An Infamous Title Change: Hulk Hogan’s WWE Championship Win At WrestleMania IX

In 1993, the World Wrestling Federation was very much in a state of flux, stuck between pushing the stars of the 1980s and prioritising a new generation of wrestlers that Vince McMahon wasn’t quite ready to commit to. 

After multiple scandals and a major roster exodus which saw many of those 1980s stars depart the WWF, coinciding with a decline in business, Vince McMahon decided to go back to the Golden Age well one more time, and it would result in the booking of one of the most infamous title changes in pro wrestling history.

Hulk Hogan & Steroids

In late June of 1991, Dr George T. Zahorian III, a Pennsylvania-based osteopath and urological surgeon, was convicted on 12 counts of illegally distributing controlled substances, chiefly steroids. That same Dr Zahorian had a long-standing connection with the WWF as since the mid-1970s, Zahorian had presided over WWF cards in the state of Pennsylvania on behalf of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission.

At these events, though, Zahorian would “do business” with WWF wrestlers and the client list of Zahorian’s read like a who’s who of the World Wrestling Federation. Roddy Piper, Hulk Hogan, and even Vince McMahon himself were customers of Zahorian’s, while Bret Hart detailed some of his own purchases from Zahorian in his 2007 memoirs and remembered the long lines of wrestlers outside his makeshift office. Piper, along with Rick Martel and former WWF stars Brian Blair and Dan Spivey, all testified at the trial that they had purchased steroids from Zahorian.

At that trial, Hulk Hogan did not have to testify after attorney Jerry McDevitt argued that Terry Bollea taking the stand was unnecessary as he wasn’t accused of any wrongdoing and his presence at the trial could harm the WWF by proxy. Federal judge William Caldwell agreed, excusing the reigning WWF Champion from testimony.

McDevitt said that the prosecution didn't need Hogan to make their case, and he turned out to be right. The jury deliberated only three hours before convicting Zahorian on 12 of the 14 charges. The doctor was sentenced to three years behind bars.

While Hogan was spared a good deal of potential embarrassment by not having to take the stand, he was still the public face of an institution that was earning more and more sideways glances. An observer of WWF TV didn’t need to be cynical to assume how the strongmen of the ring acquired much of their musculature, but with a convicted doctor in the news, the face of the WWF developed more than a few pronounced cracks.

Days after Vince McMahon announced, through a New York Times op-ed, that the WWF were enacting a new drug-testing policy, Hogan appeared on the talk show of Arsenio Hall for what many assumed would be some sort of mea culpa.

Instead of taking a conciliatory stance, Hogan flat-out lied about his steroid use. The man with the purported "largest arms in the universe" claimed that he had only taken steroids three times, all many years ago for rehabilitating an arm injury. As Hall gently challenged Hogan on his claims, Hulk continued digging himself a hole, looking worse with each passing minute.

Years later, Hogan wrote, "I was worried about destroying all the good I had done with the Hulk Hogan character." He explained that he didn't want the children who idolised him to think he was a fraud that did the opposite of his own oft-stated "Train, say your prayers, eat your vitamins" code of living.

In the months ahead, the likes of Superstar Billy Graham and David Schultz countered Hogan's poorly constructed defence, each claiming to have personally injected WWF’s top star with a synthetic hormone.

The outright lying from Hogan would do a tremendous amount of damage to The Hulkster's public image, and it only combined with an audience that was growing tired of seeing the WWF Champion at the top of the card, with Hogan having been the top name in professional wrestling since he first captured the WWF Title all the way back in 1984. By late 1991, Hogan had nothing new to say, reciting the same bombastic platitudes while his audience seemed to be thinning in direct correlation to his hairline.

This waning interest was perfectly evident when Hulk Hogan dropped the WWF Championship to The Undertaker at Survivor Series 1991, with the 17,000+ in attendance at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena 60/40 in favour of The Undertaker over Hogan. The WWF even went so far as to confiscate two large pro-Undertaker banners before the pay-per-view, as they would have been highly visible on the hard camera.

While The Undertaker won at Survivor Series, Hogan would regain the belt soon after at This Tuesday in Texas. Hogan was then stripped of the WWF Championship one day later due to the succession of controversial title changes, ending his fourth reign in quick fashion.

