Review: Wrestlemania IV

Many years ago I was a writer for Wrestle Talk TV's website and the whole writing crew decided to review every WrestleMania. As I was the last to answer the Email chain, I got WrestleManias IV & I. Here is what I thought of Wrestlemania IV. 

Going into Wrestlemania IV Vince McMahon and his brain trust had a problem, well actually they had several

problems, but the most pertinent fed all of them. How do you top the biggest show of all time? They had

backed themselves into a corner with the runaway success of the Wrestlemania project which had culminated

in the Pontiac Silverdome some twelve months before, although they did have one advantage. Having bet the

farm once on the first Wrestlemania, gone wide into a multi venue presentation on Wrestlemania II and bet the

farm yet again on Wrestlemania III, they were in the position of being comfortably recognised as a well

renowned brand. This allowed them to take a breath. The next problem they had was what to do with Hulk

Hogan? He was due to start filming No Holds Barred in the spring of ’88 and was getting dangerously close to

being over exposed as a performer. Though Bruno Sammartino, Pedro Morales and Bob Backlund had similar

lengthy reigns atop of the WWE, they had been working a territory that had limited scope. They would take

occasional forays into South America and Japan to keep them fresh but Hogan had been on the road for five

years and was now in uncharted territory as the head of the first real national promotion. He needed a break,

either for his own good or the good of the company. This gave them some capacity to get creative, and they

had a candidate for the main event slot waiting in the wings. By the summer of ’87 Randy Savage was in an

enviable position. He had lost his Intercontinental title to Ricky Steamboat at Wrestlemania III in THAT match,

and had actually gathered momentum from the loss.  He was always popular but had picked up support through

sheer hard work. He was undersized for the era, the underdog always played well, he was incredibly

charismatic and of course he had Miss Elizabeth, the perfect baby face accompaniment at his side. As the WWF

looked for its new standard bearer he shifted into sight as the obvious candidate and was turned face. Now how

to get the title off of Hogan?

Andre the Giant had been invigorated by his main event run into Wrestlemania III. Probably his last chance at a

big pay day, he had trained hard (no really Vince personally drove him to his house so he could lift weights),

lent back on his experience in Japan where he had been a monstrous heel for a large part of his career and

actually looked like he was having the time of his life. Buoyed by the success of Wrestlemania III, the second

Hogan/Andre match was wrapped up in the very first Survivor Series where Andre’s team took the win. The

next singles match was part of the very first “The Main Event” match on NBC which in turn became a free

advert for Wrestlemania. With heavy outside interference, and the Hebner brother’s bent referee confusion,

Andre took the title and sold it to The Million Dollar Man, forcing Jack Tunney into action and creating

Wrestlemania IV’s marquee title tournament. The second round would feature Hogan Andre for the third time,

building in an attractive main event match up and then offering even more to the paying audience. Watching

that Main Event match now it was actually better than the first. Andre was fitter than he had been in years and

had the will and good reason to keep the feud going and was giving it his all in every match. Though not a

wrestling classic it was entertaining and created excitement and controversy, just the place to be for Vince

McMahon to thrive.      

So the Championship tournament was set. Fourteen men in single elimination bouts, draws would eliminate both

men. Alongside that there was a Battle Royal, a WWF Tag Team Title Match, an Intercontinental Title match and

two other feud ending matches. What is remarkable about the whole thing is that every match mattered. The

Battle Royal had a large trophy at stake. The tournament of course made every match involved in it seem

important, but even The Bulldogs and Koko B. Ware vs Bobby Heenan and The South Sea Islanders had a

reason to exist, which I find remarkable with only three and a half hours of TV a week to promote it in, they

can’t do that now with four times the writing staff and three times the TV time. There are forty nine active

wrestlers on this card, not including Bobby Heenan who did “wrestle”, nine managers or seconds of various

stripes, a guest ring announcer, time keeper and belt presenter (who actually didn’t get a chance to do his job).

You could have run the Memphis territory for three years off of the guys in the Battle Royal alone. It feels like

it is taking, what they call in Australia, a considerable amount of time, despite the fact that the matches are very

short (nothing above 12 minutes). Comparing this to the first ‘Mania, which rumbled along at a fair old clip and

the third which was equally match heavy but had momentum, this feels like it has something holding it back.

That is not to say that anything on this card is bad either, it’s just merely adequate, and representative of the

style and era, but no one has time to get anything done. 

Having taken over Boardwalk Hall in New Jersey and renamed it Trump Plaza (the title sponsor) for the

afternoon, they did set about giving the paying customers their money’s worth, but there was just too much to

watch. The crowd only really started getting hot for the Hogan Andre match and tuned out for a lot of it.

Having said that, the only truly bad first round match is Jake Roberts and Rick Rude going to a time limit draw,

it felt like it they were heading that way all along, the pace was slow, and received a low mumbling chant of

“Boring” from a few brave souls in the crowd. Hogan Andre did its best to lift them, and everyone for once

stood still, but it’s incredibly distracting seeing people moving around in the hard cam shot through the

WHOLE show. You do feel like grabbing them by the lapels and saying “That’s Greg Valentine and Ricky

Steamboat in there damn it! Have you no respect, do you actually like wrestling?”. The answer was probably

not; The WWF had become the home of the casual fan and made some more casual fans along the way. Vince

had set himself an epic task of booking skill, and did what he set out to do, get Randy Savage over as a strong

and credible champion. However it took four hours and though it included that Wrestlemania moment for

Savage, it isn’t the most entertaining four hours you will spend watching wrestling.  This is a shoulder pads,

bubble perm and sling back heels of a show. It is as 80’s as it gets, not good and not terrible, just there.