– WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley answered fan questions on Twitter over the weekend while waiting to board a flight to the UK. Among the questions answered was on a potential last match, and who he would face:
Foley also answered questions @RealMickFoley about his favorite Undertaker match, having a “hug off” with Daniel Bryan’s beard on the line, and WWE’s new approach to signing talent to developmental.
– Check out the following video of Hulk Hogan and Superstar Billy Graham reuniting:
– Hulk Hogan spoke to NewsDay.com promoting “Hulk Hogan: Uncensored,” which takes place Friday at the Beacon Theatre stage in Manhattan. The event will offer fans the opportunity to pick the legendary grappler’s brain on highlights and controversy from his career.
The appearance will occur as TNA Wrestling presents an event nearby at NYCB Theatre at Westbury. WWE will also hold events in the area this weekend at Madison Square Garden and MetLife Stadium, which “begs the question of whether TNA and Hogan are making themselves look small by comparison.”
“Oh, my God, brother, that whole WWE is a monster,” Hogan responds, while also noting that TNA is still in its relative infancy compared to WWE. “That’s a whole other universe, a whole other entity.”
Since he is no longer an active wrestler, Hogan’s primary role with TNA is to draw attention to the promotion. The publication asked Hogan whether he will succeed as an executive, “or face the Michael Jordan curse of a legend who hasn’t transferred his playing field skills to the board room?”
“When the business is in your blood, I don’t know what to tell you — I’m not worried about what Michael Jordan did, or what Vince McMahon is,” Hogan said. “I just worry about my own thing, bro. So, I don’t know what their deal is, but I’m still having fun.”
– TNA’s “IMPACT WRESTLING LIVE” is coming to Tupelo, Mississippi, on Thursday, May 9 at the BancorpSouth Arena live at 7:00 pm. While in the city, Joseph Park decided to take in some of the sights.
– This month’s TNA LockDown pay-per-view drew approximately 17,000 pay-per-view buys, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. This is around the same as last year’s show – which isn’t a great sign, considering TNA’s new quarterly PPV format and the show featuring the big payoff of Bully Ray joining Aces & Eights.
– Hulk Hogan spoke with TMZ.com at the LAX airport over the weekend and was asked about the transgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox. Fox was born a man, is now a woman and wants to fight women in the UFC.
Hogan said he would fight Fallon, even though he’s confused about to what sex Fox should be considered. Jimmy Hart, who was with Hogan, said they would do for the right price.
In a newly published interview with Fighting Spirit Magazine, TNA Wrestling Superstar Hulk Hogan claims that he had proposed to turn heel six years before he actually did in World Championship Wrestling, during the 1990 build-up to his all-babyface WWF Championship match against Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania VI.
“Vince and I were best friends, but when we talked about money, we were enemies,” said Hogan. “So I went [to WCW] with the red and yellow, beat Ric Flair, and Hulkamania took off again. Then, creatively, I turned into a bad guy, which I always wanted to do in the WWF, but nobody wanted me to. I always said, ‘I could be the best bad guy ever. Just let me do it’, but no-one wanted me to be a bad guy.
“At Warrior’s time, I really wanted to fuck him as a bad guy; I wanted to beat The Ultimate Warrior in Toronto, but as a heel. I just thought it would be intense, and I would be the best bad guy ever. I could have done it, and then said, ‘Forget the prayers and the vitamins, I did it for the money!’ But it’s just creative differences, and Vince knows what he’s doing, believe me. I just wanted to try something different in the WWF.”
When Hogan turned heel to form the New World Order with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash at Bash at the Beach on July 7, 1996, he was very hesitant on the career-altering maneuver. Former WCW boss Eric Bischoff stated in his 2006 autobiography, Controversy Creates Cash, that Hogan was initially dismissive toward his idea of leaving the red and yellow behind to become a villain. Then shortly after Hall and Nash became a force on WCW programming, Hogan, who had not spoken to Bischoff in months, proposed that he be the third man in the group. Up until the pay-per-view event at Daytona Beach, Bischoff was unsure if Hogan would follow-through on the idea, and had Sting agree to join the New World Order in case “The Hulkster” changed his mind at the last minute.
In a newly published interview with Fighting Spirit Magazine, TNA Wrestling Superstar Hulk Hogan discussed his strained relationship with the late “Macho Man” Randy Savage and desire to induct the legendary wrestler into the WWE Hall of Fame.
“I’ve heard all these urban legends about Randy doing something to piss Vince off,” said Hogan. “I’ve heard two or three different stories, and I don’t know if any of those are true, but he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, and I would love to be the one that inducts him. I’ve got a speech for him ready to go. I just think it’s a must that he’s in the Hall of Fame; he was so influential in this business, especially in the WWF, and in my career.
“You know, he’s the only guy we could pass the belt to, and we wouldn’t lose money. You gave the belt to The Ultimate Warrior – I don’t want to drop a bunch of names – and right away the revenue went down. Give the belt to ‘Macho Man’, and things would stay the same, or get better.”
“For me, it would be cool to induct him. We had a rift for about 10 years, and then right before he passed away, I was getting an EKG, when I hear (mimicking Randy’s voice) ‘Yeah, what’s up, brother?’ And I looked over, and he was there, looking great. I said, ‘Hey Mach, how you doing?’ I shook his hand, and introduced him to my wife, Jennifer. He’s like, ‘Hello lovely lady, how ya doing?’ Jennifer said to him, ‘Oh, Mr. Macho, I’ve heard so much about you. You know, we’ve got three or four lawyers at the house today, so we’re gonna cook up. We’d love to have you over.’ But he just went, ‘I don’t dig lawyers, baby, maybe we could start out with a phone call?’
