30 Week Journey: Wrestlemania IV (1988)
From Bigger, Badder, and Bette \u2013 to just plain Longer.
The Lapsed Fan wrestling podcast continues its 30-week, 30-Wrestlemania journey this week with a deep dive into Wrestlemania IV, night of the inaugural WWF championship tournament culminating in the breakthrough of Macho Man Randy Savage as a touchstone name in the WWF annals.
Hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro hunker down and cover it all as the WWF rolled the dice in conjunction with Donald Trump in Atlantic City, including:
- Robin Leach\u2019s wonderfully overwrought tournament proclamation, in its entirety
- More DQ finishes than there should ever be at a Mania
- Brutus scalps tickets, not his opponent; also, rhymes \u201cDone\u201d with \u201cChampion\u201d
- Dibiase bumps like he\u2019s in it to win it, which he at one point was scheduled to
- The WM debut of Demolition, and why their beat down of Strike Force was just what the bored Atlantic City crowd needed
- Steamboat\u2019s inauspicious WWF farewell, complete with Gorilla Monsoon reading his newborn son\u2019s mind
- The Hulk Hogan promo that literally includes the line, \u201cThank God Donald Trump\u2019s a Hulkamaniac.\u201d
- What it\u2019s like when Hogan does his posing routine but didn\u2019t win his match
This plus a series of great audio contributions, including reflections on WM4 and the war with Jim Crockett Promotions and the first Clash of the Champions with grappling guru Dave Meltzer.
It may be your Lapsed chance. Get on board with the historic 30-week Wrestlemania journey with Wrestlemania IV!