411’s Countdown to WrestleMania 23: The WrestleMania VII Roundtable Review
Posted by Larry Csonka on 03.17.2007
Savage and Warrior deliver a classic as Hulkamania fights for the rights of everyone against the Iraqi turncoat!
Introduction~!
WrestleMania VI saw the crowning of the "Ultimate Champion." But as the year went on the challengers were many, and at the Royal Rumble; with help from Queen Sherri and the Macho King Iraqi turncoat Sgt. Slaughter defeated The Ultimate Warrior to win the WWF Title. With the title in enemy hands, there was only one person to turn to in order to get the title back. With Hogan challenging for the WWF Title, the Warrior would have unfinished business with the Macho King as they would put their careers on the line. Let's meet the analysts and break down the show!
Our analysts today are…
From That Was Then Stuart Carapola!
One half of the Fink's Payload, Mathew Sforcina!
The man behind the famed "Tit List," he is Scott Rutherford!
And finally Triple Threat Member Sean Garmer!
WrestleMania VII~!:
The Rockers defeated The Barbarian and Haku w/Bobby Heenan @ 10:36 via pin
Stuart Carapola: Haku and Barbarian were starting to outlive their usefulness by WrestleMania 7, and when the Heenan Family broke up in the spring of 1991, they both pretty much disappeared for good. The Rockers, in the meantime, were just hitting their prime as a team, but were also nearing the end of their partnership. Still, the two teams had a great match. The Rockers were always really good at working around big guys, and they were on tonight. After an early period of using their speed to their advantage, Haku and Barbarian took over with some big power moves. However, the Rockers got things back together and scored their first WrestleMania win in their last WrestleMania match as a team.
Mathew Sforcina Ah yes, the infamous ‘Bomb Threat' WrestleMania, where they had to move the show from the LA Memorial Coliseum to the LA Sports Arena, because there was a bomb threat, yep, absolutely, and not, as some unkind people have suggested, because they came no-where near selling the Coliseum out. Nope, not at all. Anyway, The Faces Of Fear actually began here in WWE, oddly enough. But then, while they had just formed as a monster tag team, the Rockers went over here, which may explain why The Faces Of Fear officially formed in WCW. That said, The Rockers pretty much invented the Big Man/Little Man dynamic, and FOF are a bit underrated as a team, plus you have the awesome that is Heenan, so this was a cool match, and a great opener for WM.
Scott Rutherford: The Faces of Fear before you even knew they existed. This match was all great fun and the first example at a WrestleMania of giving us a hottish opener to get the crowd going instead of some jobber match or glorified squash. This match if you haven't seen it is really quite the fine example of going out and just entertaining the crowd and by doing so you end up having a pretty good match. This would also be the last time we saw The Rockers at WM before Shawn went solo.
Sean Garmer I'm glad that we had a hot opener because it helps set the tone for the rest of the night. The Rockers showed why they were one of the best tag teams of the time. They were working with big guys, which can make it difficult sometimes for small guys like HBK & Jannetty. Both of the teams worked the formula pretty well and combined to make for a good match-up. It's funny to see Michaels with the blonde hair but he was just going with the hairstyle of the times. I'll give Haku and Barbarian some credit they were better in this match than I remember, of course, it doesn't hurt that you have a manager that gets the more heat than anybody in the entire match.
The Texas Tornado defeated Dino Bravo w/Jimmy Hart @ 3:15 via pin
Stuart Carapola: Kerry Von Erich (aka the Texas Tornado) was just coming off of a feud with Mr. Perfect over the Intercontinental Title, but had gotten himself into a position in the WWF where they didn't want to push him too heavily because of his personal demons, and so most of the rest of his WWF run had him in meaningless, early-card matches and tag matches. Case in point, this match against Dino Bravo, who was having his last ever PPV match here. In an interesting bit of trivia, these two men died mere months apart, both of gunshot wounds, but while Kerry's was self-inflicted, Bravo had gotten himself involved in black market cigarette smuggling in Canada, and he ran afoul of some people who broke into his home and shot him execution-style in front of his family. This is all pretty gruesome stuff, but there really wasn't anything else worth mentioning about this match, which was won by Von Erich in about three minutes.
