WWF Wrestlemania 4

 

WWF Wrestlemania IV

Venue: Atlantic City, New Jersey
Date: 27/03/88
Attendance: 18,165
Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon & Jesse Ventura

The WWF Heavyweight Championship was declared vacant for the first time in its history following Hulk Hogan's controversial defeat to Andre the Giant on 5th February 1988. Andre had tried to sell the championship to Ted Dibiase and was stripped of the title by on-screen President Jack Tunney shortly thereafter. As a result of this the title was put up for grabs in a 14-man single elimination tournament. Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant were both given a bye in the first round and would face each other in the quarter finals. The event was held at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City which was quite a comedown from the Pontiac Silver Dome.

Bad News Brown double-crosses Bret Hart

Review
Before the tournament began there was a 20-man battle royal for which the winner would receive... a trophy. The match seemed to exist just to get a few more of the mid-carders and tag teams on the show and the only thing remotely memorable about it was the ending. Bad News Brown turned on Bret Hart and eliminated him after the two had joined forces to eliminate the Junkyard Dog. Hart gained a measure of revenge by ruining Brown's celebration and destroying his trophy. It would be one of many false starts for Hart as a singles wrestler... First Round: Ted Dibiase, accompanied by Andre the Giant and Virgil defeated Hacksaw Jim Duggan in an acceptable tournament opener. The Giant was instrumental in Dibiase's victory... Don Muraco beat Dino Bravo in a barely passable affair with a lousy finish. Bravo was disqualified for pulling the referee in the way of the onrushing Muraco... Greg Valentine's win over Ricky Steamboat was a decent effort let down only by Valentine's overuse of the delayed falling tree-like sell... Randy Savage pinned Butch Reed in a nothing match... The One Man Gang's count out victory over Bam Bam Bigelow was dreadful... Ravishing Rick Rude fought Jake The Snake Roberts to a dire fifteen minute time limit draw to complete the first round... In a break from the tournament the Ultimate Warrior beat Hercules in another rotten match...

Ravishing Rick Rude battles Jake "The Snake" Roberts

Quarter Finals: Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant at least woke up the crowd as they fought to a double disqualification, thanks in part to interference from Ted Dibiase and Virgil. Inexplicably the result was not announced to the live crowd and many assumed Hogan had advanced by disqualification. It was only when Dibiase was awarded a bye later in the show they realised Hogan and Andre had been eliminated as there were no big screens to show the tournament brackets. Andre later revealed keeping Hogan out of the tournament was part of Dibiase's master plan... Dibiase returned to the ring, alone this time, to meet and defeat Don Muraco in a satisfactory bout. The win took Dibiase all the way to the final... Randy Savage's pinfall victory over Greg Valentine was okay...

Brutus Beefcake threatens The Honky Tonk Man with a haircut

The Honky Tonk Man escaped with the Intercontinental Title following a disqualification loss to Brutus Beefcake. Beefcake treated Jimmy Hart to a haircut during the proceedings. The match was pretty poor... The six man tag pitting Bobby Heenan and the Islanders against Koko B Ware and the British Bulldogs wasn't up to much. Heenan wore an attack dog outfit to protect himself from Matilda, the most placid dog imaginable. Heenan scored the winning fall before being chased off by the Bulldogs and Matilda... Semi Final: Randy Savage scored a disqualification win over the One Man Gang in a rubbish match to advance to the final. Gang was disqualified for attempting to strike Savage with Slick's cane multiple times. The finish made Gang look incredibly stupid... Demolition picked up their first tag team championship by defeating Strike Force in a pretty good bout. Smash pinned Rick Martel after he'd been KO'd by a cane shot from Ax... Final: Randy Savage defeated Ted Dibiase in a decent final match to become the Undisputed WWF Heavyweight Champion. Savage pinned Dibiase after a chair shot from Hulk Hogan who had come down to ringside to combat interference from Andre the Giant.

