Friday, March 29, 2024
Editorial1990 The Year in Numbers

1990 The Year in Numbers

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I was trained by WWE hall of famer Killer Kowalski, and I wrestled for 8 years throughout New England. There were many long car rides with 4 or 5 wrestlers to shows, and we would spend the entire time talking about pro wrestling. My articles are basically that, me reliving my love for the sport.


WWE 1990, the Year in Numbers.

This week I will be giving you the complete television records for all WWE superstars from 1990. I actually hand counted every single match from that year, it was a pain in the ass, but I would totally do it again. I’ll start with giving a rundown of the year for the bigger stars of the company .

The Macho Man Randy Savage 19-3. The Macho Man was coming off a great 1989, where he was the World Champion, and feuded with Hogan throughout. 1990 was his depush. He was relegated to feuding with Hacksaw Jim Duggan over the King of the Ring crown, and then was buried in a feud with Dusty Rhodes on the midcard. His Wrestlemania and Summerslam matches both against Rhodes, totaled 9 minutes. He was left of the Survivor Series card. The WWE misused many heels during this time, as the majority of them were just fed to Hogan, and then got sent back down the card. Savage stands out though as he was misused for pretty much his entire career. Maybe the rumors about him sleeping with Stephanie McMahon were true.

Hulk Hogan 11-1. That’s right, Hogan had 12 televised matches in 1990. He was the World Champion for the first 4 months, and had 2 two title defenses. I was only 7 back then, and there was no internet, but I don’t remember anybody complaining about it. But yet Brock Lesnar is trashed on a daily basis for the same thing. Hogan was acting more at this point, and was planning on retiring to act full time. WWE knew this and reduced his schedule and tried to find his replacement, but I’ll touch on this later. Hogan really was a paper champion for the majority of his career. Now people will argue that he defended the strap at house shows, but that’s not entirely true. For the most part, Hogan only did Madison Square Garden, and the Spectrum in Philly. Every once in awhile he would do LA, or Texas, but it’s not like he was at every house show. Hell, he went 4 plus years without appearing at the Boston Garden, which was the second most used venue of that era.

Rowdy Roddy Piper 11-0-2. Piper returned from his latest “retirement” at the end of 89, and worked a Hogan type schedule, until he took another sabbatical during the summer. Piper was a ratings grabber no matter where he was on the card. He also sold a lot of merch, he was one of the top faces of the first half of the year. If Warrior or Hogan were not on a show, Piper was. He worked a good mid card feud with Bad News Brown, ending at Wrestlemania. The WWE failed to capitalize on the heat that Brown got from this feud. Search for him on the Network, he was the original Stonecold Steve Austin. My one problem with Piper was that every 6 months or so, he would decide that he needed a break because he missed his family. WWE would always bring him back, but yet C.M. Punk was not allowed any time off, despite being seriously injured.

Mr. Perfect 47-5. Perfect was the workhorse for WWE that year. He was on Superstars almost every week. Perfect started the year, continuing his feud with Hogan for the title. But the WWE dropped the feud before Perfect even got a title shot. As I mentioned earlier, they needed to find a top face replacement for Hogan, so they needed him to pass the torch to the Warrior. Perfect would get a very nice run as the I.C. champ though. I still think he should have been given a run with Warrior as the champ, but I can’t really argue with the way WWE went with the title the rest of the year.

The Ultimate Warrior 14-1. The World Champion for the final 8 months of the year, had 15 televised matches that year. It’s almost funny but not really. WWE relied on highlight videos and taped promos for their champs during this era. It was a way of bringing in more ticket sales and buyrates. It was supposed to be a treat for the fans when the champ would compete. Except the buyrates and ticket sales began to drop when the Warrior got the belt. His feud with Rick Rude over the title, was good, but it was seen before. They were the original Orton and Cena. WWE knew they had to give the belt back to Hogan, but there’s about that later in the article. The Ultimate Warrior got over with the fans, but lacked the psychology and mic skills to sell tickets. He was great as a number 2 guy, but could never carry a company.

Bret the Hitman Hart 33-2-4. Bret Hart spent basically the entire year as a member of the Hart Foundation as him and Anvil held the tag titles from Summerslam until Wrestlemania 7 the following year. They were the best tag team they had, but with the Legion of Doom coming in, WWE knew they were the new money team. WWE began to take notice of Bret’s skills in the ring, and his ability to not only get himself over but his opponent as well. The first test they gave him as a singles star was at the Survivor Series, it was down to Hart and the Million Dollar Man for their teams. They got a good 6 minutes to showcase a singles match, and Bret delivered. The WWE still had some other faces to elevate before Bret, but his time was coming.

