WATCHING MANIA MAIN EVENTS (1-5)

WRESTLEMANIA I

Hulk Hogan & Mr. T vs. Paul Orndoff & Roddy Piper
This is a very WrestleMania-like spectacle. It's a bit messy at parts, maybe even for the large majority of the first half or so, but I still enjoy it all due to the amazing atmosphere, the presentation & the excellent work put in by the heels. Orndoff & Piper were feeding their asses off for Hogan and T, which made for some really fun, easy-to-enjoy action. I think in many ways it really is the perfect main event for the very first WrestleMania. ***

WRESTLEMANIA II

Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy
I think this is solid in all of its simplicity. Very much exactly what you would expect a Cage match between Hogan & Bundy to look like. The beginning with Hulkster's shine was legitimately pretty awesome w/ all dem punches n' shiet, then the Bundy control seg that followed wasn't very good at all, but the Hogan comeback followed by the finishing gear where they up the drama is extremely solid & pretty interesting because of how dickish he got towards Bundy. Overall the match is nothing to _really_ write home about, but as I implied, it's pretty darn enjoyable in all of its simplicity. ***

WRESTLEMANIA III

Andre The Giant vs. Hulk Hogan
Simply iconic & larger than life. It's a Big Match. They wrestle it like it's a Big Match, and it works wonderfully. It certainly is past Andre's best days in the ring, but he is still who he is & that carries a lot of weight. I'd say he still rocks his role well enough here. A LOT of it is thanks to Hogan's excellent babyface performance for sure, as he was selling the shit out of Andre's output to say the least plus even his facial expressions throughout were really great, sold the entire ride perfectly & didn't enter the overly-cheesy territory. The whole thing just works, man. It's a simple spectacle meeting between two titans of the industry at the biggest event of 'em all. Well worth its reputation & something every wrasslin fan needs to watch at least once. ***3/4

WRESTLEMANIA IV

Randy Savage vs. Ted DiBiase
This sadly isn't much. A sub-10 minute match where most of the focus is on the bigger angle unfolding w/ Hogan & Andre involved. It really isn't much at all, actually. Sure all the offense looks crisp & good since it's Macho & DiBiase, but it isn't enough to make this any interesting. *

WRESTLEMANIA V

Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage
I don't like this as much as I would like to, if that makes any sense. It's definitely a good match, with Savage's heel character being pretty fun to watch, but it's just missing that one true catch in its in-ring action to take it to another level. ***