posted
We discuss 80s wrestling often around here; of the 5 Wrestlemanias to occur in the decade, which was the best in your opinion? I'd have to go with IV; it had the perfect lineup, and the tournament for the title was a nice original touch (although the Rude-Roberts match was a bit of a letdown, although I presume they then cooked up the feud with Jake's wife later in the year to make up for it). And on top of that, we got:
-a great battle royal to start the whole thing off, culminating in Bret Hart's face turn, starting his rise to the top
-the first pay-per-view appearance of the Ultimate Warrior, in which he made the best of it
-the final Hulk-Andre encounter, which, though inconclusive and not as memorable as what had come before, made for a nice capper to their feud
-a highly amusing 6-man match with Heenan taking every precaution to keep Mathilda the bulldog from maiming him (but still getting ripped up in the end)
-the beginning of Demolition Domination
-and a great final match between 2 of the all time greats--not the best Wrestlemania world title match, but pretty high up on the list. Ted originally was slated to win the world title here (and then drop it back to Hulk at the first Summer Slam later that year), while Savage was to have gotten the Intercontinental title back off the Honky Tonk Man to finish off their feud, but HTM threatened to jump to the NWA with the belt if he was forced to lose, so in the end they let him have it a little longer, elevated Savage to world champion to compensate him (but of course name one person who'd say he wasn't deserving of that?), and created the Million Dollar Belt for Ted to compensate him. But in the end, it all worked out for the better, and that's why this supercard holds up above all others.
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While I did enjoy Wrestlemania IV, I can tell you that most of the matches weren't as good as they could have been. The build up to the event was much better than the event itself. It was very long, most of the tourney matches were quick and besides the Demolition match, the non tournament matches were really dry, Savage winning the belt was expected but the match wasn't great.
I am a nut about Wrestlemania, I own all of them and could write and talk for hours about them. The best Wrestlemania of the 80's was III of course just on quality of matches. My favorite was another long one... V. Just cool to see all the different guys wrestle. The blue blazer, rugged Ronnie Garvin, the powers of pain, and the return of Piper's Pit. The Savage-Hogan main event was much better than the year before. We'll talk more.
We are DEVO
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Kash
Kash : Aha! He'll save every one of us...
Member # 297
posted
Wrestlemania VI (early 90s' but 80s' in spirit) was a big deal back then, Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior was hyped beyond belief (though both of them were shameless overactors IMO).
Any Mania with Sensational Sherri in it was worth watching.
Wrestlemania I lives on with a main event to rival all others: Hogan & Mr. T vs. Piper & Orndorff with The Greatest Muhammed Ali as ref.
[ 23. March 2011, 05:28: Message edited by: Kash ]
Posts: 2041 | From: The Ice Planet Hoth | Registered: Jul 2001 | Site Updates: 0
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andre and hogan was good to but not as good from a technical standpoint.
kash: the warrior was tough to work with for anybody, i thought hogan carried him well in that match, but good lord did you see the halloween havoc rematch, what a stinker
Posts: 1605 | From: Lake Chicamocomico | Registered: Feb 2011 | Site Updates: 0
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I vividley remember being a kid and waiting for Wrestlemania 3 to come out on video....we couldn't afford pay per view back then (well, I guess we could, but no way was Dad shelling out that much money to watch wrestling). I remember when it came out on video, and the stores then would only have one or two copies...so had to wait even longer to finally get it.
This, for me, is when WWF was at its peak, and W3 had tons of the classic wrestlers: Billy Jack Haynes and Hercules in the full nelson bout, Hillbilly Jim, King Kong Bundy, Junkyard Dog, Valentine and Beefcake, Roddy Piper, Hart Foundation, British Bulldogs, Ricky Steamboat, Randy Savage, Jake the Snake, Iron Sheik and Volkoff, Andre' and Hulk Hogan....WOW!
I think I stopped watching wrestling somewhere between W3 and W4....I remember watching 4, but that was about it. Today, I wouldn't watch the new stuff if you paid me. I remember liking the first Survivor series as well....good memories...good fun. * Dressed up as Roddy Piper last year for Halloween!
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quote:Originally posted by The Good Package: i thought 5 was great too, mega powers explode.
say, did savage and bret hart ever do a match? i know there was not a wrestlemania match but any other ppv events?
i think they would have done a hell of a match
They did in fact meet on the first Saturday Night's Main Event after the formation of the Mega Powers (November 1987), and it was a terrific match that told a great story; notably, halfway through, Bret flung Savage out of the ring, apparently breaking his leg, then casually set about inflicting even more damage on it to the point Vince was all but screaming for the ref to stop the match, but in the end, Savage flipped Bret over on a slam for the pin, then fended off the Anvil and Jimmy's post-match assaults. It is currently available for viewing on YouTube as far as I know.
