Hogan gets bigger reactions than Hart does. The noise can be edited but when the Hogan/Yoko match starts and when Hogan wins tons of people are literally jumping up and down and others have arms in the air. If you look around you can see a ton more Hogan merchandise in the crowd than Bret Hart merchandise. Hogan sucked, but I'm not going to pretend most of the WWF crowd knew that at the time. He was still the biggest star in the company.

I think if you put any top face in there after the way Bret lost the title, they get the same reaction. They could've thrown Perfect in there, hell, they could've had Savage leave the announce table and the crowd would've gone just as ape****.

Especially if Perfect had jumped in there and Perfectplexed Yoko.

I'm not buying Perfect getting the same pop. At all.

You have a better case with Savage, I think.

I agree with Dan FWIW.

I do think that Savage gets a very similar-sized pop to what Hogan got there, but face Perfect was never over to the level that even the 1993 edition of Hogan was.

That's probably right. Of course, one of the big problems in 1993 was a severe lack of upper-card faces (upper-card anyone, really), which begs the question why Vince was cutting his top full-time face off at the knees to begin with.

Well, I know why he did it (Bret as the top guy in the company really didn't draw money, or at least not big money, and he was hoping another Hulk run might boost things). But it didn't work, and it REALLY pissed Bret fans (like me) off.

Well if it was really in the plans to transition the belt through Hogan back to Bret to really give him the big rub, I don't think they considered it to be cutting him off at the knees. It was when that program derailed that Bret got set back for a decent while.

I think that got as far as photoshoots promoting Hogan-Bret for WWF Magazine, so that substantiates that story to a decent extent rather than just being a long-standing rumor.

As a young fan at the time, I sort of shrugged at Bret in 1993, and him as a main eventer was sort of leaving me cold. Even so, the ending of that Mania just left me going, "<sigh>, seriously?"

I swear, I had in my possession a WWF Magazine with a full story on how Bret would wrestle/try to beat Hogan, and a photo of both of them holding one end of the title. I think the WWF pulled every copy of it down as soon as it became apparent the match wasn't happening. I haven't seen even a shred of the magazine or anything in it in ages.

I honestly don't know what to believe anymore about that. Of course, that's true of most things regarding Hogan and/or Vince in general. Was Vince trying to get Bret more over by putting him over Hogan? If so, why did he basically bury Bret at Mania? And why was everyone so naive to think that Hogan would put Bret over no problem at Summerslam? I still don't get it.

Hogan put over his mortal enemy Ultimate Warrior 100% clean, so I can understand the booking team having some trust in Hogan to do right by Bret also when that became the plan.

There are a lot of things ****ed about that booking period. Hogan/Bret WAS the goal for the booking team as a harder push for Bret at Summerslam. But Hogan cut it off at the knees because he refused to lay down for Bret. So enter Yoko's KOTR win.

Not to hate on a dead man, but Yoko dropped 5 minutes of that main event because he was gassed. The dude went home way too early. But still. He should have gone over clean. He was a monster. He didn't need Fuji interference kayfabe wise. It's a shame he was jobbed out that way even so.

Speaking of jobbed out, Bret's initial push was misguided anyway. They had him working as a "fighting champion" but he was fighting Bastion Booger, Doink, Repo Man, The Model. They didn't give him a program to invest in. And even when Yoko came around they didn't build that. They ran back to Hogan. I understand WHY they did, but it still pisses me off.

And I think Bret is a bit of a baby and have no love for him really. But still. I'm crying still because of how awesome a Bret/Flair program could have been. The straight baby was an awesome foil for Flair. Sad eyes. We JUST missed it.

WrestleMania X, which is inarguably 50 billion times better than WrestleMania IX, is open for business until after the next Raw.

