WrestleMania V

Background WrestleMania is considered the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF, now WWE) flagship professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event, having first been held in 1985. It is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. 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". WrestleMania V was scheduled to be held on April 2, 1989, at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey for the second consecutive year. This event, along with the previous year's WrestleMania IV, was 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 first time that WrestleMania was held at the same venue for two consecutive years, and would not happen again until 2025, and 2026, where WrestleMania 41, and WrestleMania 42 took place at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada in the Las Vegas area. Run-DMC performed a "WrestleMania Rap" for the audience. 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. Storylines The Mega Powers Explode The main feud heading into WrestleMania was between Hulk Hogan, and Randy Savage, who for most of the previous year were a unified team that referred to themselves as the Mega Powers. The unit began forming after Savage wrestled The Honky Tonk Man for his WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship on the October 3, 1987 episode of ''Saturday Night's Main Event''. After the match, which Savage won by disqualification, Honky Tonk Man enlisted the help of Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart in attacking Savage. As Honky was ready to strike Savage with his guitar, Savage's valet Miss Elizabeth came back to ringside accompanied by then-reigning WWWF World Heavyweight Champion Hogan, who helped Savage even the odds. Later, Hogan faced Andre the Giant in a rematch of their championship bout from WrestleMania III on the premiere episode of WWF The Main Event, which was broadcast live on February 5, 1988, in Indianapolis. With help from 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. Throughout the rest of 1988, Hogan and Savage feuded with many heel tag teams, such as the Mega Bucks team of DiBiase, and Andre and the Twin Towers, consisting of Akeem and Big Boss Man. 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 where Elizabeth was placed in harm's way, which did not sit well with Savage. A 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, 1989 episode of ''Saturday Night's Main Event'', Savage came out and cleared the ring with a steel chair after Hogan was receiving a post-match beating from 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. Later in January during the Royal Rumble match, Hogan accidentally eliminated Savage as he was trying to eliminate Bad News Brown. Finally, on February 2 at The Main Event II, 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. 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 Rick Rude and Ultimate Warrior over the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight 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, an angry Rude attacked Warrior. They had a successful feud with the Hart Foundation during their early reign. In the summer of 1988, a powerhouse babyface tag team The Powers of Pain were brought into the WWF by Santana after Demolition injured Martel. The Powers feuded with Demolition over the tag titles, acting as mercenaries to avenge both the title loss and Martel's injury. At Survivor Series, Demolition's manager Mr. Fuji turned on them after causing them to lose their Survivor Series match, culminating in a double turn as Demolition turned babyfaces and Powers of Pain turned heels. Powers of Pain made Mr. Fuji their manager, leading to their WrestleMania encounter with Demolition for the tag titles in a handicap match. Martel meanwhile returned from his injury at the 1989 Royal Rumble and was scheduled to reunite with Santana at WrestleMania. 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 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 WWF 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. ==Event==

Preliminary matches WWF Women's Champion Rockin' Robin opened the show by performing "America the Beautiful". The first match at WrestleMania V was between Hercules and King Haku. Haku attacked from behind to start, but Hercules used some power moves to get the advantage before he clotheslined Haku, sending him to the floor. He suplexed Haku in the ring, and hit him a series of elbow drops. After dominating Haku, Hercules focused his attention on Haku's (and his own former) manager Bobby Heenan. Haku nailed Hercules from behind, and hit him with two backbreakers for a near-fall. Hercules avoided a diving splash by Haku and hit him with a knee lift. He hit a series of clotheslines, and powerslammed Haku for a near-fall. He attempted a top rope maneuver, but when he came down, Haku caught him with a 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 bridging belly to back suplex to win the match. The second match was a tag team match between The Twin Towers (Akeem and Big Boss Man) and the Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty). Bossman slapped Michaels in the corner and turned around to look at Jannetty, but when he turned back, Michaels hit him with a missile dropkick. He hit Akeem and Boss Man with flying forearms before Bossman tagged in Akeem. The Rockers worked on Akeem's arm before he powered out and tagged Bossman. Jannetty tagged in and was hit with a leapfrog. Twin Towers took turns and beat Jannetty. He avoided a big splash by Akeem and tagged Michaels. Rockers hit Akeem with Double Flying Fists and Michaels tried a near-fall on Akeem. Akeem hit Michaels a lariat. Boss Man tagged in and tried to hit 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. The third match was a non-title match between Brutus Beefcake and "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, the self-proclaimed Million Dollar Champion. Before the match, DiBiase was glad-handed with event sponsor Donald Trump, who was in attendance in the front row. Beefcake knocked DiBiase out on the floor before getting back into the ring. He pounded on DiBiase, but Virgil caught Beefcake's foot. DiBiase hit him a clothesline and applied a chokehold on Beefcake, and followed it up with a "Million Dollar Drop" for a near-fall. He hit a middle rope diving back elbow drop on Beefcake for another near-fall. DiBiase hit him an Irish whip and had an inside cradle pinfall attempt on Beefcake. He tried to hit a vertical suplex on Beefcake, but Beefcake countered it into a hanging suplex. DiBiase applied a "Million Dollar Dream" on Beefcake, who grabbed the ropes. He slammed DiBiase's face in the corner and applied a "Barber's Chair" on DiBiase. Virgil hopped up on the apron, distracting Beefcake. Beefcake released DiBiase from the hold and went after Virgil. DiBiase nailed Beefcake from behind to the floor. The referee was busy with DiBiase while Virgil pounded on Beefcake, but Beefcake 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 tag team match between The Bushwhackers (Bushwhacker Luke and Bushwhacker Butch) and the Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques Rougeau and Raymond Rougeau). The Bushwhackers grabbed Rougeaus' manager Jimmy Hart's jacket, but Rougeaus caught them and went on the attack. Luke and Raymond began the match and Luke missed a fist drop on Raymond, but Luke and Butch hit him a battering ram. Luke made the cover, but Jacques came in, and accidentally hit 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. Luke then pinned Raymond to win the match. The fifth match was between Mr. Perfect and the Blue Blazer. Perfect beat on Blazer until Blazer flipped out of a hip toss. Blazer hit some moves on Perfect and went for a split-legged moonsault on Perfect, who hit Blazer with his knees. He applied a chinlock on Blazer, but Blazer escaped and hit Perfect with a boot to the head. He followed it up with a powerslam and a belly to belly suplex for near-falls. He busted out of a crucifix and got another near-fall and then he began arguing with the referee. This helped Perfect to connect with a forearm club and a Perfectplex pinfall for the victory. 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. == Reception ==