“I was on a show with Lanny (Poffo, Randy’s brother), Scott Steiner and Kevin Nash in Canada [around the time of Randy’s passing], and Lanny had told me that his mom was depressed because his dad had passed away, and would me and Randy come to see her? We were gonna have a barbecue at Randy’s house for his mom, and surprise her. But midweek, Randy passed away. It was tough because we just started talking after all that bullshit; I was excited to talk to him, he was excited to talk to me, and then he passed away. It was [expletive] up. He was a great human being, too. He had a good heart, man. He was a good person.”
– Tickets for Hulk Hogan’s upcoming “uncensored” show at New York City’s Beacon Theater over WrestleMania weekend are not selling well. According to Ticketmaster.com, only 25% of the tickets have been sold – with a “High Availability” of seats in the upper and lower levels of the theater.
– Miss Tessmacher was featured Thursday on Maxim.com.
– TNA Wrestling has released the following video promoting its annual Slammiversary pay-per-view event, which takes place this year on Sunday, June 2 in Boston, Massachusetts. Tickets go on-sale next Friday.
During a recent interview with Fighting Spirit Magazine, Hulk Hogan spoke about his legendary match against The Rock at WrestleMania X-8 back in 2002:
“Out of respect, I go down there (to Miami), and there’s me and The Rock and his dad Rocky Johnson, and Pat Patterson,” said Hogan. “The Rock starts telling me that we’re gonna lock up, and do this and do that, then start getting some heat on me, and so on. So he talked through the whole match, and I was listening. I respect him, and it kinda made sense, but I’d never done that before. Then they go, ‘Okay, let’s have the match here.’ I said, ‘Whoa! You’re talking about me taking bumps in this ring, with no people? I’ll get hurt, and if I fall wrong one time, then my career is over.’ I’ve got to have the energy of the crowd, so that when I go down, I go down to the mat hard. So instead, we just walked through the match.”
Hogan was depicted as the heel going into the match due to his affiliation with the New World Order, and because of his acrimonious departure from WWE years prior. The audience, however, didn’t care that Hogan was portrayed as a villain by WWE, instead cheering the wrestling icon and reigning a chorus of boos toward The Rock. Hogan says he had the match changed on the fly due to the crowd reaction.
“The whole issue I had was what if we got to Toronto, and this doesn’t work? So sure enough, when we go to Toronto, I give The Rock one big push, and the place explodes. Then I pushed him again, as we planned, and the place explodes again. [WWE] thought I was gonna get booed. Then I start chopping meat on him, and with every hit the place is going crazy. Then I did what was planned, blocking a punch, and as soon as he started hitting me came the boos.”
“I went down, and looked up and said, ‘You want me to fix this?’ And The Rock says, ‘Yeah, let’s fix it.’ I went, ‘OK, then listen to me.’ But it took him no time to get it right, because he is just so good in the ring. It took us three minutes to get it right, but if we’d done what we had practised, they’d have booed us out of the [expletive] building. I’m not saying I could do it in every instance, but The Rock is so good, we could do that. The Rock doesn’t usually talk about planning his matches, so somebody must have made him worry that I was too old and too slow, and that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the work-rate. But once he got in the ring with me, he knew I had a feel for it, and we got it right. That’s what I wanted to do with ‘Stone Cold’, and Bret Hart, too.”
Hulk Hogan joined Busted Open with Dave Lagreca and Doug Mortman an hour before Lockdown began at the Alamadome. Here are highlights from the interview.
His knee and overall health:
“Thursday was a month, so a month and two and a half days for the old knee replacement, so I think I’m doing good. I saw some other wrestlers that had some knee replacements done and around the same time, I feel like Tarzan here all of a sudden, they said they weren’t even going to be able to walk around for eight or nine weeks, so I’m a little bit ahead of schedule.
“The weird thing is, now I got two new knees, two new hips; after eight back surgeries my back’s fixed, I think I should be getting a title shot pretty soon. The oldest Heavyweight Champion of the world.”
Brooke Getting More Involved in TNA:
“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. It’s actually my worst nightmare coming true, but I’m not the one who’s in charge of her happiness and for some reason she seems to light up when she’s around this business. She’s really good on camera, like when we were doing Hogan Knows Best I used to say she’s the only one in the family that’s a real actor. So for her to be around the business and she’s got this built in following and she’s got a good instinct for the wrestling business. I’m to the point where she’s not 18 anymore and she’s in her early 20?s so she’s got to choose her direction. Life is all about choices. The one thing I worry about, I’ll watch Kurt Angle walk around in back, I’ll watch Jeff Hardy walk around in the back, and they’re kind of borderline of maybe going too far and I don’t want them to end up like me, that’s what I’m worried about with Brooke. I don’t want her to get into this business and blow her knees out or hurt her back. We have a masseuse that comes to the house like once a week, maybe once every two weeks, and he goes ‘O my gosh, your daughters got the same injuries you do.’ I’m going, ‘what do you mean?’ He goes, ‘well her backs got that same tweak in it and the knees got the same tweak.’ A lot of it’s genetic, but my biggest fear is her getting in this business, and you don’t have to wrestle 30 years like I did, you could wrestle 2 years or a year and a half or 5 years and get hurt, so that’s my biggest fear.”
Fans Buying into Brooke:
“It’s just so weird, because, you’ve got all these naysayers. I run social media now because Brooke and my son, Nick, have taught me how to do it, and you get on the social media and you get all these naysayers that say, ‘how come Hogan is still hanging out in wrestling?’ or ‘I want to be a writer for TNA, their creative sucks, give me a job’ and ‘why is he pushing his daughter in this business?’ and all of a sudden, nobody realizes it, all of a sudden there’ll be the Pope or Jesse Sorensen or there’ll be Hulk Hogan, you don’t know what everybody’s contract is, you don’t know if Sting can wrestle 200 days a year or twenty days a year. You don’t know what his contract says and there’s so many givens that these people don’t know, so I kind of have to back away from them because I realize I’m the biggest mark there is. I love this business, I watch all the shows, I watch our show and everybody else’s show just like a fan and I realize that these are all a bunch of marks, just like me, that don’t know the whole story. Then when I see ‘what are you still doing in wrestling?’ or ‘why is your daughter in it?’ Then I think about Lou Thesz who wrestled into his 70?s, I think about Vince McMahon who is a lot older than me, I think about Vince’s daughter Stephanie who’s part of the business, so you just have to take it with a grain of salt. It’s hard to separate the two. There are a lot of family members who are part of the business, second generation wrestlers, and they don’t have to be all men, they can be women, just like Von Erich’s daughter Lacy was in it. Vince’s daughter Stephanie wrestled. It’s just so weird how the social media fans will try to pick individual things apart.”
