(The bold function isn't working for me at all that I use to separate the matches. Hmmm? The old underline will have to do.)
This is super long. I hope you enjoy it more than the actual card itself, which wouldn't take much.
WrestleMania IV
“What the World is Watching” for four long long long hours.
Opening Thoughts – I love tournaments. In my youth I always put on tournaments with my wrestling figures. I also love the NCAA tournament, and I even wanted to choose the name of my baby tournament style. So, what’s there not to love about a tournament that will determine the new WWF champion? Well. A lot.
I haven’t seen this WM in a long time. The reviews in this thread haven’t been too kind to it, so I’m assuming I’m not going to be a big fan, but I’ll hope for the best.
One of the first things you immediately notice is that the crowd for IV has about 70,000 less people at it than the show just one year ago. This show – Held at Historic Atlantic City Convention Hall in Atlantic City – also just looks a lot more drab than 3, but still a lot better than 1 and 2. I’ve read that Trump made a major play to have this WrestleMania in Atlantic City. It ended up doing so well that V was held in the same location.
Gladys Knight opens the show was an a capella version of “America the Beautiful.” Her sweater had lots of flair on it (not 37 pieces, but close), so I’ll give her a solid 4 stars.
Invitational Battle Royal
Gorilla and Ventura welcome us to the show and introduces the seemingly 10 foot high trophy the winner of this battle royal will receive. Nothing gets a show off and popping like a battle royal…
Bob Uecker joins the booth and makes a joke about it being the first time he’s ever had a contract renewed, as he was at WrestleMania the year before. Before he was the hilarious announcer in the Major League movies he was a .200 career hitting catcher over five seasons in MLB. He says the best way to catch a knuckleball is to wait for it to stop rolling and pick it up.
All 20 guys get introduced to the crowd. I totally forgot who won this match and from the cast of characters I really couldn’t guess. My early guess was Hillbilly Jim just because the crowd seemed to cheer him the most out of anyone.
Sam Houston and Sika are eliminated within the first 30 seconds.
George “The Animal” Steele is in this match but he hasn’t entered the ring yet, which is probably for the better based on the only move I’ve ever really see him do is chew apart the turnbuckle. Animal pulls Anvil out of the ring from the outside, leaving Bret Hart to fend for himself.
Ramon Rougeau and both Killer Bees hit the blue mat. My pick of Hillbilly is still hanging in!
Ron Bass is eliminated by JYD and Steele poked him in the eyes for his trouble.
Oh damn, Hillbilly is the next one eliminated. Both Uecker and I are equally upset, as he said “That was my pick!” With no horse in the race now, I guess I’ll still review WM4 (In hindsight I should have stopped here).
My new pick is Harley Race. I’m sorry, “King” Harley Race.
Danny Davis, who was now “Dangerous” is next to go, followed by Jim Powers.
Harley tried to headbutt JYD, forgetting that JYD has the head of a Samoan.
Volkoff, Zhukov, and Patera are all eliminated in a matter of seconds. Fun Patera fact – he had recently returned to the WWF after a two year prison sentence for assaulting two police officers after he and Masa Saito were denied service at a McDonald’s. WWF actually played up his return, even making a documentary about his return to wrestling, but instead he was mostly left floundering as a tag-team with Billy Jack Haynes, the would be Hulk Hogan.
Jacques Rougeau is eliminated, leaving five.
Seconds later my second pick, Race, was eliminated.
Roma is next to go, leaving JYD, Hart, and Bad News Brown. Brown and Hart attempt to double-team JYD, but JYD moves and Brown clotheslines Hart.
Oh, I just remembered “The Animal” was still in this, but we haven’t seen him ringside in a while. Looking it up on Wiki they tell me Steele was eliminated 7th for not entering the ring. If they made a mention of that, I missed it.
Well this is taking a while. Eventurally Hart and Brown eliminate JYD. Hart and Brown are linked together by the fact that Brown was a 4-time champion of Stampede Wrestling in Canada, which was owned and operated by Hart’s father, Stu.
