Legacy Review
Wrestlemania V
April 2, 1989 from the Trump Plaza and Casino (AKA The Historic Atlantic City Convention Hall) in Atlantic City, NJ, the first and only time a Wrestlemania has been in the same arena (or city) two consecutive yearsCommentary: Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura
THE MEGA POWERS EXPLODE! After the experiment of the big one night tournament at Wrestlemania 4 it's back to normal this year. We're still in the high match count years however. After 12 matches at WM 3 and 16 at 4 for the tournament, they settle in for 14 both this year and in the two years after before the cards got cut down in the doldrums of the early/mid '90s.
Hercules def King Haku (w/Bobby Heenan) in 6:57- Full King entrance for Haku. Interestingly, the guys carrying his throne are all wearing WWF blazers instead of wrestling gear to make them look like officials. Pretty sure it's the same local jobber crowd though. This is soon after Herc's face turn, where Heenan sold Herc's contract to Ted DiBiase. DiBiase claimed that he'd literally bought a slave. Herc's got pretty good music. Haku jumps him before the bell and lays in some chops, but Herc fights back with the usual power arsenal. Herc goes after Heenan outside, allowing Haku to catch him from behind. Again. Twice in one match. Haku takes over. Both of these guys tend to work a very slow pace so this is anything but a hot opener. Bear hug! Herc fights out of it then gets a "turtle diving off a cliff" looking crossbody for two. Herc goes off the top! but Haku catches him on the way down with a thrust kick. Nice. Haku tries for a headbutt of the middle rope but Herc dodges. Herc gets a kinda combo German/saito suplex with a bridge and gets the pin. *1/2
The Twin Towers (w/Slick) def The Rockers in 8:02- The Rockers had just finished their big feud with the Brain Busters (where Arn and Tully took them under their wing and taught them a ton), and were about to go into their feud with the Rougeaus that tore up the house show circuit but sadly never TV. Shawn has since admitted that he wrestled this match with a massive hangover, and it kinda shows in his promo. The Rockers play dodge the big guys and make the Towers chase them. When things settle down Shawn and Boss Man start. Boss Man sits Shawn up on the top rope then slaps him, but when he turns his back Shawn hits him with a nice missile dropkick. Shawn and Akeem take a mini dance break. The Rockers work quick tags on Akeem, targeting the arm. Akeem gets a blind tag to Boss Man and they squash poor Janetty in a compactor. Janetty goes face in peril as the Towers work Big Man Offense on him. Boss Man is at least 50 pounds heavier here than his worker peak a couple of years later. Janetty dodges another squash attempt and slides under Akeem's legs to get the hot tag to Shawn. After the usual hot tag spurt Akeem absolutely MURDERS Shawn with a clothesline. Boss Man goes for a Large Toad Splash off the top rope but Shawn dodges. The Rockers start in with more double teams, making Ventura absolutely furious. Shawn tries to go off the top again but Boss Man catches him in midair and seamlessly turns him around into a spinebuster. Akeem hits the 747 or whatever it was called with this gimmick and it's over. Very likely the Twin Towers' best match, and with the Rockers only going about 75% due to hangover issues to boot. **3/4
Tony Schiavone is here doing backstage interviews. DiBiase brags about his mostly brand new Million Dollar Belt, his consolation prize for never getting into the world title picture again after his near miss at it last year.
Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake and "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase (w/Virgil) go to a double coutout in 10:01- Still no music for DiBiase. Virgil demands Fink introduce DiBiase as the "Million Dollar Champion". Monsoon wants to know who DiBiase beat to claim that as a title. Ventura: "He beat The Banker." Wait! DiBiase and The Banker Mr. Mackelroy had a feud? Man, I'd pay money to see that. Yes, the Million Dollar Belt....IS FOR SALE! DiBiase jaws with Beefcake about the belt until Beefcake tells him the belt is nothing but materialistic nonsense that DiBiase uses to overcompensate for his lack of human tenderness and compassion. Well, he punches DiBiase. DiBiase almost slides out of the ring off a backdrop. After the usual stalling DiBiase tries to take control with a knee and chops, but Beefcake fights it off and 360 clotheslines him out. They brawl near the ropes, allowing Virgil to grab Beefcake's leg and trip him up. DiBiase takes over. Beefcake tries a small package and reverses a suplex. Double clothesline. DiBiase hooks the Million Dollar Dream in, but Beefcake gets to the ropes. Beefcake gives DiBiase the 10 face first turnbuckle shots that DiBiase sells after with about a .5 Flair Flop. Beefcake locks in the sleeper. Virgil manages to break it up. Beefcake goes after him and they fight outside. DiBiase joins the fray and while they're brawling the ref gets to 10 and both guys are counted out. Bad finish for a PPV, but it sets up the feud for the house show loop and back then those were the big moneymakers. Beefcake beats Virgil up in the ring after. He gets out the Titaniun Steel Blades and the heels bail. DiBiase controlled most of the match, which was a good thing. **1/2
The Bushwackers def The Fabulous Rougeaus (w/Jimmy Hart) in 9:10- All American Boys! Such great entrance music. This is the Bushwackers' PPV debut. The Bushwackers pull of Jimmy Hart's jacket before the bell. Before they can tear it up (or eat it) the Rougeaus make the save. Hart comes in and takes another bump. The heels regroup outside. Raymond outsmarts Luke (insert your own joke about how easy that is here). The Bushwackers turn it around with a Battering Ram. The heels regroup again. Jacques takes a page out of the Guerrero playbook and unties his boot. Luke calls it out and gets the ref to fix it. While he's distracted Raymond ambushes him. Luke goes FIP. Monsoon: "An abdominal stretch isn't going to finish off the Bushwackers. Submit is not in their vocabulary." If we listed off all the words not in the Bushwackers' vocabulary the Wrestlemania 5 broadcast would still be going on today in 2019. The Rougeaus have a celebratory hug, which allows the Bushwackers to hit them with another Battering Ram. They hit a double team gutbuster on Raymond to win. It's a Bushwackers match. It's still early in their WWF run so they hadn't settled into their new comedic personas just yet after being hardcore heel brawlers for most of their careers, and obviously there's very little they could do physically at this point. 1/2*
Commentary throws it to Sean Mooney on the entrance ramp (where the shot goes below his waist and thankfully we can confirm this time he is wearing pants). He's ambushed by the Bushwackers on their way back up and gets a full tongueing. Mooney: "Words can't describe what it's like to be licked by the Bushwackers". He was probably rushed out for emergency surgery and tetanus shots right after.
Mr. Perfect def The Blue Blazer in 5:38- No music yet for Perfect. As soon as Monsoon says "this guys is virtually perfect" he slips and almost trips down the entrance stairs. Fortunately that was not a career omen. I think they took the silly laser effects in Ricochet's main roster entrance music from the Blazer's. The Blue Blazer is Owen Hart, working an early tryout of sorts with WWF through their working relationship with Papa Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling, getting weekly TV wins over jobbers but losing to established names. Fastish start. Perfect slaps and shoves Blazer. Blazer responds with an amateur takedown and a slap of his own. Blazer counters a hip toss by landing on his feet. A dropkick sends Perfect over the top and out. Blazer goes off the top but Perfect gets his knees up. Perfect starts working the back, including a camel clutch. Owen is visibly fighting his mask a bit. Blazer whips Perfect into the buckles then snaps in a belly to belly suplex off the rebound. A Blazer crucifix gets a long 2 that the crowd really bought into. Perfect decks him with a straight right, then locks in the Perfectplex to win. Really good for the time they got, and it was still only about 50% of what they were capable of doing. Owen would leave WWF for a time right after this. He'd go back to Stampede just in time for them to shut down, as well as return to Japan and Mexico (where he lost the Blazer mask in a mask vs mask match). ***
Highlights of Mr. Fuji competing (and presumably cheating) in a charity 5K run on Wrestlemania Saturday. There's also some rap thing or other in the ring. I have no opinion or comment. Judging by the crowd reaction neither do they.
Handicap Match for the WWF Tag Team Championship: Demolition (c) def The Powers of Pain & Mr. Fuji in 8:20- Demolition is out for revenge. At the '88 Survivor Series, in a perfectly executed double turn, Mr. Fuji turned on Demolition and joined up with the Powers of Pain. Demolition had won the tag titles a year ago at Wrestlemania 4 and were in the stretch run of their then-record 478 day reign. Warlord and Ax start. Ax axes. He tags in Smash and Smash smashes. They work quick tags and some neck wringers. Warlord pushes Smash into his corner and gets the tag to Barbarian. Smash fights out and Demolition takes back control. Ax goes after Fuji, allowing Barbarian to hit him from behind. Once it's safe Fuji tags in and surprisingly doesn't look that bad. I mean, he *was* a wrestler, even a WWWF tag champ himself, before going into managing. Fuji gets really crazy and tries to go off the top rope. Hey, I saw a 50+ year old Nakanishi do a superplex in the New Japan Cup this year, crazy things happen. But Fuji misses. After a Warlord block Ax makes the hot tag. Smash cleans house. Donnybrook! Warlord holds Smash down and Fuji gets the salt out, but Smash dodges and Warlord gets it. Demolition get their hands on Fuji. One Decapitation Device later, it's over. Demolition were capable of good matches if they were in there with good workers. This is not the case here. Still, it's booked right. *3/4
Tony is outside Savage's locker room trying to get a word. Savage is not in a talking mood.