Fans Not Knowing What’s Really Going on Backstage & Bobby Roode’s Expiring:
“When you’re working for a company, sometimes you don’t focus on what your contract says. I was here last year, I was working at a PPV and my contract had run out. I didn’t know it. Dixie didn’t know it. We weren’t worried about it. We’re here because we love this business and all of a sudden I call my attorney and say, ‘Henry, is my contract up?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, it ran out ten days ago.’ I didn’t even know it. Dixie didn’t know. We weren’t worried about that; we were worried about putting on a good show. It’s just so weird that ‘O my god, Bobby Roode’s contract is over’, I looked at Twitter today, ‘Hogan you’re an idiot, afterthought, dumb@$$.’ All these things that are being said to me, I’ve got nothing to do with that. Here’s the deal; Bobby Roode, great talent. I’m sure he wants to be here or he wants to be anywhere and he can make his own deal, but we sure don’t want him going anywhere. We love him to death. I was hoping that he’d have the belt on the UK tour just so we’d have a TNA champion over there. It’s all weird how everybody tries to tear our business apart. We’re all here for the same reason, we love this business and if he doesn’t have a contract I bet Booby Roode would wrestle tonight without a contract until we get it straightened out. That’s how much he loves it.”
TNA’s new road schedule and leaving the Impact Zone:
“The truth is, all that stuff [about the Impact Zone] was incorrect if I said anything negatively because there were a lot of crowds that came in that weren’t wrestling crowds, they were just part of the park. But the weird thing is, all that stuff that was so bad or was a horrible thing, I mean, now that I actually look at it, it was actually a setup to move on to something better or a stepping stone to this company becoming great. That all happened for a reason. We weren’t ready to go out on the road a couple of years ago. So thank god for Universal. Now I look at it completely different than maybe what I said before.”
TNA Cutting Back To 4 PPV’s a year:
“I think we need to switch gears and yes I do like it. It’s just helter skelter. All of a sudden it’s like every company has a PPV every month and nothing meant nothing and I think we’re just trying to get back to the dance. Not like wrestling used to be, but like how wrestling should be and just make things mean something again. I think for us as a company, for us to keep gaining momentum and not really care about what anybody else does, but like I said, make this from a good little company to a great company. I think we’re regrouping in the right places. The TV is our star, the Spike network. A lot of our payoffs, to me, we were throwing the dart at the wrong target. We were worried about a PPV where we should be worried about the TV that’s supporting us and build up some major angles and then bang, have them on TV instead of the PPV. Now we can get these major angles on TV and have the bigger, bigger ones for these four PPVs, so I think we’re on track with it.”
Here’s Part 5 of our WrestleMania Retrospective series, looking back at past WrestleMania events as we march towards WrestleMania 29 on April 7th.
WrestleMania V (1989) Tagline: The Mega Powers Explode! Date: March 27, 1988 Venue: Trump Plaza, Atlantic City, NJ Attendance: 18,946 America The Beautiful: WWF Women’s Champion Rockin’ Robin
For the only time in WrestleMania History, WrestleMania IV and V were held at the same venue. Future WWE Hall Of Farmer Donald Trump stated in media outlets, that after the first WrestleMania was such a success, he had to have it again at Atlantic City. Although the event was promoted as being at the Trump Plaza, it was in fact held in the adjacent Boardwalk Hall.
The main feud heading into WrestleMania was between Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, with the two battling over the WWF Championship.
Hogan and Savage first crossed paths on the October 3, 1987 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event, Savage got a shot at The Honky Tonk Man’s Intercontinental Championship but was attacked by the Hart Foundation; Hogan came to Savage’s rescue, thus solidifying Savage’s face turn.
At WrestleMania IV in March 1988, Savage defeated Ted DiBiase in a tournament final to win the vacant WWF Championship with help from Hogan and Hogan soon after came into the ring to congratulate Savage. Soon after, the duo formed a tag team known as The Mega Powers. They feuded with many heel tag teams throughout the entire year and were a successful team.
Savage dropping his patented elbow on Hogan at WrestleMania V
Mega Powers ruled and dominated the WWF for several months. However, their domination and tag team began to breakup in early 1989 as tensions slowly began to build between the two.
This all began on the January 7, 1989 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event, when Hogan was mercilessly beaten by The Twin Towers after his match with Akeem.
Savage came out and cleared the ring with a steel chair. Elizabeth took Hogan to the backstage which angered Savage. He thought that he was a third wheel and this was the beginning of the breakup of Mega Powers as Savage was angry that why his wife Miss Elizabeth was used by Hogan as his manager. He confronted her about the issue but she took Hogan to the backstage.
Problems increased further in the Royal Rumble match where Hogan accidentally eliminated Savage as he was trying to eliminate Bad News Brown.
On February 3 at The Main Event, Hogan and Savage faced The Twin Towers (Akeem and The Big Boss Man) in a tag team match that would set up the Mega Powers’ breakup. During a key point in the match, Savage was thrown out of the ring onto Elizabeth, knocking her unconscious. Hogan carried her to the back, leaving Savage to fend for himself in the ring against the much larger Akeem and Big Bossman;
Hogan eventually returned, but Savage slapped him in the face and took the belt in his hand and turned heel by abandoning Hogan.
