Hulk Hogan’s infamous black eye at WrestleMania IX has long been a subject of wrestling lore, with decades of speculation about whether it was caused by an accident or a backstage altercation with Randy Savage. In WWE’s new documentary WrestleMania IX: Becoming A Spectacle, Hogan and others addressed the rumors head-on.
The black eye, visible during Hogan’s matches at the event, had always been publicly attributed to a jet ski accident. But rumors persisted that Randy Savage, who had a well-documented tense relationship with Hogan at the time and blamed Hogan for his divorce from Miss Elizabeth, may have been responsible.
That speculation gained new attention in the documentary when Scott Steiner, who regularly traveled with Savage, added fuel to the fire by suggesting he believed Savage’s side of the story. “The story is Macho Man punched him, beat him up. I wasn’t there so I don’t know but that was the story going around,” Steiner recalled. “I rolled with Macho Man. He told me what really happened. And I believe Macho Man’s story. So I believe what he told me. But he wasn’t happy about it.”
Hogan directly addressed the rumor in the documentary and denied ever fighting Savage. “I guess he bought the story Randy told him. I never had a fight with Randy. If they still want to believe it after we tell them what really happened, fine with me,” said Hogan.
He then described the real incident in vivid detail. According to Hulk Hogan, the injury came while riding a Sea-Doo. “Brutus (Beefcake) came over and I was riding a Sea-Doo. I get on it and where we were jumping waves, I didn’t know my thumb had pushed the button that made the nose stay down. As soon as I took off, this thing was like a rocket ship. You got 75-80 miles per hour. I hit that first big swell and I went up. It threw me over the front of the ski, and when I hit the water, I tried to cover (and go under the water) because I knew the ski was coming at me, but my lifejacket pulled me back up, and the 700-pound ski hit me in the face and knocked me out. I was knocked out face down in the water.”
Brutus Beefcake, Hogan’s tag team partner at the event, backed up the story. “He was flying in the air and the ski did a 360. The front of the ski hit him in his orbital and fractured it. He was almost not quite unconscious but pretty much out of it.”
Despite the severity of the injury, Hogan still planned to wrestle at WrestleMania IX, but not without resistance from Vince McMahon. When Hogan showed up to WrestleMania IX, McMahon was not happy and told Hogan he couldn’t wrestle. Ultimately, McMahon allowed him to compete if cleared by a doctor.
Hulk Hogan recalled trying to downplay the injury: “I went to the doctor. ‘Hey doc, you won’t believe what we did. We got this new storyline to trick the fans. We’re going to tell everybody Macho Man beat me up and gave me a black eye. This is all makeup and all these stitches are fake stitches. Please don’t tell anybody.’”
The Undertaker also chimed in, confirming how noticeable the injury was. “Pretty nasty black eye,” he said, before joking, “he should have bobbed instead of weaved.” Taker also noted the gossip that swirled backstage: “Everyone knew that Hogan and Savage didn’t get along and it didn’t take long for the rumors to spread.”
You can watch the footage of Vince celebrating with Hogan and Savage after WrestleMania 9 went off the air:
Rare footage of @HulkHogan celebrating with Vince McMahon, Randy Savage, @brutusbeefcake_ and @RealJimmyHart after WrestleMania IX went off the air!#HulkHogan #WrestleMania pic.twitter.com/4J1sBYZPQC
— WWFOldSchool.com (@WWFOldSchoolcom) February 11, 2019
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