Wrestlemania Count-Up – Wrestlemania IV (2015): This Is A Bit More Awkward Now
IMG Credit: WWE
Wrestlemania IV
Date: March 27, 1988
Location: Trump Plaza, Atlantic City, New Jersey
Attendance: 18,165
Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon, Jesse Ventura
The roof has these really cool blue and red stripes as their main design. I always thought those looked awesome.
Battle Royal
Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Jim Powers, Paul Roma, Sika, Danny Davis, B. Brian Blair, Jim Brunzell, Bad News Brown, Sam Houston, Jacques Rougeau, Raymond Rougeau, Ken Patera, Ron Bass, Junkyard Dog, Nikolai Volkoff, Boris Zhukov, Hillbilly Jim, King Harley Race, George Steele
Brown comes back in for the trophy presentation but Bret jumps him from behind and destroys the trophy.
Here are the brackets:
Hulk Hogan
BYE
Andre the Giant
BYE
Jim Duggan
Ted DiBiase
Don Muraco
Dino Bravo
Greg Valentine
Ricky Steamboat
Randy Savage
Butch Reed
One Man Gang
Bam Bam Bigelow
Jake Roberts
Rick Rude
WWF World Title Tournament First Round: Jim Duggan vs. Ted DiBiase
A sunset flip gets two for Duggan and Jesse freaks out that he knows a wrestling move. Duggan pounds him into the corner again and a slam looks to set up the Three Point Clothesline but Andre grabs his foot. The distraction lets DiBiase get in a knee to the back for the pin at 5:02. The replay shows Andre punching Duggan as well with the referee looking right at him. It would seem that DiBiase has bought off another one. Or that they screwed up and no one noticed.
WWF World Title Tournament First Round: Don Muraco vs. Dino Bravo
Bravo has Frenchy Martin with him while Muraco, now a good guy, has former WWF World Champion Billy Graham in his corner. Power vs. power here with Bravo taking him into the corner for some big right hands. Muraco comes back with a slam but is totally out of position for what looked like a Vader Bomb, meaning he has to just land next to Bravo and then cover him. A gutwrench suplex gets two for Bravo but he misses a knee in the corner to give Muraco a target.
WWF World Title Tournament First Round: Ricky Steamboat vs. Greg Valentine
Valentine pulls Steamboat off the ropes for a big crash, giving me one of my all time favorite exchanges between Gorilla and Jesse. Gorilla: “Right on the back of the head! Right on the external occipital protuberance area!” Jesse: “The WHAT?” Gorilla: “That little bump on the back of your head.” Ricky flips out of a belly to back suplex and puts on another armbar. Greg gets back up with a big clothesline to knock Steamboat down. Gorilla: “Right on the external occipital protuberance. We talked about that Jess.” Jesse: “Ok. Back of the head for all your normal people out there.”
Rating: B-. Match of the night by far and while a lot of that is due to the talent in the ring, a lot of it is also due to the extra time they had. It let them build up a match instead of just getting all their stuff in, which is only a good thing when you have guys like these two out there. This would be it for Steamboat in the WWF as he headed back to the NWA after some time off.
Bobby Heenan receives a package and actually TIPS THE DELIVERYMAN! Someone get him to a doctor!
WWF World Title Tournament First Round: Randy Savage vs. Butch Reed
Rating: D+. This did exactly what it was supposed to do as Savage is going to have a deep run in this thing so giving him a relatively easy first round match made sense. Reed was fine in this role as a power guy who posed a bit of a threat but ultimately had no chance. This would be his last match for the WWF before he headed for the NWA as well.
WWF World Title Tournament First Round: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. One Man Gang
Bigelow makes a quick comeback and hits a pair of headbutts, only to have Slick pull the rope down to send Bigelow outside, drawing a countout at 2:55. You would think that Bigelow being on the apron for about seven of those counts and having one foot in the ring at ten would be enough to save him but not quite. This was it for Bigelow for all intents and purposes as he needed knee surgery and would also be in the NWA by the end of the year.
“So to recap:
1. Hulk Hogan basically just declared himself Jesus.
WWF World Title Tournament First Round: Rick Rude vs. Jake Roberts
Here are the updated brackets:
Hulk Hogan
Andre the Giant
Ted DiBiase
Don Muraco
Greg Valentine
Ricky Steamboat
One Man Gang
BYE
Ultimate Warrior vs. Hercules
Rating: D. See, as boring as this one was, at least they kept it short and you had Warrior being all insane (character insane as opposed to real life insane) to keep things active. Like I said, this is completely different than the normal Warrior style and it was interesting to see something out of the ordinary.
Hercules comes in with the chain but Warrior takes it away and swings it around to clean house.
Boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard is here.
Long recap of Andre vs. Hogan, including the build up to Wrestlemania III, DiBiase paying Andre to bring him the title and the Main Event match which set up the tournament.
WWF World Title Tournament Quarterfinals: Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant
Andre has DiBiase and Virgil with him. Hogan charges right at the Giant but Andre is ready for him with a bunch of right hands. Some running forearms have Andre staggered and Hulk rams him into DiBiase for good measure. Andre gets tied up in the ropes but Hogan walks around forever, allowing DiBiase and Virgil to get Andre loose.
