WWE WrestleMania III (1987)

Thanks for the memories!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Here are the matches . . .Can-am Connection v Don Muraco and 'Cowboy' Bob Orton: A nice little opener showing 'Rockers' prototypes Tom Zenk and Rick Martel battling two legends who were losing steam at this point. The match ends when Martel body-crosses Muraco while Zenk creeps behind him and makes the schoolboy trip for the pin. The Can-am Connection split up because Zenk found out Martel had got a better contract than he did so he left the WWF for WCW. 6/10 Billy Jack Haynes v Hercules: I actually liked this match though the emphasis on submission made it drag a little. Hercules has never looked more menacing. The double count-out ending solves nothing though Hercules wins the war by busting Haynes head open with the chain. Billy Jack Haynes leaves the WWF and heads for WCW to become 'Black Blood'. 6/10 Hillbilly Jim, The Haiti Kid and Little Beaver v King Kong Bundy, Little Tokyo and Lord Littlebrook in a Mixed Tag Team match: Midgets are rarely used in a positive light in the WWF and this match is merely set up for Bundy to squash Haiki Kid, getting disqualified as a result. Bundy leaves the WWF and returns 7 years later. 2/10 The Junkyard Dog v 'The King' Harley Race in a "Loser Must Bow" match: JYD gains most of the offensive but gets hit with one move and it's lights out. In this case, Race caught JYD in the belly-to-belly suplex. Race makes JYD do a curtsy but it's JYD who gets the upper-hand by beating Race up and taking his robe showing poor sportsmanship for a face. I will give it 3/10 because Race does some nice bumping.The Fabulous Rougeaus v The Dream Team: In a rare appearance as faces, the Rougeaus lose their credibility as they get pinned in a relatively short time due to Dino Bravo's interference. The match is only set up to start the face turn of Beefcake and the introduction of Dino Bravo into The Dream Team. It would be the last we see of Johnny Valiant on PPV. 3/10 Roddy Piper v Adrian Adonis in a Hair vs. Hair Match: Supposedly Roddy Piper's retirement match, he manhandles Jimmy Hart by throwing him at Adonis at every opportunity. Credit to Adonis, he bumps like a madman for Piper. The match ends when Piper slaps on his sleeper-hold and Adonis goes to sleep allowing Beefcake to cut Adonis's hair, giving him the moniker 'Barber' in the process. Adrian Adonis would leave the WWF shortly afterwards and Roddy would only be gone for two years before we see him again. This match gets 4/10 for wrestling and 8/10 for entertainment value so I will give the match 6/10.The British Bulldogs and Tito Santana v The Hart Foundation and Danny Davis: What should have been a sleeper match of the night remained just a relatively good one. All the people involved keep the action moving at a brisk pace as 'Dangerous' Danny Davis takes a beating and one heck of a reverse pile-driver from Davey Boy. Despite it all, Davis still manages to pin Davey Boy Smith after hitting him over the head with Jimmy Hart's megaphone. 6/10 Koko B. Ware v Butch Reed: This is merely a squash match to get 'The Natural' over. Koko B Ware starts his trend of losing matches very early in his time with the WWF getting pinned within four minutes on his debut. After the match, Tito storms into the ring and rips Slick's clothes off which makes me wonder what Tito was doing in the previous tag match with The Bulldogs when he had issues here. Koko could have taken his place. This effort only gets a 3/10.Ricky Steamboat v Randy Savage in an Intercontinental title match: George Steele still had issues with Savage after Wrestlemania 2 so was by Ricky's side and would play a part in the match. Steamboat and Savage went all out for nearly 15 minutes, making numerous pin-fall attempts and the intensity was ferocious. The match finally ends when George pushes Savage off the top turnbuckle, Savage makes a big effort to scoop slam Steamboat but Steamboat ensnares him in a cradle instead for the pin. The powerful image of a deflated Savage riding off with his head in his hands on the Wrestlemania trolley stands out in my mind. As this is THE match that got me hooked on wrestling, it scores a rare 10/10.Jake 'The Snake' Roberts v The Honky Tonk Man: This feud started when Honky Tonk Man smacked Roberts in the head with a guitar during a slot on Robert's 'Snake pit' segment. Honky pinned Roberts while putting his feet on the ropes. Roberts got a small amount of revenge by placing his snake over Jimmy Hart who looked genuinely petrified by the reptile. All in all, an opportunity wasted really. 3/10 The Killer Bees v The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff: A match notable more for Duggan than anybody else. He starts the bout by giving his unintentionally hilarious 'you can't do that because this is the land of the free' promo. The match ends when Duggan causes a disqualification against the Killer B's by hitting The Iron Sheik with his 2-by-4. 2/10Hulk Hogan v André the Giant for the WWF Championship: Despite facing each other in prior matches, this time around things are a lot different as we probably see the peak of Hulkamania and the start of Andre's decline. The match concludes when Hogan slammed Andre and leg-dropped him for the pin to a massive explosion. The match was pretty sloppy there is no getting away from that so it scores about 4/10 but for it's sheer monumental scale it scores 9/10 so I will split the difference and go for 6/10.Wrestlemania 3 is history in the making.

