Wrestlemania iv

[Guest]

I always felt WrestleMania IV deserved a better treatment than it got. WWF had so much on their hands in early 1988. Hogan was still very hot. Randy Savage was climbing fast and had been for some time. Ted DiBiase was the first normal sized super heel since Roddy Piper in 1985. Controversy and mainstream publicity was up after the twin ref stunt on NBC in Feb’88. They had a very potent roster. Basically they entered the WrestleMania hype in excellent shape. So what went wrong? Well, in hindsight at least some mistakes are obvious.

 

They only had one  b i g  match billed, that being Hogan vs. Andre and they had already had that on free TV two months earlier. It made the content of the show seem like nothing special.

 

Too many names that meant nothing were entered in the tournament thus taking the must see feeling away from it.

 

They held the show in an arena that they should’ve known would attract a silent unemotional crowd.

 

And once the show got underway it was clear that no one had bothered to try to book a strong show.

 

So here’s what I would’ve done. I’ve tried to book it realistically which for example means that Hogan won’t job, Ric Flair, Lex Luger, the Road Warriors or Sting won’t make run ins, and Savage is beating DiBiase for the belt because that’s the finish Vince told me to book .  I’ve also tried to consider what happens after the show instead to avoid going into the summer with nothing to work with.

 

Some people felt it was a mistake to take away the aura of Hogan being the only top guy in WWF but Vince, at the time, felt he needed the belt on the road for the house shows and with Hogan leaving to film the multiple Oscar winner No Holds Barred Vince has asked me to book a tournament and give the belt to Savage and that’s what I will do.

 

So buckle up, cause it’s WrestleMania IV – the way it should have been

 

Two Iron man tourney pools á la Starrcade’90.

 

The winners of pool 1 and pool 2 battle for the undisputed WWF heavyweight championship in tonight’s main event.

 

Participants in Pool 1:

Hulk Hogan

Macho Man Randy Savage

Bam Bam Bigelow

Ricky the Dragon Steamboat

 

Round 1:

Hulk Hogan vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Obviously the crowd will go crazy for an opener like this. They do the whole mutual respect routine at the beginning doing tests of strength that go nowhere. During the match Bam Bam usually has the upper hand regaining control every time Hogan tries a comeback. Ventura and Monsoon put Bigelow’s impressive effort over saying that Bigelow may have Hogan’s number. Eventually it happens of course; the Hogan hulk-up comeback. He shakes and starts hitting Bigelow who loses his momentum. Hogan’s on a roll nailing Bigelow with forearm after forearm. He even tries a clothesline but Bigelow just won’t go down. His manager Sir Oliver Humperdink is now on the apron cheering for Bigelow. Hogan can’t believe what’s happening. He looks around at the crowd and goes to the ropes for clothesline leverage, accidentally bumping into Humperdink who falls of the apron. Bigelow sees this and for a split second he loses his focus and when Hogan connects with a clothesline from the ropes Bigelow who’s caught completely off guard goes down like he was shot. Hogan goes for a quick legdrop, hooks the legs and gets the clean 1-2-3 after letting Bigelow dominate the match. I’d give 6-7 minutes from bell to bell.

 

Hogan shows his determination and puts the importance of the tournament over by leaving the ring without posing. He’s on a mission and Monsoon and Ventura point this out as well.

 

Ventura & Monsoon discusses the outcome and blames Bigelow’s inexperience. They say that he went toe to toe with the former champ but while it was unfortunate that his manager got hit there was nothing he could do about it and he shouldn’t have lost his focus. In an interview Bigelow is upset he lost but he’s not blaming Hogan. Instead he says that in a tournament like this you do what you have to do, and this is far from over yet.

 

Macho Man Randy Savage vs. Ricky the Dragon Steamboat

Well, it’s one year since their classic in the Silverdome and with Savage getting the gold and Steamboat leaving there’s no reason for Savage not to avenge the most famous loss in his career.  7-8 minutes of hot back and forth action ends with a clean pin for Savage.

