BRM Reviews WWF Wrestlemania III

[Big Red Machine]

WWF Wrestlemania III (3/29/1987)- Pontiac, MI

THE CAN-AM CONNECTION (Tom Zenk & Rick Martel) vs. DON MURACO & “COWBOY” BOB ORTON (w/Mr. Fuji)- 4.5/10

HERCULES PROMO- he claims to actually be the Hercules of myth, but clearly has no knowledge whatsoever of those myths.

BILLY JACK HAYNES vs. HERCULES HERNANDEZ (w/Bobby “the Brain” Heenan)- 5.5/10
The build to this match was build around who had a better full nelson, so they built the match around it, too. Billy Jack made a good comeback, and the finish (Billy Jack had Hercules in the full nelson on the outside and both men got counted out) built to a rematch well. Hercules bloodied Billy Jack with a steel chain after the match.

KING KONG BUNDY PROMO- good

HILLBILLY JIM PROMO- good babyface stuff. He is worried about what Bundy might do to his midget friends.

KING KONG BUNDY, LITTLE TOKYO, & LORD LITTLEBROOK vs. HILLBILLY JIM, THE HAITI KID, & LITTLE BEAVER- 2/10
This was contested under mixed tag team match rules, so it was midgets vs. midgets and Jim vs. Bundy… and Bundy actually got DQed for attacking one of the midgets! HOORAY FOR THE RULES! Bundy splashes one of the midgets, which causes his own midgets to turn on him. The midgets did some comedy and actually did one or two good spots with one Bundy teasing that he would squash one of the midgets before it actually happened.

HEENAN, HARLEY RACE, & MOOLAH PROMO- decent

JYD PROMO- good
LOSER MUST BOW TO THE VICTOR: Junkyard Dog vs. Harley Race (w/Bobby “the Brain” Heenan & The Fabulous Moolah)- 3.25/10
The heels distract JYD, helping Harley win. JYD does indeed live up to his word and bow to Harley, but then hits him with a chair and steals his robe.

HULK HOGAN PROMO- not very good. Lots of rambling

DREAM TEAM PROMO- eh.

THE ROUGEAU BROTHERS vs. THE DREAM TEAM (Brutus Beefcake & Greg “the Hammer” Valentine) (w/Luscious Johnny V. & Dino Bravo)- 4.5/10
The heels win, but Beefcake is unhappy about this for some reason, so they leave him behind.

ADRIAN ADONIS PROMO- wacky

LOSER GETS HIS HEAD SHAVED: “Rowdy” Roddy Piper vs. “Adorable” Adrian Adonis (w/Jimmy Hart)- 4.25/10
So Piper wins, then he holds Jimmy Hart down while Brutus Beefcake comes out to cut Adrian’s hair… and for all the world this looked like it was some major heat-getting angle rather than the babyface getting just revenge. It felt odd.

TITO SANTANA & THE BRITISH BULLDOGS vs. DANNY DAVIS & THE HART FOUNDATION (w/Jimmy Hart)- 6/10
The heels get their heat, then the babyfaces get revenge on Danny Davis… and then the heels pull out the win? HUH?!
Davy Boy used some sort of cool kneeling belly to belly piledriver. That looked awesome. I hope someone starts using that as a finisher at some point.

BOBBY HEENAN PROMO ON BEHALF OF ANDRE THE GIANT- good

KOKO B. WARE vs. “THE NATURAL” BUTCH REED (w/Slick)- 0.5/10
They go about two minutes before Reed gets the win with a handful of tights. Tito Santana then comes out and rips Slick’s clothes off (apparently this was revenge for something).

RANDY SAVAGE PROMO- very good

RICKY STEAMBOAT PROMO- very good

WWF INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: “Macho Man” Randy Savage(c) (w/Miss Elizabeth) vs. Ricky “the Dragon” Steamboat (w/George “the Animal” Steele)- 7.25/10
Yeah, this match is pretty darn overrated. It was a great match, but nothing close to being spectacular. Giving Savage a visual pinfall on Steamboat made no sense at all. Same with having Steele legitimately interfere in the match. Why not just have Savage go grab the bell and set up for the top rope elbow drop, then have Steele stop savage from using the bell by taking it away or something? The way they did the finish makes it seem like Savage should be the champion (with both the visual pin on Steamboat and then Steamboat getting the roll-up victory capitalizing off of damage done by Steele!)

JAKE ROBERTS PROMO- great

HONKY TONK MAN PROMO- good

HONKY TONK MAN (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. JAKE “THE SNAKE” ROBERTS (w/Alice Cooper)- 5/10
Honky Tonk gets the win, but runs in fear when Jake tries to kill him with his own guitar. Jimmy Hart gets left alone in the ring, so Jake Roberts and Alice Cooper put Damien on him.

THE KILLER BEES (w/”Hacksaw” Jim Duggan) vs. THE IRON SHEIK & NIKOLAI VOLKOFF (w/Slick)- 4/10
Volkoff tires to sing the Russian national anthem but Hacksaw Duggan interrupts him and declares that Volkoff will never sing the Russian national anthem again because this is America. The heels win by DQ when Jim Duggan attacks the Iron Sheik with his 2x4, apparently as revenge for them cheating at some point. I guess this will lead to a No DQ’s match or something.

