WrestleMania 5: The true king of the mountain

Welcome to another edition of WrestleMania Rewind. We continue our journey towards this year’s mega event, which is just a month away. And on our way, we continue to look back at the previous editions of WrestleMania. We had started with the very first WrestleMania, and today, we will look back at WrestleMania 5, themed “The Mega Powers Explode”. Before we get down to business, today’s RAW had finally confirmed the one match I was hoping would happen (Spoiler Alert!) – Undertaker versus CM Punk was finally pencilled down.

Now, when WrestleMania 4 ended, it was the beginning of the most dominant partnership in the WWF history till then. The Macho Man had just won the WWF Championship with the help of Hulk Hogan, and they started teaming up, which was known as ‘The Mega Powers’. True to the statement, Savage was ‘the next big thing’ and Hogan was the top dog in the WWF, with a 4 year run as the WWF Champion. Now, both of them teamed up and had a successful partnership, but as the New Year began, tensions built up. Savage didn’t like Miss Elizabeth being anywhere near Hogan, and thus, he betrayed Hogan in a match to finally turn heel. Savage versus Hogan was locked and confirmed for WrestleMania 5.

Savage was in the middle of a fantastic run, being the champion since WrestleMania 4. Hogan wanted to get back at the helm of the Organization. The next big feud going into WrestleMania 5 was for the WWF Intercontinental championship, between Rick Rude and the Ultimate Warrior. For the sake of facts in the business, WrestleMania 4 and WrestleMania 5 are the only two WrestleMania events to happen at the same venue for two consecutive years. WrestleMania 5 took place at the Trump Plaza, site of the past year’s mega event, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Without further ado, let us get down to business.

Under card:

The event opened with the then WWF Women’s champion Rockin’ Robin singing America the Beautiful like every year.

Hercules defeated Haku (With Bobby Heenan)

Boy Heenan is everywhere, isn’t he? One of the greatest managers of all time opens the show with his ‘client’, Haku against Hercules. Hercules manages to win the match after a bridging back suplex.

The Twin Towers (Akeem and The Big Boss Man) defeated the Rockers (Marty Jennetty and Shawn Michaels)

The WrestleMania debut of Shawn Michaels. The Rockers take on the Twin Towers in the second match of the evening. The end came when Akeem pinned Shawn to pick up the win for his team.

Brutus Beefcake took on Ted Dibiase Sr. (With Virgil) to a no contest

A face Beefcake took on the Million Dollar Man, Ted Dibiase. Dibiase’s Million Dollar belt made its very first PPV appearance at WrestleMania 5! (Which was way better than Cena’s or Rock’s WWE title quite frankly). Virgil interfered in the middle of the match, and the Dibiase caught Beefcake from behind. Both men brawled outside resulting in a double count out.

The Bushwhackers (Luke Williams and Butch Miller) defeated The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques and Raymond with Jimmy Hart)

The former Rougeau Brothers took on the Bushwhackers in the next match. Your standard tag team bout with Jimmy Hart getting involved. The end came Bushwhackers took advantage of a distracted Raymond and hit their finisher on him for the pin and the win.

14 matches on the card and we’re only done with 4! I kind of like the now WWE more (Never thought I’d say that). They don’t go for more than 7 – 8 matches in a PPV. You need time to build these matches up, but all the old school PPVs were stacked with matches which would only get about 5 minutes tops.

Mr. Perfect defeated The Blue Blazer

Owen Hart’s first WrestleMania match under the Blue Blazer monicker. Mr. Perfect took on Blazer in the fifth match of the evening. As two of my favourites squared off, Owen showed just why WWF had signed him. After a great back and forth action, Perfect took advantage of Blazer getting distracted and nailed him with the Perfectplex for the pin and the win!

Demolition defeated The Powers of Pain (Warlord and Barbarian with Mr. Fuji) for the WWF tag team championship

This was a handicap match, which saw Ax and Smash taking on Warlord, Barbarian and Mr. Fuji with their tag titles on the line. The match ended when Demolition hit their finisher on Mr. Fuji, and Ax pinned him for the win and to retain their WWF Tag team championships.

Dino Bravo (With Frenchy Martin) defeated Ronnie Garvin

Every under card star used to get a spot at WrestleMania before. Dino took on Garvin with Martin by his side. Bravo ended the match within 4 minutes by pinning Garvin for the victory.

The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard with Bobby Heenan) defeated Strike Force (Ricky Martel and Tito Santana)

The next match of the evening saw the team of Arn Anderson and Blanchard take on Martel and Santana. Santana and Martel had been sidelined, similar to Hercules, being limited to small roles. Martel and Santana were having problems of their own, and this match saw Martel turning heel on his partner, walking away from the match, enabling Arn and Tully to double team Santana for the victory.

Next was a Piper’s pit segment with Brother Love (As Piper walked away from wrestling), interviewing Morton Downey Jr. The real Piper returned and took over the show, and ended up using the fire extinguisher on Downey.

Jake Roberts defeated Andre the Giant (With Bobby Heenan) by disqualification, with Studd as the special guest referee

The match saw tensions brewing between Studd and Andre, and the end came when Andre attacked Studd, thus getting disqualified. But Virgil and Dibiase came down to join the attack. Studd was saved by Roberts when he threw his pet snake Damien inside the ring.

The Hart Foundation defeated THTM and Greg Valentine (With Jimmy Hart)

Your typical tag team action once again, with the end coming when Jim stole Jimmy Hart’s megaphone and handed it over to Bret while the referee was distracted, allowing Bret to hit THTM for the pin and the win.

Mid card:

Rick Rude (With Bobby Heenan) defeated the Ultimate Warrior for the WWF Intercontinental title

Ultimate Warrior was still undefeated in the WWF, and Rick was due for a push. The match saw Warrior defending his WWF Intercontinental title against Rude. The end came when Heenan grabbed Warrior’s legs as he was going for a suplex, thus allowing Rude to fall on him and get the cheap win to become the new WWF IC Champion!

Jim Duggan took on Bad News Brown in a no contest

Duggan took on Brown in the twelfth match of the night (Phew!). The match ended in a double DQ when both men hit each other with foreign objects, thus getting disqualified.

Red Rooster defeated Bobby Heenan

In a comedy match (Gah!), the Rooster took on Heenan and won the match in 30 seconds! After the match, Brawler attacked the Rooster. Oh the horror!

Main Event:

Hulk Hogan defeated Macho Man Randy Savage for the WWF Championship

Hogan took on Savage in the final match of the evening for the WWF Championship. After Savage tried using Elizabeth as a shield, Hogan came back to beat Randy Savage, thus winning the WWF Championship once again. The highly anticipated match failed to deliver, and Hogan returned to the top of the WWF.

Analysis: *1/4 (Out of 5 stars)

What a sad PPV. After showing so much promise after the last PPV, with Savage winning the WWF Championship, he lost clean to Hogan. This proved that Hogan would never let anyone take his spot in the WWF. The PPV has also been heavily criticized for its lacklustre showing, and WrestleMania 5 was also voted by some as the Worst PPV. Join us tomorrow as we head on to WrestleMania 6, as we continue our journey on our road to WrestleMania with our WrestleMania Rewind.

Read the rest of the WrestleMania rewind series here