Mike Reviews Shows Considered To Be Stinkers – WWF WrestleMania IV

Happy Stinky Saturday Everyone!

We’re back with another Stinker Review this week, which is where I look at a show that has a bad reputation and decide whether that bad rap is deserved or not. This month we’ve got WWF WrestleMania IV, an event that was stupendously hyped by the WWF and generated a lot of interest at the time; but the show itself ended up being considered a major disappointment.

One of the main issues facing WrestleMania IV was that the event ended up being held next to a casino and the majority of those in attendance weren’t actually wrestling fans, meaning that crowd reactions throughout the night were disappointing and matches that would have gotten decent reactions in front of real wrestling fans ended up getting met with derision and boredom from the casual casino goers who just wanted to dress fancy and attend a big event for the purposes of clout.

Another notable issue that WrestleMania IV had to contend with was that the show not only had a multi-round tournament for the WWF Title to fit in, but the WWF also had other matches booked throughout the evening as well, meaning that many thought the show dragged. The length of the event, combined with the uninterested crowd, made WrestleMania IV feel like a bit of a slog.

It also didn’t help that the NWA was on at the same time with an infinitely better Clash of Champions show, featuring Ric Flair making a lifetime star out of Sting in an all-time great World Title match. However, maybe all of these issues are overstated and WrestleMania IV is a better show than it gets credit for? Let’s watch on and find out!

You can view the card for WrestleMania IV by clicking the link below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1756&page=3

You can also read my attempt at re-booking this show by clicking HERE!

WrestleMania IV is emanating from Atlantic City, New Jersey, on the 27th of March 1988

Calling the action are Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse The Body Ventura

Gladys Knight is here to sing so we can get our yearly dose of American jingoism.

Some lads bring out a trophy for the opener.

Opening Match
Battle Royal
Sam Houston Vs Ken Patera Vs Boris Zhukov Vs King Harley Race Vs The Junkyard Dog Vs Jim Neidhart Vs Bad News Brown Vs Bret Hart Vs Paul Roma Vs B. Brian Blair Vs George Steele Vs Jim Brunzell Vs Jacques Rougeau Vs Ron Bass Vs Nikolai Volkoff Vs Hillbilly Jim Vs Danny Davis Vs Raymond Rougeau Vs Sika Vs Jim Powers

Starting the show with a Battle Royal can sometimes backfire, especially if it’s a “shove everyone in the ring right away” Battle Royal instead of a Rumble styled one where people can pop for the entrances. Sometimes it can just be a really flat way to start a show, although when it’s done well it can pop the crowd pretty good. The winner of this one gets the aforementioned trophy.

Bob Uecker is on commentary for this, and I think he’d eventually go into the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame. He was known for being a baseball commentator. If you’ve seen a Battle Royal before then this shouldn’t really surprise you too much, as everyone picks someone else to fight and they hang around near the ropes or corners pretending to try and throw one another out. One thing I think it could do with is Howard Finkel announcing when guys get thrown out actually, just because it makes it easier to follow the action.

The crowd seems to really hate Danny Davis and there are audible exclamations of excitement whenever it looks like someone will chuck him out. Steele spends the majority of the match outside the ring trying to grab at people, and even drags Neidhart out of the ring at one stage. Eventually Steele is just told to leave by the referees. Bret Hart probably enters the best performance of the match, whilst Davis’ eventual elimination gets the expected pop.

Race gives JYD his win back from Mania III by letting Dog chuck him out and that brings us down to a final three of Brown, JYD and Bret. The crowd does come to life a bit at this stage due to JYD’s charisma, but tonight is not to be his night as Bret and Brown gang up on him and then chuck him out. However, Brown was doing Stone Cold’s “DTA” shtick long before Austin was and he ends up betraying Bret to fling him out as well.

WINNER: BAD NEWS BROWN
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: The crowd didn’t really care about that outside of hating Davis and liking JYD, so they probably should have had it come down to Davis and JYD with Dog winning, but instead they wanted to push Bad News and he got the win instead. The match itself was a pretty flat Battle Royal, but it mostly hit the beats it needed to and I wouldn’t say it was actively bad.

Bad News doesn’t get to enjoy his trophy for long though, as Bret comes back in to beat him up and then smashes it. Both Bad News and Bret were Heels here so the crowd doesn’t really know how to feel about it at first, although Bret gets some cheers when it’s all over.

Robin Leach, the host of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” , comes out to read a scroll in order to declare the beginning of the WWF Title Tournament.

Match Two
WWF World Heavyweight Title Tournament First Round Match
“The Million $ Man” Ted Dibiase w/ Virgil and Andre The Giant Vs “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan

Dibiase was the reason for this tournament, as he had bought the WWF Title from Andre The Giant, which had led to Jack Tunney declaring the belt vacant because you can’t just buy a belt like that. Neither of these guys had entrance music at the time, which is kind of crazy when you consider that both Dibiase and Duggan had some pretty iconic themes eventually. You can see why the WWF eventually had themes for mostly everyone on the roster, as it can leave the start of a match feeling rather flat otherwise. These two of course had feuded before in Bill Watts’ promotion before the WWF poached them.

