[1990-04-01-WWF-Wrestlemania VI] Hulk Hogan vs Ultimate Warrior

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Historic match. Maybe I'm just down on the build, but I've always thought this was a solid match, and I just ... didn't think that this time. When you see what other people are doing during the same time period all over the world, it stands out less than it would have otherwise I guess. It is wisely laid out (well, sort of), which is more a credit to Pat Patterson than these two, who were competent but not really actively good.

 

I agree that Hogan used the post-match to build sympathy, but I don't really understand how they could have gone in a different direction. After all of that Clash of the Titans build, Hogan can't exactly just leave and let that be that. The hug is actually the best part of the match, and the image of Warrior celebrating in the ring with both belts while Hogan literally fades into the background before our eyes is a powerful one.

 

An effective match, but I wish I still enjoyed it as much as I did before.

[PeteF3]

Long drawn-out spots to try to beat the "50/50" drum over our heads, though the crowd seems pretty solidly behind Hogan, particularly when the Warrior goes after the knee injury. The knee spot was constructed as a deliberate shot at Sting, and Gorilla even mentions a possible dislocated patella which of course Hogan shrugs off. 50-50 is the story of the match and Patterson deserves credit for consistently laying it out as such, but...well, this is a bunch of comic book splash panels come to life. There is some certain appeal in that, but this is SO much looser and not all that well-executed compared to the other matches of the time period--long chinlocks and a bearhug that really kills the crowd. Warrior also pretty much blows up running the whole length to the ring and it really shows by the end of the match.

 

This didn't hold up as well for me either. Part of that is greater exposure to what else was going on in the country and in the world, and part of it is knowing now the extent that Warrior's title run was a failure and that the reset button wasn't all that far away.

[Childs]

This didn't strike me any differently that it ever has. It was a well-designed match that nonetheless highlighted some serious flaws in the guy who won. The wrestling itself was often poorly executed, but they hit most of the big-picture buttons they were supposed to hit.

 

I liked the result at the time because I never liked Hogan and was tired of seeing him go over on all the big shows. But looking back, it's indeed obvious that he was the guy you'd want on top long-term.

[soup23]

I love the analogy of comic book splash pages brought to life as that is exactly what this is. Even though this match had more eye rolling moments than I had remembered , mainly Hogan shrugging off the leg and Monsoon calling this match like ass, I still really like this match and think it was a best possible case scenerio situation for the match and timeframe of the performers. And dammit even though I have seen this match a 100 times, I still got some chills in the closing sequence and ending celebration.

[shoe]

A well laid out match. Set up to be an epic passing of the torch.

[Kevin Ridge]

I think this is near the end for Jesse as commentary. Crowd seems to be a bit more on Hogan's side. Total big match feel. Crowd is huge. Big strength challenges between the two early which the crowd eats up. Hogan gets clotheslined to the outside and gets his knee hurt. Knee looking fine though after a couple minutes. Jess name drops Richard Belzer when Hogan gets the front face lock on. Hebner sucks. He really hurts these matches on repeated viewings. His counts are just awful. Warrior hulks up and hits the repeated clotheslines. Hogan barely kicks out on a supllex. Bearhug is our first slow moment of match. Hogan outsmarts Warrior on the flying shoulderblock. Hebner is down though so no pinfall. Warrior gets his own false three count. Hebner actually makes a decent false three count. Press slam/splash but Hogan kicks out! Hulk up. Looks like the same old finish but Warrior avoids the leg drop and gets the pin off the splash. Really smart worked match between the two. Match still holds up well to me. Hogan presents the title to Warrior and passes the torch. Well, for a couple months anyways. Even Jesse shows some respect towards Hogan.

[Cox]

I think this is one of the best announced matches in the first 6 or so years of WWF PPVs. That's not saying much, but Ventura got off a lot of great lines (the Richard Belzer line, pointing out all of the times Hulk Hogan has benefit from ref bumps) and in general, I think not having to play heel worked to his advantage here.

