The 12 months is 1990. A brand new decade has emerged from the broken down shell of the tip of the Nineteen Eighties, Phil Collins is once more on top of the charts, and the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” have gone from lovable cartoon characters to dominating the worldwide box office with their very own feature-length movie. While the last decade would look wildly different at the tip of 1999 in comparison with the beginning of 1990, it was clear that this recent decade would come equipped with brave recent ideas, with a few of them creating worldwide trends, and others being lost to time for higher or for worse.
Wrestling was one in every of the industries that saw essentially the most change across the 110-year span of the Nineteen Nineties. For those who checked out the World Wrestling Federation at the tip of 1999 in comparison with what fans saw in the beginning of 1990, you’d likely think it was a very different company. The primary big idea to shake up the establishment of the corporate got here at the primary WrestleMania of the Nineteen Nineties, WrestleMania VI, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
While future WWE Champions like Edge and Christian were sitting of their capital’s Skydome for the most important wrestling event of the 12 months, two men were on the point of placed on a match that may determine the true face of sports entertainment. In a single corner, the WWE Champion Hulk Hogan. He was a person who had most important evented 4 of the previous five WrestleMania’s, and showed no signs of slowing down. In the opposite corner, is the WWE Intercontinental Champion, and potential future face of the corporate, The Ultimate Warrior. It was a match that was destined to be historic from the moment it was booked, but how did the match, and the aftermath, change WWE’s future perpetually?
A Historic Victory For The Ultimate Warrior
Up until WrestleMania VI, The Ultimate Warrior was used to having matches that only spanned a few minutes. Outside of his battles with the likes of Rick Rude, Hercules, and Randy Savage, everyone who got into the ring with the Warrior was met with an onslaught of energy, a giant splash, and a mark within the L column before they might even gather their bearings. Warrior was a ball of ferociousness that, in point of fact, could only ever be match by one person, or on this case a movement, and that was Hulkamania.
Hogan had won the 1990 Royal Rumble because the WWE Champion, and posed “The Ultimate Challenge” to the Warrior to see what was the strongest force in the corporate, Hulkamania or the ability of the Warrior. It was a match that had a real big fight feel to it, evident by the incontrovertible fact that the fans in Toronto were going crazy because the bell rang, without the 2 men even doing anything.
After their stare down, they might have a 22 minute match that saw each men go back-and-forth, with the ability of the Warrior and Hulkamania each being channelled through the 2 men within the ring, creating an electrical atmosphere that few WWE Superstars have ever been in a position to recreate. In the long run, it was The Ultimate Warrior who landed the massive splash to select up the win and change into the last word champion in WWE, winning the WWE Championship to associate with his WWE Intercontinental Championship, all while handing Hogan his first WrestleMania loss, and his first clean loss in any match in nine years. While the moment is remembered fondly from those who witnessed it live, and people who have watched it back, the identical cannot be said for the aftermath.
The Mistaken Decision?
Despite The Ultimate Warrior having good memories of the match, even when himself and Hogan didn’t necessarily see eye-to-eye on many things, the aftermath of Warrior’s victory at WrestleMania VI might be best described as mediocre at best.
Hogan was still the most important name in wrestling when it got here to the west, but he needed time away from the ring to deal with his Hollywood profession. This meant that WWE were put within the dangerous position of backing The Ultimate Warrior to be as big as Hogan, and the ability of the warrior to be as big as Hulkamania. If it worked, it might mean that WWE have a fresh recent face of the corporate that they will marketplace for years to come back. Nevertheless, if it didn’t work, it might mean that WWE have put a giant dent of their biggest money cow, while also not having a sufficiently big star to hold the corporate forward.
At the tip of the day, the second final result was the one which got here true. Business declined rapidly with the Warrior as WWE’s top guy, resulting in the corporate ending his run as WWE Champion on the 1991 Royal Rumble to Sgt. Slaughter, who would then lose the title to Hogan at WrestleMania VII. With that said, fans had already began to grow bored with Hogan being within the most important event of each WWE show they watched, and since Warrior didn’t work out, the corporate needed someone completely different entirely. WWE would not find that person until the mid-90s when the likes of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels became most important event players, ushering in “The Latest Generation Era,” a time of low revenue and attendances, and an era that might have all been avoided had Hogan retained his title at WrestleMania VI.