Dino Bravo (w/Frenchy Martin) def "Rugged" Ronnie Garvin in 3:06- After the wrestlers are introduced but before the match starts Finkel announces "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka, who comes down and says hi to the crowd. Snuka was returning to the WWF after four years away in Japan and the AWA. Weird time for a reintroduction like that. While Garvin is throwing his towel into the crowd Bravo Suzuki-Guns him. Bravo throws Garvin around all over the ring. He's Canada's Strongest Man, see? Bravo tries an arrogant one foot cover. Garvin blocks a powerbomb attempt and punches his way out. The Hands of Stone start doing damage. Bravo counters a piledriver, but Garvin hangs on and gets 2 on a roll up. Garvin goes for the punches in the corner, but Bravo picks him up and hits an inverted atomic drop. Bravo hits his
The Brain Busters (w/Bobby Heenan) def Strike Force in 9:17- This is Strike Force's first match together since Martel "got injured" (took some time off for family concerns) in July of '88. Tully and Martel start. Arn knees Martel in the back from the apron on a rope run then denies to the ref that he did it. Martel fights out of the Busters' corner. Early donnybrook! Double dropkick on the heels. Arn and Martel settle in and do some mat wrestling. Martel turns a body scissors into a Boston Crab that Tully breaks up. Sneaky tag to Santana. Figure four on Tully. Martel puts a figure four on Arn! Stereo figure fours! Arn rakes Santana's eyes and everyone lets go. Santana takes aim at Arn with a flying picante but Arn ducks and he nails Martel! Martel takes forever to recover and the heels work Santana over. Arn goes to the top, Santana catches him and gives him the Flair throw. Santana crawls over to his corner but Martel completely ignores him. Martel wanders down the apron, then jumps down and leaves Santana to die. Arn hits a World's Greatest Spinebuster. Santana tries to fight out but the heels are too much. A spike piledriver ends it. About as good as you can get in sub-10 minutes, especially with all the angle legwork that needed doing. I'm sure there's one match floating out there to prove me wrong, but I'd be willing to bet the Busters never went below 3 stars in any non-jobber match in their WWF run. ***1/2
Immediately after the match we cut to Martel with Mean Gene. Martel has trouble finding his promo footing but eventually gets there. He's tired of carrying Santana's dead weight around and decided it was time to cut loose. He'd debut the Model gimmick soon after.
In lieu of a normal intermission this year we have an extended talk show segment. This was advertised as Roddy Piper's first appearance since his "retirement" at Wrestlemania 3. For several years after WWF held this up as one of the pinnacle Wrestlemania moments of all time, but it didn't age well and has since become more a footnote than legendary segment. It's not too bad though. Finkel butters up the audience for Piper's entrance but Brother Love comes out to Piper's music. Love does a pretty good Piper impression. Then Morton Downey Jr comes out. Downey was a popular talk show loudmouth for about 20 minutes in the late '80s. Think late '90s Jerry Springer, 2000's Bill O'Reilly and every talking heads shouting at each other segment on current news and sports cable TV rolled into one. He and Love insult each other for a bit, then Piper finally comes out, to a much subdued pop thanks to the Brother Love fakeout earlier. Piper and Love trade barbs and Piper chases him off. Piper and Downey insult each other, Downey blows cigarette smoke in Piper's face, Piper blows a fire extinguisher in his face. End scene. Ironically, this is only about two months before Downey's career crashed and burned leading to his show being cancelled.
Mean Gene intros the world premiere of the trailer for Hulk Hogan's next great megahit movie, NO HOLDS BARRED. Afterward Ventura has a hilarious meltdown over Hogan encroaching on his Hollywood turf.