Despite this, Hogan managed to pick up the win. After the match, Savage explained his frustrations to hogan and eventually attacked Hogan in the medical area of the arena.
Hogan would later challenge Savage to a match for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania, which Savage accepted.
The second main feud heading into WrestleMania was between Rick Rude and The Ultimate Warrior over the WWF Intercontinental Championship. Rude and Warrior were booked to face each other in a “Super Posedown” at Royal Rumble in January 1989. The winner had to be decided by a fan reaction, where Warrior won the posedown. After the posedown, a furious and angry Rude attacked Warrior. This led to a feud between the two and an Intercontinental title match at WrestleMania.
Rick Rude Vs The Ultimate Warrior
The second main feud heading into WrestleMania was between Rick Rude and The Ultimate Warrior over the WWF Intercontinental Championship. Rude and Warrior were booked to face each other in a “Super Posedown” at Royal Rumble in January 1989. The winner had to be decided by a fan reaction, where Warrior won the posedown. After the posedown, a furious and angry Rude attacked Warrior. This led to a feud between the two and an Intercontinental title match at WrestleMania.
During WrestleMania V, a Piper’s Pit segment featured a talk show “Loudmouth” Morton Downey, Jr. as a special guest. Before Roddy Piper could interview Morton, Brother Love came out dressed as Piper and impersonated him.
WrestleMania V Results
Piper extinguishes Morton Doweney Jr. At WrestleMania V
• The Twin Towers (Akeem and The Big Boss Man) (with Slick) defeated The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty)
• Brutus Beefcake and Ted DiBiase (with Virgil) fought to a double countout
• The Bushwhackers (Luke Williams and Butch Miller) defeated The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques and Raymond) (with Jimmy Hart)
• Mr. Perfect defeated The Blue Blazer
• WWF Tag Team Championship Match: Demolition (Ax and Smash) (c) defeated The Powers of Pain (The Warlord and The Barbarian) and Mr. Fuji
• Dino Bravo (with Frenchy Martin) defeated Ronnie Garvin
• The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard) (with Bobby Heenan) defeated Strike Force (Rick Martel and Tito Santana)
• Jake Roberts defeated André the Giant (with Bobby Heenan) by disqualification w/ special guest referee Big John Studd
• The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) defeated The Honky Tonk Man and Greg Valentine (with Jimmy Hart)
• WWF Intercontinental Championship Match: Rick Rude (with Bobby Heenan) defeated The Ultimate Warrior (c)
• Jim Duggan and Bad News Brown fought to a double disqualification
• The Red Rooster defeated Bobby Heenan (with The Brooklyn Brawler)
• WWF Championship Match: Hulk Hogan defeated Randy Savage (c)
TMZ.com reports that Hulk Hogan among the celebrities whose bank account information and social security number have been hacked and posted online.
Other victims include United States First Lady Michelle Obama, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump, Ashton Kutcher, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Mel Gibson.
The FBI is now involved and has told the celebrities to contact their banks immediately. They have also released a statement saying that they’ve known about the hacks before they were made public on TMZ.com.
In the first episode of Wrestle Talk TV season two, Joel Ross, Patrick Lennon and Francesca Wood kick things off with a bang as they present “The Immortal” Hulk Hogan as the seasons first huge guest. The episode also features a hugely controversial interview segment from Bret “The Hitman” Hart, which has never been seen.
Plus there are appearances from Rob Van Dam, Jerry Lynn, James Storm, El Generico, Kaz and Daniels, Velvet Sky, Hernandez and Fergal Devitt, along with this weeks debate over “The Rock” being WWE Champion. There is also a run down of some of the biggest news stories this week and much more.
Here’s the video – the Hogan interview begins around the 12:35 mark:
Here’s Part 4 of our WrestleMania Retrospective series, looking back at past WrestleMania events as we march towards WrestleMania 29 on April 7th.
WrestleMania IV (1988) Tagline: What The World Is Watching! Date: March 27, 1988 Venue: Trump Plaza, Atlantic City, NJ Attendance: 18,165 America The Beautiful: Gladys Knight
At the first Royal Rumble in January 1988, Hogan and André had their official contract signing for a WWF Championship rematch.The main feud heading into WrestleMania was between Hulk Hogan and André the Giant. At the first Survivor Series in November, André, One Man Gang, King Kong Bundy, Butch Reed and Rick Rude defeated Hogan, Paul Orndorff, Don Muraco, Ken Patera and Bam Bam Bigelow in a Survivor Series match.
Their rematch took place on the first-ever edition of The Main Event in February, where André controversially won the title from Hogan in a screwjob involving a twin referees.
Immediately after winning the title from Hogan, André sold the title to Ted DiBiase; President Jack Tunney nullified the decision, vacating the title.
André became the shortest reigning WWF Champion with a reign of only 47 seconds as he sold the title to Ted DiBiase and received a large sum of money.
Andre revealed, in an arena interview with Dibiase a few weeks before the event. that he planned to take a year off and go on a cruise with the money Dibiase was paying him once he secured the title for him at WrestleMania IV, further explaining why Andre would sell off the belt he had wanted himself at WrestleMania III just a year earlier. WWF President Jack Tunney, however, vacated the title and ordered it to be decided in a 14-man tournament at WrestleMania IV.
Hulk Hogan and André the Giant went to a draw by double disqualification in this event. This would be Hogan’s first WrestleMania match in which a disqualification occurred. This was Hogan’s first and only time going to a draw at WrestleMania.
Hogan and Andre also have the distinction of being the first two wrestlers in the history of the event to have a WrestleMania rematch. They had wrestled each other the previous year at WrestleMania III in what many deem the most famous
Bad News Brown turns on Bret Hart, at the 20-Man-Battle Royal
wrestling contest of all time.
