Bret Hart on what happened at WrestleMania IX

WWE WrestleMania IX: Yokozuna vs Bret Hart for the WWE Championship.

Photo credit: WWE.com

There have been a couple times in WWE history that have left Bret Hart scratching his head backstage, unsure of what just happened. Things like WrestleMania IX continued to build up to the point where the Hitman ended up snapping and spitting in the face of Vince McMahon.

Now we all know that things are scripted, but things can always change without certain Superstars knowing. Back on April 4th, 1993, 16,891 packed an arena outside Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada for WrestleMania IX. The biggest match on the card was Yokozuna challenging the WWE Champion at the time, Bret Hart.

Yokozuna ended up winning the championship away from Bret, but received an unexpected challenge from The Immortal Hulk Hogan. It resulted in Yokozuna losing the title to Hogan, ending his reign as champion. I think it was a total of two or three minutes.

Bret recently sat down with the Boston Herald to discuss what happened. Here’s what the professional legend hand to say:

"“I was really looking forward to working with Yoko at WrestleMania IX. When I won the belt in October of ’92, it wasn’t like I had the stack of guys that Hogan had to work with when the talent roster was so deep. When I was champion, the roster had thinned out because of drug testing and a lot of the big names were gone. Jake Roberts was gone, and that was somebody I was supposed to wrestle but never happened. I was supposed to wrestle the (Ultimate) Warrior at The Royal Rumble, and that never happened either.“Then [Hulk] Hogan came back, I was told by Vince that Hogan had nothing to do with what I was doing. You can imagine how shocked I was when Hogan ended up with the belt at WrestleMania IX. I had every intention of going over in that match with Yoko, so I had no idea that my title reign was going to be so abruptly ended. I was caught off-guard by that, to be honest. I was told when I won the belt that I was going to be champion for a long time, but at the same time, Vince is always very clear when you win the belt and tells you, ‘Anything can happen.’ I felt I didn’t have my chance to prove I was good as I thought I was.” – Bret Hart via the Boston Herald."

Interesting stuff coming from the legend himself. I’ve always wondered what the ending was about, but now everything is crystal clear thanks to the man who was involved.