Opinion
Matt’s Retro Review: WWF Championship 1989
Matt digs into the WWF Championship from 1989 in his latest Retro Review! Take a look back at this historic year and this historic championship.

Matt digs into the WWF Championship from 1989 in his latest Retro Review! Take a look back at this historic year and this historic championship.
Welcome to the third edition of the Weekly Championship Review on The Chairshot! This will be a biweekly article here on The Chairshot because we have a lot to discuss! In starting, my question for you is; have you ever had a discussion with a friend or in a group online about who is the greatest champion of all time? What is your defense of your claim? Wins? Quality of matches? Lenth of reign? In this weekly article, I will be looking back one year at a time and evaluating one specific championship in each article, with a yearly grade ranking and overall grade ranking and as we progress through the years, I will reveal who I believe is the best champion of all time.
To start us off, I am going to discuss the most recognizable championship in the history of wrestling, the WWE Heavyweight Championship. These articles will not discuss the “Big Gold” World Championship, Universal Championship, or any other recognized heavyweight championship in WWE, those will be discussed in other articles. During these reviews, I will count matches aired on weekly television, PPV, and matches also released on VHS and later on home media.
Hulk Hogan (April 2nd, 1989 – April 1st, 1990)
Record: 15-5
Clean Losses: 1
Successful Defenses: 11
Recommended Matches to Watch
- Hulk Hogan d. Randy Savage, April 2nd, 1989, “WRESTLEMANIA V”
- Hulk Hogan d. The Big Bossman, May 27th, 1989, “Saturday Night Main Event”
- Hulk Hogan d. Randy Savage, August 9th, 1989, “Hulkamania 4”
- Hulk Hogan d. Randy Savage, October 10th, 1989, “Hulkamania Forever”
- Hulk Hogan, Ax, Smash, & Jake Roberts d. Ted DiBiase, Warlord, Barbarian, & Zeus, November 23rd, 1989, “Survivor Series”
- Lanny Poffo d. Hulk Hogan [Count out], November 25th, 1989, “Saturday Night Main Event”
- Hulk Hogan & The Ultimate Warrior d. Mr. Perfect & Lanny Poffo, January 9th, 1990, “Saturday Night Main Event”
- Mr. Perfect d. Hulk Hoga [DQ], January 15th, 1990 “The Life & Times of Mr. Perfect”
- Hulk Hogan wins the Royal Rumble, January 21st, 1990, “Royal Rumble”
- Hulk Hogan d. Randy Savage, February 23rd, 1990, “Saturday Night Main Event”
- The Ultimate Warrior d. Hulk Hogan, April 1st, 1990, “WRESTLEMANIA VI”
Thoughts: A 364 day reign as WWF Champion, which was perhaps the end of the glory years for Hogan, the WWF, and the pinnacle of professional wrestling as a whole with some lackluster reigns coming up before it all came crashing down and it hurt inside. It would also be the longest WWF Championship reign between 1989 and 2006 in total number of days. Remarkably, that total would be broken not once but twice, again in 2012. Not much going on with this reign. Hogan seemed to be challenged from every direction here, with feuds with Randy Savage, Ted DiBiase, Mr. Perfect, and the Ultimate Warrior taking up a years worth of feuds. I included Lanny Poffo beating Hogan by Count out as a Recommended Match simply because it was a huge moment for The Genius. Notably, this reign featured Hulk Hogan’s first clean pinfall defeat in company history when he fell to the Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania VI. Couldn’t sell it long though, he kicked out at 3.01%. Comparing this to his first run shows that Hogan stopped working as much, dropping from 13 championship defenses per year then, compared to 11 in this year here. The company wanted to protect him and politicking started to show it’s ugly face more than ever. As stated, this reign was one of the longest from 1984-2019, but it never felt like it got into the next gear, so I need to weigh that into my grade.
Grade (A+ through F ): “C”
Overall WWE Champion Ranking:
1) Hulk Hogan (January 23rd, 1984 – February 5th, 1988), “A”
2) “Macho Man” Randy Savage (March 27th, 1988 – April 2nd, 1989) “C+”
3) Hulk Hogan (April 2nd, 1989 – April 1st, 1990) “C”
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Opinion
King’s WrestleMania Rewind: Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka from WrestleMania 34
Chris king is back with one of the most underrated matches in WrestleMania history–Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka!