Mathew Sforcina Both guys were on their way out, hence the shortness of the match. Plus while Dino was slowly self-destructing, Kerry was doing it a lot quicker. So this is a fairly sad match to watch, but at least it was short and to the point. Still, sad match.
Scott Rutherford: Jobbing to Jim Duggan one year and then a drug fucked Kerry Von Erich the next. Dino, the writing is on the wall dude. Just a nothing match that no one really cares about because it's Von Erich and Bravo.
Sean Garmer Back in the day it was cool getting to see a Texas legend like Kerry be in a WWE ring. This match however was basically there for me. The crowd was happy to see Kerry get the win in what wasn't much more than a squash match.
The British Bulldog w/Winston defeated The Warlord @ 8:16 via pin
Stuart Carapola: This was one of Vince McMahon's favorite kinds of feuds, the classic "who's really stronger?" feud. In this case, Warlord had been the resident muscle head in the WWF for some time, so when the Bulldog made his return to the WWF, Warlord couldn't have a guy stronger than him running around. Forget the fact that Warlord had some of the worst matches and was one of the most immobile stiffs in WWF history, the important thing here was that he was strong, and to hell with decent matches. Anyway, Davey Boy broke the full nelson and powerslammed him for the win.
Mathew Sforcina You think Jeff Hardy and Nitro have had lots of matches? Edge/Cena? Carlito/Masters? They got nothing on The Bulldog and Warlord. These guys seemed to have wrestled every night for like a year or so. Well, I might be exaggerating slightly, but still, the two men worked together a lot. And so while they didn't develop a ***** chemistry, they did get to a certain level of quality. They knew what they could each do. Hence this serviceable enough match. Was it brilliant? Not really, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
Scott Rutherford: The WM comeback for Davey Boy and to say Smith found his "vitamins" during his absence would be a massive understatement. This match was always going to be hard to watch since Warlord is a near 400lb slab of muscle and not much else and Davey not being quite the singles worker yet because he was carrying so much muscle he could barely move. I should say though, they both tried hard and they managed to do something relatively entertaining. So huzzah!
Sean Garmer The crowd favorite Davey Boy had returned not too long before this to WWE, from All Japan. I'd forgotten just how mobile Davey Boy was back in the day as he did a few things in the match that wasn't typical of a big guy. Lashley didn't pick a bad guy to model himself after. Warlord wasn't bad either. I didn't like how the break of the Full Nelson was somewhat anti-climatic, I guess maybe it's because they put so much emphasis on that now, but it just seemed like he just all the sudden decided to break it. Aside from that, the match was good, the crowd was into it, which is something I wasn't expecting either.
Stuart Carapola: Looking back on it now, I realize that they had to get the WWF Tag Team Title off of the Hart Foundation if Bret Hart was going to get a singles push. However, I question putting the title on the Nasty Boys, who I have always considered two of the worst workers in the history of the business, and were really, really sloppy to boot. Seriously, 90 percent of the moves the Nasty Boys did in this match were punches and rear chin locks. The Harts completely carried them in this match, but the Nastys put an end to the original Hart Foundations run by whacking Neidhart in the head with Jimmy Hart's motorcycle helmet and pin him to win the Tag Team Title. I always wished it could have been anyone but them. I mean, even Power & Glory would have been better than them.
Mathew Sforcina So Jimmy Hart turned his back on the Hart Foundation, and joined the Nasty Boys, among others. But he's afraid of what the Hart's will do to him, so he chooses to wear a motorcycle helmet to ringside. Then, guess this, it gets used as a weapon. Bet you never saw that coming, huh? That said, for a match not involving any weapons, the Nastys held up their end of the match fairly well, considering. The end of Bret Hart's tag team phase, this match is much better than you'd expect, and worth a look, just to see the Nasty Boys having a good non-weapon brawl match.
