WrestleMania IX was the ninth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). The event took place on April 4, 1993, at Caesars Palace in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada. It was the first WrestleMania event held outdoors. WrestleMania IX was built around two main storylines. The first was the seemingly unstoppable Yokozuna challenging Bret Hart for the WWF Championship in the main event, a right he earned by winning the 1993 Royal Rumble. The other major storyline was the return of Hulk Hogan, who had departed the WWF following WrestleMania VIII but returned to team with Brutus Beefcake against the WWF Tag Team Champions, Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster). Hogan and Beefcake lost the tag team match, but Hogan later faced Yokozuna for the title in an impromptu, unadvertised 22-second match after Yokozuna defeated Hart to win the championship. In addition, Shawn Michaels retained the Intercontinental Championship, though he lost his match against Tatanka. The event has been panned by critics and fans alike. The most frequent criticism has been related to the match between The Undertaker and Giant Gonzalez, Hulk Hogan's title win, and the Roman togas worn by announcers. Both the pay-per-view buyrate and the attendance for the event dropped from the previous year's WrestleMania. Production Background WrestleMania is considered the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF, now WWE) flagship pay-per-view (PPV) event, having first been held in 1985. It is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. It was the first of the WWF's original four pay-per-views, which includes Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, which were eventually dubbed the "Big Four". WrestleMania IX was scheduled to be held on April 4, 1993, at Caesars Palace in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada. Early TV promos for WrestleMania IX ticket sales, airing in December 1992, focused on shots of Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart, with quick shots of Doink the Clown, Razor Ramon, Crush, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, and Randy Savage also shown. Hogan had notably not appeared on WWF TV since April of that year. Flair would not be on the roster at the time of the event. This was the first WrestleMania held entirely outdoors, a concept the company did not use again until WrestleMania XXIV in 2008. Because WrestleMania IX was held in Caesars Palace, the WWF promoted the event as the