Date: 1 April 1990
Location: Rogers Centre, Toronto Entertainment District, Canada
Venue: Rogers Centre
Promotion: WWE
Attendance: 67,678
Tagline(s): The Ultimate Challenge
10. Toronto Was Chosen Partially Due To Its Closed Circuit Numbers
As the pay-per-view monster began closing its jaws around the United States, with more and more homes equipped with the technology, closed circuit viewings stateside increasingly tapered off. In Canada, it was a different story. America's neighbor to the north didn't get widespread pay-per-view access until around 1991-92, so if a Canadian fan wanted to catch a wrestling pay-per-view, or a boxing one, it was off to a venue offering a closed-circuit broadcast.
WrestleMania 5 in 1989 did big business in Toronto, as their closed-circuit showing drew $200,000 in revenue. The demand for WWE was still high in their Maple Leaf Gardens stronghold. It just so happened that SkyDome (today, Rogers Centre) was opening in June 1989, and the perfect storm came together: the rabid fanbase in Ontario could surely fill up a venue of SkyDome's size.
9. Toronto Newspapers Claimed Ric Flair Was At The Show
"The Nature Boy", despite being NWA Champion in early-1990, was in something of an ugly contract situation with the organization, and a title switch to Lex Luger appeared to be imminent. In the end, the whole issue was smoothed over, and Flair remained champion until July 1990, at which time he dropped the gold to Sting.
Reality contradicts reports from several Toronto-based news outlets, who claimed that Flair was at WrestleMania 6 as a guest of McMahon's, and that he would soon be on board with the company. That must have been news to Flair, who worked a double shot in North Carolina that very day, participating in an Asheville matinee before headed to Charlotte that evening.
8. It Was Andre The Giant's Last Televised Match In WWE
At 43 and long since past his physical peak, Andre was near the end of the line as a performer. His last televised match with WWE took place in the second match of WrestleMania 6, where he and Haku dropped the Tag Team Championship to Demolition. Aside from a couple untelevised matches on international tours here and there over the following year, Andre never wrestled for the company again.
Fitting that his WWE curtain call saw him leave as a beloved hero, after tiring of Bobby Heenan's verbal abuse. Hearing Andre receive a standing ovation as he left on the motorized ring cart is one of the more underrated moments in WWE history, a moment of appreciation for an undoubted icon.
7. Four Matches From The Show Feature All Deceased Wrestlers
Andre is sadly one of 15 in-ring performers from the pay-per-view card that is deceased as of February 2017. Considering there were only 36 wrestlers on the show, it's even sadder that 42 percent of the participating wrestlers are gone. When The Ultimate Warrior died in 2014, it was noted that he was the twelfth (putting the total at one-third lost), with Dusty Rhodes, Roddy Piper, and Jimmy Snuka eventually joining him.
Of the 14 matches on the card, four of them entirely feature wrestlers no longer with us: Earthquake (2006) vs. Hercules (2004), Piper (2015) vs. Bad News Brown (2007), Rhodes (2015) and Sapphire (1996) vs. Randy Savage (2011) and Sensational Sherri (2007), and Snuka (2017) vs. Rick Rude (1999). Incredibly, prolific referee Joey Marella (who died in a 1994 car accident at age 31) didn't officiate any of those Factors.
6. It Featured Mr. Perfect's First Nationally-Televised Loss
House shows don't count, the traditional way of thinking goes. Mr. Perfect was undefeated on WWE television for more than a year and a half, accurately living up to his moniker. That's why his loss to Beefcake at WrestleMania 6 was treated in some ways like a fluke by the commentary team, somewhat surprised that even an upper-midcarder like "The Barber" could get one over on Perfect.
In actuality, Perfect not only lost a number of house show bouts to the likes of Hogan, Warrior, and even Jim Duggan for some time, he'd also lost a Madison Square Garden match to Warrior 13 days before WrestleMania, a match that aired exclusively in the New York market. Still, deferring to the story WWE wanted to tell, Beefcake was a streak-conqueror in his own right.
Perfect's perfect record ended that night to many, though others knew better.