Scott Rutherford: This is a great match. The Nasties had just recently tore up the tag scene with a show stealing match with The Steiner Brothers in the NWA/WCW and stupidly were NOT under contract so Vince steals them and puts them over The Harts and gets a big run out of them and become a perfect foil for the incoming Road Warriors. The match is chaotic and fun and when the people involved in the match are enjoying themselves you can feel it in their ring work. Also a great way to transition between the old era of WWF tag wrestling and the new
Sean Garmer Oh, a time when tag teams mattered in the WWE, a match-up of the technical champions against the brawling bad boys. Hart Foundation set the stage well describing how the Nasty's were beneath them, and if you look at it from their perspective they probably were because their style of wrestling wasn't popular then. The Hart's beat them at every turn but once the match slowed down the Nasty Boys were able to keep up and take control. Bret however, turned the tables on Sags and just when it looked like it was all over with the Hart Attack, that devious Jimmy Hart (also showing the importance of managers at this time,) threw his helmet to Sags who hit the legal man with it and rolled over Neidhart to pick up the win. The Hart Foundation had held the belts since Summerslam so it was somewhat of a surprise. Man how I wish tag teams were important in WWE now.
Blindfold Match: Jake "The Snake" Robert defeated Rick "The Model" Martel @ 8:35 via pin
Stuart Carapola: The idea for this match stemmed out of the fact that this feud started when Martel sprayed cologne in the eyes of Roberts, blinding him. Both men had these big black hoods over their heads, with the idea that they'd have to wrestle without being able to see each other. At the time, I wondered how they were able to work the match when they couldn't see each other. I later figured out, of course, that they could see through the hood perfectly well, but had to play like they couldn't for the gimmick to work. Another thing they had to do in order for the gimmick to work was have a really shitty match. They literally stalked around each other for each minutes, even dragging the match out more by going outside the ring, but finally Jake hit the DDT to put us all out of our misery. I consider this to be among the worst matches in WrestleMania history.
Mathew Sforcina Confession- The Blindfold match gimmick is a guilty pleasure of mine. And it was pretty well set up, Rick had his ‘Arrogance' perfume that he used to blind people. He blinded beloved Jake Roberts. Jake wanted revenge. A Blindfold match was thus signed. Sure, contact was only made a half dozen times or so, but it's still fun to watch them flail about in there. Trivia Fact: There are 3 men to have won straight Blindfold matches in WWE history. (4 if you could the Jamie Noble/Nidia match, since she wasn't blindfolded). They are? Jake Roberts (here), HHH (Against D'Lo Brown on a Raw Roulette night) and…Rick Martel (He beat Koko B. Ware in a ‘warm-up' Blindfold match in the weeks before WM). Still, fun match.
Scott Rutherford: For all the problems inherent to this match (like the fact they COULDN'T FUCKING SEE EACH OTHER!) this was good despite itself. The simple fact you had Jake Roberts in there is the only reason why it worked because he took a retarded stipulation and actually used it to make the match more exciting by making the crowd part of it. Jake was such a god in that respect and funnily enough, this match which is only sort of good is perhaps one of the better examples of what talent Jake had and why he's considered such a waste today.
Sean Garmer I think there's only one word to describe this one, fun. Both of these men couldn't see each other and the match still ended up being good. I could count the amount of moves done in the match with one hand, but that doesn't matter because I was laughing half the time. A true testament to the greatness of Jake Roberts, who even in the weirdest of circumstances, knows how to make things work. He played Marco Polo with the crowd, as they cheered as he pointed around the ring. The crowd even chanted "DDT" and all this build up finding each other, led to a very satisfying ending with Jake nailing the DDT on Martel for the win. I like how he sold the blind deal even to the end as he searched around for Martel before getting the pin. A nice comedy match mixed in with all this other stuff, really made the show for me.
The Undertaker w/Paul Bearer defeated Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka @ 4:21 via pin
Stuart Carapola: You know that legendary undefeated streak Undertaker has going at WrestleMania? Well, it all began right here. Undertaker had just come onto the scene at Survivor Series, and was booked in such a way that he didn't sell anything anyone did to him. So as you might imagine, he wasn't going to lose to somebody like Snuka here. Undertaker beat Snuka up the entire match, but botched the finish where Snuka was supposed to slingshot himself over the top rope, and then the Undertake would catch him, give him the Tombstone, and go home happy. But Undertaker dropped Snuka when he came over the ropes, and he had to do the Tombstone normally. He still got the win, of course, and the now 16 year old streak had begun.
