April 1st, 1990
Location: Toronto, Canada
Venue: SkyDome
Attendance: 67,687
Out of these 34 WrestleManias I'm looking over, we've reached one of my personal favorites as the calendar flipped to 1990 for WrestleMania 6.
Now the reason for this is not because of the biggest main event to date for a WrestleMania. It's only because this happened in my own backyard of Toronto.
For the first time in WrestleMania history, the WWF decided to go north of the border and select Toronto, Canada as host for its sixth edition.
The venue was (at the time) the brand new SkyDome, the world's first stadium with a retractable roof. Thanks to WrestleMania and how fresh the stadium was, it quickly set the attendance record at 67,687. The number would hold on until the next time WrestleMania headed over in 2002.
In that sea of fans, the future was sitting in the crowd as Edge, Christian, Lance Storm and Renee Young were all in attendance.
Another note to make was that this was the final WrestleMania that Jesse "The Body" Ventura was involved as a color commentator. While I haven't spoken too much on the commentary, Ventura was one of the best spots in every WrestleMania he was involved in. His witty and outspoken commentary would put a smile on your face.
WrestleMania 6 also saw the little ring carts' return and final appearance to ride wrestlers over to the ring. With Robert Goulet opening up the show with "O, Canada," SkyDome was ready for the three and a half-hour show to get underway.
As 14 matches were scheduled for the night, it's time to speak about three things that stood out to me once again. One of them, however, may offend readers due to the subject matter of racism. Discretion is advised.
The Giant Hurrah
In late 1989, Andre the Giant and Haku joined forces to form the Colossal Connection, managed by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.
Before the year closed, the Connection ended the long tag team championship reign of Demolition (Ax and Smash) and began their feud, which wrapped up at WrestleMania 6.
As the title defense was underway, Haku carried the entire match as Andre the Giant never tagged in. With the Giant tied up in the ropes near the end, Demolition took advantage and secured their third and final Tag Team Championship.
At the end of the match, Heenan was so upset at the team losing, he blamed the Giant for the loss and actually slapped him across the face. Does anger get to the best of people? Yes. Was slapping a 520-pound man a smart idea? Of course not.
Andre began to slap Heenan around and eventually attacked Haku, ending their alliance.
As the little ring carts came by to carry the wrestlers back to the locker room area, the Giant made sure he got one for himself and rode off to the roar of the crowd.
Now as simple as this sounds, why did this stand out to me? Because this was Andre the Giant's final televised match.
Behind the scenes, the health of the Giant was beginning to deteriorate. André René Roussimoff was diagnosed with gigantism at a young age, which is a condition that gives an individual excessive growth and height.
The ride that Andre received could really signify him riding off into the sunset, and rightfully so. The Giant had very few television appearances after that before he passed away in 1993.
While his match quality may not have been the best, his contribution to the industry will always be remembered as his legacy continues to live on in the world of professional wrestling.
Roddy...what are you doing?
Remember that little disclaimer I put up earlier? This is it. If you feel the need to skip this section and move on, please do so.
At the Royal Rumble, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper eliminated Bad News Brown from the Royal Rumble match. Brown, in spite and frustration, climbed up to the ring and eliminated Piper himself. A few weeks later, Bad News continued to go after the Hot Rod, making fun of his kilt.
Onto WrestleMania 6. For some weird reason, Piper literally painted half of his body in black to intimidate and get to Brown's head. And judging by the comments you heard from Brown in the ring, as well as his facial expressions, scripted or not, it got to him.
As Brown had Piper in a submission hold, you hear him utter the words, "Oh? You want to be black now, huh?!".
Eventually, neither of them won the match as they carried the fight outside the ring and were counted out.
Simply put, it was clearly a bad idea. In an interview with theScore's Arda Ocal on Sirius XM radio back in 2012, Piper admitted that it was his idea to run with the paint. He even brought up Nelson Mandela in his promos and Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" to add to the storyline. According to Piper, Bad News Brown thought it was alright.
"But the reason I painted myself half-Black was more the meshing. I did the Nelson Mandela, I did the 'True Colors'. Bad News Brown didn't take it that way." (H/T Wrestling INC)
In a series of "shoot" interviews (meaning they're not speaking from a scripted standpoint) released on DVD, Bad News told his side of the story when asked about the incident at WrestleMania 6.
Brown discussed how McMahon thought it was a great idea and even asked about his thoughts on the idea. Brown quietly agreed and assumed that Piper would be beaten up in real life for pulling off the stunt in an unenthusiastic tone.
