Ranking The Biggest Rivalries In Wrestling Every Year 1990-2020
The Art Of War.
It was during the infamous - and not unsuccessful - "Cure For The Common Show" state-of-the-union address by Vince McMahon where the Chairman dared to suggest that his show was no longer about "good guys" and "bad guys".
It was total b*llocks, of course.
In the months leading up to that very speech, Stone Cold Steve Austin had become the company's hottest hero since Hulk Hogan. After screwing Bret Hart a few weeks before at the Survivor Series, McMahon himself was 'The Rattlesnake's ready-made heel. You wouldn't know it, the way he spat the words out. This was about forcing through change, g*ddamn it.
Like the 1984 commencement of Hulkamania or 1994 New Generation roll-out that compared the 41-year-old 'Hulkster' to a collapsing biplane, this formal commencement of the Attitude Era was designed to signify that everything was going be different, pal. This despite the wrestling industry relying on the same familiar and financially fruitful tenets for its entire existence. Those heroes and villains he spoke so caustically about are what made him a millionaire once and what'd make him a billionaire again in the years that followed.
Wrestling's about stories, but for the ruse to work, the stories have to have conflict at their foundation. Everything from love, hate, friendship, betrayal to hat theft and shampoo commercials has to end in a fight. And these were the most epic of the lot...
31. 1990 - Hulk Hogan Vs The Ultimate Warrior
The bubble was about to burst for WWE, but few could have predicted just how steep the decline would be during the WrestleMania VI's main event.
An epic with all the bombast and pomp of the company's greatest moments of the 1980s, Hulk Hogan Vs The Ultimate Warrior felt like the biggest match in this and every other world. Bigger than that, in fact. This went beyond pro wrestling and Sports Entertainment and into psychotic theatre between two neon warlords.
A Vince McMahon voiceover kicks off the 'Show Of Shows' by presenting both men as individual constellations that dominate all of space and time. It was only just barely hyperbolic.