This is decent in the early stages, with Duggan clobbering Dibiase and Dibiase taking some nice bumps for it all. Someone once said that Dibiase from this time frame looks like a muscular Noel Edmonds and now I can’t stop seeing it. Dibiase eventually manages to get a boot up in the corner and works some heat on Duggan, with Duggan selling it well enough, although some of his bumping has been a little sloppy. Duggan attempts to fight back a few times, even getting a Sunset Flip at one stage, and eventually Duggan manages to make a full comeback with punches and what-have-you. Andre ends up being the difference maker though, as Andre trips up Duggan and that allows Dibiase to pounce with a quick pin to advance.

WINNER: TED DIBIASE
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was fine. It was a kind of match you’d see pretty regularly once both the WWF and WCW started doing Star Vs Star matches on TV during the Monday Night Wars, as two guys went out and had a quick competitive match and then the bigger star at the time went over. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing especially good either

Mean Gene Okerlund is in the interview area with Brutus Beefcake, and is very impressed by Beefer’s packeege. Beefcake cuts his usual wacky promo from this period, where he talks about winning the IC Title and also cutting the hair of his opponent. It was pure 80’s cheese, so it was entertaining but it wasn’t going to win any promo of the year awards.

Match Three
WWF World Heavyweight Title Tournament First Round Match
“Canadian Strongman” Dino Bravo w/ Frenchie Martin Vs Don “The Rock” Muraco w/ “Superstar” Billy Graham

Graham couldn’t really go in the ring anymore due to injuries, so they’d made him the manager of the babyface turned Muraco in the hopes that the two could compensate for the other’s weaknesses in order to make them a successful combo. Bravo had been a babyface in the WWF at first, but he’s since gone Heel and is now an evil French Canadian villain, and he’s also seemed to find a manager that dresses up like Smarty Arty from popular European kids show Zzzap! This is one of the matches that kind of sums up what Vince McMahon’s vision of Pro Wrestling was in 1988 was, as both of these guys are huge to the point that they can barely move, but they both sure look big and muscular, with meaty thighs on full display PAL!

I will say that there are some impressive feats of strength in this, with both men flinging the other around with relative ease. I know Bravo is widely regarded as one of the worst wrestlers ever here on the Blog, and he certainly isn’t great, but he at least can bump, sell and feed to something bordering an acceptable standard, so he’s already miles ahead of some of the dross that has come down the pike in the years since. There isn’t really much to say about this one, as it’s mostly even and the work is basically fine but not much more. I will say that they work at a reasonable clip all things considered. Eventually Bravo pulls the ref in the way of a Muraco attack and that leads to the ref calling for the bell, even though Bravo gets a visual pin fall straight after with a Side Slam.

WINNER: DON MURACO BY DQ
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: I don’t really have much to say about that one. It was just two fellers having a match with a crappy ending. If they were protecting Bravo then why not have him win here and then take a payoff from Dibiase to then forfeit in the next round? Bravo is protected and Dibiase gets to be even more of a Heel for getting to the latter stages of the tournament so easily

In a nice touch; even though Jesse is a Heel commentator he still admits that Bravo should have been DQ’ed for pulling the referee in the way. It’s something a lot of Heel commentators avoid doing, but I quite like it.

Bob Uecker is looking for Vanna White, but Honky Tonk Man and Jimmy Hart interrupt him to talk about Honky’s match with Brutus Beefcake later on tonight. It’s pretty brief, but it does the job, not unlike Arnold Rimmer in the bed room.

Match Four
WWF World Heavyweight Title Tournament First Round Match
Greg “The Hammer” Valentine w/ Jimmy “Mouth of The South” Hart Vs Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat w/ his family

The way things were set up, the winner of this match would potentially wrestle Randy Savage, so fans were hoping that we’d get a Savage Vs Steamboat bout in the latter rounds. However, Steamer was kind of in the dog house with the WWF as he’d asked for some time off in 1987 after wining the Intercontinental Title, so it wasn’t set in stone that he’d win this match here. Steamboat shines on Valentine to start, with the work being to a decent standard, aside from one clear botch where Steamboat tries to dropkick Valentine so that he bounces into the ropes and then falls back into a School Boy, but they get the timing off and end up both tumbling to the mat. Thankfully they just power through, with Steamboat doing some arm wringering.

Valentine eventually decides that this wrestling stuff is a mugs game and starts clobbering Steamboat with strikes, which eventually gives The Hammer a foothold in the match. I must admit that I’m a sucker for the babyface winning the technical battle only for the Heel to try and turn things into a fight. It’s such a simple storytelling technique but it almost always works, as it not only makes the Heel look dastardly for turning the wrestling match into more of a brawl, but it also sends the subtle message that the babyface is the better wrestler overall because the Heel had to resort to scrapping in order to have a chance because they couldn’t get things done by just wrestling.

The crowd isn’t that into this to be honest, at least the casino goers aren’t anyway. The wrestling has been decent though, with Valentine trying to win things with the Figure Four Leg Lock. However, Steamboat fights off the hold and makes the comeback with some big chops, leading to Valentine doing the tree falling in the forest sell for it. The pace and intensity pick up a bit as we hit the finishing stretch, with Steamboat getting a chance to bust out some more exciting offence, including a big flying chop from the top rope for two. Valentine has done his stalling bump about five times now, which is starting to look a little silly though. Ration that Gregory or it will lose it’s effectiveness. Steamer heads up for a big cross body, but Valentine rolls through and grabs some tights for three in a big upset.

