World Wrestling Federation's (WWF, now WWE) flagship pay-per-view (PPV) event, having first been held in 1985. It is held annually between mid-March to mid-April.[1] Following the advent of Survivor Series in 1987 and then Royal Rumble and SummerSlam in 1988—WWF's four original annual pay-per-views—the four would eventually be dubbed the "Big Four".[2] WrestleMania V was scheduled to be held on April 2, 1989, at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This event along with the previous year's WrestleMania IV were advertised as being held at the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, with both events taking place next door at Convention Hall, but sponsored by Donald Trump. The two events were the only times that WrestleMania was held at the same venue for two consecutive years. Run-DMC performed a "WrestleMania Rap" for the audience.[3] Other celebrity guests in attendance included Donald Trump, whose Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino was the main sponsor of the event, and Morton Downey Jr.[citation needed
Andre the Giant in a rematch of their championship bout from WrestleMania III on the premiere episode of The Main Event, which was broadcast live on February 5, 1988, in Indianapolis. With help from “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase and a crooked official, Andre dethroned Hogan as champion and immediately surrendered the title to DiBiase as repayment for his assistance. After the contest, Andre’s victory was upheld due to WWF referees’ decisions being regarded as final. Still, the WWF World Heavyweight Championship was declared vacant as Andre was not permitted to surrender the title to another wrestler. Thus, a tournament was conceived for WrestleMania IV for the vacant title. Savage advanced to the finals and, with a little help from Hogan, won the tournament and the championship by defeating DiBiase in the finals. Hogan celebrated with Savage afterward, cementing their union.[4]
Over the course of the rest of 1988, Hogan and Savage
The Big Boss Man
. While they never actually chased the company’s tag team championships, the Mega Powers stayed together as one of the strongest tag team forces in the company as the year ended.
Things slowly began to change as 1989 began, however. Hogan had requested that Elizabeth accompany him to the ring for several of his matches in addition to her duties as Savage’s valet. This led to several occasions were Elizabeth was placed in harm’s way, which did not sit well with the Macho Man. Another sign that tensions were beginning to mount came when Savage picked up Boss Man’s nightstick after a match with Akeem and glared at Hogan while he had his back turned, posing as he often did for the crowd.
On the January 7 Saturday Night’s Main Event in Tampa, Savage came out and cleared the ring with a
steel chair after Hogan was receiving a post-match beating by the Twin Towers, and Akeem and Boss Man began threatening Elizabeth, Boss Man going so far as to grab Elizabeth's wrist. Savage did not bother to check on the injured Hogan, however, and left the ring. Elizabeth assisted Hogan backstage, which again angered Savage. This led to a confrontation between Savage and Elizabeth, but nothing came of it.[5] He [6] Later in January during the Royal Rumble match, Hogan accidentally eliminated Savage as he was trying to eliminate Bad News Brown.[7]
Finally, on February 2 at the live
The Main Event II program from Milwaukee, the tensions between Hogan and Savage boiled over. Once again, the Mega Powers and Twin Towers squared off. During a key point in the match, Akeem threw Savage through the ropes, causing him to land on Elizabeth. Hogan, distraught, picked her up and carried her backstage to the trainers’ room where he waited while she regained consciousness. Savage, meanwhile, was forced to take on Boss Man and Akeem alone until Hogan, at the behest of Elizabeth, came back out several minutes later. When Hogan went to tag into the match, Savage slapped him in the face and left the ring. Hogan managed to record the victory for the Mega Powers, but things were not over yet. [8]
Immediately upon the conclusion of the match, Hogan returned to the trainers’ room where an angry Savage was waiting for him. The two got into a loud and physical confrontation, where Savage blamed Hogan for what happened to Elizabeth and accused him of being jealous of his championship reign. He also accused Hogan of only being his partner because he was lusting after Elizabeth. Hogan tried to calm the irate Macho Man down, but Savage had heard enough and struck Hogan with the title belt, knocking him to the floor. After punching the downed Hogan twice, Savage grabbed the belt again as Elizabeth went to check on Hogan. Savage grabbed her and threw her across the room, but before he could strike Hogan a second time Brutus Beefcake came into the room and grabbed the belt from him. Savage eventually left the room, but not before assaulting Beefcake and the WWF officials who were dispatched to defuse the situation and tend to the injured Hogan.
Hogan then issued the challenge to Savage for what he still considered to be rightfully his, and Savage agreed to defend the WWF World Heavyweight Championship against him at WrestleMania. However, he would do so alone, as Elizabeth declined to be in his corner for the match; instead, she opted to be at ringside but in a neutral corner.
Other feuds
The second main feud heading into WrestleMania was between
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.[7]
This led to a feud between the two and an Intercontinental Heavyweight Title match at WrestleMania.
The other main match on the
double turn as Demolition turned babyfaces and Powers of Pain turned heels.[12]
Powers of Pain made Mr. Fuji their manager, leading to their WrestleMania encounter with Demolition for the tag titles in a 3-on-2 handicap match.
Jake "The Snake" Roberts and André the Giant began their feud in the fall of 1988 after André interfered in one of Roberts' matches against Rude. When Roberts retrieved his snake, Damien, from his bag, André became distressed, then petrified at the sight of the snake. When it became apparent André was deathly afraid of the snake, Roberts threw the snake onto André, causing him to collapse to the mat and pass out from a (kayfabe) heart attack. André recovered and swore revenge. Meanwhile, Andre's longtime adversary, Big John Studd returned to the WWF in late 1988, rejected a "welcome back" from longtime manager Bobby "the Brain" Heenan and, in becoming a face, said he was coming after André. The André-Roberts feud, meanwhile, continued into early 1989 and eventually, Studd agreed to become the special guest referee for their match at WrestleMania.
