Something that bothers me about early WMs

[Kick Your Face]

People always assume the main event was MOTN with the exception of WrestleMania III. Bulldogs/Dream Team from WrestleMania II was miles ahead of Hogan/Bundy, yet people always call that MOTN because it was the main event. They don't really pay attention to the undercard. There were actually quite a few underrated undercard matches in the 80s and even in the early 90s. Steamboat/Bourne from I was a good match. I also think the Rockers/Barbarian and Haku from VII is tremendously underrated. That was a great match and I'd possibly call it the greatest WrestleMania opener before 23 with the exception of Bret/Owen.

[figurefan]

I agree,most of the mania matches I like are all on the undercard.some of my fav's are:
ROCKERS VS ORIENT EXPRESS WM6
KOKO B WARE VS THE MODEL WM6
MR.PERFECT VS THE BLUE BLAZER WM5
TITO SANTANA VS THE BARBARIAN WM6
RVD VS WILLIAM REGAL WM18

[Deleted]

I agree I think the more I look at it the last match was the title match and usually had Hogan vs ?. There were always better matches during the show before then.

[June]

No way was Bulldogs vs Dream Team a better match than Hogan vs Bundy. But that's just my opinion.

I also want to go out on a limb and call Steamboat / Savage one of the most overrated Mania matches of all time. The match of the night at WM3 was Hogan vs Andre it told a hell of a story and produced the greatest moment in wrestling history.

[DTP.]

Whilst the Bullodgs/Dream Team match was very good, I actually preferred the Funks vs JYD and Santana from WMII.

Also, Shawn Michaels against El Matador at WMVIII, Perfect against Blazer at WMV, US Express/Sheik and Volkoff at WMI and Race against JYD at WMIII [you probs disagree with that, though].

[hbkrules]

I disagree. Matches back then were not so much about "wrestling skill". They were about showmanship, telling a story, and building emotion. Love him or hate him, Hogan's early wrestlemania matches were filled with emotion and well built storylines. Looking back yes some of the matches you described are better technical "wrestling matches" but they didn't have the same feeling that main event Hogan matches had. WM 18 is a great example of this...technically not a great match but because of the passion/story involved it goes down as one of the best ever. Especially if you watched any of those early Hogan matches live there was nothing like it.

[June]

Mar 11, 2010 21:33:12 GMT -5 hbkrules said:

I disagree. Matches back then were not so much about "wrestling skill". They were about showmanship, telling a story, and building emotion. Love him or hate him, Hogan's early wrestlemania matches were filled with emotion and well built storylines. Looking back yes some of the matches you described are better technical "wrestling matches" but they didn't have the same feeling that main event Hogan matches had. WM 18 is a great example of this...technically not a great match but because of the passion/story involved it goes down as one of the best ever. Especially if you watched any of those early Hogan matches live there was nothing like it.

The only "wrestling skill" that matters is the ability to control and work a crowd and Hogan did that better than anyone. I don't believe that putting together a string of moves that nobody cares about constitutes a great wrestler.

[original]

"people" ?

When generalizing it's often best for "people" and the WWE to say the main event was match of the night, even if it wasn't, or what would be the point ending the biggest show of the year with an anticlimax

[Kick Your Face]

Mar 12, 2010 17:24:30 GMT -5 original said:

"people" ?

When generalizing it's often best for "people" and the WWE to say the main event was match of the night, even if it wasn't, or what would be the point ending the biggest show of the year with an anticlimax

Most of the main events were extremely subpar in the 80s and they're overshadowing the hard workers like Steamboat and the Bulldogs who worked hard to put on a good match only for everyone to overlook it and just automatically say the main event was the best match of the night. Older WrestleMania main events are extremely overrated. Yep, that even includes Hogan/Savage from WrestleMania V. Don't get me wrong. It was a good match. But people speak about it like it was this amazing match. Sure it was probably MOTN. But it wouldn't even make my top 100 of all-time.

Sure storylines help the crowd heat and even the match. But if the effort isn't put in, it falls flat. That's why Hogan/Warrior and Flair/Savage (the true main event of WrestleMania VIII) were great matches. Once 1990 hit, more effort was being thrown into the title matches with the exception of VII, which was a solid match but looked terrible comparing it to the Hogan/Warrior match from VI. Plus, it would have been hard to follow up to the awesome Savage/Warrior match earlier in the night.

Such a shame that a lot of the undercard was overlooked because the main event included Hogan.

[Bartman]

Mar 11, 2010 16:46:45 GMT -5 DTP. said:

Whilst the Bullodgs/Dream Team match was very good, I actually preferred the Funks vs JYD and Santana from WMII.

Also, Shawn Michaels against El Matador at WMVIII

While HBK is Mr. Wrestlemania and all, that was definitely one 'Mania where he didn't earn match of the night. I think that one definitely goes to Piper/Hart, followed by Savage/Flair if anything.

[DTP.]

I know that definitely wasn't the match of the night; I personally thought it went Savage/Flair, then Piper/Hart. But HBK/Matador as a variation from the usual suspects; it was one of the better matches in in-ring quality that night on the undercard.

[Kick Your Face]

Yeah, I agree that Flair/Savage was the best match of WrestleMania VIII.

[The Boglin]

Mar 12, 2010 5:27:41 GMT -5 June said:

Mar 11, 2010 21:33:12 GMT -5 hbkrules said:

I disagree. Matches back then were not so much about "wrestling skill". They were about showmanship, telling a story, and building emotion. Love him or hate him, Hogan's early wrestlemania matches were filled with emotion and well built storylines. Looking back yes some of the matches you described are better technical "wrestling matches" but they didn't have the same feeling that main event Hogan matches had. WM 18 is a great example of this...technically not a great match but because of the passion/story involved it goes down as one of the best ever. Especially if you watched any of those early Hogan matches live there was nothing like it.

The only "wrestling skill" that matters is the ability to control and work a crowd and Hogan did that better than anyone. I don't believe that putting together a string of moves that nobody cares about constitutes a great wrestler.

I care about moves, you're a crap wrestling fan if you don't care about moves

[K5]

generally, the main events blew.

[carly1988]

A reason why I always preferred Starrcade. 9 times outta 10 the main event WOULD be the best match on the card

[June]

Mar 13, 2010 2:25:46 GMT -5 The Boglin said:

Mar 12, 2010 5:27:41 GMT -5 June said:

The only "wrestling skill" that matters is the ability to control and work a crowd and Hogan did that better than anyone. I don't believe that putting together a string of moves that nobody cares about constitutes a great wrestler.

I care about moves, you're a crap wrestling fan if you don't care about moves

I'm a crap fan then. Jake Roberts is a crap wrestler too, same with Andre, seeing as how they had about 5 moves between the two of them. Everybody knows they could never hold a candle to the flippy indy scrubs performing in front of 15 people at a high school gym.