The Ultimate Warrior unloads on Hercules

Overall
Wrestlemania 4 was a big disappointment. Of the sixteen matches on the card only two could be considered good while the rest ranged from average to dreadful. The tournament may have seemed a good idea on paper but not in execution as it didn't produce much excitement until the finale. Randy Savage's big moment was the only real memorable part of the show which also tied up the loose end of Hulk Hogan gaining revenge on Andre the Giant and Ted Dibiase. It would also begin a year long story which would culminate at Wrestlemania 5, but that's for later. A major problem for Wrestlemania 4 was the location, Trump Plaza. The crowd was filled with Donald Trump friends and associates and casino high rollers leaving little room for the hardcore wrestling fans. Those who were able to attend had to pay high ticket prices. This meant you had a crowd who were not emotionally invested in the product and as a result the show played out to silence for large parts. It made the biggest show of the year appear even worse than it actually was. It may well have been a great deal for Vince McMahon and Donald Trump but for the people who matter the most, the wrestling fans, it wasn't. Wrestlemania IV drew 485,000 buys on pay-per-view plus a further 175,000 at closed circuit television locations.

Ted Dibiase helps ensure Hulk Hogan doesn't advance in the tournament

 

Results
1 Bad News Brown won a 20 man Battle Royal (10:40) *1/2
2 Ted Dibiase pinned Jim Duggan (4:54) **
3 Don Muraco def Dino Bravo by disqualification (4:53) *1/4
4 Greg Valentine pinned Ricky Steamboat (9:12) **1/4
5 Randy Savage pinned Butch Reed (5:07) *1/4
6 One Man Gang def Bam Bam Bigelow by count out (2:56) DUD
7 Rick Rude fought Jake Roberts to a time limit draw (15:00) 1/2
8 The Ultimate Warrior pinned Hercules (4:29) DUD
9 Hulk Hogan fought Andre the Giant to a double disqualification (5:22) *1/4
10 Ted Dibiase pinned Don Muraco (5:44) **1/4
11 Randy Savage pinned Greg Valentine (6:06) **
12 Brutus Beefcake def WWF Intercontinental Champion The Honky Tonk Man (c) by disqualification (6:30) 3/4
13 The Islanders & Bobby Heenan def The British Bulldogs & Koko B Ware by pinfall (7:30) *1/2
14 Randy Savage def One Man Gang by disqualification (4:05) 1/2
15 Demolition def Strike Force (c) by pinfall to win the WWF Tag Team Title (12:33) **1/2
16 Randy Savage pinned Ted Dibiase to win the WWF Heavyweight Title (9:27) **1/2

New WWF Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage with Elizabeth

 

Rating
22/80 = 27.5%

Star Rating Guide

*****   Excellent/World Class
****     Very Good
***        Good
**           OK/Acceptable
*             Poor
DUD       Abysmal
SQ          Squash (Less than 1 min)

 

WWF Survivor Series 1987

 

WWF Survivor Series 1987

Venue: Richfield, Ohio

Date: 26/11/87

Attendance: 21,300

Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon & Jesse Ventura

The first annual Survivor Series was created to go head to head with Jim Crockett Promotion's NWA Starrcade as Vince McMahon continued his ruthless attempts to eliminate all of his competition. Although JCP moved the start time of Starrcade to avoid the conflict, McMahon's threat to any cable company that carried Starrcade was that they would not be able to air Wrestlemania IV as a consequence. Fearing they would miss out on the huge income from Wrestlemania most cable companies dropped Starrcade, massively cutting the availability of the event. It would prove to be the beginning of the end for JCP, helped in large part by their own mistakes too it has to be said.

Review

Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat, Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan & Brutus Beefcake versus The Honky Tonk Man, Hercules, Harley Race, Ron Bass & Danny Davis

Eliminations: Duggan and Race were both counted out; Beefcake pinned Bass; Honky pinned Beefcake; Roberts pinned Davis; Savage pinned Hercules; Honky was counted out. Savage, Steamboat and Roberts were the survivors.