While celebrating in the ring, Ventura suggests that they’ve decided to split the prize money. Around the same time Brown lands his Ghetto Blaster – a double leg enzuigiri. I always loved that move.
The term “Pearl Harbor Job,” lives on, as Gorilla tells us that’s what just happened. After beating Hart up for another couple of moves he tosses Hart over the top for the win. This was the start of the Hart Foundation’s face turn. The real life reason for the turn, according to the exceptional Bret Hart autobiography, is that Hart received more fan mail than any other wrestler, and that was as a heel.
Bad News Brown comes from a long line of wrestlers who were apparently told by Vince that if they joined him in the WWF they would become champion. This giant trophy is about as close as he ever got to that, and Bret Hart destroyed it. Poor Bad News.
Despite the fact I just spent nearly 1k words on a battle royal, I’m not going to rate it. For the most part it moved along pretty fast, which is a good start for a four hour show.
Championship Tournament First Round Match – “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan vs. Ted DiBiase w/Virgil and Andre
But first, a history - The WWF Championship had been vacated for the first time in history because Andre immediately sold the title to Ted DiBiase after defeated Hogan with the help of an evil twin referee. President Jack Tunney was having none of it, and vacated the belt. He wasn't TOO upset though, because he gave Dibiase and Andre another chance in this tournament to win the belt.
Robin Leech from the “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” television show, reads a proclamation telling us, in more words than this, that the winner of the tournament will be the new WWF Champion.
14 competitors are vying for their shot of the gold. Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant received first round byes and will meet in the 2nd round (quarterfinals) in a rematch of their epic clash from last year's WrestleMania.
Between WM3 and WM4 Hacksaw started his “Hoooooooooooo” yell, I learn, as he is walks to the ring with his trusty 2x4.
I recently watched a match between these two that took place in Mid-South Wrestling that I had read was a bit of a hidden gem. It was indeed hidden, as I finally saw it on the Black History month portion of the Network (yup), but I didn’t think it was a gem. Nor did I think this match was a gem.
I think DiBiase is a wrestler who is certainly appreciated the more one gets into wrestling as opposed to how you felt about him when you were a kid. For one, he didn’t look much like any of the other wrestlers, with close to zero muscles. But going back and revisiting him you learn he did everything right and he made others look good by his usually awesome sell jobs. Also, The Million Dollar man was just a great character.
Botch early on where Ted is expecting Duggan to turn one way so he can jump off the ropes and give him a double ax-handle. After a bit of ad-libbing, DiBiase does eventually get to do this spot.
A little later, Duggan does a sunset flip, which was pretty surprising to me, and on cue, Ventura says he would have never expected a move like that out of Hacksaw. I’m glad I’m not alone. Shortly after he follows this up with a suplex, which is the answer to the riddle “did hacksaw ever do a suplex/suplay?”
The ref could have pretty clearly disqualified DiBiase here as he’s staring right at Andre when he both trips and punches Hacksaw. DiBiase gets the pin after landing a fistdrop. Really dumb ending. 1.5 stars for Hacksaw doing two more wrestling moves in this match than I’ve ever seen him do before.
First Round Tournament Match “The Rock” Don Muraco w/Billy Graham vs. Dino Bravo w/Frenchy Martin
After a backstage interview with Brutus Beefcake – who will challenge Honky Tonk Man later for his IC title – we see Bravo getting already in the ring treatment. Muraco comes out with Graham to the biggest pop of the night.
The Rock goes for some move off the second rope that completely misses/botches. He set up like a Vader bomb, jumps backwards, lands sort of on his feet and falls onto Bravo into a pin. Gorilla and Ventura say he slipped off the rope. At least they didn’t make fun of him.
Bravo kicked Muraco in the bum to break a toe hold and Muraco’s head gets caught between the top and middle rope. I always liked that spot, and I think Cactus Jack lost an ear doing it. That’s not why I like it.
Bravo lands a pretty impressive looking pile driver but only gets a two count. After going for it again, Muraco flips Bravo over. Flying forearm for the Rock, which is pretty cool. When he goes for a second one, Bravo shields himself with the ref, who takes the forearm flush. Bravo lands his finisher, a side suplex (speaking of worse finishers of all time) and goes for the pin. However, the ref decides to DQ Bravo for throwing him into the forearm.