Shortly after Terry Taylor joined the WWF in the summer of 1988, he was packaged as "The Red Rooster" and, paired with Heenan as his manager, given a novice wrestler gimmick, someone who could not navigate his way through matches without constant instructions from Heenan. Eventually, the Red Rooster grew tired of Heenan's demeaning style of coaching and turned against him, becoming a face. Shortly thereafter, on an episode of Prime Time Wrestling, Heenan claimed to want to break off their relationship amicably but it was a ruse to set Rooster up to be ambushed by Heenan's new protégé, long-time enhancement talent Steve Lombardi, who had just been reinvented as The Brooklyn Brawler.
savate kick. Hercules fell in the corner and Haku tried to open the middle rope as Hercules rolled away. Hercules ducked a clothesline and hit Haku with a bridgingback suplex
to win the match.
The second match was a
corner body splash on Michaels but he sidestepped, getting a near-fall. They hit Akeem with a double dropkick and they hit Boss Man with a double missile dropkick. Akeem tagged in and dumped Jannetty. Michaels came off the top on Akeem but Boss Man powerbombed him. Akeem took advantage and hit Michaels with an Air Africa and pinned him to win the match.[13][14][15]
The third match was a non-title match between
no-sold
and chased Virgil. DiBiase came from behind and nailed Beefcake. The two brawled outside the ring and were counted-out, resulting in a no contest. They continued to beat each other.
The fourth match was a
knee drop on Raymond as he was going to hit Luke but Luke sidestepped. Rougeaus double-teamed Luke for a while as the referee was busy with Butch. They kicked Luke in the gut and then celebrated. They celebrated too much that Bushwhackers hit Raymond with a battering ram and a rib breaker
forearm club by Ax. Ax tagged in Smash. Ax dumped Barbarian while Smash beat up on Warlord. Mr. Fuji tried to throw salt previously hidden in his tights in Smash's eyes, but Smash ducked and Fiji accidentally threw salt in Warlord's eyes. Demolition then grabbed Fuji and hit him with the Demolition Decapitation
and Ax pinned Fuji to win the match and retain the titles.
The seventh match was between "The World's Strongest Man"
Garvin Stomp
for his troubles.
The eighth match was a
turning heel. Anderson and Blanchard hit Santana with a spike piledriver. Anderson got a pin on Santana, getting the victory, and breaking up Strike Force.[13][14][15]
Next was a
Piper's Pit segment with Morton Downey Jr. as the guest. Before Rowdy Roddy Piper could interview Morton, Brother Love came out dressed as Piper and impersonated him. The real Piper then came out and got rid of Brother Love by ripping Brother Love's kilt off. After Morton blew constant smoke from his cigarette
into Piper's face during the interview (despite Piper's repeated requests not to), finally, Piper put out the cigarette and Morton with a fire extinguisher.
The ninth match was between
Virgil came out and attempted to steal Damien but Roberts got Damien back. In the ring, André hit Studd with a cheap shot from behind and began to choke Studd with the strap of his tights, thus getting disqualified
. Despite having won the match, Roberts tossed Damien in the ring to save Studd from André, who hightailed it out of the ring to get away from the snake.
The tenth match was a
lariat on Valentine got another near-fall for Neidhart. Hart and Honky tagged in. Valentine ran in and nailed Neidhart on the apron. The referee was busy taking out Valentine. Neidhart took advantage and handed Bret Hart, Jimmy Hart's megaphone. Hart knocked Honky with it and pinned him to win the matchup.[13][14][15]
The eleventh match was a
running shoulder block. He delivered Rude a backbreaker and tried to lift him up, but dropped him clumsily in the ropes. Warrior hit Rude a series of Irish whips in every corner. He missed a Warrior Splash. Rude went for a Rude Awakening but Warrior powered out and clotheslined Rude to the apron. He tried to suplex him back into the ring, but just before he completed the move Bobby Heenan pulled Warrior's leg out from under him, which caused Rude to fall on top of the champion, and held onto it so the weakened Warrior could not escape as Rude pinned him. Rude won the match and became the new WWF Intercontinental Champion in what was Warrior's first pinfall loss in the WWF. Following the match, an enraged Warrior chased Heenan around and into the ring and hit him with a gorilla press drop
.
The twelfth match was between
foreign objects
. The referee disqualified both men, as the match resulted in a double disqualification.
The thirteenth match and the final match on the
thirty-one seconds.[16] After the match, Rooster was attacked by the Brawler, but this had little effect on the Rooster who soon got the upper hand and chased the Brawler from the ring.[13][14][15]
Rick Rude defended his Intercontinental Championship primarily against The Ultimate Warrior, but also against other faces as Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Jimmy Snuka. Later in the summer of 1989, Rude began badmouthing Roddy Piper, and Piper would play a key role in Rude's ultimate title loss back to The Ultimate Warrior.
With a successful Tag Team Championship defense, Demolition moved on to new feuds with The Twin Towers (Akeem and Big Boss Man) and the Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard). Demolition would eventually lose the titles to Anderson and Blanchard on
The New Day. Meanwhile, the Powers of Pain would lose their push and eventually settled into mid-card matches, feuding with teams such as The Bushwhackers and The Rockers
until they were eventually split up in early 1990.
Results
No.
Results
WWF World Heavyweight Championship
17:54
(c)
– the champion(s) heading into the match
Notes
^The venue was referred to as the Trump Plaza during the broadcast.