The first ever Survivor Series elimination match was centred around The Honky Tonk Man who was the Intercontinental Champion having scored a major upset in defeating Ricky Steamboat. Honky was a marked man in this contest as his last two feuds were with Jake Roberts and Ricky Steamboat, and he was currently involved in a big feud with Randy Savage, who had recently turned babyface in a memorable angle where Honky shoved Elizabeth down and nailed Savage with a guitar head shot. The crowd was hot for this opening encounter which was full of energy. The story of Honky's title reign was how he managed to survive by the skin of his teeth time after time and it was a similar story here. It was a role Honky played very well. The babyfaces cut through the heel team until Honky was the only one left. Honky took a bit of a beating from Savage, Steamboat and Roberts before deciding to make a run for it, thus eliminating himself. This was a really good match but I felt the ending was a bit cheap. I don't believe Honky would have been harmed by being beaten in the ring considering it was three against one at the end.

---

Sensational Sherri, The Glamour Girls (Leilani Kai & Judy Martin), Donna Christianello & Dawn Marie vs The Fabulous Moolah, Rockin' Robin, Velvet McIntyre & The Jumping Bomb Angels (Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno)

Eliminations: McIntyre pinned Christianello; Robin pinned Marie; Sherri pinned Robin; Martin pinned Moolah; McIntyre pinned Sherri; Kai pinned McIntyre; Yamazaki pinned Kai; Tateno pinned Martin. The Jumping Bomb Angels were the survivors.

At a time when the WWF was still making an effort with it's female division (it would be dropped completely in 1990 for almost four years) they had enough workers to present a five-on-five elimination match in a rare pay-per-view outing for the ladies. Sensational Sherri was the Women's Champion and The Glamour Girls were the tag team champions at this time. The action was pretty good although the crowd was a lot quieter than they were for the opener as you might expect. The match did drag a bit in places but it couldn't really be booked much shorter without rushing things due to the amount of participants involved. Velvet McIntyre put in a spirited performance as she defeated Christianello and later scored a victory over Sherri which put her in line for a championship match. The stars of the show in this one were the Jumping Bomb Angels whose high flying athleticism really set them apart from the rest of the female roster. The Angels scored pinfall victories over both Glamour Girls to win the bout and set up a match for the tag team championship at the Royal Rumble in January.

---

Strike Force, The Killer Bees, The Young Stallions, The Rougeau Brothers & The British Bulldogs vs The Hart Foundation, Demolition, The Islanders, The New Dream Team & The Bolsheviks

Eliminations: Santana pinned Zhukov; Ax pinned Jacques Rougeau; Demolition were disqualified; Neidhart pinned Santana; Haku pinned Dynamite Kid; Roma pinned Valentine; Brunzell pinned Hart; Blair pinned Tama. The Killer Bees and The Young Stallions were the survivors.

 

The tag team elimination match

The late 80s was the WWF's zenith as far as tag team wrestling was concerned. They had so many permanent teams who were over that in the first two Survivor Series events they were able to book twenty man elimination matches where a team would be eliminated should either of the members be defeated. It was quite a sight to see so many tag teams stood on the apron surrounding the action, a far cry from today where tag team wrestling has become somewhat of a lost art. Strike Force were the tag team champions at the time having recently unseated the Hart Foundation on Superstars of Wrestling. The champions were surprisingly eliminated around the midway point of the bout by the Harts which set up title rematches on the house show circuit. Demolition went early on as well, only they were spared from being defeated due to a disqualification. This made sense as Vince McMahon had big plans for them and a loss on their first pay-per-view appearance would've been bad for business. In contrast the British Bulldogs continued to slide downwards. The Dynamite Kid's back injury which prematurely ended the Bulldogs' title reign earlier in the year also meant their time as big time players in the company was over. The biggest surprise here was the winners, the Killer Bees and the Young Stallions. The Bees eliminated the Hart Foundation and then the Islanders to win the match for their team. The winning fall was another case of Brian Blair and Jim Brunzell donning masks in order to switch the legal man in the ring illegally which, as I've mentioned before, was a move I was never a fan of. Quite why a babyface team would need to cheat to win when they have a four-on-two advantage is beyond me. However it couldn't ruin what was one of the finest traditional Survivor Series matches the WWF would ever produce. It was unpredictable, fast paced and full of action.