WrestleMania X

Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart: Obviously I've seen this match quite a few times, so my focus this time was how well it would stack up against Savage vs. Steamboat specifically, since I know I'm going to rate it above every other match in the WM annals to this point. Lots of great spots in this one, and its storytelling might manage to trump that of Savage-Steamboat, but I do have to give the slight edge to Savage-Steamboat overall. I'm a sucker for the ridiculous pace that those two kept up at WM III. Of course, giving a slight edge to Savage-Steamboat isn't much of a ding to this match at all. *****

Bam Bam Bigelow & Luna Vachon vs. Doink & Dink: So, Evil Doink had been turned since last year. What a waste. Anyway, the Doink vs. Bam Bam stuff was alright, and the Dink vs. Luna stuff was…well, it was better than Sherri vs. Sapphire IMO, for a point of comparison. **

Randy Savage vs. Crush: Savage's swan song in the WWF; he was around for a number of months longer, but this was definitely his last big match. The gimmick for this match is a bit goofy, but I thought that it was a pretty entertaining brawl with some good bumps. Savage then hung out backstage and angrily tore into Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon for deliberately going way long on their match and causing a 10-man tag match to get cut (and thus 10 guys lost a WrestleMania paycheck). **1/2

Women's Title: Alundra Blayze (c) vs. Leilani Kei: I wonder what the heck Leilani Kei did in between the first WrestleMania and this one. It's like she had a rematch clause after dropping the belt at the inaugural WM, and just finally decided to cash it in nine years later. This only gets a few minutes, but it's better than the average divas match today and better than the women's matches that were on the first two Manias. That's something I suppose. *1/2

Tag Team Titles: The Quebecers (c) vs. Men on a Mission: Mo was a pretty poor partner for Mabel. Usually a bigger guy and a smaller guy works because the smaller guy is the real athlete of the two, but Mo wasn't that; he just came off as this really distinct weak link of the two. This match features some fun double-team stuff from both sides, has a good pace, and is more watchable than I remember it being. ****ty ending brings it down, but I still basically enjoyed. **1/4

WWF Title: Yokozuna (c) vs. Lex Luger: Match starts off pretty good, then hits what feels like a 60-minute wall when Yokozuna applies the never-ending nerve hold. Like, seriously? I get needing a rest hold, but this was painful. I enjoy Perfect's heel turn here, but the match is pretty bad. 1/2*

Earthquake vs. Adam Bomb: I think that WM III and WM IV are the only Manias so far without any outright squash matches. This is WM X's. N/A

IC Title: Razor Ramon (c) vs. Shawn Michaels: Razor establishes himself as the true legitimate babyface of the match during entrances when he ducks under the ladder and shows himself to be non-superstitious. Anyway, I'd gotten it in my mind that this match doesn't hold up as well as it once did, and I think that's sort of wrong. It's not a point completely without merit because the spots are less striking today after we've seen so many ladder matches, but whatever, if this match showed up on a PPV this month it would still get tons of praise. While I slightly prefer Bret vs. Owen, I'm willing to give this one the same rating because of historical significance bonus points if nothing else. We have this one to thank for a LOT of great matches that followed. *****

WWF Title: Yokozuna (c) vs. Bret Hart: Love Bret coming out still selling his injury from the Owen match. Anyway, I liked the WrestleMania IX match between these two better; this one didn't really have as much of a story to follow and didn't draw me in as much. The bulldog by Bret on a stunned Yoko and the belly-to-belly by Yoko after catching Bret off the ropes were fun spots though. Weird ending, but that galactic pop for Bret's win really helped my appreciation of the match. **

The happy ending with the locker room pouring out (including Thurman "Sparky" Plugg) to congratulate Bret is a good feel-good moment that ends the event nicely. Great Mania.

Overall: Top two Mania to this point for sure. I struggle picking between this one and WrestleMania III. Two five-star matches (or damn close to it, for anyone who disagrees with either of the big two matches on this card being five stars) is really hard to argue with. WrestleMania III still seems to tug away at me as "feeling bigger" and swaying my vote its way, as it was a bit more complete and consistent in its match quality, and culminated in the biggest match ever. But I think it's legitimate to pick either one of them as the best of the first ten. WM VIII has to settle for a very respectable 3rd place in the first decade of WrestleMania.

