WWF Wrestlemania
VII
Venue: Los
Angeles, California
Date: 24/3/91
Attendance: 16,158
Commentators:
Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan (Jim Duggan & Lord Alfred Hayes)
"The stars of the World Wrestling Federation are on their way to
join the over 100,000 screaming fans in what will be the biggest Wrestlemania
extravaganza ever!" - Vince McMahon
The Vince McMahon voiced Wrestlemania VII advert showed his grand vision
for the event; the WWF were looking to smash their own (disputed) attendance
record set at Wrestlemania III by attracting over 100,000 to the outdoor Los
Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It didn't happen of course, in fact they were
nowhere close. The official reason given as to why the event was switched to
the much smaller Los Angeles Sports Arena was concern for Sgt Slaughter's
safety having apparently received death threats for his portrayal of an Iraqi
sympathiser during the time of the Gulf War. While I have no doubt Slaughter's
well being was a factor, the real reason which WWE have finally admitted in
recent years was poor ticket sales. By February 1991 only approximately 20,000
seats had been sold meaning the WWF had no choice but to abandon their grand
plan late in the day and head across the street to the Sports Arena with their
tail between their legs. Why were the ticket sales so poor? Many reasons. There
was a lot of bad press surrounding the WWF at the time as government
investigations into steroid abuse were gathering pace, and perhaps even worse
from a PR perspective was the hugely negative reaction to the company's
exploitation of the Gulf War. The Sgt Slaughter versus Hulk Hogan main event
just did not attract fans like Hogan's previous main events against Andre the
Giant, Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior. The original plan was in fact for
Hogan/Warrior II to be the main event but McMahon had already decided to pull
the plug on Warrior's failing title reign in favour of a sure fire xenophobic
cash-in. It would prove to be a big mistake. This would be the start of a
downward slide for the WWF which would eventually, coupled with the ascension
of WCW, put the company in real danger of going out of business. It may not
have been on the scale that McMahon had envisioned but there was a great
atmosphere inside the Sports Arena for Wrestlemania VII with red, white and
blue plastered all over for a very patriotic feel. The show would go on.
Review
The Rockers delivered a quality performance for the second consecutive
pay-per-view defeating The Barbarian& Haku in the opening bout of the show.
The future Faces Of Fear certainly played their part but this was another
example of Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty's ability to have a great match
with just about any team. Michaels scored the winning fall with a high cross
body block on Haku. Hacksaw Jim Duggan covered for Bobby Heenan on commentary
for this match and I felt he did a decent job… The Texas Tornado scored a fairly easy win over Dino Bravo in a short match
up with the Tornado/Discus Punch. Nothing much doing here... The British Bulldog power slammed and pinned The Warlord in a good power
house match. These two would meet in the ring quite a lot during 1991 and
usually produced good results due to their chemistry. This was their best
televised match…
The Nasty Boys became WWF Tag Team Champions by defeating the Hart
Foundation in one of their final few matches before Bret Hart's overdue singles
run began. While different to the opener this was another tremendous tag team
battle and was a great way for the Harts to go out. The Nasty Boys stole
victory after using Jimmy Hart's motorcycle helmet on Jim Neidhart. The Los
Angeles crowd seemed genuinely stunned at the result… Jake Roberts and Rick Martel's feud came to an end with a
"Blindfold Match" which came about after Martel had temporarily
blinded Roberts by spraying his cologne "Arrogance" into his eyes.
Yes the gimmick match was a bit silly but they did the best they could under
the restrictions before Roberts DDT'd Martel for the victory. Roberts deserves
credit for ensuring the fans in the arena were involved throughout…
The Undertaker began what would years later be known as "The
Streak" by beating Jimmy Snuka in what was essentially an extended squash.
The match was fine for what it was and achieved the goal it was meant to,
making Undertaker look strong. I particularly liked the suplex he delivered on
Snuka from the ring apron. In the end the Tombstone Piledriver spelled the end
for the WWF's original "Phenom"… The "Career Ending Match" between the Ultimate Warrior and
Macho King Randy Savage was the culmination of a great four month feud which
included Savage costing Warrior the WWF Heavyweight Title at the Royal Rumble.