 

The Islanders in control of the Young Stallions

---

Hulk Hogan, Don Muraco, Ken Patera, Paul Orndorff & Bam Bam Bigelow vs Andre the Giant, King Kong Bundy, Rick Rude, One Man Gang & Butch Reed
 

Eliminations: Hogan pinned Reed; Gang pinned Patera; Rude pinned Orndorff; Muraco pinned Rude; Gang pinned Muraco; Hogan was counted out; Bigelow pinned Bundy; Bigelow pinned Gang; Andre pinned Bigelow. Andre the Giant was the survivor.

 

Hulk Hogan's team

This would be Andre's first match since his defeat to Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania 3 and was built around Andre's desire for a title rematch with Hogan. Hogan's team consisted of newcomer Bam Bam Bigelow; Paul Orndorff, who had just returned from injury as a babyface; Ken Patera, who had recently returned after serving time in prison for assaulting a police officer; and Don Muraco, replacing Superstar Billy Graham who had withdrawn due to injury. He would never wrestle again. Andre's team consisted of recent debutant Ravishing Rick Rude; King Kong Bundy, making his final WWF appearance for almost seven years; One Man Gang, who had also recently joined the company; and Butch Reed. This was surprisingly good considering the limitations of a few of the participants involved. It wasn't a great night for Butch Reed who was crushed in about three minutes, nor for Paul Orndorff who exited the match (and the WWF) with a bit of a whimper. On the other hand Rick Rude looked good in his first pay-per-view appearance, as did Bam Bam Bigelow who was the last surviving member of the face team. Bigelow felled both King Kong Bundy and the One Man Gang before falling to Andre's weak looking underhook suplex. The Giant was the sole survivor which set up his big rematch with Hogan in February on The Main Event. It was a surprise to see Hogan eliminated about three quarters of the way into the match by way of a count out but it made sense to avoid a finale involving he and The Giant. Following Andre's win Hogan ran back down and cleared the ring to send the fans home happy and to leave the thought of the rematch as the last thing in the viewer's mind as the show ended.

 

Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan

 Overall

The first annual Survivor Series was a quality offering from the World Wrestling Federation. In the ring it was far better than any of the pay-per-views that preceded it and even trumped Starrcade that night. This came as a big surprise to many as it was Jim Crockett Promotions that was considered the wrestling company as opposed to Vince McMahon's entertainment product. The show also set up Hogan/Andre II nicely, although some criticised Hogan for stealing Andre's spotlight at the show's end. Personally I thought it was exactly what was needed as the crowd fell a bit flat after Hogan's exit and besides, Hogan did not book himself to run-in. The big rematch between Hogan and Andre on 5th February 1988 attracted a whopping 33 million viewers on NBC, which still stands to this day as the largest viewing audience for any professional wrestling match ever. It's hard to criticise those numbers. Survivor Series 1987 drew 325,000 buys on pay-per-view.

