LKJ, no mention of JR's first appearance in WWF? That alone makes it better than some WM's.

Announcing was mostly only an issue at WM 2 (which is the one that I put below this one). I'll take the Gorilla/Jesse and Gorilla/Heenan teams over JR/Heenan/Savage since JR and Heenan just never gelled very well in their brief time together.

Jesse was just stellar in all of his WrestleManias, and then where Gorilla may have lacked some of JR's play-by-play talent, his chemistry with Heenan was just elite.

For a show with some pretty high rankings, putting this below the original is bad imo, it should possibly be above iv as well

I think it's close between the original and IX in overall watchability from start to finish, but the original being a success that spawned the rest and the original not ending in the biggest pile of AIDS that has ever infested a WrestleMania was enough for me to rank it above.

WM IV honestly could be worse than both. I dunno. Like I said at the end, through nine Manias it was basically five positive outings and four negative outings, and which negative slot this one gets is sort of immaterial.

Fair enough, and yes, the Hogan aids is so bad in this one that I get it. But reading the reviews of everyone here on iv, it just seems so so bad.

Yeah, if just sorting by average match rating, that one would be below. No question. It's kind of more of a "feel" thing where IV is sort of cool in a "stand back from it and look at the big picture of the show" way in that Savage makes his way through the tournament and gets his crowning moment that's super gratifying and ends the show awesomely, whereas this has a ****ty atmosphere and ends horribly.

Endings mean quite a bit. Just like lots of shows we get with today's product, where the first two matches rock and by the end we've gotten some brutally awful main event moment that leaves a bad taste in our mouths and the show as a whole feels a lot worse. So that effect has a lot to do with where I place IV and IX respectively.

The outdoor atmosphere here is just awful.

I was just watching the Hart/Yoko match and thinking how idiotic the fans were when they started the "USA" chants. I loved it when Heenan called them out for it.

As much as I love Macho Man, his commentary leaves much to be desired.

I thought Giant's chokeslam on the ref looked as vicious as any I've seen. Even though he was probably holding him to protect him, it really looked like he was powering him through the mat.

Fire Pro did it better:

That was great

Sorry I've been slacking on these but just had to chime in to say how bad Caesars palace wrestlemania was. Lkj with a great write up but I feel the ending sequence just completely overshadowed everything decent before it. Just awful.

Oh yeah, another thing: during a ref bump, Hogan and Beefcake have Money Inc. down for the count. Jimmy Hart runs it into the ring, turns his jacket inside out to stripes, puts it on that way and then counts to three. Hogan and Beefcake celebrate as if that count meant anything.

...

You just can't ask the audience to suspend disbelief about how stupid a couple of long-time wrestlers could actually be in that situation.

Stone Cold used an unconscious special ref. Vince McMahon's hand to count down Dude Love for 3 at Over the Edge 98 and that counted as the end of the match...It's always bothered me, even as a huge Austin fan when it happened when I was 17.

Yes I agree, that ending was really bad and bothered me too.

Of course, nothing quite compares to JYD counting his own pinfall with no ref in the ring at the Wrestling Classic (yes, the same way wrestlers often do in those ref bump spots, in order to gripe that they had the guy beat) and that actually holding up as the end of his match. Even the announcers were like "Wait, that actually counts? WTF?"

WM IX was the first PPV I watched live. I was in 3rd grade at the time and my dad was the principal of a boarding school in the middle of nowhere. His school just got a satellite and he ordered the PPV and showed it on a projector in the gym. I have fond memories of the show just because of the sentimental value.

I won't lie, I marked like a mofo for the Hogan ending. I still don't hate it nearly as much as everyone else on the internet. In hindsight, it is really dumb because of the way Hogan's reign went. Was the match where he dropped it vs Yoko @ KOTR the only match he had during his fifth run with the belt? As a kid, I just wasn't a big Bret Hart fan. He was good, but more of an IC champ type of guy (in an era where that title meant something) to me.

1993 PPVs were pretty much AIDS across the board. The Rumble had the stupidest ending of any Royal Rumble match, 'Mania's ending is hated, @KOTR Hogan dropped the title to Yoko after a camera "exploded" in Hogan's face, and the end of Luger/Yoko at SummerSlam was the most unsatisfying end to a show I had seen to that point in my life.