Mathew Sforcina Even in 1991, the Bong got a huge reaction. The Streak starts here, with a short, very effective squash of Snuka. Taker nailed that character from the get-go, he really did. And he even got a fair sized face pop for the (slightly botched) Tombstone.
Scott Rutherford: Squash City, Population – Snuka. Hard to believe this was UT's first match ever at a WM and16 years later he still hasn't lost. Back then he was the "holy shit" freak that seemed to survive on little sleep and too much coffee and the aura that he carried around with him was "money". You just knew this guy was destined to be huge and the funny thing is, even now looking back you still get that little thrill about him being so into his character.
Sean Garmer And so the streak begins… Undertaker gets his first victory over the "Superfly" in squash fashion. The match probably went a little longer than most squashes do today, but Superfly only got in a few chops and Headbutts. Taker hits the Tombstone eventually and say goodnight to Mr. Snuka.
Retirement Match: The Ultimate Warrior defeated The Macho King Randy Savage w/Queen Sherri @ 20:47 via pin
Stuart Carapola: As bad as that Roberts-Martel match was, I have always considered this to be among the greatest matches in WrestleMania history, and certainly the match of the night. Savage had cost Warrior the WWF Title at the Royal Rumble, and they were now so pissed at each other that they decided that there wasn't enough room in the WWF for the both of them and one of them would have to go. Though the match itself was really good, and probably Warrior's best match ever, the drama surrounding the match made it even better. They were literally fighting for their careers here, and they both fought desperately to not be the one to take the loss. They both kicked out of each other's finishers, and each move and each kick out built the drama more and more, before Warrior finally put Savage away with three flying tackles to win this all-time classic. As good as this match was, the aftermath was even better. Queen Sherri, now without a meal ticket since her charge had been forced to retire, was screaming at Savage for losing and then started attacking him. Savage, having just lost the most grueling match of his career, was unable to defend himself against his crazed former manager, so Miss Elizabeth, who was sitting at ringside, jumped the rail, ran into the ring, and tossed Sherri to the floor. Savage came to and realized that Elizabeth had saved him from Sherri, and after all their history together, reunited and embraced in front of the cheering crowd. This was such a great moment that there were people in the crowd who were crying because it was so touching.
Mathew Sforcina What can you say about this match? Savage, his usual crazy bumping best. Warrior, going totally against character but making it work, doing a slow, steady beat down that's fairly similar to Taker's Terminator act in 97 against HBK/Bret. Sherri, Savage's woman on the outside, and Liz sitting at ringside. Warrior catching Savage, putting him down, and just slapping him. The 5 Elbow Drops. The kick out. The Splash. The second kick out. Warrior asking for a sign. Getting it. The Shoulder Blocks. The one-foot pin. Sherri stomping at her meal ticket being retired. Liz running in. The reunion. The woman in the blue dress. Warrior's best match, one of Savage's finest, PERFECT booking, and a really awesome feel good moment. This is what WM is all about. If you haven't seen this match, you haven't seen just what Pro Wrestling can do.
Scott Rutherford: This is the fourth time I've started writing about this match and each time I've had to erase it because I'm finding it insanely difficult to capture in words what I feel. The seeds for this match go back to Savage's loss at WM5 and the "Macho Man's" character decline over the ensuing two years. I highly doubt it was planned that way but it couldn't have been more perfect. The once mighty and popular champion lost his woman, his title, his support and his credibility and after costing Warrior his world title he was literally running on fumes. Over the course of this EPIC 20 minute match was saw Savage hit rock bottom to the point he lost with Warrior covering him with just his foot and the cheap whore he was running with kicking him while he was down. But out of the ashes came redemption with his great love returning to save his soul and grant him a second chance. Highly emotional, highly engaging and highly entertaining.
