411 Ranks The WrestleManias: #19 – WrestleMania 6

Hulkamania ran wild at WrestleMania V as Hulk Hogan regained the WWF Title from Randy Savage. But during this time a new “warrior” was making himself known. The Ultimate Warrior was running wild as well over the WWF and it was only a matter of time before the men would come face to face. They did so in that year’s Royal Rumble match and the roof blew off the place as these two men stood toe to toe. The match was set, title for title, and only one man would reign supreme over the WWF…

* “The Model” Rick Martel defeated Koko B. Ware @ 5:29 via submission
* Demolition defeated the Colossal Connection to become the NEW WWF Tag Team Champions @ 9:16 via pin
* Earthquake defeated Hercules @ 4:55 via pin
* Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake defeated Mr. Perfect @ 7:53 via pin
* Roddy Piper vs. Bad News Brown went to a double count out @ 6:37
* The Hart Foundation defeated The Bolsheviks @ 0:20 via pin
* The Barbarian defeated Tito Santana @ 4:35 via pin
* Dusty Rhodes & Sapphire defeated The Macho King & Sensational Sherri @ 7:37 via pin
* The Orient Express defeated the Rockers @ 7:37 via Count out
* Hacksaw Kim Duggan defeated Dino Bravo @ 4:15 via pin
* Jake “The Snake” Roberts defeated “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase @ 11:45 via Countout
* The Big Bossman defeated Akeem @ 1:50 via pin
* Rick Rude defeated Jimmy Snuka @ 3:55 via pin
* The Ultimate Warrior © defeated Hulk Hogan © to become the NEW WWF World Heavyweight Champion @ 22:54 via pin

Scott Rutherford
The Best Thing on the Show And Why: Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior [****] If you just got into wrestling 10 years ago and I said way back in 1990 that WM6 would be a one match card and that one match would be between these two, I would have been laughed at. However, history shows that these two indeed put on a match for the ages and stole the show. I’m not going to get into the political fall-put from Warriors win because this match is truly a great match and deserves to be treated as such. Sometimes pre-planning is a good thing and rumor has it they got together a few times leading up to this and worked the match with Pat Patterson in attendance to make sure things went well. They did and I still enjoy watching this match to this day.

The Worst Thing on the Show And Why: Give me a second while I throw the dart at the rest of the card and see what it hits…Roddy Piper vs. Bad News Brown [-*****] My dart has good taste. I HATE THIS MATCH. It should have been decent but for god knows what reason Piper decided to paint half his body black and he’s lucky that the judo-trained Brown didn’t beat him to within an inch of his life. Terrible match. Horrible.

Show MVP And Why: Hulk Hogan. I don’t care what he did afterwards but in the ring on this night he did what was right for business and put The Ultimate Warrior over as strong as anyone could.

Your Thoughts on The Show: A lousy card that was boring and predictable but saved by the great main event. That match still holds up today and is certainly historic and worth everyone’s time to see how you can get two not so good wrestlers to work a really great match.

Kevin Pantoja
The Best Thing on the Show And Why: WWF Championship: Hulk Hogan (c) vs. The Ultimate Warrior [***1/2] – My biggest gripe with this show was that it seemed to be filler until the main event, but we’ll get to that later. The main event was the entire attraction on this card and it delivered. The Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan did not put on a technical masterpiece but that was obviously not to be expected. This was all spectacle and it was a damn good one. There was a big fight feel in the atmosphere because, with the exception of their face off during the Royal Rumble earlier that year, this was a fresh matchup. They played up how equal these two were, which was the way to go. In the end, having Ultimate Warrior go over was the right call as it made a new star. This match and the moment of Warrior winning is one of the more iconic images in WrestleMania history and for good reason.

The Worst Thing on the Show And Why: Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire vs. Macho King and Sensational Sherri [*] – Here I was thinking that the Macho Man would never have the worst match on a show, let alone WrestleMania. But this was not good at all. It sucks because Macho Man and Dusty Rhodes are two of the greatest of all-time. The best part about this, is that when Dusty and Sapphire are introduced at a combined 465 pounds, Jesse Ventura says only 200 of that is Dusty. Classic. The girls struggled for obvious reasons but even Dusty and Macho seem uninspired. It was just a wreck and felt like 15 minutes even though it only went about seven and a half.

