Ultimate Warrior Post WM6 With Both Belts

[bioshock]

Looking back on the Ultimate Warrior's title for title win at WrestleMania 6 it was a no brainer to have the IC title dropped in favor of the tournament, I think it was handled decently for the time.

But how would you of rather seen it booked onward from WrestleMania 6?

- Should WWF at the time had a couple of matches with the Warrior defending both belts, like Y2J and Kurt Angle would do in similar roles over 10 years later between WrestleMania 16 and 18.

- Or should they have tried Warrior at defending each belt in different matches on the same show, per say only on SNME's and Summer Slam & Royal Rumble (when he finally lost the WWF title).

Take into account leading up to his win over Hogan; some of the Warriors IC title matches were very short, outside of the good matches against Rude & Savage.

Here is my take:

I don't think a Summer Slam 1990 card with Warrior defending the IC belt against Mr. Perfect and losing the match and title via cheating to Perfect, in a short match while still making Warrior look impressive, and then the WWF title defense against Rude later in the night would of been out of the question. If anything it would of built on the legend WWF was trying to turn the Warrior into after the "passing of the torch" from Hogan. Again looking at it from a 1990 point of view, not what happened in the years later (how Warrior never did become the guy).

Doing that would of been the better way to put Perfect over, plus him getting a title match against Warrior on PPV would of been huge for him.

For the lead up to Summer Slam 90' Warrior could of easily defended both belts against the likes of Dino Bravo and Ted Dibiase.

 

[wrestler36]

It was fine the way it was done with the WWF, with Warrior vacating the IC title. As the world champion, you are the best. Why would the best be defending a title that would be considered less than the best? It wouldn't make any sense at all. If he had the IC belt and a tag belt, that would be a different story. But as the world champion, that is THE prestigious title, so there would be no reason to be defending anything less than that.

 

[thebarber]

Warrior was blowing up in his matches, hell he was buggered alot of the time he got to the ring for his match, There is no wway he could wrestle two physically exhausting matches in one night, if he was defending both belts, the IC Title would be defenmded against a technician who could more than l;ikely go and would have show Warrior up for his in-ring weaknesses. No way Warrior defends both belts.

 

[Honkey_Kong]

Warrior was blowing up in his matches, hell he was buggered alot of the time he got to the ring for his match, There is no wway he could wrestle two physically exhausting matches in one night, if he was defending both belts, the IC Title would be defenmded against a technician who could more than l;ikely go and would have show Warrior up for his in-ring weaknesses. No way Warrior defends both belts.

Except a good ring-technician in pro wrestling can make a wrestler with limited in-ring ability look good. Don't believe it? Look at when Warrior faced Rude or Savage. He looked great against both guys. And somebody as well conditioned as Warrior would've had enough gas to go for both matches.

 

[Goldie]

I am happy with the way it went.... as Curt Henning was an excellent IC champion.
Warrior wouldn't have worked all the bookings required to defend both titles... and in those days, the IC title still meant something, and was a big enough trophy to headline house shows.

 

[Mark0820]

Except a good ring-technician in pro wrestling can make a wrestler with limited in-ring ability look good. Don't believe it? Look at when Warrior faced Rude or Savage. He looked great against both guys. And somebody as well conditioned as Warrior would've had enough gas to go for both matches.

Warrior had the muscles, but he never seemed to have the cardio to do two matches a night. Plus, him defending both belts would have devalued both. If he lost as IC champ, the person would have a legitimate claim to being the #1 contender for the world title. On top of that, he was sloppy when he wasn't tired from one match. What do you think would happen if he had to work a second?

 

[RicSpade]

I don't think it was his Cardio to be honest, when you full sprint to the ring your going to gas easily. When Warrior took on Savage at WM8 he didn't run, that match lasted what 30 minutes? and was probably Warriors best match, or how about Warrior/Hogan at WM6 Warrior and Hogan had a strength paced match, and with what breaks they had in between he was fine. The type of match makes the wrestler look good, remember when Zack Ryder fought Christian for the ECW title he was gassed not being used so much, but looked fantastic because of how Christian worked with him.

Now in regards to the IC title situation, I don't think having him defend both titles would have been wise only because when you hold both titles one would have to give, and cheating aside I would hate to think Warrior lost the title based on a technicality like cheating, but having him lose cleanly makes him look like a weak WWF champion.

The only thing I could have seen would've been a IC title battle royale with Warrior dropping the title for it, just to have someone pick it up, to me that sounds better than a tournament did. Just because you have the unpredictablity of anyone can win, where a tournament looks more like you know who would win IMO.

 

[oogieboogie]

When Warrior took on Savage at WM8 he didn't run, that match lasted what 30 minutes?

I think you meant WM7, right?

I have a question about this situation. How did WWF actually announce that the Intercontinental title would be awarded to the winner of a tourney? Did they announce it straight after WM6? Is it something which was announced on WWF Superstars? Prime Time?

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

I think you meant WM7, right?