A common sight of late-eighties WWE was Brutus Beefcake shearing the locks off of some lifeless jobber, or him clipping a souvenir from the scalp of some name-wrestler. He'd previously given Lanny "The Genius" Poffo a small trim at the 1990 Royal Rumble, and Genius had more coming. He just didn't know it, apparently.
After Beefcake felled Mr. Perfect, a post-match angle took place where Genius (Perfect's adviser) tried to abscond with Beefcake's novelty hedgeclippers. He was dragged into the ring, kicking his feet all the way, and given an involuntary fade. Per Beefcake's recollection, he was told by Pat Patterson to shave Poffo's head, but Poffo was never told. Hence, Genius' desperate escape attempt was quite legitimate.
Beefcake also adds that Randy Savage, The Genius' older brother, tried to pick a fight backstage with "The Barber" over the situation, with cooler heads prevailing.
4. Roddy Piper's Skin Solution Was Dumped Out As A Rib
Piper's questionable paint job was apparently a misguided attempt to, as his 2016 biography Rowdy tells it, "champion all people", regardless of color. Instead, the half-and-half appearance came off as a semi-committed Al Jolson tribute instead of anything particularly meaningful. After the brawl with Bad News Brown failed to go over well, Piper's night only got worse.
Piper's paint would only come off when contacted by a blend of solvents. Unbeknownst to Piper, Andre the Giant and WWE lifer Arnold Skaaland dumped out the solution as a prank, and replaced it with water. Not only could Piper not get the paint off, but he ended up going through the airport the next day, half-black.
In a direct quote from Hot Rod himself, "It took me three weeks to get that s--t off."
3. All Four April 1 WrestleManias Had A Face Vs Face Main Event
Coincidence? Hogan vs. Warrior was the first face vs. face main event in WrestleMania history. WrestleMania 6 happened to be the first April Fools Day WrestleMania, and there have been three since then. Each one has ended with a face vs. face battle.
In 2001, WrestleMania X7 concluded with The Rock vs. Steve Austin, although Austin did turn heel in the closing minutes. Six years later, WrestleMania 23 was headlined by John Cena and Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship. The most recent example was WrestleMania 28, where John Cena and The Rock had their historic "Once In A Lifetime" clash.
April 1 is a Sunday next year, but cannot have a WrestleMania due to Easter falling on that date. There's still a chance that on April 1, 2035, we'll see WrestleMania 51 end with a babyface battle pitting heroic Declan McMahon against 65-year-old Triple H, by now "revered" as the greatest WWE star ever.
But that's just petty conjecture...
2. Hogan Vs. Zeus Was Once Considered As The Main Event
I think I'd rather have seen WrestleMania 23 headlined with John Cena vs. Robert Patrick in his T-1000 armor. After No Holds Barred contaminated movie theaters like a film reel with malaria, McMahon somehow got it in his head that Zeus needed to wrestle. "The Human Wrecking Machine" was well-disguised in tag team matches where Randy Savage could do most of the work, but a singles bout to close out WrestleMania? That takes a certain level of blind optimism.
Fortunately, McMahon came to his senses by the fall of 1989, and relegated the Hogan-Zeus blowoff to a movie/match pay-per-view combo in December of that year. There, Hogan pinned Zeus in a tag team cage match with three leg drops, finishing the film-based feud long before WrestleMania.
1. Hogan Reportedly Openly Claimed That Warrior Would Fail As Champion
Hogan wasn't thrilled with the prospect of laying down clean for Warrior to end the marquee event, but he was pretty professional about it. The two worked together to deliver a strong match, with Hogan relying on experience and instincts to carry the body of the struggle. The Hulkster, despite being known as a cutthroat saboteur at times, couldn't have done more to make Warrior look like a star on his level.
But Hogan still felt he was the more valuable headliner. Bret Hart recalls a moment after the show where Hogan reportedly told him, "You watch. Warrior will fail. And Vince'll be calling me, begging me to come back."
That's pretty much what happened, as Warrior just didn't draw on top as WWE was hoping, and made Hogan champ once more a year later. As for Warrior, he was back to being a notch below Hulk.
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