I might be off a year... anyway, Hart said he was under the impression he might have a run/feud with Hogan after WM9. Was there any chance of this happening? Alternatively, if Hogan had not come back at WM9, would Hart have kept the title or was it destined for Yoko?
There was never going to be a Hart-Hogan feud; Hulk vetoed it before it went past the planning stages. Vince basically lied to Bret to keep him happy. And the title was always going to end up with Yoko.
Imagine if Hogan and Hart wrestled each other only they switched attires. Tehehe.
ReplyDeleteI thought Bret mentioned a photo shoot with Hogan featuring a tug-o-war over the belt. I think Summerslam 93' might have been the plan. Yokozuna was a terrible choice for champion.
ReplyDeleteBut would the belt have ended up with Yoko at WM IX? WM was still very much "send the fans home happy" at that point.
ReplyDeleteHow was business during Yoko's run? Anyone know?
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Yoko brought nothing to the table as champion.
ReplyDeleteThreadjack: wm does 750k north american buys. I don't know what that indicates in terms of expectations for the overall buy but maybe nwa88 or someone else will fill that in
ReplyDeleteI haven't read it in a while, but I remember getting the impression that Bret thought he'd be going over Yokozuna at Wrestlemania if it weren't for that dirty rotten Hulk Hogan screwing him and such.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how far in advance Vince knew he'd be going with All American Lex Luger? Bret thought he'd be going over at Wrestlemania and continuing along with the title reign he'd deserved since conception, then that was changed to re-starting Hulkamania. Yokozuna probably only got the title so he could be the monster Luger slayed.
As a 5th grader at the time I was in awe of yokozuna and thought he was the baddest man on the planet. Looking back today though...
ReplyDeleteHe was a big fat foreign monster who hated American. The perfect foil for a muscular patriot in American flag trunks.
ReplyDeleteHe brought an empty stomach.
ReplyDeleteWasn't there supposedly a photoshoot with Hogan and Hart both tugging on the WWF championship?
ReplyDeleteI always felt like Bret would have gone over at WrestleMania. Maybe Yoko wins the belt on Raw or at KOTR, but I have a hard time believing ANY heel would have closed the show winning in the Main Event in the first decade. The rumor of Dibiase winning the WM IV tournament would have been a huge downer after screwing Hogan out of the title on The Main Event, and Yoko winning the belt from Bret would have sucked after the entire build was Yoko being this unstoppable monster who Banzai dropped everyone, including Bret building up to the show.
ReplyDeleteEven when HHH won in 2000, Rock beat the shit out of everyone afterward to close the show, and he did the same to Miz after he "won" at 27. Austin's turn at X-7 is really the only time a heel won in the main event and came out unscathed.
I believe Luger was still the Narcissist at King of the Ring, which was June 13. And I don't remember any inklings of a turn until he showed up as a face on the USS Intrepid on July 4.
ReplyDeleteAnd in the case of X7, it's not like the crowd wasn't sent home happy, either. The entire arena was cheering for Austin!
ReplyDeleteInB4 someone makes a "with a tear in his eye"-type comment
ReplyDeleteTHREADJACK!~
ReplyDeleteDoesn't this picture kind of look like Renegade is feeling himself up?
http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/pictures/r/renegade/01.jpg
No
ReplyDeleteNo way, I dug Yoko as champ. Now, I have no idea what business was under him, and I was 11 years old at the time, and...you know what? I'll be quiet.
ReplyDeleteI've seen this type of comment before. In before with what? You didn't say anything...smh.
ReplyDeleteHe's got beautiful feathered hair...
ReplyDeletelol, yeah...reminds me of my little brother at the time who thought Yoko literally "broke wrestlers chest" (as he put it) with his banzai drop. I was older and smart to pro wrestling by then, but I just played it up to no end. It is a great finisher for a big man.
ReplyDeleteThe leg drop, the belly2belly suplex and the banzi drop were moves I would've sworn killed guys.
