Matt’s Retro Review: WWF Championship 1990

Matt is back with another Retro Review, and this time he looks at the 1990 run of the WWF Championship and The Ultimate Warrior! How does he grade this reign?

Welcome to the fourth 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? Length 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.

The Ultimate Warrior (April 1st, 1990- January 19th, 1991)
Record: 12-1
Clean Losses: 0
Successful Defenses: 6

Recommended Matches to Watch

• The Ultimate Warrior d. Hulk Hogan, April 1st, 1990, “WRESTLEMANIA IV”
• The Ultimate Warrior d. Mr. Perfect, May 15th, 1990, “Battle of WWF Superstars”
• The Ultimate Warrior d. Randy Savage, October 30th, 1990, “2nd Annual Battle of WWF Superstars”
• The Ultimate Warrior, Kerry Von Erich, Hawk, & Animal d. Mr. Perfect, Ax, Smash, & Crush, November 22nd, 1990, “Survivor Series”
• Sgt. Slaughter d. The Ultimate Warrior, January 19th, 1991, “Royal Rumble”

Thoughts: In what is regarded as one of the worst “major” WWF Championship runs in company history, The Ultimate Warrior self destructed here, failing to captivate in his mega run with the title, feuding with Ted DiBiase and Rick Rude, with none of their matches being anything special at all. He did have a small champion vs champion feud with Mr. Perfect which was fun. Warrior also started teaming with The Road Warriors, resulting in a Survivor Series match against Perfect and Demolition. What happened after that match is completely ridiculous and the less said about that, the better. Whatcha gonna do, brother? Very few must-watch matches during this reign. From 1984-1991 we’ve only seen the WWF Championship change hands cleanly twice, and this was not one of them as Randy Savage cost Warrior the world championship at the 1991 Royal Rumble leading to their Career vs Career match later on. There will be worse reigns, but this isn’t good at all, and has been the shortest WWF Championship reign yet! In the words of Bob Dylan, times they are a’changing….

Grade (A+ through F ): “D”

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”
4) The Ultimate Warrior (April 1st, 1990- January 19th, 1991) “D”