Hulk Hogan's Black Eye At WrestleMania IX, Explained
Despite not being part of the main event, Hulk Hogan not only found his way into the last match at WrestleMania IX, he also managed to find a way to be the talk of the town for how he showed up to The Showcase. 'The Immortal One' came to do battle alongside “Brother Bruti” Brutus Beefcake, against Money Inc. for the tag team titles.RELATED: Who Could Have Been Vince McMahon's First Superstar If Not Hulk Hogan?Hogan showed up with a real nasty looking black eye. The commentators tried to sell it as The Million Dollar Man paying off some scary men to do scary things while Hogan was in the gym getting his pump on. But over the years, the story of Hulk Hogan’s black eye has created several big theories.
Hogan Says The Black Eye Was The Result Of A Jet Ski Accident
After twenty years of having several stories floating around, Hogan was a guest on 'The After The Bell Podcast' and spoke about the incident, chalking the whole thing up to a jet ski catching him good. Hollywood explains himself, Brutus Beefcake, Randy Savage, and another friend, Ellis Edwards were riding jet skis in Tampa. “And Brutus takes off, going straight ahead, Macho [Man] takes off going straight ahead, and Ellis is kinda sticking with me. And so as I jump this wave, I get thrown over the front of the ski. And I got a life jacket on, so as I go into the water, I try to duck down underwater, but that damn life jacket brought me back up. And the jet ski hit me in the face.”
It’s pure speculation — while that story isn’t as wild as some poor woman’s foot crushing Beefcake’s face while parasailing, it does seem a little far fetched that Hogan merely got a black eye and nothing more serious.
The Real Story Behind Hogan's Black Eye
Depending on your fandom of Hulk Hogan, he either misremembers or misrepresents past stories (such as trying out for Metallica), or he’s just a lying liar that lies a lot. So while some people do believe Hogan’s story (it’s in his book, after all), there is a separate section of the fans that subscribe to another far more salacious story. In this story, the cause of Hogan’s smashed face comes at the hands of the man who hung out with the Vestal Virgins at WrestleMania IX — 'The Macho Man' Randy Savage.
RELATED: Macho Man Randy Savage: A Smaller WWE Wrestler With The Biggest Personality
As many have heard in the past, Randy was an incredibly paranoid and overprotective husband. When Miss Elizabeth could no longer cope with it, she bailed and headed to her friend Linda Hogan’s house. She stayed there with Linda and Hulk who, instead of giving Savage the iggy and letting him know, joined in the Randy bashing. It led to the Mega Powers really exploding and Macho popping Hogan shortly before WrestleMania started.
Hogan's Black Eye Is Still Shrouded In Mystery
Because of the nature of The Macho Man’s story, it’s the story that everyone in the industry recants, including Jim Cornette who told the story on his show; and he wasn’t even at WrestleMania IX. The title track on Macho Man's rap album, Be A Man, helped fan the flames as well. It’s interesting that there’s little information from Beefcake about Hogan’s story that’s on the interweb. Hogan isn't likely to divert from his own story too much, and the only one that could speak to Randy Savage’s side of things is his brother Lanny, assuming The Macho Man ever told him. That’s all rumor and innuendo, but there certainly was real, white hot between the two Hall of Famers, right up until a reconciliation shortly before Savage passed away in 2011.
Despite several sources saying the two reconciled shortly before Savage’s death, no one has ever come forth with a story that disputes either Hulk’s version or Savage's. The more interesting part of the story is why did nobody spin a yarn that the black eye happened while training for the show, or some other cockamamie story for fans to believe. That might not have worked for today’s fans, but it certainly would’ve satiated enough fans 28 years ago.
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At this stage in the history of the sport, the saga of Hulk’s immortal black eye at WrestleMania IX is either him just showing Beefcake that he can be in a jetski accident and not have his face smushed to hell, or his old friend deciding to deck him for what he perceived to be his part in ending his marriage to Miss Elizabeth. Whatever the case may be, those are the two biggest theories and unless someone comes forth with the truth (provided these two stories aren’t), or another story; this mystery remains unsolved.