WINNER: GREG VALENTINE
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was decent, with the wrestling being good and things picking up in the closing stretch. I think they should have had Steamboat win, but Vince gonna Vince I guess

Mean Geneis backstage with The British Bulldogs, Koko B. Ware and Matilda. The Bulldogs say that they’ve been training Matilda to hunt Weasels, which makes Koko very excited.

Match Five
WWF World Heavyweight Title Tournament First Round Match
“The Natural” Butch Reed w/ “The Doctor of Style” Slick Vs “Macho Man” Randy Savage w/ The Lovely Miss Elizabeth

Savage was one of the favourites to win the belt after going babyface in 1987 and they had already established that He and Hogan were storyline buddies. Reed was supposedly supposed to be the guy that defeated Ricky Steamboat for the IC Title back in 1987 until they ended up going with Honky Tonk Man, but I’m not sure if that was ever confirmed or just internet hearsay. Reed would eventually form one of my favourite tag teams with Ron Simmons in WCW though. Reed takes the majority of this match, with Savage not really getting much in the way of a shine first. This is possibly due to the abbreviated run-time and the result of the match, meaning that they want to showcase Reed as much as possible whilst the bout is going on. Savage just can’t get anything going here, but Reed makes the mistake of jawing with Elizabeth, and that gives Savage a window to throw Reed off the top and follow with the Macho Elbow for the three count.

WINNER: RANDY SAVAGE
RATING: *

Thoughts: This was just Reed battering Savage for most of the match until it was Elbow time, at which point Savage won. I wouldn’t say it was actively bad, it just wasn’t much of a match up to the abrupt finish

Bob Uecker is still looking for Vanna White, as this gets creepier by the moment. Bobby Heenan and The Islanders show up for some promo time, with Heenan says he has something planned for later on.

Match Six
WWF World Heavyweight Title Tournament First Round Match
The One Man Gang w/ Slick Vs “The Beast from the East” Bam Bam Bigelow w/ Oliver Humperdink

Bammer had been tagging with Hulk Hogan a lot during this time, so he was an outside chance to win the whole thing here. Gang was a big mean Heel who could always be programmed with the babyface Champ if needs be, but I’m not sure he was favoured by anyone to actually win the tournament. This is lumbering big man Vs quick on his feet big man, and it works well enough in that regard, with Bammer mostly getting the better of things. However, Slick low bridges Bigelow when he tries to hit the ropes, and that leads to Bammer taking a spill to the floor. OMG keeps punching Bigelow on the apron and not letting him back into the ring, which leads to the referee counting Bigelow out in another weak finish tonight. Why wouldn’t the count be reset if OMG kept attacking Bigelow like that?

WINNER BY COUNT OUT: ONE MAN GANG
RATING: 1/2*

Thoughts: This was a really short match with a terrible finish, and it’s not the first lame finish we’ve had in the tournament thus far, nor will it be the last. I get that not every finish in the tournament is going to be clean, but would it kill them to keep the non-finishes to two or lower? If you don’t want to beat certain people, then put other wrestlers in the tournament who you ARE prepared to beat

Mean Gene is backstage with Hulk Hogan, who cuts a Hulk Hogan promo. If you like Hogan’s promo style then you’ll probably like this. If you don’t, then you won’t. I must say that I was personally amused by Hogan saying that he was going to give Andre The Giant such a vicious body slam that he’d essentially create a giant sinkhole that would doom the entire arena (including all his little Hulkamaniacs) to a watery grave whilst he swam away doing the back stroke. I mean, that’s peak wacky 80’s Hogan right there!

Match Seven
WWF World Heavyweight Title Tournament First Round Match
“Ravishing” Rick Rude w/ Bobby “The Brain” Heenan Vs Jake “The Snake” Roberts

This was before these two started feuding properly, with Rude eventually putting the moves on Robert’s wife in order to kick things into a higher gear as 1988 rolled on. It’s kind of odd that they’d do a match here when they were going to spend so much of the rest of the year wrestling as well. Did they ever call back to this match in the feud and try to retroactively make it mean more? The match itself is well-wrestled for the most part, with both wrestlers trading holds and working a believable looking contest, but it never really kicks into any kind of a higher gear and you’re mostly left wondering as to when they’re going to make it to the fireworks factory.

I don’t really have much to say about this one really, as it’s mostly just Rude and Roberts having a competent yet rather uneventful bout. You never really feel like either of them is actually going to win, which is essential if you’re going to make a match like this work. Again, the actual wrestling itself is fine and I appreciate how both of these guys are solid performers and good storytellers, but this match just isn’t doing it for me. It doesn’t seem to be doing it for some of the live crowd either, as some of them are shouting that the bout is boring. I do feel kind of bad for the two wrestlers as you can see from how much they’re sweating that they are working hard here, the match just feels like it lacks direction or any real immediacy. It’s just two folk wrestling for a bit until they’re told they don’t have to anymore, which is hard to get into. Rude finally goes for a rope assisted pin, but the time limit runs out and both wrestlers are eliminated.

TIME LIMIT DRAW
RATING: **

Thoughts: I like the fact they did a double elimination here, as I always love that as a booking technique in a single elimination tournament like this as it’s a good twist that can create some drama. However, if you’re doing the broadway then the match itself needs to be really good and both wrestlers need to really go heck for leather to win so that the fans don’t feel ripped off by the non-finish. Instead of that we got two guys working hard and having a fully competent wrestling match in there, but it never felt like either of them was ever going to win, nor did it feel like either of them really wanted to either. Not a bad match by any means, and I can see some quite enjoying it just because of the professionalism on display in regards to the work, but it didn’t do it for me I’m afraid

Roberts chases Rude out of the ring with Damien following that, as we learn that OMG has received a BYE to the latter stages now.

