10 Worst WWE Booking Decisions Of The '90s (Year-By-Year)
From the Brawl-For-All to King Mabel, the '90s were chockfull of regrettable decisions.
As wrestling fans, nothing gives us more joy than armchair booking. It’s just such a delight to sit at our computers and clack away at our keyboards about how a certain decision totally ruined WWE forever, and that if we were in charge, all the problems would be solved because all our favorites would win.
Seriously though, with much of wrestling, hindsight is 20/20, and that’s certainly true with WWE in the 1990s. Starting at the height of Hulkamania and ending knee-deep in Attitude, Vince’s sweaty den of muscled men fell through many pitfalls in their awkward transition from Hulk Hogan to Steve Austin.
From the wrong guys winning King of the Ring, to poorly-timed heel turns, to dream matches getting nixed, to bad champions, WWE made the ‘90s a lot harder for themselves with these decisions. Again, hindsight is 20/20, but going through the '90s year by year, it’s safe to say that if WWE had done many of these things differently, the following decade onward would have looked a lot different (and potentially better) for the company and wrestling as a whole.
10. 1990: Hulk Hogan Wins The Royal Rumble
As Bret Hart told, when the Ultimate Warrior won the WWF Championship at WrestleMania VI, Hulk Hogan told 'the Hitman' privately that Warrior was destined to fail, and that Vince McMahon would come back to the 'Hulkster' in good time. Sure enough, that proved to be the case, as Warrior wasn’t a great draw as champion, and thus, Vince soon put the tile back on Hogan. However, if the story about the 1990 Royal Rumble is to be believed, Hogan probably made Warrior’s lack of championship success a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Before the Royal Rumble was a one-way ticket to a title match at WrestleMania, it was just a match for bragging rights, but it was still an effective way of boosting a star's profile. According to James Dixon and Justin Henry’s Titan Screwed (coincidentally, available here), Mr. Perfect was originally scheduled to win the Royal Rumble match, thus making him a credible title challenger down the line. However, Hogan apparently nixed the plan, and changed the finish so that he would win the match. Warrior’s run as champion failed because he was lacking viable opponents to draw with, and it’s likely Perfect could have been a perfect main event heel for him if he had won the Rumble. Instead, that was sacrificed so Hogan could grandstand, hot-dog, and seemingly sabotage his rival’s career.