Who Booked This? Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania 9

Sometimes I think that some wrestling events sound a lot better in concept, then they end up being when performed.  No event describes that better than Wrestlemania 9.  That show was an absolute comedy act (and not the good kind) from beginning to end.  First off since the event was at Caesar's Palace of course they thought it would be a great idea to make it a Roman themed party, complete with Jim Ross' WWE debut in a toga.

I think J.R, was probably missing the territories right about now

While I'm sure I will revisit Wrestlemania 9 several more times in the "Who Booked This?" series, I want to focus on what I think is one of the worst series of events in Wrestlemania history... the Hulk Hogan return.

First off Hulk Hogan hadn't really been in the mix for a while leading into the event.  In fact Hogan was only drawn back due to an attack on his good friend Brutus Beefcake by I.R.S. and The Million Dollar Man.  Now while it was odd seeing Hogan booked into a mid card tag team match, it made sense due to the fact those two were very good friends away from wrestling.  Beefcake had recently returned to the ring after a legitimate injury in a freak parasailing accident, so this was considered Beefcake's triumphant return to the ring.  So it seemed that Hulkster was there to just give his good buddy a rub, and hopefully get his career back on track.

Unfortunately the Hulkster came back looking like this...

The Hulkster's explained that Money Inc. had attacked him at his gym and left him with the black eye in an effort to keep him from returning.  But it almost made no difference at all because Beefcake's injuries left him looking like a Hulkamaniac version of Birdman.

So the tag match was set with Bruiser and Birdman calling themselves the Mega-Maniacs, and they finally got their hands on Money Inc.  The end of the match saw Hogan attack Money Inc. with the same briefcase that they had attacked Beefcake with prior, while the referee was knocked down.  Jimmy Hart then would come in the ring, reverse his jacket revealing referee stripes.  Hart counted three and awarded the Mega-Maniacs the Tag Team Championships.

But not so fast, for the second time that night an official from the back runs to the ring to inform the knocked out referee that there was shenanigans.  Hogan and Beefcake were disqualified and the belts stayed with Money Inc.

Holy crap, did Hogan seriously lose that much pull in his time gone that a ref is seriously going to run from the back and narc on him?  It certainly seemed so at the time.

So fast forward to the main event.  Yokozuna taking on the champion Bret Hart.  Hart was relieved of his title after Mr. Fuji threw salt in his eyes as he was locking the sharpshooter onto Yokozuna.  Almost immediately as they hand the belt to Yokozuna, Hulk Hogan appears in the ring.

Pissed off that no referee came running from the back to tattletale on Yokozuna's dirty tactics, Hogan decided to lobby for his sudden new best friend Bret Hart.  Fuji immediately challenged Hulk Hogan to a match.  Hogan accepted and...

...then 22 seconds later.

So yes, Hulkster showed up from hiatus beat up.  Then got disqualified in a mid card tag match, then stole the Heavyweight Championship in a 22 second match.  I guess he hadn't lost that pull after all.  Who Booked This?

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Gimmick Profile: The Executioner

Wrestling is great fodder for trivia.  So for my first ever gimmick profile I chose the first wrestler ever introduced at a Wrestlemania event.  None other than The Executioner.

Even from the very beginning the WWE (or WWF at the time) had very high hopes for Wrestlemania.  They always envisioned it being the year's ultimate wrestling spectacle.  So you would think to kick off such a grand event the bookers would have scrambled and kicked it off with a punch.  You would think that they would want to tear the house down.

But instead they brought out a masked jobber to take on Tito Santana.  To make matters worse The Executioner was executed so poorly that during the intro this image was shown...

I'm almost positive that the masked man shown in the promo is actually one of The Killer Bees wearing the masks they would wear for their entrance.  The actual Executioner that revealed himself moments later looked like this...

With such care and detail put into this character I'm amazed the guy even got a pre-match interview.  And as expected he really didn't have a whole lot to say.  With such a vague backstory perhaps The Executioner would have gotten over better had they introduced him as The Bankrobber.  As least he would have had some backstory to cut a promo off of, and the mask would have made more sense.

After this event The Executioner was executed... not literally, the character.  Sort of an anti climatic end for a man who was literally the first wrestler ever announced at a Wrestlemania.  But that's the problem with gimmicks, they have to go somewhere.  Seriously, what is The Executioner supposed to talk about in promos?  Give gory details of some of his favorite beheading stories?  Maybe in the attitude era that would have worked.  Without those stories the only logical explaination for The Executioner's gimmick would be "Fat, white luchadore," which is borderline racist considering that he was fighting Tito Santana.

Instead The Executioner moved on to bigger and better things... literally.  The man under the mask was "Playboy" Buddy Rose.  A guy usually reserved for the comic relief heel roles.  A role that he was very good at playing, and made a name for himself with.  Which begs the question even more, why in the hell would you put a mask on a already established wrestler to open your biggest show ever?

But it's wrestling, so it rarely makes sense.

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