 

I don't know that I have anything else to say about the match that hasn't been said a hundred times before. It's probably the best possible match these two could have had, and the way it was laid out, Clash of the Titans-style, to play to a big crowd, and a match that could play to the absolute back row of a stadium, is very impressive. Warrior deserves a lot of credit for getting Hogan up for the Gorilla Press, especially having worked a long match (no snarky comment about it being long for a Warrior match; this was legit a long match. I wouldn't call it anything close to one of the best matches of the year, but I think I'd safely call it good.

 

But thank God they didn't work the rematch at Wrestlemania VII as was planned. I would have had no desire to watch these guys cut promos on each other on the 1991 Yearbook after watching the build to this.

[Zenjo]

It had the feel and atmosphere of a great occasion as two superheroes collided. Going north of 20m wasn't ideal as they both had poor cardio. It was turgid at times during the rest hold segments. The ref bump, and indeed Hebner himself were horrible as usual. Yet it was always intriguing and quite well layed out as a 50/50 face vs face battle. The Warrior just edged it at the end. About as good a match as they could have realistically hoped for given their limitations. At the time it must have seemed like a changing of the guard moment. It was actually just the Warrior's high point.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Just watched this again, I just feel it has always been overhyped to me. I watched this back to back with the Slaughter match and I think the Slaughter match is much better, but does not get the same level of praise. It is a good tit for tat match where both guys shows they could do the same things to each other, which gets across the point how evenly matched they are. Even though in the fans' eyes, Hogan is clearly superior. I have always wondered what the point that knee injury was to serve because at first I always thought it was a dickish move by Hogan to increase his babyface heat at the expense of the new babyface, which is at least logical. If it is a shot at Sting that just strikes me as a stupid way to cut out Warrior's knees from under him (that was fully intended). The chinlocks and bearhugs were a little too much for me. The best part of this match was the finish. I thought that was really well executed and you really had the feeling that you had no idea who was going to win. Betting against Hogan, just never seems like a smart move. The Warrior Splash not getting the pinfall followed by the Hulk-Up was just perfect bait for the eventual missed leg drop followed by the Warrior Splash victory. I feel like Loss nailed it by saying that the parting scene is the best part of the match and it really feels like the start of a new era.

 

I feel that is what Vince is better than anyone else at achieving is iconic, timeless moments. The matches he produces/book don't always produce the greatest bell-to-bell results, but he always delivers on a powerful image that will resonate you forever. I think it is this ability to distill wrestling down to static, iconic images is the reason he is one of the greatest promoters of all time. Hogan/Warrior is more about the image after than it is about the match.

[Rock_Of_Jericho]

Probably has been overhyped over the years, but it's still one of my sentimental favorites and still not a bad match in of itself. Pat Patterson deserves tons of credit, because I think without him, this might have crashed and burned, but as it happened, I still think it did what it set out to do, despite Warrior not working out in the long run.

[flyonthewall2983]

I like how Jesse shifted to being neutral (even going as far to say that "Hulkamania will live forever", which is pretty uncharacteristic otherwise). I liked him better in WCW for this reason. He seemed more left-of-center than totally heel, which worked well with what WCW was doing.

[Mr. Lacelle]

Just watched this again, I just feel it has always been overhyped to me. I watched this back to back with the Slaughter match and I think teh SLaughter match is much better, but does not get the same level of praise. It is a good tit for tat match where both guys shows they could do the same things to each other, whoch gets across the point how evenly matched they are. Even though in the fans' eyes, Hogan is clearly superior. I have always wondered what the point that knee injury was to serve because at first I always thought it was a dickish move by Hogan to increase his babyface heat at the expense of teh new babyface, which is at least logical. If it is a shot at Sting that just strikes me as a stupid way to cut out Warrior's knees from under him (that was fully intended). The chinlocks and bearhugs were a little too much for me. The best part of this match was the finish. I thought that was really well executed and you really had the feeling that you had no idea who was going to win. Betting against Hogan, just never seems like a smart move. The Warrior Splash not getting the pinfall followed by the Hulk-Up was just perfect bait for the eventual missed leg drop followed by the Warrior Splash victory. I feel like Loss nailed it by saying that the parting scene is the best partt of the match and it really feels like the start of a new era.