Rating: D. Yeah the match sucked but my goodness how in the world do you call that a double DQ? Hogan hit him first and the referee was looking right at him but for some reason both guys are out. That sounds about as cut and dry as you can get but tournaments can cause some screwy results.
WWF World Title Tournament Quarterfinals: Don Muraco vs. Ted DiBiase
WWF World Title Tournament Quarterfinals: Greg Valentine vs. Randy Savage
Rating: D. Quite the disappointing match here as you would expect far better chemistry from these two. Valentine barely touched the leg and was just going with the big forearms and elbows, which were normally only about half of his offense. Savage had one burst of offense and then won in the end on a fluke again, which is pretty standard for him. Not a good match here, which is a really bit surprise.
Here are the updated brackets:
Ted DiBiase
BYE
One Man Gang
Randy Savage
Vanna and Gene talk about the upcoming matches.
Intercontinental Title: Honky Tonk Man vs. Brutus Beefcake
Back in and Beefcake motions for a haircut before he sends Honky Tonk into the buckle over and over. Brutus finally misses a big elbow to give Honky Tonk an opening for his variety of stomping. Some choking looks to set up the Shake Rattle and Roll but the champ lets go. Jimmy Hart is confused but it turns out that they needed to move closer to the ropes so Brutus could block. I guess this is before backdrops were invented.
Islanders/Bobby Heenan vs. British Bulldogs/Koko B. Ware
Rating: D+. So this was basically the Heenan Family replacing the Hart Foundation from last year. Heenan was funnier than Davis though and it almost made for a more entertaining match, but that beating that Davis took last year was a thing of beauty. Still good enough here and Koko continues to be the man you get when you need a filler.
Jesse is presented to the crowd again in another rather pointless segment.
WWF World Title Tournament Semifinals: Randy Savage vs. One Man Gang
Rating: D. They were setting up a fine match until the lame ending. How do you disqualify someone for failing to cheat? Then again this is the same show where there was a countout when someone was halfway in the ring and a chair to the head somehow setting up a double DQ. Savage should have won this off a missed charge and a quick rollup or something but instead they went with some botched cheating.
Tag Team Titles: Demolition vs. Strike Force
Demolition is challenging and has Mr. Fuji in their corner. Strike Force is the sequel to the Can-Am Connection with Martel teaming up with Tito Santana to win the Tag Team Titles from the Hart Foundation back in the fall. Smash pounds Martel down to start and the other two come in as everything breaks down. A double clothesline gets two on Smash as the crowd is quiet, likely due to exhaustion at this point.
WWF World Title: Ted DiBiase vs. Randy Savage
As Ted cranks on a chinlock, we get the obvious return of Hogan who sits down in the corner to keep an eye on things. Andre goes after Savage again but Hogan runs over with a right hand to even things up again. A suplex gets two for Ted but he gets slammed off the top, only to have Savage miss the elbow. DiBiase slaps on the sleeper but the referee goes to yell at Andre. Hogan comes in (wearing cowboy boots of all things) and chairs DiBiase in the back, setting up the elbow to make Savage champion at 9:17.
Savage, Hogan and Elizabeth celebrate in the ring to wrap up the show.
This is a show that really could have benefited from the modern pay per view style as there are regularly scheduled twenty minute matches on most pay per views. The problem here was you had all those matches, meaning a lot of entrances to eat up time. It made for a VERY long night and the show felt like it was never going to end. Do yourself a favor and watch the first Clash of the Champions, which aired on the same night and partially at the same time.
Ratings Comparison
Battle Royal
Original: C
2013 Redo: D+
2015 Redo: D
Ted DiBiase vs. Jim Duggan
Original: C-
2013 Redo: C-
2015 Redo: C-
Don Muraco vs. Dino Bravo
Original: D+
2013 Redo: D+
2015 Redo: D
Greg Valentine vs. Ricky Steamboat
Original: C
2013 Redo: C+
2015 Redo: B-
Randy Savage vs. Butch Reed
Original: D
2013 Redo: C-
2015 Redo: D+
One Man Gang vs. Bam Bam Bigelow
Original: N/A
2013 Redo: N/A
2015 Redo: N/A
Rick Rude vs. Jake Roberts
Original: D
2013 Redo: D-
2015 Redo: F
Ultimate Warrior vs. Hercules
Original: D
2013 Redo: D+
2015 Redo: D
Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant
Original: C
2013 Redo: C-
2015 Redo: D
Ted DiBiase vs. Don Muraco
Original: C+
2013 Redo: C
2015 Redo: D+
Randy Savage vs. Greg Valentine
Original: C+
2013 Redo: B-
2015 Redo: D
Brutus Beefcake vs. Honky Tonk Man
Original: D+
2013 Redo: D+
2015 Redo: D
Islanders/Bobby Heenan vs. British Bulldogs/Koko B. Ware
Original: D+
2013 Redo: C
2015 Redo: D+
Randy Savage vs. One Man Gang
Original: D
2013 Redo: D
2015 Redo: D
Demolition vs. Strike Force
Original: C-
2013 Redo: C+
2015 Redo: D+
Randy Savage vs. Ted DiBiase
Original: B
2013 Redo: B-
2015 Redo: C
Overall Rating
Original: D+
2013 Redo: D
2015 Redo: D
I even got annoyed trying to write up the new ratings comparison. This show is that much of a mess.
Here’s the original review if you’re interested:
And the 2013 Redo:
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