Mean Gene is backstage with brackets for the tournament, as I start getting Alan Partridge’s Road to USA 94 vibes. Vanna White shows up and doesn’t know who Bob Uecker is (OUCH) and picks Hulk Hogan to defeat Andre The Giant later. White was on Wheel of Fortune I believe, but I can’t say that I know much about her. We do have our own version of that show over here and I think the concept is pretty much the same. We have Family Feud as well, but it’s not quite as good as what you get in the US as we have to contend with Vernon Kay hosting it.

Match Eight
Singles Match
The Mighty Hercules w/ Bobby Heenan Vs The Ultimate Warrior

These two guys were both strong, so they were feuding. As far as reasons for two people to want to fight one another, I’ve seen dumber in all honesty. The match itself isn’t that great, as it’s mostly just them trading punches and clotheslines, with Warrior generally getting the better of it. For instance, it takes three clotheslines for Herc to bump Warrior at one stage, whilst Warrior can knock Herc down with just one. It’s an easy way of displaying that Warrior is the tougher of the two, which makes sense as he’s the babyface and someone the WWF had interest in pushing. Hercules eventually manages to catch Warrior with an Inverted Atomic Drop when Warrior is too focused on doing a ten punch in the corner, and that leads to Herc applying his dreaded Full Nelson. However, Warrior kicks off the ropes and lands on top for Herc for the three count, in the sort of finish I don’t think we’d see Warrior do again once his mega push started for real later in the year.

WINNER: ULTIMATE WARRIOR
RATING: 1/2*

Thoughts: This was pretty bad in all honesty, as Warrior was pretty rough to watch until the feud with Rick Rude really kicked in during 1989, and Hercules wasn’t the guy to drag a good match out of him here, although Herc was certainly trying as best he could

Herc tries to attack Warrior with his trademark metal chain following that, but Warrior fights back and sends Herc bailing to the floor.

We get a video package to get us up to date on what’s been going on in the WWF Title picture since WrestleMania III.

Match Nine
WWF World Heavyweight Title Tournament Quarter Final Match
“The Eighth Wonder of the World” Andre The Giant w/ Ted DiBiase and Virgil Vs The Immortal Hulk Hogan

Andre had won the belt from Hogan earlier in 1988 due to a dodgy referee, and had then promptly sold the belt to Dibiase. Despite the corrupt nature of the fall, the result was allowed to stand, but the WWF didn’t sanction the sale of the belt from Andre to Dibiase, meaning that the belt was held up. Andre and Hogan, due to being the two most recent officially recognised Champions, were given a BYE to the Quarter Final stage, which is common in 14 wrestler tournaments like this. Andre was only 42 when this show took place, but he was moving like an arthritic septuagenarian. It was kind of getting sad to see him wrestle around this time frame, especially as you could tell that mentally he was still a good worker but his body just couldn’t keep up with his mind anymore.

They start this one quick by having Hogan storm the ring during his entrance, which is actually kind of smart as this was their third big singles match since Andre’s Heel turn so this helps make it feel a bit different from the other ones. It also sells the angle of Hogan being angry that he was robbed of the belt. This is the best the crowd have been all night up to this point, although you can still see that most of the folks in the first three rows or so aren’t going nuts like the real wrestling fans behind them, who are jumping up and down and pumping their fists when Hogan takes it to Andre. I believe it’s somewhat similar to the WWE Saudi shows these days, where I’m led to believe that the regular wrestling fans actually get quite into it but the dignitaries around ringside still don’t seem to care that much.

As is usually the case when it comes to Hogan Vs Andre matches from this Era, the actual wrestling on display isn’t great, but it’s more about the storytelling and crowd reactions with these matches anyway, and it’s mostly there for this one. They do a good job in general of getting across the idea that Hogan is in a really bad mood and that it’s causing him to make the wrong decisions in the match, and that actually plays into the finish itself. Virgil distracts the referee and Dibiase brings in a chair, but Hogan pretty much no sells the chair shot and then chases Dibiase away before cracking Andre with the chair in full view of the now refocused ref. Andre clatters Hogan with the chair as well, which leads the referee no choice but to call for the bell and eliminate both wrestlers.

DOUBLE DQ
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This match suffered from being the third DQ/Count Out finish in the tournament, and those sorts of finishes were becoming overkill by this point in the night. The annoying thing is that this was the match where the goofy non-finish made the most sense, so if they’d just done pin fall finishes in the other bouts and saved the DQ for here, it would have meant WAY more and wouldn’t have detracted from the match itself so much. I didn’t hate this, but I know for some the very idea of watching Andre The Giant and Hulk Hogan wrestle one another in 1988 is tantamount to torture, and I don’t think this match will do anything to disabuse them of such a notion. I must admit that I did quite like the idea that Hogan’s rage ended up causing him to make a litany of mistakes here because he was letting his heart rule his mind, and that played right into the villain’s hands and thus denied him the chance to regain his belt. That’s actually some excellent storytelling and the sort of thing you need in tournaments like this

Hogan chases Dibiase and Virgil down the ramp following that and gives Virgil a HORRIBLE suplex out there where he doesn’t even drop down with Virge and and just flings him onto the concrete. If you didn’t want to take the suplex bump Terry then just Body Slam him, as he can at least take a flatter bump that way and you can protect him a bit more. Yeesh. Speaking of Body Slam’s; Hogan heads back into the ring to slam Andre and then poses to his music, which makes no sense considering that he just got eliminated from the tournament and he should be really angry here.

