March 27th, 1988
Location: Atlantic City, New Jersey
Venue: Trump Plaza
Attendance: 19,199
After WrestleMania 3, the WWF continued to grow as two new pay-per-views: Survivor Series and the Royal Rumble, were created before March of 1988. However, there was one small issue leading up to WrestleMania 4.
The company had no champion.
Before I get into the details of the festivities, I need to explain the backstory as to why there was no WWF champion. So, please, bare with me, because it's a weird one.
It all started at a show in February of 1988 called "The Main Event." Then champion Hulk Hogan defended his title in a WrestleMania 3 rematch against Andre the Giant with Ted DiBiase at his corner. At the end of the match, the Giant pinned Hogan in the middle of the ring to win the WWF Championship in an upset.
However, as referee Dave Hebner counted, Hogan's shoulder was up, meaning the pin was broken. Despite that, Hebner made the three-count anyways, which created controversy. After winning the title, Andre "sold" the title to DiBiase (in a promise he made to him) to crown the Million Dollar Man as the new WWF champion.
Turns out (and I'm not making this up), DiBiase hired Hebner's twin brother, Earl, to count the pinfall and seal Andre's victory.
As confusing as all of this sounds, WWF President Jack Tunney restored order and announced that the title could not be handed to another individual. Per the title rules, it may only be changed in a match via pinfall or submission.
The title was therefore vacated and brought us to the following month in Atlantic City. Onto WrestleMania 4.
The location was Trump Plaza, as over 19,000 fans filled the convention center. The owner of the casino, Donald Trump, sat front row to witness the grand spectacle. It wouldn't be the only time that Trump had a connection to WrestleMania, which will be discussed as time goes on.
"The Empress of Soul," Gladys Knight, was tasked to open the show with the singing of "America the Beautiful."
With a vacant WWF Championship, the concept for WrestleMania 4 was a 14-man tournament to determine who left Atlantic City with gold. 12 men were slotted in the first round, while Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan both received first-round byes after the controversy at The Main Event.
Aside from the tournament, five other matches were scheduled to rest for those who advanced onto the next rounds. Out of those five, only three had some importance to them.
The night opened with a 20-man battle royal for a giant trophy. Bad News Brown last eliminated Bret Hart to win what literally was the big one. However, in anger, Bret Hart came back into the ring and smashed the trophy to pieces.
The second was the Intercontinental Championship defense as the Honky Tonk Man had to defend his title against Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake. While Beefcake won the match, due to the rule where a title can't change hands by disqualification, the Honky Tonk held on to his championship.
Finally, the Tag Team Championship was on the line as the Strike Force (Rick Martel and Tito Santana) defended their titles against Demolition (Ax and Smash). After Ax hit Martel with a cane, Smash was able to pin him, which sealed the victory for Demolition as new tag champs were crowned.
This brings us to the bigger picture of WrestleMania 4. This will be tricky, knowing it'll be hard to pick matches that stood out without updating who advanced in the tournament. In saying that, as short as possible, I'll be breaking down what happened round by round, which leads to the final.
If you're still reading up until this point, you're amazing, and I'm sorry this is long. Thank you for putting up with this.
First Round
Ted DiBiase and Jim Duggan kicked off the tournament in a quick match, as you'll see with most of the tournament. With Andre the Giant in the corner of DiBiase, he found an opportunity to trip up Duggan without the referee looking. The Million Dollar Man took advantage and moved on to the next round.
The next bout had Don Muraco taking on Dino Bravo. As Muraco was going for a flying elbow, Bravo pulled the referee in front of him to avoid the attack. In anger, the ref stopped the match and gave Muraco the win by disqualification, which set him up to face DiBiase in round two.
The third match of round one had Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat facing Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. When Steamboat went for a flying body off the top rope, Valentine quickly rolled him up, held the tights, and secured the victory to move ahead in the tournament.
Newly fan-favorite "Macho Man" Randy Savage was brought out next to meet Butch Reed and see who would battle Valentine. Reed met his own demise when he started to talk up to Savage's manager, Miss Elizabeth. As Reed climbed the top rope, "Macho Man" immediately tossed him off it, went him up himself to perform his flying elbow, and sealed his victory.
The One Man Gang and Bam Bam Bigelow pitted against each other in the next. After Bigelow ran towards the ropes, Slick (the manager of One Man Gang) pulled down the top rope, which caused Bam Bam to fall out of the ring. Bigelow couldn't recover in time and was counted out to be eliminated.
The final match saw Jake Roberts take on Rick Rude. With all bouts in the first round having a 15-minute time limit, Rude and Roberts were the only two who fought until time expired. Under that circumstance, the fight ended in a draw, causing both men to be eliminated and the One Man Gang receiving a bye to the semi-final.
Quarter-Finals
To round two, as the quarter-finals began with Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant kicking things off.
