411’s Countdown to WrestleMania 23: The WrestleMania V Roundtable Review
Posted by Larry Csonka on 03.15.2007
The Mega-Powers Explode! OOOOOHHH YEAAAAAH…Brother!
Introduction~! "Apparently, things went so well for WMIV that they decided to go again. In fact, according to Basil DeVito, Jr., in "WrestleMania: The Official Insider's Story," writes, "It had always been an unspoken rule that WrestleMania would move to a different site each year…In 1989, though, that plan was temporarily shelved. The Trump organization had done such a great job with WrestleMania IV that it was hard to imagine a better host for the event. They wanted us back, and we were willing to consider a return engagement."
This was the second Mania I saw "live," meaning "on pay-per-view or at a closed circuit theater." This time, I actually took a date to the Capitol Music Hall in Wheeling, WV. How did the date end? Well, it's almost 18 years later, and she's still here. To me, that's a successful date.
Rockin' Robin (WWF Women's champion) sings "America the Beautiful" to open the show – What, was Gene Mean busy? Did Koko B. Ware insist on singing "Piledriver" during rehearsals? Seriously, her voice was okay for a locker room contest, but to open the biggest show of the year? Especially when Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and Gladys Knight have done the honors already? Not a good start to the show."
-Ron Gamble
Just S'pose
I thank Ron for participating in this feature and lending his knowledge and experiences here, as they only make the whole better. WrestleMania V, same venue but a much different show. One year removed from Savage winning the title and the run of the Mega-Powers began and now it all came crashing down and they would do battle for the WWF Title. Back in the days when the story could be seen moving from WrestleMania to WrestleMania quite clearly, and the excitement of being a fan was at its peak. Let's meet the staff and break down the card.
Our analysts today are…
You know who he is, Stuart Carapola!
He may be on a break from the Schematic, but he is here to bring the goods; he is Mathew Sforcina
That crazy dingo loving bastard, Scott Rutherford!
The longest tenured 411 writer on staff, the man; Ron Gamble!
WrestleMania V~!:
Hercules defeated King Haku @ 6:26 via pin
Stuart Carapola: Both men's stock had dropped dramatically by the time we got to WrestleMania 5. Haku was the new replacement King Of The WWF after Harley Race got injured and had to give up the crown, but he was a far cry from the ass kicker he had been prior to this. Hercules got a short burst of popularity prior to this thanks to an angle where Dibiase tried to buy Hercules as his slave, but had basically settled into JTTS mode by WM5. Short match to get the crowd going, and Hercules wins with the German Suplex spot (guy taking the move gets the shoulder up at 2).
Mathew Sforcina So we're back, once again, at the Up-market Bingo Hall that is Trump Plaza Convention Center, which had also held WMIV. And people are shocked that Trump is doing an angle with Vince? Anyway, this was a decent enough opener, with the Third Megapower (although I'm surprised they didn't have Savage destroy Herc in a taping before the PPV to send a message) fighting King Haku, which he was christened by the former King Harley Race before he went up to heaven. Or some such, it was a confusing video package. Regardless, good solid opener. Could have been a little quicker, but what are you going to do?
Scott Rutherford: Weird opener to say the least but despite all common sense telling us so, this was more than a little entertaining. Herc was a freshly turned face here and got the surprise win over the heavily pushed Haku. Nothing terribly exciting about the match but then again it being any decent was surprise enough for me.
Ron Gamble I'm still trying to figure out how Hercules Hernandez can be of Latino descent and be from Tampa, yet the guy is paler than me, a geeky Caucasian in Ohio in the middle of winter. Power vs. power in this match. Hercules hits a "sidewalk slam" suplex, then lifts his shoulder at the count of two to win the match at 6:37. Nothing great, but nothing too offensive, either.
Akeem and The Big Bossman defeated the Rockers @ 8:03 via pin
Stuart Carapola: This was Shawn Michaels' WrestleMania debut, and the beginning of his surprisingly poor record at the big show (now at 5-8), and he and Marty showed off some awesome moves, using their quickness to try and avoid getting killed by the Towers. However, Boss Man and Akeem's power was too much for the Rockers, and the Boss Man mashed him into the mat with a spinning powerbomb off a head scissors attempt and Akeem splashed him for the win. Still, the Rockers looked really good here. But then again, neither of them ever really didn't look good in the ring.