Regardless of who came up with the idea, does it make it right? Does the argument of how different things were in the 1990s? It shouldn't. It is still crucial to understand the insensitive and racist incident that occurred inside SkyDome.
Unfortunately, it wouldn't be the last incident regarding racism in WrestleMania history, as you'll see in a few weeks. For now, it's important to acknowledge that this should never have been approved in the first place and that a half-painted Roddy Piper cast a dark shadow over WrestleMania 6.
The Ultimate Challenge
The WWF made history once again as the main event inside SkyDome was their biggest to date.
For the first time at WrestleMania, two titles were on the line as the Ultimate Warrior put up his Intercontinental title against Hulk Hogan's World Heavyweight Championship.
What made this stand out was that it wasn't your traditional "good guy" vs. "bad guy" match up. The Warrior and Hogan were two of the company's top adored superstars who had a tremendous amount of respect for each other.
With no animosity between them leading up to Toronto, fans in attendance were split on who to cheer for. Many fans donned the yellow and red with their foam fingers in the air. The other half with Warrior masks and signs, hoping for the shock of the year.
Hogan and Warrior started their match with a test of strength, to play with the crowd and let them show their allegiance.
As you noticed with these reviews, I'll say that the main event features back and forth offense between the two. Of course, once again, that was the case. I don't mean to sound repetitive. However, these two were beating the holy heck out of each other.
With eye rakes, punches, tossing out of the ring, submission holds, and more, Hogan and Warrior gave everything they had. It reached the point where Hogan began to limp, trying not to put any weight on his left leg.
After nearly 20 minutes, the match reached its conclusion, in which the Hulkster had the Warrior down and began to start his signature leg drop. However, after doing his homework, the Warrior got up, dodging the leg drop, went for his body splash, and stunned the wrestling world.
In one of WrestleMania history's biggest shocks, the Ultimate Warrior became the WWF World Heavyweight and Intercontinental champion. It was said that Edge and Christian were left shocked at the result.
Personally, I knew somebody that was there: one of my cousins. As he told me the story of his experience when he was young, he remembers leaving the SkyDome crying and hugging my uncle as he consoled him.
It was THAT big of a win. Many writers who spoke about this main event said it was one of the best to date, winning multiple "Match of the Year" awards from different publications. I, too, would agree with those sentiments in terms of WrestleMania history.
As Hogan accepted defeat, he grabbed his now old World Heavyweight Championship, gave it to the Warrior out of respect, and hugged it out as the fireworks went off and WrestleMania 6 reached its conclusion. The Warrior would go out on top, holding both titles in the air, in what would be the most significant moment of his career.
Final thoughts
As I said at the top of this post, this is one of my favorite WrestleManias to date. Besides being in Toronto (cue The Rock's line of "YAAY! He said Toronto!), it was just highly entertaining throughout.
Piper aside, for me, there was never anything throughout the night that never failed to entertain me. Not to mention, everybody who competed gave you the sense that this is the biggest show of the year, which is what a WrestleMania should entail from start to finish.
I will say that having it inside a dome once again is also a giant help. Unfortunately, within the first ten years of Mania, this would only be the second of three times held in a stadium. There would have been a fourth, but more on that tomorrow.
In the meantime, fans had to accept that their hero had fallen as the coming of another star was on the rise. However, Hogan would soon find his way back to the pinnacle of the WWF. The only thing he needed to do was show his true colors.
Results:
- Rick Martel def. Koko B. Ware
- Demolition (Ax and Smash) def. The Colossal Connection (Haku and Andre the Giant) (c) - WWF Tag Team Championship
- Earthquake def. Hercules
- Brutus Beefcake def. Mr. Perfect
- Bad News Brown and Roddy Piper ended in a double countout
- The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) def. The Bolsheviks (Boris Zhukov and Nikolai Volkoff)
- The Barbarian def. Tito Santana
- Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire def. Randy Savage and Queen Sherri - Mixed tag team match
- The Orient Express (Pat Tanaka and Sato) def. The Rockers (Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels) via countout
- Jim Duggan def. Dino Bravo
- Ted DiBiase (c) def. Jake Roberts via countout - Million Dollar Championship
- Big Boss Man def. Akeem
- Rick Rude def. Jimmy Snuka
- The Ultimate Warrior def. Hulk Hogan - World Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championship
Rating: A-
Thanks for reading. Look out tomorrow when I take a look at WrestleMania 7.
29 days away until WrestleMania 35.
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