Greetings all. Today we step away from the weekly magazine recaps to look back at March 27, 1988 when two wrestling shows went head to head, courtesy of Scott Keith’s reviews and selected comments from others. We begin with the WrestleMania IV before moving on to the first Clash of the Champions.
The SmarK Retro Re-Rant for Wrestlemania IV
Live from Atlantic City, NJ.
Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon & Jesse Ventura.
This show was of course set up by the infamous Andre the Giant title win and twin referees. It’s billed as being at Trump Plaza thanks to sponsorship by Donald Trump, though it actually takes place at the Historic Atlantic City Convention Hall which looks like a giant bingo hall.
Opening match: A Battle Royal: If ever there was a cheap way to get everyone a piece of the gate, this is it. We’ve got the Hart Foundation, Young Stallions, Sika, Danny Davis, The Killer Bees, Bad News Brown, Sam Houston, The Rougeau Brothers, Ken Patera, Ron Bass, Junkyard Dog, The Bolsheviks, Hillbilly Jim, Harley Race and George “The Animal” Steele. The usual donnybrook to start, as Steele just stands outside and pulls at legs randomly. First man out is Sam Houston, via Danny Davis. Talk about your bad exits. Sika goes quickly as well. Steele pulls Neidhart over the top to eliminate him. Ray Rougeau and Brian Blair eliminate each other, and Jim Brunzell also ends up on the floor in the process. Ron Bass gets dumped by JYD as the thrillride in the ring continues. Gorilla marvels at Danny Davis still being in after the grueling match. Yeah, 4 minutes in. Hillbilly gets tossed by Bad News. Paul Roma dumps Davis with a fireman’s carry, but Jim Powers gets tossed by Bad News. Race and JYD get into a headbutt contest, and that goes nowhere, and then Patera gets rid of both Russians, but Bad News dumps him from behind. Jacques Rougeau is disposed of by Race. JYD headbutts Race right over the top, leaving us with a final four of Roma, JYD, Bret Hart and Bad News. Bad News quickly gets rid of Roma, but heel miscommunication allows JYD to hold off the heels. He headbutts both, but they regroup, pound on him, and toss him. Bret thinks that Bad News is gonna split the trophy with him, but sadly he falls victim to a Ghetto Blaster (enzuigiri) and gets tossed to give Bad News the win at 9:43. BAD NEWS SCREWED BRET! I don’t rate battle royals, but this one was pretty bad. Bret smashes the trophy, then rams Bad News into his birthday cake and attacks him after signing the contract.
HoldTheDoor: Oh man, that battle royal ending was EERILY prescient..
wnyxmcneal: Does anyone know if Uecker was a lifelong fan living out a dream or was he just someone who really got wrestling and knew how to do it? Because he’s terrific.
Bret Hart: Back in February of 88, Vince told me he was interested in Bad News Allen and asked me whether I thought I could do business with him. My brother Ross had recently asked me whether there was any way I could get Bad News booked in the WWF because Ross and Owen were having problems with him in Stampede so I praised him to Vince and called Stu to clear the way for Bad News to come up.
WWF World Title Tournament, First Round
Ted DiBiase v. Jim Duggan: This was an AWESOME matchup in their Mid South days. Here, not so much. They fight for the lockup to start and Duggan slugs away and gets an atomic drop. DiBiase goes over the top on the melodramatic sell and stalls for a bit. Back in, Dibiase throws some chops, but gets clotheslined. Duggan pounds away in the corner, but eats boot on a blind charge and messes up the sell, as he’s out of position for DiBiase’s followup. Ted pounds on him and gets a lariat, which Duggan doesn’t sell properly. DiBiase hits him with an elbow off the middle and the fistdrop for two. Duggan gets a laughable sunset flip for two. DiBiase hits him with a knee and another fistdrop, but Duggan reverses a suplex and catches Dibiase coming off the top. Duggan makes the comeback with a clothesline and a powerslam. He goes for the three-point stance, but stands in front of Andre and gets tripped up. Fistdrop finishes for DiBiase at 5:01. Fairly entertaining little match. *1/4
Casey: I was shocked that Duggan, the Royal Rumble winner, lost. I never thought DiBiase would make it to the second round.
Ted DiBiase: I loved working with Duggan. With guys like him, it wasn’t all about being a great athlete. It was about charisma and the character, and we had a lot of fun.
Jim Duggan: We went way back together. Me, DiBiase, and Matt Bourne used to be like the Rat Pack.
Dino Bravo v. Don Muraco: Muraco is managed by Superstar Graham. They trade shots in the corner and Muraco powerslams him out of there, and follows with a splash for two. Armdrags, but Bravo gets his own and drops an elbow. Gut wrench suplex and he stomps away, but misses a knee in the corner and Muraco goes after it. He keeps going with a spinning toehold, but they slug it out with forearms and both go down. Bravo throws the ref into Muraco’s path and it’s a ref bump. Bravo gets the sideslam, but the ref calls for a DQ at 4:55. ½*
Bruce Prichard: Don as a babyface never really worked.
JWBraun: Dino as anything never really worked.
Don Muraco: Dino was a lot like myself. A dying breed in an age of cartoon characters.
