10 Things You Didn't Know About WWE In 1994
Loads of Hulk Hogan even when there was none at all, the NEW GENERATION, and Keith Davis debuts...
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00:00From the first few flickers of the new generation, to a certain future icon secretly making their
00:06debut against a bad guy, here are those things you did not know about WWE in the year I was
00:12born.
00:13I am Gareth, this is WhatCultureWrestling and here are 10 things you didn't know about
00:17WWE in 1994.
00:1910.
00:20Hulk Hogan Is gonna feature all over this list, but not
00:23once did he do that for WWE.
00:26This itself was a first since 1983, but 1994 was also the year a frankly incredible and
00:32likely never to be repeated streak was broken.
00:36It was the year Hulk Hogan neither won, lost nor held a WWE Championship for the very first
00:41time since his inaugural reign kicked off a decade earlier.
00:45He defeated The Iron Sheik in January 1984 in a run that ended in 1988, he won it back
00:51in 1989, lost in 1990, won and lost in 1991, was stripped of it ahead of the Royal Rumble
00:57in 1992 and controversially scored his fifth reign in 1993 before departing from the company
01:03in the summer.
01:04By then his time travelling days were behind him, as was a WWE legacy Vince McMahon moved
01:09fast to minimise.
01:10Hogan wrestled just 24 matches across the year, which reflected the lightest full-time
01:15schedule he'd had since breaking into the industry in 1977.
01:19None of them were for McMahon of course, aside from the WCW dates he also worked for
01:23New Japan Pro Wrestling at the Tokyo Dome on January 1st.
01:27Away from his prior World Wrestling Federation comfort zone, he was starting the year as
01:31he meant to go on, as was his former employer.
01:349.
01:35The New Generation Takes Shape In The Royal Rumble
01:38Months before the New Generation became the branding method of choice for a WWE undergoing
01:42historic changes in just about every department, the Royal Rumble match revealed a sign of
01:47things to come.
01:48Not only did it feature Bret Hart as the overwhelming favourite of a live crowd forced
01:53to pick between the Hitman and co-winner, and transparent Hulk Hogan like-for-like replacement
01:58Lex Luger, but it also featured over half of the entrants competing in their first ever
02:02Rumble match.
02:03And digging into the data finds that for most, it was their first opportunity too.
02:08Quang, The Smoking Guns, Diesel, Jeff Jarrett, Men On A Mission, Thurman's Sparky Plug,
02:13Lex Luger and Adam Bomb had all been in the company for a year or less.
02:18It wasn't much longer for the Steiner Brothers, the Head Shrinkers, Doink and Bam Bigelow.
02:22Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels were in the Battle Royal as singles wrestlers for the first time,
02:27and former WWE Champion Bob Backlund, a record setter one year earlier, made it just 41 seconds
02:33before being eliminated by breakout star Big Daddy Cool.
02:36And as many potential new talents took their bow, one long-standing star prepared to take
02:41a break.
02:42But…
02:438.
02:44The Undertaker's Work Schedule During His Time Off
02:46Was Undertaker shooting in his infamous 1999 promo about eating snakes in Death Valley
02:51when he turned to the big show and said,
02:53Nice try, big man, but I don't sleep.
02:56No, he was just being a preposterously insecure, grandstanding idiot.
03:00But he put in 9 years of hard graft working for Vince McMahon by then, so people are entitled
03:05to lose their minds a little.
03:06Shortly after Chris Jericho and the rest of the world highlighted how boring and unintentionally
03:10hilarious that was, the dead man was given time to rest, rehabilitate and return as the
03:15American Badass that bought him several years away from the persona that made him an icon
03:20before a welcome return a few years on from that.
03:23It was only the second significant break he'd taken in nearly a decade, and even in the
03:27first one he was still on the clock for his boss.
03:30After Undertaker floated into the rafters following his Royal Rumble loss to Yokozuna,
03:34he supposedly disappeared until his SummerSlam return against Ted DiBiase's Doppelganger.
03:38He in fact worked 15 matches, which is almost one per fortnight during the time he was away.
03:45Even batched together, he worked international tours in May and June, and got back on the
03:49dark match circuit in July and August ahead of his return.
03:52They were nonetheless regular enough that those wacky Elvis-adjacent skits weren't
03:56the only places members of the public were catching sight of the former WWE Champion.
