One Moment WWE Wants You To Forget From Every Year (1985 to 2026)
37. 1990 - Going, Going...
In 1990, Vince McMahon was forced to take a gamble he'd been pondering for a while. Always obsessed with what could be the next thing long before he realised it was best to be slightly behind the curve than all the way in front of it, he was once so fooled by the brilliance of Bret Hart's work that he had Tom Magee pegged as the next Hulk Hogan even before the last one was in need of replacing.
That was 1986, but four years later and following a genuine financial peak at WrestleMania V, McMahon had every reason to think that the public were tiring of Hulkamania. Luckily, the replacement had been in the midst for a while, and it felt like once again the Chairman was right on the pulse in terms of audience desires. The Ultimate Warrior had been an enormously popular attraction since his 1987 debut, going on to hold the Intercontinental Title twice for the majority of 1988 and 1989, and heading into WrestleMania VI, an "Ultimate Challenge" win over Hogan looked like the perfect way to anoint him.
The public, rather surprisingly, disagreed. The Toronto show drew an enormous house, but at 550,000 buys, was over 200,000 down from the Mega Powers explosion one year earlier. The trend carried through to SummerSlam. 1989's Hogan/Savage rematch featuring respective partners Brutus Beefcake and Zeus pulled the August event to 625,000 buys, but Warrior and Rick Rude on top of the SummerSlam '90 the following year scraped just over 500,000.
The numbers didn't lie, and they spelled disaster for the Ultimate Warrior at the 1991 Royal Rumble. But the supposed solution just resulted in more problems for the market leader...