Show MVP And Why: Ultimate Warrior – This was tough to choose. Nobody really had a standout performance despite there being a ton of matches. Haku was an option because he did all of the work in his match because Andre the Giant was incapable of moving pretty much. Mr. Perfect had potential here because he got a decent match out of Brutus Beefcake. After looking at it all, I had to go with the Ultimate Warrior. The man was given a shot to be the man and stepped up big time. He and Hulk Hogan went out and did what they do best, which was put on a spectacle of a show. Two guys played to their strengths and it made the match special as it had the “when worlds collide” vibe to it. A great performance and he is the only man to end the show as WWF and Intercontinental Champion simultaneously.

Your Thoughts on The Show: I said earlier that I would discuss my main gripe with the card, so here it goes. Yea the Ultimate Challenge highlighted the show, but that’s it. There weren’t any other real marquee matchups. Big names were kind of wasted. Macho Man and Dusty Rhodes were in a dreadful mixed tag, while Mr. Perfect’s undefeated streak came to an end at the hands of Brutus Beefcake. That wasn’t a typo. It really ended to him. Roddy Piper was memorable here, but for all the wrong reasons as he donned half black face for his match against Bad News Brown. The WWF Tag Team Title match disappointed because Andre the Giant couldn’t do much and the Million Dollar Title match looked good on paper (Jake Roberts vs. Ted Dibiase) but failed to deliver. The card was fourteen matches long but it all just seemed like it was there to fill the three plus hours before we got to Hogan/Warrior. This could have been better, but wasn’t a bad watch. It was just too focused on one key match.

Sean Garmer
The Best Thing on the Show And Why: Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior [*** ½* ] – This match certainly had its slow points, especially at the beginning with a test of strength that went on way too long. However, when it got going it was very good. You can tell Warrior was trying so hard to quicken the pace but Hogan just couldn’t do it. They played the story here well, as Warrior gave Hogan a taste of his medicine with his own version of “hulking up.” There were quite a few near falls and the bear hug would have looked more convincing if Hogan didn’t open his eyes every time he got squeezed. I think this is Hogan’s best WrestleMania main event out of his early appearances. Warrior certainly looked motivated but they did the best they could considering both of them have pretty much the same moveset except their finishers. I also found it very interesting that Hogan tried to work as a heel to get the fans to chant for Warrior but eventually he had to give it up because they just chanted for him more. This match may have had a few more obvious plodding moments than you like to see out of a main event, but considering the two people involved, this was quite good and certainly delivered as a main event.

The Worst Thing on the Show And Why: Earthquake vs. Hercules [DUD] – I’m sorry, I just don’t like Earthquake at all. I feel bad for Hercules because I think if they tried more with him he could have been something. Jobbing him out to Earthquake on a PPV just seems absolutely stupid to me and I don’t even see why this had to even be on the card.

Show MVP And Why: Hogan & Warrior – These two were the reason everybody was buying this PPV and why 68,000 were in that arena. They went out and delivered a very solid main event that never got the split fan reaction that I think they were trying to get, but it still accomplished its goal. I loved the classy ending with Hogan handing Warrior the belt and the raising of the hand. It didn’t feel as emotional as some other first time title wins have, but it was still another “WrestleMania Moment.”

Your Thoughts on The Show: The only match that mattered may have delivered, but the rest of the card was really piss poor. One match was surprisingly decent in Brutus vs. Mr. Perfect, mainly because Mr. Perfect was selling for Brutus like HBK did for Hogan years later at Summerslam. Jake Roberts vs. Ted Dibiase for the Million Dollar Belt was good as well, but the countout finish was stupid to me. I would have been happier if Virgil had distracted the ref and Dibiase hit him with the belt for the sneaky win. There were about five or six matches that were about the same quality as a regular match we see on RAW today. The mixed tag match was a terrible train wreck, where did they get Sapphire from? Why the hell was the Hart Foundation match even on this show if they were going to have it end in one minute? And the tag title match was really Haku getting beat down because Andre was in bad shape at this point. This is one of those WrestleMania that has a ton of filler that is just trying to get everybody to the main event and that’s basically it. The main event got almost all of that rating, with the other two matches I pointed out getting the other half a point.

What will #18 be? Come on back tomorrow to find out…

The List So Far…
30. WrestleMania 9
29. WrestleMania 2
28. WrestleMania 11
27. WrestleMania 4
26. WrestleMania 15
25. WrestleMania 27
24. WrestleMania 29
23. WrestleMania 25
22. WrestleMania 5
21. WrestleMania 13
20. WrestleMania
19. WrestleMania 6

REMINDER, each 411 writer had the opportunity to rank the WrestleMania events (based on overall quality, historical significance and personal preference), those rankings went into creating the final list.