WWE WrestleMania: What every main event should have been

WrestleMania IX

Actual main event: Yokozuna vs. Bret Hart/Yokozuna vs. Hulk Hogan

What the main event should have been: Hulk Hogan vs. Bret Hart

Widely regarded as the worst WrestleMania of all time, WrestleMania IX, the first outdoor ‘Mania, which took place at Caesars Place in Las Vegas, was an absolute train wreck. There’s only one good match on the card, in my opinion, that being the opener between Shawn Michaels and Tatanka, and the finish of the night was nuts.

So you had WWE Champion Bret Hart, who had essentially become the new face of WWE in the absence of names like Hogan and Warrior. Randy Savage had been knocked down to the announce booth for some reason and a new generation of stars was emerging, including Hart’s challenger for the night, Yokozuna. In a match that didn’t even get to 10 minutes, Mr. Fuji threw his famous salt in The Hitman’s eyes and Hart lost the title. Out of nowhere, Hogan, who had returned to the ring following a long hiatus earlier in the night in a tag match, came to the ring and, with Hart’s blessing, won the WWE Championship. Ummmm … what? Ridiculous.

What should have happened is this: Hogan could have come back a little earlier than he did. He could notice how things had changed and that he may be on the outside looking in at this new crop of stars. However, he thinks he’s got one more run as champ left in him and challenges Bret Hart to a WWE Championship match at WrestleMania. It’s The Golden Era vs. The New Generation, and Bret truly becomes the face of WWE with a clean win as Hogan leaves WWE, which he would do a couple of months later anyway after dropping the title back to Yokozuna at King of the Ring, an honor he was supposedly supposed to do for Bret. So just have Hart beat him at ‘Mania and be done with it. It may not have completely saved the show, but it would have been something interesting at least.