The Best and Worst Moment of WrestleMania 6
WrestleMania 6 felt something like a victory lap for WWE. The success of Hulkamania and the national expansion had shored up WWE’s spot as the dominant wrestling promotion in the world, and here WWE was returning to a stadium setting for the first time in three years to tell its next chapter.
Whilst Hulk Hogan had been firmly planted as the face of the company and preeminent top star, at WrestleMania 6 he was passing the torch to The Ultimate Warrior.
While WrestleMania hadn’t yet become the stacked-card super show it would in the years to follow, it was nonetheless clearly the biggest of the year in 1990. This article takes a look back at the best and worst this event had to offer.
Best Moment: The Ultimate Warrior pins Hulk Hogan
In Hulk Hogan’s original run on top of WWE, one of the defining factors was that he never lost cleanly (and hardly lost at all) for over five years. There came a time, however, to both spread the wealth and pass the torch to have another star positioned on Hogan’s level, and potentially to replace him if his movie career took off.
The Ultimate Warrior’s physique, frenetic energy, and charisma won him a groundswell of support and he made reasonable sense as The Hulkster’s successor.
While it’s debatable how successful Warrior was in this role (and WWE did seem to reverse course in a year’s time), the moment of Warrior pinning Hogan after a masterfully plotted out and executed match stands the test of time as an all-time great WrestleMania moment.
Worst Moment: The Macho Man loses in mixed tag team action
WrestleMania 3 saw The Macho Man Randy Savage battle Ricky Steamboat in an all-time classic Intercontinental Championship match. WrestleMania 4 saw him wrestle and win a record four ‘Mania matches in a single night to be crowned WWE Champion.
WrestleMania 5 saw him give Hulk Hogan one of the best matches of his career as the duo blew off a year-long storyline in a heated main event match.
At WrestleMania 6, Savage hardly kept up his momentum, but rather saw his stock drop to working a mixed tag team match with Sensational Sherri against Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire.
While Rhodes was a wrestling icon, he hadn’t necessarily been established as one in the context of WWE where he wasn’t really treated as a main eventer. As such, this side attraction match felt like a huge step down for The Macho Man, and underuse of one of the best talents at WWE’s disposal.
Fortunately, he’d get back on track in the years to follow with his iconic blow-off match against The Ultimate Warrior, and then beating Ric Flair for his second world title.