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 went into 1993 as the company's champion.[6] Hulk Hogan had left the WWF after WrestleMania VIII in 1992, and his return for WrestleMania IX was one of the show's two main storylines: he came back to team with his friend Brutus Beefcake against WWF Tag Team Champions Money Inc., Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster.[1]

Hogan's time away came after a run of bad press over steroids. In 1991, Dr. George Zahorian, a Pennsylvania commission doctor assigned to WWF shows, went on trial for illegally dispensing steroids, and Hogan went on The Arsenio Hall Show that July to say he had used them only three times, for injury rehabilitation. Years later, he admitted under oath that he had lied, and that he first used steroids in the 1970s.[22]

Hart, meanwhile, had become champion expecting to keep the belt for a long time. He understood McMahon to have given his word on a "Bruno Sammartino-like" reign that would last years, not months, and he wrote in his autobiography that as champion his pay "tripled" to $6,000 to $7,000 a week.[22]

The other storyline was Yokozuna. Rodney Anoa'i was a Samoan, a nephew of Afa and Sika Anoa'i, who trained him, and had wrestled in the AWA as Kokina Maximus before the WWF renamed him and billed him from Japan.[24] Managed by Mr. Fuji and pushed from his 1992 debut as an unstoppable monster heel weighing more than 500 pounds, he finished opponents with the Banzai Drop, jumping from the second rope to sit on their chests.[1][25] On a February 1993 Superstars, he gave Jim Duggan four of them, putting Duggan out of action on television for more than two months.[1]

Yokozuna earned his title shot by winning the 1993 Royal Rumble. At the contract signing, he attacked Hart and hit him with the Banzai Drop too.[1]

The two men who would argue about WrestleMania IX for the next three decades had actually been on the same side of the ring long before. In February 1984, in Hekinan, Japan, a young Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan teamed with Iron Mike Sharpe against Antonio Inoki, Akira Maeda, and Kengo Kimura on a New Japan tour.[16]

Build-up

Hogan's return started with Beefcake. On the February 15, 1993 Raw, taped at the Manhattan Center in New York, Beefcake wrestled DiBiase in his comeback match after the parasailing accident that had smashed his face two years earlier. Schyster hit him with a metal briefcase for the disqualification, and Money Inc. kept on him until their own manager, Jimmy Hart, stepped in and cradled Beefcake's head until medical staff arrived with a stretcher.[18] Randy Savage said on commentary that Beefcake had "two guys watching over him, the big man upstairs and Hulk Hogan," and McMahon hinted that Hogan would answer.[18]

He did, a week later. On the February 22 Raw, Hogan came to the ring at the Manhattan Center, announced he was back in the WWF, and brought out Beefcake. Then he revealed that Jimmy Hart had switched sides to manage him, and Jimmy Hart came out in Hulkamania red and yellow. Hogan named his new team the Mega Maniacs.[17]

According to Hart, he was booked to keep the title at WrestleMania IX until April 2, 1993, two days before the show, when Vince McMahon called him to his suite with a new plan.[1][2] "I want you to drop the belt to Yoko tomorrow," Hart recalled McMahon saying. Hart would lose after Fuji threw salt in his eyes, and Hogan, who was not booked in the main event, would come out afterward and win the title from Yokozuna.[2]

Hart went along with it. He has said he told McMahon he appreciated everything McMahon had done for him and would do whatever he wanted.[2] Privately, he thought the finish would alienate the fans who had gotten behind him and "completely backfire."[2] In his autobiography he put it more bluntly: "The hokey finish would stink, maybe not immediately, but in the weeks to come my fans...would gag on it."[23]

The business was part of the pressure. Eight days after tickets went on sale for the Las Vegas show, the company had sold only 2,000 of them.[22]

Why the change was made has since been acknowledged: the booking of the finish was changed solely to please Hogan.[1] Jim Ross has described Hogan as, at that point, "the one guy" who could carry more weight than McMahon in arranging his own creative direction, at a time when McMahon was also under federal investigation.[1] Ross said he knew Hogan would leave WrestleMania IX as champion, but not how the title change would happen.[1]

