WrestleMania V

After the explosion of an event that was Wrestlemania IV, this fifth installment would have been hard-pressed to live up to expectations. It doesn't, of course, but still manages to turn in a decent showing.

Some of the highlights of Wrestlemania V include:

-A great tag match featuring Demolition vs. The Warlords (what a power display!) -The Hart Foundation finally getting a big "babyface" response instead of being "heels". -Jake "The Snake Roberts" pulling out Damien on Andre The Giant (I've never seen the big guy move so fast). -Seeing Bobby "The Brain" Heenan getting bounced around the ring a little bit (!). -The debut of Curt "Mr. Perfect" Hennig, as well as the Ultimate Warrior finally becoming a huge force in the industry.

Of course, the Hulk Hogan vs. Randy "Macho Man" Savage main event is the most entertaining match of the night. Savage was always such a great wrestling personality and showman that his big build-up matches always seem to really "pop".

Overall, though, Wrestlemania V to me was just a little bland coming off the big tournament a year before. 3.5 stars would be my exact rating. Some matches really entertained me, while others were snoozers. If you really enjoy tag-team action then you'll probably think more highly of it than me, as for some reason the WWF at this time had a huge "tag" push going on in the industry.

This was an awesome wrestlemania. I loved how they had it once again at Trump Plaza, and how they had the steps coming down to ringside. This wrestlemania had so much hype, and I think it lived up to it. A lot happened at this event: Hogan won the title back, The Ultimate Warrior lost his title to Rick Rude, Strike Force split up, Demolition beat their former manager, and The Hart Foundation gave the Honky Tonk Man and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine a beat down. It was great, it really set the stage for Summerslam that followed a couple months after it.

If you were expecting a legendary experience like "WrestleMania III" or "WrestleMania IV", you won't find it here. There are some decent matches and the main event is cool, but there are also some boring and unnecessary stuff like rap performance in the ring, drawn out and stupid Brother Love and Piper sequence and some slow or gimmick matches. All in all, "WrestleMania V" delivers on the fun, but it's held from greatness by the broadness of it's unevenly fun content. 6.5/10!

This next installment of the wrestlemania series I thought was entertaining, but just lacked the momentum like the previous ones. This main event seemed like something we would see on a Saturday Night Main Event. The storyline was very predictable as well as its outcome. Hogan came back after filming and since the WWF saw a drop in ticket sales at their house shows with Savage as champion they needed Hogan as champion again. As talented as Randy Savage was and how great he was on the mic, he just could not generate the excitement the bigger than life Hulk Hogan was able to do, thus Savage went back to being a heel instead of a baby face fan favorite. The whole event did not have any really outstanding moments and seemed to be poorly scripted. The lack of any celebrity presence also spoke to the equality of this event. Seemed they were trying to keep costs down and produced this on a shoe string budget. Then again Wrestlemania 7 holds the distinct honor of being one of the worse Wrestlemanias ever, so V was still better than that one. In summation Wrestlemania V was average getting 3 out 10 stars from most wrestling reviewers.

You could ignore all the other matches and this show would still he a 10. The Mega Powers colliding was the greatest story ever told. Down to the most minor detail. Everything done was done for a reason. Absolute genius booking by Mcmahon & Patterson. And hats off to Hogan, Savage, and Miss Elizabeth for pulling it off.