It is hard to remember when exactly my first experience of\nwrestling was. Brief glimpses of memory pinpoint moments where wrestling was\njust part of my life and accepted as such. I\u2019d sit down and watch World\nSuperstars of Wrestling (dubbed New Japan) on Eurosport with my Dad; people\nbought me wrestling figures for birthdays and Christmases; VHS tapes of evens\nended up on the storage shelves in my house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I suppose it is because of two things. Firstly, my Dad had\nwatched wrestling when he was younger. Whilst in no means a fan, he wasn\u2019t\naverse to watching the odd match here and there. Secondly, there was the\nopportunity to watch wrestling without needing to have a satellite dish at this\ntime. Alongside the aforementioned Eurosport (which we got through a cable\nbox), around 1992 saw WCW wrestling during the afternoon on terrestrial\ntelevision. Sitting somewhere before programmes that I would watch such as You\nBet and Baywatch (as a young child, I actually enjoyed it for its storyline\nmerit) and give me an hour of wrestling every Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was, however, not a WCW fan in the same way that I was a\nfan of WWF. The toys and the VHS tapes took up the bulk of my wrestling fandom\nand they were all WWF. In particular, I remember having two tapes that were on\nall the time, watched through the eyes of a na\u00efve child before he knew ideas\nabout star ratings and workrate \u2013 Wrestlemania IV and Wrestlemania VI. Neither\nshow is looked back upon particularly fondly, though each has their notable\nmoment that stands the test of time: Macho Man winning the WWF Heavyweight\nChampionship at IV, Ultimate Warrior beating Hulk Hogan at VI. However, it was\nIV that was the one that excited me the most; it was IV that was the one that I\nlooked back on with the rosiest of rose tinted spectacles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even just the box for Wrestlemania IV was exciting. Unlike\nall of the other WWF shows that I could rent out of my local Blockbuster, the\nshow was so large that they needed TWO VHS tapes to cram it all in (famously,\nthe split in the show occurred mid Andre versus Hogan for some reason). The box\nfolded out to give you not only a picture of Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant,\nbut a list of all of the action that was due to come the moment you put in the tape.\nLike a lot of wrestling videos from this era of wrestling, many would go on to\nbecome WWF Hall of Famers as the roster truly read like a \u2018Who\u2019s Who?\u2019 of\nwrestling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Trump Plaza was an awful place to hold a wrestling\nevent, comped tickets to high rollers meaning the atmosphere was never really\ngood enough for the biggest show of the year. For me though, I was sold from\nthe opening Battle Royal that saw Bad News Brown double cross Bret Hart, only\nfor Hart to come back in and smash up the huge trophy that Brown had just won.\nThe simplicity of it spoke to the child in me \u2013 there were good guys and bad\nguys, and sometimes bad guys will try and get one over on you. The eye for an\neye nature of the trophy smashing wasn\u2019t necessarily something I took to heart,\nbut it was a cool visual nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s nothing like a wrestling tournament booked well and\nWrestlemania IV was nothing like a wrestling tournament booked well, yet\nthere\u2019s something about brackets and eliminations that excites most wrestling\nfans. The permutations and configurations of who might go on to face whom adds\na layer of interest that can carry you through even some of the ropiest moments\nin a show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By God, there were some ropey moments. Admittedly injured\ncoming into the show, Bam Bam Bigelow getting counted out against the One Man\nGang was a mess. Whoever decided to have Rick Rude and Jake Roberts go fifteen\nminutes with over half of the match involving rest holds should\u2019ve been fired.\nEven I realised at my young age how bad that match was. Also, with a potential\nRandy Savage versus Ricky Steamboat rematch in Round Two, we got Savage versus\nGreg Valentine instead, a wrestler who doesn\u2019t necessarily appeal to you until\nyou get a little bit older than I was at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the big sells of the show was the Wrestlemania III\nre-match between Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan in Round Two. A year removed\nfrom a time when he was already in a lot of pain, Andre didn\u2019t have much to\noffer in terms of in-ring action outside of his presence. However, from a\nstoryline perspective, Andre\u2019s involvement and the subsequent double\ndisqualification with Hogan \u2013 even though it was Hulk who used a chair first \u2013\nleft the tournament wide open, particularly for Andre\u2019s close associate, Ted\nDibiase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an alternative reality, Dibiase won the Wrestlemania IV\ntournament, a booking decision that allowed Randy Savage to chase the gold\nbefore a returning Hogan took what had become almost his rightful place at the\ntop of the card. This never came to pass, though in falling by the wayside it\nprovided perhaps the one thing that Wrestlemania IV unquestionably got right \u2013\nthe elevation of Randy Savage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Butch Reed, Greg Valentine, One Man Gang, Ted Dibiase; all\nfour provided the backdrop through which Savage went from a popular babyface to\nthe WWF World Heavyweight Champion. Accompanied by Miss Elizabeth and swapping\nattire for every contest, Savage felt special on a show that struggled against\nthe relative apathy of the clientele and the logistics of the venue itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is debatable as to whether the WWF booked a year in\nadvance in terms of Wrestlemania feuds and main events, but the finish to the\nWWF Championship match \u2013 Hogan hitting Dibiase with a chair to set up a Savage\nwin \u2013 as well as the overly friendly overtures of Hogan towards Elizabeth in\nthe celebration set into motion the Mega Powers and their eventual explosion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outside of the tournament and the aforementioned Battle\nRoyal, notable results saw Ultimate Warrior beat Hercules before breaking his\nchain, before Demolition defeated Strike Force to begin their record breaking\nWWF Tag Team Championship reign. Alongside this showcase of stars of years to\ncome, a six-man tag match that saw Bobby Heenan wearing a full attack dog\ncostume due to the presence of Matilda also saw him pick up the pin on Koko B.\nWare as he joined the Wild Samoans against Ware and the British Bulldogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There have been many Wrestlemania shows that have come and\ngone, with many providing a significantly better product then that which was\nseen at Wrestlemania IV. However, the naivet\u00e9 of youth and the nostalgic\nmemories which the show produces will always mean that it retains a place in my\nheart above and beyond any of the other editions. The only one that comes close\nis Wrestlemania VI\u2026but VI doesn\u2019t have a tournament so it can\u2019t be better. The\nsimple logic of a child sometimes cannot be overruled. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is hard to remember when exactly my first experience of wrestling was. Brief glimpses of memory pinpoint moments where wrestling was just part of my life and accepted as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":11756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28,2,960],"tags":[78,56,58,74],"class_list":["post-11755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-editorials","category-featured","category-wrestlemania-week","tag-andre-the-giant","tag-hulk-hogan","tag-randy-savage","tag-wrestlemania"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-33B","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/WM-IV.jpg?fit=602%2C417&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11757,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11755\/revisions\/11757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}