Mathew Sforcina Ah, Shawn Michaels' WM debut up against…That Team Name We Shouldn't Really Use. That said, Akeem and Bossman had the Big Nasty Fat Guys thing down pretty well, and The Rockers were the prototype pretty young things. So it's not surprising this was a good big guy/little guy match. The ending is cool too, Shawn going for a rana one time too many, getting powerbombed then splashed. Decent little match.
Scott Rutherford: While an odd pairing on the surface these teams actually put on a great little big man/small man match. Doesn't hurt when you have two awesome sellers like Jannety and Michaels in there making any offense look like death from Satan himself. My only gripe is Akeem and Bossman going over because this would have been the perfect chance to make this the shock win on the card and a good way to get the crowd jacked.
Ron Gamble The Rockers in their prime, you can't ask for more than that. If only Marty Jannetty could have stayed sober longer…At the end, the Rockers go for a double dropkick on Big Boss Man, but their timing was off. Akeem breaks up the pin, throws Marty out of the ring, then Boss Man catches Shawn Michaels in mid-air and kills him with a modified power bomb. Akeem hits the "sidewalk slam" 747 splash on Shawn for the pin at 8:02. I liked it, what can I say?
Ted Dibiase (w/Virgil) vs. Brutus Beefcake went to a double count out
Stuart Carapola: It's pretty clear that they had two top level guys that they needed to get onto the show, so they threw this match together to do it. Dibiase seemed to be in control of most of the match, but they spilled out of the ring and both got counted out. They both needed to be kept strong, Dibiase for his upcoming year-long feud with Jake Roberts, and especially Beefcake, who had a main event run coming up in the months after WrestleMania when he and Hogan would team up to battle Randy Savage and Zeus.
Mathew Sforcina Poor, poor Ted. From the World Title Tourney Finals one yeah to fighting the pseudo-gay barber guy for a vanity title near the bottom the next. Still, the Million Dollar belt sure looked cool. Still, poor, poor Ted. But would an ending have killed them? Brutus was floundering and Ted could come back from anything, a loss wouldn't have hurt either guy. Ah well.
Scott Rutherford: The problem with the early manias is most of the matches just seem to be a random choosing of people to work together. Unlike now where most matches are built over the course of a few months to give each match a feud blow off vibe this match was just sort of made with no real storyline or reason. The problem being while it was an okay match no one really had reason to care and the lame D.C.O decision only hurt it more.
Ron Gamble Virgil manages to distract and interfere throughout the match, just like a good bodyguard should. DiBiase goes for the Million Dollar Dream to win the match, but releases it early and celebrates. Beefcake turns around and tries to get a sleeper hold, but Virgil breaks it up. Beefcake goes after Virgil, DiBiase jumps him from behind, and everyone gets counted out of the ring at 10:01. To celebrate, Beefcake puts the "sidewalk slam" sleeper on Virgil, then goes after DiBiase. After subduing Ted, Bruti goes after a bag at ringside. To his dismay, it's filled with haircutting equipment. Everyone escapes with hair intact.
The Bushwhackers defeated The Rougeau Brothers @ 5:11 via pin
Stuart Carapola: After the Hart Foundation feud, the Rougeau Bros basically became the star tag team jobbers of the WWF. Therefore, when the Bushwhackers came to the WWF, it was only natural that the two teams get paired up. This was also drawing close to the end of the Rougeau's teaming, as Raymond would suffer a career-ending back injury sometime over the next year or so, and the Bushwhackers would coincidentally take over their spot as star tag team jobbers. Bushwhackers win a short squash here.
Mathew Sforcina As part of the "Keep Australia Beautiful" legislation of 1998, I'm not allowed to discuss in any way shape or form the team formerly known as the Sheepherders, even though they are Kiwis. Thank you.
Scott Rutherford: It's interesting going back and thinking about these matches now that I'm not a mark anymore and I know more about the backstage workings of the business. The Rougeau Brothers were one hot heel tag team for nearly a year by this point and some/most felt a tag title run was in their future but this match came and they were jobbed out rather bluntly to the comedy jobber team The Bushwhackers. Mind you, this match is quite funny despite itself because the Rougeau's were willing to show ass in the ring for the sake of entertainment. I only wonder what politics got in the way of them winning.