Ricky Steamboat v. Greg Valentine: This was assumed to be a no-brainer win for the Dragon to set up a rematch with Savage. HO HO, silly us. Criss-cross to start and Steamboat gets his trademark armdrags and works on the arm, and slugs Hammer down for two. Back to the arm, but he gets some shoulderblocks for two. Steamboat goes out and skins the cat back in, and dropkicks Valentine from behind for two. That looked sloppy. Back to the arm, as Jesse drops the name of future Beyond the Mat documentary maker Barry Blaustein. Valentine comes back with chops and chokes away, then yanks him off the ropes. He drops the hammer for two. Steamboat escapes a backdrop suplex and rams him into the turnbuckle to come back, and grabs another armbar. Hammer escapes with an atomic drop and a clothesline, then works the throat over on the apron. Back in, he slugs Steamboat into the corner, but Steamboat fires back with some NASTY chops for two. A slam attempt is reversed for two. Valentine with the gutbuster and he goes to work on the legs, but Steamboat shoves him off into the turnbuckles. They exchange some primo chops, which would get over HUGE these days, and Hammer takes the worst of that. Steamboat gets two. Hammer goes to the eyes, much to Jesse’s delight, and gets a shoulderbreaker for two. He goes up with a forearm shot off the top, which somehow sets up the figure-four, but Steamboat chops out of it. Hitting the guy in the leg is usually advisable if you’re using the figure-four as your finish. Steamboat comes back with a back elbow and goes up with the flying chop, and that gets two. He rams Valentine into the turnbuckles 10 times and goes up to finish, but apparently his temper has clouded his judgment, because Hammer rolls through for the clean pin at 9:09. Valentine was pretty game for this one. This would prove to be Steamboat’s first swan song in the WWF. ***1/4
Bruce Prichard: We didn’t want to have Ricky and Randy wrestle each other again because we didn’t want fans to have to choose between them, and there was no way they could follow-up WrestleMania III.
Jennings: This and the Hogan/Andre match were the last two matches featuring two guys who had wrestled in every WrestleMania, making these matches all the more special.
Randy Savage v. Butch Reed: Savage and Liz come down in matching blue outfits with Savage wearing fuchsia trunks. Savage dodges Reed to start, but gets caught in the corner, and Reed drops a fist on him. He pounds him in the corner and gets a suplex, and an elbowdrop gets two for Reed. Savage bails, so Reed necksnaps him on the apron and stomps away. Back elbow and Reed drops a fist off the second rope, but puts his head down and Savage comes back with some timely pugilism. Reed catches him with a lariat, however, and goes up. Slowly. Very slowly. So slowly that he has time to put the moves on Elizabeth, allowing Savage to slam him off the top and finish with the big elbow at 4:06. Basic babyface Savage match, as he gets pounded for a while and makes the surprise comeback. ¾*
JWBraun: Match was only four minutes, two of which was Butch Reed trying to climb to the top rope.
John Canton: This was basically a squash, which is what it should have been.
Bam Bam Bigelow v. One Man Gang: Gang attacks him in the corner and slugs him down, and then splashes him in the corner. Another charge misses and Bam Bam overpowers him into a splash for two. Crossbody gets two. Fistdrop gets two. Bigelow comes back with a clothesline and no one is selling. Bigelow finally headbutts him down and goes to finish, but Slick pulls him out of the ring and Bigelow can’t beat the count back in at 2:58. ½*
Rock Star Gary: Waste of Bigelow’s talent here.
Bruce Prichard: Bam Bam was injured at the time. In the original booking, the thought was you would have this big-man match that would tear the house down. But Bam Bam just couldn’t go.
Ravishing Rick Rude v. Jake Roberts: Rude overpowers him into the corner and does some posing to start, but Roberts faceplants him. Rude slams him and slugs away, but Roberts gets his own slam. Oh, cruel hand of irony. Jake slugs him into the corner, where Rude sees Damian and walks into an arm wringer. Jake works on the arm, but Rude slugs him down, although he is unable to break free of the move and Jake brings him down to the mat with him. Jake holds the wristlock and turns it into an armbar, but Rude brings him to the top and finally slugs out of it. Jake catches him with a kneelift, however, and goes for the DDT, but Rude slips out. Back in, Jake goes back to the armbar and they criss-cross, but Jake catches him with a slam, but whiffs on the kneelift and Rude takes over. Considering Jake nearly flew out of the ring on the missed kneelift, Rude should be glad it DIDN’T hit. The poor guy would have had a broken jaw from it. Rude hits the chinlock and hangs on through Jake’s escape attempt. Finally Roberts flips him off, but Rude goes up with an elbow and clotheslines him down for two. Back to the chinlock. Rude elbows him down for two and goes back to the chinlock, as the crowd is increasingly lulled to sleep. Jake tries to suplex out, but Rude hangs on. He turns it into a cover for two, allowing Jake to bail. Rude holds him on the apron and elbows him down, however, for two. Back to the chinlock. That goes on forever, completely telegraphing the result. Jake finally powers out with a jawbreaker and picks up the pace by slugging away on Rude and backdropping him. Short-arm clothesline sets up the DDT, but Rude powers him into the corner. Blind charge hits boot and Jake hits him with a gutbuster for two. Rude comes back with a backdrop suplex, however, for two. They clothesline each other for the double KO, but Jake recovers first. They head to the corner, where Rude gets two, and it’s a 15:00 draw, at 15:13. I guess the timekeeper was lulled to sleep, too. *1/2
Dwayne: I remember even back in the day it was hard for me to sit through the tape and Rude vs Jake had to be the worst of all of them. Funny thing is that would turn into a hot feud later.