I liked this better than I thought I would. 1.5 stars. I’d give it two but again, I didn’t like the ending. The other problem I had is that I thought there was close to zero chance Bravo would win as it would mean he would face DiBiase in the second round.
First Round Match – Greg “The Hammer” Valentine vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat w/Baby Dragon
Two things. 1. My “already in the ring” theory may have to be retired. At least when it comes to WrestleMania’s. Valentine was already in the ring, but he gets the win in this one. I guess because there are 97 matches on this card they had to kill time in some places. 2. Anyone that can read a bracket can see that if Steamboat and Macho Man both win their first round matches they would meet in a rematch of their five-star classic (and the best match in Mania history, to date) of just a year ago.
One of the biggest surprises to me so far while doing these reviews is the respect I have gained for “The Hammer” through the first four WrestleMania’s, after not giving him much thought at all. It’s sort of like a DiBiase effect, but on a smaller level.
Here’s some Facebook gossip for those into that kind of thing. I recently read a story from a guy who said his sister had a date with Greg Valentine “years ago.” However, because the young lady came from a strictly religious background, she was to be accompanied by a chaperon on the date. Mr. Valentine didn’t like that, and showed his displeasure by smoking weed in the car on the way to the restaurant with his date and chaperone, and then acting semi-*******ish, though not completely, during dinner. However, he did end the night giving them both tickets to the WWF show in Toronto the next night, which is why Hammer was there in the first place. Needless to say, there wasn’t a second date.
Back in the ring, Steamboat starts things off with a pair of beautiful
armdrags. Valentine really did move around in there pretty well with the much faster Steamboat. A third botch in as many matches takes place when Steamboat should have rolled Valentine up for a pin attempt but Valentine fell too early. Not as obvious as the other ones, but not a great start here for WrestleMania in terms of execution.
Steamboat playing the part of baby face in peril for most of the early part of the match. Pretty cool spot where they take turns wacking the crap out of each other with chops. Valentine is very fond of the falling on your face spot that Ric Flair made famous, as he’s done it four times in about five minutes.
Nevermind, make that five, as he does it again after a single chop from Steamboat as he broke out of a figure four attempt.
Six, after an elbow drop.
Seven after a chop from Ricky off the top. Honestly, it’s all I can look for right now.
Eight, after Ricky slams Valentine’s head into the turnbuckle ten times. Ricky gets angry at the ref after breaking up the punches. He goes to the top for his flying crossbody (Another not so good finisher) but Valentine turns him over and gets the surprising three count.
Valentine’s selling was really annoying in this match, but the match itself was decent and lasted a decent amount of time (just under 10 minutes). 2.25 stars.
First Round Tournament Match “The Natural” Butch Reed w/Slick vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage w/Elizabeth
While Macho Man is taking care of Reed in the background I’ll share some Butch Reed facts with you I just found – Wrestling lore suggests that Butch Reed was booked to beat Ricky Steamboat for the IC title at a house show one night, but no showed the event. The title was eventually given to Honky Tonk Man, who held it forever.
He was also supposed to start a feud with Superstar Billy Graham, but because of Graham being damaged goods from a hip replacement surgery that never correctly heeled enough for him to return to wrestling, that idea was scraped.
Coincidently Doom (Reed and Ron Simmons) was one of the very first Tag Teams I have a vivid memory of.
In the meantime Reed has been winning this match from the opening bell. After he takes about 20 minutes to climb to the top rope, Savage meets him for a slam, he flies to the top rope for the elbow, and gets the victory. Hot start for Savage in a close to dud of a match. 1 star.
WWF was finally figuring out how to manage their guest celebrities by keeping them backstage and not on commentary. Because of that, and familiarity, one would assume, Jesse and Gorilla are really coming into their own as a commentary team. Bob Uecker has been great in all the Mania’s he’s been involved in, which I think this is his 3rd. I am happy to see he is indeed in the WWE Hall of Fame.
