First Round Match 3: Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine (with Jimmy Hart) vs Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat.
Valentine is already in the ring to a chorus of boos. Steamboat comes out with his baby son, Richie, in matching Karate gis. Richie looks a little overwhelmed by the noise and the crowd. The crowd seems to love the image, and Mrs. Steamboat takes the little dude and carries him to the back for peace and quiet.
Unsurprisingly, this was an amazing match. Steamboat and Valentine are both great in ring performers, and former Intercontinental Champions. That said, there were some sloppy spots. It wasn’t Savage/Steamboat, but it was very enjoyable.
Winner: Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine by pinfall with a handful of tights. He will meet the winner of Savage/Reed in the quarterfinals.
Highlights: Hard to pick. Little Richie Steamboat was adorable and handled the noise and crowd much better than I figured he would. Monsoon using big medical words to describe the back of the head and Ventura having no idea what he’s talking about was hilarious.
Thoughts: This was a good match, but I’m surprised that Steamboat didn’t advance to face Savage for a rematch from Mania last year. Also, I’ve seen this PPV a couple of times on the original VHS and I remember there being an interview with Steamboat and his family that is not included on either the DVD boxset or the WWE Network.
We go to Mean Gene Okerlund, who is with the British Bulldogs and Koko B. Ware. Everyone is happy that Matilda the bulldog is back after being dognapped by Heenan and the Islanders. Okerlund nearly calls Heenan ‘Weasel’, to everyone’s amusement. The Bulldogs say Matilda’s been getting trained to hunt weasels so she can hunt Heenan. Koko says he smells a weasel and that he and the Bulldogs are ready for the Islanders.
Comments: This was an okay interview. Matilda really didn’t seem interested in hunting weasels or anything else, so I hope they didn’t spend too much money getting her trained.
First Round Match 4: The ‘Natural’ Butch Reed (with Slick) vs Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage (with Miss Elizabeth)
Reed and Slick are getting booed, though the crowd seems into the music. Macho Man and Elizabeth come out to a fantastic pop. Elizabeth looks beautiful and is wearing a beautiful diamond jewelry set. Savage and Elizabeth are in coordinating outfits of dark blue.
This was an okay match. Reed wasn’t that good of wrestler and was very sloppy in places. Savage made him look really good, but he couldn’t hide that Reed’s skill was lacking.
Winner: Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage by pinfall after hitting the flying elbow. He will meet Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine in the quarterfinals
Highlights: This may make me sound sexist, but I thought Elizabeth was a highlight. She looked lovely and helped Savage without actively getting involved. Savage really shined in this match and still kept some of his heel tactics while getting over as a face.
Thoughts: This was a good start for Savage, it was quick and he made Reed look good. The crowd was definitely in his corner.
We go to Bob Uecker, who is teasing Ventura about the WrestleMania IV program, that has Uecker’s face next to Vanna White’s. He claims Vanna’s waiting on him to get finished. Heenan and the Islanders interrupt, thankfully, and Heenan calls Uecker out for writing Vanna White letters. Uecker tells him about Matilda being back and claims the ASPCA is going to go after them for what they did to Matilda. Heenan fires back about Uecker’s Baseball Hall of Fame voting. Heenan vows to have a surprise for the match with the Bulldogs and Koko.
First Round Match 5: One Man Gang (with Slick) vs Bam Bam Bigelow (with Oliver Humperdink)
One Man Gang and Slick are already in the ring to a lot of boos. Bam Bam comes out to a nice hometown pop.
This match was odd. It was quick, but the way Bigelow was eliminated was strange. It may have been to protect him, but it didn’t look like the ref got the count right, especially since Bigelow was on the apron and Gang was preventing him from coming back in. The crowd was not happy, and I don’t blame them.
Winner: One Man Gang by countout. He will meet the winner of the Roberts/Rude match in the quarterfinals
Highlights: Bam Bam Bigelow’s athleticism cannot be overstated. To see such a huge guy do cartwheels and crossbodies is amazing, especially in the 80s when big guys didn’t do that stuff.
Thoughts: Something went wrong in this match. Gang should’ve been DQ’d because the ref had to have seen Slick’s hand on the top rope and Bigelow didn’t get a fair ten count. Even the announcers weren’t sure what was going on.
We go to Mean Gene, who is interviewing a rather maniacal looking Hulk Hogan. Okerlund admits that he’s had trouble remembering to NOT introduce Hogan as the WWF Champion; considering that Hogan held the belt for four years, that’s understandable. Hogan agrees that it’s been hard to not hear himself introduced as the champion. He says that the year since WrestleMania III has been hard because little Hulkamaniacs have been asking him if he really beat Andre and if he really body slammed the giant. He vows that there’s going to be no more questions and that he’s going to slam Andre while he’s fresh so there’s no excuses. This interview quickly goes weird with Hogan saying that when he slams Andre, a fault line will form and he’ll put all the Hulkamaniacs on his back and swim away.
Thoughts: Hogan came across as a little crazy here. In a later time, this interview would’ve been used as part of a heel turn, but since it’s the 80s and a heel Hogan was unthinkable (and unbankable), we just get a really strange interview.
First Round Match 6: Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts vs ‘Ravishing’ Rick Rude (with Bobby Heenan
Rude and Heenan are out first to a much better pop than expected for a heel, but considering what Rude does before a match, I can’t say I’m surprised. Roberts comes out to a quieter pop, but still a good one and he’s got Damien with him.
This was one of those matches that looks good on paper, but didn’t really work in practice. This match went the full fifteen minutes and was tedious at best. I have no shame in admitting that this match bored me to tears.
Winner: Because the match went to the time limit, both men were eliminated. One Man Gang gets an automatic bye to the semi-finals and will meet the winner of the Savage/Valentine quarterfinal match.
Highlights: Rick Rude’s selling is some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever seen. He sold any faceplant like someone had thrown acid in his face, sold Damien in the bag like a total spaz, an armwringer like he had to pee, and sold an atomic drop like Roberts gave him a wedgie. His selling really saved this match for me because it made me full on belly laugh, which I’m sure was not intentional, but that was my reaction.
Thoughts: This match was okay, but it got so boring since Roberts and Rude only seem to know two holds: armwringer and headlock, respectively. They were too evenly matched because there was no real contrast in styles, which you need for a good match. There wasn’t even a contrast in hair, on the head or on the face.
We go back to Mean Gene, who is with the tournament bracket and introduces Vanna White. Vanna is all smiles, but seems a little…insincere about this whole thing. She seems to have no idea who Bob Uecker is, much to Okerlund’s amusement. She picks Hogan for the match against Andre, she doesn’t like Million Dollar Man and likes Macho Man and loves Elizabeth.
Comments: Vanna seems very nice, but she didn’t seem to be all that invested in what was going on. One of my pet peeves with celebrity guests is when they bring in someone who isn’t a fan of the product because it comes across on screen. That said, she was nice and seemed to be enjoying herself.