Ron Gamble When we were given the choices of which cards to review, I wanted this one, and specifically for this match. Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura decide this would be a good time to discuss United States immigration policy. Jesse is arguing for "open borders," because it allows for people like the Rougeau's to emigrate from their native Canada to Memphis, TN, and become, as their theme song says, "All-American boys." Gorilla decides he wants the borders closed. So, Gorilla agrees with Pat Buchanan, Bill O'Reilly, and Lou Dobbs, eh? Fascist bastard…
AND HERE IT IS! The move I've been waiting for! Raymond throws Butch to the corner, then picks him up for a body slam. Butch places his hand in an uncomfortable place (what, like the back of a Volkswagen?) to balance himself, but his hand slips. He puts it back, but it slips again. He finally finds something to hold onto, thanks to Raymond, if you get my uncomfortable drift. Ewwwww…. Three minutes later, the Rougeau's think they've won, so they celebrate. The Bushwhackers hit Raymond with the Battering Ram, followed by a reverse "sidewalk slam" gut buster on Jacques to win at 5:10.
Mr. Perfect defeated the Blue Blazer @ 5:59 via pin
Stuart Carapola: The Blue Blazer was, of course, Owen Hart, but even though he would become synonymous with the gimmick for all the wrong reasons ten years later, nobody had any idea who Owen Hart was back in 1989, they just knew that the Blazer was this crazy high flyer who did back flips off the top rope. Perfect always got along well with the Hart family, so he decided that even though he was going over, he was going to give Owen a good match, and they put together a nice match which, while short, got Owen's style over as much as it got Perfect over by winning. That's the kind of give and take you don't see much of these days.
Mathew Sforcina Nowadays of course, this match is viewed rather differently, thanks to the obvious. Still, this is a good example of what Curt and Owen could do, in 6 minutes putting on a hell of a match, despite being hampered by the Blazer gimmick (lacking the ironic underlying storyline it would have in its second attempt) and the overcrowded nature of these early WMs. Good match.
Scott Rutherford: Years before Bret and Shawn showed us the new way forward Owen and Curt gave us a taste. This was such the sleeper match of the night and caught everyone off guard because we the audience was used to punch-a-thons from over muscled slugs and these two popped the crowd big by giving us an entertaining wrestling match. I don't know if Vince had anything planned but I could see him not really caring about Curt until he saw the reaction this match got and thought after the Savage/Hogan rematch run ends, Curt can get a run. Probably not but I'm not paid to tell you things you already know.
Ron Gamble We know who the Blazer was now, but at the time, Owen Hart had not been in the Fed, and had not wrestled in North America much outside of Calgary, so not many people knew him. With about five minutes, they couldn't put on a stellar match, but it was still good. Blazer tries a crucifix, but Hennig kicks out at 2. While the Blazer asks about the count, Hennig hits his "sidewalk slam" fisherman suplex to win at 5:38.
Run D.M.C. performs "WrestleMania Rap", and I have a potty break.
Demolition defeated The Powers of Pain and Mr. Fuji @ 8:45 via pin
Stuart Carapola: Mr. Fuji had been the manager of Demolition when they won the WWF Tag Team Title the year before at WrestleMania but, sensing that he could trade up, he left Demolition for the Powers Of Pain at Survivor Series 88. This was the blow off match for that feud, and the idea was that the Powers Of Pain would have the numbers advantage with the extra man, but Demolition instead used Fuji to their advantage since he was the weak link. They cleared the Power Of Pain out of the ring and hit their finishing move on their former manager and won the match to complete their full year as the champions and also gain a measure of revenge against Fuji and his new charges
Mathew Sforcina Seeing Fuji get hit with the Decapitation still brings a joyous tear to my eye. This was the peak of Demolition, as beloved faces and on top of the tag ranks for about a year. A couple of months later their reign would end, but at this point, they were unstoppable.
Scott Rutherford: The PoP were NWA transplants that were also Road Warrior knock offs. They were supposed to be the big faces and got overran by the Demolition face surge that forced the WWF to do a double turn. This was the big blow off match to their feud I guess but the need to include Mr. Fuji as the man to job in the match was pretty weak. This match however was actually quite good considering the people in the ring were not really great wrestlers. That's what always struck me about the Demo's, they never really had great matches as such but almost no matter who they worked with they managed to produce something entertaining and this match is proof of that. Hard to believe they were champs for a year by this point and still had about another 5-6 months on their reign to go.
