Sage Cortez
Wrestling in prime time! This is the huge show to set up WrestleMania IV. Knowing what happened at WrestleMania IV, it certainly accomplished that goal. There are three title matches on this show, only one of which I’ve seen before. Not going to mess around, as I’ve already discussed what I think of this in numerous articles. This was the most watched program in wrestling history. It was live! I can’t wait!
– February 5th, 1988, from Market Square Arena, in Indianapolis, Indiana
Our opening package begins with Savage saying Honky Tonk Man is a cut rate Elvis! Honky says that Savage can’t keep his woman satisfied! DiBiase speaks on Andre’s behalf! Hogan goes crazy! The presentation is so good.
After that amazing introduction, the broadcast is kicked over to the hosts, Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura. Going to be interesting to see how the live aspect is handled. They show a video of Hogan’s training for his title defense, to the tune of what would become Jake Roberts entrance theme. Hilarious.
Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth) vs. Honky Tonk Man (w/Jimmy Hart) for the WWF Intercontinental Championship
Pre-Match Thoughts: This is the opener. It appears that the angle they’re going with, is that Elizabeth is supposedly obsessed with HTM. At least that’s what is said during HTM’s interview. Okerlund nearly cracked up, and this was so ridiculous that nobody would blame him. Oh shit, it’s PEGGY SUE! I forgot about her. Why would she be okay with Honky trying to steal Elizabeth? Sherri Martel did such a good job in this part. Savage’s is interviewed as well, but there are some sound issues. That’s live TV for you. Savage is going to bring HTM into THE DANGER ZONE!
Match Review: Savage chases HTM out of the ring to huge cheers, it’s easy to see why they’d put the big belt on him. HTM gets back in and dances in front of Elizabeth, until Savage can chase him to the outside once again. Savage then chases HTM around the ring, and hammers him with an elbow. Back in we go, and he hits HTM with another elbow. HTM takes time to recuperate, but Savage rams HTM and Hart’s heads together. The action goes in the ring again, and Hart latches onto Savage’s leg to allow HTM to make a sneak attack. DIRTY MOVES. HTM tries a sunset flip on Savage, but gets clocked in the face. Savage misses a charge to the corner, but HTM misses an elbow drop. Savage goes to the outside to hunt down Hart, and chases him into the ring. HTM has the megaphone, and nails Savage with it. MORE DIRTY MOVES. HTM only gets 2 on the cover. HTM puts Savage in a neck vice, but that doesn’t last long, as Savage powers up and out of it. Savage hits HTM with a shoulderblock, and HTM returns with a high knee. HTM then distracts, and Hart chokes the challenger. That’s EVIL. Joey Marella has been made to look so incompetent. Savage then blocks a punch, and lands a bunch of elbows, only to be hit with a running clothesline. HTM lands a few elbow drops, and continues to talk to Elizabeth. He is so dumb. Now he heads outside of the ring to go talk to her. Savage finally stirs, and attacks Honky from behind! Back in we go, and Savage launches HTM over the top rope. He heads up top, and down to the floor with a double axehandle on HTM. Savage follows with a scoop slam, and up top for a second time, for another double axehandle. That gets 2. Savage drags Hart into the ring, and HTM accidentally runs into the Mouth! Savage puts a sleeper on the champion, and this would have been such a perfect title change. The crowd is nuclear level. Peggy Sue now harasses Elizabeth, causing Savage to break the hold and go outside. HTM tries a sneak attack, but gets caught and thrown into the post! NOOOOOOOOO, HTM got counted out! The time of that was 8:39.
HTM has his guitar, and he’s ready to play a mean tune. Hart hits Savage in the back of the head with his megaphone, and Elizabeth gets in the ring. Oh no. HTM has every intention of hitting Elizabeth with the guitar, but Savage gets up, grabs it, and chases Honky out of the ring. Then he smashes the guitar!
My Thoughts: The crowd was on fire for this match. That’s actually sort of an understatement. A title change would have been so perfect, but as we know, Honky Tonk Man refused to do the job. It’s probably for the best, as it allowed the WWF to be more flexible in their WrestleMania IV planning. Ventura was great on commentary for this. The actual match itself wasn’t spectacular. It was full of angles, which served to keep it from being a great wrestling match, but with Honky Tonk Man involved, a great wrestling match was awfully unlikely. If the match had ended with the sleeper, it would have been perfect. Hard to send the crowd home happy with what they had in mind. I’ll give this **1/4. What I don’t understand is why HTM would be allowed to keep this title for so long after refusing to play ball.
Andre the Giant (w/Ted DiBiase & Virgil) vs. Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship
Pre-Match Thoughts: A video package is shown right after the previous match to remind people of everything that the WWF deems pertinent in this feud. After that, DiBiase and Andre are interviewed. Andre is going to SQUEEZE THE LIFE out of Hogan. Hogan is interviewed as well, and he says HULKAMANIA WILL LIVE FOREVER. Duh! This is the biggest match that the WWF could possibly have made, so them giving it away on NBC instead of at WM IV was quite a thing. Nice new belt that Hogan has! He wants to hit Andre with it, but Dave Hebner won’t let him.
