Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior In WCW Is One Of Their Weirdest Feuds Ever
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Hulk Hogan is the only wrestler in history who can claim to be the biggest star in the history of both WWE and WCW. Before he led the nWo in WCW, Hogan was the biggest reason that WWE was able to go national in the 1980s, as Hulkamania ran wild all over the country. He would dominate the main event picture in Vince McMahon's company for almost that entire decade.
By the time the 90s came around though, Hulkamania's popularity was naturally starting to fade away a bit and WWE was in search of the next guy. The man who appeared to be picked for this role was The Ultimate Warrior.
It was not hard to see why, as he was wildly popular amongst the younger audience for his high intensity style and energy, and seemed like a natural fit to replace Hogan as the top babyface in the company. Their feud in WWE was quite good and memorable. WCW would try to recreate it in the late 90s though, and it is safe to say that it fell flat on its face there.
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Hulk Hogan And The Ultimate Warrior Had An Epic Match At WrestleMania VI
Not all matches need to be technical masterpieces to be memorable, and this was proven by Hogan and Warrior at WrestleMania VI.
It was Winner Takes All with Warrior walking in as the Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion while Hogan was the WWE Champion. It was a passing of the torch moment, with Hogan finally tasting a clean defeat.
It was clear that the WWE had picked the Warrior to be his successor as the face of the company and the Hulkster did the job at the SkyDome. It was supposed to be a star-making moment for the Warrior, but instead, it turned out to be the peak of his career.
The Ultimate Warrior's Failure And WWE Exit
While the WWE might have tried to make the Warrior the next Hogan, it is safe to say that their attempt fell way short of the mark.
The WWE did get behind the Warrior as the top babyface in the company, but it did feel underwhelming after the high of WrestleMania VI, when it had truly felt like WWE had found their next Hogan.
He would ultimately go on to lose the WWE Championship to Sgt. Slaughter and never win it again. Any chance that he had of getting back the mountain top was ruined by behind the scenes disputes, and he left the company soon after. While he did return more than once later on, the magic was just never there again.
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WCW Made The Mistake Of Trying To Recreate The Ultimate Warrior's Feud With Hulk Hogan
In 1990, Warrior and Hogan might have been able to create magic together, but by 1998, it was safe to say that both were well past their primes. This is a feud that WCW should have never tried to recreate.
While it was a bad idea from the very beginning, it got much worse due to the booking of it. For some reason, The Warrior now had supernatural powers as he continued to haunt Hogan and the nWo.
The feud would culminate at Halloween Havoc in 1998, in what is considered by many as one of the worst matches in the history of wrestling. Even in their primes, neither Hogan nor Warrior were known for their abilities in the ring. The match itself was hard to watch. It was filled with botches and had a very underwhelming finish as well. Hogan got his win back from WrestleMania VI and the Warrior never wrestled at a major stage again.
Why The Warrior's Run In WCW Did Not Work
The biggest reason the Warrior did not work in WCW, or even as the guy in the WWE for that matter, was that he was never good in the ring. Vince McMahon did an incredible job of hiding his flaws and creating a main event player through sheer presentation, but his run at the top was always destined to be a short one.
His run in WCW came almost a decade after his peak in the WWE and by then, the little ability that the Warrior had in the ring was no longer there either. On top of that, they put him in a feud with Hogan that made little to no sense storyline-wise. It felt like the Warrior trying to play the character of the Undertaker.
Also, by that point of time, he was no nowhere near as popular as he had been in the late 80s and early 90s. All of this together was a recipe for failure and that is exactly what this feud turned out to be.
