10 Things You Didn't Know About WWE In 1994

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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 born.

00:12Hi I'm Gareth, this is WhatCultureWrestling and here are 10 things you didn't know about

00:17WWE in 1994. Number 10, Hulk Hogan, is gonna feature all over this list, but not once did

00:24he do that for WWE. This itself was a first since 1983. But 1994 was also the year a frankly

00:31incredible and likely never to be repeated streak was broken. It was the year Hulk Hogan neither won,

00:38lost nor held the WWE Championship for the very first time since his inaugural reign kicked off

00:43a decade earlier. He defeated the Iron Sheik in January 1984 in a run that ended in 1988,

00:50he won it back in 1989, lost in 1990, won and lost in 1991, was stripped of it ahead of the Royal

00:57Rumble in 1992, and controversially scored his fifth reign in 1993 before departing from the

01:03company in the summer. By then his time travelling days were behind him, as was a WWE legacy Vince

01:08McMahon moved fast to minimalise. Hogan wrestled just 24 matches across the year, which reflected

01:14the lightest full-time schedule he'd had since breaking into the industry in 1977. None of them

01:19were for McMahon, of course. Aside from the WCW dates, he also worked for New Japan Pro Wrestling

01:24at the Tokyo Dome on January 1st. Away from his prior World Wrestling Federation comfort zone,

01:30he was starting the year as he meant to go on, as was his former employer.

01:349. The New Generation Taked Shape in the Royal Rumble

01:37Months before the new generation became the branding method of choice for a WWE undergoing historic changes

01:43in just about every department, the Royal Rumble match revealed a sign of things to come.

01:48Not only did it feature Bret Hart as the overwhelming favourite of a live crowd forced to pick between

01:53the Hitman and co-winner, and transparent Hulk Hogan like-for-like replacement Lex Luger,

01:59but it also featured over half of the entrants competing in their first ever Rumble 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. It wasn't much longer

02:18for the Steiner Brothers, the Head Shrinkers, Doink and Bam Bigelow. Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels

02:23were in the Battle Royal as singles wrestlers for the first time, and former WWE Champion Bob

02:28Backlund, a record setter one year earlier, made it just 41 seconds before being eliminated by breakout

02:34star Big Daddy Cool. And as many potential new talents took their bow, one long-standing star

02:40prepared to take a break. But number 8, The Undertaker's Work Schedule During His Time Off

02:46Was Undertaker shooting in his infamous 1999 promo about eating snakes in Death Valley? When he

02:52turned to the big show and said, Nice try big man, but I don't sleep. No, he was just being a

02:57preposterously insecure grandstanding idiot. But he put in nine years of hard graft working for Vince

03:02McMahon by then, so people are entitled to lose their minds a little. Shortly after Chris Jericho and the

03:07rest of the world highlighted how boring and unintentionally hilarious that was, the Deadman

03:12was given time to rest, rehabilitate and return as the American badass that brought him several years

03:18away from the persona that made him an icon before a welcome return a few years on from that. It was

03:23only the second significant break he'd taken in nearly a decade, and even in the first one he was

03:28still on the clock for his boss. After Undertaker floated into the rafters following his Royal Rumble

03:33loss to Yoko Zuna, he supposedly disappeared until his SummerSlam return against Ted DiBiase's

03:38doppelganger. He in fact worked 15 matches, which is almost one per fortnight during the time he was

03:44away. Often batched together, he worked international tours in May and June, and got back on the dark

03:49match circuit in July and August ahead of his return. They were nonetheless regular enough that

03:53those wacky Elvis-adjacent skits weren't the only places members of the public were catching sight of

03:58the former WWE Champion. Number 7, the real career break in 1994 was taken by Shawn Michaels,

04:05who didn't work an official match for the company between wrapping a post-WrestleMania house show

04:10run against Reza Ramon on April 3rd, and a televised bout with The Bad Guy on the live

04:15August 1st edition of Man in Era. It never really felt like an absence at the time because, amongst

04:20other things, it really wasn't. Michaels took on the role as Diesel's manager and host of the

04:25Heartbreak Hotel talk show segment on television, and wasn't shy of taking the odd big bump when

04:30the story required it. But matches were off the menu for a bit as he enjoyed his own sizable break

04:35after over six years of grinding for Vince McMahon. Kevin Nash credited his friendship and working

04:41relationship with the Heartbreak Kid with getting him ready to carry the company on top in 1995,

04:47not least when he got to be ringside for Michaels vs. Ramon matches that were allegedly as good,

04:51if not better than their WrestleMania 10 classic. The aforementioned Raw Firecracker made a great

04:57case in point. But before we get to that, I want to ask you a quick question. What's your favourite

05:02Shawn Michaels match ever, baby? You let me know in the comments section right down below.

05:06Number 6, Vince McMahon used Monday Night Raw to toast his not-guilty verdict.

05:10On August 1st, Monday Night Raw was all the way alive, and Shawn Michaels and Reza Ramon contested

05:16one of the best WWE matches of the year, as if to remind viewers of how the New Generation

05:20marketing campaign did have a grain of truth, even if it predominantly existed to separate the

05:25company from Hulk Hogan and WCW. Worked at a killer pace between the clickmates ahead of Ramon and

05:31Diesel's Intercontinental Championship match at SummerSlam 1994, the match was fundamentally

05:36everything great about the company distilled. The commentary across the night was...not.