The show itself, on April 4 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, was promoted as the "World's Largest Toga Party," with the announcers in Roman togas, and was the first WrestleMania ever held outdoors.[1] Hogan wrestled earlier on the card, teaming with Beefcake against Money Inc. They lost by disqualification in 18:27, so the tag titles stayed with DiBiase and Schyster.[3] During an interview on the broadcast, Hogan said he wanted to face the winner of the main event.[1]

Hogan came into the show with a noticeable black eye. The Undertaker has said rumors spread quickly that it came from a dispute with Randy Savage.[12] Hart, asked about it in 2025, said he never knew what happened, and added: "Hulk Hogan's always been such a liar. Whatever he tells you is probably not true. Macho Man, I'd go by his account of things."[12] The Wrestling Observer, addressing the speculation at the time, reported that the black eye really was from a boating accident.[19]

The Matches

Hart and Yokozuna closed the scheduled card. Hart tried to outwrestle the bigger man and had early control, but Yokozuna came back with a clothesline, a leg drop, and a nerve hold.[1] Hart got back into it when Yokozuna missed a running splash, and again when he missed a second one.[1]

When Yokozuna carried Hart into the corner, Hart pulled off the protective turnbuckle pad. He drove Yokozuna's head into the exposed corner and locked him in the Sharpshooter.[1] Mr. Fuji threw salt into Hart's eyes, and Yokozuna pinned him to win the WWF Championship at 8:55.[1][3] Dave Meltzer rated the match three stars.[3]

Hogan came to the ring to check on Hart. Fuji challenged him to face his new champion right then, and Hogan accepted and came into the ring.[1] Fuji tried to throw salt at Hogan too, but it missed and hit Yokozuna instead. Hogan dropped the leg and pinned him.[1] The whole title match lasted about 21 or 22 seconds, depending on the record, and made Hogan a five-time WWF Champion.[1][3]

Records also differ on the crowd. One lists 16,891 at Caesars Palace; another 15,045.[1][3] The Observer reported at the time that the announced sellout was nowhere near the truth: blocks of close to 400 ringside-area tickets were given away to fill the arena hours before the show. Even so, higher ticket prices meant the WWF made more from the gate than it had from WrestleMania VIII's Hoosier Dome crowd.[19]

The pay-per-view drew about 430,000 buys, a 2.1 buyrate, which the Observer reported was by far the least-bought WrestleMania ever. Dave Meltzer still argued it was a success, since pay-per-view business was falling everywhere and WrestleMania had dropped less than most shows.[19]

Hart's account of what happened next is specific. Hogan, excited, came to him and said, "I won't forget it. I'll be happy to return the favor." Hart's reply: "I'm going to remember that, Terry."[2] Looking back in a later documentary interview, Hart said Hogan wouldn't acknowledge him after the title change, and that it told him everything. "I knew right then and there," he said. "I was like, 'I've got the belt and I've got what he wants and I'm the enemy now.'"[11]

WWE later placed Hogan's title win among its top 50 WrestleMania moments.[1]

Aftermath

Two weeks after the show, the Observer reported that Hogan's title win would stand, and that he would work only a few house shows in May, all tag title matches against Money Inc., and not defend the title until King of the Ring in June.[19][20] A week after that, it reported the WWF's plan: Hogan against Yokozuna at King of the Ring, then Hogan against Hart headlining SummerSlam. Meltzer figured that if that match happened, Hart would win, since it was the only finish that made sense, but added that the internal speculation was that Hogan would not do a job for Bret.[20]

Hart has said that a few weeks later McMahon told him Hogan was refusing to put him over for the title, saying Hart "wasn't in his league." McMahon offered him a program with Jerry Lawler instead.[2]

