The Complete History of the WWE Championship - Part 3

The Ultimate Warrior (April 1, 1990 - January 19, 1991)

The Ultimate Warrior: Lacked Hulk Hogan's box office magic

WrestleMania VI at the Toronto SkyDome played host to a rare babyface versus babyface encounter between WWE Champion Hulk Hogan and Intercontinental Champion The Ultimate Warrior.

The pair had squared off briefly in the 1990 Royal Rumble. Their exchanges completely overshadowed Hogan's interactions with Mr. Perfect, who had been promoted as Hogan's biggest threat to win that bout prior to the super-card.

Hogan had to drop the belt at WrestleMania, as he was due to film the movie, Suburban Commando, following the show. Instead of a transitional champion, Vince McMahon decided that Warrior should cleanly pin the man he was set to replace as WWE's number one star instead.

The result was a shock on the night. Hogan had not lost cleanly since he returned to WWE in December 1983.

It was meant to be a career moment for Warrior, but Hogan, fearing that Warrior could well supplant him as WWE's top earning star permanently, decided to steal the new champion's spotlight.

Hogan in his autobiography, Hollywood Hulk Hogan, was astonishingly candid when he described his behaviour following his title loss. Hogan said: "At the end of the night, the referee was supposed to get the belt from the timekeeper and give it to Ultimate Warrior. But this was my chance to steal back everything he had gotten from me... I zipped over to the timekeeper... I walked up on the ring apron with the belt, looked up to God, shook my head yes, walked into the ring and handed Ultimate Warrior the belt. As I left the arena, 68,000 people in the SkyDome watched me go. Ultimate Warrior held the belt over his head in victory and no one cared."

Indeed, Hogan had intentionally sabotaged Warrior's big moment.

Shockingly, WWE were to do Warrior no favors, either. The new champion was booked against Rick Rude, whom he had already feuded with for the majority of 1989, and Mr Perfect, who had failed to draw with golden goose, Hogan.

Warrior also failed to develop his in-ring skills or promo work during his reign and when his drawing power failed to meet expectations, the decision was made to relieve Warrior of the belt.

Hogan was set to return to the summit of WWE once more.

However, there would be a transitional reign between Warrior and the Hulkster. McMahon had hoped to book a re-match between Warrior and Hogan at WrestleMania VII, wherein Warrior would lose the strap. Warrior, however, refused to comply. Feeling (rightly) that he had been disrespected by Hogan at WrestleMania VI, Warrior would not agree to lose the WWE Championship to him.

Therefore, the most shocking WWE Champion of the 20th century was set to be crowned instead; a champion who would attract boatloads of negative headlines for the company.