 

I feel that is what Vince is better than anyone else at acheiving is iconic, timeless moments. The matches he produces/book don't always produce the greatest bell-to-bell results, but he always delivers on a powerful image that will resonate you forever. I think it is this ability to distill wrestling down to static, iconic images is the reason he is one of the greatest promoters of all time. Hogan/Warrior is more about the image after than it is about the match.

 

The main reason why the Slaughter match doesn't get much love is that the outcome is never in doubt. I don't think there was a fan in the world who bought Slaughter retaining. Part of the appeal of wrestling matches is buying near falls and possible outcomes. This is why most Hogan matches suffer in my eyes, you know he's gonna win so there's no suspense. When pitted against another super face, there is some doubt and thus you're able to get into the match a little more.

[TravJ1979]

Warrior winning this match is one of the best, most enduring memories of my childhood. My memory as a fifth grader was that this was a much longer, epic match, but watching it as an adult it was rather short. I guess now I knew the outcome and was watching it with a more critical eye. Still a great memory.

[Zero]

I agree with whoever said this was like a comic book. I felt like I was watching two superhero's battle it out. Not the most technical or good match, but a great story.

[garretta]

There's not a whole lot left for me to say that hasn't already been said. The two real MVPs of the match never stepped into the ring: Pat Patterson (for laying the match out so both guys could look good) and Jesse Ventura (for his best commentary job ever). Gino was hurt a bit here because he couldn't be outraged at the antics of the heels; of course, there were no heels. The only semi-snarky line of the match was Jesse's crack about Richard Belzer and the front facelock. He even correctly pointed out that Warrior blew himself up running to the ring, while Hogan took his time entering. I also like that he said that Hulkamania will live forever; I'm pretty sure this is the last Hogan match he ever called, so it was nice to hear him give Hogan some props on the way out.

 

I didn't know that the whole knee injury spot from Hogan was a shot at Sting. I would ask why Vince felt the need to have that done during the second-biggest bout in his own promotion's history, but this is Vince we're talking about, so that answers my question. I wish that we could have gotten some actual work on the knee from Warrior, but it would have taken away from the "Clash of the Titans" feel to have one of the titans injured, and I'm not sure Warrior knew how to work a body part anyway. We get a false count for each guy to set up a possible rematch. and the historic close: Warrior celebrating with both the belts and his public while Hogan takes the long, cruel ride back to the locker room. I like how they teased a Hogan heel turn for half a second or so before the big hug and belt presentation.

 

Finally. that was Earl Hebner as the referee, right? I think I read that Dave went to the office once Earl showed up as a ref.

 

My number two WWF Match of the Month for April, and also for WWF Match of the Year (Hogan/Hansen beats it out for both honors.)

[thebrainfollower]

Sadly it was not. He called the Hogan-Perfect SNME match. Pretty sure THAT was the last Hogan match he ever called.

[drew wardlaw]

I had never seen this match before last night. I've got no emotional to the match or to either guy really, and I still thought this was pretty good. A comic book come to life is the perfect analogy, with the two guys really seeming like they are bigger than the mountain range they tower over on the event poster. I really liked that they redid some of the spots from their Royal Rumble encounter and the finish was great. Great moment when warrior gets Hogan up the first time for the gorilla press. He's really straining and you can see it in his eyes. I mean, this isn't a match made for someone in their 30s with no nostalgia like me, and I may never watch it again, but they made an impressive spectacle here. Bummed we don't get anymore Hogan/Warrior promo duels.

[dawho5]

I agree with the comic book come to life as well. Too long on some of the spots but I get what they were after. Good enough for being a Hogan/Warrior match.

[cactus]

While this isn't as great as I thought it was when I used to wear out my VHS of this show as a kid, this is still a wonderfully, colourful main event with one of the most electric atmosphere ever. They have them eating out of their hands. Warrior brings the intensity and Hogan sorts out the rest, including laying out the match spot-by-spot. Despite all this, there is way too much downtime as they spent literal minutes down on the mat. I dug all the long stare down and test of strength spots, but I found myself skipping forward ahead whenever they would both collapse to the mat. Warrior wins after kicking out of the leg drop and Hogan finds a way to make it all about himself during the aftermath. 

★★★¼