04:007.
04:01The real career break in 1994 was taken by Shawn Michaels, who didn't work an official
04:07match for the company between wrapping a post-WrestleMania house show run against Reza Rahman on April
04:123rd, and a televised bout with The Bad Guy on the live August 1st edition of Man in
04:16Error.
04:17It never really felt like an absence at the time because, amongst other things, it really
04:21wasn't.
04:22Michaels took on the role as Diesel's manager and host of the Heartbreak Hotel talk show
04:26segment on television, and wasn't shy of taking the odd big bump when the story required
04:31it.
04:32But matches were off the menu for a bit as he enjoyed his own sizeable break after over
04:36six years of grinding for Vince McMahon.
04:39Kevin Nash credited his friendship and working relationship with the Heartbreak Kid with
04:43getting him ready to carry the company on top in 1995, not least when he got to be ringside
04:48for Michaels vs. Rahman matches that were allegedly as good if not better than their
04:53WrestleMania 10 classic.
04:55The aforementioned Raw firecracker made a great case in point.
04:58But before we get to that, I want to ask you a quick question.
05:01What's your favourite Shawn Michaels match ever, baby?
05:03You let me know in the comment section right down below.
05:066.
05:07Kevin McMahon used Monday Night Raw to toast his not-guilty verdict
05:10On August 1st, Monday Night Raw was all the way live, and Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon
05:15contested one of the best WWE matches of the year as if to remind viewers of how the New
05:20Generation marketing campaign did have a grain of truth, even if it predominantly existed
05:25to separate the company from Hulk Hogan and WCW.
05:28Worked at a killer pace between the clickmates ahead of Ramon and Diesel's Intercontinental
05:32Championship match at Summerslam 1994, the match was fundamentally everything great about
05:37the company distilled.
05:39The commentary across the night was… not.
05:42Obviously deliriously happy to have been found not guilty of the charges brought against
05:46him by the United States government, specifically the two counts of distributing steroids, and
05:51one of conspiracy to distribute steroids, Vince McMahon was back on commentary and in
05:55a fantastic mood.
05:57Though it wasn't in keeping with his on-screen persona to gloat, he had no problem with colour
06:01analyst Randy Savage doing that for him, before later adding that Razor would annihilate
06:09Shawn just like Vince did the US government.
06:15It was the start of multiple references to trials and injustices against innocent people,
06:20and even extended to McMahon's defence team getting name-checked on air.
06:24At one point McMahon chuckled and exclaimed to a giddy Savage, you're on a rare form
06:28tonight, almost as if he wasn't feeding the Macho Mandalines himself.
06:32Oh yeah, and just a quick one, I want to thank you right now for watching this video today,
06:36and if you like what you see, then go and click on that subscribe button down below.
06:405.
06:41The controversial aftermath of an all-time great match
06:44The legendary WrestleMania X ladder match between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon might
06:48not have been the first of its kind, despite the company's attempt to canonise that whenever
06:53they weren't feeling charitable towards Bret Hart, but it did revolutionise it, opening
06:57the possibilities for exactly how one could work beyond the simple act of climbing, creating
07:02a template so robust that it remains in place today, despite the overuse and bastardisation
07:07of the stipulation itself.
07:09It was a bona fide classic, but it did commit one cardinal sin, that it ensured an almighty
07:15bollocking for HBK and the bad guy when they got backstage, rather than a round of applause.
07:20Longest tenured veteran Macho Man Randy Savage loudly and aggressively chewed them out for
07:25going over their allotted time, and it wasn't just their indulgence he was targeting.
07:29A ten-man tag had to be cut from the show to save time, and Savage fumed that ten colleagues
07:34had lost their share of a pay-per-view payday because two had coloured outside of the lines.
07:39He let them have it, reminding them that the business of the business still came before
07:43the show.
07:44And that wasn't Randy Savage's only big locker room statement that night.
07:474.
07:48The WrestleMania X conclusion was Randy Savage's idea
07:52Indeed, Hulk Hogan was the ghost at the feast for much of 1994, it being the first full
07:57calendar year since Vince McMahon took control of his father's organisation that he didn't
08:02wrestle and feature prominently.
08:03But his absence, and thus his presence, could be felt lurking over WrestleMania X.
