Without a doubt, his reign wasn't what was hoped, and one year later, Hogan was crowned King again. But while the company and popular opinion like to out Warrior as not having the goods, the promo skills, the personality to make public appearances, etc, I have to wonder how much was really his fault. I can't deny that really, the only place the Ultimate Warrior character worked in the world was on a WWF television show, and anywhere else he was out of his depth, as witnessed by the audience laughing at this face-painted buffoon on the Arsenio Hall show. But still, on his turf, this was the guy who gained enough momentum to get half the crowd to cheer for his victory over babyface Hogan in babyface Hogan's prime run. There was something there, and everybody knew it.
Hogan's post-match sympathy play was one thing in terms of sabotage, but while everybody buries Warrior's time as champion, I'd argue that the vast majority of it was the situation he inherited, and the decisions made against him while he was holding the strap.
One look at the heel lineup coming out of WrestleMania 6 should tell you all you need to know about the challengers that were around for Warrior to draw with. On paper, it could be interpreted as an all-star cast: Randy Savage, Ted DiBiase, Mr. Perfect, "Ravishing" Rick Rude. But the reality is that none of these guys had anywhere close to enough heat to be taken as a serious threat to the guy that slayed Hulk Hogan.
Randy Savage had spent almost all of 1989 and early 1990 getting beat by Hulk Hogan on Pay-Per-View, Network TV and house shows. From there he was feuding with Jim Duggan and Dusty Rhodes and needed to be rebuilt before getting close to Warrior (which he eventually was in November, but they took the belt off Warrior in the process).
Ted DiBiase, who had long since passed the peak of his heat of 1988, was getting beaten around the horn by Jake Roberts and put in a feud with the freshly turned Bossman. He hadn't done anything of major substance (apart from certain major substances) in quite some time.
Mr. Perfect struggled to get over for a while, until he was paired with The Genius and given a run against Hulk. Unfortunately, he was beaten like a drum by Hogan at the end of 89/start of 90. Perfect was originally supposed to win the 1990 Royal Rumble, which would at least have given Warrior a natural opponent following his big win. But that never happened, and combined with the devastating losses to Hogan, and even worse the loss to Brutus Beefcake at WrestleMania 6, cemented Perfect as a notch below.
And then we have Rick Rude, the guy who ended up getting the nod, solely because he beat Warrior at Mania 5 for the IC Title. Fine if you view it completely isolated, but the fact is that Warrior beat him back at Summerslam 89, and Rude went on to a feud with Roddy Piper that he would actually lose, right before his World Title push. It came across like a complete retread, and nobody gave Rude a prayer of winning.
The problem lied in the fact that every heel on the roster had been eviscerated. Under the WWF's system, one that still exists today, the faces are supermen, fed a steady stream of big heels thick and fast. By the time Warrior got on top of the hill, there was nobody around that the people believe had a chance. So, you were left with the options of turning Piper heel (which probably wouldn't have flown just because Piper has so much goodwill with the people at the time), or switching Jake (which, since he was doing nothing in 1990 and would go on to be a great heel, would have been worth a try), but they clearly wanted to keep them where they were. Barry Windham was brought in as the Widow Maker and looked to be getting a big push at first, with the announcers teasing him as a threat for Hogan in the early going, but it fizzled fast when real life issues got in the way.
Compare that to Hogan's entire run, where monsters and top challengers were lined up and fed to him constantly to keep him hot. Hogan was never in a position to not have a significant issue. Where this really becomes the WWF's fault is that, in this barren landscape, there was only one solution. A very obvious one, in fact.
Earthquake. Don't get me wrong, these matches would have been fairly awful. But without a doubt, the hottest heel in 1990 was Earthquake. He was custom made for Warrior post-Mania, he even debuted by attacking the Warrior on TV alongside Dino Bravo. Quake would go on to get a hell of a lot of heat and was by far the biggest deal on the heel side that year. But in a totally short-sighted decision, the red-hot monster heel went to Hulk Hogan.
It's funny, from all accounts Vince seemed so keen to replace Hogan...until he actually replaced him. The second he did, the priority seemed to change back to Hogan, and the people could tell. Warrior, on Saturday Night's Main Event, in his first TV appearance as WWF Champion, worked with Haku underneath, while Hogan worked on with Mr. Perfect in the match that took the lion's share of the advertising. Hogan got the hot summer angle with Earthquake, while Warrior got the Rude retread as part of the "Double Main Event" at Summerslam.
After that, Warrior became the tag partner of the LOD in their feud against the three man Demolition, the backup guy in somebody else's storyline.
Fast forward to Survivor Series where Hogan and Warrior both survive at the end, and trouble is clearly brewing. The shadow of Hogan loomed over Warrior the entire time, entirely by promotional design.
This is not to excuse Warrior's weaknesses, without a doubt he needed to be booked perfectly and constantly protected in order to be a success as the top guy, moreso than usual. And there were some boos for Warrior in the immediate aftermath of Mania 6 from the Hogan fans, so that should be kept in mind.
But the point remains that he wasn't given the same top priority consideration as Hogan was during his title reigns, and was in essence positioned as the Punk to Hogan's Cena. In 1991, when his time as champion was over, he was matched up with a white-hot monster heel in The Undertaker, a feud that did do tremendous business even in turbulent times for the company, so the potential was clearly there.
I don't know that Ultimate Warrior could have truly replaced Hulk Hogan. Whether he could or not is lost to history, but I do believe that the fact he didn't should be considered a failure of the WWF every bit as much as it is the failure of the Ultimate Warrior.
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