Warrior certainly had the fans on his side when he bulldozed The Honky Tonk Man to become Intercontinental Champion in 1988, and throughout his first reign as champion. All he was missing was proof that he could have a good, well-structured match of considerable length. His first year and a half in WWE had only shown his capacity for executing a brief, flurried match of routine. When Warrior dropped the gold to Rick Rude, the two worked in concert to produce a well-worked, seesaw battle in just ten minutes. Warrior regained the belt in August at SummerSlam in an even better match. The two matches were just the double-stamp that WWE needed to approve Warrior for the main event of WrestleMania 6, where he would fell Hulk Hogan in a title-for-title classic.