At WrestleMania IX, Bret Hart entered as the WWE Champion, set to defend his title against Yokozuna. After a hard-fought match, Mr. Fuji threw salt in Bret’s eyes, allowing Yokozuna to pin him and win the title. Immediately afterward, Hulk Hogan came to the ring. Bret encouraged Hogan to challenge Yokozuna, and Hogan quickly defeated him to become the new WWE Champion.
Later, on WrestleMania IX: Becoming A Spectacle, Bret revealed that Vince McMahon had promised him a long title reign and said not to worry about Hogan’s return. However, Bret only learned of the sudden title switch to Hogan the Friday before the event.
This incident is viewed as an early example of McMahon undermining Bret Hart, culminating in the infamous “Montreal Screwjob” at Survivor Series 1997, where McMahon had the bell rung early during Bret’s match with Shawn Michaels, costing him the championship.
Bret said, “I never felt more betrayed by Vince McMahon than I did that day.”
Drew McIntyre is set to face off against Damian Priest at WrestleMania 41 in a highly anticipated rematch, one year after Priest cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase to take the WWE World Heavyweight Title from McIntyre at WrestleMania XL. Their showdown began to take shape after the Royal Rumble, but some fans were disappointed, believing McIntyre deserved a bigger spotlight in light of his strong 2024 performances.
During a recent appearance on the “Getting Over” podcast, McIntyre addressed fan support and whether he was aware of calls for him to be featured in a top title match at WrestleMania 41. He said,
“Yeah, of course. Anyone who says they are not online is a liar. We’re in 2025. The internet is everywhere. It’s so powerful and anybody who says they are not aware of it is an absolute liar. I just happen to weaponize it because I’m smart and sensible. It’s a massive, powerful tool. Why wouldn’t you do all you can with it? I decided to weaponize it and I appreciate all of the fans out there who felt like, ‘Hey, Drew should be in a title match or this match,’ and did some fantasy booking on my behalf. Based on my amount of work the past couple of years, been able to show what I’m truly capable of when I’m unleashed. That’s thanks to who is leading creative right now and letting people loose who you can trust to be themselves and take it as far as they can go creatively on television and off television. I’m on 24/7. I really did appreciate that. At the same time, I guess there are only so many spots at the top of the card. I did question when I talked about Roman for three months and it didn’t really go anywhere. I don’t make the decisions of what the final matches are. I was fully aware there was a year long storyline with Damian Priest and I that has not been told beginning at WrestleMania last year that we’re finally getting the chance to start telling on TV, or I told for the past month and Priest finally had his little say back this week where people finally realized, ‘Oh, this has been going on this entire time. Priest has been benefitting every time McIntyre was screwed.'”
On Monday’s episode of WWE RAW, Rhea Ripley was officially added to the WWE Women’s World Title match at WrestleMania 41, making it a Triple Threat with Bianca Belair and IYO SKY. Ripley had lost the title to SKY on the RAW after Elimination Chamber: Toronto, following a distraction caused by Belair cheering for SKY. Belair earned her title shot by winning the women’s Chamber match. Ripley’s frustration over the situation led to her reentering the title picture.
During a recent interview with Zack Heydorn of Sports Illustrated, Ripley praised IYO Sky. She said,
“I don’t want to say we’re overlooking IYO, because we’re not. We know that she’s a threat. We know what she’s capable of. Hell, I’ve never beat her in a one-on-one competition. I know exactly what IYO brings to the table. I feel like when it comes to me and Bianca, what we’ve been saying over the last two, three, four years is we’ve wanted to face each other at WrestleMania… We’ve wanted it to be a one-on-one thing. Seeing Bianca do that, obviously it hit me in a part of my emotions that have been hurt before by a lot of people, so I acted out.”
She continued, “The story is getting spicy. I know a lot of people online don’t want to realize what’s going on, because they hate me or whatever it is. People are going to feel whatever they want to feel. I’m not going to argue with 16 year-olds on the internet, but that’s the story. And I mean, going into WrestleMania 41, I feel like, yes, I’m going to be focusing on Bianca, because she screwed me out of my opportunity twice now by being there and wanting to be a part of the spotlight and taking that away from me when she knows how much this opportunity meant to me. Literally, three of the biggest female stars here in WWE are going to go to war. And it’s just going to mesh really, really well.”
At WrestleMania IX, Hulk Hogan appeared wearing sunglasses to hide a black eye, which was officially attributed to a jet ski accident. However, a new documentary titled WrestleMania IX: Becoming A Spectacle revisits the long-standing rumor that Hogan’s injury was actually the result of a backstage fight with Randy Savage. Scott Steiner, who traveled with Savage at the time, adds credibility to this speculation by acknowledging the possibility of the altercation.
Hogan stated, “I guess he bought the story Randy told him. I never had a fight with Randy. If they still want to believe it after we tell them what really happened, fine with me.”
He continued, “Brutus came over and I was riding a Sea-Doo. I get on it and where we were jumping waves, I didn’t know my thumb had pushed the button that made the nose stay down. As soon as I took off, this thing was like a rocket ship. You got 75-80 miles per hour. I hit that first big swell and I went up. It threw me over the front of the ski, and when I hit the water, I tried to cover (and go under the water) because I knew the ski was coming at me, but my lifejacket pulled me back up, and the 700-pound ski hit me in the face and knocked me out. I was knocked out face down in the water.”
Brutus Beefcake added, “He was flying in the air and the ski did a 360. The front of the ski hit him in his orbital and fractured it. He was almost not quite unconscious but pretty much out of it.”
Hogan added that when he showed up at WrestleMania IX, Vince McMahon wasn’t happy and told Hogan he couldn’t wrestle.
Hogan said, “I went to the doctor. ‘Hey doc, you won’t believe what we did. We got this new storyline to trick the fans. We’re going to tell everybody Macho Man beat me up and gave me a black eye. This is all makeup and all these stitches are fake stitches. Please don’t tell anybody.'”
