Wrestlemania IV: It's Macho Time

I was only 12 years old, but I knew what was going on. I knew that Hulk Hogan really didn’t fight Andre The Giant for real at Wrestlemania III.

I knew that there was a team of people who came up with ideas, though I didn’t know that Vince McMahon was the owner and not just the announcer for a couple more years.

But still, in February 1988, I as a 12-year-old fan who understood some of the business, was still saddened even though I knew what was coming.

Let’s go back slightly. In 1987, the WWF had their most lucrative Wrestlemania yet with Mania III. The buyrate was spectacular (there weren’t all that many homes hooked up with the opportunity to buy PPV’s at the time) and they filled the Pontiac Silverdome.

Even though they marketed the match between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant as the first time they ever wrestled, it wasn’t. And it was a spectacle, even though the match was bad. How can you top that? Well they couldn’t, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.

Fast forward to February 1988. Ted DiBiase, The Million Dollar Man, said he was going to buy the WWF Championship belt. Hogan responded on an episode of WWF Superstars of Wrestling that the belt wasn’t for sale.

On The Main Event, which was broadcast live on a Friday evening on NBC, Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant had their rematch. When I heard that they were doing a live show on national television a month before Wrestlemania IV, I knew something drastic was going to happen.

And then the morning of the show, the San Jose Mercury News Sports Section did a story on the show, writing exactly what the finish would be. I was heartbroken while reading that Hogan would get double crossed by the referee and lose the belt to Andre.

But I was the talk of the town at school that day. I told everyone I knew what the finish was going to be. But deep inside I was upset about what was going to happen. Even as I watched the show that night and knew exactly how it was going to be played out, I thought it was unfair.

Even though I knew the matches were predetermined and was already a smart fan, it still bugged me. I guess that means the angle was played out perfectly.

Andre The Giant won the match because the referee was paid off by The Million Dollar Man (they used twin refs, Dave and Earl Hebner to play it off) and then the Giant subsequently gave the belt to DiBiase. DiBiase had just bought the championship like he said he would.

But, President Jack Tunney said that DiBiase couldn’t buy the championship and declared the title vacant. Wrestlemania IV would be the place where they would hold a tournament for the championship.

There would be 14 men in the tournament, but Hogan and Andre would have their third match in a year to start off the second round and they were given a first round bye.

There were also some really good possible match-ups, with the best being Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat and Randy Savage locking up in a rematch of their Wrestlemania III classic, but the WWF decided to screw the fans out of that match and had Steamboat lose to Greg Valentine.

Either McMahon had heat with Steamboat, as was the reason Steamboat dropped the Intercontinental Title so quickly to the Honky Tonk Man, or he wanted to save that possible match-up for later, even though Steamboat would soon leave to the NWA where he’d have classic matches with Ric Flair, and eventually win the 10 pounds of gold.

With Savage, DiBiase, Steamboat, and Rick Rude in the tournament, there was a possibility of some really good matches.

But of course, the WWF couldn’t give us the good matches. Rick Rude and Jake “The Snake” Roberts wrestled to a mind numbing 15 minute draw, thus knocking them both out of the competition.

And in the worst case of overbooking, (or hurting a wrestler and the fans by having heat with him) Greg “The Hammer” Valentine defeated Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat in a decent match.

The Hammer would go on against Savage in the second round, who beat “The Natural” Butch Reed in his first round match-up, and we would never see Steamboat vs. Savage part two.

They were pushing DiBiase as the favorite because of what happened at the start of round two. Hogan vs. Andre was the first second round match-up and Ted would face the winner.

He beat Don Muraco in the second round. Muraco had defeated Dino Bravo in the first round. There were two trains of thought by fans. First, Hogan would win and he’d face DiBiase.

Or Andre would win, and would forfeit his third round match to DiBiase as he said before the tournament started that he would make sure DiBiase would win the tournament, in exchange for some cash.

But none of those things happened. Hogan vs. Andre was an awful punch fest that turned into a double disqualification that caused most of the fans in the Trump Plaza to groan.

Both Hogan and Andre were eliminated, and DiBiase would get a bye into the finals. The problem with having Hogan only there for one match is that WWF fans were always trained to understand that Hogan would be in the main event, thus making them stick around until the end.