Jake "The Snake" Roberts def Andre the Giant (w/Bobby Heenan) by DQ in 9:44- This feud started because the sight of Damien gave Andre a heart attack. Really. Your guest referee is Big John Studd, who was Andre's opponent at Wrestlemania 1 (with face/heel roles reversed) and does a good job of sucking away most of Roberts' heat for this match. At this point it's painfully obvious that Andre has carried on wrestling for too long. He should have retired after the Hogan feud. He has visible difficulty just walking. Studd and Andre argue during Roberts' entrance. During the argument Heenan sneakily takes a top turnbuckle pad off. Andre ambushes Roberts before the bell and nails him into that buckle. Andre goes through his usual chokes and squashes. Roberts tries to get Damien but Andre cuts him off. Roberts comes back and Andre does his "getting tied in the ropes" bit. Roberts gets some shots in before Heenan gets Andre free. Andre takes over again and locks in the Nerve Pinch of Infuriating Agony +1. Roberts hits a couple of knee lifts and gives Andre a shot into the exposed buckle, knocking him down. Andre throws him out on a pin attempt. Andre and Studd argue some more. Roberts sneaks over to get Damien, but Studd blocks him from getting into the ring. While all that's going on Ted DiBiase sneaks down and steals Damien. Roberts chases, while Studd and Andre finally come to blows in the ring. Roberts gets Damien back, lets him loose in the ring, and the heels bail. Studd raises Roberts' arm and declares him winner by DQ. It's a booking mess, and the work is no better thanks to Andre's limitations, despite Roberts selling well for him. 1/4*
The Hart Foundation def The Honky Tonk Man & Greg "The Hammer" Valentine (w/Jimmy Hart) in 7:40- No matching gear or team name for Honky and Valentine yet. The Harts had more or less been mired in the tag version of midcard hell since their face turn in '88 but were slowly working their way out of it. Bret and Honky start. Bret schools both heels and tags Anvil in. Slingshot spear! I can't stress how amazing that move was back then. Valentine dodges a Bret elbow drop. Bret goes full face in peril. Honky hits the Shake, Rattle and Roll but doesn't go for a cover. Instead, he tags Valentine, who wants to finish it with the figure four. Bret fights out. After a little more teasing he finally rolls over and get the hot tag to Anvil. Valentine breaks up a pin attempt. It breaks down, with Anvil chasing Jimmy Hart away. In the confusion Hart left his megaphone behind. Anvil throws it to Bret, who whacks Honky with it and gets the 3. Perfectly acceptable. **1/2
WWF Intercontinental Championship: "Ravishing" Rick Rude (w/Bobby Heenan) def The Ultimate Warrior (c) in 9:36- Rude attacked Warrior during a posedown segment at the Royal Rumble to set this up. Rude's tights have the IC title belt on the front and Warrior on the back. As Warrior runs the ropes before the bell Rude tries to get him with a knee, but Warrior still had the belt on so Rude just hurt himself. Warrior throws Rude around like a doll. It's the bear hug! Rude eye pokes his way out, then goes to the top and hits a very nice missile dropkick. Warrior kicks out at 1 and slams Rude around a bit. It's Bear Hug 2: The Revenge of Bear Wrestling Stu Hart! The ref stops Rude from eye poking his way out again. Rude gets about .7 Shawn Michaels elevation on a backdrop. Warrior goes for a splash but Rude gets his knees up. Rude hits a piledriver but can't cover right away. He tries the hip swivel but his back is hurting too much. Rude gets a couple of close near falls. There's a nice spot where Rude is holding Warrior's wrists, Warrior drags him to the ropes and starts to shake them and Warrior up with Rude still holding on. There's a really bad botch where Warrior gets a backbreaker on Rude, then goes to lift him up for a second one but can't hold him up and stumbles and collapses into the corner. Lucky Rude didn't hit his head on the buckles there. Rude dodges a dive in the corner. He goes for the Rude Awakening, but Warrior powers out. A 360 clothesline sends Rude out. Warrior tries to suplex Rude back in from the apron, but when he lifts Rude up Heenan runs in, grabs Warrior's foot, Rude falls on top of Warrior, and Heenan holds down Warrior's foot as Rude gets the 3, the win and the title! The Wrestlemania 5 finish, as it's come to be known. Warrior beats up and press slams Heenan after the match while Rude gets the hell out of town with the belt. This was the first real inkling that Warrior could do something good with the right dance partner, and that Rude was much more than a body guy that could talk. They'd go on to have an even better near 4 star rematch at Summerslam. ***
Bad News Brown and Hacksaw Jim Duggan go to a double DQ in 3:49- No music for either guy. This has the potential to be a really good brawl if done right. Brown attacks Duggan as he's getting in the ring. Duggan dodges a corner charge and pounds away a bit. Brown takes a powder halfway up the entrance ramp. When he gets back up on the apron Duggan flips him back in. Brown takes control but makes the mistake of attacking Duggan in the head. Nothing there to hurt. They brawl to the outside. Duggan gets posted. Brown goes for the Ghetto Blaster but Duggan drops down to avoid it. Duggan hits his 3 point stance football tackle finisher but Brown flies all the way out of the ring. Brown gets up and grabs a chair. Duggan obliges by grabbing his 2x4 and we have a full on weapon sword fight in the middle of the ring. The ref calls for the bell. Surprisingly good for the time they got. A perfect example of, as JR would say, maximizing your minutes. This would have been really good about 10 years later. They could have done the weapon fight on Raw and had the full on hardcore match at WM. **
Mean Gene is with the Rooster. Man, I'll never get over how embarrassing it is to see a guy as great as Terry Taylor doing that silly rooster call and head bob.