The belt was on the line in the 1992 Royal Rumble, which was ultimately won by Ric Flair, and Hogan would be going on hiatus from the WWF following 1992’s WrestleMania VIII. 

WrestleMania VIII

With a tarnished public image, Hogan's post-WrestleMania sabbatical was very much necessary. Hogan may have streamlined his once-300-pound musculature – something spun by commentators as Hogan giving up strength in favour of speed and cardio – but he was nonetheless bowing out after the match with Sid Justice, promoted open-endedly as "what could be" his farewell match.

The main event of WrestleMania 8 was slow, basic, and largely unappealing. The only appealing element was Hogan's entrance as the camera panned up the long aisleway before reaching the outgoing king as he took his first steps into the stadium. It was an accelerated tracking shot that underscored the gravity of the moment.

As beautiful as that bit of camera work was, the ending proved to be ugly. Papa Shango was supposed to run in and break up a pin attempt after a Hogan leg drop, giving Hulk a hollow DQ victory. However, Shango was dispatched way too late, so Sid had to kick out of the usually-protected manoeuvre, with the improvised disqualification involving Sid's manager Harvey Wippleman barely interfering, making for a very lame ending (or possible ending) to a storied career.

The 390,000 buys for WrestleMania 8 were only slightly down from the 400,000 for the prior year's show, but that could be seen for what it was of a large audience seeing Hogan off following one last hurrah under stadium lights.

Hulk Hogan Returns

With Hulk Hogan on sabbatical, the World Wrestling Federation would turn to Randy Savage, The Ultimate Warrior, Ric Flair, and then Bret Hart to carry the main event picture in 1992. By early 1993, however, Ric Flair was gone from the WWF on his way back to WCW, Randy Savage was utilised as a colour commentator, The Ultimate Warrior and his muscular physique had been fired, falling foul of WWF’s new drug policy, and Bret Hart reigned as WWF Champion, having defeated Flair for the Winged Eagle in October 1992.

With business on the downturn, Vince McMahon had already considered bringing Hogan back in the autumn of 1992 but ultimately decided against it. By the beginning of 1993, however, it was time for WWF’s top star of the 1980s to come back home. 

It felt like some sort of cosmic balance had been restored over a 24-hour period in February 1993. One night after Flair returned to his WCW home, Hulk Hogan returned to the WWF on the February 22 episode of Monday Night Raw, flanked by old friend Brutus Beefcake and long-time on-screen adversary Jimmy Hart.

Beefcake and Hart were part of a recent angle in which a returning Ed Leslie was seriously injured by Money Inc., having his surgically-repaired face smashed with IRS' steel briefcase. Just as astonishing as the blood-drawing attack was the usually underhanded Hart pleading on Beefcake's behalf for mercy, feeling his clients had gone too far. With his actions, Hart made one of the more surprising face turns of recent wrestling history.

The attack on Beefcake was the story impetus for Hulk to come back to help his friend get revenge on the WWF Tag Team Champions. In the short term, Hogan's comeback moved tickets, as the March 8 TV taping in North Charleston, South Carolina drew a robust 8500 fans after his name was advertised. To put that in perspective, several Madison Square Garden cards of the prior year barely reached 9000 fans.

WrestleMania IX

While Hogan was back, at least on-screen, it didn’t look like he was going straight back into the WWF Title picture as it was announced he would fill out a light mid-card, teaming with Brutus Beefcake against Money Inc. for the WWF Tag Team Championships. 

That match would take place fifth on the WrestleMania IX card, in which 16,900 fans took in the action from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. WWF utilised a Roman theme for the pay-per-view, complete with togas, florid golds and purples, as well as ornamental columns. 

The match was the longest of the show, clocking in at 18 minutes, but the finish was unsatisfying. Following a ref bump, Hogan used Beefcake's facemask as a weapon, clocking Ted DiBiase with it. With the official down, though, Jimmy Hart turned his suit jacket inside out to reveal referee stripes underneath, at which point he counted the 1-2-3 for the babyfaces.

