Happy Wednesday Everyone!
As promised in last week’s feature, let’s see if I can tinker with a real life show and end up putting something fun together, as we rebook WrestleMania IV. Mania IV is a show that is widely recognised as one of the lamer earlier Mania events due to its extravagant runtime and the fact it was held in the Trump Plaza in front of swathes of non-wrestling fans who just wanted to be at a big event and didn’t even know who most of the wrestlers were.
Let’s see if I can try and come up with a slightly less horrible show here, although there’s every chance my tinkering will make it worse, because that’s something I do sometimes with these. Regardless though, let’s have a bash at rebooking WrestleMania IV.
You can view the real life card for this event by clicking the link below;
So the first change is probably the most obvious one, as we’re moving this monstrosity out of the Trump Plaza and into an actual proper wrestling arena. Madison Square Garden was getting booked for SummerSlam that year, but maybe somewhere like The Meadowlands in New Jersey could have been a good alternative venue? Heck, Chicago was run with good success as one of the venues for Mania 2 so maybe you take it there? Just somewhere other than the Trump Plaza. It’s the biggest wrestling show of the year, hold it in front of actual wrestling fans who will know who everyone is and will actually care.
Secondly, we jettison the tournament. Yes, I know tournaments are awesome and it gave Mania IV an interesting hook, but I just don’t think the concept worked outside of Randy Savage and his multiple different attires. Plus, not going with a tournament means you can give the matches some more time and you also don’t have to deal with things like tiring out the crowd by seeing the same people over and over. If you want a tournament then televise King of the Ring or something. For Mania, we’re doing a straight 9 match show.
Right, so we’re holding the show in a different venue and we’re not doing a tournament, so how does WrestleMania IV look? Let’s go through it match by match.
Opening Match
Eight Man Tag
The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart), Dino Bravo and Greg Valentine w/ Jimmy Hart
Vs
The Killer Bees (Jim Brunzel and Brian Blair), Ricky Steamboat and The Junkyard Dog
10-12 Minutes
I’ve decided to do away with the battle royal as well and instead we’re opening with a multi-man tag match as a way to get people a WrestleMania payday. There are enough good workers in this match that it should be entertaining and JYD is over enough that he should be fine to come in and do some spots. We’ll have the babyfaces win to pop the crowd, with Steamboat pinning Valentine in some form. This should be a fun opener that gets the show off on the right foot.
Match Two
King Harley Race w/ Bobby Heenan Vs Jake “The Snake” Roberts
8-10 Minutes
Seeing as we’re not going to do the Rick Rude Vs Jake Roberts time limit draw here, we’ll get a feud cooking between them by having Rude cost Roberts a match here against Race, more because he’s trying to help out a fellow Heenan Family member than actually wanting to cost Roberts. That’s just a nice bonus for him. Race was past his best by 1988 but I’m thinking he’d have a solid psychologically sound battle with Roberts, himself also a master of psychology, and the finish protects Roberts as he’d only be losing due to Rude and we’re going to let him get even later on.
Match Three
One Man Gang w/ Slick Vs Bam Bam Bigelow w/ Sir Oliver Humperdink
4-6 Minutes
Two big blokes going at it here, and you can hype it up by referencing the fact they collided at Survivor Series 1987. You have Gang work a bit of heat and then Bigelow fights back and ends up knocking Gang out of the ring for the count out win. 80’s WWF fans would probably just be happy at Bammer getting the win and wouldn’t care too much that there was no pin fall, and you protect Gang for further matches with the top faces whilst giving Bigelow a win.
Match Four
Andre The Giant Vs Hulk Hogan
8-10 Minutes
I think 10 minutes of this probably wouldn’t be that good, but hopefully it would have good heat at least, especially as Hogan was coming back for revenge over losing his Title. You do a Double DQ or Count Out here, meaning you can then do the rubber match in the cage for the big WrestleFest 88 stadium show. A gaggle of refs and what-have-you separate them and you end up having Ted Dibiase and Virgil getting involved in order to give Hogan a reason to show up in the Main Event later.
Match Five
Ravishing Rick Rude w/ Bobby Heenan Vs Hacksaw Jim Duggan
8-10 Minutes
Rude is good and Duggan is over, so this could be a fun match, and you have Jake Roberts get Rude back for earlier in the night by having him and Damien get involved somehow, leading to Duggan picking up the win. You can then keep the feud between Rude and Roberts going and work in the stuff with Roberts’ wife as well as the year progresses.