Match Review: Andre takes a lot of time to get into the ring and start the match, but when he does, he gets attacked. Hogan then throws DiBiase and Virgil together, brings them in, and gives Virgil a big boot to send him over the top rope. The same thing happens to DiBiase, and Hogan then turns his attention to Andre. He nails Andre with some big punches, and chops as well. Hogan rams Andre into the buckle, and lands a running elbow, but Andre still won’t go down. Hogan then stomps DiBiase’s hand to send money flying everywhere, and he gives Andre a running clothesline in the corner. Hogan heads up to the top rope, but Andre slams him down. That was a smart spot that they could have used in their first match. Andre tries a diving headbutt, but he misses. Hogan tries to cover, but Andre puts a choke on him. Andre continues to choke the champion, then gets up and clobbers him. He whips Hogan into the buckle, and stomps his hand when he falls down. Andre then bodyslams Hogan, and rams him into that big knee. In the corner he lands some huge clubbing chops, and follows with a headbutt. Andre hits Hogan with a big boot, and falls down. That wasn’t a good look, but it was on Hogan for continuing to run into him. Hogan heads down to the floor, but Virgil serves as a lumberjack, throwing him back in. Andre then chokes Hogan with the strap of his outfit, and subsequently puts a nerve hold on his enemy. Hogan is pumping himself up, and fights his way out of the choke/nerve hold. Hogan hammers Andre with punches, then heads up to the second rope for a flying clothesline, which knocks Andre down. Hogan goes for the leg drop, but Virgil grabs his leg! Dave Hebner spots it, and Hogan hits Andre with the leg drop behind his back, but there’s nobody to count the cover. Shenanigans! Andre gets up, grabs Hogan from behind, and starts his dirty headbutt game. He gives Hogan a garbage looking suplex, and covers…for the win at 9:05! We have a NEW CHAMPION! Hogan’s shoulder was up though!
Hebner has the belt, and he presents it to…ANDRE THE GIANT! Gene Okerlund is sat ringside, and he’s there to interview Andre. Andre says that he’s going to present the “World Tag Team Championship” to TED DIBIASE! The image of DiBiase with the belt is AMAZING. Hogan grabs a hold of Dave Hebner, chases the three heels out of the ring, and he’s so, so upset. Now, here comes another Hebner! What is this shit? Hogan grabs a hold of both of them, and eventually “Dave” hits Dave. Hilariously, the crowd cheers “Dave.” “Dave” tries to leave, and Hogan grabs a hold of him. He picks “Dave” up over his head, and throws him about a million feet over DiBiase and Virgil’s head, causing “Dave” to take a flat back bump on concrete after being hurled from the ring. MY GOD. That poor bastard.
My Thoughts: Lot to go over here. I laughed so hard at the two guys in the crowd celebrating Andre’s win and falling down while hugging. I liked everything after the flying clothesline. It’s one of the best angles I’ve ever seen. The absolute confusion of Dave and Earl Hebner standing there arguing with each other was genius. Whoever came up with that idea deserved a promotion. The crowd was very into all of this. I felt a little bad for Earl Hebner, who got thrown out of the ring like a bag of cat litter. The match was no good, but better than WrestleMania III. They could have went in a lot of directions, but they decided to do the tournament. The tournament was a better idea than it turned out to be in execution, but it was the right idea. Hogan was going to go film ‘No Holds Barred,’ and they couldn’t have the title out of commission for that long. *1/4 for the match. In many ways this is the match they should have had the first time, but then they wouldn’t have had these tricks to pull out later. I doubt that was considered in March of 1987, though. It’s also weird seeing DiBiase relegated to the role of manager for the meantime. I’m glad they didn’t run with him as champion, it would have been ridiculous for Jack Tunney to not have stepped in.
In the back, Hogan is interviewed before this next match. He is absolutely irate. Hulk is like…crying. “HOW MUCH MONEY DID THEY SPEND ON THE PLASTIC SURGERY?” That’s a great implication, for DiBiase to have paid for Earl Hebner to have plastic surgery. HAHA. Wish I could link this because it’s absolutely hilarious. This is a money promo.
The Hart Foundation (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Strike Force for the WWF Tag Team Championships
I have no idea if this whole match is actually going to take place. I’m assuming not. We come back from a commercial, and the match is well underway. Bret gives Martel a piledriver for 2. Martel then shoots Bret into the ropes, and Bret tries a sunset flip. Martel uses the Bret/Davey finish, and turns it into a pinning combination for a 3 count! And that’s it!
When you get a controversial title change on free TV, isn’t that really all you need for it to have been a good show? That’s all I need. The Intercontinental Title match was a bonus. Those two guys didn’t put on a great match, but they worked very hard to entertain. Hogan and Andre did the same thing. The tag team match was a whatever, but Hogan’s promo completely usurped it in the first place. It was a true money promo, and how could anyone not want to see WrestleMania IV after what just happened? Big credit to the WWF for making a nice show out of something that didn’t feature their best workers. They needed to move the title off Hogan and they did. Most importantly, Andre didn’t do too poorly. Really looking forward to what comes next from this promotion, but first, it’s over to JCP for their activity leading into Clash of the Champions. It will be a light piece, but there’s a decent amount of news heading into it. See you guys then!
Wrestling Time: 18:44. I threw on a minute for that short tag team bit at the end. The lack of wrestling was necessary for the show to be furthered along. At a 49 minute run time, I have few complaints. This feature is going to continue as I want to see what the more modern shows look like in contrast to the older ones. Seeing what production has done, and all that stuff.
Best: Andre passing off the belt to DiBiase. I LOVED IT.
Worst: Teasing the Hart Foundation vs. Strike Force match. They couldn’t have realistically given the match, so it was pointless.
Card Rating: 7.5/10. That’s good to me.
