During a recent episode of his podcast, Jim Ross discussed Wrestlemania 9 and Hulk Hogan winning the championship.
Ross discussed the infamous title change and when he found out about the plans for it.
On if he knew about the title change to Hogan beforehand: āI knew that the plans were for Hogan to leave the show as the champion. That he wasnāt even in a match. So to tell you I knew what was going to happen would be a lie; I didnāt know what was gonna happen. I knew in general terms that by the end of the night when the sun set on WrestleMania IX that Hogan would be leaving as the ācham-peen.ā But I didnāt know the fortuitous route that we were gonna take to get there. So no, I didnāt know. Didnāt need to know. I just needed to be able to get the sun to go down a little bit more so I could see my monitor and call what we saw.ā
On when he first heard about the change and his reaction: āThe day of the show, thatās all. āYou know what weāre doing, donāt you?ā āNo.ā āWell, Hoganās gonna get the belt.ā Thatās what I heard. Hoganās gonna leave as the champion. Again, that suited my needs perfectly. I believe in my instincts, I believe in my product knowledge and my love of the game still, to this very God-damned day. The love of the game has not left me. And it had not left me at WrestleMania IX. If you put it on the monitor, I think I can describe it and add a narrative that is respectful to what the image that weāre seeing.
āSo thatās where I was. All I knew was, it was gonna be a Wild West show, little extemporaneous stuff gonna be going on. But as it was explained to me, maybe even by Bruce [Prichard], āBut Jim, itās not that much different than a mid-South show.ā Because thatās what Watts would do, things like that. You know? Switch a belt on the first part of the hour and lose it again in the last part of the hour to the person he wanted it on to begin with. So it was just information I didnāt need to be overridden with. Because it was very political in nature. And Hogan had not endeared himself to many of the guys that were against this particular creative happening. And thatās neither here nor there; that was before I got here, the whole nine yards. Hogan had issues with some of the guys that felt like Bret was deserving of a better deal.ā