The Big Bossman 38-3. The Bossman was one of those faces that WWE wanted to elevate before Hart. The Bossman started the year as a heel with no real feud of any kind, and by Summerslam he was Hogan’s running buddy, standing in his corner against Earthquake. The WWE always stuck a face that they were building with Hogan, it worked with Savage, Beefcake, and Warrior, and it worked with Bossman. You could compare the pop that he got to what Dean Ambrose gets now. He was over with the kids, and adults. He had a hell a good run the following year too. Bossman wasn’t ever considered to be a replacement for Hogan, but was definitely able to replace Piper on the midcard.

Sgt. Slaughter 12-3. Slaughter had just finished up with the AWA, and wanted to come back to the E. Vince wanted him as a heel. Like I stated earlier, Vince knew he needed to get the belt back on Hogan, so he needed a heel to put it on first. The war in the Persian Gulf was all over the news, and Saddam Hussein was the biggest heel in the U.S. What better heel, then to have G.I. Joe himself turn on America and support Iraq. This not only made Slaughter the biggest heel in recent years, but it brought mainstream attention to the company that they had been lacking since the Rock ‘n’ Wrestling connection ended. Slaughter even received death threats, and there was a bomb threat that forced WM 7 to be moved to a new arena. I would say the whole angle was a success.

The Undertaker 4-2. Honestly the biggest accomplishment Hogan had in 1990, was bringing the Undertaker to the company. (they met on the set of Suburban Commando) The Undertaker made his debut as the mystery man on the Million Dollar Man’s team at Survivor Series. I missed the good old days, where a wrestler would debut without having vignettes air for 8 weeks before hand. He then competed on Superstars as Kane the Undertaker the following week. Kane was dropped from his name after that show. And good thing it was, what would they have called Glen Jacobs? Taker only had two months on t.v. in 90, but the Phenom was already on his way to the top. I remember being scared to death of him as a kid, I see the same reactions from children now, when they see Bray Wyatt.

The Rest of the Roster.

Jim Duggan 38-2-2
The Genius 5-4-1
Jake the Snake Roberts 34-4
Greg the Hammer Valentine 30-5
Ravishing Rick Rude 20-4-1
Dusty Rhodes 24-4-2
Dino Bravo 29-5-3
Rugged Ronnie Garvin 10-8-2
Earthquake 33-4
Hillbilly Jim 3-2
Jim the Anvil Neidhart 33-1-1
Marty Jannetty 29-8-1
Shawn Michaels 26-7-1
Haku 10-11-3
Akeem 16-4-1
Tugboat 31-2
Honky Tonk Man 31-4-3
Koko B. Ware 17-12-1
The Texas Tornado 13-3
Brian Knobbs 3-0
Jerry Sags 3-0
Luke 31-5
Butch 31-5
Million Dollar Man 31-7-2
Jacques Rougeau 1-3
Tito Santana 19-12-1
Blake Beverly 1-3
Beau Beverly 1-1
IRS 0-2
The British Bulldog 7-0
Papa Shango 0-1-1
Bad News Brown 23-1-1
Hercules 34-5
The Brooklyn Brawler 4-31
Andre the Giant 6-1
Ax 25-2
Smash 33-5
Boris Zhukov 9-21
Nikolai Volkoff 17-11
Brutus the Barber Beefcake 21-0-2
Rick the Model Martel 29-5-2
The Barbarian 36-7
Paul Roma 26-14
The Warlord 32-8
The Red Rooster 3-3-1
Superfly Jimmy Snuka 24-5-1
Shane Douglas 11-1-1
Hawk 18-1
Animal 18-1
Crush 16-2-1
Saba Simba 5-1
Dustin Rhodes 4-0
Ricky the Dragon Steamboat 1-0
Col. Mustafa 0-1
The Blue Blazer 3-2
Virgil 1-2

Well, that’s it for this week. Next week’s article will be a little different, I’ll be discussing why Ahmed Johnson failed to become a main event player. If you any have comments or suggestions for topics feel free to post them here, or add me on facebook. www.facebook.com/horror965

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