WrestleMania VI

This event defined an era of wrestling entertainment that, I believe, is not equaled today. The colorful characters - in their stereotypical garb - brought a certain charm to the show that has since been raped by society and overexposed. Wrestling had a bit of an innocence back then. A kid could watch it without watching an episode of Jerry Springer.

Looking back now (I was 5 at the time), although I loved both Warrior and Hogan, I think I enjoyed Warrior more because of his mystique. Hogan was the branded hero who weilded an impressive public image. The Ultimate Warrior, on the other hand, was a masked man of few words - an out-of-the-limelight hero for a different audience.

This rivalry was so exciting as a kid because of this duality in me duking it out for each combatant. I had a place for both of them. Because there was bloodshed too in this long, heavy battle, the stakes were high - at least to me as a kid. On a similar note, because of Hogan's defeat, this made him more human - I remember feeling kind of sorry for him.

All of these emotions at play in the juvenile boy's soap opera made Wrestlemania VI such a great time to witness this game.

Ok I will say more, this goes down in wrestling history as the first super match, it was the current WWF Champion Hulk Hogan vs the WWF intercontinental champion The Ultimate Warrior, it was a unification match of sorts. What made this match so special was the fact that there was no 'bad guy' both were huge fan favourites and one of the few times when no one knew who was going to win, this made for a unique atmosphere with the crowd 50/50 on who they wanted win (I was a little warrior, not a hulkamaniac). Of course now we know that the Warrior beat Hogan, much to my delight.

Everyone thought that this would be the last time we saw Hogan hold the WWF Chamionship and that The Ultimate Warrior would go on to dominate wrestling. For one reason or another this never happened and a mere six months later Hogan was the champ again. This match will also be remembered as one of the very few times Hulk Hogan jobbed (lost) to someone.

Anyway this main event will go down as one fo the great matches of all time, maybe not for the quality but because of how important it was. I would rank it right up there with other main event Wrestlemania matches like Bret Hart vs Shawn Micheals, Steve Austin vs Shawn Micheals and the second Austin vs Rock match. I would recommend buying this video to anyone for the plain reason of the main event.

Usually, the main event of any major wrestling event was "babyface" (good guy) vs. "heel" (bad guy). Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant would be a big example of such a main event. With Wrestlemania VI, however, two incredibly popular wrestlers at the time in Hogan & the Ultimate Warrior put their respective belts on the line in a main event that split the crowd in half in terms of cheering support. Good guy vs good guy!

Of course, an event is not made by its main event alone, and this is a great wrestling card that earns its 5-star rating. I won't go into detail on every match here, but here are some of the highlights:

-Mr. Perfect continuing his great brand of wrestling against Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake. -The Hart Foundation taking on The Bolsheviks with some hilarious pre-match comedy featuring Steve Allen. -An interesting semi-heel turn from newly-branded "Macho King" Randy Savage by pairing up with Sensational Sherri instead of the traditional Elizabeth. -Any Big Boss Man match (this time vs. Akeem) is usually pretty entertaining because he is such a great character.

There are no terrible matches in this entire event. They are all entertaining in some facet or another. The commentary from Gorilla Monsoon & Jesse "The Body" Ventura helps set the perfect tone once again.

Then, "Hulk vs. Warrior" blows the lid off! This was one of the most anticipated battles of all- time, and it pretty much lives up to the billing. Neither big man is a particularly talented wrestler, but the hype is just so big and each man plays his part perfectly.

This is the best Wrestlemania in the series so far, just ahead of the tournament from W4.

This was a very good PPV, but like Wrestlemania XX some 14 years later, the WWE crammed so many matches on it, some of the matches were useless. I'm not going to go through every match on the card because it would take forever to do.

However major highlights included the HUGE pop for Demolition winning the tag team belts from Haku and Andre the Giant, The first ever mixed tag match featuring Randy Savage and Sensational Queen Sherri vs Dusty Rhodes and the late Sapphire and the first ever clash between The Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan.

Some matches were a complete waste of time. Like The Bolsheviks vs The Hart Foundation was only about 40 seconds long, Koko B Ware vs Rick Martel was short and Big Bossman vs Akeem was too short.

Mr Perfect vs Brutus Beefcake and Ted DiBiase vs Jake 'the snake' Roberts were very good indeed.

Overall Grade - B

First off, only 67,000 fans were in the Toronto Skydome to see Hogan/Warrior. Secondly, not only wasn't it the largest American crowd, it wasn't even American, as Wrestlemania 6 was in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Regardless, it's still an incredible show, with a few good matches, and an especially hot main event.