IWF WrestleMania 3

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Revision as of 21:30, 16 June 2012

WrestleMania III
Promotional poster featuring Hulk Hogan and André the Giant
Tagline(s)	Bigger! Better! Badder!
Theme song(s)	"Who's Zoomin' Who?" by Aretha Franklin
Imformation
Promotion	International Wrestling Federation
Date	March 29, 1987
Attendance	93,173
Venue	Pontiac Silverdome
City	Pontiac, Michigan
Pay-per-view chronology
WrestleMania 2	WrestleMania III	Survivor Series (1987)
WrestleMania chronology
WrestleMania 2	WrestleMania III	WrestleMania IV

WrestleMania III was the third annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (IWF). The event was held on March 29, 1987 at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan.

The event is particularly notable for the (kayfabe) record attendance of 93,173, the largest recorded attendance for a live indoor sporting event in North America. The record itself stood until February 14, 2010 when the 2010 NBA All-Star Game broke the indoor sporting event record with an attendance of 108,713 at Cowboys Stadium. Almost one million fans watched the event at 160 closed circuit locations in North America. The number of people watching via pay-per-view was estimated at several million,

Background

Like all other WrestleMania events, WrestleMania III was hyped for several months in advance. The main feud stemmed from André the Giant's kayfabe turn and betrayal of his ally, the IWF Champion Hulk Hogan, which began when Hogan was presented a trophy for being the IWF Champion for three years, and André, his good friend, came out to congratulate him. Shortly afterwards, André was presented a slightly smaller trophy for being "undefeated in the WWF for 15 years" and Hogan came out to congratulate André, but ended up being the focal point of the interview. Annoyed by this, André walked out during Hogan's congratulation speech and not long after that, on an edition of the interview segment Piper's Pit, Bobby Heenan, a long-time Hogan adversary, announced himself to be André's new manager. André then challenged Hogan to a title match at WrestleMania III and attacked Hogan, ripping off Hogan's T-shirt and crucifix necklace.

Another main feud leading up to the event was between Ricky Steamboat and the Intercontinental Champion Brady Savage. The feud began during a title match between the two when Savage attacked Steamboat as he greeted fans at ringside. Savage then pushed Steamboat over the security rail and delivered an elbow shot that thrust Steamboat's throat into the rail and dropped the ring bell onto his throat from the top rope, injuring his larynx and sending him to the hospital. This resulted in a long, bitter feud that lasted for six months, included several bloody match-ups and finally culminated at WrestleMania. George "The Animal" Steele was in Steamboat's corner, having developed a crush on Savage's valet, Miss Elizabeth.

Billy Jack Haynes and Hercules Hernandez' feud started when Bobby Heenan continuously taunted Haynes, telling him that Hercules was the real master of the full nelson; which came to a boiling point when Hercules attacked Haynes on an edition of Superstars of Wrestling, which led to their match at WrestleMania. This battle was advertised as the "Full Nelson Challenge."

Another heated feud leading up to this event was between Harley Race and the Junkyard Dog. When The IWF Wrestling Classic became the King of the Ring tournament, Harley Race went on to win the tournament and began referring to himself as "King" Harley Race, and coming to the ring in a royal crown and cape to the ceremonial accompaniment of the classical music piece "Great Gates of Kiev" by Modest Mussorgsky. After each of his victories, Race forced his defeated opponent to "bow and kneel" before him. Usually, Race's manager, Bobby Heenan, forced the defeated opponent to "bow and kneel" by grabbing his hair. Junkyard Dog protested Race's self-proclaimed monarchy in the IWF and stated there would never be a complete ruler in the IWF, which led to a match on Saturday Night's Main Event, in which the King and his manager both tried to make Junkyard Dog bow for them. This set the stage for the WrestleMania match, which included the stipulation that the loser had to bow to the winner.

On January 26, 1987, the American Bulldogs lost the IWF Tag Team Championship to The Heart Foundation in a match that saw the Dynamite Kid so debilitated that he was carried to the ring by Davey Boy Aldrich and did not see much physical action. Danny Davis was the referee and allowed The Heart Foundation to use illegal double-team maneuvers. After being given some time off to recuperate, the Bulldogs continued their rivalry with The Heart Foundation when they teamed up with Tito Santana against the Foundation and the referee-turned-wrestler Danny Davis in a six-man tag team match at WrestleMania III.