 

Results

1 Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat, Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan & Brutus Beefcake def The Honky Tonk Man, Harley Race, Hercules, Ron Bass & Danny Davis (24:00) ***1/2
2 The Fabulous Moolah, Velvet McIntyre, Rockin' Robin, Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno def Leilani Kai, Judy Martin, Sensational Sherri, Donna Christianello & Dawn Marie (20:00) **1/2
3 The British Bulldogs, Strike Force, The Killer Bees, The Rougeau Brothers, The Young Stallions def Demolition, The Hart Foundation, The Bolsheviks, The Islanders, Greg Valentine & Dino Bravo (37:00) ****
4 Andre the Giant, King Kong Bundy, The One Man Gang, Rick Rude & Butch Reed def Hulk Hogan, Paul Orndorff, Bam Bam Bigelow, Don Muraco & Ken Patera (22:00) ***1/2

Rating
13.5/20 = 67.50%

 

Star Rating Guide

***** Excellent/World Class

****   Very Good

***     Good

**       OK/Acceptable

*         Poor

DUD   Abysmal

SQ      Squash (Less than 1 min)

 

WWF Wrestlemania 3

 

WWF Wrestlemania 3

Venue: Pontiac, Michigan

Date: 29/03/87

Attendance: 93,173

Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon & Jesse Ventura

Wrestlemania 3 took place in the Pontiac Silver Dome before 93,173 fans although that number has been disputed by many over the years who place the attendance closer to 78,000. Either way it was a tremendous crowd and a huge success for the WWF. The big draw was the world title clash between Hulk Hogan and the recently turned Andre the Giant, the first meeting between the two since Hogan's return the company in 1984.

 


The ever impressive sight of the Silver Dome crowd

 

Review

Wrestlemania 3 got off to a good start as The Can-Am Connection (Rick Martel and Tom Zenk) beat Bob Orton Jr and Don Muraco in a solid opening contest. The Can-Am would disband in July as Zenk left the company over a pay dispute which would lead to the formation of Strike Force... Billy Jack Haynes and Hercules fought to a double count out in a decent bout which was a small improvement on their Big Event contest. The match was supposed to settle their issue and prove who was the "Master of the Full Nelson" but in the end nothing was resolved. Hercules attacked Haynes after the match, an act which was cut from the video release... King Kong Bundy and Hillbilly Jim were involved in a novelty matchup featuring midget wrestlers, quite a comedown for Bundy from last year's event. Hillbilly along with Little Beaver and The Haiti Kid were victorious by disqualification when Bundy assaulted Beaver. Let's be honest, Beaver was asking for it. Bundy's team consisted of Lord Littlebrook and Little Tokyo for the record... Harley Race beat The Junkyard Dog in a rubbish match which made JYD look weak. He went down far too easily to Race here...

 

JYD is on top in his match with Harley Race. It wouldn't last.

 

The match between The Dream Team and The Rougeau Brothers was okay but only really existed to split up Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine. Beefcake objected to Bravo's interference in the match even though it led to victory for The Dream Team. Bravo, Valentine and manager Johnny Valiant ditched Beefcake to form The New Dream Team... "This will be absolutely my last professional match" said Rowdy Roddy Piper at the Wrestlemania 3 Press Conference as he prepared for life as an actor in Hollywood. He would be back in the ring in 1989. His 'farewell match' with Adrian Adonis was an entertaining brawl even if the match itself wasn't much technically. The fans roared as Piper pounded Adonis and launched Jimmy Hart around the ring for good measure. Brutus Beefcake revived Piper from the effects of Adonis' sleeper hold to cement his babyface turn allowing Piper to win the match with his own sleeper which in truth, rendered Adonis unconscious far too quickly to be believable. Beefcake cut Adonis' hair after the match as per the stipulation... The Hart Foundation and Danny Davis versus The British Bulldogs and Tito Santana should have been better considering who was involved. Davis, as a referee was instrumental in costing Tito Santana the Intercontinental Title and more recently The British Bulldogs the Tag Team Title so the good guys were surely going to get revenge here right? Wrong. In fact Davis scored the winning fall after nailing Davey Boy Smith with Jimmy Hart's megaphone but not before taking a sustained beating from Santana and Smith. The trouble is as a referee-turned-wrestler, Davis should never have been allowed to make such a miraculous recovery to win the match for his team...