Ron Gamble Typical power match, with nothing different from their other matches except Fuji's interference is now legal. Demolition controls most of the match until 3-on-2 shenanigans rule the day. Warlord holds Smash while Fuji goes for the salt, but that trick never works! Smash ducks, Warlord gets a facefull of Japanese Ceremony in his face, and Ax and Smash hit double team "sidewalk slam" on Fuji to win at 8:26.
Dino Bravo defeated Ronnie Garvin @ 3:58 via pin
Stuart Carapola: This seemed less like a match in its own right as an opportunity to bring out Jimmy Snuka, who made his return to the WWF that night. He got an introduction before the match started, got a crowd pop, then left to get ready to become a mid card jobber, and so the match began. Bravo won this short match over the former NWA World Champion (not that that something like that would ever mean anything in the WWF) with his patented side suplex, which I still maintain is one of the least impressive finishing moves of all time.
Mathew Sforcina You know, most times when someone is on their way out, and being jobbed, they'll, well, half ass it. They go out, do the motions, but not have any heart and soul. Sometimes they do this but occasionally have good matches for buddies or pals. And then, you have this match, where despite it being a squash for Dino as Ronnie left, Garvin tried his darndest here for some unknown reason. True, it didn't make that much of a difference, but it's still an interesting footnote. But a footnote none the less.
Scott Rutherford: Could you imagine paying for this match now? Gavin had outlived his usefulness and was basically a JTTS by this point and a former NWA champ jobbing to Dino Bravo in less than 4 minutes is pretty amusing if incredibly terrible to watch. Really nothing else to say about this match.
Ron Gamble Go to your homes, people. Nothing to see here. Bravo jumps Garvin before the bell and controls the early part of the match, but Garvin makes a small comeback. Bravo grabs him and hits a "sidewalk slam" sidewalk slam to win at 3:48. After the bell, Garvin throws Bravo out of the ring and does the Garvin Stomp to manager Frenchy Martin.
The Brain Busters defeated Strike Force @ 9:16 via pin
Stuart Carapola: This was Strike Force's first match together in a year, since they lost the Tag Team Title to Demolition the year before. It was a good match, but it was most notable for the final breakup of Strike Force. Tito went for the flying forearm, but missed and nailed Martel, who staggered around the apron for a couple of minutes before walking out on Tito and leaving him 2-on-1 against the Busters. Arn & Tully made short work of Tito after that and won with a spike piledriver, and Martel gave this great post match promo where he said he was tired of carrying Tito around and would now go make it on his own.
Mathew Sforcina BRAINBUSTERS! Rick Martel turning heel! Tito getting beat up! This is the sort of match that belongs at a WrestleMania. Awesome wrestling, a great story, a shocking twist, this has it all. A great, great match.
Scott Rutherford: The Brian Busters coming out party. This match is several different kinds of awesome and introduced me to the NWA tag team formula that was completely foreign to me since I was brought up on a diet of WWF. The match had everything from great double teaming from Strike Force, storyline drama of Martel walking out on Santana and the shit kicking of a lifetime by the Busters on Tito as a result making them seem like heartless bastards that just didn't care. My only complaint was these teams didn't have a big run of matches before hand because that would have been one sweet feud to see and sterling matches to watch.
Ron Gamble Tully Blanchard makes his only WM appearance in this match, and that's just the beginning of the history. More history happens as this is Rick Martel's comeback match after being injured at last year's WM by Demolition. During the match, Tito and Rick collide in the ring, and Rick falls outside. After he climbs up on the apron, he shakes his head, trying to clear things up, then throws up his hands (ewwwww…) in disgust (oh! Okay…) and leaves the ring. Tito receives a "sidewalk slam" spike piledriver to lose the match in 9:17.
Jake Roberts defeated Andre The Giant @ 9:38 via DQ
Stuart Carapola: The story behind this was that Andre and Jake were feuding, but Andre was afraid of snakes. This match had special referee Big John Studd who, if you've been reading this entire series, you'll know faced Andre at the first WrestleMania. There was still no love lost between them, but Studd was determined to remain impartial. Andre mostly controlled the match, but when Jake went for the snake, he got attacked by Ted Dibiase, who grabbed the snake and ran, and while Studd watched Jake chase Dibiase up the aisle, Andre attacked Studd from behind. Jake came back with the snake and Andre ran, and Studd awarded the match to Jake by DQ. I guess this was supposed to lead to another Andre vs. Studd feud, but Studd was gone shortly after WrestleMania. Dibiase and Jake Roberts, on the other hand, began a feud that would last a year and saw Dibiase attack Jake and break his neck.