This was without question Warrior's finest match but the real praise must go to
Savage for a super performance in which he put Warrior over as strong as
possible. Warrior survived five Big Elbows before eventually pinning Savage
with one boot on his chest (Savage's idea) to become the decisive winner and
send the Macho King into retirement... for eight months (actually six days if
you count the WWF/SWS Tokyo Dome show on 30/3/91). After Warrior took his bow
in victory Sherri attacked Savage for his failings until Elizabeth made her return
(she was shown on camera in the crowd before the bout) throwing Sherri from the
ring. Randy and Liz then reunited and left together to a standing ovation. It
was a truly memorable moment and tears flowed from many in the crowd. How could
anyone possibly follow all of that?! Well, they couldn't…
Genichiro Tenryu and Koji Kitao appeared on the show as part of the
WWF's deal with the aforementioned SWS (Super World of Sports) who were a
short-lived Japanese promotion. They defeated Demolition Mk2 who were all but
finished as a team. The problem here is that most WWF fans wouldn't have known
who Tenryu and Kitao were and had not been given any reason to care about
Demolition in months be it positively or negatively. All in all this was
pointless and the match was rubbish… The Big Boss Man challenged Mr Perfect for the Intercontinental Title in
a logical climax to Boss Man's feud with the Heenan Family. The match was good
enough but really should have been a lot better considering both men were at
their peak as workers around this time. The finish was lame as Haku & The
Barbarian ran in for a disqualification in Boss Man's favour meaning Perfect retained
the title. In a nice moment Andre the Giant made his return during the match to
prevent further interference from Bobby Heenan. Lord Alfred Hayes filled in on
commentary for this one… Earthquake pinned Greg Valentine in a filler match that was short and
meant very little. Following a distraction from Jimmy Hart 'Quake took the win
with an Earthquake Splash. Earthquake would struggle now his big feud with
Hogan had finished. He would find himself in the tag team ranks very soon…
The Legion of Doom crushed Power & Glory in less than a minute. LOD
were booked exactly the same way as the Hart Foundation the previous year; a
squash win at Wrestlemania followed by a title win at Summerslam… Next was Virgil's showdown with Ted Dibiase. Or was it Roddy Piper's
showdown with Dibiase? Piper trained Virgil for the match and was in his
corner having persuaded him to finally turn on Dibiase at the Royal Rumble.
During the bout Dibiase took some cheap shots at Piper who was on crutches
after a "motorcycle accident" (a cover story for Piper's hip
replacement surgery) but was so preoccupied with him he managed to get himself
counted out. After the match, which was ok, Sherri made her way down to
distract Piper allowing Dibiase to viciously attack Piper's already injured
knee. Piper sold the agony very well and in a fit of rage actually launched one
of his crutches right into the crotch of referee Danny Davis. Virgil would have
to wait until Summerslam for his big moment in the ring with Dibiase… The Mountie's win over Tito Santana achieved nothing. It certainly
didn't help Mountie in getting over. Santana beat up Mountie for about a minute
before getting shocked with a cattle prod out of the referee's view. The
'match' lasted about a minute and a half and was a waste of time… Finally Hulk Hogan defeated Sgt Slaughter to become the first ever three
time WWF Heavyweight Champion in a good main event. Slaughter took a pounding
in the beginning (which was his strength) before using underhanded tactics to
gain control while Hogan played on the sympathy of the crowd, something he did
better than most. Hogan also bled from the forehead during the match, a rare
sight in the WWF back then. In the end Hogan made his patented comeback to win
the match and the 'war' (which had already ended in the Middle East) for
America. Hooray! A post match angle after the show (which aired on Superstars)
saw Slaughter throw fire in Hogan's face ensuring the feud would continue
throughout the summer.
Overall
Putting aside the exploitation of a war, this was a good Wrestlemania
from an in-ring perspective. It would have been rated a lot higher had the show
been three hours instead of four with the worthless filler matches removed.
Incidentally this would be the last four hour edition of the event until
Wrestlemania 2000. The Savage/Warrior match was an excellent encounter that
really stole the show but it wasn't alone in delivering the goods. The Rockers
versus Barbarian & Haku was a cracker, the tag team championship bout was
equally good and even Hogan/Slaughter was much better than expected despite the
negativity surrounding the feud. The outrage could have been much worse had
Slaughter agreed to burn the American flag. Thankfully he refused. Wrestlemania
VII drew a somewhat disappointing 400,000 buys on pay-per-view.
Results
1 The Rockers def Haku & The Barbarian (10:41) ***1/2
2 Texas
Tornado pinned Dino Bravo (3:11) *
3 The
British Bulldog pinned Warlord (8:15) **3/4
4 The Nasty
Boys def The Hart Foundation (c) to win the WWF Tag Team Title (12:10) ***1/2
5 Jake
Roberts pinned Rick Martel in a "Blindfold Match" (8:34) *1/4
6 The
Undertaker pinned Jimmy Snuka (4:20) *3/4
7 The
Ultimate Warrior pinned Randy Savage in a "Career Ending Match"
(20:47) ****1/2
8 Genichiro
Tenryu & Koji Kitao def Demolition by pinfall (4:44) 1/2
9 The Big
Boss Man def WWF Intercontinental Champion Mr Perfect (c) by disqualification
(10:47) **3/4
10
Earthquake pinned Greg Valentine (3:14) *
11 The
Legion of Doom def Power & Glory by pinfall (0:59) SQ
12 Virgil
def Ted Dibiase by count out (7:41) **1/4
13 The
Mountie pinned Tito Santana (1:21) DUD
14 Hulk
Hogan pinned Sgt Slaughter (c) to win the WWF Heavyweight Title (20:26) **3/4
Rating
27.5/70 = 39.29%
Star Rating
Guide
***** Excellent/World Class
**** Very Good
*** Good
** OK/Acceptable
* Poor
DUD Abysmal
SQ Squash (Less than 1 min)