ReplyDeleteHe'll always be my favorite nostalgic heel.
93 was such a weird year. The rock n roll era was certainly over but the New Gen era didn't really start til 94.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that that stomach was ever empty during his adult lifetime.
ReplyDeleteThe idea is that you cut people off at the pass from making obvious tired jokes. So anyone clamoring to make another "so-and-so said with a tear in his eye blah blah blah greatest whatever" can just stop now.
ReplyDeleteI guess it always will read weird to me since you're "in before" someone makes that joke, but you're "in" with nothing. Eh, I think too much sometimes, lol.
ReplyDeleteInteresting...
ReplyDeleteLerxst is just using politics to hold this running gag down. Truth is, he sent me a private message and told me it was the greatest running gag this blog has ever seen.
ReplyDeleteAnd oh yes, tears were in his eyes.
The impression I got from Vince in the shareholders quarterly meeting was that the number was going to be just over 1.1. We won't know until the next quarterly meeting, so all of this is still speculation.
ReplyDelete".....with a tear in his eye, Terry told me no one had ever tugged on the WWF title quite the way I had....."
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm sure that's still an estimate, although even for that it is higher than I was expecting.
ReplyDeleteWhere did you hear that?
That's pretty much in line with last years number (final number came in around 733k). There has been speculation that international numbers to be down (last year was about 520k).
I got the impression from the meeting that they softened their stance a bit on the show doing more than 1.2m buys, as they downgraded their estimate internally and in the shareholders meeting they stated something like "we're fairly confident it will do more than one million global buys" so I think it's pretty clear that it's going to hit the low end of their estimate.
It looks like someone from the WWE is using that 750k number as a talking point for a business deal and not actually reporting on the buyrate, so I'd take that with a grain of salt. It sounds like actual reports coming in from cable companies are coming out lower than that (no stated number though) so we'll know more once the domestic/international breakdown %s start coming in. It sounds like by late May we should be getting those estimates.
ReplyDeleteThe Observer is guessing between 1.10 and 1.15m at this point, but that's based on a lot of factors that haven't panned out actually yet, so that's preliminary too.
There is supposedly, although no photographs from the photoshoot have ever turned up. Bret has stated that they were indeed taken, but I don't know if Hogan has confirmed or denied it.
ReplyDeleteI think Hulk said the photo's died a few days after the WM 9 match....
ReplyDelete"With tears in his eyes, Hulk came to me and told me that I was always his favorite onion chopper."
ReplyDeletehaha!
ReplyDeleteYeah, he said he'd bring the negatives in, but each roll is eight feet tall and weights 96,000 lbs.
...with a tear in his eye, Lerxst told me how he wished he could come up with a gimmick half this good..."
ReplyDeleteApparently Bret carried Hogan to what the photographer remarked, with tears in his eyes, was the greatest photo-shoot he's ever done.
ReplyDeleteOnly about 10 years too late.
ReplyDeleteI liked Yokozuna alright actually, I just think the whole angle was very uninspired, basically a retread of Hogan vs the Foreign Menace that had already been done to death.
Really weak during his 1993 run and somewhat better during his 1994 run.
ReplyDelete1993/1994 were generally weak years business-wise for the WWF, although 1995 was worse. The end of 1995 into 1996 was a recovery period, although things started to slow down again after WrestleMania.
I think if that Hart/Hogan tug of war photo existed it would have surfaced by now, especially in Bret's book when he talks about it.
ReplyDeleteI read that from meltzer.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm...985k could still be in play if that's a bit high still and the Intl' numbers go down bad. If it does over 1.0 even I think its a big success. I honestly thought this show would bomb (for a modern day wm).
ReplyDeleteYou need to retire this gimmick now. Not because I am tired of it, but because I don't think you will be able to top this post. =)
ReplyDeleteWell, realizing that you have a problem is the first step towards recovery.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he loves it, and this was an attempt at reverse psychology to get more?
ReplyDelete