WrestleMania IV

Wrestlemania IV (1988) marked the start of the end of Hulkamania's run as one of the biggest draws in pro wrestling. At this point wrestling was so huge that Donald Trump himself wanted a piece of the action. He had the next two Wrestlemanias (IV and V) held in the Trump Plaza. The Donald even had ringside seats for this four hour event. The storyline went like this Hulk Hogan lost to Andre the Giant in a very controversial match on N.B.C. 's Saturday Night's Main Event wrestling program. Immediately after the match Andre and his manager Bobby "the Brain" Heenan gave the belt to Ted "Million Dollar Man" Di Biase and he gave the Brain a suitcase full of money. Both parties were satisfied except the Hulkster who "cried" during a promo he gave after the match.

The stage was set for Wrestlemania IV, W.W.F. "president" Jack Tunney organized a tournament set up involving all of the top singles competitors in the W.W.F. This was supposed to be the greatest wrestling spectacle of all time. Except the matches stunk and the event was four hours long!! The only matches of note was the battle royale (Bad News Brown was the man!) and the old school N.W.A. style match between Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and the Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat (those two put on one good match), They should have called this one Wrestlemania "Snore".

But it's worth getting just to hear the most delusional promo ever recorded from the Hulkster!!

B-

I remember them hyping the Hogan/Andre match BIG TIME prior to this show,only to see them fight to a lame no contest. If that wasn't bad enough,they botched the chance to have Savage/Steamboat in the second round (though semi-final's would have been more fitting),instead we were witness to Savage/Valentine and Savage/OMG. Even though Savage was obviously winning the tournament,the focus was still ALL about Hogan,which angered me then as it does now,being Macho was one of my all time favorites. If your a Macho fan,this is worth a watch,as he could really go back then. If your not,you probably wouldn't get as much out of it.

Whilst I don't think WrestleMania IV was in the same league as the previous three events it was still a brilliant card.

The main event of the card was a tournament for the WWF Title. Back in 1988 tournaments like this were actually unpredictable and anybody could win them. All the top good guys and bad guys fought in the tournament for a chance to win that prized WWF Title.

The undercard was pretty good too. The powerful Ultimate Warrior brutalized Hercules in a good match. The devastating Demolition made their WrestleMania debut battling traditional good guys Strike Force. There was an entertaining and comedic match between Brutus Beefcake and The Honky Tonk Man. And for the first time since WrestleMania II we were treated to one of those Battle Royals which featured an entertaining ending.

Check this video out if you can.

Match 1: Bad News Brown won a 20-man battle royal Match 2: Brutus Beefcake defeated Intercontinental Champion Honky Tonk Man via DQ Match 3: The Islanders & Bobby Heenan defeated the British Bulldogs & Koko B. Ware via pinfall Match 4: 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 World Wrestling Championship

Overall Mark: C+

A knock competition is something I think 🤔 could make a great annual tournament and could feature different titles each year depending on what is vacant at the time. This being so different from wrestlemania formula that was built to a high at wrestlemania 3 does not feel like it builds on that instead trying something new.