411’s Countdown to WrestleMania 28: WrestleMania 6

WORST MATCH: Give me a second while I throw the dart at the rest of the card and see what it hits…Roddy Piper vs. Bad News Brown [-*****] My dart has good taste. I HATE THIS MATCH. It should have been decent but for god knows what reason Piper decided to paint half his body black and he’s lucky that the judo-trained Brown didn’t beat him to within an inch of his life. Terrible match. Horrible.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE SHOW: Andre The Giant turns face and gives us one last moments to cheer him on the greatest stage. While pools of money was made off heel Andre, it was sad that the man that brought so much joy had his legacy tarnished by the last couple of years of that run being jobbed out to Warrior so ruthlessly. Perhaps as a sign of respect he was giving a short run as tag team champion (mainly carried by Haku) and the chance to beat the crap out of Bobby Heenan one last time.

MVP OF THE SHOW: Hulk Hogan. I don’t care what he did afterwards but in the ring on this night he did what was right for business and put The Ultimate Warrior over as strong as anyone could.

OVERALL SHOW RATING: 6/10 – A lousy card that was boring and predictable but saved by the great main event. That match still holds up today and is certainly historic and worth everyone’s time to see how you can get two not so good wrestlers to work a really great match.

WORST MATCH: Hacksaw Duggan vs. Dino Bravo, ½*. Not so much bad as it was brutally dull and boring, this match was just a plodding slugfest that was really just a setup for Earthquake’s post-match attack on Duggan. Despite carrying an American flag in Canada, Duggan was majorly over as a babyface and the crowd seemed to be into the match for the most part, but ugh, it was just no good. There is absolutely no reason to ever watch this match. Actually, there’s no reason to ever watch any match involving Dino Bravo. It’s puzzling how long he stuck around and how many pushes he got, although we can probably blame that on Pat Patterson. The mixed tag team match pitting Randy Savage & Sherri against Sapphire & Dusty Rhodes was a close runner-up, especially when Sapphire was in the ring, but it fell under the category of comedy and was exempt from Worst Match status.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE SHOW: Demolition threepeating as WWF Tag Team Champions and Andre the Giant turning face. Although the team was initially conceived as a Road Warriors knockoff, Demolition became a better all-around tag team and developed a huge following that was evidenced by the massive crowd pop that Ax & Smash received after their unprecedented third tag title victory. WrestleMania VI represented the peak of Demolition’s popularity and it was their last hurrah as babyfaces, as they turned heel and fizzled out in the following months. It was also the last WrestleMania match for Andre the Giant, as he spent the entire bout parked on the apron and only came in for the finish–eating a superkick from Haku, getting tangled in the ropes, and watching helplessly as Demolition finished off his partner to regain the belts. When Bobby Heenan blamed Andre for the loss and had the gall to slap him in the face, the Giant swatted the Brain around and headbutted Haku to complete his return to the side of good and light. Andre the Giant was a babyface again, finally out from under the manipulative influence of the Brain, and all was right with the world. That’s a WrestleMania highlight I’ll never forget.

MVP OF THE SHOW: The 67,678 fans in the SkyDome. After two years in the deathly silent Trump Plaza, WrestleMania was back in front of an insanely rabid crowd of real wrestling fans who knew all the players and their storylines. They were into everything, they elevated the matches that were below average and made them watchable thanks to their enthusiastic reactions, and they were absolutely electric for the Hogan/Warrior showdown. While the Ultimate Challenge was meticulously booked and executed according to plan, it was the crowd in Toronto and their emotional response to the ebb-and-flow of the action that solidified the match as one of the all-time greats. The runner-up for MVP of WrestleMania VI would be Jesse Ventura in his last appearance on a WWF PPV for nearly a decade. Much like the crowd did with their reactions, Jesse’s commentary added so much to the broadcast and covered up all the slow spots on the show as he bickered with Gorilla Monsoon, insulted countless babyfaces, and provided expert analysis when needed.

