Ultimate Warrior Post WM6 With Both Belts

Had things been done that way, Warrior winning the IC may have taken longer. As to reality, Warrior was not interested in putting ANYONE over once he had the nod for the main event at 6. That was why it was title for title, they couldn't have him drop it in the run up and

If you've read the current thread about Mania 4 - you'll know that I'd have already done a title v title match at Summerslam 88 with IC champ Savage (won from Honky during the tourney) beating DiBiase.

Had things been done that way, Warrior winning the IC may have taken longer.

As to reality, Warrior was not interested in putting ANYONE over once he had the nod for the main event at 6. That was why it was title for title, they couldn't have him drop it in the run up and once he was "the guy" he could pick and choose his jobs until it was clear he was bombing.

I am sure Warrior felt that he had already put Rude over so why would/should he do so for Perfect or anyone else. Despite the fact that Rude winning the title from him at SS90 would have MADE Warrior a stronger champ down the line. He just wasn't up for doing anything to build anyone and neither was Hogan at that point.

The IC tourney, like the later one was the best of what was available at the time and some crazy booking. A lot of the guys who would have been in contention had suddenly gone for various reasons. Bam Bam, Barry Windham, Butch Reed. All of those guys were locks for a role in the tourney much less the wasting of Piper in there. How the hell was beating Santana better for establishing Perfect as THE guy than beating Piper?

Of course then the IC held a very different purpose to what it is now - it was the workhorse title, so bigger less talented guys could have the World belt - the IC champ had to draw. Later it became window dressing but in 1990 they couldn't keep it around the waist of the Warrior without losing a major drawing tool for their live shows, which were what they were about. They needed someone to sell those B shows and Perfect could.

Some stuff was quite unfortunate in that time - Beefcake got hurt, then they hired Davey Boy to take the spot and he got hurt so Von Erich got the nod for that shock win. Had Smith been the one to stun Perfect then the IC title would have had a much different trajectory in the year or more after - we'd have still seen guys like Bret rise, probably not the Mountie. But their international business would have taken off a lot quicker with Smith as IC champ and even after it ending up as it did, WWF Magazine was putting the feud on the front cover until Smith's injury went longer than planned forcing them to go with Bossman instead for Mania 7.

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