HULK HOGAN PROMO- terrible. He just rambled semi-coherently.

WWF TITLE MATCH: Hulk Hogan(c) vs. Andre The Giant (w/Bobby “the Brain” Heenan)- 8/10
Heenan got pelted with trash during the entrance, and all I could think was that you have to be nuts to throw trash at someone standing next to Andre the Giant!
A very simple story told very well. The atmosphere for this match is absolutely amazing. You have to look very hard to find a match that feels more epic. I was disappointed with the amount of damage Andre took, though. I thought a second leg drop would have been better.


Overall, a two-match show from the WWE, but Hogan vs. Andre is required viewing for any wrestling fan.

BONUS FEATURES:
WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: “Macho Man” Randy Savage(c) (w/Miss Elizabeth) vs. George “the Animal” Steele (from Saturday Night’s Main Event- 1/3/1987)- no rating. Decent segment)
Before the match, Animal gives Elizabeth a present: a George “the Animal” Steele action figure. This causes Vince to remark, completely innocently, that the Animal “wants to give himself to Elizabeth.”
Macho throws the action figure down, so Steele attacks him. Steele signals to the back, but this lets macho get the advantage, and as Macho goes up for the elbow drop, Ricky Steamboat’s music hits and the place goes ape-sh*t. Speaking of apes, Steele uses this distraction to pick up Elizabeth and carry her backstage. Jesse Ventura points out that this is kidnapping, to which McMahon responds “at least she is in the arms of someone who cares for her.” That doesn’t make it not a crime, Vince! (Liz, for her part, really didn’t sell this at all, possibly because Randy had told her to shut up during their earlier interview).
We then go to commercial and when we get back, Savage and Steamboat are still shouting at each other. George Steele comes back out and Vince says that we are now ready to resume the match. So spending more than an entire commercial break backstage didn’t get Steele counted out?
Then they have an actual match and Steele does his standard antics, which I was fine with… then he used a foreign object he had hidden in his tights on Savage, which killed things for me. The ref went to search for the object, and Steele shoved him, just like a heel would. Because of this, I really didn’t care when Macho hit Steele with the ring bell to pick up the win. After the match, Macho goes for an elbow drop with the bell but Steamboat makes the save.

RICKY STEAMBOAT PROMO (from Wrestling Challenge 1/31/1987)- awesome

RANDY SAVAGE INTERVIEW FROM 2/7/1987- Savage seems like a total nutcase.

RICKY STEAMBOAT INTERVIEW FROM 2/7/1987- decent

[yourcrapsweak]

I'm so glad someone finally agrees with me that the Savage Steamboat match is grossly overrated.

[Big Red Machine]

I'm so glad someone finally agrees with me that the Savage Steamboat match is grossly overrated.

I don't get why people think it is so great. Even for back then, it wasn't that freakin' good! It's like the Bret-Owen cage match, but even more overrated.

[Bob-O]

LOSER GETS HIS HEAD SHAVED: “Rowdy” Roddy Piper vs. “Adorable” Adrian Adonis (w/Jimmy Hart)- 4.25/10
So Piper wins, then he holds Jimmy Hart down while Brutus Beefcake comes out to cut Adrian’s hair… and for all the world this looked like it was some major heat-getting angle rather than the babyface getting just revenge. It felt odd.

Beefcake was completing his face turn, which was started only one match prior... iirc this hadn't even been teased. It was also supposed to be Piper's last match before heading off to become a movie star... :-w ... so a lot of it was "Farewell" heat.

I'm so glad someone finally agrees with me that the Savage Steamboat match is grossly overrated.

I don't get why people think it is so great. Even for back then, it wasn't that freakin' good! It's like the Bret-Owen cage match, but even more overrated.

Back then? That's as good as it was gonna get in a WWF Ring in 1987. A lot of it had to do with how good the feud was and the IC Title actually being a big deal...

[Big Red Machine]

I'm so glad someone finally agrees with me that the Savage Steamboat match is grossly overrated.

I don't get why people think it is so great. Even for back then, it wasn't that freakin' good! It's like the Bret-Owen cage match, but even more overrated.

Back then? That's as good as it was gonna get in a WWF Ring in 1987. A lot of it had to do with how good the feud was and the IC Title actually being a big deal...

But no one talks about Hogan vs. Andre like that, and that was a better match and a better feud.

[Bob-O]

But no one talks about Hogan vs. Andre like that, and that was a better match and a better feud.

It's to taste, I think.

Savage/Steamboat was a spotfest, which you almost never saw back then to begin with, but beyond that - a spotfest that served it's purpose because the build-up to it had us believing that these guys really wanted to kill one another (Savage elbow dropped the bell on his throat!!!), so it worked.

Hogan/Andre was a dream match that told a great story. But the action wasn't nearly as good.

They'll both be talked about for years to come, just not in the same conversation... unless the conversation is about Wrestlemania 3... like this time...