Chris king is back with one of the most underrated matches in WrestleMania history–Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka!
We look back at Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka at WWE WrestleMania 34. ‘The Empress of Tomorrow’ put her unprecedented and historic undefeated streak of 914 days on the line against ‘The Queen’s’ SmackDown Women’s Championship.
For years, this was considered a dream match while Asuka dominated the roster in NXT, while Flair won numerous championships on the main roster on both Raw and SmackDown. The Empress made her long-awaited debut on the September 11th episode of Raw and began to tear through the competition.
Asuka outlasted all twenty-nine other women in the historic first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble match to challenge for the title of her choosing. At Fastlane, she made her choice.
The WWE Universe was so excited for this match myself included. Both superstars delivered a fantastic performance on the Grandest Stage of Them All executing counter after counter. Asuka showed off some nasty-looking kicks to her opponent, and Flair hit a thunderous Spanish Fly off the top rope. Flair was seconds away from defeat at the hands of The Empress but she locked in Figure Eight and Asuka was forced to tap out.
I can’t even begin to explain how shocked I was at this outcome, as nearly everyone expected The Empress to continue her undefeated streak and walk away with the women’s title. This controversial decision was the downfall of Asuka’s momentum. She would ultimately win the SmackDown Women’s Championship at the 2018 TLC pay-per-view in the triple-threat ladder match.
Fast forward to this year when Asuka has recently returned with her Japanese-inspired persona Kana. Kana is dangerous and ruthless and is heading into a championship with Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 39. The Empress has regained all her momentum and is highly favored to walk away with the Raw Women’s Championship. Let’s hope that Asuka and Belair can tear the house down and deliver an A+ grade match both women are fully capable of.
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Opinion
King: Dominik Mysterio Needs To Do This At WrestleMania
Chris King is here with what WWE should do with Dominik Mysterio at WrestleMania in his long-awaited match against his father Rey Mysterio Jr.

Chris King is here with what WWE should do with Dominik Mysterio at WrestleMania in his long-awaited match against his father Rey Mysterio Jr.
On this week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown, Rey Mysterio finally snapped and beat some sense into his disrespectful punk-ass kid Dominik. The member of the Judgement Day came out to push his father again for a match on the Grandest Stage of Them All, this time with his mother and sister at ringside. The ungrateful punk told his mom to “Shut Up,” as a father even I wanted to jump through the screen and whoop his ass.
Back in October of last year, Mysterio made the emotional decision to possibly quit the company but, instead, Triple H persuaded the Lucha libre superstar to move over to SmackDown to avoid his son. This came after Dominik shockingly turned on his father at Clash at the Castle. Mysterio did everything he could to refuse his despicable son’s challenge for Mania but, a man can only be pushed so far. Mysterio will be inducted into the 2023 WWE Hall of Fame and I expect Dominik to embarrass his father during his speech to further this personal feud.
Yes, the WWE Universe hates Dominik and wants to see him get the ever-loving crap kicked out of him but, this feud is missing a special ingredient to capitalize on the biggest heat possible. Throughout this feud, Dominik has made mention of the legendary Eddie Guerrero on several occasions going back to the “iconic” 2005 feud.
I know WWE might not want to go this route but, Dominik MUST come out to Eddie Guerrero’s theme at Mania. The disrespectful punk needs to come out in a lowrider to garner nuclear heat. It doesn’t matter if The Judgement Day comes out and causes interference for Dominik to get the win, all that matters is that both superstars get the biggest payoff of this nearly year-long feud. Just imagine the Roman Reigns heat after he defeated The Undertaker and multiply that by ten. Dominik portrays the perfect heel and he truly is the missing ingredient that The Judgement Day needed to grow and evolve into a top faction.
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