As we count down the last few days before WrestleMania 28, NZPWI staff have taken a look back over the years and come up with some of their most memorable WrestleMania matches. Dion McCracken continues with #4:

Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior, WrestleMania VI, 1990

I remember very vividly the first "holy sh*t!" moment I saw in professional wrestling.

It was the first episode of WWF Superstars of Wrestling, and highlights of the WWF Championship Tournament Final at Wrestlemania IV pitting Randy "Macho Man" Savage against "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase featured prominently.

The moment came when I saw Hulk Hogan nail DiBiase in the back with a steel chair to set up Randy Savage's first ever WWF Championship win. I'd never seen anything like it, and I was hooked.

Holy sh*t.

But the second of such moments trumped it, no doubt.

Royal Rumble 1990 aired on TV2 a few months after the U.S. live event and took place at the Orlando Arena in Florida. To this day, still one of my favourite Rumble's.

Mid way through the Rumble, Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior were cleaning house, until there were just the two of them left in the ring. Both men turned and saw each other, and looked as if they couldn't believe who they were across the ring from.

This was unprecedented. The WWF Champion and the Intercontinental Champion alone in the ring. Both were wildly popular good guys. And both were recognised as being the top guys in the company. Both were unbeatable.

And now, they were across the ring from each other. That is what you call, a "mark out moment".

A very short exchange followed, but the repercussions were massive. It was an unbelievable confrontation that nobody ever expected but everybody loved.

People started asking - who was the strongest force in the WWF? Were you a Hulkamaniac or a Little Warrior? Could Hogan, who nobody could cleanly defeat, survive an onslaught from The Ultimate Warrior?

In the months that followed, the build up to the biggest match since Hogan and Andre began. The Ultimate Challenge was set for the Toronto Skydome on April 1, 1990.

I'm probably quite biased; this match has a special place in my heart because I saw it during the time that I was the markiest of marks, as I'm sure many of you were. New Zealand kids were in a WWF frenzy and simply couldn't get enough of the action in the squared circle.

And I still remember the excitement I felt on the day the show was going to air, albeit not till 11pm that night. The first ever Wrestlemania to air on New Zealand television. Wrestlemania VI.

I set up my comfortable perch, overdid the junk food and watched what was, up until that point at least, the most incredible match I'd ever seen.

And even now, 22 years later (ouch!), that match still holds up as a classic for me.

Hogan and Warrior told an epic story that night. And it was one that was so unique for the day.

You had the King of the jungle in Hulk Hogan, the man who hadn't been beaten (cleanly) in the six years since he'd been back in the WWF. He was the consummate role model who you always believed would fight to the bitter end, regardless of the odds.

Then, you had The Ultimate Warrior, whose meteoric rise had seen him almost reach the same heights as Hogan. With an intensity that no one could match, he was an indestructible force who equally could not be defeated.

And in The Ultimate Challenge, fans would finally get to see just who was the very best.

In front of 67,678 fans, two "good guys" went at it at Wrestlemania for the first time ever.

Starting with the usual feeling out process, Hogan and Warrior traded "tests of strength", with neither man giving an inch or getting a clear advantage but both proving their immense power.

And it wasn't until Hogan "blew out his knee" and Warrior, the shark smelling blood, took advantage and began to pounce, that things started to turn, with the Intercontinental Champ pulling ahead.

Unlike Bret vs. Shawn at Wrestlemania 12 that Kirsty covered recently, this good guy vs. good guy battle didn't feature much in the way of technical wrestling and high speed offense. But even though it was just six years earlier, this was a different time and both men held the crowd in the palm of their hands with chinlocks and bear hugs.

It looked like Hogan was on the path for victory after "hulking up" like we'd seen a thousand times before. But a missed leg drop by the reigning Champion opened the door for Warrior to hit his patented splash and get the win.

Nobody could believe what they had just witnessed. It was a changing of the guard, as the seemingly unbeatable Hulk Hogan was taken down by the new top guy in the company, The Ultimate Warrior.

Even if you were a "Warrior guy", it was still unfathomable that he had beaten Hogan.

The classic show of class by Hogan who handed over the belt, and the sweaty (and somewhat awkward) embrace between the two friends post match only added to the legendary status of it all.

Topping off a tremendous card, The Ultimate Challenge was indeed, just that.

It wasn't the "in ring action" that did it. It was the huge personalities involved in the match. It was the incredible story that Hogan and Warrior - two men often lambasted for being average workers - told that night. It was the atmosphere surrounding the match. It was the history that was being made.

It's a shame that in the years that followed, Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon have stated that, if they had to do it all over again, Warrior wouldn't have won that match. And I can't blame them.

But The Ultimate Challenge will forever be one of the most enjoyable matches I've ever seen or ever will see. And I'm sure the majority of kiwi wrestling fans from the early 90s will feel the same way.

Do you?

Continue the journey:

NZPWI's Must-See WrestleMania Matches - #6 (Kirsty Quested)
NZPWI's Must-See WrestleMania Matches - #5 (Scott Anderson)
NZPWI's Must-See WrestleMania Matches - #3 (David Dunn)
NZPWI's Must-See WrestleMania Matches - #2 (Stevie McCleary)
NZPWI's Must-See WrestleMania Matches - #1 (Blake Leitch)