Mean Gene is backstage with Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth, where Savage has some kind words for Hogan (that wouldn’t last) and says the Macho Madness combined with Hulkamania will lead him all the way to the belt and Liz agrees! Honestly you could listen to Randy Savage order a sandwich and it would probably be entertaining.

Match Ten
WWF World Heavyweight Title Tournament Quarter Final Match
Don Muraco w/ Superstar Billy Graham Vs Ted DiBiase

The winner of this goes straight to the Final, which essentially rules out Muraco winning because there was no way he was getting to the Final of this thing. Dibiase is without Virgil or Andre following that previous match though, so his back is against the wall somewhat here against Muraco. Muraco gets the better of Dibiase in the early going, with Dibiase taking some nice bumps but the crowd being so not into it that you can literally hear the ring echo when guys are getting thrown onto it. I’ve been to libraries with a better atmosphere, and no I’m not talking about The Emirates.

Dibiase does eventually manage to cut Muraco off by blocking a throw out of the corner and sending Muraco into the ring post in the process. Muraco sells that well enough and Dibiase looks good on offence, but the crowd continues to be as invested in the action going on in the ring as a Conservative MP is in preserving the NHS. Dibiase tries the old Tenryu backwards elbow off the ropes, but Muraco dodges it and makes the comeback. However, Dibiase manages to catch Muraco with a Stun Gun (the move, not the item) and that’s enough for three. I wonder if a young Steve Austin was taking notes watching this one?

WINNER: TED DIBIASE
RATING: **

Thoughts: Nothing especially wrong with this, but the crowd spent most of it sitting on their hands. Dibiase looked great though, I’ll say that, and definitely someone capable of being the World Champ in either of the main North American companies at the time. I’m guessing the fans thought that Muraco had zero chance of winning and thus didn’t care about the match. And yeah, he did have almost zero chance of winning, which made him an odd selection for Dibiase’s opponent here

Bob Uecker still can’t find Vanna White and is worried that she’s lost. Keeping with the theme tonight, Uecker is interrupted by Heels. In this case it’s Demolition and Mr. Fuji, who make threats to their opponents later. I wonder if Ax swallowed the same chainsaw that Sean Dyche did?

One Man Gang officially advances to the Semi-Finals and he’s pretty happy about it, as is Slick, although the crowd are less enthused about it.

Match Eleven
WWF World Heavyweight Title Tournament Quarter Final Match
Greg Valentine w/ Jimmy Hart Vs Randy Savage w/ Miss Elizabeth

Savage has changed his gear for this one, and Liz is matching with him. This one follows a similar layout to Savage’s match with Reed, as Valentine takes control early on and just batters Savage for the majority of the match. Savage’s selling and bump taking is as good as you would expect, but this isn’t the sort of match that is going to wake this crowd up. Savage running wild, bouncing Valentine around for a bit would have been a great way to try and jolt some life into the crowd, and instead we’re getting Valentine methodically clobbering Savage and the crowd sounds like they’re all taking a nap. Savage does finally make a bit of a comeback, getting an Axe Handle Smash from the top rope for two. Valentine catches Savage when he tries that move again though and tries the Figure Four, but Savage counters that into a pinning hold to advance.

WINNER: RANDY SAVAGE
RATING: **

Thoughts: This wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t especially good either, with most of the match being Valentine methodically beating Savage down, which has a shelf life in regard to how exciting it can be

Mean Gene and Vanna White are at the bracket board, and vapid discussion follows.

Match Twelve
WWF Intercontinental Title
Champ: The Honky Tonk Man w/ Jimmy Hart and Peggy Sue Vs Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake

Peggy is Sherri Martel in a wig. These two had been feuding all over the country, with WrestleMania IV being the event where fans thought that Honky would finally get his customary hairdo cut off by The Barber. I think fans were more into the idea of that than Beefcake winning the belt honestly. Beefer didn’t actually have any entrance music yet, which is a shame as his theme is pretty great in my opinion. This is pretty much exactly the sort of match you’d expect from these two, in that Beefcake is manic and wacky whilst Honky sells everything in full on melodrama mode. It’s as pantomime a bout as you’re going to get on this show, with Beefcake even messing up Honky’s hair at one stage during the shine. It does give me an excuse to post this though…

Beefcake eventually misses an elbow drop and Honky starts working some heat. It’s mostly just punching, stomping and Heel antics, but Honky executes it all with a certain panache. Honky tries to win it with his trademark Swinging Neck Breaker, but Beefcake grabs the ropes to block it and then makes the comeback, bumping Honky around and going to the Sleeper Hold. Honky looks like he’s done following that, as he’s in the middle of the ring with nowhere to go and the fans think that the belt will finally change hands. Hart earns his corn by clocking the ref before the bell can be called though, thus robbing Beefcake of the victory. Beefcake cuts off a bit of Hart’s hair following that as a form of punishment, whilst two other referees have come down to check on the first one, with the bout eventually being called a DQ win for Beefer.

