The year is 1990. A new decade has emerged from the broken down shell of the end of the 1980s, Phil Collins is once again on top of the charts, and the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" have gone from lovable cartoon characters to dominating the global box office with their own feature-length movie. While the decade would look wildly different at the end of 1999 compared to the start of 1990, it was clear that this new decade would come equipped with brave new ideas, with some of them creating worldwide trends, and others being lost to time for better or for worse.
Wrestling was one of the industries that saw the most change across the 110-year span of the 1990s. If you looked at the World Wrestling Federation at the end of 1999 compared to what fans saw at the start of 1990, you would likely think it was a completely different company. The first big idea to shake up the status quo of the company came at the first WrestleMania of the 1990s, WrestleMania VI, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
While future WWE Champions like Edge and Christian were sitting in their capital's Skydome for the biggest wrestling event of the year, two men were getting ready to put on a match that would determine the true face of sports entertainment. In one corner, the WWE Champion Hulk Hogan. He was a man who had main evented four of the previous five WrestleMania's, and showed no signs of slowing down. In the other corner, is the WWE Intercontinental Champion, and potential future face of the company, 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 forever?
Up until WrestleMania VI, The Ultimate Warrior was used to having matches that only spanned a couple of 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 big splash, and a mark in the L column before they could even gather their bearings. Warrior was a ball of ferociousness that, in reality, could only ever be match by one person, or in this case a movement, and that was Hulkamania.
Hogan had won the 1990 Royal Rumble as the WWE Champion, and posed "The Ultimate Challenge" to the Warrior to see what was the strongest force in the company, Hulkamania or the power of the Warrior. It was a match that had a true big fight feel to it, evident by the fact that the fans in Toronto were going crazy as the bell rang, without the two men even doing anything.
After their stare down, they would have a 22 minute match that saw both men go back-and-forth, with the power of the Warrior and Hulkamania both being channelled through the two men in the ring, creating an electric atmosphere that few WWE Superstars have ever been able to recreate. In the end, it was The Ultimate Warrior who landed the big splash to pick up the win and become the ultimate champion in WWE, winning the WWE Championship to go along 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 that witnessed it live, and those who have watched it back, the same can't be said for the aftermath.
Despite The Ultimate Warrior having good memories of the match, even if himself and Hogan didn't necessarily see eye-to-eye on many things, the aftermath of Warrior's victory at WrestleMania VI can be best described as mediocre at best.
Hogan was still the biggest name in wrestling when it came to the west, but he needed time away from the ring to focus on his Hollywood career. This meant that WWE were put in the risky position of backing The Ultimate Warrior to be as big as Hogan, and the power of the warrior to be as big as Hulkamania. If it worked, it would mean that WWE have a fresh new face of the company that they can market for years to come. However, if it didn't work, it would mean that WWE have put a big dent in their biggest cash cow, while also not having a big enough star to carry the company forward.
At the end of the day, the second outcome was the one that came true. Business declined rapidly with the Warrior as WWE's top guy, leading to the company ending his run as WWE Champion at the 1991 Royal Rumble to Sgt. Slaughter, who would then lose the title to Hogan at WrestleMania VII. With that said, fans had already started to grow tired of Hogan being in the main event of every WWE show they watched, and since Warrior didn't work out, the company needed someone completely different entirely. WWE wouldn't find that person until the mid-90s when the likes of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels became main event players, ushering in "The New GenerationEra," a time of low revenue and attendances, and an era that could have all been avoided had Hogan retained his title at WrestleMania VI.