Jake Roberts: Trying to keep up with Rude in a fifteen minute broadway was near impossible! He was in such great shape. I also remember that throughout the match, Ivana and Donald Trump were sitting at ringside, and Ivana wouldn’t even look at the ring. It really pissed me off. Rude, too. So when we left the ring, I swung the snake around, and it hit her. She was quite pissed off! I became a favorite of Donald’s over that. I could have been a White House if things had turned out right.
Bobby Heenan: The snake went right in Ivanna’s face. I thought, “Oh god, if Vince hears about this, we’re in trouble.” Then I looked over at Trump, and he winked at me.
And that concludes the first round of the tournament.
Ultimate Warrior v. Hercules: Warrior and Herc exchange shoulderblocks and get nowhere, and then fight into the corner with a lockup. Warrior throws chops, but misses a pathetic clothesline, and Herc puts him down with three clotheslines. Warrior fires back with a couple of his own but misses a punch and Hercules dumps him before getting pulled out himself for a brawl outside. Back in, Herc slugs away, but Warrior still won’t sell, and he fires back as they awkwardly fight it out in the corner. Hercules brings him out of there with an atomic drop, and dodges Warrior’s charge, setting up the FULL NELSON OF DEATH. Gorilla thinks it’s over, but Warrior pushes off and gets the pin at 4:35. DUD
Brian Bayless: Good lord. Warrior was absolutely clueless out there. He honestly looked like a guy who had no business wrestling a match on TV, nevermind a PPV.
Rock Star Gary: If Warrior was supposed to be Hercules’ understudy here, Hercules did a poor job of leading him.
WWF Title Tournament, Quarter-finals
Hulk Hogan v. Andre the Giant: Andre attacks to start and pounds Punk Ass Hogan with clubbing forearms. Hogan fights back with clotheslines and goes after DiBiase, then rams him into Andre and starts throwing chops. Andre falls into the ropes and gets tangled up, so Hogan capitalizes by tearing his shirt off and posing. Well, no one ever said he was a great strategist. He slugs on Andre to no avail, and Andre finally goes down. He drops elbows, but Andre chokes him down on the mat. DiBiase gets his shots in from the outside, and Andre chokes him from behind and turns it into a VULCAN NERVE PINCH OF DOOM. (Back in the VHS days, this is where you had to switch to tape #2.) Anyway, Andre continues choking, but Hulk miraculously comes back, which is a development I didn’t expect at all. Punch punch punch clothesline and Hogan goes for the slam, but DiBiase brings in a chair and breaks it up. Our combatants fight over it, and it’s a double DQ at 5:14, -** Hogan, sportsman that he is, beats up Virgil and nearly kills him with a suplex on the floor. And then he slams Andre too. What a hero.
Brian Bayless: The fans seemed shocked and disappointed by the finish, and they were pretty much dead the rest of the night.
Bruce Prichard: Andre had lost weight, and he was looking to do more, but the truth was he was deteriorating, even if it was hard to get him to understand that. Meanwhile, Hogan was going to go off and do a movie. So we had to find a way to get both guys out of the tournament, and it just became this hodgepodge deal.
Paul Roma: Hogan couldn’t wrestle, but he started believing his own bullsh*t. “Hey, I’m really beating Andre The Giant.” No, you’re not. “Hey guy, hit me with your finish, I’m gonna kick out of it.” Of course you are. You kick out of everybody’s finish, that’s what you do, but at the end of the day, you’re just a punk ass.
Don Muraco v. Ted DiBiase: Muraco brings him in with a slam to start and clotheslines him, and drops an elbow, and a powerslam gets two. He hammers away and gets a back elbow, then drops the Asiatic Spike from the second rope, for two. Snapmare into a necksnap and Muraco yanks him out of the corner and gets a standing dropkick for two. Man, Muraco is game tonight. DiBiase bails and avoids the wrath of Superstar Graham, but heads back in and Muraco slugs on him. Muraco whips him into the corner and yanks him out again, but DiBiase hangs onto the ropes and uses the leverage to pull Muraco into the turnbuckles. Now THAT’S smart. DiBiase chokes away and clotheslines him for two. Knee to the gut and the FISTDROPS, which get two. Muraco comes back with a kick to the head, but DiBiase slams him and goes up for the Elbow That Never Hits. It doesn’t hit. Muraco makes the comeback with a nice clothesline as DiBiase bumps all over, but Muraco walks into a hotshot and gets pinned at 5:35. This was all a major style clash, with DiBiase bouncing off Muraco like a pinball, but Muraco seemed energetic enough to make it worthwhile. *3/4
Brian Bayless: Muraco looked a lot more motivated in this match than in round one.