As Hogan and Beefcake celebrated with the WWF Tag Team Titles, another referee marched to the ring and declared Money Inc. the winners by disqualification, capping off a sluggish match. The Mega-Maniacs still stood tall post-match, though, as they opened IRS’s briefcase to a load of csh, which they threw into the crowd in celebration of their lack of a win. 

That wouldn’t be Hulk Hogan’s only involvement of the night, however. The stated main event of WrestleMania IX was Bret Hart defending the WWF Championship against Royal Rumble winner Yokozuna, who had enhanced his monstrous standing by brutalising Hacksaw Jim Duggan in a disquieting TV angle earlier that year.

Approximately 48 hours before the match, Bret Hart was summoned to Vince McMahon's suite. There, The Hitman was taken aback to learn that he was putting Yokozuna over at WrestleMania, as opposed to having a Bruno Sammartino-esque WWF Title reign as he believed. 

Bret then learnt the entire plan that Yokozuna would quickly lose a convoluted impromptu match to Hulk Hogan to reinstall the old status quo. According to Bret, Vince assured him that he was still the long-term champion, but that didn't explain this late pivot.

Speaking about the change on the Real American Netflix docuseries, Hogan said: “I had that Hogan stroke back then. Me and Vince were just bonded at the hip and I could pull the plug on certain things with certain people.”

In the main event of WrestleMania IX, Hart and Yokozuna had a briskly-paced nine-minute match. Hart managed to wrangle Yoko's large legs into a Sharpshooter during the finish but was blinded by salt thrown from ringside by Mr Fuji, leading to a rather anticlimactic pin to crown a new WWF Champion.

Having seen his fellow top babyface screwed, Hulk Hogan hit the ring to protest the injustice, which led to Fuji issuing a challenge for a title match then and there. After Bret Hart told Hogan to go and win the title for him and all that is good in the world, Hogan entered the squared circle.

At this point Hogan was grabbed by Yokozuna as Mr Fuji lined up to throw salt in The Hulkster's eyes right in front of the referee. Hogan ducked, though, and Hulk proceeded to punch Mr Fuji, sending him out of the ring, and hit Yokozuna with a lariat before a leg drop. Even though the bell never rang, with it instead simply being Randy Savage on commentary going “ding ding” when Hogan entered the ring, referee Earl Hebner counted the 1-2-3 as Hulkamania ran wild once again and Hulk Hogan became a five-time WWF Champion. 

The Las Vegas crowd absolutely exploded for the unexpected development, but it would mark the high point of the shock title reign.

The decision by Vince McMahon to have Hogan win the Winged Eagle also kicked off hostilities between Bret Hart and Hogan that lasted until The Hulkster’s passing in 2025. In the posthumously released Real American docuseries, both Hogan and Hart addressed the shock title change.  

"In the end he was a backstabbing, knife-wielding piece of sh*t…. I remember walking up to him, I was like, ‘Hey Terry.’ I stood up with my hand out to shake his hand for about 30 seconds but he wouldn't even look at me. He just kept talking to Beefcake," Hart claimed.

Hogan replied: "I can’t imagine doing that intentionally. Maybe I had an off day. Maybe I was drunk, maybe I was high. I don’t know. I don’t know what to tell you, but it wouldn’t have been intentional."

"I knew right then and there. I was like, 'I’ve got the belt and I’ve got what he wants and I’m the enemy now.' That day I remember thinking what a step backwards. It was a whole different audience and they were liking me, not Hulk Hogan… I said it’s going to backfire and it’s going to be really bad… F*ck you. Hulk came up with such a phoney, bullsh*t match. The kind of match Hogan would dream up... He was a good guy once upon a time, but in the end he was a backstabbing, knife-wielding piece of sh*t," Hart added.

On the title change, Hulk Hogan noted that, "Vince made the decision, it’s just one of those things."

WrestleMania IX has since gone down in history as the worst edition in the show’s history. It was successful at the time, though, as not only was Hogan’s title win positively received in the arena, but at 430,000 buys, WrestleMania 9 actually outdrew the prior two WrestleManias. Part of that could be attributed to the WWF playing up the "controversial" ending on TV to entice curious replay buys, however. 

What’s Going On With Hulk Hogan’s Eye?