Sean Garmer This match still stands as Warrior's best match ever in my view and that's a testament to the Macho Man. Sure, the match didn't have any cool moves or mood swings, but it told a story. Both of these men put their "careers" on the line and they showed it. Macho Man was carried to the ring to start out, not only because he was a King, but also to save energy. Warrior didn't do his usual run to the ring because he needed to conserve his energy. I think you could sum this up with the words on Warrior's tights "This means much more than the WWE Championship" because both of their careers were on the line, and they showed it. The match itself was a great one because each man proved that they weren't going to give up easily. Macho Man couldn't keep Warrior down even with four elbows. Macho Man kicked out of the Splash/Body Press and it took a lot to keep him down. The pin at the end showed that the young buck was able to outlast the old stallion enough for the pin. The best thing was the ending with Elizabeth reuniting with the Macho Man making for a soap opera moment that can never be equaled again because it symbolized realism.
Genichiro Tenryu & Koji Kitao defeated Demolition w/Mr. Fuji @ 4:43 via pin
Stuart Carapola: Holy moley did this match turn out to be completely meaningless in retrospect. Demolition was the three-time former WWF Tag Team Champions, but for some reason the WWF saw fit to put Tenryu and Kitao over them on the biggest show of the year. I guess they expected to do something with the Japanese guys following this, but it never panned out, and Demolition became a thing of the past soon afterward. Well, it filled five minutes. Next.
Mathew Sforcina Well, we did need something to calm the crowd down after that last match. The death of Demolition though, should have been treated a little better. The group died without even a whimper, Hawaii's Crush and The Repo Man being born soon after the show. But in this match, Demolition was killed by a couple of ‘unknown' Japanese stars who didn't stick around. A wasted opportunity.
Scott Rutherford: This was a weird match to have on here. I have vague recollections of the WWF working co-promotion shows with All-Japan at the time so I'm guessing the was part of that but to have them go over Demolition was just odd. Sure the Demo's had passed their used by date but jobbing them to these guys was puzzling where you could have used the Road Warriors burying their most successful imitators on wrestling's biggest stage. Kind of hard to talk about because it's such a bizarre match in context.
Sean Garmer I really don't know what to say about this match because it just seems like such an odd pairing. I vaguely remember stuff about these days seeing as I was five years old, so I can't get all historical for this. I know Demolition was probably past it by this time but I was surprised that Genichiro Tenryu & Koji Kitao went over the more established team.
The Big Bossman defeated Mr. Perfect w/Bobby Heenan @ 10:45 via DQ
Stuart Carapola: This was the culmination of the Big Boss Man vs. Heenan Family feud. It started when Rick Rude was insulting the Boss Man's mother, which was apparently supposed to lead to a feud. That never happened, as Rude left the WWF before they even had a match, and they covered for it in storylines by telling us that Rude was suspended for his remarks. He didn't make it back to the WWF until late 1997, which must make it one of the longest suspensions in sports history. But in the meantime, Boss Man decided to take out his anger on the rest of the Heenan Family, and he went through them one by one before having the blow off match with Perfect here. IT wasn't much of a blow off, because Boss Man won by DQ when the Heenan Family ran in, but thanks to help from Andre The Giant (who had made his return that night in Boss Man's corner), Boss Man cleared the Heenan Family out of the ring. Perfect got to keep the title to drop it to the far more worthy Bret Hart, and I don't think Andre even wrestled a match in the WWF in 1991, instead doing an injury angle with the Natural Disasters to explain why he wasn't wrestling.
Mathew Sforcina All conventional wisdom and logic pointed to Bossman winning here, given that he had spent months systematically getting past the Heenan Family members in order to avenge his mother's good name, leading to this IC match. And the ending was great, the Family surround ringside, Bossman's in trouble, Andre The Giant makes a shock appearance to help him, Perfect gives Andre lip, a title belt shot floors Perfect, Bossman covers…and we get a mass DQ run in. Why? Bossman was on a role, why not give him the belt? Eh, at least Bossman went over.