OVERALL SHOW RATING: 7.5/10 – Following a similar formula as WrestleMania V, WrestleMania VI was built around an epic main event and supported by a big Tag Team Title bout, a handful of really good matches and grudge matches, a few exhibitions to showcase up-and-coming heels, and some comedy to provide a bit of something for everybody. However, Hogan/Warrior wasn’t quite as good as Hogan/Savage, and I didn’t feel that anything on the WMVI undercard lived up to Warrior/Rude from the previous year. On the other hand, the crowd in Toronto was infinitely better than the library atmosphere that pervaded Trump Plaza and this show provided more of a shakeup to the status quo, as Warrior was officially crowned the new standard-bearer for the WWF and the successor to Hulk Hogan. Regardless of whether or not it turned out to be the right choice, it was a bold move and guarantees that WrestleMania VI will never be forgotten.

WORST MATCH – Big Bossman vs. Akeem: [*] This was nothing more than a chance to try and get over Akeem’s weird new gimmick

HIGHLIGHT OF THE SHOW – Ultimate Warrior becomes double champion:To add to the intrigue of Warrior beating Hogan, he became the first man to ever hold the WWE and Intercontinental Title at the same time.

MVP OF THE SHOW – Ultimate Warrior: It was up to Warrior here to supply the fighting babyface charisma against Hogan, but he still managed to not only win the WWE title, but hold it simultaneously with the Intercontinental title.

OVERALL SHOW RATING: 5.5 – While the main event of this show is golden, the rest of the card is filled with all kinds of boring and pointless filler bullshit. Check out the main event, maybe skim through the rest.

WORST MATCH: Earthquake vs. Hercules [DUD] – I’m sorry, I just don’t like Earthquake at all. I feel bad for Hercules because I think if they tried more with him he could have been something. Jobbing him out to Earthquake on a PPV just seems absolutely stupid to me and I don’t even see why this had to even be on the card.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE SHOW: Epic Confrontation # 3 At Wrestlemania – At WM 3 we had Hulk vs. Andre, at WM 5 we had the Mega Powers colliding, and at WM 6 we had a Title for Title Hogan vs. Warrior. This is another one of those “passing the torch” moments in Wrestlemania history, but alas with what happened to Warrior it kinda means nothing nowadays. Hogan had a good promo backstage talking about the match and what not, while Warrior went off on some crazy Galaxy and talked about uniting the Warriors and Hulk-A-Maniacs as one. Yeah, Warrior was never the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to verbalizing anything. These two had a very good match and I feel it lived up to the billing. This was the first time we ever saw a “Title for Title” match on such a grand scale and even though it was really the only highlight of WM 6, it was a damn good one.

MVP OF THE SHOW: Hogan & Warrior – These two were the reason everybody was buying this PPV and why 68,000 were in that arena. They went out and delivered a very solid main event that never got the split fan reaction that I think they were trying to get, but it still accomplished its goal. I loved the classy ending with Hogan handing Warrior the belt and the raising of the hand. It didn’t feel as emotional as some other first time title wins have, but it was still another “Wrestlemania Moment.”

OVERALL SHOW RATING: 4.0 – The only match that mattered may have delivered, but the rest of the card was really piss poor. One match was surprisingly decent in Brutus vs. Mr. Perfect, mainly because Mr. Perfect was selling for Brutus like HBK did for Hogan years later at Summerslam. Jake Roberts vs. Ted Dibiase for the Million Dollar Belt was good as well, but the countout finish was stupid to me. I would have been happier if Virgil had distracted the ref and Dibiase hit him with the belt for the sneaky win. There were about five or six matches that were about the same quality as a regular match we see on RAW today. The mixed tag match was a terrible train wreck, where did they get Sapphire from? Why the hell was the Hart Foundation match even on this show if they were going to have it end in one minute? And the tag title match was really Haku getting beat down because Andre was in bad shape at this point. This is one of those Wrestlemanias that has a ton of filler that is just trying to get everybody to the main event and that’s basically it. The main event got almost all of that rating, with the other two matches I pointed out getting the other half a point.