WINNER BY DQ: BRUTUS BEEFCAKE (HONKY RETAINS)
RATING: **

Thoughts: There are some all-time terrible finishes tonight. Would it really have been so egregious for Honky to get a cheap pin fall win somehow followed by Beefcake then beating him up to get his revenge? The match itself wasn’t too bad, although the finish dragged it down a bit for me. I quite like both of the wrestlers in the match though, so my rating might be higher than most others

Andre The Giant chokes out Bob Uecker backstage, and hopefully takes him out of proceedings for the rest of the evening in the process.

Match Thirteen
Bobby Heenan and The Islanders (Haku and Tama) Vs “The Birdman” Koko B. Ware and The British Bulldogs (The Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith) w/ Matilda and Frankie

I think Godot is going to get here before the end of this pay per view does. The Islanders had dog-napped Matilda (the bulldog’s pet bulldog) so The Bulldogs are looking to get revenge on her behalf here, although she is ready to take a bite out of Heenan should the possibility arise. Heenan has tried to prepare for such an instance though, as he’s got protective clothing on in case Matilda tries to take a chunk out of him. I think Matilda possibly wees herself when getting into the ring as the ring mat near the Heel corner looks a bit damp. Could be perspiration, could be dog urine, I’ll let you decide dear reader.

There’s actually some good action in this one, with the babyfaces shining on the Heels and looking good in the process. Dynamite doesn’t really get to do much in the shine, and he’s quickly cut off and worked over. I don’t know if that was because he was still physically struggling following his back injury, or just because he didn’t fancy doing much tonight. The crowd reacts to some of what’s going on, but not the majority of it, with Koko soon getting worked over by the Heels as well. Koko sells really well, with even Heenan getting some shots in at certain points, although he always scampers away when it looks like he might actually be in some kind of a fair fight. The babyfaces don’t really get to do much of a comeback, as Koko hits Heenan a couple of times to little reaction until The Islanders attack him and put Heenan on top for three.

WINNERS: HEENAN & THE ISLANDERS
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: I honestly have no idea why the Heels won this match. Heenan couldn’t have taken a Powerslam from Davey or something? It’s not like it would have hurt The Islanders if their manager got pinned, as it wouldn’t be like they were losing the match themselves. The wrestling itself was mostly decent here, but the crowd didn’t really care and it was super weird that they didn’t even give the babyfaces a hot tag segment. Davey or Dynamite getting a hot tag, running wild and then isolating Heenan so that one of them could put him away whilst Koko and the other Bulldog kept The Islanders at bay would have been a far better way of doing this. Heck, if you don’t want it totally clean, then have The Islanders accidentally mow Heenan down leading into the finish so you protect the Heels in defeat. I just see no logical reason why the babyfaces shouldn’t have won this

Matilda gets a little bit of revenge on Heenan at the end, but it feels pretty flat and empty after the match we’ve just seen. Heenan getting whomped by the babyfaces in the match would have been a lot more satisfying.

Jesse Ventura poses for the crowd. I mean, I like Jesse as much as the next jaded wrestling reviewer, but did this show really need MORE filler?!?!

Ted Dibiase comes down to the ring so that he can formerly be declared as advancing to the Final of the WWF Title Tournament.

Match Fourteen
WWF World Heavyweight Title Tournament Semi Final Match
The One Man Gang w/ Slick Vs Randy Savage w/ Miss Elizabeth

Savage has yet another new pair of gear here. What with Dibiase getting a BYE, Savage will now have to win four matches in order to claim the WWF Title. Despite the stakes of this one, the crowd doesn’t really care, and to be honest the two wrestlers don’t really give them much reason to as this follows the same pattern as all of Savage’s other matches so far tonight, with Savage getting battered from pretty much the opening bell. What’s annoying here is that this is the match in the tournament where it makes the most sense for Savage to be on the defensive so much, as it’s his third of the night and he’s in there with the monstrous Gang. However, because we’ve already seen Butch Reed and Greg Valentine dismantle Savage in the previous rounds, this match just feels like more of the same, when it could have generated a greater sense of trepidation if this was the first time we’d seen Savage in this predicament.

OMG eventually misses a splash and that leads to Savage making a bit of a comeback, including an Axe Handle Smash to the floor onto Gang. Well, at least the match has picked up a bit now. Slick starts harassing Elizabeth at ringside, which causes her to climb up onto the apron to try and get away. This leads to Gang attacking Savage with Slick’s cane, and that gives us yet another lame finish in a series of them tonight. The only way that finish makes sense is if Gang was paid off to eliminate himself and soften Savage up a bit first, because otherwise he’s a frigging moron to attack Savage with a weapon like that. Savage was ever-so-slightly starting to mount a comeback, but Gang was still well within his means to pick up a victory and advance, so him throwing the bout away like that makes he and his manager look like blithering buffoons. How many other golden opportunities like this was Gang going to get?