Scott Rutherford: Bossman was really on a roll at this time and this match had incredible heat and some interesting sub-plots mainly concerned with Andre The Giant wanting to ruin Bobby Heenan. The match was pretty good but was mainly all storyline and that's not a bad thing. I'll always say entertaining people is the first priority of a match and for 10 minutes these guys gave us that good and well. The DQ ending was understandable but it always creates blight on matches like this because if they had proper endings they would be considered mini-classics.
Sean Garmer A great Wrestler like Henning in the ring with a good wrestler such as Bossman, add-in the wildcards Andre the Giant and Bobby Heenan and you get a good match-up. Perfect showed what makes him a Hall of Famer, he sold for twenty men and did it so well that it seemed like he was in the right spot for every move that Bossman wanted to do. Bossman is another big man that moved like a smaller one allowing for fast paced action. I thought it was over after Andre hit Henning with the title belt in the head, but surprisingly it wasn't. I'm one of those people that hate any kind non-finish at WrestleMania. This is supposed to be the end of all your feuds, why can't you just do a run-in without the DQ. It's really useless and it hurts the match in my view.
The Earthquake w/Jimmy Hart defeated Greg "The Hammer" Valentine @ 3:36 via pin
Stuart Carapola: Speaking of the Natural Disasters, the team hadn't actually formed yet, because the guy who would come to be known as Typhoon was still wrestling as a baby face as Tugboat. He turned on the Bushwhackers and formed the Natural Disasters with Earthquake later on, but right now Earthquake was in the ring with Greg Valentine. Valentine had been managed by Earthquake's manager Jimmy Hart for years, but ended up turning face when he and his partner the Honky Tonk Man (who teamed as Rhythm N Blues) broke up. Honky Tonk Man left the WWF after the breakup, so Valentine got Earthquake at WrestleMania instead. Too bad, he probably would have beaten Honky. He didn't beat Earthquake.
Mathew Sforcina Greg turned face just to be squished by Earthquake, I think. I live John Tenta, bless his soul, and I've certainly stolen the Earthquake splash, but man did he get a lot of squash matches. But then, that's what worked, so who's to complain?
Scott Rutherford: Welcome to bizzaro world where Greg Valentine was a face! Yup, the most unsympathetic heel of all time managed a mini-face run before jumping to WCW. That is the only thing about this match that's interesting.
Sean Garmer Greg Valentine was a face here, I don't really understand why they did this, as Valentine is one of those guys that should always be a heel. This match was boring and pointless because it serves no purpose on this PPV. This is one of those WrestleMania's that suffered from way too many matches on one card, because, this really had no reason to be on the show.
The Legion of Doom defeated Power & Glory w/Slick@ 1:00 via pin
Stuart Carapola: Squash City, baby. In a series of WrestleManias with incredibly short matches, this was probably the shortest. Power & Glory didn't have a chance, and the LOD squashed them in about a minute, and then rolled on toward Summerslam where they would mercifully end the Nasty Boys' reign as Tag Team Champions.
Mathew Sforcina And yet another death, this time of Power & Glory's usefulness as a heel team. They had chemistry and were pretty good in their role, but after this, forget it. And if they had survived, we may never had gotten Paul Roma, Horseman, so really this was a double whammy.
Scott Rutherford: The LOD push to the tag titles and wrestling history starts here. Unfortunately they squashed a team that had a huge amount of potential to do it but them's the breaks.
Sean Garmer LOD were on their way to tag title feud against the Harts and Power & Glory pissed off the wrong team. In one of the shortest matches in Mania history, Power & Glory were destroyed and were disbanded not too far after this either.
Virgil w/Roddy Piper defeated the Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase @ 7:36 via count out
Stuart Carapola: After years as Ted Dibiase's bodyguard and manservant, Virgil had finally made his long awaited face turn against Dibiase at the Royal Rumble. Now here was their first one-on-one match. Virgil had Roddy Piper in his corner, with the story being that Piper had trained Virgil to wrestle. The truth is that Virgil knew perfectly well how to wrestle, but he was supposed to have been just a bodyguard. Piper had been in a motorcycle accident before WrestleMania (although I'm not sure if it was legit or just an angle), and Dibiase spent a little too much time messing around with him on the floor. As Dibiase went into the ropes, Piper pulled down the top rope, and Dibiase went over the top to the floor. But as Dibiase beat Piper up in receipt for his interference, he got himself counted out. Dibiase attacked Virgil after the match, and Piper tried to help his buddy, but Sherri made her way back to the ring and helped Dibiase lay Piper out as well. Dibiase left with Sherri, who it turned out was now his manager, and Piper got back to his feet to a big crowd pop and Virgil helped him to the back.