In another slow-paced bout like their encounter at WrestleMania 3, this time around, it didn't end abruptly. With DiBiase in Andre's corner, the Million Dollar Man came into the ring and slammed Hogan with a chair.
Hogan didn't like that (who wouldn't?), picked up the chair, and slammed Andre with it. In what ended up being a back and forth battle with the chair, both men were disqualified and eliminated from the tournament.
That brought us to the next match in which the winner of Ted DiBiase and Don Muraco would instantly receive a spot in the final thanks to the double DQ.
DiBiase booked his ticket to fight for the WWF Championship after lifting Muraco, jamming his neck onto the top rope, and getting the pinfall.
The final match of the round saw the "Macho Man" taking on Greg Valentine. After Valentine attempted to pull off the figure four leg lock, Savage took advantage and rolled him up for the win to get one step closer to the gold.
Semi-Final
Thanks to the quarter-final bye that Ted DiBiase received, only one semi-final match needed to occur as Randy Savage and the One Man Gang met in the squared circle.
It was all One Man Gang throughout the match as a low fatigued "Macho Man" barely kept his composure, getting pounded by his opponent. Near the end of the match, with the referee distracted by Miss Elizabeth, the Gang's manager, Slick handed him his walking cane and hit Savage with it.
However, the referee eventually noticed the Gang using the cane, disqualified him, and helped Savage advance to the final.
The Final - WWF Championship Match
If you are still reading up to this point, once again, I really thank you for putting up with this. As you can see, this is just one big mess of a WrestleMania. My overall thoughts will come after the mention of the final. For now, here's what went down between Ted DiBiase and Randy Savage.
British actor Robin Leach, who introduced the tournament at the top of the show, brought down the WWF Championship before the final began. "Mr. Baseball" Bob Uecker was once again tasked to be the guest ring announcer for the main event. Finally, Wheel of Fortune's Vanna White was introduced as the guest timekeeper.
Now that the celebrities are out of the way, onto the details of the match.
By the final, the "Macho Man" looked severely exhausted, and rightfully so. He was practically working triple overtime and was the only superstar to compete in every round. DiBiase, who was fresh and once again had Andre the Giant in his corner, looked as if it was his time to win the title properly.
As the Giant kept getting involved in the match, tripping Savage up, Macho went over to Elizabeth and asked her to run backstage. As she sprinted up the aisle, she ended up bringing out Hulk Hogan to be at the corner of her client.
The playing field was even as Hogan continuously went after the Giant to get him away from Savage.
In its conclusion, as Andre distracted the referee, Hogan got in the ring with a chair and attacked DiBiase, returning him the favor from earlier in the show. Savage got up, went to the top rope, performed his flying elbow, and won his first WWF Championship.
Hogan immediately grabbed the belt and handed it to Savage, who then gave it to Elizabeth and carried her onto his shoulders, celebrating in the ring. WrestleMania 4 had its happy ending, and thus, a new tag team called "The Mega Powers" between Savage and Hogan was formed.
Final thoughts
Well, we finally conclude this review.
First off, I believe the tournament was way too long. While the focus was on the tournament, it felt a bit too much for this WrestleMania and felt more like they needed to create filler for a three-and-a-half-hour show. Believe me, as you may have seen with my writing today, I also was looking for filler and probably could have made this shorter.
Nearly every match lacked quality as they had an average time of roughly four to five minutes. While DiBiase and Savage had their stories told throughout the tournament, the excess could have been cut out, which would have given them more time for a better payoff.
As for the other five matches, two of them felt absolutely useless to have at WrestleMania 4. Once again, throwing in matches such as the six-man tag match between The Islanders (Haku and Tama) and Bobby Heenan against The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid) and Koko B. Ware didn't make sense.
Once again, I understand it was to help Savage and DiBiase rest for their final, but there could have been better ways to avoid creating the filler.
In conclusion, WrestleMania 4 had a fantastic original concept but came up just short in expectations. The WWF eventually created the King of the Ring to continue this tournament format, which involves only eight competitors.
While WrestleMania 4 ended on a high note, it was instead the beginning of the end as it started a year-long journey to the implosion that was to occur in the following year.
Results:
The tournament
Non-tournament matches:
- Bad News Brown last eliminates Bret Hart to win battle royal
- The Ultimate Warrior def. Hercules
- Brutus Beefcake def. Honky Tonk Man (c) via disqualification - WWF Intercontinental Championship (Honky Tonk Man retains)
- The Islanders (Haku and Tama) & Bobby Heenan def. The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid) & Koko B. Ware
- Demolition (Ax and Smash) def. Strike Force (Rick Martel and Tito Santana) (c) - WWF Tag Team Championship
Rating: C-
Thanks for reading. Look out tomorrow when I take a look at WrestleMania 5.
31 days away until WrestleMania 35.
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