10/12/2025
Topic: How do you solve a problem like Hulk Hogan?!
In the World Wrestling Federation, especially in the early 1990s, that was the burning question. Hulk Hogan was not the problem, rather how does one replace the biggest wrestling star in the world with someone new?
Vince McMahon tried it twice, in 1990 with the Ultimate Warrior and in 1993, with Lex Luger, while both attempts were admirable, they were both met with results much lower than expected.
In this post, I explore the first option.
Part One: The Ultimate Solution?
In the late 1980s, Hulk Hogan had a desire to wind down his wrestling career and try his luck in Hollywood. Sensing he was about to lose his top star, Vince McMahon set about trying to find his next standard bearer.
He settled on The Ultimate Warrior, a man who had been a professional wrestler for less than 5 years, debuting in 1985, he had been with the WWF since late 1987. He had a look, an aura, that X-Factor that only comes around once, maybe twice in a lifetime. He connected with the audience in a major way!
Warrior's rise to the top of the WWF was meteoric by anyone's standards. A two time Intercontinental Champion, steadily improving as a worker but still rough around the edges, his character still needed development too.
The first time Warrior and Hogan came face to face was the 1990 Royal Rumble, they had cleared other competitors from the ring and would have about two minutes before the next participant entered. What occurred was lightning in a bottle. For that brief moment had fans of both men wondering "what if?" The two most popular superstars of the day having a match. Who would come out on top?
There's no doubt in my mind that The Ultimate Warrior was ready to face Hulk Hogan one on one, but what was expected of Warrior in the aftermath, was impossible.
Intercontinental Champion, The Ultimate Warrior, defeated World Champion Hulk Hogan cleanly at WrestleMania VI, he had done the impossible. However what was to follow, in my opinion, sowed the seeds for the undoing of all that hard work.
Warrior had reached the top of the mountain, only one place to go from there.
Vince McMahon expected the Ultimate Warrior to become Hulk Hogan, immediately, replacing the man he had just defeated to be the face of the company. At 30 years old, less than 5 years as a professional wrestler. Warrior was expected to climb the wrestling equivalent of Mount Everest without the proper equipment.
Warrior was no Hogan when it came to the media side and as I said earlier, his character and style still needed development. The pressure to perform those tasks must have seemed insurmountable to the new champion.
Warrior was ready to face Hulk Hogan, no question, Warrior however, was not ready to step into his shoes and therein lies the problem with his championship reign, the company's reliance on Hulk Hogan and the problem with short term booking. There was no plan for Warrior after he had won the title.
Sure, he beat opponents, but ones Hogan had beaten before, there was a lack of fresh faces. Any that did appear were either fed to Hogan (Earthquake) or aligned with him (Tugboat), for example.
For Warrior to be able to step into that position full, he did need to beat the Hulkster, only not at WrestleMania VI.
Hindsight is a great thing, because you can see the dominoes fall before they do and when I do revisionist stuff like this, I love it because it's open to other interpretations and discussion.
Here is what I would have done differently:
Part Two: Rebooking The Ultimate Challenge.
In my opinion, Mr. Perfect should have won the 1990 Royal Rumble. Hulk didn't need it, not then. Remember these are the days before the Rumble winner received a title match at WrestleMania, but we'll ignore that for now.
The tag team match with Warrior/Hulk Vs Perfect/Genius on Saturday Night's Main Event still happens, but Warrior doesn't accidentally clothesline the Hulkster in the aftermath. Instead there's a mutual respect for each other.
Perfect squares off against Hogan at WrestleMania for the title. Hogan wins, but Perfect claims he was robbed etc.
Warrior, meanwhile, was feuding with Dino Bravo at this point, too, so realistically he could have defended the title against the Canadian Strongman.
Following WrestleMania, Perfect demands a rematch against Hogan at an upcoming Saturday Night's Main Event, Hogan agrees. Perfect wins the title by some screwy finish and becomes the new WWF Champion. Thus becoming a transitional champion in the long term storyline.
Hogan still gets taken out by Earthquake and put on the shelf until the summer.
Weeks go by and Perfect is doing what he does, perfectly. But a new challenger emerges, the Ultimate Warrior.
Warrior challenges Perfect for the WWF Title at SummerSlam and wins. We still get the double belt celebration and admittedly it does lose something because it wasn't against Hulk, but we can't have everything.
Hulk Hogan returns and defeats Earthquake at SummerSlam also, but there is something different, this Hulk is vulnerable. He's also hungry to regain his title, whoever his opponent may be.
Warrior vacates the IC title as planned and someone else wins the tournament.
Throughout 1990 Warrior grew in confidence as WWF champion, without the added stigma of having just defeated Hogan and all that expectation. He's allowed to develop at a pace more suitable and his ego and paranoia are soothed somewhat by this. He has memorable title rematches with Mr. Perfect and defeats the Macho King, Earthquake and Ted DiBiase among others.
Hogan and Warrior team in the Finale at 1990 Survivor Series and show mutual respect.
Hogan wins the 1991 Royal Rumble, cementing his comeback and says he wants the world title around his waist again.
Tension builds in the weeks building up to WrestleMania VII. Similar in the way it was built for WrestleMania VI. Hogan and Warrior are put in tag matches, interview segments and finally the contract signing. WWF almost always did these things very well.
We now have the Ultimate Challenge at WrestleMania VII.
Warrior wins as planned and retains his championship. Hulk had his redemption arc and is not harmed by the loss, but now things are calmer at the top of the WWF.
In my opinion, if WWF had gone in this direction, Warrior may never have fallen out with Vince McMahon and stayed with the company for many years afterwards. I also feel he would have let go of any bitterness he felt and may still be with us today.
Hulk would have had a reduced schedule, booked as a special attraction allowing him to make movies too. Giving him more flexibility in his life.
It would also give Mr. Perfect his moment in the sun which many, including myself, feel he should have had.
All that unsavoury Iraq War nonsense would have been avoided. Sgt Slaughter would have been perfectly able to turn heel using other storylines.
WWF would not need to relocate to a smaller venue as ticket sales would have remained steady and would likely have packed out the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Who knows what would have happened beyond WrestleMania VII, but it would have made sound business sense to delay The Ultimate Challenge by one year.
Of course the Steroids Scandal was just around the corner as well....
Parts Three and Four to follow soon.
If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. 😊👍
- Andrew.
