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Vince McMahon's quest to find a replacement for Hulk Hogan was far more problematic than he had envisioned. McMahon had attempted and failed to replicate the Hogan success story with The Ultimate Warrior, Sycho Sid and Bret Hart. All, to varying degrees, had failed.
McMahon attempted to relive the Hogan character exactly by re-imagining the Narcissist Lex Luger character as an All-American hero, you know, just like Hogan.
However, although Luger matched up to Hogan in terms of in-ring skill, he lacked the other intangibles that the Hulkster had in abundance and failed to make an emotional attachment to the ticket-buying public. By all accounts, Luger's previous persona of the Narcissist was closer to his real-life personality.
When Luger failed to wrest the WWE Championship from Yokozuna at the 1993 SummerSlam event, when he had promised he would win, his stock fell with the fans.
On that same card, Hart had contested a superheated match with Jerry Lawler. This came just two months after Hart had fought three times in one night to win the 1993 King of the Ring tournament in equally superlative, but impressively different bouts versus Razor Ramon, Mr. Perfect and Bam Bam Bigelow.
When the time came to formulate the final plans for WrestleMania X, WWE booked both Luger and Hart to co-win the 1994 Royal Rumble match.
In the said bout, Luger was loudly jeered and Hart cheered passionately. WWE noted the crowd response. Luger was out and Hart was in. The WWE fanbase had made their choice. Hart was their man. McMahon would give the "Hitman" another chance.
In part 5 of my series - part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4 can be found here - I will cover the reigns of Bret "Hitman" Hart through to Sycho Sid's first run as champion.
Bret "The Hitman" Hart (March 20, 1994 - November 23, 1994)
Yokozuna was a stop-gap champion. He was a transitional champion, acting as a go-between of sorts between Hulkamania and WWE's New Generation era.
By the time 1994 rolled around, Bret "The Hitman" Hart was the fans and company's choice for the leader of the next breed of WWE Superstars.
WrestleMania X was to be his coronation. Interesting then, that Hart would also open the show in a non-title affair with his own brother, Owen.
The brother versus brother storyline had begun at Survivor Series the previous year, when Owen was the only one of the Hart brothers eliminated from a Survivor Series tag team elimination match which pitted Bret, Owen, Keith and Bruce versus Shawn Michaels's team of Knights.
Owen blamed his elimination on Bret. After patching things up, the brothers attempted to wrest the Tag Team Championships away from the Quebecers. However, the match was stopped when Bret was unable to continue due to a leg injury. Furious, Owen attacked Bret's injured leg setting up their WrestleMania clash.
In a genius piece of booking, Bret lost to Owen cleanly on the same card he was set to wrestle for the WWE Championship. When Bret defeated Yokozuna in a decent main event match to win his second WWE title, his post-Mania feud was already set up.
Bret and Owen did excellent business throughout Europe and the States and clashed again on pay-per-view at SummerSlam 1994 inside a steel cage. In one of the best matches of the era, Bret retained the belt after he successfully exited the cage.
Unfortunately for Bret, WWE had neglected to prepare any new challengers for him post-SummerSlam and he floundered in mini-feuds with the likes of Jim Neidhart.
His Survivor Series opponent was someone that nobody expected.
Bob Backlund (November 23, 1994 - November 26, 1994)
In 1983, Vince McMahon had requested that the then-WWE Champion, Bob Backlund ditch his strait-laced, All-American boy character and turn heel.
Backlund had declined. However, a decade later, he finally complied with McMahon's request and began portraying a complete lunatic character.
Backlund began chastising the masses, believing that the whole world aside from him had gone mad. The former WWE Champion had his own path to forge.
Revenge was first on his agenda and he applied his Crossface Chicken Wing finisher to his old manager, Arnold Skaaland at a TV taping in September, as retaliation for Skaaland throwing in the towel in his title defense versus The Iron Sheik in December 1983.
The 45-year-old was a revelation after undergoing his attitude adjustment and due to the dearth of credible challenges, for WWE Champion, Bret Hart, Backlund was selected to face him at Survivor Series 1994.
In that bout, Backlund held Hart in the Crossface Chicken Wing and a devious Owen Hart convinced his mother Martha to throw in the towel on Bret's behalf. In a mirror image of Backlund's title loss a decade earlier, this time Backlund was the beneficiary of the towel throw in the finish.
However, Backlund wasn't main event material in 1994 and his reign acted as a transition to McMahon's next babyface hope. His first reign lasted five years. His second, a mere three days.
Diesel (November 26, 1994 - November 19, 1995)
Bret Hart's replacement as the main man in WWE was Kevin "Diesel" Nash. Diesel had entered the company as Shawn Michaels's bodyguard in late 1993 and gradually worked his way up the card, becoming Intercontinental Champion in 1994, before he was promoted to the headline spot.
Vince McMahon had utilized Bob Backlund as caretaker, fearing that the fanbase would jeer Diesel versus Hart.
There were no boos when Diesel squashed Backlund in eight seconds to win the WWE Championship on a Madison Square Garden house show. The response to Diesel was overwhelmingly positive. However, despite the strong start, the wheels would soon fall off the Diesel experiment.
In fairness to Diesel, he was operating in an environment where it was virtually impossible to succeed. WWE made a loss of $4.4 million in the 1994-95 tax year and cuts were felt all over the company.
