This will hopefully be a start to a first of many topics like this. Randomly pick an old show that is at least 5 years old, and discuss what was good and what was bad about the show, and so on. The first show....

Up until recently, Wrestlemania IV was the longest running Wrestlemania, which lasted somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 hours, and still holds the record for most matches on a single PPV. However, that really isn't a good thing since very few of the matches were any good (Valentine/Steamboat, Demolition/S.Force, Savage/Dibiase stand out) and some of them really sucked (Gang/Bigelow, Warrior/Hercules, 6-Man Tag). The crowd was pretty much dead for 90% of the show, thus making the show very boring.

I don't think I've ever sat through this show in one sitting without turning the show off, which is a bad sign since I can watch Wrestlemania IX without any fast forwarding. The Undercard matches were pretty pointless, like a Jobber Battle Royale with about 5 credible people, a horrible Intercontinental Title Match, and of course the suck-fest known as Warrior vs. Hercules.

Wrestlemania IV holds one of my favorite memories though, which was Demolition beating the crap out of Strike Force and winning their first of 3 Tag Team championships in the WWF. Also the Hogan/Savage/Elizabeth celebration at the end of the show was pretty cool, which put an end to a boring show.

I wouldn't rank this as the Worst Wrestlemania ever (Wrestlemania II, XI, and XV all take the top spots), but it just seems to drag on endlessly, to the point even the commentary team (Jesse Ventura & Gorilla Monsoon) seemed to be phoning it in.

DISCUSS!

None of the matches are any good but I find myself popping this in third or forth when I'm in a Wrestlemania mood. That's what I miss about old school shows. Even when the wrestling was bad it was still entertaining.

For some reason when I was a kid, this was ALWAYS the first show I'd rent from the local video store. I don't know why, but I did, and I still stopped the tape mid-way to take breaks and sometimes actually fell asleep with the tape still on.

I'll watch Wrestlemania VI all the time because it was the first WM I ever saw on PPV, and it started my tape collection over 11 years ago when I got the master Coliseum Video of it. Most of the matches either sucked or were clipped to hell.

Definitely one of the weaker WrestleMania's. You know it's not a good card when the best matches, workrate wise (aside from the main event), are early round matches (Valentine/Steamer, Savage/Reed).

Also you might want to define an old show as something longer than 5 years ago. :)

The crowd is uber-dead for a Mania, but the way they reacted whenever Hogan poked his head out is absolutely ridiculous. The reaction he got when Liz went to get him during the main event is thunderous. Anyway, I really like the main for whatever reason, and I thought Savage did a good job of dragging decent short matches out of everyone he faced that night.

Is it me, or did Butch Reed REALLY get the shaft on WWF's big shows?

First Survivor Series, he's made everyones bitch and elminiated in the first 3 minutes by Hogan and Orndorff.

First Royal Rumble, he's the first man eliminated despite a 3-on-1 heel advantage when the 2nd face came in.

First Tournament for the WWF Title and at Wrestlemania, he jobs to Savage in 4 minutes.

He did, but it wasn't totally unwarranted. By the time he got to the WWF, he had lost a lot of his mobility due to excess muscle mass. That, and he just didn't seem very motivated in any of the matches I saw him in.

I'm not a big fan of his, but I just felt it was weird considering he was a few times working main events at house shows against Hogan, and was part of the main event of the first Survivor Series, back when Slick WASN'T the manager of losers.

Anyone else find it weird that of the 3 black wrestlers at Wrestlemania III, two of them wrestled each other?

<--not racist.

I really liked his technoish theme music when he came back to the NWA.

That second-rope shoulderblock as a finisher was pretty amazing, too.

I've always enjoyed Wrestlemania IV even though I would agree that it is terrible workrate wise. Nostalgia is definately the only reason. It still pisses me off to this day that we never got to see the Wrestlemania III rematch of Savage/Steamboat a year after the original. It at least would have made the tourney more memorable.......but I guess that wouldn't be very hard.

Yeah, Savage/Steamboat would've been nice but they had already depushed him at that point. I'm surprised he was even entered into the tournament.

You know, I remember reading a few times that they had fully planned on doing Steamboat/Savage II but it was nixed when Steamboat asked McMahon for a little time off to spend with his wife and newborn son. McMahon got pissed about it apparently and Steamboat was depushed until he went to NWA and had his classic late 80's feud with Flair. I guess I should be complaining about it so much now that I think about it.

Dumb move by the WWF, as they were giving Savage the belt, why not really put him over by having him avenge his most famous loss a year later? Nah, it'll REALLY elevate him if we have Hogan save his ass at every turn.

As much as that pissed me off too, I have the feeling that Vince wanted Savage to go over four heels. He didn't want Randy to be competing for face heat w/ a "preliminary" guy (That's basically what Steamboat was at that point). What if The Dragon got bigger pops than Savage? The world would explode. Instead, the Mega Powers did a year later.

I always thought that show looked good, but most people don't like it.

The highlights on the best of 'Mania dvd I have made it look good.