The road to WrestleMania 31 is well underway and throughout the years the biggest event on the WWE calendar has shaped careers, provided memories that will last a lifetime and has been a showcase for the greatest matches in the history of the company.
Countdown to WrestleMania 31: 3 Best Moments From WrestleMania VII (7)
Over the next month, Sports World News will delve into each of the first 30 WrestleMania events and reflect on the best moments in each edition of the historic "Show of Shows."
The WWE brought WrestleMania outdoors for the very first time with WrestleMania IX as the company opted to turn the Caesar's Palace parking lot into the world's largest toga party. This is easily one of the worst received events by critics based on a series of questionable booking and creative decisions and poor match quality throughout, but we'll look for three positives.
Countdown to WrestleMania 31: 3 Best Moments From WrestleMania VIII (8)
This event emanated from Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas on April 4, 1993 and took place in front of a crowd of 16,891 WWE fans.
Here are our three best moments from WWE WrestleMania IX (it wasn't easy):
3) Hogan's Farewell: Hulk Hogan had been mostly out of the wrestling realm following WrestleMania VIII, but he made his return in time for the ninth installment of the "Show of Shows."
Hogan was booked in a match that pitted "The Hulkster" and Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake against "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase and IRS for the WWE Tag Team Championships.
A noticeably less muscular Hogan had an eye injury during the event, which had several rumors circulating around it ranging from "Macho Man" Randy Savage punching him to a jet skiing accident.
Either way, Hogan and Beefcake lost the match via DQ after Hogan used Beefcake's facemask as a weapon, therefore Money Inc. retained.
Hogan (groan) wasn't done there as following Yokozuna defeating Bret Hart in a lackluster main event that didn't even last nine minutes, Hogan emerged to come to the aid of his "friend" Hart.
Mr. Fuji then challenged Hogan (Why?) to a match with Yokozuna and even put the belt that Yokozuna (Why?!) -- who was clearly winded due to his girth -- had just won on the line (WHY?!?!).
Needless to say Hogan accepted it and won the title in a booking decision that to this day is looked upon in disdain by most of the critics. It is rumored Hogan's creative control caused the double switch.
While the ending was very polarizing, it was notable because it would be the last time Hogan would appear at WrestleMania for nine years and it was his final one as WWE Champion.
2) Hilarious Heenan: The opening scene of WrestleMania saw a lot of animals come out and grand entrances made by announcers "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.
Heenan, known for his comedy, rode out to the ring backwards on a camel and fell off of it to start the show.
This event was so poor that the second best thing to happen in it wasn't even a match.
1) Lex Luger vs. Mr. Perfect: The best match at this show was a midcard bout that didn't have much of anything on the line.
Mr. Perfect had turned babyface in the fall of 1992 and Bobby Heenan -- his former manager -- brought in Lex Luger to counter him. Luger had a Narcissist gimmick and came out with a huge mirror to watch himself pose.
Perfect and Luger put on a great encounter and really the lone awesome match on the card as they went back-and-forth for over 10 minutes.
Luger then pinned Perfect, who had his feet on the ropes but the referee didn't see it, in yet another finish that wasn't clean on the card.
After the match, Luger laid Perfect out with the steel forearm.
Looking Ahead: WrestleMania IX was a struggle for the WWE and is still mostly panned by critics to this day, but as we'll look at Friday things were about to get a whole lot better as The New Generation was on its way for a WrestleMania that was 10 years in the making.
Rank-O-Mania: As we go through each year, we will rank each WrestleMania as it comes along. WrestleMania IX may very well be the worst WrestleMania of all time. While some will say it is undisputedly the worst and I'll agree to a certain point that the booking was questionable and the event was awful, it is still at least more watchable than WrestleMania 2 and is thus the second worst event of all time in our rankings.
1) WrestleMania VI
2) WrestleMania III
3) WrestleMania VIII
4) WrestleMania VII
5) WrestleMania V
6) WrestleMania IV
7) WrestleMania I
8) WrestleMania IX
9) WrestleMania 2
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