Yes, it was the next ppv after WM. I'm not sure Hogan ever appeared on RAW after winning the title tbh. I could be completely off-base there but I can't remember seeing him with the belt on the show.

Hogan didn't defend the belt at house shows during that period either. Looks like he worked a handful of house shows just doing tag matches with Beefcake against Money Inc. It was a joke reign, seemingly just put the belt on him to throw an oh-so-clever twist in at the end of Mania.

I'm not the Hoganphobe that many in the IWC are, but I detest the end of WM IX.

Nits. That was a great match. Sometimes you just got to let these things go.

Dan,
In The Shawshank Redemption, Red speaks to Andy about the warden, and in an obvious reference to money laundering, says, "Keeps you happy and doing the laundry." And then after a pregnant pause explains, "Money, instead of sheets." OH MY GOD THERE WAS NO POSSIBLE ****ING WAY THAT YOU ACTUALLY HAD TO EXPLAIN THAT JOKE. Honestly, even if some idiot out there didn't get it originally, it's not like some great knee-slapping joke that they're going to really enjoy now that you spelled it out anyway.

With that said, Shawshank is a ****ing awesome movie, one of the GOAT. It's okay to look for flaws in a nearly perfect diamond.

Seems like a pretty miserable way to live, if you ask me.

Well, I suppose "look for" was a poor way to say it, since it misrepresents what I'm getting at or even what I do. A person shouldn't be actively looking for reasons to like something less; my mistake for basically saying as much. But if flaws jump out, even from a great overall product, that shouldn't be a cue to try to pretend it isn't there.

(I do agree that the Austin-Dude Love match being referenced is really damn good.)

The only thing I remember Hogan doing between WMIX and KOTR was a match in Japan against Muta. Pretty sad.

Positive psychologists such as Dan Gilbert have found that how someone evaluates an event is impacted much more by what happens at the start and the end of the event than at the middle. This PPV suffers because of this human tendency. Being part unfeeling, inhuman monster and part robot, I'm not heavily influenced by this human inclination.

On top of that, parts of of Hogan/Beefcake vs. Money Inc (which isn't that bad outside of the strange antics), the Hogan/Yoko fiasco, and the opening ceremony make into the glorious dilapidated so bad it is good territory. Giant Gonzalez is a permanent resident of that territory.

The good: Tatanka vs. HBK. Tatanka pauses quite a bit during the match like he has to think about what to do next, but other than that this is better than I anticipated for a Tatanka match. Shawn has entered or approached elite worker territory by this point. Luna vs Sherri is well done as well; it is pretty rare for valet/manager on valet/manager to not end up like a nasty infection, but this manages to do it.

Steiners vs Headshrinkers: This is a solid match but...

The plain bad: It is a great misfortune that the Steiners missed out on facing the great teams during the golden era of WWF tag wrestling. So many dream matches would have been possible.

Most of the matches on the card are close to average; it really is a few minutes that drag down the other 97% of the show. The commentary is pretty good; it is a lot better than contemporary announcing but pales in comparison to previous manias. It is hard for me to rate something that is appealing in part because I enjoy so bad it is good so much. I enjoyed this more than IV but certainly less than VIII; I'll put it last in the middle tier because of the lack of long term good consequences.

Tiers:

III
VIII>VII>VI>V>IX
IV>I>II

WrestleMania IX
April 4, 1993 - Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV

- I'm normally a huge fan of outdoor events, the Shea Stadium show where Hogan and Andre first met is still one of my favourites. Maybe it was that this was in a makeshift venue instead of a big established stadium that makes me dislike this being outdoors. Honestly, this reminds me one of WCW's ****ty outdoor shows like Hog Wild or Beach Blast. The opening ceremony was dumb, really the whole Roman theme seemed like a giant rib.

- JR makes his debut here, and Randy Savage slides into the commentary booth where he really didn't belong. His voice is much more suited for promos than for announcing. You could get plastered if you drink every time Savage says "do the thing".

IC title: Shawn Michaels [c] vs. Tatanka ***
Third year in a row with HBK kicking things off. I approve. Shawn really started to put things together around this time, his selling was fantastic as usual but the match had a lot better pace to it than his match with Tito did the year before. You could tell he was destined for a main event push eventually. A really well done match with an awful finish. I always thought the worst finish for a title match is where the face hits his finisher and has the champ pinned but the ref taps him on the shoulder and rings the bell for earlier interference. And of course there's Tatanka celebrating not winning the belt like an idiot.