 

Classic Hart Foundation double team action

 

Butch Reed beat Koko B Ware in a short match only really memorable for Tito Santana tearing up Slick's suit in the aftermath... So much has been written about Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat's famous Intercontinental Title match that there's little I can say that hasn't already been said. If you like your wrestling fast paced with great intensity and lots of back and forth action then this is the match for you. Even the build was great with Steamboat returning from a crushed larynx at the hands of Savage to settle the score on the big stage. It was a fantastic display by both men. My only gripe is the interference from George Steele which was unnecessary. It would have been nice to see a clean finish... Another grudge match followed as The Honky Tonk Man battled Jake "The Snake" Roberts, who had recently turned face following Honky's guitar aided attack on him. Their match never really stood a chance following the Savage/Steamboat classic but it was okay even if the finish was a little anticlimactic. Honky stole a victory using the ropes for illegal leverage... The team of Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik defeated The Killer Bees by disqualification in a match overshadowed by Hacksaw Jim Duggan's presence. Duggan caused the disqualification after levelling Sheik with a 2x4. The match was average... The attraction that packed the Silver Dome of course was the showdown between former friends Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, arguably the biggest match in the history of professional wrestling. The match itself was never going to be very good as Andre was barely mobile at this point in his life and was unable to do much. In the end it didn't matter as the match produced iconic moments that WWE still highlight to this day, in particular the stare down and Hogan's body slam. Perhaps more than any other, this match proves that professional wrestling is about more than just erm… wrestling. The Silver Dome went crazy for Hogan’s victory and while the wrestling purists revelled over Savage/Steamboat, all the majority of fans could talk about as Wrestlemania 3 came to a close was Hogan/Andre.

 

Steamboat chokes Savage early on in their classic battle

Overall

Wrestlemania 3 was a monumental night in WWF/WWE history and marked the pinnacle of the 80's boom period. Images of the packed Silver Dome remain as impressive today as they did back in 1987, it really was quite a spectacle. The atmosphere generated by the massive crowd really added to the event and made it feel truly huge. As far as the in-ring product goes there was a definite step up in quality from Wrestlemanias 1 and 2. Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat provided us with an all time classic for the Intercontinental Title but there were also five other decent matches on the show. The main event was only passable as far as the action went but as mentioned above it was about much more than that. On the whole the show was pretty good for the time and a highly significant one in terms of professional wrestling history. Wrestlemania III drew 400,000 buys on pay-per-view plus a further 450,000 at closed circuit television locations.

The famous stare down between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant

 

Results

1 The Can-Am Connection def Bob Orton Jr & Don Muraco by pinfall (5:37) **3/4

2 Billy Jack Haynes & Hercules fought to a double count out (7:44) **1/2

3 Hillbilly Jim, Little Beaver & The Haiti Kid def King Kong Bundy, Lord Littlebrook & Little Tokyo by disqualification (3:23) 1/2

4 Harley Race pinned The Junkyard Dog (4:22) 3/4

5 The Dream Team def The Rougeau Brothers by pinfall (4:03) **

6 Rowdy Roddy Piper def Adrian Adonis by referee stoppage in a "Hair vs Hair Match" (6:54) **1/2

7 The Hart Foundation & Danny Davis def The British Bulldogs & Tito Santana by pinfall (8:52) **3/4

8 Butch Reed pinned Koko B Ware (3:39) *

9 Ricky Steamboat pinned Randy Savage (c) to win the WWF Intercontinental Title (14:35) ****1/2

10 The Honky Tonk Man pinned Jake Roberts (7:04) **1/4

11 Nikolai Volkoff & The Iron Sheik def The Killer Bees by disqualification (5:44) *1/2

12 Hulk Hogan (c) pinned Andre the Giant to retain the WWF Heavyweight Title (12:01) *1/2

Rating

24.50/60 = 40.83%

 

Star Rating Guide

***** Excellent/World Class

****   Very Good

***     Good

**       OK/Acceptable

*         Poor

DUD   Abysmal

SQ      Squash (Less than 1 min)