The first match was a 20-man battle royal and the winner would receive a large trophy. After fourteen eliminations, the final three participants were Bad News Brown, Bret Hart, and JYD. JYD hit both Hart & Brown with several headbutts before they both decided to cooperate and they eliminated JYD. Hart decided that he and Brown would share the trophy but Brown betrayed him and hit him with a Ghetto Blaster and pounded on him before eliminating him over the top rope to win the battle royal. Brown was presented with the trophy, but Hart attacked him from behind and broke the trophy, thus turning babyface.
The Ultimate Warrior making his PPV Debut.
In his pay-per-view debut, The Ultimate Warrior faced Bobby Heenan’s client Hercules. Warrior snapped Hercules’ chain and chopped him in the corner. Hercules tried to fight back and he hit three clotheslines on Warrior, who no-sold Hercules’ clothesline. Hercules fell to the mat each time during his unsuccessful clothesline attempts. The powerhouse Warrior countered a Hercules clothesline and hit a clothesline of his own. He pounded on Hercules outside the ring before reentering the ring where Warrior hit a forearm club. In the corner, Warrior hit him ten-count punches but Hercules made a comeback with an inverted atomic drop. He hit a half nelson suplex on Warrior who got his shoulder up first, as the referee counted, giving Warrior the win.
Baseball great Bob Uker getting more than he deserved when interviewing Andre The Giant
The main event was the tournament final for the vacant WWF Championship between Randy Savage and Ted DiBiase. Savage was tired due to his semifinal match against the big One Man Gang while DiBiase took advantage of his freshness as he had received a bye in the semifinals. He dominated most of the match but in the end, Savage made a comeback and tried to hit a Savage Elbow on DiBiase but DiBiase moved out of the way. He applied a Million Dollar Dream on Savage.
With the referee distracted due to interference by André the Giant, Hogan (who had been brought down mid-match by Miss Elizabeth on request by Savage to neutralize Andre’s presence) took advantage and nailed DiBiase with a steel chair.
Savage climbed up the top rope for a second
Randy “Macho Man” Savage with Miss Elizabeth Celebrating his WWF Championship Win
elbow drop attempt and this time, he successfully hit Savage Elbow. He followed it up with a pinfall victory. He won the tournament and vacant WWF Championship. After the match, Hogan, Miss Elizabeth and Savage celebrated Savage’s WWF Championship win.
Although the event was promoted as being at the Trump Plaza, it was in fact held in the adjacent Boardwalk Hall.
This WrestleMania featured 16 matches, more than any other WrestleMania.
WrestleMania IV Results
Over the top rope 20-Man-Battle Royal
• Bad News Brown won an by last eliminating Bret Hart.
Participants : Bad News Brown, The Bolsheviks (Nikolai Volkoff and Boris Zhukov), The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart), The Killer Bees (B. Brian Blair and Jim Brunzell), Danny Davis, George Steele, Harley Race, Hillbilly Jim, The Rougeau Brothers (Jacques and Raymond), The Young Stallions (Paul Roma and Jim Powers), Junkyard Dog, Ken Patera, Ron Bass, Sam Houston, and Sika.
First Round Tournament for the WWF Championship
• Ted DiBiase (with Virgil and André the Giant) defeated Jim Duggan.
• Don Muraco (with Billy Graham) defeated Dino Bravo (with Frenchy Martin) by disqualification.
• Greg Valentine (with Jimmy Hart) defeated Ricky Steamboat (with Little Dragon).
• Randy Savage (with Miss Elizabeth) defeated Butch Reed (with Slick).
• One Man Gang (with Slick) defeated Bam Bam Bigelow (with Oliver Humperdink) by countout.
• Rick Rude (with Bobby Heenan) and Jake Roberts fought to a time-limit draw
Singles Match
• The Ultimate Warrior defeated Hercules (with Bobby Heenan)
Quater Finals Tournament for the WWF Championship
• Hulk Hogan and André the Giant (with Ted DiBiase and Virgil) fought to a double disqualification.
• Ted DiBiase defeated Don Muraco (with Billy Graham).
• Randy Savage (with Miss Elizabeth) defeated Greg Valentine (with Jimmy Hart).
Singles match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship
• Brutus Beefcake defeated The Honky Tonk Man (c) (with Jimmy Hart and Peggy Sue) by disqualification.
Six-man tag team match
•The Islanders (Haku and Tama) and Bobby Heenan defeated The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid) and Koko B. Ware.
Semi-Finals Tournament for the WWF Championship
•Randy Savage (with Miss Elizabeth) defeated One Man Gang (with Slick) by disqualification.
Tag team match for the WWF Tag Team Championship
•Demolition (Ax and Smash) (with Mr. Fuji) defeated Strike Force (c) (Rick Martel and Tito Santana)
Tournament finals match for the vacant WWF Championship
•Randy Savage (with Miss Elizabeth and Hulk Hogan) defeated Ted DiBiase (with André the Giant).
Here’s Part 3 of our WrestleMania Retrospective series, looking back at past WrestleMania events as we march towards WrestleMania 29 on April 7th.
WrestleMania III (1987) Tagline: Bigger! Better! Badder! Date: March 29, 1987 Venue: Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac, Michigan Attendance: 93,173 America The Beautiful: Aretha Franklin Hall Of Famers: Bob Orton, DON Muraco, Mr. Fuji, Bobby Heenan, “King” Harley Race, The Fabulous Moolah, The Junkyard Dog, Greg “The Hammer”, Roddy Piper, Jimmy Hart, Bret Hart, Tito Santana, Koko B. Ware, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, The Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, Hulk Hogan, André the Giant, Gorilla Monsoon, Jesse “The Body” Ventura, Mean Gene Okerland, Howard Finkel
93,173 Fans At WrestleMania III
WrestleMania III held the the record for 23 years as being the largest recorded attendance for a live indoor sporting event in North America with 93,173 in attendance. The record was broken February 14, 2010 when the 2010 NBA All-Star Game with an attendance of 108,713 at Cowboys Stadium.