Hogan's own version, given on the Full Send podcast, was that the deal had always been for him to drop the title back to Yokozuna. "Then Bret got in my face, like 'Hey, you were supposed to drop the belt to me.' I said, 'No, I'm not,'" Hogan said.[10] He said the two of them went to McMahon together. "Vince looked at Bret and said, 'Bret, that's what you thought you heard.'"[10] According to a summary of McMahon's position in that meeting, McMahon laid out the plan for Hogan to lose to Yokozuna and denied telling Hart that Hogan had refused to lose to him.[1]

The title changed hands at King of the Ring on June 13, 1993, at the Nutter Center outside Dayton, Ohio.[4][5] Yokozuna controlled early, and Hogan twice failed to slam him. Hogan fought back with kicks and his leg drop but couldn't get the pin.[4] As he set up another slam attempt, manager Harvey Wippleman, disguised as a ringside photographer, jumped onto the apron and set off his camera in Hogan's face. Yokozuna leg-dropped him for the pin in 13:08 and hit the Banzai Drop afterward.[4][5] One account of the booking says Hogan did not want to be pinned cleanly and insisted on losing through interference.[4]

On the same show, Hart won the King of the Ring tournament, beating Razor Ramon, Mr. Perfect, and Bam Bam Bigelow, and was attacked by Jerry Lawler at his coronation. When Hart called Lawler "Burger King," Lawler went after him with the scepter, starting a feud that ran more than two years.[4][13] The show drew only about 6,500 fans, the lowest attendance of any King of the Ring, but its buyrate was the best the event would do until 1999.[4]

The Observer reported that King of the Ring did a 1.1 buyrate, by far the lowest in the company's history, and read it as a sign that the casual fans who paid to see Hogan at WrestleMania were only willing to pay once.[21]

It was Hogan's last WWF pay-per-view until No Way Out in 2002.[4] By late June, the Observer reported that Hogan appeared to be on the outs with the WWF. He, Jimmy Hart, and Beefcake had pulled out of their scheduled dates except the European tour and a couple of house shows. The SummerSlam main event by then was Yokozuna defending against Hogan, and it was off. Hart was being slotted against Yokozuna on the house shows Hogan was missing, but would not get the SummerSlam main event either.[21] He worked the Yokozuna rematch on international house shows that summer, then left to film the TV series Thunder in Paradise, and signed with WCW in 1994, beating Ric Flair for the WCW title in his first match there.[4]

In August 2025, after Hogan's death, Jim Ross offered another angle on the King of the Ring finish on his podcast: that Hogan actually wanted to leave the WWF while still holding the title, and was hesitant even to lose it to Yokozuna.[4]

Behind the Scenes

Hart and Hogan did end up in the same company again, and on the same side. Hart joined WCW after the Montreal Screwjob in late 1997, and in 1998 he helped Hollywood Hogan win back the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and spent the year as part of Hogan's nWo.[6] The two teamed at the Great American Bash in June 1998, beating Randy Savage and Roddy Piper in a match the Wrestling Observer rated a dud.[15][7]

Their only singles match came on the September 28, 1998 Nitro in Rochester, New York, as part of an angle in which Hart pretended to turn his back on Hogan. Hart won by disqualification in 9:54, though other accounts describe the finish as a no contest.[8][6] They were teaming again a year later, on the September 13, 1999 Nitro, when Hart returned to WCW after Owen Hart's death.[9][7] Hogan remembered their WCW run warmly. When Eric Bischoff asked whether he could work with Hart, Hogan said he told him to bring Hart in: "All of a sudden, we had about eight or nine great matches. We got along great, we traveled together."[10]

Hart's resentment never softened into forgiveness. In Netflix's 2026 documentary Hulk Hogan: Real American, in an interview recorded before Hogan's death, Hart called WrestleMania IX "a phoney, bullsh*t match" and said of Hogan: "He was a good guy once upon a time, but in the end he was a backstabbing, knife-wielding piece of sh*t."[11]