JWBraun: Either by design or accident, the conclusion of this match set up an interesting situation: there were three heels and one babyface left, with the brackets aligned in such a way that Savage, the lone babyface and crowd favorite, had to go through all three heels one at a time to win the tournament. It was a shrewd way to give Savage a seemingly impossible mountain to climb, making the payoff all the more emotional.
ToddtheBod: Thank God we didn’t get the Hogan/Bravo match that was foreshadowed by the original brackets.
Greg Valentine v. Randy Savage: Savage and Liz now have matching pink outfits, and Savage has changed to the classic bright red trunks. Valentine attacks to start and hammers away in the corner, but Savage takes him down with a kneedrop for two. Hammer quickly forearms him and goes up with a forearm from the top, and drops an elbow for two. Shoulderbreaker gets two. Valentine tosses him and follows with an elbow to the floor, and lays in the chops outside before sending him into the railing. Back to the apron, where Valentine hammers on the throat and chokes away. Back in, he works on the leg a bit, but Savage does a bit of damage control by making the ropes. Valentine keeps coming with a drop suplex for two. Backbreaker gets two. Savage suddenly comes back and gets the double axehandle for two, but chases Jimmy Hart and gets caught with a cheapshot. Savage blocks a suplex and gets his own, but goes up too soon and gets caught coming down. He tries to charge and crotches himself as a result, and Valentine goes for the figure-four, but Savage reverses to a cradle for the pin at 6:06. This never really got going. *
Robert Eddleman: Of course it never got going. Everyone knows it takes the Hammer about twenty minutes just to get warmed up!
John Canton: Although these two needed more time to really get into gear, the finish actually worked unlike most of the earlier matches.
And that finishes the quarter-finals of the tournament.
Honky Tonk Man v. Brutus Beefcake for the Intercontinental title: They fight over a lockup to start and Honky pounds on him, but gets his foot caught by Brutus, who atomic drops him. And then he MESSES UP THE HAIR. Oh, it’s on now. Back in, Honky wants to slug it out, but then changes his mind and hides in the ropes. Brutus rams him into the turnbuckles to take over and gets a high knee, but Honky bails again. Brutus pulls him back in and dodges a kneelift, but misses an elbow. Honky stomps away on the mat and drops a fist, and Brutus gives a goofy sell of it. Jimmy Hart gets some cheapshots from the outside and Honky goes for Shake Rattle N Roll, but elects to keep punching instead. Another try, but it’s too close to the ropes and Brutus hangs on to block. Beefcake fights back and backdrops him, and Honky begs off from this flurry of offense, but it’s NO MERCY from Beefcake, as he hooks the sleeper. It’s not looking good, so Jimmy Hart waffles the ref with the megaphone and Beefcake releases the move like a moron. Beefcake is more excited about getting a chance to cut Honky’s hair than winning the title, so he goes for his scissors, but Jimmy steals them. Beefcake chases him down and gives him a haircut, which shows a distinct lack of focus on the task at hand. Peggy Sue (Sherri Martel) dumps water on Honky to revive him, and we’ll call it at DQ at 9:00, although the actual match was only 5:00 or so. Beefcake would get MUCH better in 1989, before the boating accident turned him into what he became later in his career. ½*
Starrcade92: If they weren’t going to have Beefcake cut Honky’s hair, they shouldn’t have bothered with this match.
Brian Bayless: Honky himself said he would have offered to get his haircut if it meant more money.
Bruce Prichard: No one is ever going to accuse Beefcake of having a great wrestling match, but you know what? The match was fine. It was meant to be an entertaining “ha ha” filler match.
Jimmy Korderas: I was the referee for this match, and it was exciting because this was my first WrestleMania. But when Jimmy Hart hit me with the megaphone to ‘knock me out,’ I fell so hard, I knocked myself out hitting the mat. In fact, when the match was over, they had to drag me to the back.
The British Bulldogs & Koko B. Ware v. The Islanders & Bobby Heenan: This was the blowoff for the abysmally stupid dognapping angle, and Heenan is wearing a dog-proof suit. Dynamite pulls Tama in to start and hiptosses him, but he begs off. DK slingshots him into the corner and out to the floor. Back in, Smith slams him, but misses an elbow. Haku comes in and grabs a headlock on Davey Boy, and they collide in mid-air and Davey Boy gets two. Slam gets two. Crucifix gets two. Davey Boy hits the chinlock, but he gets taken back into the Islander corner and worked over. He comes back with a press slam on Tama, but Haku comes in and pounds on him. Back elbow, but Koko gets in and takes both Islanders down with a headscissors. Dynamite clotheslines Haku, but walks into a kick in the corner. And that finally brings the Brain in, as he stomps on Dynamite and then tags out to Tama again. Backdrop on the Kid and Tama slams him to set up a pump splash, but it hits knee. Hot (?) tag to Koko, which the crowd doesn’t really pick up on, and the heels collide. Haku clotheslines him, however, and pounds away. So Koko is your bird-in-peril, as Tama goes up with a shot, and Heenan bats cleanup again. He stomps and chokes away, but Koko slugs back and whips him into the corner. Koko dropkicks him into the post, but takes too long and the Islanders jump him from behind. It’s BONZO GONZO and the Islanders drop Heenan onto Koko for the pin at 7:28. This went NOWHERE, with no flow to it and no heat on anyone. ¾*
JWBraun: It’s sad that a lot of people who became fans in 1987, 1988 only remember Dynamite Kid one of the guys in six-man tag matches who got beat by Danny Davis and Bobby Heenan.