Mathew Sforcina This, on the other hand, was not a great match. Andre was seriously hurting even more by this point, and the ‘Andre gets heart attacks from snakes" storyline was weak, and personally I never really liked Jake as a creepy baby face but most people did so I guess that evens out. Add in overbooking galore (why the hell does DiBiase steal the fucking snake?), and you have a really bad match.
Scott Rutherford: In retrospect this is a sad match to watch. Andre by this point was a shriveling and broken down and being thrown into increasing stupid situations like Vince playing on his real life phobia of snakes for mass entertainment. From most accounts Andre was always up for these things because he believed he was giving back to the business that made him a world wide attraction before he got to the point where he couldn't work anymore. Very admirable but he really needed to be treated with more respect because he was Andre The F'ing Giant. Match sucked a dick for obvious reasons (Andre being a near cripple, Jake drunk off his ass) and the non-obvious (Andre being treated like meat)
Ron Gamble There was a lot – and I do mean A LOT – of argumentation and infighting between Andre and Studd, which should have been used to set up some kind of blow-off feud, following up on the events leading to their match at WMI. Especially after Studd won the Royal Rumble in January, right? Andre even gets disqualified at 9:44 for beating on Studd with nothing resembling a "sidewalk slam." Yet, from what I remember, the follow-up feud never happened. This wasn't right before Studd got sick, was it?
Piper's Pit with Morton Downey, Jr., and Brother Love
Ron Gamble The easy part of this was finding a way to humiliate Brother Love. Downey had his own talk show at the time that was an early version of "The Jerry Springer Show," only without Jerry Springer and the transvestite midget porn stars. How can you humiliate a man who appears on television five days a week on that type of show? Piper tries to put out his famous cigarette with a fire extinguisher, and it works! Then, to make the picture complete, we have a guy in a skirt (it's a kilt!) skipping around the ring.
The Heart Foundation defeated Greg Valentine and The Honky Tonk Man @ 7:40 via pin
Stuart Carapola: Just another filler match as the Hart Foundation takes on another team managed by their former manager Jimmy Hart. Nothing really notable happened, and the Harts won after busting Honky in the head with Jimmy Hart's megaphone.
Mathew Sforcina Ah, Rhythm and Blues before they were Rhythm and Blues. Ok, this match is pretty good from an impartial, but it didn't serve any real purpose, didn't go anywhere, and is just filler on a card that didn't need any. Heck, why not combine this match with the BNB/Hacksaw match from later on, that at least has a smidge of back story and is slightly more interesting. Ah well, considering the rest of the card, maybe we should just take what we got.
Scott Rutherford: Man, this was a fun match. Valentine was probably mortified to be teaming with HTM and facing the prospect of dying his hair black but that team was gold waiting to happen. You pair one good worker with a great heater getter and it's always a sure fire winner. So when you put them in a match with one of the greatest tag teams that ever walked the aisle you were always going to get a good match. The only thing that hurt this was the relatively short length of the match because I firmly believe if given 15 minutes they could have pumped out a ****1/2 classic. As it stands it's a decent match on a rather large card lost in the shuffle but if you ever get the chance to check it out you could have worse ways to spend your time.
Ron Gamble Not as good as one might think. The end comes when Jimmy Hart throws in the megaphone, but Bret Hart (who used to catch it when Jimmy was his manager) catches it, hits Honky Tonk Man with a megaphone-enhanced "sidewalk slam", and wins in 7:40.
Rick Rude defeated The Ultimate Warrior to become the NEW Intercontinental Champion @ 9:45 via pin
Stuart Carapola: This seemed to be another routine title defense for the Ultimate Warrior, who had been unstoppable since coming to the WWF and squashing Honky Tonk Man to win the Intercontinental Title. He blew through nearly everybody in a couple of minutes at most, and it seemed that Rick Rude would be his latest victim. Instead, interference from Bobby Heenan led to Rick Rude falling on top of the Warrior after a suplex attempt by the champion and pinning him to win the title. Warrior beat the crap out of Heenan after the match, but he would have to spend the rest of spring and summer going through all the other members of the Heenan Family before he got a rematch with Rude at Summerslam.