Match Six
Six Man Tag
The Islanders (Haku and Tama) and The Mighty Hercules w/ Bobby Heenan
Vs
The British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith) and The Ultimate Warrior w/ Koko B. Ware
10 Minutes
You combine the Islanders/Bulldogs and Hercules/Warrior feuds in the one match here, with Koko at ringside to nullify Heenan in order to get him a Mania payoff as well. Heck, you could even have Heenan and Koko handcuffed to one another in order to prevent Heenan from getting involved. Eventually Heenan is foiled and one of the Bulldogs can defeat one of The Islanders in order to give them revenge for the dognapping of Matilda.
Match Seven
WWF Intercontinental Title
Champ: The Honky Tonk Man w/ Jimmy Hart Vs Brutus Beefcake
10 Minutes
Honky never ended up getting the big haircut everyone wanted to see him get in this feud because Vince McMahon wouldn’t pony up with a nice bonus for him. In this reality we pay Honky what he wants and he gets his ears lowered as a result. Honky gets the pin via chicanery to retain, but then Beefcake lays him out with the sleeper and gives him a trim, leading to Honky coming back with a wild obviously fake hairpiece in order to draw even further heat for his IC Title defences.
Semi-Main
WWF Tag Team Titles
Champs: Strike Force (Tito Santana and Rick Martel) Vs Demolition (Ax and Smash) w/ Mr. Fuji
12 Minutes
No need to change this one really. Demolition are good choices as Champions and the match was a solid effort. Send them out there to have a good match and have The Demo’s win to start their epic Title reign.
Main Event
WWF Title
Champ: The Million Dollar Man w/ Virgil and Andre The Giant Vs Randy Savage w/ The Lovely Elizabeth and Hulk Hogan
15-20 Minutes
Rather than having Jack Tunney intervene to strip the belt from Ted Dibiase you have him use high priced lawyers to drown the WWF in litigation, meaning Tunney has to accept Dibiase as Champion. As it was the 80’s, a rich dude using his money to out-lawyer someone should have been instant heat and everyone would be desperate to see Dibiase get his. And that’s exactly what happens here, as Hogan prevents Andre from getting involved, leading to Savage dropping the elbow and winning the belt. However, Dibiase and Savage now get a chance to go out there fresh in front of an actual wrestling crowd, which should hopefully open the door for a WrestleMania classic. Afterwards Hogan shakes Savage’s hand but then gets out of dodge so that the moment can belong to Savage and Liz, and we’re done.
Conclusion
I think that this rebooking addresses some of the bigger issues that plagued the real WrestleMania IV. We’ve got the show down to a 9 match card, with nothing really overstaying its welcome. We’ve got a mixture of Heel and Face wins, with us getting our cake and eating it too in the IC Title match as Honky gets to retain but he also gets humiliated. There are still some non-finishes (one of the biggest complaints about the original show), but we’ve limited it to one count out and one DQ, with the rest of the matches having pinfall finishes
There are some notable absences from the card (Bad News Brown, Rougeaus, Ken Patera, George Steele, Butch Reed etc) but we’ve got a few multi-person matches in order to give as many people as we can a booking and most of the matches should have the potential to be entertaining. Gang/Bigelow and Andre/Hogan might not be especially exciting, but we’ve kept them short enough not to overstay their welcome whilst still being long enough in order to ensure the fans wouldn’t feel ripped off. I think Gang and Bigelow actually could be fun if they work it right, although I don’t think there’s anything you can about Andre Vs Hogan other than grit your teeth and get it over with. You HAD to present that match really following all the stuff with the previous two matches, as the fans would likely want to see Hogan get his revenge, and if you let them have a wild DQ here then you should be able to sell some tickets for the cage match blow off.
We’ve merged some feuds into just the one match, both in order to cut down on the total amount of matches whilst also potentially increasing the overall match quality of the show as a whole. Hercules and Warrior should benefit from being attached to the Islanders and Bulldogs for instance. The old “manger gets handcuffed to a babyface” thing may have been a bit too “Southern Wrasslin” for Vince McMahon to get on board with, but I think it would work here and Heenan would sell it great in the build-up. We start some new feuds, finish off some of the existing ones and we also keep some of the other feuds cooking along for blow off at a later date.
By changing the venue and drastically cutting down the number of matches we should have a hotter and more responsive crowd by the time the Main Event gets in the ring, and in that setting you’d trust both Ted Dibiase and Randy Savage to close the show on a high. Even with all the pageantry and additional bells and whistle that come with a big event like this, we should be able to be out of there within 180 minutes total show time, which is fine for a WrestleMania event and a marked improvement on the swollen and seemingly never-ending show the original was.
Let me know in the comments section if you think the show is better or worse as a result of my tinkering and feel free to share any of your own ideas for what you would have done with this show. Heck, rebook the tournament if you feel so inclined. I’m sure that will be the biggest bone of contention here, and I totally understand why as people like tournaments (myself included), but I just felt this particular show would be better off without the tournament. If you disagree then fair enough, it’s all about personal preference at the end of the day.