05:42Obviously deliriously happy to have been found not guilty of the charges brought against him by the

05:46United States government, specifically the two counts of distributing steroids, and one of

05:51conspiracy to distribute steroids. Vince McMahon was back on commentary and in a 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. Welcome back Vince McMahon, Savage bellowed, before later

06:07adding that Reza would annihilate Shawn just like Vince did the US government. One, two, three,

06:13not guilty. It 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. At one point McMahon chuckled

06:25and exclaimed to a giddy savage, you're on a rare form tonight, almost as if he wasn't feeding the

06:30Macho Man the lines himself. Oh yeah, and just a quick one, I want to thank you right now for watching

06:35this video today, and if you like what you see, then go and click on that subscribe button down below.

06:40Number 5, The Controversial Aftermath of an All-Time Great Match

06:44The legendary WrestleMania 10 ladder match between Shawn Michaels and Reza Ramon might not have been

06:49the first of its kind, despite the company's attempt to canonise that whenever they weren't

06:53feeling charitable towards Bret Hart, but it did revolutionise it, opening the possibilities for

06:58exactly how one could work beyond the simple act of climbing, creating a template so robust that it

07:04remains in place today, despite the overuse and bastardisation of 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 going

07:25over their allotted time, and it wasn't just their indulgence he was targeting, a 10-man tag had to be

07:30cut from the show to save time, and Savage fumed that 10 colleagues had lost their share of a

07:35pay-per-view payday, because two had coloured outside of the lines. He let them have it,

07:40reminding them that the business of the business still came before the show. And that wasn't Randy

07:45Savage's only big locker room statement that night.

07:47Number 4. The WrestleMania 10 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 calendar year

07:58since Vince McMahon took control of his father's organisation that he didn't wrestle and feature

08:03prominently, but his absence, and thus his presence, could be felt lurking over WrestleMania 10.

08:08The event that was 10 years in the making was missing the main man that had featured in the

08:12main events of the first nine. There was no ignoring his place in history, but a fellow

08:17company figurehead that had shared several of those spotlights with the Hulkster was determined to drive

08:22the push for the new star to get his rightful spot. As commentated during Hogan's hijacking of

08:27Bret Hart's WrestleMania 9 moment, Randy Savage spoke constantly of the respect he had for the

08:32hitman. Savage was willing to show and tell one year later. It was supposedly Randy that suggested

08:38and called for the locker room celebration when Bret lifted the gold for a second time. And mid-party,

08:44the macho man could not have done any more with his body language to let Madison Square Garden know

08:49that the pink and black attack was every bit the suitable replacement for a departed orange goblin.

08:54Number 3. Less than one year after winning the WWE Championship, Hulk Hogan was matched alongside

09:00the start of civilization effectively. To really illustrate what exactly the new generation was

09:05in contrast to days gone by, WWE produced a series of adverts that might have been charming if they

09:11weren't so bilious in the background. First using cars and failed attempts at flight in contrast to

09:17Speedway Clips and Concord respectively, the company then threw up clips of 70s slash 80s greats to go up

09:23against the likes of 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. One of the lads was of course new WCW centerpiece

09:36Hulk Hogan. The hypocrisy was laughable. He'd been Vince McMahon's choice over his new starlet Bret Hart

09:41precisely 12 months earlier. But now he was presented as a relic alongside the likes of Andre the Giant,

09:47Ivan Putzky and the Iron Sheik. Giant had passed away in 1993, but the latter pair both worked

09:53novelty contests for WWE in 1997. Four years after this trailer aired, and one into Hogan's

10:00business transforming stint as a Hollywood heel. Number 2. The end of an even longer era.

10:05Back in 1990, WrestleMania and indeed WWE had said farewell to Jesse Ventura, bringing about the end

10:12of his iconic pay-per-view pairing with Gorilla Monsoon. By 1994, it was also time to say good

10:17to the other half of that partnership. Monsoon covered the King of the Ring and Survivor Series

10:22in 1994, but both events were as substitutes for 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 even really

10:33the ideal seat filler. McMahon always worked best with a heel and a colour analyst, and Monsoon

10:39typically served neither purpose. Nonetheless, it served as his final pay-per-view commentary spot

10:44ever. Despite holding down regular spots at the desk on third-string television shows,

10:48he mainly moved into kayfabe admin. He famously served as the on-screen WWE president between 1995

10:54and 1997, ahead of making his final on-screen appearance before his passing at WrestleMania 15

11:00in 1999. And number 1. Jeff Hardy started at the very top.

11:05Well, sort of. Between wrestling on trampolines at county fairs, and coming together to form Omega,

11:10the organisation of modern extreme grappling art, as young hopefuls, the Hardy Boy's journey from

11:16the backyard to the big time has been well documented. But all of that practice served

11:20them well enough to be the most popular jobbers on the WWF circuit. And at just 16, as far as

11:25officials knew he was actually two years older, Jeff Hardy got the opportunity to lose a painful

11:30squash to Razor Ramon when the original victim couldn't make the show. The future charismatic

11:35Enigma's real name was protected too. Instead, he took on the alleged name of the absentee and went

11:41by Keith Davis for the one and only time in his career. The match can be seen in all its glory on

11:46the June 6th edition of Monday Night Raw, but it was actually taped on May 23rd, the night Jeff's

11:51brother Matt suffered his own squash 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 Things You

12:02Didn't Know About WWE in 2001 video or watch then. Your mind is about to be blown. Bye-bye!

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