 

Mean Gene tries to interview Savage after the match but Savage just says he’s in the middle of something and won’t talk right now. Elizabeth talks to Mean Gene is worried as usual.

 

Round 2:

Macho Man Randy Savage vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Bam Bam comes to the ring alone after the bump Humperdink took during the Hogan match. Bigelow looks very strong dominating the early minutes and Savage doesn’t gain any momentum until Bigelow goes for his slingshot splash finish and Savage rolls out of the way. Savage uses his speed to gain control. To Ventura’s delight Savage does his choke with the wristband from his heel days. Savage displays the mad look from the times when he’d do anything to win. Monsoon says it’s an important match but this is uncalled for. Ventura says that Savage is the only fan favorite he can respect. Finally Bigelow escapes and is just starting a comeback when the crowd starts too cheer. Humperdink is making his way to the ring, with a bad limp. Bigelow looks his way and then at the crowd. That’s all Savage needs. Double axhandle from the top rope from behind and the ref counts 1-2-3. Bigelow can’t believe he lost again. Humperdink has now reached the ringside area but Bigelow who has now lost two matches he controlled loses his temper and makes a slide dropkick under the bottom rope and takes Humperdink out. Ventura marks out and wants more.

 

Bigelow gives a furious interview ranting about how looking out for people he didn’t need was something that always cost him more than he got in return. It’s time to look out for himself first and no one else second. Mean Gene tries to talk sense to him and gets shoved into the WrestleMania IV set for his efforts.

 

Hulk Hogan vs. Ricky the Dragon Steamboat

Short match. Steamboat takes an early lead without really shaking Hogan. Hogan eventually kicks out of Steamboat’s body press from the top rope, gets the legdrop. 1-2-3. Savage and Hogan are now even before their showdown in the third round.

 

Round 3

 

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Ricky the Dragon Steamboat

Before the match Steamboat is awarded a fair play award by WWF President Jack Tunney. Bigelow can’t believe they’re doing this to distract him before a match at WrestleMania. He grabs the mike from Tunney, and gives him two seconds to leave the ring or he won’t be held responsible for the consequences. He then proceeds to just destroy Steamboat and ends the match with a running powerslam followed by a piledriver. Of course he proceeds to just kick the shit out the Dragon which causes some of the guys from the opening battle royal to try to stop but nothing can stop the Beast from the east. Finally Humperdink comes to the ring trying to stop Bigelow. Bigelow gets on the mike again and says that he will spare Humperdink this time if he never shows his ugly face in the WWF again. When Humperdink leaves Bigelow goes to the ring table, takes Steamboats fair play trophy, catches up with Humperdink and puts his lights out with the trophy. He then lifts the trophy in the air celebrating his new way of life. He will bring this trophy to the ring during the next couple of months daring anyone to try and take it from him.

 

Randy Macho Man Savage vs. Hulk Hogan

 

I’d love to give Savage the He-pinned-Hogan rub here but it’s 1988 and you know it would be impossible to get that so let’s be realistic and do what we can. Both men implement some of their usual fan favorite rule breaking and of course Ventura calls Hogan a cheater and a hypocrite while saying turn around is fair play and you do what you have to do when Savage bends the rules. Nothing serious though. At one point Hogan throws Savage out of the ring and starts posing. Ventura, of course, gets pissed off.  Savage comes back and has Hogan in a side headlock when Hogan starts his superman comeback and takes Savage down with an atomic drop. Big Boot and he goes for the legdrop, but Savage gets out of the way. Irish whip by Savage but Hogan reverses and I’m sorry, but yes it’s a ref bump. Bigelow runs in, trophy still in hand and takes both of them down with it. He then proceeds to throw Savage over the top rope, goes after him and Elizabeth buys some time by standing between Bigelow and the fallen Savage. Honky Tonk Man style push and she’s out of the way. Bigelow throws Savage back into the ring and then knocks him out with a piledriver. When he attempts to piledrive Hogan he gets back dropped and a brawl erupts while the ref starts to recover. Savage goes outside to check on Elizabeth who was knocked down by Bigelow earlier. Meanwhile Hogan has fiought Bigelow off by throwing him into the stairs outside the ring. He then goes to check on Savage and Liz but when he puts his hand on Savage’s back Savage turns around with a huge punch and hits Hogan thinking it was Bigelow. Realizing the ref is counting Savage rolls under the bottom rope just in time to beat the count and win the match.