Bruce Prichard: Bobby Heenan hated that outfit he had to wear. It was so hot, and he couldn’t wrestle in it. And as it turned out the dog wouldn’t attack him anyway. He was tapping the mat and trying everything he could to get the dog to come, but she just didn’t want to.
Bobby Heenan: I tried practicing with Matilda in the dressing room. Nothing. Then when we did the match, I couldn’t breath in the dog suit I had on, I hadn’t wrestled in two years, and I got blown up. At the end, I turned to run down the aisle, and I saw Davey Boy trying to force Matilda to run after me. I couldn’t go any more, so I fell down on the aisle. Matilda got on top of me and started sniffing the dog suit and began to hump me. I walked back to the dressing room and told the boys, “Don’t worry about the payoff. I already got screwed.”
WWF Title Tournament, Semi-finals
Randy Savage v. One Man Gang: Savage and Liz have matching purple outfits, and Savage has moved back to the fuchsia trunks again. They fight over a lockup to start and Savage hits him with an elbow, then necksnaps him using the beard for leverage. Gang powers him into the corner, however, and pounds away. He uses the CLUBBING FOREARMS until Savage goes down, and that gets two. Elbowdrop gets two. Big splash misses and a corner splash also misses, which allows Savage to come back with some fisticuffsmanship, and Gang bails. Savage follows with the axehandle to the floor, and back in he tries a slam, to no avail. Gang chokes him down and tries to use the cane for good measure, but alas the ref sees it and it’s a DQ at 4:12. DUD They would have a much better match on SNME a couple of weeks later.
Brian Bayless: Bad match with a terrible finish.
dwaters: I was surprised at the number of DQ finishes overall.
John Canton: Savage could have a good match with a guy like One Man Gang if they were given a lot of time, but obviously that wasn’t going to happen here.
And that ends the semi-finals.
Strike Force v. Demolition for the tag team titles: Smash pounds on Martel to a face pop to start, and catches a crossbody attempt, but Santana dropkicks them over. It’s a donnybrook and Strike Force cleans house and double-teams Smash with a clothesline. That gets two for Martel. The crowd is SERIOUSLY burned-out by this point, which was approaching four hours into the show. Ax comes in, but gets armdragged by Santana. Strike Force works on the arm in the corner, but Ax headbutts Martel and brings Smash in, who walks into a hiptoss. Back to Santana, as they keep switching off and stay on the arm. Santana tries a leapfrog and gets clotheslined by Ax from the apron, however, and it’s CLOBBERING TIME. Ax keeps Tito in the corner and they unload on him, and now the heel fans start making themselves heard. Ax gets a powerslam for two. Smash chokes away and they do some cheating, and it’s a suplex for two. Ax comes in, but puts his head down and Santana catches him with an elbow, but Smash smartly drags Tito back to the corner again. Tito catches a fluke flying forearm (with great sell by Ax), and it’s hot tag Martel. It’s dropkicks for everyone! He knocks Smash down and gets the Boston Crab, but Tito brawls with Ax, allowing Mr. Fuji to bring the cane into play. Ax nails Martel, good night, and we have new champions at 8:00, to one of the biggest face pops of the show. Standard formula stuff. *1/2
Michael Weyer: It’s funny how back in early ’88, Demolition was still seen as a lame Road Warrior rip-off act but it soon started to dawn they were better workers and good in their own right.
PeteF3: A moment that always cracked me up: Jesse describing the finish of the tag title switch, “Well, even though it appeared to be illegal, the referee’s decision will…” Gorilla: “APPEARED TO BE?!”
Brian Bayless: This was a solid house show match but again, the crowd was dead, making the few cheering for Demolition seem like it was louder than in reality. Strike Force were not really lighting the world on fire as champs and Demolition had eclipsed them anyway so the switch made a lot of sense.
Smash: We only found out we were going to win the the titles a couple weeks before, but we had two great guys to work with, and we knew we weren’t going to get hurt and we were going to have a good match.
Ax: We had this thing set up where I’d hit Martel with the cane. Well, if you get an older cane, it will snap, but for whatever reason, Fuji had this new cane, and it wouldn’t break at all. So when I hit Martel, it nearly knocked him out for real.