First Round Match Bam Bam Bigelow w/Oliver Humperdink vs. One man Gang w/Slick
Bam Bam Bigelow is responsible for one of my all-time favorite spots in wrestling history, which coincidentally is when I really knew wrestling was scripted. I think I’ve shared this story on the forum before, so apologies if you’re reading this for the 2nd time.
I was at a house show in Washington D.C. with my family and it was Tatanka vs. Bam Bam. Tatanka goes to do his power up, comeback, war dance, and I immediately get bored knowing the match is almost over so I start to clock out. Then a beautiful thing happens, Bam Bam does a ghetto blaster and stops Tatanka in his tracks and the whole crowd is shocked because you just didn’t really see things like that back then.
Fast forward a couple of weeks later and I’m watching wrestling at my friends house. It’s Tatanka vs. Bam Bam…and it’s the same exact match I had just seen in DC. At the time I didn’t realize wrestlers used house shows to perfect spots. I retold the match to my friend a little before each move was happening. I genuinely feel we were sad both realizing that what we were watching was clearly scripted. I think we even tried to talk ourselves into believing it was just a huge coincidence. My childhood died a little that day.
Gang came to the ring with Slick, which he would keep as a manager when he turned into Akeem the Dream.
Bam Bam really moved around well out there for a big guy, but this version of him was pretty goofy. In terms of athleticism in big guys, I always put him in a similar category to Vader.
Bam Bam controlled most of the action before Slick pulled down the top rope and sent Bam Bam over the ropes. Once again the ref is looking right at Slick as he does this and doesn’t do anything. Then the ref counts out Bam Bam even though they were fighting on the apron, but in the true sense of the meaning I guess it was a count out Almost seems botchy but I think this is what they really wanted to do here, which is somehow worse. .5 of a star.
I mean these finishes are bad.
Between matches Hulk Hogan cuts the famous backstroke.gif promo.
First Round Tournament Match – Rick Rude w/Bobby Heenan vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts
This is the last match of the first round and they certainly saved the worst for last, which is saying something.
I have yet to fast forward a single match. I am not going to fast forward this match but it’s going to be very hard for me to pay attention.
I have a couple different theories on this match, both of which are probably wrong. Number 1. Rude and Roberts were told they were going to lose in the first round and decided to pack it in with what is probably the worst WrestleMania match in history.
Second theory – They were pretty hungover or actively drunk and decided to pack it in in epic fashion.
On paper this should have been a great match. Rude was obviously more cut, but they had very similar build and look and were both certainly capable of putting on the best match of the first round, especially being they were given 15 minutes.
A buzzfeed list I just found ranking all Mania matches ever have 23 matches listed worse than this with a match yet to come (Beefcake and Honky) on this WrestleMania outdoing them in the stink department.
This may be a good time for me to think aloud about a subject I often think about when it comes to wrestling. In the above list many of the matches that are ranked worse than this one are matches that never had a chance to begin with. They are either silly gimmick matches or matches between workers that were never expected to put on anything good to begin with. These two were given 15 minutes. That’s plenty enough time to put together a match that could have stolen the show. I highly doubt Vince told them to go out and give each other a chinlock for 15 minutes.
On the other side of the coin I often wondered what’s the shortest match that I would consider an all-time great or even just very good. I mentioned that I’m always surprised that the Savage-Steamboat match of just a year prior went sub-15 minutes. It’s something I would have to put some time thinking and researching and could even be worthy of a thread (Greatest Matches Under 15/10/5 Minutes"). Perhaps this wasn’t the most entertaining thing to read but it was certainly better than this match, no matter what I wrote.
Ventura shows his subtle displeasure with this match by saying that it doesn’t make sense for a weardown move when the time limit is only 15 minutes and that was with Rude giving a headlock to Roberts.
I can’t imagine I’m going to score too many 15 minute matches zero stars, but here’s one.
Vanna White is shown backstage bringing the heat with Gene Mean. Nearly 30 years later she still has a lot of heat on her fastball.