The WWF generated $1.6 million in ticket sales ($3.1 Million in 2012 dollars) Nearly one million fans watched the event at 160 closed circuit locations in North America. With
Andre Vs Hogan: One of the most iconic mathes in WrestleMania history.
several million, watching on pay-per-view. Pay-Per-View revenues were estimated at $10 million. (Almost $20 million in 2012 Dollars)
The main feud from WrestleMania IIi stemmed from André the Giant’s turn and betrayal of his ally, the WWF Champion Hulk Hogan, which began when Hogan was presented a trophy for being the WWF Champion for three years. André, his friend at the time, came out to congratulate him.
Shortly afterwards, André was presented a slightly smaller trophy for being “undefeated in the WWF for 15 years” and Hogan came out to congratulate André, but
One of the greatest matches in WWE history. Randy Savage Vs Ricky Steamboat
ended up being the focal point of the interview. Annoyed by this, André walked out during Hogan’s congratulation speech and not long after that, on an edition of the interview segment Piper’s Pit, Bobby Heenan, a long-time Hogan adversary, announced himself to be André’s new manager. André then challenged Hogan to a title match at WrestleMania III and attacked Hogan, ripping off Hogan’s T-shirt and crucifix necklace.
While Andre vs Hogan will go down as one of the most iconic matches in WrestleMania history, if not the most. One legendary match, that is widely revered to be one of the best WrestleMania matches of all time, saw the late Randy “Macho Man” Savage vs Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, for the Intercontinental Championship.
Rock singer and Detroit native Alice Cooper was in Jake “The Snake” Roberts’ corner during his match with The Honky Tonk Man, at WrestleMania III. The Honky Tonk Man
Jake Roberts with Alice Cooper at WrestleMania III
had attacked Roberts with a guitar on Roberts’ interview segment The Snake Pit, which legitimately injured Roberts’ neck.This event began Roberts’ turn into a babyface as well as the feud between the wrestlers, which culminated in their WrestleMania match.
Twenty years later, the WWE returned to Detroit for WrestleMania 23, showing footage from WrestleMania III, having Aretha Franklin sing “America the Beautiful,” and having Kane scoop slam The Great Khali.
WrestleMania returned to Detroit
20 years after WrestleMania III
WrestleMania III Results • The Can-Am Connection (Rick Martel and Tom Zenk) defeated Bob Orton and The Magnificent Muraco (with Mr. Fuji)
• Billy Jack Haynes and Hercules (with Bobby Heenan) fought to a double countout
• Hillbilly Jim, The Haiti Kid and Little Beaver defeated King Kong Bundy, Little Tokyo and Lord Littlebrook by disqualification
• “King” Harley Race (with Bobby Heenan and The Fabulous Moolah) defeated The Junkyard Dog in a Loser Must Bow match
• The Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake) (with Johnny Valiant and Dino Bravo) defeated The Rougeau Brothers (Jacques and Raymond)
• Roddy Piper defeated Adrian Adonis (with Jimmy Hart) in a Hair vs. Hair
• The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) and Danny Davis (with Jimmy Hart) defeated The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid) and Tito Santana
• Butch Reed (with Slick) defeated Koko B. Ware
• Ricky Steamboat (with George Steele) defeated Randy Savage (c) (with Miss Elizabeth) for the WWF Intercontinental Championship
• The Honky Tonk Man (with Jimmy Hart) defeated Jake Roberts (with Alice Cooper)
• The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff (with Slick) defeated The Killer Bees (B. Brian Blair and Jim Brunzell) by disqualification
• Hulk Hogan (c) defeated André the Giant (with Bobby Heenan) to Retain The WWF Championship
– WWE Chairman Vince McMahon joined Twitter over the weekend and can be followed at @VinceMcMahon. His daughter Stephanie (@StephMcMahon) and son-in-law Triple H (@TripleH) also joined the social media service in the past week.
– Former WWE & WCW Champion Sid Vicious is currently in the hospital, according to his son, independent wrestler Gunnar Eudy. Gunnar noted on Facebook that Sid was just released from the hospital a few days ago following complications with his heart.
– Hulk Hogan has responded to Bret Hart’s recent comments that he and Eric Bischoff are incompetent and are killing TNA. He tweeted:
@BrockLesnarUFC1 feel bad for Brett he sends out the old, bitter, tired vibe,hopefully he will have a happy life from this point foward HH
Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff will be hosting a special presentation of “Hulk Hogan Uncensored” on Friday, April 5th from the Beaton Theatre in New York City. Hogan is advertised to appear at a TNA live event the same night in Westbury, New York (an hour away), so it looks like he’ll be opening the show in Westbury and then heading straight to Manhattan for this show.
Hulk Hogan Uncensored The Beacon Theatre Friday, April 5th – 10pm
“Hulk Hogan Uncensored”, a popular show which has toured the country, stops at the historic Beacon Theatre for one night only on Friday, April 5th at 10pm.
American Made professional wrestling icon Hulk Hogan will be joined on stage in this intimate theatre setting by wrestling personality and television producer Eric Bischoff. Hulkamaniacs will enjoy many behind the scenes stories from throughout Hulk’s career and life on the road, and then Wrestling announcer David Penzer will moderate a unique fan Q & A where all questions for Hulk are welcome.
The limited number of VIP seats also include a post-event VIP Meet and Greet with autograph and photo opportunity.
The presale starts TODAY, March 1st at NOON and will end Saturday, March 2nd at 11am. Get the best seats before the public! USE CODE: HOGAN.
– TNA President Dixie Carter and Jason Hervey recently met with producers from the Activision video game studio in Santa Monica, California about developing a new TNA game.
– TNA has announced a second WrestleMania weekend show, on April 6th from Atlantic City, NJ. They will be in Westbury, NY the night before. Hulk Hogan will be making rare TNA live event appearances at both shows.