WWF World Title Finals:
Ted DiBiase v. Randy Savage: Final outfits for Savage & Liz are matching white, and Savage is back to the red trunks again. DiBiase has Andre with him, Savage has Liz. Now there’s a mismatch. Savage and DiBiase fight over the lockup to start and Savage elbows out of the corner, but gets tripped by Andre. The crowd already can read 18 chapters ahead of the bookers and starts calling for Hogan. The two wrestlers exchange hammerlocks and DiBiase goes down, but Andre trips Savage again. Crowd wants Hogan again. DiBiase starts on the arm, but Savage reverses, so DiBiase rams him into the corner and pounds away. Clothesline gets two. Sunset flip is blocked by Savage, and he comes back with a clothesline for two. DiBiase takes a breather and regroups. He starts hammering on Savage and chops him down, and a back elbow. Another one misses and Savage elbows him down and necksnaps him on the top rope (with a great oversell from DiBiase), and a high knee puts Dibiase on the floor, into the protective arms of Andre. Savage finally gets smart and sends his woman to the locker room, sacrificing himself, as this gives DiBiase the chance to lay him out and drop the fists for two. DiBiase hits the chinlock, and that’s Hogan’s cue. He takes a seat at ringside and DiBiase slugs away in the corner. Andre goes for Savage, but now Hogan makes the save. DiBiase clotheslines him and drops an elbow for two. Suplex gets two. Gutwrench gets two. Dibiase goes up, but gets caught and slammed, and Savage goes for the kill. Elbow misses, however, and DiBiase hooks the Million Dollar Dream. Andre gets a shot in, drawing the ref over, and thus Hogan comes in and blatantly cheats, hitting DiBiase with the chair, and Savage finishes with the flying elbow to win his first World title at 9:17. Definitely not their best match, as they were both burned out and surrounded by angles. **1/4
Ted DiBiase: I still remember being in Mid South in 1987 and picking up the newspaper and seeing the headline, “WrestleMania III sets world indoor attendance record.” And I was like, “Wow!” not knowing the following year I’d be in the WWF and close WrestleMania IV.
John Canton: They would have better matches, but with Savage working four matches and with all of the shenanigans outside the ring to play up the story, it wasn’t the right time to have a classic match. As a moment, however, Savage’s win was very special.
JWBraun: After all the controversary caused by the twin referees, who ends up refereeing the finals of the tournament? One of the Hebners.
Bruce Prichard: Here was the funny thing: Dave was making the transition to be a behind the scenes road agent. Earl was the one who was going to continue to be the referee. But we had to refer to Earl as Dave for a while before we finally acknowledged that he was Earl.
Final Thoughts:
John Canton: I’ll always look at WrestleMania IV in a positive light because of the emotions it brought out of me as a kid. I just wish it was a better show. Can’t win ’em all, right?
Phil Suckalooni: I loved the show. The commentary was great, the matches were short and didn’t over stay their welcome and it was basically a whose who of all the 80’s wrestlers I grew up with. A show with great matches doesn’t have to be the be all and end all for a good PPV. And that’s not an insult to Scott or Meltzer. People can enjoy wrestling in many different ways.
Brian Bayless: Going into this, the TV for the past several weeks consisted of hyping up the first-round matches and Andre vs. Hogan III, an actual feud. Once Hogan/Andre ended, the crowd died. And the rest of the non-tournament matches did not have enough momentum behind them.
So everyone should know the deal with this by now, but Jim Crockett decided to run a free TV special to screw with WrestleMania IV, and it worked spectacularly well.
Live from Greensboro, NC
Your hosts are Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone
Mike Rotundo v. Jimmy Garvin for the TV title: So this is under amateur rules, which is a weird way to kick off a big show. A one-count wins and there’s rounds. Rotundo goes for a single-leg and pulls the tights to do so, but Garvin takes him down with a slam and Rotundo bails. Interesting tension here in that any cover basically ends it. Garvin works on a facelock and they threaten to exchange fisticuffs, but Teddy Long breaks them up. Rotundo gets a clothesline and goes for the cover, but Garvin rolls to his stomach as the round expires. Second round and Rotundo attacks and goes up (like they do in amateur wrestling), which allows Garvin to slam him off. Garvin with the brainbuster, but he goes after Kevin Sullivan and Rotundo rolls him up for the pin at 6:45 to retain. And then Precious kicks some serious ass, laying out Rick Steiner with a 2×4 and choking Sullivan down with a coat hanger. Nothing much to this. *1/2
JWBraun: This was the NWA’s version of Tito vs. The Executioner from WrestleMania I.
Brian Last: Mike Rotundo’s run at this time was so great. Him in that Syracuse singlet worked. He looked like that smug jock with a smirk on his face you wanted to see get his butt kicked.
Steve Williams returns from Japan to offer his support for Dusty Rhodes and challenge Ric Flair. So, uh, Dr. Death with a live mic, bad idea.
Jim Cornette: They gave Steve, for whatever reason, too much time. But Doc couldn’t talk. If he was a fired-up heel with an issue, he was okay. But this was Scott Steiner doing math twenty years before Scott Steiner did math.
Joey Williams: Doc finishes his promo in the realest fashion I’ve ever seen by saying, “Bye-bye, take care.”
