Wrestlemania falls from grace

[tiger_rick]

It's a good shout. Savage's whole middle of 1990 felt like a come down coming off his title run and then his feud with Hogan going pretty much a year from the official break-up on Main Event right up to the SNME match with Buster Douglas reffing. It was probably inevitable given the other top babyface in Warrior was working Hogan at Mania so it was always going to be a step down to face a Dusty, Jake, Duggan or Boss Man type. The actual Mania match involving Sapphire does then take it all down another level, even if I do like the SummerSlam 90 aspect to heat him back up for Warrior. 

From main eventing and drawing the biggest Mania buyrate in history to a crappy mixed tag involving one of the worst non-workers ever is some fall.

[Carbomb]

2 hours ago, air_raid said:

there obviously was some humour in some spots

Literally

[Chili]

Savage would have had a fall from grace at Wrestlemania VI no matter the match.

 

[westlondonmist]

39 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Weirdly enough for the time they did blow that off in singles at SummerSlam, serving as a transition to Dusty putting Ted over.

Without going down the rabbit hole too far a lot of the practices of the WWF in the 80s through to about 94 (and definitely by 95 with the advent of one PPV a month) PPVs rarely represented the big feuds (a main event aside) and often the matches existed to set up the next serious runs and any matches that did feel like blow offs had non finishes or finishes designed to continue rather than finish the run. Mania VI is a decent example - they set up Duggan vs Earthquake and Boss Man vs DiBiase as big feuds for the road, neither of which will end up blown off at SummerSlam. In turn SummerSlam sets up  Teddy vs Dusty, Quake vs Boss Man and LOD vs Demolition - none of which will get a full blown PPV feud ender either.

Yeah I understand the difference it setting up feuds, how basically the title match at Rumble 91 was there to set up Warrior vs Macho Man and a USA vs Iraq feud, two birds with one stone. The USA vs Iraq, doesn't actually finish at Mania either, there was a 2 vs 3 tag at Summerslam (unsure if it ended there). The Rumble in its self was there to start feuds or carry them on at a PPV without blowing them off.t. It's easy to forget at times, but I understand when they were running 10 house shows a week over 2-3 touring schedules (that being the main source of income) they had to give people a reason to buy a ticket.

 

@Chili probably a fair comment. 

Edited April 2 by westlondonmist

[air_raid]

34 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

Yeah I understand the difference it setting up feuds, how basically the title match at Rumble 91 was there to set up Warrior vs Macho Man and a USA vs Iraq feud, two birds with one stone. The USA vs Iraq, doesn't actually finish at Mania either, there was a 2 vs 3 tag at Summerslam (unsure if it ended there). The Rumble in its self was there to start feuds or carry them on at a PPV without blowing them off.t. It's easy to forget at times, but I understand when they were running 10 house shows a week over 2-3 touring schedules (that being the main source of income) they had to give people a reason to buy a ticket.

OK, well here's the rabbit hole I promised not to go down. Contradicting my own earlier point, in the interest of fairness, the gap between Mania VI and SummerSlam 90 did represent a bit of a shift in attitude. In comparison, SummerSlam 89 was very different in that the August and September house show feuds illustrate that SummerSlam itself (aside from the long standing Warrior vs Rude issue) had very little baring on who was feuding with whom ;

August - Hogan vs Savage for the belt, Warrior vs Andre, Brain Busters vs Demolition, Rude vs Beefcake for the ICT (buy the PPV, fuckers), Dusty vs Boss Man, Duggan vs DiBiase for the King's crown, Rockers vs Rougeaus and Tito vs Rick Martel (per six man at the PPV), Mr Perfect vs Bret and Honky Tonk Man doing jobs for Superfly.

September - it's the end of Hogan vs Savage and transition to Savage vs Beefcake for Randy's newly won crown, now it's Roddy Piper vs Rude, Teddy vs the returned Jake the Snake, still Warrior vs Andre, Dusty vs Boss Man, Rockers vs Rougeaus, Bret vs Perfect, Tito vs Martel and Honky vs Superfly.

By contrast - have a look at some of the feuds that kicked off on the road after Mania VI was in the books ;

April
Ultimate Warrior VS Mr Perfect (WWF title)
Demolition VS Hart Foundation (tag title)
Dusty Rhodes VS Randy Savage
Big Boss Man VS Ted DiBiase
Jake Roberts VS Bad News Brown
Hacksaw Duggan VS Earthquake
The Rockers VS Orient Express
Tito Santana VS Warlord
Bushwhackers VS Rhythm & Blues
into May, becoming :
Ultimate Warrior VS Rick Rude (WWF title)
Mr Perfect VS Brutus Beefcake (ICT) *

So at the very least, they had six feuds that were (* at least planned to be) running until SummerSlam and happening on the PPV.

I'd say they don't go for the same route the year after with the Hogan vs Slaughter and Warrior vs Undertaker runs before SummerSlam and not after it and zero Bret vs Perfect matches on the road but..... Hogan's in Hollywood in September, Perfect's injured for the whole summer and beyond and Jim got himself shitcanned so it's hard to make a direct comparison. But of the other big feuds... Ted vs Virgil and Nastys vs LOD obviously were used for the PPV, Jake vs Earthquake wasn't as they formed the Natural Disasters and turned Jake with a plan to move to Warrior vs Jake (which didn't happen) and Sid vs Taker (which did), Bret going from working half a dozen different guys in August to Warload every night in September.

Edited April 2 by air_raid
I've never seen one before, no-one has, but I'm guessing it's a White Hole.