Mathew Sforcina This match had lots of things weird with it. Roddy's ‘Motorcycle accident', i.e. hip surgery. The fact that Virgil was a trained wrestler having to play a manager who was learning how to wrestle. The weird ending, Virgil wins by count out. But then, the overriding story was still good, as Virgil finally turning on Ted was great to see, and Sherri quickly landed on her feet by becoming Ted's manager (not that he needed it, but they did work well together). A mix of good and bad elements leads to an average match.
Scott Rutherford: I know I'm coming out with this all the time but this is another prime example of good storytelling being key rather than just good wrestling. Virgil was the colored help of the honky millionaire that eventually fought back. This was the first big match between the two and it was actually quite the hot feud at the time and this match had great little threads running through it which made it fun. The pop Virgil received for this count out win was pretty massive.
Sean Garmer I really liked the way they did this as Virgil showed he could hold his own early with some basic offense. Then Ted Dibaise the wiley veteran takes over and dominates the rest of the match until Roddy Piper gets involved. This is one of those times where the storyline is way more important than the match. Virgil who had been Dibaise's "bodyguard" (perceived as more like a slave) for a long time at the Royal Rumble decided that he had enough and broke away from Dibaise. Leading to their first match here at Mania, the crowd was really pumped for this and behind Virgil the whole time. I'm on the fence about the count out because, as I explained earlier, I like for all matches at WrestleMania to have endings. However, for this it made sense because Virgil needed to have some experience before he could beat his oppressing master. Either way the match was good stuff.
The Mountie w/Jimmy Hart defeated Tito Santana @ 1:23 via pin
Stuart Carapola: Boy, talk about a totally worthless match. After about a ten second scuffle, Tito hit the flying forearm and sent the Mountie (the repackaged Jacques Rougeau) to the floor. The Mountie got back in the ring and zapped Dibiase with the cattle prod and pinned him about a minute and a half in. Yes, folks, this was the semi-main event of WrestleMania.
Mathew Sforcina The Mountie, cheating? I'm shocked! So's Tito. Thank you, I'll be here till 9, try the veal.
Scott Rutherford: Squash win for The Mountie over the god of JTTS. I get tears just thinking about the mistreatment of the legend Santana…okay, so I'm laying it on thick and I bet this was so short for time reasons but I remain offended on Tito's behalf.
Sean Garmer This is the meaning of bathroom break before the main event. Sadly, this had to involve such a great talent in Tito Santana who was holding it up for the Latino nation back in the day. There was nothing good about this. Most of the moves were botched and the ending was stupid. What a disgrace to Tito.
Stuart Carapola: Sgt Slaughter may have been the most undeserving WrestleMania main eventer of all time. Don't get me wrong, he had a respectable history in the business and all, but come one, he's Sgt Slaughter. The reason he got the main event was that, in the wake of the first US invasion of Iraq in 1990, American superhero Sgt Slaughter was brought back to the WWF, only he was now an Iraqi sympathizer. It probably would have worked if they had gotten somebody else to do it, but Slaughter wasn't ever a WrestleMania main event caliber wrestler, and it really hurt this show. It was originally supposed to be in the LA Memorial Coliseum, but the show sold so poorly on this main event that they moved it to a smaller building, kayfabing it by claiming "security concerns". Part of the problem was that the war had been over for months by the time we got to WrestleMania, and it wasn't really topical anymore. The match itself was terrible too, and nobody gave Slaughter any serious chance of beating Hogan, which just killed interest in the show even more. Of course Hogan went over, but he did mess up the Iraqi flag along the way, which I guess is worth something. Actually...nah, it's not
Mathew Sforcina A year after the torch was passed with a unique storyline, and we're right back to Hogan V Big Bad Foreigner. Sigh. Still, a great match, in terms of Hogan's usual effort. Slaughter knew what he was doing in there, and despite the whole breach of international etiquette (you don't tear another nation's flag up, or burn it, or pick your nose with it, or…) thing, one of Hogan's best matches, being formulaic but not overly so. Plus, it has the best sell job of the Atomic Leg Drop I've ever seen, which is to say, the most minimalist, as Slaughter kicks out…just after the 3 count. Thus the Leg Drop didn't KO him, which would be silly, it instead dazed him long enough for Hogan to pin him. I loved that logic, and always thought that was how the People's Elbow/Worm type moves should be sold if they are to finish a match. We need more kick outs after 3 counts overall.
