The Ultimate Warrior was one of Vince McMahon's personal projects and on paper should have been a massive success. He had a colourful superhero look and memorable promos, backed up by swathes of fan baiting merchandise. After a memorable 1989, he was positioned to replace Hulk Hogan as WWF's franchise star. Far from envisioning Warrior to fail in that spot, some predicted that he'd carry the WWF to new levels of commercial success. But it wasn't to be. Warrior and Hogan had the iconic match at WrestleMania 6 in April 1990, which should have been the passing of the torch. But even in that moment, it was still obvious Hogan was the real star and wasn't ready to move aside. What compounded Warrior's surprising failure in the spot was the cyclical nature of the business. Nobody could follow Hogan's levels of success, there was also going to be an industry hangover from such highs. Warrior ended up being Champion in a period of declining ticket sales and lesser interest from the mainstream. Combined with his bad attitude and poor in-ring ability, many on the WWF roster couldn't wait to see him fail. Faced with no other choice as business continued to fall, McMahon had Warrior lose to Sgt Slaughter in January 1991. Hogan was then booked to beat Slaughter at WrestleMania, as WWF looked to get back to pre-Warrior business levels.
