WWF Wrestlemania VII

 

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)