Mathew Sforcina No-one expected Rude to win here. It was the Warrior for goodness sake, he never loses. But Heenan proves his worth once again with an ending that at the time had not been seen on PPV before, helping his guy win the title in a shock result that ended up setting up Warrior's first program after winning the title, in a shocking bit of continuality and logic, for the WWE. Shocking match, but a good match.
Scott Rutherford: Man, no one saw this coming. While Rude was super hot at the time everyone thought the Warrior was a walk to win this and the WWF pretty much shocked everyone and had Rude go over with minimal bullshit. The crowd (and myself) were literally in shock and it pretty much stunned everyone for the next few matches creating a weird semi-silence. In the aftermath of Crash TV these sort of defeats are common place but the magic of the era of wrestling was that the simple things still worked. Today this would be crying out for a swerve but then it was just that and I for one think it's a damn shame these types of moments are almost gone from wrestling.
Ron Gamble An historic match as Rick Rude wins his first and only title in the WWF. Warrior Warrior tries to suplex Rude back in the ring, but Bobby Heenan, using his brain, trips Warrior Warrior and holds his leg, preventing a kick out from Rude's "sidewalk slam" drop. Rude gets the win and the title in 9:36. One of the better matches of the night.
Bad News Brown vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan went to a double DQ @ 3:40
Stuart Carapola" AHHHHHH, the infamous booger match! This was a short, four minute brawl that ended when both men grabbed weapons (Brown with a chair and Duggan with his 2X4) and started fencing with them, forcing the referee to call for the bell. Duggan won the brawl and drove News out of the ring, and as he looked at the crowd and went "HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" he had this big booger hanging out of his nose, and it was so disgustingly blatant that even Jesse Ventura mentioned it on commentary. Sadly, the booger was probably the most famous thing Duggan ever did at WrestleMania.
Mathew Sforcina Uh, yeah. Nice little chair/2X4 dual at the end though.
Scott Rutherford: Two brawlers brawling. JOY!.....This match is more known for the rather large piece of snot that hung out of Duggan's nose while the match was in progress. If that doesn't tell you just how bad this match was then nothing else would. If you are expecting praise from me then you'll be waiting a long time.
Ron Gamble Last year, Bad News Brown won the battle royal to start WMIV. One year later, he's third from the top against My Close Personal Friend, Jim Duggan. The match is a brawl until Brown brings a chair into the ring, Jim grabs his trusty 2-by-4, and the two duel to a double disqualification for using foreign-object laced "sidewalk slams" in 3:49.
The Red Rooster defeated Bobby Heenan @ 0:32 via pin
Stuart Carapola: Bobby Heenan brought Terry Taylor to the WWF a few months before this and, in an effort to show that he could literally take any loser off the street to the top, he turned him into a chicken and made him cluck and stuff. Heenan kept coming down on Taylor no matter what he did, so he kicked Heenan to the curb...and kept the Rooster gimmick to show that he could get it over on his own. In some weird way, it worked, because everybody remembers the gimmick, even if it never led to him actually accomplishing anything with it. But anyway, the match lasted about 30 seconds because Heenan was a manager who had already been beaten up by the Ultimate Warrior, who was a much bigger star than the Red Rooster. Oh yeah, Rooster won in what I believe was his only PPV victory in the WWF.
Mathew Sforcina Heenan getting his come-uppance = Good. Red Rooster = Bad X 1,000,000,000,000. Result = Bad X 999,999,999,999
Scott Rutherford: I suppose they put this match on to cool the crowd down after that super hot Brown/Duggan classic. Again, nothing I can write about this really matters other than the fact this match sucks and has no reason being anywhere near a major PPV no matter what era it took place in.
Ron Gamble The Rooster wins in :32 with the "sidewalk slam" whip into the turnbuckle, the same amount of time Terry Taylor was taken as a serious wrestler after he quit the Rooster gimmick. Has anyone's career ever had such a clear line of demarcation between "very good, lots of potential" to "joke?" (A: yes, see Dewey Robertson/Missing Link)
Stuart Carapola: This was the culmination of the year long Megapowers storyline. Hogan helped Savage win the WWF Title at WrestleMania 4, but friendship soon turned to jealousy and Savage turned on Hogan to set this match up. One year after winning the WWF Title, Savage returned to the same building to carry Hogan to one of his best WWF matches ever. Savage bounced around like a pinball for Hogan, and played the cowardly heel role to perfection, hiding behind Elizabeth and stuff like that. Finally Elizabeth got ejected from ringside and after Savage hit the flying elbow, Hogan did his comeback and finished Savage off with the usual. But you thought this ended the Hogan-Savage feud? Foolish human. No, the feud would continue to the end of the year and would bring us the horror of...ZEUS.
