WWF Wrestlemania VI

 

 

 

WWF Wrestlemania VI

Venue: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Date: 1/4/90

Attendance: 67,678

Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon & Jesse Ventura

"Upon the examination of the galaxies of space, images begin to appear… Images of strange and powerful forces… But of all the forces in the universe, the two most powerful; Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior prepare to explode... Champion versus champion... Title for title... IT'S THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE!! IT'S WRESTLEMANIA!!"

You've got to love Vince McMahon's intros for the old pay-per-view events. That one was my personal favourite. As was the case with Wrestlemania V the original video release of this event saw virtually every match edited down to fit on a three hour tape, the exception being the main event. Fortunately I'll be reviewing the full version which can either be found on the Wrestlemania Anthology DVD series or the WWE Network. The only down side with the full version is that some of the entrance music has been dubbed over to save on paying royalties. Sadly they include the theme music for Dusty Rhodes, Demolition and Slick. On another note, this was Jesse Ventura’s final WWF pay-per-view as colour commentator.

Review
Rick Martel and Koko B Ware kicked things off with a short, passable contest. Martel won by submission with a Boston Crab... Demolition regained the tag team title from The Colossal Connection in a okay bout, which would be Andre The Giant's last due to his failing health. For this reason Haku fought almost the entire match by himself, although Andre did get one last hurrah as he turned on Haku and manager Bobby Heenan after the bout. Demolition were massively over and the result brought the house down...

Andre The Giant has finally had enough of Bobby Heenan

Earthquake scored a fairly straightforward win over Hercules as his big push continued. As had
become customary, Quake gave Hercules an "Aftershock" following the bout to further force home his dominance. The match was about as basic as it gets... Mr Perfect finally lost his 'Perfect Record' as he fell to Brutus Beefcake by pin fall in an average match. Perfect did at least avoid getting a haircut from "The Barber", The Genius was not so lucky... Rowdy Roddy Piper and Bad News Brown fought to a double count out in a so-so brawl. Piper and Brown fought all the way back to the locker room just as they did at the Royal Rumble...

Macho King Randy Savage with Sensational Queen Sherri

The Hart Foundation crushed The Bolsheviks in 19 seconds after back jumping them during Nikolai Volkoff's singing of the Russian national anthem. This didn't do a lot for the Harts who were soon to be in line for a tag team title shot. The nature of their victory made you feel bad for the heels, which is not the idea of course... Tito Santana put over The Barbarian in a dull encounter. On the plus side, Barbarian's top rope clothesline finisher looked awesome thanks to a great sell by the reliable Santana... In one of the feature matches of the under card, Macho King Randy Savage teamed with Sensational Queen Sherri to battle Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire in a mildly entertaining mixed tag team bout. Elizabeth made her return in the corner of Rhodes and Sapphire and was instrumental in their victory as Sapphire pinned Sherri with a roll up. As was evident here Sapphire clearly did not belong in the ring...

The Rockers prior to their bout with The Orient Express

The Rockers and The Orient Express contested a decent enough match up that was still some way below what they were actually capable of producing. The Express took the win via a disappointing count out... Hacksaw Jim Duggan scored a popular win over Dino Bravo in a poor match up after nailing Bravo with his 2x4. Duggan was made to pay for this though as Earthquake crushed him in the aftermath... Another big feature match on the card was the battle between "Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase and Jake "The Snake" Roberts for the Million Dollar belt. While perfectly acceptable, the match fell well short of the red hot grudge match many were expecting. Dibiase triumphed by count out following the same ring post spot they used at the Royal Rumble. Roberts DDT'd Dibiase after the bout and gave away some of his money to the crowd but even that couldn't mask the anticlimax here...

Jimmy Snuka leapfrogs Ravishing Rick Rude

The Big Boss Man easily beat his former tag team partner Akeem in less than two minutes despite being attacked by Ted Dibiase right before the bout. Now that's what you call a burial; Akeem was finished after this... Ravishing Rick Rude cleanly defeated "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka by pin fall after a Rude Awakening in match not unlike the opening bout. Rude was being prepared for a run in the main events over the summer...

Hulk Hogan applies a rear chinlock on The Ultimate Warrior

The match that everybody came to see was of course Hulk Hogan versus The Ultimate Warrior in a super main event with both the WWF World Heavyweight and WWF Intercontinental Titles on the line. This was the first time a main event of this magnitude would be contested by the two top babyfaces in the company but as greatly anticipated as it was, not much was expected in terms of match quality. Hogan was capable of having good matches with the right opponents but Warrior's limitations meant he usually had short matches unless he was in the ring with a super worker like Rick Rude or Randy Savage. This meant Hogan was in the unfamiliar role of carrying the match (usually the heels job) and building for his opponent’s comebacks but to the surprise of many Hogan performed the role admirably on the night. Warrior also played his part well in what was a great rollercoaster ride of a match in which you really could not tell who was going to win. As it turned out Warrior went over in what was Hogan's only clean loss of his famous second run in the WWF which was supposed to usher in a new era with the Ultimate Warrior as the top star in the company. The atmosphere was really special as the crowd was red hot throughout the match and it appeared to be a perfect 50/50 split. It's also worth noting there was no booing from either section of the support, something that just would not happen these days. The match is still very fondly remembered today as one of the great Wrestlemania main events.

Hogan presents the WWF Heavyweight Title to the Warrior

Overall

Wrestlemania VI as a whole was a letdown as everything aside from Hogan/Warrior was bang average, or worse in some cases. The setting of Sky Dome however was fantastic, a massive step up from the previous two years at Trump Plaza. The stars really aligned for the main event which was booked and executed to perfection avoiding hurting either man as Warrior got the accolades in victory and Hogan got sympathy in defeat. It was arguably Hogan's best performance of his 1983-93 WWF run and only Randy Savage would get a better match out of the Ultimate Warrior in his entire career. The even split in the crowd reactions and constant cheering was a huge bonus as it's always a risk that someone will receive boos in an all-babyface clash. The match was a massive success and saved what was otherwise a very much below par Wrestlemania. Wrestlemania VI drew 550,000 buys on pay-per-view.

Results
1 Rick Martel def Koko B Ware by submission (3:51) *3/4

2 Demolition def The Colossal Connection (c) by pinfall to win the WWF Tag Team Title (9:30) **

3 Earthquake pinned Hercules (4:52) 3/4

4 Brutus Beefcake pinned Mr Perfect (7:48) **1/4

5 Rowdy Roddy Piper and Bad News Brown fought to a double count out (6:48) **

6 The Hart Foundation def The Bolsheviks by pinfall (0:19) SQ

7 The Barbarian pinned Tito Santana (4:33) *1/2

8 Dusty Rhodes & Sapphire def Randy Savage & Sensational Sherri by pinfall (7:31) **

9 The Orient Express def The Rockers by count out (7:38) **1/2

10 Hacksaw Jim Duggan pinned Dino Bravo (4:15) *

11 Ted Dibiase def Jake Roberts by count out (11:50) **1/2

12 The Big Boss Man pinned Akeem (1:49) 1/2

13 Ravishing Rick Rude pinned Jimmy Snuka (3:59) *3/4

14 WWF Intercontinental Champion the Ultimate Warrior (c) pinned Hulk Hogan (c) to win the WWF Heavyweight Title (22:51) ****

Rating

24.5/70 = 35%

Star Rating Guide

*****   Excellent/World Class

****     Very Good

***        Good

**           OK/Acceptable

*             Poor

DUD       Abysmal

SQ          Squash (Less than 1 min)