Thank you, brother. I won't forget it. I'll be happy to return the favor," to which Hart replied, "I'm going to remember that, Terry."[4]

The Matches

There was no rematch between Hart and Hogan to settle the account Hart believed had been opened. Two months later, according to Hart, McMahon told him he was getting the title back, but that Hogan was refusing to lose it to him, telling McMahon that Hart "wasn't in his league."[4] Instead of Hart, Yokozuna got the return match at King of the Ring on June 13, 1993 at the Nutter Center in Fairborn, Ohio; Hogan lost the title back to Yokozuna after manager Harvey Wippleman, disguised as a ringside photographer, set off an exploding camera flash in Hogan's face to set up the finish.[5] It was Hogan's last televised WWF match before he left the company and eventually surfaced in WCW the following year.[5]

Hart, meanwhile, moved into a different program entirely, winning that year's King of the Ring tournament and feuding with Jerry Lawler over the following months rather than getting the Hogan match the WrestleMania IX handshake had seemed to promise.[6]

Aftermath

Hogan did not return to WWF television for close to nine years, working in WCW and on his acting career instead, and the two men's paths didn't cross again in the same company until long after both were established veterans of the business.[5] Hart went on to build the bulk of his signature WWF run over the rest of the decade, including multiple further world title reigns, without the Hogan feud he'd been told to expect ever materializing.[1]

The dispute over what exactly was promised, and by whom, never fully resolved between the two men. It resurfaced publicly for decades afterward, in interviews, documentaries, and eventually a Netflix retrospective, with both Hart and Hogan continuing to give their own, incompatible versions of the same conversation.[7][8]

Behind the Scenes

The two men's accounts of the aftermath diverge sharply, and the site presents both rather than picking a winner. Hart's version, repeated consistently across interviews and his own memoir, is that Hogan made an explicit promise to reciprocate the WrestleMania IX finish and then reneged on it, telling McMahon he wouldn't lose to Hart because Hart "wasn't in his league."[4] Hart has since described Hogan in far harsher terms in later interviews, calling him, in one widely circulated 2025 comment, a "backstabbing, knife-wielding piece of shit" over the fallout.[7]

Hogan's account, given on the Full Send Podcast in 2023, disputes the premise entirely. He recalled confronting Hart directly: "I said, 'No, I'm not.' He goes, 'Well, yeah, you are.' I said, 'So let's talk to Vince then.' So we both went in and sat down and talked to Vince. Then Vince looked at Bret and said, 'Bret, that's what you thought you heard.'"[7] Hogan's framing is that Hart misremembered or misunderstood a conversation that was never a firm commitment, and that Hart's resentment over it hardened into a grudge that colored how Hart discussed him for decades afterward.[7]

Neither account is independently corroborated by a neutral third party's contemporaneous record; McMahon, the one person present for the original conversation by both men's telling, has not offered his own detailed public version of it. What both sides agree on is that the WrestleMania IX finish itself, salt to the eyes, an unscheduled title change to a legend who hadn't been advertised, was booked specifically to accommodate Hogan's appearance on the show.[3][4]

Legacy

The WrestleMania IX double title change is remembered as one of the more baldly transactional finishes of the era, a night-of decision to protect Hogan's drawing power at the direct expense of the storyline Hart had been building as champion.[3][4] It is frequently cited in retrospectives as a hinge point in the WWF's transition away from Hogan as its dominant star and toward the "New Generation" push built around Hart, Shawn Michaels and others, even though the immediate effect of the finish was to put the title back on Hogan rather than hand it forward.[1]

The Hart-Hogan dispute over the broken promise has outlived both men's active careers as a talking point, revisited in shoot interviews, Hart's autobiography, and a 2025 Netflix documentary in which Hart again laid out his side of the story, evidence that neither man has ever considered the matter settled.[7][8]

See Also

Sources & Further Listening

1. Bret Hart — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Hart
2. Hulk Hogan — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulk_Hogan
3. WrestleMania IX — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_IX
4. "WrestleMania 9 Controversy Behind Hulk Hogan Winning the Title" — Pro Wrestling Stories. https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/wrestlemania-9-controversy-hulk-hogan-bret-hart/
5. King of the Ring (1993) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_the_Ring_(1993)
6. "Reliving A Feud #2: Jerry Lawler vs. Bret Hart In The WWF '93-'95" — Wrestling Recaps. https://wrestlingrecaps.com/2012/09/17/reliving-a-feud-2-jerry-lawler-vs-bret-hart-in-the-wwf-93-95/
7. "Bret Hart says Hulk Hogan is probably lying about WrestleMania 9 drama" — Cageside Seats. https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2025/4/10/24405794/bret-hart-says-hulk-hogan-liar-wrestlemania-ix-becoming-a-spectacle-black-eye-rumor-macho-man-fight
8. "Bret Hart Blasts Hulk Hogan Over WrestleMania IX Fallout In New Netflix Documentary" — PWMania. https://www.pwmania.com/bret-hart-blasts-hulk-hogan-over-wrestlemania-ix-fallout-in-new-netflix-documentary
9. "FULL MATCH: Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna | WWE Title Match: WrestleMania IX" — YouTube (WWE Vault). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUpgg_7E_fg

Further Listening

• Bret Hart's Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling — his own account of the WrestleMania IX finish and the aftermath
• Hulk Hogan's Full Send Podcast appearance (2023) — his direct rebuttal of Hart's version of events
• Wrestling with Shadows and the 2025 Netflix Bret Hart documentary — later retrospective interviews revisiting the dispute