The Midnight Express v. The Fantastics for the U.S. tag team titles: Big brawl to start and Fulton goes crazy with a chair, taking out Eaton on the floor and then chasing the Express into another brawl outside. This time the Express gets the best of it, as Lane lays Fulton out with a chair and even Cornette is throwing shit around. JR notes that they’re not here “to listen to rock n roll music and look good”. Clearly. In the ring, the Fantastics toss them around, but finally the Express gets their shit together and takes out Rogers with a Total Elimination. That’s more like it. Superkick from Lane and Cornette blatantly holds up a table, as Eaton sends Rogers into it behind the ref’s back. Now THAT’S some spectacular cheating. Eaton with a powerslam and flying elbow and they pound on Rogers in the corner. Demolition-style flying knee from Eaton as the crowd is going batshit. I love that they don’t just do the standard “punch and kick in the corner” stuff for the heel offense here, it’s crazy double-teams and non-stop action. Lane tosses Rogers after a hope spot and Eaton slams him on the table, and he’s still moving so Eaton bulldogs him on the table as well. Back in, more awesome double-teaming, but Rogers lunges over for the hot tag…which the ref doesn’t see. And then Cornette leaps in and starts hitting him with the tennis racket to boot. He hits the wrong guy, however, and the Fantastics hit Eaton with the Rocket Launcher for the pin and the titles at 10:20? Nope, as in fact the ref had been thrown over the top rope and thus it’s a Dusty Finish instead. Crappy finish, but it at least built to the Fantastics winning the belts for real soon after. This was just crazy action from start to finish. ****1/4
Jim Cornette: The idea to bring The Fantastics into Charlotte was mine because The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express had left, and we needed some opponents. Bobby and Tommy were working in Dallas, which was falling apart, and we asked Dusty to bring them in because this was team we could get some sympathy on and get some heat over and basically recreate what we had with The Rock ‘n’ Rolls. So we go into the Clash, and Dusty gives us the finish—the Dusty finish, which I was never a fan of—and ten minutes for the match. I was dumbfounded because we never had matches that short. So we went back and sat down, and I said the only way we can do this is to go back to Memphis and give them the god-damnist ten minutes they’ve ever seen in their life.
And now the top 10 seeds for the upcoming Crockett Cup:
Dusty Rhodes & The Road Warriors v. The Powers of Pain & Ivan Koloff in a Chicago Street Fight: The ropes are wrapped in barbed wire just for fun. Animal is wearing a hockey mask due to having a weight dropped on his face, so he’s rather upset. The babyfaces beat on the Powers and of course Dusty is the first one to bleed. The poor ref just stands around outside waiting for a pinfall, and Animal quickly finishes Barbarian with a powerslam. Just a big messy brawl, nothing to it. ½*
Jim Cornette: Ivan was the oldest guy, and he was taking all the bumps!
Kevin Pantoja: Nothing really happened here. It was just six dudes beating each other up and I saw maybe two wrestling moves.
Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson v. Barry Windham & Lex Luger for the World tag team titles: The Horsemen had been champions forever and teaming up Windham & Luger was the nuclear option to deal with the problem once and for all. Luger overpowers Tully to start, and clotheslines both champions. Powerslam for Tully and he racks him, but Arn kicks him in the knee and quickly goes to work on it. The Horsemen switch off on the knee, but Barry gets a quick tag and cleans house. Lariat for Tully and he drops the knee, and his own powerslam gets two. Sleeper and Tully rolls out to escape, but Barry just hangs on. Tully tries going up and gets slammed off, and Windham follows with an abdominal stretch, leaving him open for a DDT from AA. That gets two. The crowd is just insane for the faces, popping for everything. Spinebuster gets two and Arn does the knucklelock spot and lands on Windham’s knees, but brings Tully back in as he pounds away for two. Windham comes back with a bodypress for two and they collide, setting up the pinfall reversal spot. Windham reverses the bridge into a gutwrench suplex, but Anderson cuts off the tag and works on the arm. Windham fights out of it, but Arn takes him down again, and they butt heads. Back to Tully for the slingshot suplex, but that only gets two. Arn can’t cut off another tag, and Luger is HERE. Clotheslines for everyone and the crowd is just going crazy as Luger is no-selling everything. Tully trips him up, but Luger comes right back with a powerslam for Arn and it’s BONZO GONZO. JJ grabs a chair, but Luger rams Arn into it and the pop redefines the term “blowing the roof off the joint at 9:34, ****1/4 Not only some of the loudest sustained heat for any match you’ll ever hear, but one of the fasted-paced tag team matches you’ll ever see, as they just packed everything but the kitchen sink into a 10-minute match and threw it all there.
Joey Williams: All four men were on top of their game here, and this match is a sobering reminder that Lex Luger is CRIMINALLY underrated. For some reason, Luger has a bad wrap. People think of him in the same vein as other jacked up muscle-heads like the Ultimate Warrior and Warlord. But let this match be an example of Luger being able to keep up with three of the best wrestlers in the world at this point in 1988.
JWBraun: Sadly, TBS had the wrong camera angle for the finish, but they fixed it for the follow-up airings of the match on their weekly shows.
NWAFan88: I love how immediately after Luger and Windham get the pinfall, they grab the belts and run to the back to avoid a Four Horsemen beatdown and sell the idea that they just stole one.