– Speaking of Hulk Hogan, he tweeted a few days ago that he could have a new reality television project in the works:
Very grateful for attracting a new reality show where I get to work with family and a few good friends that always wanted to be in show biz,
– WWE will turn back the clock this Monday on Raw as the program is being branded as an “old school” episode. Aside from the likely return of The Undertaker, the episode is being internally considered a throwaway show and undercard matches for WrestleMania will not start to take shape until at least the following week.
– WWE ring announcer and songstress Lilian Garcia revealed on Twitter Wednesday that she is in Nashville, Tennessee working on an upcoming album.
“Soooooooo excited my #LilRockers! Just got 2 Nashville 2 work w some amazing songwriters this wk! Writing songs 4 my new album!! #LoveMusic,” she wrote.
– Donald Trump appeared on the daytime talk show The Wendy Williams Show this morning with daughter Ivanka and did not mention his upcoming induction into the WWE Hall of Fame. During the appearance, Williams asked the Trumps what they have in common. Ivanka said they both enjoy real estate and golf. Donald said they both enjoy sex. Williams then remarked that Donald’s response was “Hulk Hogan creepy.”
Last month, Hulk Hogan sued the Laser Spine Institute in Tampa, Florida, for $50 million in damages for unnecessary surgeries that he claims prevented him from wrestling John Cena in a WWE dream match. During a newly published interview with Fighting Spirit, the wrestling legend clarifies remarks he said then linking the earnings loss with potential money-making matches in WWE, stating they were taken “out of context.” Hogan explained the details behind the match with Cena.
“It was part of a 25-year deal (with WWE)”, Hogan said. I was filming Hogan Knows Best, and Vince McMahon and I started negotiating. It was at a time when I was coming back for the one-off shows with Shawn (Michaels) and Randy (Orton).”
“But it’s wrong about Cena – that was just part of the whole thing where I would show up once in a while and wrestle. It was one of those times where Vince and I were in love one day, and fighting the next. We were negotiating a 25-year deal, and part of it was me wrestling Cena in Orlando at Wrestlemania. I called Vince and said, ‘I’m good to go’. I’d just had my first back surgery, and everything was supposed to be perfect, but just before I was due on TV, my back went. I was scared to call Vince, but when I did, I was like, ‘Dude, my back has gone out again’. After more surgeries, instead of a morphine pump to ease the pain, they inserted a battery (into my back) that was made by NASA for the space shuttle, and lasts forever.”
TNA star Hulk Hogan and WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart have a well-documented rocky relationship, dating back to 1993 when Hogan was supposed to drop the WWF Championship to Hart at SummerSlam ’93 but allegedly refused to do so before leaving the company. During a recent interview with Fighting Spirit Magazine (Issue 90), Hogan fired a brutal shot at “The Hitman”, claiming that Hart drove down the salaries of future WWF/WWE champions by agreeing to work for less than everyone else.
“The main-event guy made the most money when he had the belt,” Hogan explained. “When I was the (WWF) champion, I made the most money. It was an old rule that Vince (McMahon) Sr. had that, thank god, was passed on for quite a while. That changed when Bret Hart became champion; he’d work for a lot less than anybody else, so it changed everybody’s pay.”
Later in the interview, Hogan also implied that he felt that Hart was two-faced, stating:
“The last time I saw [Bret], he was flying around in my Learjet with me, and playing with my kids in the pool. Then, all of a sudden, we’re not cool.”
The six-page interview with Hulk Hogan is in Issue 90 of FSM, available on Thursday, February 21.
– WWE.com has a new “Wayback Wednesday” feature up looking at “10 moments you never expected to see in WWE,” including Shane McMahon appearing on the final WCW Nitro in 2001, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels hugging on Monday Night RAW, Eric Bischoff debuting on WWE RAW and hugging Vince McMahon and Bruno Sammartino’s WWE Hall of Fame induction announcement.
– Earlier this week, a fan asked Hulk Hogan on Twitter what he thinks about John Cena. Hogan replied:
@_Al3Li_ yes I love John Cena,you can always depend on him to deliver,do business and work harder than anybody else. HH
– TNA will be running 3 shows in West Virginia this weekend, on Friday (2/15) from Huntington, Saturday (2/16) in Beckley and Sunday (2/17) from Morgantown. A steel cage match and the following card is advertised for all 3 shows:
* World Champion Jeff Hardy vs. Austin Aries
* TV Champion Devon vs. Bully Ray
* Bobby Roode vs. James Storm
* Matt Morgan & Joey Ryan vs. Chavo Guerrero & Hernandez
* Knockouts Champion Tara vs. Velvet Sky
– Hulk Hogan has will be appearing at TNA’s live events during Wrestlemania weekend. TNA will be in Westbury, NY on Friday, April 4th. TNA will be running another show the following day, but has not announced a venue yet.
During a recent interview with the UK’s Daily Star newspaper, Hulk Hogan made some interesting comments about Dixie Carter’s role as the leader of TNA Wrestling and her vision for the company’s direction.
“It’s either hold ’em or fold ’em. You’re either in the wrestling business or not. Is Dixie Carter really in the wrestling business, or this is just a hobby? You either make the move or you don’t. You’re at that point now. It’s the same place we were with WCW – you either run with the big dogs or be a little dog and stay on the porch. The destiny of this company is in her hands. It can stay TNA, a powerful little company, or she can make the decision to move on to greatness.”
Hogan says that TNA made some good decisions recently by cutting back on their number of pay-per-view events and finally taking Impact on the road.
“To limit to four major PPVs will give us a chance to make the wrestlers more important to give the fans a chance to choose who they love. I think it gives you a chance to sink your teeth into the characters and the company.”
