30. WRESTLEMANIA IV
The WWF had elevated its annual spectacle each year since its 1985 inception, and to their credit, attempted to do the same with WrestleMania IV.
On paper, a one night 14-man tournament to crown a new WWF Champion sounds like an incredible way to raise the stakes after the monumental success of WrestleMania III. The program between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant was white hot, if a little convoluted, after Andre ended the Hulkster’s 1,474 day run and attempted to sell the belt to the Million Dollar Man in front of 33 million people watching on television.
There are so many reasons this phenomenal concept turned into such a colossal train wreck. Perhaps the most important factor was the obvious end result; everyone knew this tournament would come down to either Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Ted DiBiase or Randy Savage. Once the first two were eliminated via an awful double-DQ in the second round, the remainder of quarter-final matches and the semi-finals were a foregone conclusion.
Add to that, they had to cram in a 12-minute tag team title match, an unnecessary 6-man, an Intercontinental title match, a throwaway Warrior bout and a 20-man battle royal. Normally I’m not one to complain about extra content, but here’s the killer: none of the SIXTEEN matches at WrestleMania were any good. I may get some flack for that statement, but the reality is Savage and DiBiase’s main event WWF Championship match was passable at best. It looks decent in comparison to the rest of the abysmal card, but it just wasn’t what it needed to be to save this show.
To add insult to injury, the NWA ran their first Clash of the Champions event head-to-head with WrestleMania, and it was phenomenal. Ric Flair and Sting went 45-minutes to a time limit draw in the main event.