I have a question about this situation. How did WWF actually announce that the Intercontinental title would be awarded to the winner of a tourney? Did they announce it straight after WM6? Is it something which was announced on WWF Superstars? Prime Time?

I remember it being announced on Superstars right after WrestleMania was finished. Tunney made an announcement that the IC title was vacated and would be part of a tournament, with each match being held on Superstars over the next few weeks.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

If you've read the current thread about Mania 4 - you'll know that I'd have already done a title v title match at Summerslam 88 with IC champ Savage (won from Honky during the tourney) beating DiBiase.

Had things been done that way, Warrior winning the IC may have taken longer.

As to reality, Warrior was not interested in putting ANYONE over once he had the nod for the main event at 6. That was why it was title for title, they couldn't have him drop it in the run up and once he was "the guy" he could pick and choose his jobs until it was clear he was bombing.

I am sure Warrior felt that he had already put Rude over so why would/should he do so for Perfect or anyone else. Despite the fact that Rude winning the title from him at SS90 would have MADE Warrior a stronger champ down the line. He just wasn't up for doing anything to build anyone and neither was Hogan at that point.

The IC tourney, like the later one was the best of what was available at the time and some crazy booking. A lot of the guys who would have been in contention had suddenly gone for various reasons. Bam Bam, Barry Windham, Butch Reed. All of those guys were locks for a role in the tourney much less the wasting of Piper in there. How the hell was beating Santana better for establishing Perfect as THE guy than beating Piper?

Of course then the IC held a very different purpose to what it is now - it was the workhorse title, so bigger less talented guys could have the World belt - the IC champ had to draw. Later it became window dressing but in 1990 they couldn't keep it around the waist of the Warrior without losing a major drawing tool for their live shows, which were what they were about. They needed someone to sell those B shows and Perfect could.

Some stuff was quite unfortunate in that time - Beefcake got hurt, then they hired Davey Boy to take the spot and he got hurt so Von Erich got the nod for that shock win. Had Smith been the one to stun Perfect then the IC title would have had a much different trajectory in the year or more after - we'd have still seen guys like Bret rise, probably not the Mountie. But their international business would have taken off a lot quicker with Smith as IC champ and even after it ending up as it did, WWF Magazine was putting the feud on the front cover until Smith's injury went longer than planned forcing them to go with Bossman instead for Mania 7.

 

[Ubermensch]

He couldn't have both titles, because the moment he loses the IC title it makes his Heavyweight belt not look legit. They handled it well, let him get some good cameo shots with both titles and then vacate it. At the time they only had the IC, and Heavyweight belt. The Million Dollar championship was virtually never on the line (despite being baller).

 

[dudenamedric]

If Warrior had to defend both titles, undoubtedly he'd end up losing the IC title because the Heavyweight belt was the better belt. Wouldn't make much sense tho, cuz if someone like Mr Perfect could beat him for the IC belt, it would lessen the prestige of the Heavyweight belt and make him look easier to beat overall, which would also damage Hogan's rep since the Warrior beat him clean. I think the did it right the way it went.

 

[Bearhug]

Warrior had the muscles, but he never seemed to have the cardio to do two matches a night. Plus, him defending both belts would have devalued both. If he lost as IC champ, the person would have a legitimate claim to being the #1 contender for the world title. On top of that, he was sloppy when he wasn't tired from one match. What do you think would happen if he had to work a second?

He never seemed to have the cardio to do two matches a night? But he actually do it. For example he fought both Dibiase and Savage in one night. October 23d 1990 Main Event IV tapings.

Anyway, idea of Warrior defending both belts seems stupid to me. Different time, different look at wrestling, different standarts. There is no reason to Warrior defending both World & IC belts.
Warrior can lose IC strap to Mr.Perfect? A You kidding guys? There is no way in 1990 Warrior losing IC strap to midcard heel like Mr. Perfect or anyone else after just beating Hogan clean. There is simply impossible for that time.

 

[thebarber]

Except a good ring-technician in pro wrestling can make a wrestler with limited in-ring ability look good. Don't believe it? Look at when Warrior faced Rude or Savage. He looked great against both guys. And somebody as well conditioned as Warrior would've had enough gas to go for both matches.

thats the point, as well as he looked physically, he was in terrible ring shape. cardio was not Hellwig's strong suit. I take your point, s strong technical guy could carry him to respectable matchs, but the Champion isnt supposed to be carried night after night, month after month. People bag Hogan, but he could actualy wreslte, Vince booked him to wrestle in the fashion he did, it was simple and got him well and truly over.
Regarding the actual topic, WWE spruikeda claer rule that no ody could run with two titles at any one time, so I am happy they did what they did. Guys like Curt Hennig deserved an IC Title run x2, and others on the roster like Rick Martel, Rick Rude, Ted DiBiase to name a few who were awesome upper mid card heels in 1990-1991 deserved to have the belt.
The other MAIN important thing here is back then, WWE used to run 2 and sometimes 3 shows a night, thus Hogan or the WWE Champion would headline Show A, and the IC or Tag Champs would headline Show B. Vince needed seperate champions so his house shows could draw respectable crowds by having champions headlining.