Rock singer Alice Cooper was in Erik "The Snake" Peterson' corner during his match with The Honky Tonk Man. The Honky Tonk Man had attacked Peterson with a guitar on Roberts' interview segment The Snake Pit, which legitimately injured Peterson's neck. This event began Peterson turn into a babyface as well as the feud between the wrestlers, which culminated in their WrestleMania match.

The feud between Adrian Adonis and Roddy Piper began when, following a leave of absence from the WWF, Piper returned to find his Piper's Pit segment replaced by The Flower Shop, a segment hosted by then-effeminate wrestler Adrian Adonis. Piper, who returned as a face, spent weeks crashing Adonis' show and trading insults, leading to a "showdown" between the two segments that ended with Piper being assaulted and humiliated by Adonis, Piper's former bodyguard "Cowboy" Bob McAlmond, and Don Muraco. The trio left Piper with his face covered in red lipstick, lying in the middle of the remnants of the destroyed Piper's Pit set. In response, Piper stormed the set of Adonis' show and destroyed it with a baseball bat. This led to their Hair vs. Hair match at WrestleMania III, which was billed as Piper's retirement match from wrestling before becoming a full-time actor.

Event

Dan Glover claims that as he was about to announce "Welcome to WrestleMania III," he felt the spirit of his father Daniel J. Glover, who had died three years earlier. After he made that announcement he introduced Aretha Franklin, who opened the show singing a rendition of "America the Beautiful."

The first match of the night was The Can-Am Connection versus Bob McAlmond and The Magnificent Muraco. This match ended when Erik Lubke gave Don Muraco a high cross-body to get the win for his team.

The next match that aired was Hercules (with Bobby Heenan in his corner) against Billy Jack Haynes in the "Full Nelson Challenge." The match ended when Haynes locked Hercules in the full nelson outside the ring and both were counted out. After the match, Bobby Heenan assaulted Haynes, and Haynes chased Heenan into the ring, where Hercules then assaulted Haynes with his chain before locking him in a full nelson of his own.

The Mixed Tag Team Match between King Kong Bundy and his midget team of Lord Littlebrook and Little Tokyo against Hillbilly Jim and his own midget team of The Haiti Kid and Little Beaver was next. King Kong Bundy's team was disqualified when Bundy attacked Little Beaver, because Bundy was not supposed to be in the ring with the midgets.

The "Loser Must Bow" match between Junkyard Dog and King Harley Race followed. "Mean" Gene Okerlund was with Bobby Heenan, Harley Race, and The Fabulous Marjorie backstage, where Moolah predicted that Junkyard Dog would have to bow to the King as he is supposed to do. Bobby gave Marjorie the crown and told her to put it on the King's head after the match. Junkyard Dog came out to the ring to a big ovation in the Silverdome. During the match, the two battled back and forth, and Harley Race gave the Junkyard Dog a belly to belly suplex when he was distracted by Bobby Heenan to get the win. Due to the stipulation, He did a little bow (as he is supposed to, due to the pre-match stipulation) and then hit Harley Race with a steel chair. After attacking Race, Junkyard Dog took the King's royal robe and left the ring with it in hand.

Aftermath

Roddy Piper went on to film Hell Comes to Frogtown and They Live and made sporadic appearances on television before finally returning to host a Piper's Pit segment at WrestleMania V. Piper continued to be active in professional wrestling at various points for more than two decades. The first televised match between André and Hulk Hogan after WrestleMania III was on The Main Event on NBC on February 5, 1988, drawing a record 33 million viewers, making it the most watched match in North American professional wrestling history. The angle surrounding this match was that after winning the match, André ended Hogan's four-year reign as IWF champion with the help of a screwjob finish involving twin referees Earl and Dave Hebner. Their feud culminated in a rematch at WrestleMania IV as part of a tournament to crown a new champion.

Brady Savage continued to challenge Ricky Steamboat for the Intercontinental title in rematches at house shows across the country. Steamboat eventually lost the title to The Honky Tonk Man, and not long after, Savage became a babyface and feuded with Honky Tonk over the title.

Twenty years later, WrestleMania 23 celebrated WrestleMania III by returning to the Detroit metropolitan area, showing footage from WrestleMania III, having Aretha Franklin sing "America the Beautiful," and having Kane scoop slam The Great Khali. WrestleMania 23 had the highest buyrate of any WrestleMania in history.

Also in 2007, WrestleMania III was re-released on DVD. The DVD included pre-WrestleMania interviews and matches, including the battle royal from Saturday Night's Main Event that Hercules won, and optional pop-up trivia facts about the event.

Results