For the second year in a row, WrestleMania was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Trump Plaza hosted this blockbuster event once again that saw a storyline culminate after one year of build-up: The Mega Powers Explode!
I’m a proponent of younger fans going back and watching these epic early WrestleMania cards. These are the shows that I grew up on. Full disclosure: I still have the VHS tapes that my father recorded straight from Pay-Per-View, and WrestleMania 5 is one of the earliest tapes I still have.
WrestleMania 5 was a star-studded event that had many memorable matches and moments. RUN DMC performed “The WrestleMania Rap” and Morton Downey Jr. appeared later in the show to blow cigarette smoke during “Piper’s Pit.”
Some memorable moments include the WrestleMania debut of “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels as The Rockers went into battle with The Twin Towers (The Big Bossman & “The African Dream” Akeem), former NWA World Heavyweight Champion “Rugged” Ronnie Garvin making his WrestleMania debut in a convincing loss to Dino Bravo, The Return of Piper’s Pit w/ Rowdy Roddy Piper, the WrestleMania debut’s of Mr. Perfect and Owen Hart as “The Blue Blazer and finally the long awaited return of Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka to WWE.
Speaking of, Mr. Perfect beat The Blue Blazer in a quick, but action packed match with The Perfect Plex.
Of course, there were other notable moments and matches that took place. Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard made their only WrestleMania appearance together as a tag team in a victory against Strike Force. (Note: Arn didn’t make another in-ring appearance at WrestleMania until WrestleMania 18 where he ran-in during the match between The Undertaker & Ric Flair and Tully wasn’t featured in another WrestleMania until WrestleMania 28 where he was enshrined into the WWE Hall of Fame as a member of The Four Horsemen.)
Speaking of Strike Force, Rick Martel walked out on his tag team partner, former WWE Intercontinental Champion Tito Santana after “Chico” (as Jesse “The Body” Ventura would call Santana) inadvertently hit Martel with a flying forearm.
And this leads me to former Intercontinental Champions as The Honky Tonk Man & Greg Valentine were defeated by The Hart Foundation after Bret Hart smacked the bejesus out of The Greatest Intercontinental Champion of All Time, The Honky Tonk Man, with Jimmy Hart’s Megaphone!
The Intercontinental Championship was on the line as The Ultimate Warrior (who defeated Honky Tonk Man at the previous years inaugural SummerSlam) was defeated by Ravishing Rick Rude with help from Bobby “The Brain” Heenan. We didn’t know this at the time, but The Ultimate Warrior would go on to have much better luck at WrestleMania 6. The early WrestleMania events really showcased what the Intercontinental Championship is supposed to be: a stepping stone to the WWE Championship.
Jake “The Snake” Roberts achieved his biggest career victory as he defeated Andre The Giant by disqualification when Andre attacked the special guest referee Big John Studd. The angle that preceded this match is that Andre The Giant was DEATHLY afraid of snakes, an angle that was stolen from the popular “Indiana Jones” movies from that time period (or maybe Andre was really afraid of snakes?).
The entire night was full of debuts, returns & an extremely long Piper’s Pit segment, but nothing could hold back the culmination of one of the biggest angles in WWE history. The storyline started exactly a year earlier at WrestleMania 4 in the same venue when Randy Savage won the WWE Championship in a 14 man tournament.
An angle that was mirrored by real-life animosity & jealousy between the two best friends…a match that was brewing for a year and was set to explode at WrestleMania 5. The most dominant force in wrestling history, The Mega Powers, went into battle as “Macho Man” Randy Savage defended his WWE Championship against “The Immortal” Hulk Hogan.
This is one of the most memorable matches of my entire life. Miss Elizabeth was torn between two men that she was trying to keep together & revealed that she would be in a neutral corner for the huge match-up.
Just a bit of trivia here: Randy Savage was never able to defeat Hulk Hogan via pinfall in his entire career. Sure, he won by disqualification or count-out here and there, but he never pinned Hulk Hogan. And WrestleMania 5 was no different.
And frankly, Hulk had to win this match. Randy was a jealous, obsessed psychopath in the months leading up to this confrontation. It was a classic battle of good vs. evil and at the end of WrestleMania, good usually reigns supreme.
I urge you to go on the WWE Network, or your DVD collection, and watch WrestleMania 5. It truly is one of the most star studded events in WWE history and featured the culmination of one of the biggest angles in WWE history.