The Red Rooster def Bobby "The Brain" Heenan (w/The Brooklyn Brawler) in :31- Rooster was initially part of the Heenan family before turning face, this is the final blowoff. Heenan is still hurting from the assault by Warrior earlier. Heenan tries to hide in the corner, Rooster has none of it. Heenan posts his shoulder, Rooster covers him for 3 and we're done. Heenan could bump better than half the roster. Rooster fights off an attack from the Brawler after. NR
Main Event Feud Recap- Most of you out there know this one so I'll keep it short. Savage turned face soon after dropping the IC title at Wrestlemania 3 because everyone was cheering for him anyway. Later in the fall he and Hogan had their first face/face interaction and laid the groundwork for the Mega Powers. The alliance was solidified when Hogan helped Savage win the WWF title tournament final at Wrestlemania 4. Afterward they teamed up at the first Summerslam and again at Survivor Series. They got into a beef with The Twin Towers, which culminated in a tag match at the February edition of The Main Event. During that match Savage was thrown out of the ring and landed on Elizabeth. Hogan carried Elizabeth to the back. Later in the match Savage refused to tag in and left Hogan alone. Afterward in the back Savage's jealous rage took off because THOSE EYES RIGHT THERE LUST ELIZABETH! Savage also proved he's 10 times the actor Hogan wished he could be. They fought all over the arena medical center and the feud was on.
WWF Championship: Hulk Hogan def "Macho Man" Randy Savage (c) in 17:54- Elizabeth is out in a neutral corner. Savage has words with Elizabeth as soon as he hits the ring. Savage bails and stalls. Hogan pushes Savage across the ring off the lockup and Savage bails again. More jawing at Elizabeth as Savage gets back in. Savage works a headlock, Hogan gets out, Savage bails again. This time Hogan chases, and Savage goes to his old trick of using Elizabeth as a shield. Back in, Hogan uses a nice wresting sequence to get Savage down. He could do it when he wanted to. Savage suplexes out of it and hits the double ax handle off the top. Savage starts working Hogan's arm and pulling (what's left of) his hair to keep him down. Hogan responds by using Savage's tights to leverage him out of the ring. Savage counters a backdrop with a kick to the face, and he catches Hogan a bit stiff and busts him open a little above the eye. Hogan powers out of a chinlock. Savage hits the jumping knee in Hogan's back, pushing Hogan into the turnbuckles. Savage rolls him up and gets a handful of tights, but only gets two. Savage starts working the cut. He slaps Hogan, which just sets him off. Hogan bodyslams Savage over the top and down to the floor! Elizabeth runs over to check on Savage and help him up but Savage wants nothing to do with her. Savage pulls Hogan out and posts him. Hogan counters with ramming Savage's head into the apron (it's the hardest part of the ring, don't you know). Hogan hoists Savage up on his shoulder to lawn dart him into the post but Elizabeth blocks him. Savage wriggles out and posts Hogan again. Savage walks Elizabeth up the isle, and she leaves. Commentary says Hebner threw her out but we don't see that for sure. Savage hits the double ax handle down to the floor. Back in he starts working Hogan's throat with the top rope clothesline, knee drop, and blatant chokes. Savage goes up and hits the flying elbow almost three quarters of the way across the ring! Hogan kicks out at 2 and Hulks Up. 3 punches, big boot, legdrop and good night. The Hogan formula finish, but it hadn't been played out to death yet at this point. It's another Savage masterpiece, and one of if not Hogan's best match, at least in North America. ****1/2
OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- There's a lot to like here. The overall raw star ratings are probably the best for any Wrestlemania to this point, but the show as a whole doesn't quite come together like WM 3 did. Part of that is the crowd. Whether because of the arena acoustics, micing, or they were just plain not that loud, it's a very underwhelming sounding crowd for a Wrestlemania. A lot of people point to this show as the end of the boom period of the '80s and there's some truth in that, beyond the fact that is was the last WM of the '80s. Overall, you've got an all time classic main event, a good IC title match, a couple of other really good matches sprinkled in and only a small handful of a 14 match card not hitting at least the decent mark. It's not an absolute top tier WM, but it's just below that group.
OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+
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