WrestleMania VI (1990): Warrior Beats Hogan; Almost Everything Else Is Waiting for It

Martel and Koko get the unenviable assignment of opening a stadium WrestleMania whose audience is already waiting for two superheroes to collide three hours later. They respond with a clean, compact match that does not overstay its welcome. Koko provides the early movement with dropkicks and a crossbody, while Martel slows him down by attacking the back and repeatedly forcing him to restart.

The finish is appropriately decisive: Martel catches the opening he needs and submits Koko with the Boston Crab, branded here as the Quebec Crab. Meltzer's reproduced rating is two stars, and Cagematch's matchguide sits in the low fours, which is fair evidence of a competent opener rather than a hidden classic. The match earns C-plus from WrestleFile because it has a clear structure, a clean finish and useful pace. At WrestleMania VI, clearing those three bars already places a match above a surprising amount of the card.

The wrestling is only half the segment. Andre the Giant can contribute very little physically by this point, so Haku works most of the match while Demolition create enough movement to keep the champions in danger. The key moment comes when Haku accidentally strikes Andre, opening the path for Demolition to finish Haku and regain the Tag Team Championship. Meltzer's reproduced rating is only two stars and the Cagematch matchguide is similarly modest, which accurately reflects the in-ring ceiling.

Then Bobby Heenan turns the segment into something much better. He blames Andre for the loss, berates him and finally slaps him. Andre grabs Heenan, knocks him away and dispatches Haku when Haku tries to intervene. The Toronto crowd erupts for Andre's rejection of the Family. WrestleFile grades the complete PPV segment at B / 7.6 because the title change and character payoff matter more than pretending Andre could still work a conventional tag match.

This is less a competitive match than an Earthquake progress report. Hercules attacks quickly and gets just enough offense to establish that he is not volunteering for the role of local enhancement talent, but the match's real purpose is to show that the enormous heel can absorb power offense and keep moving forward. Earthquake takes control, uses his weight and finishes with the Earthquake Splash in under five minutes. The reproduced Observer rating is one star, and the short runtime keeps the match from developing much beyond its basic premise. Still, the booking is useful in retrospect because Earthquake is being positioned for the Hogan program that will dominate the next portion of 1990. WrestleFile lands at C- / 5.6 because the match succeeds as a monster showcase and gets out quickly. There is very little to revisit unless following Earthquake chronologically.

Perfect does most of the work required to make this feel larger than its eight-minute runtime. He bumps extravagantly, gives Beefcake's basic offense maximum visual impact and keeps the pace moving enough that the match feels like a genuine midcard attraction. Beefcake catches the decisive opening by sending Perfect into the ring post and scores the pin, which WWF presents as the end of Perfect's undefeated run. Historical results complicate that marketing claim because Perfect had been pinned in other WWF footage before WrestleMania, but the national television story still treats this as the breakthrough loss. Meltzer gives it 2.75 stars in the reproduced ratings, one of the stronger undercard numbers on the show. The match loses points because the finish does more for Beefcake than the promotion ultimately gets to use after his summer injury. As a standalone match, though, it is crisp, energetic and mostly successful.

It is impossible to evaluate this segment as though the presentation were incidental. Piper appears with half of his body painted black for a feud with Bad News Brown, an African American wrestler, creating racial imagery that overwhelms whatever ordinary brawl the two men might otherwise have produced. The match itself is a short fight built around punches, ringside chaos and a double-countout finish that protects both men without resolving much of anything.

Meltzer's reproduced rating is 1.75 stars, while later Cagematch reviews frequently identify the segment as one of the event's lowest points. The larger historical record matters even more: the match was removed from Peacock's U.S. presentation of WrestleMania VI during WWE's archival migration in 2021. WrestleFile gives it F / 3.5 because the wrestling is poor, the finish is unsatisfying and the racial presentation makes the original segment substantially worse than a merely forgettable six-minute brawl.

Nineteen seconds is barely enough time to call this a match, but it is enough time to tell the story WWF wants. The Bolsheviks begin their routine, the Hart Foundation attacks, Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart hit the Hart Attack and the match is over before anybody in SkyDome has time to find the concession stand on the stadium map. Meltzer's reproduced rating is a quarter-star, which is almost beside the point because there is no real attempt to construct a competitive tag match.

As a squash, it is effective: the Hart Foundation look fast, coordinated and dangerous, and the audience gets an immediate burst of energy. As WrestleMania content, it is another example of the card's roster-inventory approach, where appearing on the show sometimes matters more than having a WrestleMania-level match. WrestleFile lands at D+ / 5.0 because it accomplishes its tiny job cleanly without offering enough substance to grade much higher.

Tito Santana is once again asked to make somebody else's WrestleMania momentum look convincing, and he remains very good at the assignment. He supplies quick movement, clean selling and enough babyface offense to keep Barbarian from feeling like a pure squash-machine opponent. Barbarian's strength offense is simple and the match ends with the flying clothesline in under five minutes, giving Bobby Heenan a small recovery after Andre's defection earlier in the show.

The reproduced Observer rating is only three-quarters of a star, and Cagematch does not treat it as a notable match. There is nothing mechanically disastrous here; there simply is not enough time or narrative importance for the match to become more than a competent television bout dropped onto WrestleMania. WrestleFile gives it C- / 5.7 because Santana keeps it moving and Barbarian looks credible, but neither the result nor the action creates a lasting reason to revisit it.