Mathew Sforcina And here we have the second Hogan formula, Best Friend Turns on him. You know, the amount of times Hogan and Sting got turned on, you'd think eventually they'd stop making friends and trusting people. Although it would be interesting to see who actually got turned on the most amount of times. But then again, they've also both turned on each other (BATB 96 and Fall Brawl 99), so they are about even I guess, unless Hogan goes to TNA and one of them turns. But I digress. This match would play out much differently today, but back then, Hogan was beloved, Savage was insane, Liz was classy, and this was a great mix of good wrestling (from Hogan? In North America?) to a decent story to a ‘happy ending', this match delivered. What else needs to be said?
Scott Rutherford: Here it is. Probably the best match Hulk Hogan ever had and hands down just a great match. This match works so well on so many levels from storyline and psychology to in ring work and the booking. The formula is so simple it's sickening, Savage gets jealous of Hulk Hogan and starts seeing things that aren't really there, he goes off the deep end and the virtuous good guy stands up and makes things right. This match had one big advantage in that Savage really understood how to work with bigger guys like Hogan and lay out a match that plays to their strengths and hides their weaknesses. You also get the fact that Hogan would sell for Savage big time thus making the heat segments really stand out because you got drawn into his peril. I marked out harder for Hogan winning here than I did for him winning his first title because this win was built to mean something and when Joey Morella's hand hit the mat for the third time EVERYONE was ecstatic about the result.
Ron Gamble The other WM card I covered was WM2. On that show, Savage wrestled George "The Animal" Steele. That match was noteworthy because… how did I put it?
(T)he most noteworthy thing from this match is that he hit the flying elbow from the top rope, and George kicked out of it at two! This was the first time that happened in the WWF, and would not happen again until, I believe, Hulk Hogan at WMV.
After he kicks out of the elbow, Hulk, well, Hulks up, punch punch punch kick "sidewalk slam" leg drop yay. Hogan wins the WWF World title in 17:54.
The Conclusion:
Stuart Carapola: This was a much better show than WrestleMania 4 in terms of workrate, was about the same when it came to storytelling, but suffered from the same problem of cramming a ton of matches into too short a time span. In this case they had almost as many matches as WrestleMania 4, but had an hour less to fit them into, leading to only four matches that went more than nine minutes. Hogan vs. Savage was a great match and a true classic WrestleMania main event, and just goes to show that in the 80s, Savage could carry ANYONE to a good match.
Mathew Sforcina This is actually a decent WrestleMania, despite the crap. It has a couple of awesome matches, some solid ones, a shock turn, a sad ending, a happy ending, Heenan being beat up, the works. WM should be a big, huge show. And this was. No more, no less.
Scott Rutherford: For starters, Vince was starting to get the formula right here. Sure there are still a heap of meaningless matches to wade through but you also have seem good wrestling and fun matches in other places. You can't beat the "holy shit" moment of Rick Rude beating Warrior or how much the Blazer/Henning rocked because it was so different against everything else on the card, the outright fun of the Hart Foundation match or the big main event giving us a great Hulk Hogan moment. This is well worth your time.
Ron Gamble Look at that card. Fourteen matches, and only one (the title match) given more than ten minutes. When that happens, the legacy of the card depends on the quality of the main event. I'm not the kind of person who hates on Hulk Hogan simply because it's trendy, because Hogan truly has done a lot for wrestling. At the same time, he's done a lot for himself, and a lot against wrestling. This match was not one of them, and it's not all because of Savage. Hogan worked well, and he, Randy, and Elizabeth tried to tell a complicated (by 1989 wrestling standards) story.
Three of the five tag matches were good, and one was downright hilarious in an unintentional way (at least, I HOPE Butch didn't mean to do that in the ring. Then again, his name is Butch). However, only three of the nine singles matches are memorable more than five minutes after seeing the show, and one of them is because Curt Hennig and Owen Hart are no longer with us. Five matches out of fourteen is less than 50%. That is not good.