Hogan, for his part, said Hart's anger had never been only about 1993. On Full Send, he framed Hart as the one person who felt Hogan had sabotaged his career, "because Bret thought he should have been the greatest wrestler that ever lived."[10] He said that after the McMahon meeting, Hart "hated my guts and wanted to kill me."[10]

Hogan's mind was already partly elsewhere that spring. He had a deal with New Japan, reportedly worth $150,000 per match and struck before he left the WWF, and it began with Keiji Muto at the Fukuoka Dome in May 1993, while Hogan was still WWF Champion. He caught heat for diminishing the WWF title in favor of the real prize in that match, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.[22] He turned 40 that year, and the Thunder in Paradise series would soon be greenlit for 22 episodes with him in the lead.[22]

The Observer also reported that spring that Hogan was trying hard to get Beefcake moved up the ladder ahead of both Bret and Mr. Perfect, and that Hart had been hinting at a Hogan match in his own interviews.[20] By late June, it suggested Hogan was better off distancing himself from wrestling, since poor box office would not endear him to movie producers.[21]

The documentary record doesn't settle it. The contemporaneous reporting does show the WWF planning a Hogan and Hart match for SummerSlam in April 1993, and doubts even then that Hogan would lose it.[20] Two accounts of the McMahon meeting agree that Hart came away believing he was owed the title, and disagree on whether McMahon ever told him so.[1][2][10] One event history states flatly that Hogan was supposed to lose to Hart and changed his mind, while another records McMahon denying he ever told Hart that.[4][1] McMahon has not given a detailed public account of his own.

Legacy

WrestleMania IX's finish is remembered as a moment when the WWF's biggest star of the 1980s took the title at the expense of the champion the company had been building, plans for Hart as champion "mortgaged in favor of nostalgia."[22] King of the Ring 1993, where Hart won the tournament and Hogan left as a former champion, is considered a pillar of the WWF's "New Generation" era.[4]

Hart won the WWF Championship back from Yokozuna at WrestleMania X the following year, in the main event after Lex Luger's title match with Yokozuna ended in a disqualification.[1] Hogan did not return to the WWF until 2002.[4]

Yokozuna did not live to see most of the argument. A two-time WWF Champion, he was found dead in his hotel room in Liverpool, England, on October 23, 2000, at 34. Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.[24] WWE inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2012, and its own profile says "the size that made the giant so great became his greatest undoing."[25]

The argument over the promise outlasted both careers. In 2025 WWE and Peacock revisited the show in the documentary WrestleMania IX: Becoming a Spectacle, and Hart was still telling reporters not to believe Hogan's version of anything.[12]

Hulk Hogan, born Terry Bollea, died on July 24, 2025, in Clearwater, Florida, at 71. The medical examiner ruled the cause a heart attack.[14] The following spring, Netflix's Hulk Hogan: Real American aired Hart's interview about WrestleMania IX, recorded while Hogan was alive, and Hart's verdict was unchanged.[11]

Across more than a decade in two companies, the two men wrestled each other one on one exactly once, on a 1998 Nitro, and never had the WWF title match Hart believed he'd been promised.[7][8]