Hercules w/Bobby Heenan vs. Ultimate Warrior
Throw some paint, hair, and spray tan on Hercules and you would have had the Ultimate Warrior, in look anyway.
I always thought Hercules delivered really stiff clotheslines, and he lands three on Warrior here early, dropping Warrior on the third one.
Hercules gets his full-nelson on Warrior, but once again – like against Billy Jack Haynes – he can’t lock his fingers. Warrior pushes off the ropes and lands on Hercules getting the three count, as he lifted his shoulder just in the nick of time. This match was fine for what it was. You would have liked a little more definitive end to a feud being it was WrestleMania and all, but that will have to do. 1.5 Stars.
Quarterfinal Match – Andre the Giant w/ Ted DiBiase and Virgil vs. Hulk Hogan
“I’ve never seen a guy so ecstatic about being eliminated from his chance to regain his championship of the world.” – Ventura on Hogan following this match.
The crowd woke up for this match, and in a lot of ways you think this was the only reason they were here, as they weren’t a real wrestling crowd being in AC (this topic has been discussed previously in this thread). For the crowd’s trouble, they get just over five minutes of nonsense.
I read an interesting take on Andre’s life last night in a graphic novel – the only graphic novel I’ve only read - It's by Box Brown, which was a birthday gift from my dad. I won’t recommend it as it might not be for everyone and I’d imagine everyone reading it would already know about 90 percent of what was in the book but I will suggest at the lease checking out reviews to see it if was for you. I’m glad I read it.
Andre hits his caught in the ropes spot early in this match. Ted and Virgil get him out quickly though. They follow this with the “you can’t knock Andre down” spot, in which Andre fell quicker than Hulk thought he was going to, sort of negating the spot.
Andre takes control and latches on with his nerve hold. Hogan breaks out. While Virgil is distracting the ref, Ted hits Hulk with a chair. Hogan then gets the chair and hits Andre. Andre gets the chair and hits Hulk. Ref calls off the match.
We’ve already seen what feels like half a dozen stupid endings, so this should come as no shock. The ref didn’t see DiBiase hit Hulk with the chair. He did however see Hogan hit Andre with the chair. He probably should have DQ’ed Hulk right then. Maybe then a second ref could have said DiBiase used the chair first and then called it a double DQ, but then they may have been forced to give Andre the win. Trying to dissect this is hurting my head. At least the double DQ sends Ted DiBiase all the way to the finals should he beat Rock in the next match, which strategy wise obviously helps team Ted.
After the match Hogan celebrates in the ring like he won. Ventura rightfully openly wonders what is he doing. I mean this whole thing is silly beyond words. .2 of a star only because I think it’s slightly less worse than Rude vs. Snake and thankfully only a third as long…not including the Hogan “celebration.”
Quarterfinal Match – “The Rock” Don Muraco w/Billy Graham vs. “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase
Seeing DiBiase walk down to the ring without the “HA HA HA HA HA...” theme song is a little weird, but I think that theme song is given to him shortly after Mania.
DiBiase eventually takes control after Muraco controlled the early part of the action. Muraco gets his comeback, but it ends abruptly when DiBiase lands a slingshot to get the clean 1-2-3.
Now, I hate to complain for the sake of complaining, but if any guy was going to cheat to get to the finals it would have most obviously bed DiBiase. This whole thing is built around him using nefarious ways to win the title. This whole card seems backwards, but the match itself was fine. 1.75 stars.
Quarterfinal match – Greg “The Hammer” Valentine w/Jimmy Hart vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage w/Miss Elizabeth
Before the match, The Fink explains to us that One Man Gang has advanced to the semi-finals because of some stupid ending earlier in the tournament and the winner of this upcoming match will meet him there. All this does is serve as a reminder to the crowd that is paying attention – which may not be many at this point – that there is no chance of Valentine vs. One Man Gang in the next round.
Like a crowd in Philly, I have turned on this event and it’s hard for me to come back around. The only question left for me at this moment is if Savage winning it all at the end will be enough for me to keep this out of my all-time worst slot, currently held my WM4. Being that it’s taken me upwards of a month to get to this point of WM 4, I think I know my answer.