Scott Rutherford: The Hulk routine was getting old by now but was still for the most part. I actually enjoy this match and think it's one of those lost classics that really doesn't get the credit it deserves because the participants are Hulk Hogan and Sgt. Slaughter. Put that aside and you'll see two old pro's getting into the ring and work a classic good vs. evil match and really getting the crowd into what's happening. This really should have been the Warrior/Hogan big money rematch but considering what Warrior did on this night I'm glad it didn't happen.
Sean Garmer You can say what you want about Hogan and his big ego, but the Hulkster always brought his A game to WrestleMania. This is another one of his better matches and probably one of the few where it seemed that he was actually thinking creatively. I think he used more variety of moves than I've ever seen him use. You really got a sense that this one was for America. Sgt. Slaughter played his part perfectly really riling up the crowd by attacking Hogan with everything around the ring and busting him open. As a kid, I was a Hulkamaniac but I would later grow to appreciate the great character and wrestling acumen of Slaughter. When Slaughter put that Iraq flag on top of Hogan it was a disgrace to the entire nation and Hogan put the turncoat in his place. I liked Regis on commentary, of course, back then I didn't know he really liked Wrestling so it was surprised to see him there. Having all the celebrities brought out that this was the important match. Hogan and Slaughter made it a satisfying evening of wrestling.
The Conclusion:
Stuart Carapola: The Savage-Warrior match and the aftermath was some of the best stuff ever seen at WrestleMania, but other than that there was more bad than good. This was another WrestleMania where they had a ton of matches to squeeze in between the stuff that really mattered, and so we got a lot of short squashes yet again. Thankfully, this was the last year they went with this formula, as they would significantly cut back on the number of matches at WrestleMania 8. Hogan-Slaughter was easily one of the worst main events in WrestleMania history, and it's too bad that Warrior and Savage are so badly on the outs with WWE, because I doubt that their match here will get any airtime or a spot on a DVD given their relationship with WWE.
Mathew Sforcina The whole arena change and reversion from 6's supposed new direction tends to bring this one down in people's eyes. That said, a WM classic, a good Hogan match, a great opener, The Blindfold match, this is a pretty good WM overall. Not a brilliant one, to be sure, but still pretty darn good. And everyone has to see Savage/Warrior at least once, for the woman in the blue dress' sake. You want her tears to be for nothing?
Scott Rutherford: Vince was getting into the groove of putting big feud blow off matches on WM cards with 6 matches either being the final blow-off or the next logical step in a feud. Just on that fact alone you start getting that special feeling about these things and their place within the WWF as the point they aim toward each and every year. This card was pretty solid with a hot opener, great tag title match, The Undertaker debut, MOTYC in Savage/Warrior and a good main event that sent the crowd home happy. It's really hard to not like this WM (outside of some dud moments) and is the turning point on how WM was used to this day.
Sean Garmer This is one of the better WrestleMania's of the older ones. We have two gems in the career ending match and the main event that are remembered to this day. Some fun matches like the blindfold match and the hot opener. Great tag team action with the Nasty's and Hart Foundation. Two storyline matches and the beginning of Taker's illustrious WrestleMania streak. They even had cool celebrities and Willie Nelson singing America the Beautiful. The only problem I really had with this WrestleMania was that there were too many stupid matches on the show that really could have been cut out. Los Angeles should be privileged that they had such a good event and they deserve it after being lively the whole night.