WrestleMania Rankings
1. WrestleMania III
2. WrestleMania X
3. WrestleMania VIII
-
4. WrestleMania VII
5. WrestleMania V
6. WrestleMania VI
-
-
-
7. WrestleMania IV
8. WrestleMania
9. WrestleMania IX
10. WrestleMania 2

Top Ten Matches of the First Ten Manias
1. Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat - WrestleMania III (*****)
2. Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart - WrestleMania X (*****)
3. Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon - WrestleMania X (*****)
4. Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair - WrestleMania VIII (****1/2)
5. Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior - WrestleMania VII (****)
6. Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior - WrestleMania VI (****)
7. Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper - WrestleMania VIII (****)
8. Randy Savage vs. Hulk Hogan - WrestleMania V (***3/4)
9. Shawn Michaels vs. Tatanka - WrestleMania IX (***1/2)
10. Roddy Piper vs. Adrian Adonis - WrestleMania III (***1/2)

Bottom Ten Matches of the First Ten Manias
109. Earthquake vs. Greg Valentine - WrestleMania VII (1/4*)
110. Earthquake vs. Hercules - WrestleMania VI (1/4*)
111. Andre the Giant vs. Big John Studd - WrestleMania (0*)
112. One Man Gang vs. Bam Bam Bigelow - WrestleMania IV (0*)
113. Dino Bravo vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan - WrestleMania VI (0*)
114. Andre the Giant vs. Jake Roberts - WrestleMania V (0*)
115. Corporal Kirchner vs. Nikolai Volkoff - WrestleMania 2 (0*)
116. Roddy Piper vs. Mr. T - WrestleMania 2 (N/A)
117. Jake Roberts vs. Rick Rude - WrestleMania IV (0*)
118. Jake Roberts vs. Rick Martel - WrestleMania VII (0*)

Imagine Bret Hart 1994 vs Flair 1989. In WWF's defense, the roster was decimated on the heel and face side at the time. Facing Razor and Shawn at his first two PPVs as champion created good match potential and really was close to about the best they could do all things considered. Hart claims they tried to get Warrior to job to him at a PPV but Warrior refused.

Maybe they would have gone wild for anyone after the way Bret lost the title (but if so maybe we shouldn't be so hard on unclean finishes) but other things suggest that Hogan was still the biggest star in wrestling also. For example, WCW did not have a single PPV go over 115,000 buys in the year and a half before Hogan arrived. Four of the first five PPVs Hogan were in went over 175,000 buys, and the in the fifth he faced Beefcake in a snooze match that still drew better than previous events. It wasn't until 1995 that Hogan really lost his status as a megastar among the Pukeamaniacs.

There's something I didn't know.

Also, I'm not sure a Bret/Flair angle ever would have gotten off the ground, at least in 1993-94. Bret was not a fan of Flair as a worker (see his book), and I don't think Flair was much a fan of Bret's, either. A shame, really.

Yeah, we got a better match for Michaels' and Hall's rogue act, but it seems like a stand-up thing for Macho to do, standing up for some of the other wrestlers backstage.

First heard the story from a Cornette rant I think, then it was substantiated when I recently ran across a YouTube of Scott Hall talking about it.

Here's the clip I'm referencing if anyone's interested, it's the very first thing Hall talks about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LV0cNWRcCM

Great clip, thanks.

At the time (again, going from Bret's book) Flair seemed like he had great respect for Bret. He tried to get Bret to jump to WCW on at least one occasion as he considered Bret a great worker. I think it was more a clash of styles and philosophies than anything personal.

Bret strongly believes Ric tried to sabotage their matches after Bret won the title, as they didn't have in ring issues before that.

The personal issues really got out of control in the early 2000's, as recently as 2002 they would both publicly compliment each other. I think the heat really started when Ric wrote his book. It was during an odd point in time where Ric really, really became a bitter bastard in my book.

I'm starting to think that books/DVDs/shoot interviews are largely a new form of kayfabe. That said, Flair gave out more positive evaluations of wrestlers than negative ones in his book, and in a world of bitter retirees, it is hard to find a more bitter ex-wrestler than Bret Hart.