After it appears Macho Man misses a double-ax handle off the top and instead gets a forearm or fist to the stomach., Valentine does his face first plant we’ve already seen a million times. I guess this is supposed to indicate that they both landed their move but it’s more indicative of the 10th or so botch on this card. Anyways Valentine goes for his figure four but is rolled up into a small package. Savage gets the W. 1.25 Stars.
IC Championship – (c) Honky Tonk Man w/Jimmy Hart and The Sensational Peggy Sue vs. Brutus Beefcake
“What this guy (Honky Tonk) lacks in ability he makes up in luck.” I think a lot of fans feel the same way in regards to his entire career.
I can’t believe there is still an hour and change left on this card. I’m already at 4400 words. Oy.
Last year Brutus made a very hard to tell face turn. It’s so forgettable I forget even the match. I only remember that it wasn’t until the next match when he saved a face did I realize he really switched.
This match is rated worse than the rest hold fest between Rude and Snake a few days ago (in my writing time, not real life, I don’t think).
Honky setting up his Shake, Rattle & Roll was so bad. They’re right next to the ropes so Beefcake can hold on to the ropes while Honky still completes the move without Beefcake there. It’s almost as bad as Orton doing his slam with no one there. Almost.
Hart crushes the ref with his megaphone. I mean at least they were blatant about how this match would end. Beefcake cuts some of Jimmy’s hair and somehow it’s an improvement. Sherri Sue wakes up Tonk with a bucket of water. .75 of a star.
Between matches we get the famous “Andre choking Uecker” scene.” He does explain that the point of his dq with Hogan was to eliminate Hogan from the tournament. That makes more sense but sort of squashes the rest of the people in the tournament as not being worth worrying about. A little bit of a nitpick, but it at least makes more sense to me now.
The Islanders (Haku and Tamu) and Bobby Heenan vs. The British Bulldogs and Koko B. Ware w/Matilda and Frankie.
Heenan’s wearing the protective gear you see someone wearing at a police dog seminar. Matilda the bulldog trying to get Heenan was literally one of the biggest pops of the night.
It seems Vince liked/likes to have really good tag teams in random six-man matches at Wrestlemania.
One of the Islanders is Haku/Meng. A lot of people in wrestling call him the toughest guy in the history of the industry. Do yourself a favor and look up Meng stories. They are all more entertaining than this whole card, bar a match or two.
“Heenan looks like a Chinaman.” – Jesse Ventura. It’s a different era here, folks.
This match isn’t bad. The Bulldogs and Islanders get a lot of work and there isn’t a huge drop off when Koko gets in. Bobby gets his kicks in when he does enter. The second time he comes in Koko turns the tables. Everyone into the ring where Koko gets slammed and then the Islanders slam Bobby onto Koko for the win. There’s been worse on this card. 1.33 Stars.
It’s a shame The Bulldogs WrestleMania experiences include matches involving Danny Davis and Bobby Heenan. And Koko B. Ware.
Jesse poses for the crowd between matches, which the crowd really likes. I’m assuming the fans back then realized he was good on the mic, even if he was a heel. But then again we recognized this crowd isn't a true wrestling crowd, so who knows?
The Million Dollar comes into the ring to be announced as making the finals because of the double DQ in the Hogan/Andre match.
Semi-Finals Match – Macho Man w/Liz vs. One Man Gang w/Slick
I really did LOL here. There is no way in the world that anyone believed that the finals would be One Man Gang vs. DiBiase. I know times were different back then, but this is really terribly booked from top-to-bottom. This whole card could use a “fantasy booking” thread, because the talent is there, but the execution is laughable. If you know you’re going to have these poor people sit through 4 hours, at least have it make some sense.
Macho takes the initiative early in this match. He holds on to Gang’s beard and leaps over the top rope. However, Gang takes control as soon as he gets back in the ring. Macho has had about 17 seconds of offense - on the entire card - up until this point.