WINNER BY DQ: RANDY SAVAGE
RATING: *

Thoughts: You know what, this tournament has actually done a pretty terrible job of giving Savage a showcase in all honesty. If you think of great tournaments that really showcased a particular wrestler (Bret Hart in the King of the Ring 1993, Great Sasuke in the 1994 J Cup and Hiroyoshi Tenzan in the 2003 G1 are just some that come to mind) then they were tournaments that were ostensibly built around putting that wrestler in scenarios that would allow them to really show what they could do. With Bret they had him wrestle Scott Hall, Curt Hennig and Bam Bam Bigelow, guys who all wrestled differently and thus allowed Bret to have three really good and different matches throughout the night. In this tournament Savage has essentially wrestled the same match each time. He’s gone out there, got battered for most of the match, and then the Heel has done something dumb and lost. Where is the match that allows him to showcase his exciting dynamic wrestling style in the best light possible? I know that 1988 WWF was more about the Sports Entertainment than the actual wrestling, but couldn’t they have found a couple of opponents that would allow Savage to really cut loose and show how good he truly was, rather than having him get battered by guys who probably couldn’t keep up even if he was allowed to kick it up a notch? WrestleMania IV should be the Randy Savage Show. We should think of WrestleMania IV and associate it with Savage the same way KOTR 93 will always be associated with Bret for his amazing one night performance. It should be remembered as the night Savage went out there and showed his versatility and his in-ring ability, but sadly the way this show has been booked you can’t really do that, and that’s a massive shame because they had the perfect opportunity to do so

Slick and OMG hug following that, which leads to Savage attacking them with an Axe Handle Smash before leaving. Slick and Gang seemingly caring so little about OMG blowing such an amazing opportunity to be the WWF Champion both makes them look dumb and makes the tournament look less prestigious.

Vanna White leaves Mean Gene and Bob Uecker still can’t find her, and this running gag continues to not be funny.

Semi-Main
WWF World Tag Team Titles
Champs: Strike Force (Rick Martel & Tito Santana) Vs The Demolition (Ax and Smash) w/ Mr. Fuji

Originally a big push had been planned for Martel with Tom Zenk, but Zenk ended up quitting because he was unhappy that Martel was making more money than him. The WWF still wanted to push Martel to the tag belts though, so they assigned him a new partner in Santana. Demolition had been gradually gaining more credibility as an act since the team was first formed, with Smash replacing Randy Culley who was Ax’s original partner. I’m desperate for at least ONE of these matches tonight to be rated three stars or higher, so hopefully this is the bout that will finally break that barrier. This will certainly be controversial, but I think I generally prefer Demolition to The Road Warriors, even though The Demo’s were invented as a response to The Roadies and are thus the imitation act. I just tend to enjoy Demolition matches more, mainly because they sold a little bit more and could tend to have more versatility in the sorts of matches they had.

Strike Force shine on The Demo’s to start, doing arm wringers and other traditional babyface offence, but Ax is eventually able to clatter Santana with an illegal clothesline behind the referee’s back and that’s the cut off. Santana of course sells well whilst getting worked over, and Demolition look believable on offence as they punch, club, stomp and slam the life out of poor old Tito. They do a good job of building to the Martel hot tag, by having Santana get close a few times before finally making the tag. Martel looks really good whilst running wild on The Demo’s, going full 80’s babyface with a slew of dropkicks. Sadly for The Champs though, the referee is too distracted by Santa and Fuji scrapping and thus isn’t there to call for the submission when Martel has Smash in THE DREADED YOUNG LION BOSTON CRAB. Ax uses the commotion to clobber Martel with Fuji’s cane and that’s enough for three when the referee gets in position to count.

WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: DEMOLITION
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: Sadly we didn’t hit the three star barrier, but this was solid enough tag team action and it started a long and successful reign for The Demo’s. I have a lot of time for Demolition, so I generally enjoy their matches more than most

Fink brings down all of the celebrities from earlier on, as Bob Uecker has finally found Vanna White so that we can pay that show long story off. Robin Leech does genuinely appear to be having fun showing off the new Winged Eagle belt to everyone. Well I’m glad at least someone is still capable of smiling at the 3+ hour mark of WrestleMania IV…

Main Event
Tournament Final for the vacant WWF Title
Ted Dibiase w/ Andre The Giant Vs Randy Savage w/ Miss Elizabeth and Hulk Hogan

Thus the WWF fans have to entrust themselves to Randy Savage, a man who has already wrestled 3 times tonight already, to prevent them from the horror that would be WWF Champion The Million $ Man. Savage has of course got yet another new set of gear on, as I have to marvel at his changing speed. Savage is notably outmatched here though due to Dibiase having Andre in his corner.

Andre wastes no time making himself useful for his boss, by tripping Savage whenever he threatens to get any momentum going, thus allowing Dibiase to control things. Eventually Andre stands between Savage and Dibiase so that Savage can’t get an Axe Handle Smash, so he confers with Elizabeth and sends her to the back. The commentators can guess where this is going, and indeed she returns with Hulk Hogan to come and sit in Savage’s corner.