March 29th 1987 - Pontiac, Michigan, Pontiac SilverdomeMatch #1 Rick Martel & Tom Zenk Vs "Magnificent" Don Muraco & "Cowboy" Bob Orton Winner: Martel & Zenk By PinfallMatch #2 Hercules Vs Billy Jack Haynes Winner: Haynes By CountoutMatch #3 Hillbilly Jim & Haiti Kid & Little Beaver Vs King Kong Bundy & Lord Littlebrook & Little Tokyo Winner: Jim, Kid & Beaver By DQMatch #4 Junk Yard Dog Vs "King" Harley Race Winner: Race By PinfallMatch #5 Greg Valentine & Brutus Beefcake Vs Raymond & Jacques Rougeau Winner: Valentine & Beefcake By PinfallMatch #6 Retirement Match "Rowdy" Roddy Piper Vs "Adorable" Adrian Adonis Winner: Piper By TKOMatch #7 Tito Santana & The British Bulldogs Vs "Dangerous" Danny Davis & The Hart Foundation Winner: Davis & Foundation By PinfallMatch #8 "The Natural" Butch Reed Vs Koko B. Ware Winner: Reed By PinfallMatch #9 Intercontinental Championship Champ: "Macho Man" Randy Savage Vs Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat Winner: Steamboat By Pinfall - New ChampionMatch #10 Honky Tonk Man Vs Jake "The Snake" Roberts Winner: Honky By PinfallMatch #11 B.Brian Blair & Jim Brunzell Vs Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff Winner: Sheik & Volkoff By DQMAIN EVENT WWF Championship Champ: Hulk Hogan Vs Andre The Giant Winner: Hulk By Pinfall

Wrestlemania III (1987) took place during the apex of Hulkamania. The card was held in the cavernous Silverdome. To see over 70,000 people packed into a stadium to watch wrestle is a site to behold. The people were screaming and cheering like crazy for the Hulkster who faced his biggest challenge yet to himself and Hulkamania. The Boss himself Andre the Giant challenged Hulk Hogan to a title shot. Like all of the Hulk's friends they grow jealous of his spotlight and they all want to take him out and grab his gold championship belt. Believe it or not this started out over the size of a trophy!!!The card is the most entertaining so far out of the first three Wrestlemanias. But the most talked about match on this card isn't the hyped match between Hogan and Andre but the show Macho Man and Ricky Steamboat put on in front of the fans. Some have called it one of the best ever. Rumor has it many people were upset about the two upstaging the two stars and poor Steamboat was punished for it. After another year in the W.W.F. he headed back for Jim Crockett Promotions where he and long time rival Ric Flair would put on some of the best displays of old school pro wrestling.All of the top stars are featured in this supercard. Titan Sports and the W.W.F. where at their peak of popularity and revenue generating. From this point on it seemed that Hulkamania would go on forever. But this was the begining of the end.A

This is no doubt the biggest Wrestlemania of them all! 93,172 fans jam packed the Pontiac Silverdome and had the pleasure of seeing Hulk Hogan body slam Andre the Giant!! Man if I would of saw that live, I would have went right through the roof of the Silverdome. Every time I drive past that arena I don't think about how the Lions used to play there, I think about Wrestlemania III!!Savage vs Steamboat was a great match as everybody knows. Steamboats reign didn't last too long though, as he would eventually lose the belt to the future Greatest Intercontinental Champion of All Time!, The Honky Tonk Man.A must see for all wrestling fans.