WrestleMania V has retrospectively garnered mixed reviews. Whilst the Hogan-Savage main event has been remembered fondly, many reviewers referred to the event as a 'one-match show', bemoaning the amount of short, low-quality matches throughout the event with few exceptions. Kevin Pantoja, writing for 411Mania, ranked it in the middle of the first five WrestleManias, describing it as "better in the ring than most", though failing to wow him in most other departments. Whilst positive towards the main event, particularly praising Savage as "firing on all cylinders", he described a significant amount of the card as "really bad stuff". Writing for TJRWrestling, John Canton had similar thoughts, with high praise towards the main event, noting it's "epic feel", stating Hogan did a great job at selling and "making Savage look credible". Conversely, he generally panned a significant amount of the card. Especially, he noted the Rooster/Heenan and Andre/Roberts bouts as "DUDS", stating for the former "At least it was short", and for the latter bemoaned the decision to place Andre in "a singles match that went nearly 10 minutes... he was obviously done at this point." He did, however, state that the tag match between the Hart Foundation and Honky Tonk Man/Valentine was "pretty good" and "carried by the great Bret Hart", and also giving kudos towards the Intercontinental match as being "a better match then I remembered." Overall, he gave the show a score of 4 out of 10, stating that the main event was "the only thing worth remembering", closing his review with underlining Wrestlemania V as "a bad show". Bryan Rose, writing for Voices of Wrestling, specifically criticized the crowd, alongside the location as the reason he was unsure "what this crowd was here to see besides Hulk Hogan." Like others, he generally praised the main event as a "great, dramatic match" where "every move meant something". He also gave props to the Brainbusters vs. Strike Force encounter, highlighting Strike Force's performances and calling the match "pretty good". However, he heavily panned the rest of the card, especially The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers vs. The Bushwackers, which he scored minus two stars. He bemoaned the performances of the wrestlers, especially the Bushwackers, ultimately declaring "terrible doesn't do this match justice" and joking describing it as "the worst Wrestlemania match ever award up until this point". ==Aftermath==

Hulk Hogan continued his feud with Randy Savage. WWF financed a movie in 1989 titled No Holds Barred, which starred Hogan as the lead character Rip, and Tom Lister, Jr. acted as the villain Zeus. In the movie, Rip defeats Zeus. This movie led to a feud between Hogan and Zeus in the WWF because Zeus wanted to take revenge on Hogan of the movie in real-life. He was billed in the WWF as Zeus and he allied with Savage. Hogan's best friend Brutus Beefcake joined him in the war. This led to a tag team main event at SummerSlam, where Hogan and Beefcake defeated Zeus and Savage. The rivalry continued until the No Holds Barred pay-per-view, where Hogan and Beefcake beat Zeus and Savage in a steel cage match, thus ending the rivalry with Zeus. After the No Holds Barred cage match, Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan would meet one last time in a WrestleMania V rematch for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship on The Main Event III. The pinfall was counted by new heavyweight boxing champion Buster Douglas, who then punched Savage out post-match after Savage slapped Douglas in the face. Savage, meanwhile, found a new manager. After the WrestleMania broadcast went off the air, Gene Okerlund attempted to interview Miss Elizabeth. Sensational Sherri interrupted the interview along with Savage, which caused Hogan to get involved and fall victim to a steel chair shot from the dethroned champion. From then on until WrestleMania VII, Sherri served as Savage's manager, and after Savage defeated Hacksaw Jim Duggan to become King of the Ring in September 1989, she became known as Sensational Queen Sherri. Rick Rude defended his Intercontinental Championship primarily against Ultimate Warrior, but also against other faces such 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 eventual title loss back to Utimate 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 ''Saturday Night's Main Event XXII'' (taped July 18, 1989), following interference from André the Giant; Demolition's reign was 478 days, which remains the longest uninterrupted reign in the history of the classic WWF World Tag Team Championship, which was decommissioned in 2010. (The previous 370-day record of the Valiant Brothers was eclipsed on the actual day of Wrestlemania V.) It was also the longest reign with any tag team championship in WWWF/WWF/WWE history until the record was broken in 2016 by WWE Raw Tag Team Champions The New Day. Meanwhile, the Powers of Pain would lose their push and eventually settle into mid-card matches, feuding with teams such as The Bushwhackers and The Rockers until they were eventually split up in early 1990. Rick Martel, having turned heel two matches after his former tormentors Demolition won their feud with his avengers the Powers, broke up Strike Force and feuded with now former partner Tito Santana. Martel and fellow French Canadians the Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques Rougeau and Raymond Rougeau) defeated Santana and The Rockers (Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels) at SummerSlam. Martel eventually transformed into "The Model" during a feud with Brutus Beefcake that fall. ==Results==