5 would probably be my second favorite in the 80s; another good set of all time greats (including the Wrestlemania debuts of the Bushwhackers, Perfect, Owen, and the Boss Man), and in addition to the emotional world championship match (after which Savage may well have been pounding his head off his locker in frustration knowing Hulk was on-camera getting away with sleeping with Elizabeth off-camera, as multiple sources claim; they'd originally wanted to have a transitional heel champ for Hulk to get the title back off of, and tried to lure Flair over earlier for that purpose (Ted probably also would have served the purpose well in my opinion), but in the end Vince decided he'd get a bigger gross pitting his 2 biggest stars against each other, and thus sent Savage to the Dark Side again), we also got the high point of Rude's career, the birth of the Model out of the death of Strike Force, Demolition's revenge on Fuji, the Harts' revenge on Jimmy, and a reasonable climax of Andre's feud with Jake (and the beginning of Jake's great one with Ted that would climax with the following year's event).
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posted
speaking of roberts, i thought the snake pit where HTM cracked his noggin with the guitar was the best thing since piper busting the coconut off of snuka's face
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posted
Ah yes, definitely the highlight of The Snake Pit's run(although in that instance, the Honky Tonk Man accidentally used a real guitar rather than the gimmicked one they'd set aside for the blow, and the painkillers he took as part of the recovery from that set Jake along the road to serious addiction). A bit surprising that despite being a huge draw for most of his primary run, Jake only had one pure Wrestlemania win (the blindfold match against Martel in 7, not counting the disqualification win against Andre in 5); when he did lose, though, he usually got the last laugh in the end (i.e., taking Ted's money and handing it out even after losing the Million Dollar Belt).
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posted
hey what is your favorite gimmick match, not necessarily from wrestlemania.
the royal rumble and survivor series i thought was always great
which do you think was better wcw wargames with the dual rings or the hell in the cell?
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posted
Originally posted by Chris the CandyFanMan: Who was on the card that night, do you remember? I remember Jake the Snake, and Ricky Steamboat-I'll try to look it up to get my facts straight. My friend and I were very far from the ring-we had fun competing with the other fans in the audience to see who could yell "bullsh*t" the loudest through holes cut in the bottom of our drink cups. Oh, the good ole days Posts: 452 | From: California | Registered: Apr 2010 | Site Updates: 14
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posted
i got to andre the giant one time, and rick rude vs greg valentine in the steel cage
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posted
3 AND 6 here. Hogan vs. Andre and Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior both epic matches.
Posts: 3845 | From: Norf Karolina | Registered: Dec 2004 | Site Updates: 0
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80'sRocked Play it Loud, Play it Proud
Member # 6979
posted
It is pretty good as well; I'd be in the boat with most that say the Savage-Steamboat match was one of the best ever (the 2 of them rehearsed the entire match at Savage's house in Sarasota until they'd perfected it, which was why it turned out so well; unfortunately, both Hulk and Vince were apparently upset it came out better than the world title match and made Steamboat drop the title to the Honky Tonk Man (it was never to be Butch Reed contrary to urban legend) so soon afterwards as contrition). The Piper-Adonis match was also quite great (loved when Roddy started using Jimmy as a lethal weapon against Adrian), as well as the six man Harts-Bulldogs match, and the midget match was, well, a unique thought if nothing else.
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posted
i hear alot of stories that make hogan out to be a total a -hole, you never can tell.
i say this hear cause there isnt a board for it, my favorite royal rumble was Ric Flair going in at 3 and winning. afterwards they had others go in and win at position 1 but i thought that was hack after the flair victory.
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posted
Yes, the 1992 Rumble was the best of that pay-per-view; colossal heel or not, you did feel Flair genuinely deserved the title after that one (perhaps Heenan's exhileration that his benefactor went all the way added to that), and with so many other all time legends going for broke in the meantime, it was entertainment at its best
On the other side of the post, among Hulk's other faults, if all the sources that say them are completely accurate:
-refusing to go along with a scenario that would have given Ted the title at Wrestlemania IV, even though Hulk would have gotten it right back at the first Summer Slam had it gone as planned (and 95% of Golden Age fans will tell you Ted deserved at least one reign as world champ),
-helping to shape the Mega Powers as a unit solely to keep himself in the spotlight when he wasn't world champ, during which time he reportedly,
-slept with Elizabeth behind Savage's back--until Savage did find out right before they exploded on camera and, perhaps understandably, decked his lights out for it (so all the aggression you see Savage unloading on him at Wrestlemania V may well have just been natural venting), and after that,
-pressed her to file for divorce a few years later, a decision Elizabeth later openly said she regretted,
-while perhaps not exactly a sin per se, he takes credit for giving Slaughter the Iraqi sympathizer gimmick during the Gulf War--which got Sarge a mountain of death threats and necessitated 24/7 security for his family until they turned him face again,
-balked at a "grand retirement" match against Flair in Wrestlemania VIII that would have sent him out on top after the matchup fans had been waiting years to see (although I think that one ended up for the better, as Flair-Savage easily topped what that could have been emotionally),
-stabbed a worthy Bret in the back at Wrestlemania IX with that admittedly clumsy end to the match with Yokozuna to get the title back,
Of course, it's all rumors until proven, as is the way it works here in America, but that should give you an idea of what everyone means.
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which wrestler from the 80's who never got the world championship, do you think deserved it most
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