 

Savage quickly rolls out of the ring, then carries Liz to the back while the crowd cheers for Hogan as he’s about to confront Bigelow who’s recovering at ringside. A million officials get in between them though and finally Bigelow leaves so Hogan can get his mandatory five minutes to pose in the middle of the ring.

 

Meanwhile this has happened in the other pool:

 

Round 1:

 

Andre the Giant vs. Ravishing Rick Rude

 

Andre makes Rick Rude submit to his often imitated never duplicated greco roman five star bear hug even though Bobby Heenan who’s managing Rude (and used to manage Andre before DiBiase bought his contract) begs him not to. After the match Andre keeps beating on the unconscious Rude while Virgil comes out and hands Heenan a few hundreds to smooth out any possible diplomatic differences between Andre’s former contract owner and the current one.

 

Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase vs. One Man Gang

 

Ted DiBiase comes out and announces that due to some problems backstage Andre has to wrestle his second match immediately, thus the match is changed to Andre vs. One Man Gang. Diabolic laughter from DiBiase and Monsoon is disgusted while Ventura casually says he feels bad for Andre having to wrestle so soon after his first match but if anyone can do it it’s the Eight Wonder of the World.

 

Perfect opportunity for Monsoon to pull out his irresistible force meeting the immovable object line. Andre dominates the future African Dream when the Doctor of Style Slick hits him from behind with his cane. OMG gets disqualified and DiBiase joins Andre in beating up OMG severely while Virgil handles the diplomacy with Slick outside of the ring.

 

Round 2

 

Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase vs. Ravishing Rick Rude

 

Rude can barely walk after the beating he took from Andre and DiBiase goes over with little effort.

 

Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase vs. One Man Gang

 

And the same thing happens here. One Man Gang has nothing left and DiBiase take him out in a few minutes.

 

So going into round 3 DiBiase has yet to absorb one single punch. Ventura is putting DiBiase over like crazy while Monsoon is furious and wonders what WWF President Jack Tunney is thinking right now.

 

Round 3

 

One Man Gang vs. Ravishing Rick Rude

 

Bam Bam Bigelow interferes and takes out an already worn out Rick Rude. OMG thinks he has a new ally but gets nailed with the trophy Bigelow stole from Steamboat earlier. Bigelow puts the unconscious Rude on top of OMG for the pin thus setting up a heel vs. heel match between Bigelow and OMG on an upcoming episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event where Bigelow goes over in impressive brutal fashion.

 

Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase vs. Andre the Giant

 

Andre doesn’t show up and DiBiase reminds everybody that Andre had to attend some business backstage earlier and DiBiase doesn’t know what it is but he knows that Andre has his priorities set straight so he assumes it must be something important. Finally the ref has to start the match without Andre and counts to ten for a count out victory for DiBiase who is now in the final after no physical effort what so ever.

 

For the undercard matches that are spread out between tournament  matches I’ll keep the matches from the real WrestleMania IV. They’re ok for a 1988 WWF undercard.

 

Final match to crown the Undisputed WWF Heavyweight Champion

 

Macho Man Randy Savage vs. Million Dollar Man

 

Ventura and Monsoon points out that Savage looks intense but he must be exhausted after facing Hogan, Bigelow and Steamboat earlier. Of course, DiBiase is still fresh after winning his pool without breaking a sweat.

