10 Times WWE Failed To Replace Wrestlers
7. Ultimate Warrior (with Hulk Hogan)
In 1986, Vince McMahon was so wowed by Bret Hart's baggage-handling with Tom Magee that he was sure he'd seen his next star.
Never one with the most incredible instincts, McMahon saw Magee's mammoth frame and ability to do a moonsault before he took a closer look at 'The Hitman' doing absolutely everything in his immense power to obscure the newcomers insanely obvious limitations. It took another six years before the boss took a punt on the 'Excellence Of Execution', and even then it felt distinctly as though he'd explored almost every other option first.
The Ultimate Warrior - to everybody's credit - looked like far more than that when he was strapped up in 1990. A physique even more impressive than Hogan's along with a character that played more to yet another cultural shift that rewarded schizophrenic megalomania more than the kind the socially conscious 'Hulkster' preached, Warrior's lack of humanity appeared to hold a mirror up to much of America.
Then, he won the title, and WWE tried to manufacture it. Good matches were never part of the deal but the pairings weren't drawing at the box office either. A title loss to Sgt Slaughter at 1991's Royal Rumble revealed the reality - things were moving back to Hulkamania at WrestleMania VII.