08:08The event that was ten years in the making was missing the main man that had featured
08:12in the main events of the first nine.
08:14There was no ignoring his place in history, but a fellow company figurehead that had shared
08:18several of those spotlights with the Hulkster was determined to drive the push for the new
08:23star to get his rightful spot.
08:25As commentated during Hogan's hijacking of Bret Hart's WrestleMania IX moment, Randy
08:29Savage spoke constantly of the respect he had for the hitman.
08:33Savage was willing to show and tell one year later.
08:36It was supposedly Randy that suggested and called for the locker room celebration when
08:41Bret lifted the gold for a second time.
08:43And mid-party, the Macho Man could not have done any more with his body language to let
08:47Madison Square Garden know that the pink and black attack was every bit the suitable
08:52replacement for a departed orange goblin.
08:553.
08:56Less than one year after winning the WWE Championship, Hulk Hogan was matched alongside.
09:00The start of civilisation, effectively.
09:02To really illustrate what exactly the new generation was in contrast to days gone by,
09:07WWE produced a series of adverts that might have been charming if they weren't so bilious
09:12in the background.
09:14First using cars and failed attempts at flight in contrast to Speedway, Clipse and Concord
09:18respectively, the company then threw up clips of 70s-80s greats to go up against the likes
09:24of Diesel, Jeff Jarrett, Owen Hart and Roddy Piper, as examples of how 1994's Crop of
09:30Stars left the lads from the past in the dust.
09:33One of the lads was, of course, new WCW centrepiece Hulk Hogan.
09:37The hypocrisy was laughable.
09:38He'd been Vince McMahon's choice over his new style at Bret Hart precisely 12 months
09:43earlier.
09:44But now he was presented as a relic alongside the likes of Andre the Giant, Ivan Putzky
09:48and The Iron Sheik.
09:50Giant had passed away in 1993, but the latter pair both worked novelty contests for WWE
09:55in 1997, four years after this trailer aired, and won into Hogan's business-transforming
10:01stint as a Hollywood heel.
10:022.
10:03The end of an even longer era
10:05Back in 1990, WrestleMania, and indeed WWE, had said farewell to Jesse Ventura.
10:11Bringing about the end of his iconic pay-per-view pairing with Gorilla Monsoon.
10:15By 1994, it was also time to say goodbye to the other half of that partnership.
10:19Monsoon covered the King of the Ring and Survivor Series in 1994, but both events were as substitutes
10:25for Vince McMahon and Randy Savage respectively.
10:28In the case of the latter, Savage's WWE departure was such a surprise, that Monsoon wasn't
10:33even really the ideal seat filler.
10:35McMahon always worked best with a heel and a colour analyst, and Monsoon typically served
10:39neither purpose.
10:41Nonetheless, it served as his final pay-per-view commentary spot ever.
10:44Despite holding down regular spots at the desk on third-string television shows, he
10:48mainly moved into kayfabe admin.
10:50He famously served as the on-screen WWE President between 1995 and 1997, ahead of making his
10:56final on-screen appearance before his passing at WrestleMania 15 in 1999.
11:011.
11:02Jeff Hardy started at the very top
11:04Well, sort of.
11:06From wrestling on trampolines at county fairs, and coming together to form OMEGA, the Organisation
11:11of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts, as Young Hopefuls, the Hardy Boys' journey from the
11:16backyard to the big time has been well-documented.
11:19But all of that practice served them well enough to be the most popular jobbers on the
11:22WWF circuit.
11:23And at just 16, as far as officials knew he was actually two years older, Jeff Hardy got
11:29the opportunity to lose a painful squash to Reza Rahman when the original victim couldn't
11:33make the show.
11:34But the future Charismatic Enigma's real name was protected too.
11:38Instead, he took on the alleged name of the absentee and went by Keith Davis for the one
11:42and only time in his career.
11:44The match can be seen in all its glory on the June 6th edition of Monday Night Raw,
11:48but it was actually taped on May 23rd, the night Jeff's brother Matt suffered his own
11:53squash loss to Nikolai Volkov, and the rest was never dull history.
11:57If you enjoyed this Things You Didn't Know About WWE in 1994 video, well give this 10
12:02Things You Didn't Know About WWE in 2001 video a watch then.
12:06Your mind is about to be blown.
12:08Bye!