Dibiase still manages to control things in the ring however, as Savage is really feeling the effects of his previous matches. I still personally think they should have had Dibiase pay off his Quarter Final opponent so that he would have got into the Final wrestling just the one match, just to really amp up his Heel status. Would it have really killed Muraco to have him do a job for Bravo in order to make that happen? Dibiase locks in the Million Dollar Dream and that looks to be all she wrote, but Hogan comes in and clocks Dibiase with a chair, which allows Savage to head up for the Macho Elbow to pick up the pin and the Title.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: RANDY SAVAGE
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This was quite disappointing actually, especially considering how good both of these two were in 1988. It didn’t help that the crowd was practically comatose for most of it and didn’t seem that bothered by anything taking place unless Hogan was involved. I think an actual wrestling crowd might have been more into the drama of Savage running on empty against the fresher Dibiase and refusing to give up the fight. I do like how Hogan didn’t actually get physically involved in the match until Andre had already done so multiple times, as it made this feel more like he was evening the odds and redressing the balance rather than doing something underhanded

Savage and Liz celebrate with the belt, leading to the iconic image of Savage carrying Liz around the ring whilst she has the belt adorned over her shoulder. Sadly Hogan decides to linger a bit too much following the bout, rather than stepping away so that Savage and Liz can have the moment together. Really all this needed was Hogan shaking Savage’s hand and then bowing out so that Savage could celebrate. Hogan lingering makes the moment too much about him, which is the opposite of what it needed to be.

Is It Really A Stinker?

I apologise in advance to all the folks from this time frame who are nostalgic for WrestleMania IV, but I’m afraid it definitely is a Stinker in this humble scribes opinion. I get why such nostalgia exists for this show, as the WWF did an absolutely fantastic job of hyping the event up and people were genuinely excited to see who could leave WrestleMania IV with the WWF Title. However, great as the hype was, the eventual show just didn’t deliver. Randy Savage, good as he was, is essentially wasted here, as he wrestles the same match four times with very little variation. It gets so bad that I actually got bored of watching Randy Savage wrestle. In 1988!

The tournament itself has very little in the way of good wrestling, and some quite awful finishes, and just generally nobody really comes out of it looking good, except maybe Greg Valentine who gets to go over Ricky Steamboat clean and then gets to take the lions share of offence in a match with Savage. Outside of The Hammer, no one really comes out of the tournament better than when they went in. Muraco gets a lousy cheap win over Bravo and then has the ignominy of being the only person in the tournament to lose clean to Dibiase. Gang gets to the Semi-Finals through a combination of luck and crappy officiating, before then costing himself his place in the Final by being an idiot. Steamboat is out in the first round clean as a sheet to a guy who hadn’t held a Title for two years and hadn’t really been close to winning one either. Rude and Roberts never really seemed to try and advance onward and their match is a total non event. Bravo was another idiot that got himself DQ’ed.

Bigelow completely choked and frittered away any momentum gained for his excellent one man show at Survivor Series 87. Duggan has an out for losing at least, but it was pretty obvious that he was just there to make up the numbers and he was never really in contention to win. Hogan let’s his anger get the better of him and essentially eliminates himself, only to then pose as if he won like a total idiot in one of the most hollow examples of “getting your heat back” that I can recall. So really, outside of the two finalists, Greg Valentine is the only person who comes out of the WrestleMania IV tournament stronger than when they went in, and it’s not like the WWF did much with that either as he really only got that push out of spite due to the company still being mad at Ricky Steamboat.

It almost makes me feel dirty to say it, but Vince Russo did a better job with the tournament concept during the Deadly Game (Cause It’s a Deadly Game!) tournament at Survivor Series 1998. There you’ve got Al Snow getting to go on a bit of run to the Quarters and losing a competitive match to Mankind, which leaves him stronger than when he went in. Ken Shamrock gets a clean win over Goldust and then only loses to The Rock due to Big Boss Man goofing up, so he’s protected in defeat. Mankind comes out of the tournament as a big sympathetic figure, and Rock looks like the megastar of megastar’s when all is said and done. Survivor Series 1998 is just a better way of doing a show long massive tournament like this, with the storytelling throughout the night making up for the fact that there isn’t a lot of good wrestling going on aside from the Austin Vs Mankind bout.

There’s basically no good wrestling on WrestleMania IV. And yes, I know that the WWF was more about the glitz and glamour instead of the actual wrestling during this Era, but they would at least slip in a couple of good matches onto their big events around this time so that there was SOMETHING for wrestling fans to enjoy. You get Dream Team Vs Bulldogs and Funks Vs Santana and JYD on WrestleMania 2, Savage Vs Steamboat on WrestleMania III, the Glamour Girls Vs The Jumping Bomb Angels at the first Royal Rumble etc. You don’t get anything like that on WrestleMania IV, and when you get a WWF Sports Entertainment show that pretty much eliminates the sports aspect entirely, you get a slog of an event, especially with a crowd as awful as the Atlantic City one was for this.

Eventually the atmosphere of WrestleMania IV just wears away at you. At first I was angry about it, but by the end I was just bored by it all, and ultimately that is WrestleMania IV’s greatest crime; it’s dull. It’s not just dull, it’s eye-wateringly dull. I had to go away and come back a few times to the review because WrestleMania IV was just sapping the will out of me. The event is three and a half hours long and there are so many filler segments that just extend the run-time with no real benefit. Bob Uecker being a creep about Vanna White isn’t interesting or entertaining, most of the promo segments don’t really add anything and Gene’s segments at the brackets board were excruciating. WrestleMania IV is bloated, overly long and boring. Again, I apologise if you loved WrestleMania IV as a kid despite itself because you were young and it was the WrestleMania event that you and and all your friends grew up with, but time has been very unkind to it in a way that it isn’t to Mania’s III and VI. It deserves the reputation it has for being one of the worst early WrestleMania’s, as without the warmth of nostalgia goggles, it provides little but cold comfort.

Final Rating – Stinker

(Scores are done on a scale of Stinker/Stinky/Odourless/Pleasant/Fragrant)