Hulk Hogan says that many of the wrestlers currently on the roster would be “bagging groceries” back when he was headlining shows (awesome), but the business has changed and he admits it’s for the better:
“Twenty years ago most of the wrestlers who are in this business now wouldn’t even be here. They’d be bagging groceries somewhere. When I was wrestling I was a medium sized guy. King Kong Bundy was 450 and John Studd was 400 and Earthquake was 400 and Andre was 550 and I was 330, Don Muracco was 300lbs.”
The business has changed and it’s for the better. It’s more exciting because the guys can do more moves and are more athletic than we were.”
“HOW MUCH MONEY DID THEY SPEND ON THE PLASTIC SURGERY??!”
Those infamous words were uttered by Hulk Hogan on national television 25 years ago today. And astonishingly, Hulk wasn’t referring to his (now ex) wife and her friend when he said that. No, you see, he was referring to the evil trio of Ted DiBiase, Andre the Giant and… EARL HEBNER! What? Earl Hebner, evil? Bret Hart would find out years later exactly how evil Dave Hebner’s baby brother really could be, but let it be known that Hulk Hogan was the original Screwjob victim way back in 1988 when INXS had the #1 hit single in America and the Road Warriors made it cool to wear Zubaz pants.
Here in 2013, Chris Daniels and Frankie Kazarian are trying hard to make Zubaz cool again, but it’s just not the same.
So, why then was the Hulkster ranting and raving like a mental patient about plastic surgery? Let’s set the stage. The date was February 5th. The WWF had been airing taped “Saturday Night’s Main Event” specials on NBC for a few years by this point. As a young wrasslin’ fan, I have fond memories of those shows. The sight of Andre the Giant sneaking up behind an unsuspecting Hogan, following his victory over King Kong Bundy, and wrapping his massive hands around Hogan’s throat, squeezing the life out of him, gave me nightmares. But this show was different. This show, dubbed simply “The Main Event”, aired live on Friday night (back when Friday was perhaps the best night for television) and would feature the first singles meeting between Andre and the champion since their epic encounter at WrestleMania III the previous year.
WWF and NBC hit a homerun that night. The show would do a 15.2 rating, good for 33 million viewers (that number is a bit skewed and likely also includes international viewers, so figure half that number were watching in the U.S. – still impressive), making the Hogan vs. Andre sequel the most watched wrestling match in history, a record that still stands today. Hulk Hogan had headlined as WWF champion for four consecutive years and was arguably at his peak of popularity. Andre, on the other hand, was clearly in physical decline and had long past his peak. In fact, he was barely mobile. One memorable spot from their match saw Andre simply fall face down in what the announcers could only describe as an attempted headbutt (he missed). And maybe it was, but it looked terrible. In fact, as a wrestling match, this pretty much sucked. But with these two guys in the ring, it was never about workrate. That’s what guys like Savage and Steamboat and Santana were there for.
As the match drew to a close, Andre grabbed Hogan and flung him around in the worst excuse for a hip toss I’ve ever seen in my life. As he covered the champion and the referee began to count, Hogan got his shoulder up off the mat, but Hebner kept counting. Just like that, Hogan’s run came to a screeching halt at 1,474 days and Andre was awarded the title.
I guess in hindsight, CM Punk’s 14-month reign ending on a People’s Elbow doesn’t seem nearly as ludicrous.
After the match, Gene Okerlund interviewed Andre, who inexplicably talked about winning the World tag team championship (?!!) and proceeded to surrender the tag team title (don’t look at me, that’s what he said) to Ted DiBiase. And I must say, the title looked awfully good around DiBiase’s waist. I believe he got to defend the title at some house shows in the days that followed before Jack Tunney officially declared the title vacant, but it really is a shame he never had a run on top.
As Hogan stood flabbergasted by what had just taken place, THE GOOD HEBNER emerged to confront his evil twin. It’s funny because, while Dave and Earl do look very much alike, I never had much trouble discerning one from the other, even as a kid. Dave was always the pudgier one. Maybe he was simply big-boned. Whatever the case, when Hogan turned around, he could not believe his eyes, nor could he tell one from the other. He figured it out when Earl knocked his brother to the mat and caved in his ribcage with a wicked kick (supposedly breaking a rib legit). Now, Hogan figured it out. He hoisted Earl high above his head, got a running head start, and proceeded to overshoot his target by a country mile, sending Earl SOARING into the aisleway over everyone’s head (including Andre, and he was a giant!). They were supposed to catch him, but hey, shit happens.
Backstage with Mean Gene, Hogan was a wreck. He was so distraught, he was literally in tears over this grave injustice that had just been committed. It’s too bad The Shield came 20 years too late. Maybe they could have helped prevent all of this. As Hogan whined and cried about plastic surgery, he talked about seeing both Hebners for the first time, exclaiming, “When I turned around, they were identical. IDENTICUUUUULLLL!!!!” Moments later, as they showed a replay in slow-mo of the finish, Hogan desperately tried pointing out to us all the hundred dollar bills falling out of the referee’s pocket. Okerlund didn’t have the heart to tell the big guy that, in fact, there were no hundred dollar bills. As hilarious as this all was, Hogan was a pathetic mess here. Between this and his temper tantrum at the 1992 Royal Rumble when he helped Flair eliminate Sid (who did nothing wrong!), I’m not sure how I was ever a fan of this man.
By the way, there’s a little “easter egg” of sorts to watch for on this show. Prior to his title defense, WWF shot to a pre-taped Hulk Hogan interview backstage. In it, he can be seen wearing what has since been dubbed as the “Hogan ‘87” belt. Yet moments later, when he emerges from the curtain, he’s wearing the Winged Eagle belt that would become synonymous with the company over the next decade. Not sure if the ’87 belt held out for more money before Hogan walked out or mouthed off to the wrong person, but it was never seen again.
A quarter century ago on this date, history was made. Hogan lost his smile. The plastic surgery was bought and paid for. And Andre won the tag team title. A memorable night, indeed.