Steiner Brothers vs. Headshrinkers **
Steiners do an interview with Mean Gene before the match, and I'm amazed at how normal Scott sounds. "Slobberknocker" makes its WrestleMania debut here. Hey, Fonzie is reffing this match! I had no idea he was ever in the WWF. I'm not as high on this match as others - I thought it slowed down too much during the heat segment, and there were a couple of seriously blown spots, including a horribly botched Frankensteiner by Scott for the win. Still pretty decent, and the powerslam spot off the top was incredible.

Crush vs. Doink 1/4*
Crush controls the majority of the match, which pretty much guarantees that it's going to suck. Finish wasn't bad, I actually liked the little touch where the Doinks acted as if one was staring at the other in a mirror.

Razor Ramon vs. Bob Backlund 3/4*
WrestleMania says hello to the Bad Guy. He actually gets a decent face pop, which was surprising given that he wouldn't actually turn face until the summer with the 1-2-3 Kid angle. This was pretty sloppy for the time they gave it, which wasn't much.

Tag team titles: Money, Inc. [c] vs. Mega-Maniacs *1/4
This is a decidedly, um, LEANER Hulk Hogan than we're used to seeing here. And, of course, he's sporting the really damaged eye, either from a jetskiing accident (official version) or a Randy Savage right hand (unofficial version). A couple of funny spots involving Beefcake's mask early, one with DiBiase trying to hit Beefcake and hurting his own hand, and one with DiBiase ramming his head into the buckle a couple of times to predictable results. First half of this match was pretty good, but it just dragged on way too long (TWO hot tag sequences) and had an astonishingly dumb finish, even for this show. Crowd finally comes to life when Hogan pulls the money out of the briefcase. Heenan with the line of the night: "Hold my headset, I'm going to get some cash!"

Lex Luger vs. Mr. Perfect **1/4
Luger gets five stars just for the ladies he brings to the ring for the posing session. Good logical story throughout as Luger works mostly on Perfect's wonky back. Not exactly vintage Mr. Perfect here, but still good enough until another dumb finish, a fight over a backslide resulting in Perfect getting pinned while his feet were in the ropes. Perfect takes the fight to Luger again in the back and is waylaid by Shawn Michaels to start that feud.

Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez -***
As bad as you've ever heard this was, with another moronic finish. And they dragged this feud all the way to Summerslam for God only knows what reason.

- Mean Gene interviews Hogan, who challenges the winner of the WWF title match (and calls Yokozuna a Jap). It's maddening watching this interview now knowing what was about to happen.

WWF title: Bret Hart [c] vs. Yokozuna **1/2
Bret accomplishes a Mania first (and likely last) here, by wrestling for three different titles in three consecutive years. Crowd reaction for Bret makes any sane person wonder what Vince was thinking in taking the belt off him. Bret turns this into a decent match, although I wonder how good it could've been if it had gone how it was supposed to. Bret mentioned in his book that this was supposed to go longer. And on a night of awful finishes, we natually get Fuji throwing salt in Bret's eyes, costing him the title. And then, as if that's not bad enough, Fuji challenges Hogan right then and there, giving us...

WWF title: Yokozuna [c] vs. Hulk Hogan
**** you, Vince.

Overall: 2.5/10
There are virtually no redeeming qualities to this show. While the wrestling was better than the worst shows on the list so far, the theme was dumb, just about every match had a really ****ty finish, and they ended on the sourest, most infuriating note ever at a WrestleMania. The only saving grace is that Bret got to put on maybe the greatest night of wrestling ever two months later, on the same show that Hogan got tossed out with the trash (and that I never have to watch this show ever again). This is the worst WrestleMania of all time. (For now, anyway...)

Ratings so far:
III - 9.5
VIII - 7.0
VII - 6.0
VI - 5.25
V - 5.0
I - 4.5
2 - 3.5
IV - 3.0
IX - 2.5

Hogan refused to put Bret over. Didn't represent the title. Did an interview in Japan where he called the wwf belt a "toy" and ruined a wrestlemania just because he could. I loved Hulk Hogan. But man, **** 93 Hulk Hogan. He was a little bitch. And stale besides. He was about two years past being relevant as a star. His heel turn was the best thing to ever happen to him. Because he was such a natural **** anyway.