While the big story of the pay-per-view was Hogan reaching the top of the mountain in the World Wrestling Federation once again, he did it all while sporting a black eye. 

For storyline purposes, it was implied that Ted DiBiase and IRS hired some goons to rough Hogan up the night before WrestleMania. The real-life story, according to Hogan, was that he somehow injured his eye - and just his eye - in a jet ski accident.

Several individuals, including Matt Borne and Jim Cornette, have claimed that the black eye was actually from Randy Savage punching Hogan in the face days earlier. Stories have it that after divorcing Savage the prior autumn, Miss Elizabeth was staying with Hogan's family and may have been dating a friend of Hulk's. Hogan reportedly never told Savage any of this, so when the Macho Man found out, this alleged altercation followed.

An Infamous Title Reign Follows An Infamous Championship Win

With the sudden instalment of Hulk Hogan as the top star, Vince McMahon deferred to what had worked in the days gone by. The problem was that Hogan's 1993 arrangement didn't call for him to make too many TV appearances, meaning that the WWF had an absentee champion on their hands.

In fact, the only other singles match Hogan had in this period came away from the WWF as Hulk Hogan pinned The Great Muta at New Japan’s Wrestling Dontaku on May 3. His post-match press conference would prove to be a disaster. 

Speaking to the assembled press, Hogan (in his more understated natural drawl) spoke with flat earnestness about the WWF Championship being a "toy, a trinket on a Christmas tree" compared to the IWGP Heavyweight Title. He also made allusions to New Japan being a place where he could actually wrestle, essentially calling his WWF performances “BS." Word would quickly make its way back to the United States, where Hogan would claim he was mistranslated, despite the whole interview taking place in English. 

Back in the WWF, though, plans seemed to call for Hulk Hogan to retain the WWF Championship against Yokozuna at King of the Ring and then put over Bret Hart at SummerSlam, with Hart even claiming that Hogan told him at WrestleMania IX that he was “happy to return the favour” down the road. 

There was then an alleged photoshoot where Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan played tug of war with the WWF Championship, but Bret soon learnt from Vince McMahon that Hogan was flat out refusing to lose to him at SummerSlam.

Instead, Hogan would drop the WWF Championship to Yokozuna as the personal issues between WWF’s top star and the company’s owner reached boiling point, with McMahon allegedly telling Hogan he would never work for the company again. 

At King of the Ring, Hogan lost the title after an alleged Japanese photographer (who was Harvey Wippleman in heavy disguise) shot him with a fireball from his modified camera. Yokozuna pinned Hogan with his own leg drop, and Banzai dropped him after the contest. The match was Hogan's final bout on WWF television for over nine years.

Following the match, Bret Hart confronted Hogan backstage. In deference to Hulk's manoeuvrings and alleged refusal to put him over, Bret told Hogan (in front of their peers) to go f*ck himself.

The following day at the TV tapings, an equally angry Hogan confronted Bret, countering that he never refused to put Bret over, that it was all Vince trying to assassinate his character. Hogan brought Bret to Vince's office, where McMahon seemed cool and indifferent to Hogan demanding that he be truthful to Bret. McMahon instead sided with Hogan and told The Hitman he must have misheard him.

As Hart later wrote, "I realised that there was some kind of head game going on between Vince and Hogan, and I was merely a pawn to be played with and discarded."

The Aftermath

Following King of the Ring, Hogan became persona non grata in the World Wrestling Federation, and after working some house show matches, a bout with Yokozuna in Sheffield, England on August 6, 1993 would prove to be Hulk Hogan’s final WWF match for nine years.

To fill the Hogan-shaped void, Vince McMahon tried and failed to create a new all-American babyface in Lex Luger, which led to another infamous WWF pay-per-view main event as Luger and the WWF roster celebrated wildly at the conclusion of SummerSlam despite Luger only winning the match against Yokozuna by count-out, meaning he wasn’t WWF Champion. 

With Hogan gone and the Luger experiment a failure, Vince McMahon would finally turn fully to the new generation. Yokozuna would remain WWF Champion until WrestleMania X, when he dropped the Winged Eagle to Bret Hart in the main event, as The Hitman had his crowning moment one year on from being screwed by backstage politics and machinations.