Ric Flair v. Sting for the World title: So this is Sting’s first big shot at the title, with a 45-minute TV time limit and a panel of judges in case of a draw. Sting grabs the headlock to start and powers Flair down off a wristlock. They do the test of strength and Flair opts to chop out of it, but Sting no-sells it and hiptosses him out of the ring. Back in, Sting controls with a hammerlock and they criss-cross into a press-slam from Sting. Sting takes him down with a flying headscissors into the hiptoss, and back to the headlock again. Flair fights up and hiptosses out of it, but Sting counters and goes right back to it again. Flair fights up and Sting hiptosses him and tries another dropkick, but Flair dodges him. Sting gets tossed but pops right back in and fires away in the corner, then right back to the headlock again. Flair chops out of it and they slug it out in the corner, and Sting gets another press slam, into the bearhug.
Flair makes it to the corner to escape and Sting tries to follow with the Stinger splash, but misses and hits his arm on the post. Flair is all over him, tossing him and running him into the railing. Back in, Flair throws the chops and Sting goes down, so Flair hammers on the back. Kneedrop times two and Flair rips at the face just to be a bastard. He rakes the face on the ropes and fires more chops in the corner, and Sting ends up on the floor again. Flair sends him into the railing again and they head back in so Flair can chop him again. Sting gets fired up, though, and slugs Flair right out of the ring, but charges at Flair and hits the post. So the arm is hurt again and Flair goes to town back in the ring, but Sting pops up and slugs away in the corner. Clothesline gets two. Flair tries to make a run for it, but Sting suplexes him back in and into the Scorpion Deathlock. Flair quickly makes the ropes, so Sting takes Flair to the corner again and shrugs off a chop. He slugs Flair down for two, but Ric is in the ropes again. Sting hiptosses him and tries a clothesline, but Flair moves and Sting hits the floor again. Flair takes a breather, but Sting comes in with a high cross for two. Flair catches him with the kneecrusher, however, and starts pounding on the knee. Another kneecrusher and Sting bails to the floor. Back in, Flair pounds on the knee again and adds a backdrop suplex, and now we go to school! Flair uses the ropes to assist as usual, but Sting powers into the reversal. Flair is up first, however, and goes after the knee again, then sets up on the apron for a suplex. Crowd freaks out, but Sting suplexes him back in instead, only to miss a big splash.
They fight for the abdominal stretch and Sting wins that, but Flair hiptosses out. Flair chops him down and goes up, but Sting slams him off for two. He pulls Flair into the corner and posts him, then gets his own figure-four. Flair escapes, so Sting stomps on the knee again and yanks him out of the corner to work on the leg again. Flair Flip and he hits the floor, but Sting follows and beats on him. Flair tries a sunset flip back in, but Sting slugs him down and rakes Flair’s face on the ropes. Sting fires away in the corner, then no-sells Flair’s atomic drop and clotheslines him for two. Stinger splash misses and Sting hits the floor in dramatic fashion. Back in, they slug it out and Flair goes down, but comes back with a sleeper, so Sting rams him into the turnbuckle to break. Flair tosses him in desperation, but Sting comes back in with a sunset flip, which Flair blocks for two. Young kicks him out of the ropes and Sting gets two. Flair begs off and Sting whips him out, but Flair comes in with a high cross, reversed by Sting for two. Sting no-sells all of Flair’s offense now, hammering him in the corner to set up the Stinger splash. Scorpion Deathlock with time running out, but Flair hangs on until the time limit at 45:00. The decision: One judge for Flair, one for Sting, and one for a draw. Silly finish aside, the match flows well and you can see the storyline of young and hungry Sting fighting for his life but not knowing how to finish. Definitely a modern classic. ****1/2
Ric Flair: Throughout the match, I could feel the mood of the people and knew they were buying Sting as my peer. So was I. Sting and I realized this was start of something we would be doing for a very long time.
Bruce Prichard: The performances of Sting and Flair were off the charts, and this one match made Sting. It was his coming out party.
Jim Cornette: Sting and Flair went 45 minutes without a commercial break for this match. How often do you see that on TV? And at the end of the match, you knew you’d just seen the birth of a new superstar.
The Bottom Line:
Jim Cornette: Clash 1 was a really good NWA big show. The NWA had done live big shows before but we’d never done a live TV special, and it was just very unique. The show did a 5.8 rating/13 share and had 4 million viewers on a network available in only 40 million homes. Compare that to today where you do less than a million on networks available in 100 million homes. The Sting/Flair match peaked at a 7.8 rating/15 share with 5 million viewers and was the most watched wrestling match in cable TV wrestling history.
JWBraun: Years after this event I talked to Ken Osmond, aka “Eddie Haskell,” about it. He was only there to promote The New Leave it to Beaver, but he told me he was genuinely impressed with the whole show and had the time of his life.
Bruce Prichard: I think the way the Clash was marketed was brilliant.
Ric Flair: The show definitely lured away millions of viewers who might have watched WrestleMania.
And here’s what fans in 1988 were saying…
That’s all for this week! Join me next week where we’ll begin to look at coverage of these events in the wrestling magazines. And if you’re new here, be sure to leave a comment and check out the archive. Also, check out my website to see what books I’ve written!