With the talent roster at it's thinnest in history, Diesel had few money-drawing stars to defend the title against. The fact that SummerSlam 1995 was headlined by Diesel vs Mabel (the future Viscera) said it all.
Diesel's only three decent matches of his year-long reign were against Hart (at Royal Rumble 1995 and Survivor Series 1995) and Shawn Michaels (at WrestleMania XI).
WrestleMania XI saw the WWE Championship relegated to the semi-final position, below the Bam Bam Bigelow versus NFL star, Lawrence Taylor celebrity match-up. However, regardless of his card position, Diesel as WWE Champion just did not draw.
WrestleMania XI drew 80,000 less buys than WrestleMania X, headlined by Hart's title victory over Yokozuna.
The October pay-per-view, In Your House IV, headlined by Diesel's title defense versus Davey Boy Smith pulled in a miserable 100,000 buys.
With business at a record low, McMahon went back to Hart. He scheduled a Diesel/Hart title bout for Survivor Series 1995 specifically so Diesel could drop the belt.
The experiment was over.
Bret "Hitman" Hart (November 19, 1995 - March 31, 1996)
Bret Hart didn't know it at the time but his third WWE Championship reign existed solely to transition the WWE Championship onto Vince McMahon's next big babyface hope, Shawn Michaels.
The 1996 Royal Rumble event was promoted heavily around Michaels, who was set to return in the 30-Man Royal Rumble match, after two months on the shelf.
This was a storyline injury, based upon the real-life beating Michaels had suffered from several inebriated marines outside a nightclub in Syracuse, New York the previous October.
Michaels had suffered cuts, bruises and a concussion and was not medically cleared to defend his Intercontinental Championship versus Dean Douglas at In Your House IV, eight days later, on October 22, 1995.
In a stroke of booking genius, WWE blended reality with fiction, when Michaels collapsed in the ring during a bout with Owen Hart on the November 20, Raw. So realistic was Michaels's selling and WWE's response to it, that many onlookers believed Michaels's collapse to be 100% genuine.
That meant his return to action at the Rumble was heavily anticipated. The plan worked. The event drew 250,000 pay per view buys; the company's biggest number since WrestleMania XI, ten months earlier.
Hart's title defense versus The Undertaker at the same show played second fiddle to Michael's heroics. Worse for Hart, he lost the bout via DQ. Hart's subsequent title match versus Diesel at In Your House VI in February played a supporting role in the build to Diesel's impending WrestleMania encounter with The Undertaker. Hart won when 'Taker dragged Diesel under the ring. Hart was being portrayed as a fluke champion, strange considering he was firmly established as a main eventer in early 1996.
Hart was an afterthought and his reign was forgettable as a result. For anyone paying attention, it was obvious who would win the WWE Championship bout at WrestleMania XII between Hart and Michaels.
Shawn Michaels (March 31, 1996 - November 17, 1996)
Shawn Michaels was Vince McMahon's shiny new toy in 1996. McMahon had pinned all his hopes on Michaels becoming the leader of his "New Generation" and hoped the flamboyant showman, as opposed to the more serious strait-laced Bret Hart would be the formula to return WWE to it's Hulk Hogan era heyday.
Unfortunately for McMahon, it was his rivals WCW that was enjoying incredible prosperity, with Hogan as it's main man, ironically enough. Hogan would turn heel for the first time in 15 years at the July pay-per-view event, Bash at the Beach, by teaming with Kevin "Diesel" Nash and Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall, who had both left WWE in May 1996 to form the legendary New World Order (nWo) stable.
Michaels in comparison could not compete with the booming business down South. WrestleMania XII, which played host to his long-awaited WWE Championship victory over Hart pulled a disappointing 300,000 pay-per-view buys.
Hart took an eight-month sabbatical following WrestleMania, meaning Michaels had no obstacles in his path as he sought to become the top man in the promotion.
His buddy, Diesel would put him over clean at April's In Your House VII, which did wonders for Michaels's credibility but the box office mojo wasn't there. The event only pulled 150,000 orders. As WCW began making money, hand over fist, WWE's fortunes continued to decline.
During his sabbatical, Hart was offered a massive $2.8 million per annum deal to jump ship to WCW. McMahon was forced to counter with a 20-year contract totaling $1.5 million per annum, double what WWE Champion, Michaels was earning, to retain the services of his former three-time WWE Champion.
With Michaels failing to draw, McMahon could not let Hart go.
Hart returned to the ring and contested a stunner of a bout with the 1996 King of the Ring, Stone Cold Steve Austin at the 1996 Survivor Series while Michaels defended the WWE Championship for the last time versus Sycho Sid.
Sycho Sid (November 17, 1996 - January 19, 1997)
Sycho Sid returned to WWE in the summer of 1996. Four years on from his feud with Hulk Hogan, which was supposed to position him as the number one wrestler in the company, Sid finally reached the top of the WWE mountain.
He was vociferously cheered as he defeated incumbent Shawn Michaels for the strap at the 1996 Survivor Series in Madison Square Garden. Fans had grown tired of Michaels' babyface character and were overjoyed when Sid crushed him to win the WWE title.
Unfortunately for Sid, WWE had no long term plans for him as champion. His title win existed solely so Michaels could regain it from him at the 1997 Royal Rumble which was scheduled to take place from Michael's hometown of San Antonio, Texas inside the 64,000 seater, Alamodome.
In front of his home crowd, Michaels would elicit a very different crowd response.