See Also

Sources & Further Listening

1. WrestleMania IX — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_IX
2. "WrestleMania 9 Controversy Behind Hulk Hogan Winning the Title" — Pro Wrestling Stories (Hart's account of the April 2 meeting and its aftermath). https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/wrestlemania-9-controversy-hulk-hogan-bret-hart/
3. "WWF WrestleMania IX" (Apr 4, 1993) results, attendance, and Wrestling Observer ratings — Cagematch. https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1786
4. King of the Ring (1993) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_the_Ring_(1993)
5. "WWF King Of The Ring 1993" (Jun 13, 1993) results and Wrestling Observer ratings — Cagematch. https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1797
6. Bret Hart — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Hart
7. "Bret Hart vs. Hulk Hogan: all matches" — Cagematch: The Internet Wrestling Database. https://www.cagematch.net/?id=111&nr=28173&page=2
8. "WCW Monday NITRO #159" (Sep 28, 1998) results — Cagematch. https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1674
9. "WCW Monday NITRO #208" (Sep 13, 1999) results — Cagematch. https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=4209
10. "Hulk Hogan Reflects On Bret Hart's 'Beef' With Him Over WrestleMania 9 Title Win" — Fightful (Hogan interview on the Full Send podcast). https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/hulk-hogan-reflects-bret-hart-s-beef-him-over-wrestlemania-9-title-win/
11. "Bret Hart on Hulk Hogan: 'He was a good guy once upon a time...'" — NoDQ.com, April 22, 2026 (Hart in the Netflix documentary Hulk Hogan: Real American). https://nodq.com/news/90060/
12. Cain A. Knight, "Bret Hart says Hulk Hogan is probably lying about WrestleMania 9 drama" — Cageside Seats, April 11, 2025 (Hart interview with TMZ). 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
13. Bob Colling Jr., "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/
14. "Wrestling icon Hulk Hogan's cause of death was a heart attack, medical examiner says" — CBS News, 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/hulk-hogans-cause-of-death-heart-attack
15. "WCW/nWo The Great American Bash 1998" (Jun 14, 1998) results and Wrestling Observer ratings — Cagematch. https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1655
16. "NJPW New Year Golden Series 1984, Night 32" (Feb 8, 1984) results — Cagematch. https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=72826
17. Brian Bayless, "WWF Monday Night RAW – February 22nd, 1993" — Scott's Blog of Doom (Hogan's return segment). https://www.blogofdoom.com/2019/01/18/wwf-monday-night-raw-february-22nd-1993/
18. Haydn Gleed, "WWE Raw Retro Coverage – February 15, 1993: Brutus Beefcake returns to the ring following a serious accident to face Ted DiBiase" — ProWrestling.net. https://prowrestling.net/artman/publish/morereviews/article10035996.shtml
19. Wrestling Observer Newsletter, April 19, 1993 (WrestleMania IX buyrate, attendance, Hogan's schedule) — issue recap, "Wrestling Observer Flashback–04.19.93," Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2017/06/13/wrestling-observer-flashback-04-19-93/
20. Wrestling Observer Newsletter, April 26, 1993 (King of the Ring and SummerSlam plans) — issue recap, "Wrestling Observer Flashback–04.26.93," Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2017/06/21/wrestling-observer-flashback-04-26-93/
21. Wrestling Observer Newsletter, June 28, 1993 (King of the Ring buyrate, Hogan pulling out of dates) — issue recap, "Wrestling Observer Flashback–06.28.93," Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2017/07/20/wrestling-observer-flashback-06-28-93/
22. John Pollock, "The Story of Hulk Hogan: 'Tabloid Terrorism' and WWF Exit (Part 3)" — POST Wrestling, July 26, 2025 (draws on Hart's autobiography Hitman). https://www.postwrestling.com/2025/07/26/the-story-of-hulk-hogan-tabloid-terrorism-and-wwf-exit-part-3/
23. Greg Oliver, "Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling" review, with excerpts from Bret Hart's autobiography — Slam! Wrestling, October 8, 2007. https://slamwrestling.net/archive/hitmans-autobiography-heartbreakingly-honest/
24. "Yokozuna" (obituary, October 23, 2000) — Slam! Wrestling. https://slamwrestling.net/legend/yokozuna/
25. "Yokozuna" Superstar profile — WWE.com. https://www.wwe.com/superstars/yokozuna

Further Listening

• Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling (Bret Hart autobiography) — his account of the WrestleMania IX finish and the aftermath
• Full Send Podcast — Hulk Hogan's rebuttal of Hart's version of events
• Hulk Hogan: Real American (Netflix, 2026) — Hart's interview on WrestleMania IX, recorded before Hogan's death
• WrestleMania IX: Becoming a Spectacle (WWE/Peacock documentary, 2025)
• Grilling JR with Jim Ross (August 8, 2025 episode) — Ross on Hogan's reluctance to drop the title