Double ax-handle from the top to the outside on Gang. Back in the ring Macho Man tries to slam Gang, which doesn’t work, and Gang takes control again. Slick goes after Liz a little. Macho eventually gets a hold of Slick. Slick’s cane gets to Gang, who hits Macho Man with it. He goes for a few more blows but misses, but not before he gets DQ’ed. For what it’s worth, The ref never actually saw Gang hit Macho Man with the cane. 1 Star.
Tag-Team Championship – (c) Strike Force (Rick Martel and Tito Santana) vs. Demolition (Ax and Smash) w/Mr. Fuji
The crowd is pretty clearly rooting for Demolion here, the heels.
Martel and Santana make frequent tags for a couple of minutes before Demolition takes over after a clothesline from Ax who was standing outside on the apron.
“I bet you Chico (Santana) wishes he was back selling tacos in Tijuana about right now.” – Ventura
Tito lands his flying forearm. “He learned that move back in the Mexican Football League. The MFL.” – Ventura
Martel gets a hot tag and beats demolition around the ring. Martel goes for his team’s finisher…The Boston Crab. Yup.
For the second match in a row, a cane comes into play. Ax hits Martel with Fuji’s cane. The winners and NEWWWWWWWWWWW champions, Demolition. 2.25 Stars.
Tournament Final – Macho Man w/Liz vs. Ted DiBiase w/Andre
Fink announces we’ve reached the final match of the tournament and the crowd barely stirs. I can’t recall a more anti-climactic announcement of a championship match. Even the Fink appears to give a sideways glace to the crowd, as if wondering if his mic is on.
Robin Leach brings the belt from the back. Bob Uecker is announced as the special ring announcer for the main event for the second year in a row. He announces Vanna White as the time keeper. This can’t possibly drag any longer.
I can’t believe I didn’t fast-forward a single second of this thing.
The crowd wakes up for about four seconds when Ted is announced to give out a hearty boo. It wakes up a little more for Macho and Liz.
Andre gets involved quickly in this match, grabbing Macho’s leg while he was in the corner, tripping him. The crowd stands, looks down the aisle and begins chanting for Hogan. Seconds later Andre grabs the leg again, and the Hogan chants become louder. I really like how Andre is so slick here. It’s hard to imagine a man so large doing anything “slick,” but he pulls it off.
Macho does his fly over the top rope spot while hanging on to Ted. Macho goes to the top to deliver an ax-handle but Andre steps in the way. Macho tells Liz to go to the back, and she reappears with Hogan. In the 30 seconds or so before Hogan comes to the ring, DiBiase sneaks up from being Macho Man with an ax-handle and Gorilla says it’s “A Pearl Harbor job!” That's 2.
Andre holds/chokes Macho in the corner and Hulk breaks it up. DiBiase goes to the top but is met by Macho who slams DiBiase to the canvas. Savage goes for the elbow, but misses. DiBiase locks in the Million Dollar Dream, which was called a sleeper hold by Ventura at this point. The ref is distracted by Andre, and Hogan enters the ring and slams the chair into the back of DiBiase. Savage climbs the rope, lands the elbow, and gets the 1-2-3, with a big pop to go with it.
The celebration in the ring starts off a year build-up to Hogan and Savage facing each other, even though they’re both clearly favorites here, when Savage turns he mentions how touchy feely Hogan is with Elizabeth here, and he’ll go on to do the same at their SummerSlam victory party a few months from now.
Final thoughts – This is the worst of the WrestleMania’s for me up until this point. It took me a month to get through it. I would literally think of anything else I could do besides watch this. Maybe I can make the self-argument that I got burnt out doing the first three in relatively short order, as none of those were exactly prime watching. However, I just really dislike almost everything about this show from the drab lighting and drab crowd, and just the whole way we get to the best part of the night, which is Macho winning the title.
Other than Macho taking the gold, there is nothing here I could begin to suggest to go back in watch if you haven’t seen this event. If you are doing a career retrospective of Demolition than you obviously go back and watch them win their first tag-titles, but that is it.
I think other notes that I would normally add to this section are sprinkled throughout the above.
First to Worst
WM 3
WM 1
WM 2
WM 4
Last edited by Tragichero; 02-24-2015 at 04:15 PM.