As wrestling, this is a compromised use of Randy Savage. As crowd theater, it works much better. Savage and Sherri provide nearly all of the technical reliability, Dusty Rhodes supplies charisma and punches, and Sapphire is protected through a match structured around personality rather than sustained exchanges. The major reaction comes when Miss Elizabeth becomes involved, giving the audience a familiar emotional connection to Savage and Sherri's act.

John Canton rates the match two stars while praising the fun and the crowd response; Meltzer's reproduced rating is 1.5 stars. That gap between mechanics and atmosphere defines the match. A straight Savage-Rhodes singles match almost certainly had a higher wrestling ceiling, but WWF is committed to the mixed-tag spectacle and the audience enjoys it. WrestleFile lands at C / 6.4 because the segment is entertaining in the building even though the actual wrestling is substantially less interesting than the names suggest.

For several minutes, this looks like the undercard match WrestleMania VI desperately needs. The Rockers increase the pace immediately with tandem offense, dives and quick tags, while Sato and Tanaka are athletic enough to meet them without forcing the match into a formulaic heat segment. Shawn Michaels' sequences already show the timing and explosiveness that will later define his singles career, and Marty Jannetty takes an enormous bump over the barricade during the finish. Then Mr. Fuji interferes, salt gets involved and Jannetty is counted out. The reproduced Observer rating is three stars; John Canton gives it 2.75 and specifically notes that the finish damages an otherwise exciting match. WrestleFile agrees. The work is comfortably among the best on the undercard, but another WrestleMania countout prevents the match from receiving the decisive ending its pace had earned.

This is four minutes of two established acts colliding without much reason for the viewer to care who proves superior. Duggan brings the crowd participation, Bravo brings power offense, Jimmy Hart and Earthquake provide ringside context, and the match quickly becomes another exercise in setting up the next angle rather than creating anything memorable on its own. The reproduced Observer rating is 1.5 stars, while John Canton calls it the worst match on the card and is especially amused by Duggan encouraging a USA chant in Toronto. The finish gives Duggan the pin after using the 2x4, which is at least decisive in the record even if the route is hardly inspiring. WrestleFile stays at D- / 4.4 because there is no extended collapse, botch-fest or offensive presentation problem. It is simply low-value WrestleMania wrestling: short, noisy, immediately disposable and mostly useful as connective tissue for Earthquake.

Jake Roberts enters with one of the best promos on the show and then wrestles a match built less around move volume than around whether he can finally trap DiBiase for the DDT. DiBiase is excellent at controlling pace and escaping danger, Roberts sells the chase, and Virgil's presence gives every ringside sequence an obvious secondary threat. The problem is the finish. Roberts pauses after setting up the DDT, Virgil pulls him outside, DiBiase attacks and beats the count back into the ring.

Meltzer's reproduced rating is 2.5 stars, and Scott Keith lands in the same territory while praising the commentary and feud logic more than the ending. WrestleFile gives it B / 7.7 because the atmosphere and character work are strong enough to make eleven-plus minutes worthwhile. It cannot go higher because WrestleMania once again spends a real feud on a countout when a more satisfying finish was available.

This is a feud payoff compressed until it becomes almost an angle. Ted DiBiase attacks Big Boss Man before the match, giving former Twin Towers partner Akeem an immediate advantage. Akeem gets his brief offense, Boss Man recovers, and the Boss Man Slam ends the match in under two minutes. The reproduced Observer rating is actually minus-half a star, while Scott Keith is somewhat kinder because the segment at least advances Boss Man's new babyface direction. WrestleFile does not see enough wrestling here to justify an F-level match grade. The story is understandable, the crowd wants Boss Man to fight back, and the finish provides the clean victory the feud requires. But a former tag-team breakup match receiving less than two minutes at WrestleMania is another sign that the card has too many obligations and not enough time to make them matter.

Rude versus Snuka exists primarily to move Rick Rude back toward the top of the card. Snuka attacks with familiar headbutts and bursts of offense, Rude survives, and the match ends with the Rude Awakening in under four minutes. The reproduced Observer rating is 1.75 stars, while Scott Keith gives it one star and notes that Rude's presentation is already shifting away from the broader comedy-heel version seen earlier in his WWF run. That future context is the most interesting thing about the match. Rude will soon challenge Ultimate Warrior for the WWF Championship, so a clean WrestleMania win serves an obvious booking purpose. Snuka is credible enough that the victory means something, but the runtime prevents the bout from becoming a meaningful test. WrestleFile lands at C- / 5.6: efficient, clean, historically useful for Rude's trajectory and almost completely unnecessary as a replay.

Hogan and Warrior do not need to wrestle like Steamboat and Savage because the entire point is that they are not Steamboat and Savage. They are attractions, and the match is structured as a series of arguments about power. Warrior wins one lockup. Hogan wins another. They trade slams. Hogan's apparent knee injury gives Warrior a target before the match returns to even footing. A referee bump creates visual falls for both men without cheapening the eventual result. Warrior hits the press-and-splash combination for two, Hogan begins the comeback audiences have watched for years, and then the sacred sequence breaks: the leg drop misses. Warrior splashes Hogan again and pins him cleanly.

John Canton and the reproduced Observer ratings both land at 3.75 stars; Scott Keith gives it 3.5 but calls it one of his personal favorites and praises the drama. WrestleFile goes much higher on the 10-point scale because the match fully accomplishes its purpose. The crowd is extraordinary, the winner is historic, the structure protects both personalities without protecting Hogan from the result, and the post-match title handoff completes the transfer. It is not flawless technical wrestling. It is elite professional-wrestling event construction.