 

DiBiase is joined by Andre and Virgil while Savage comes out with Liz. DiBiase dominates the match and every comeback attempt is stopped by interference by Andre or Virgil. Eventually Savage turns the match around and dominates for a few minutes with both Monsoon and Ventura putting him over for taking all that punishment and still hold his own against DiBiase who is described as being as capable as anyone even without all his dirty tricks. But ultimately the odds become too stacked against  the former IC champ as Andre nails him from outside to move the control of the match back to DiBiase. Liz runs to get help and comes back with Hogan who is stopped when Andre and Virgil beat him up while Savage starts a comeback in the ring.  Hogan fights back outside when Bigelow comes out and attacks Hogan. DiBiase hits Savage with a foreign object and holds him waiting for Bigelow to finish Savage off. Of course Savage moves out of the way. Bigelow nails DiBiase instead and stops for a second allowing Savage to hit him from behind and throw him out of the ring. He goes to the top rope Andre approaches the ring corner when Liz steps in between and unlike Bigelow earlier Andre won’t hit a woman so we get his first step towards a face turn and at the same time Savage hits the flying elbow and gets the win. Bigelow and Hogan fights to the back, DiBiase is furious at Andre and slaps him. Andre can’t believe it and punches the man who owns his contract and his career. Andre shakes Savage’s hand and congratulates him before leaving. Savage and Liz celebrate in the ring. The announcers put Savage’s efforts over hugely as all the faces enter the ring to pay respect to the new undisputed WWF Heavyweight Champion.

 

So what did we get and how do we follow it up?

 

Savage:

Got the belt despite tremendous odds even going toe to toe with DiBiase + Andre + Virgil in the final round.

Revenge on Steamboat for WM3.

A clean victory over someone who is now the new monster heel.

Hopefully a stronger impression on the fans than the Hogan tainted victory at the real WM4 managed to make.

 

Bigelow:

Lost two matches but that was before he snapped and became the new Beast from the east.

Destroyed Steamboat in the last match and will destroy One Man Gang in a month’s time on network TV.

High profile program with Hogan, and gets to beat the hell out of people throughout the summer before Hogan returns from filming No Holds Barred.

 

Hogan:

Has a big program waiting for him when returning. Could bring in newcomer Big Boss Man as his new ally who of course turns on him setting Boss Man and Bigelow up as the Twin Towers. This means we don’t need to see Akeem in the main events.

 

DiBiase

Hopefully he really pissed people off with his antics at WM4 thus keeping his heel heat intact as opposed to what happened irl. Secures that heat by winning the title in tainted fashion shortly after WrestleMania. Savage hunts throughout the summer and finally wins the title back clean at SummerSlam’88. The last match on SummerSlam is Hogan vs. Bigelow and Savage saves Hogan after a 2 on 1 attack by Bigelow and Boss Man, and the Mega Powers take off to eventually explode at WrestleMania V.

 

Andre

Turned on DiBiase at WM4 and becomes his nemesis but since DiBiase owns his contract he can’t wrestle because DiBiase won’t let him. There was no reason to have Andre wrestle at this point of his career but he still had great name value so I’ll be happy use him as a face character outside of the ring. Finally Andre manages to trick DiBiase and gets to wrestle again. His first match is against DiBiase at WrestleMania V where Andre announces before the match that he will retire once he’s won the match.

 

Steamboat

Made three clean jobs but he was leaving anyway and as opposed  to losing in the opening round in an anonymous match irl he gets hyped as a WWF championship contender in the weeks leading up to WM and also gets to show off his skills in the rematch with Savage. Nothing humiliating. Just business.

 

Summary

 

I suppose it might be a bit unrealistic to think that I could convince McMahon to go with so many face vs. face and heel vs. heel matches but I’ve tried to avoid letting someone’s heat get in the way of someone else’s as much as I can. With Steamboat leaving and Bigelow turning I have two credible names doing the necessary jobs to keep Hogan happy and make Savage look strong without hurting someone. Anyone can job to Andre without losing too much and they were changing One Man Gang anyway. Rude’s time had still to come and I don’t think this card would hurt him too much.