This time, Hogan was gone early and it caused a lot of the fans to not stick around, as did the four hours that it took to finish the show.

After defeating Reed, Savage also went through Greg Valentine in a pretty decent match. He would go on to face the One Man Gang who was close to or over 400 pounds at the time.

The Gang defeated Bam Bam Bigelow by countout in his first match. Bigelow was the hottest young wrestler in the federation just one year prior. It was the dumbest finish of the night as Bigelow sat there and watched the ref count him out as he was standing on the apron trading blows with the Gang.

Savage also defeated the Gang in another terrible finish as the Gang decided to use the his manager Slick’s cane on Savage right in front of the referee.

So the table was set. It was Randy Savage vs. Ted DiBiase in the finals of the tournament to declare the new WWF Champion.

With all the tournament matches, you’d think that the WWF would’ve done one or two matches in between to make sure the guys who were wrestling 2 and 3 times wouldn’t get tired. But that was not the case.

They decided to add 5 matches to go along with the tournament and that caused the PPV to go really long. Crowds get tired easily during several hours of great matches, so you can imagine what happens when the matches aren’t so hot. You could hear a pin drop in most of these matches and it came across horribly on the PPV.

Bad News Brown turned Bret Hart face by winning a battle royal to start off the show. They double teamed the Junkyard Dog and threw him out, and then Bad News double crossed Hart to win the match.

The Barber, Brutus Beefcake beat the Honky Tonk Man by DQ in a meaningless match for the Intercontinental Belt. The one match that was meaningful out of the five undercard bouts was Demolition defeating Strike Force to win the tag belts, though in my opinion they didn’t win it in convincing enough fashion to get them over as a WWF version of the Road Warriors.

The announcers, Jesse Ventura and Gorilla Monsoon, made Savage out to be a complete underdog for having to wrestle four times and with Andre in DiBiase’s corner, they sold it like Savage had no chance. That was until Elizabeth brought out the Hulkster, giving the fans one more chance to see their favorite, and also to even up the sides.

The finish was good, albeit a little rushed as Hogan broke DiBiase’s Million Dollar Dream sleeper with a chair shot to the back and Savage was able to hit his elbow off the top to finish the match and be crowned champ.

While Hogan would be doing No Holds Barred with Tiny Lister and David Paymer, Savage would have a full year’s run with the belt. To foreshadow Savage turning on Hogan the following year, they had Elizabeth bring Hogan down to the ring hand in hand.

While the wrestling is much better right now, the storylines and subtleties like the foreshadowing they did back then was a ton better. There wasn’t a single standout match on this show, and the tournament final was fine, but unspectacular.

In some cool trivia, Ted DiBiase was actually supposed to win the tournament. He was supposed to get the WWF Championship and Savage would get his IC Title back.

But the Honky Tonk Man didn’t want to drop his IC belt to Savage. Vince then changed his mind to go with Savage as the top guy rather than DiBiase. DiBiase and the Honky Tonk Man are probably not friends.

Results
Bad News Brown won a 20-man battle royal
Brutus Beefcake defeated Intercontinental Champion Honky Tonk Man via DQ
The Islanders & Bobby Heenan defeated the British Bulldogs & Koko B. Ware via pinfall
The Ultimate Warrior defeated Hercules
Demolition defeated Strike Force for the Tag Team Championship

Round One, Championship Tournament:
Ted DiBiase defeated Hacksaw Jim Duggan
Don Muraco defeated Dino Bravo by DQ
Greg “the Hammer” Valentine defeated Ricky “the Dragon” Steamboat via pinfall
Randy “Macho Man” Savage defeated Butch Reed via pinfall
One Man Gang defeated Bam Bam Bigelow via countout
Rick Rude and Jake “the Snake” Roberts wrestled to a 15-minute draw

Round Two, Championship Tournament:
Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan wrestled to a double DQ
Ted DiBiase defeated Don Muraco via pinfall
Randy Savage defeated Greg Valentine via pinfall

Semifinals, Championship Tournament:
Randy Savage defeated One Man Gang by DQ

Finals, Championship Tournament:
Randy Savage defeated Ted DiBiase to capture the World Wrestling Entertainment Championship

Photo by Wikipedia