A Wonderful Accident: WrestleMania IV
WrestleMania IV
Venue: Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey
Attendance: 19,200
Announce Team: Gorilla Monsoon/Jesse Ventura
Venue: Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey
Attendance: 19,200
Announce Team: Gorilla Monsoon/Jesse Ventura
The Hart Foundation d. The British Bulldogs
Good strong opening to kick off the show between two of the finest tag teams in the WWF.
The Ultimate Warrior d. Hercules
OTL squash.
One Man Gang (w/Slick) d. Bam Bam Bigelow (w/Oliver Humperdink)
We don't have Bam Bam long, so we have him put over the One Man Gang. Note the lack of a tournament. There's an obvious reason for that.
Jake Roberts d. Rick Rude (w/Bobby Heenan)
Give Jake a victory here since we're not doing the tournament. DDT to Rick does it.
Ricky Steamboat d. Ted DiBiase (w/Virgil)
And since the loss of of his #1 star, there needs to be another big babyface and Steamboat and Savage put on the best match of WrestleMania III, so there's a lot of promise, but Vince had eyes on Savage (not helped when Honky threatened to go to the NWA if he was forced to drop the IC title) so we give him a win against the hot upcoming heel Million Dollar Man before the title matches.
Demolition (w/Mr. Fuji) d. Strike Force (c) for the WWF Tag Team Championship
OTL match.
Honky Tonk Man (c) (w/Jimmy Hary and Peggy Sue) d. Brutus Beefcake for the WWF Intercontinental Championship
This time it's a clean loss for the Barber, though he still cuts Jimmy Hart's hair, allowing for a great post-match with Honky and Jimmy Hart (seriously, if you haven't seen it, it's amazing.)
Randy Savage (w/Miss Elizabeth) d. Paul Orndorff (c) (w/Jimmy Hart)
And after almost a year of Mr. Wonderful as champion, we come to this. Macho Man wins the title and gets to have his moment in the spotlight and is crowned the new face of the WWF. Just in time as NWA began to gain real traction, with the success of Starrcade on PPV, Bunkhouse Stampede getting more views than WWF's free televised Royal Rumble and with the real threat of Clash of the Champions (Headlined by Flair vs. Sting) the WWF needed a new top star and fast.
Clash of the Champions did go PPV rather than being televised and got a 6.5 buyrate, a notch above than WrestleMania's 5.5, with many believing that losing Hulkamania might mean that the WWF might not survive. Vince, feeling emboldened by Macho Man's ascent, takes the loss in surprising stride as he opts for a planned follow-up to WrestleMania in August. The event is known as SummerSlam.