Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage

[10.0] "Feeling bad about myself because I guess I'm about to give a five stars rating to fucking pukable Hogan. Let's start doing something simple to clear off my head, this match is excellent due to four elements: the Devil already mentioned before, Randy Savage, Jesse Ventura and Miss Elizabeth. This is a storyline based on...jealous? Yeah, Savage became jealous with the way Hogan were treating his wife and manager which made him split up with Hogan and also slowly start to get crazier with the time. You can see those elements already in the entrance. Savage going wild into the ring, he is the champ but he actually didn't care that much for the title. Them, Elizabeth had her own entrance, an neutral participation around this match from enemies that became friends and returned to be enemies them. The match start, Savage brings a lot of emotions wirh him while you hear during all the match but specially at the beggining Jesse Vientura being one of the biggest dickheads of all time. He doesn't interfere in the match because he don't need to, he is the element to make you root for Hogan, and it works. You wait for the moment Hogan finally hulk up and get surprised with how good that moment felt to your soul. Clearly Hogan was the worst element here around those four? Sure. There are some criticism about his lack of effort to put some ring work? Absolutelly. I will still rank this as a five stars match to me. I was expecting greatness, and that's what I got."

[7.0] "Not a crazy good match, but a super intriguing story to support the match. Big clash at the time and the match delivered, even though I certainly am not a fan of Hogan and this type of Hulking up Finish. Good ending to a pretty bad Mania."

[8.0] "Hogan actually having a good mania match in the main event who would at thought. Also really couldn't let Randy come out second? The match definitely deliver on its hype. Hogan was still draw at this time Randy was a great heel. These two made you believe this was personal. Other than the Rude VS Warrior this mania so this match carried hard."

[7.0] "FINALLY. A passable Hogan mania match. The macho man was clearly doing the heavy lifting here and as a result, this was a really good match."

[9.0] "Great WrestleMania main event and in my opinion the best one out of the first five. It's just undeniable that this felt like a big time spectacle, not only because it's a match between two larger than life icons, but also because of a year of strong build and storytelling. Macho Man is a fantastic heel in this match where he takes full advantage of some of the openings he creates even going as far as mistreating Elizabeth at ringside and at one point using her as a sheild. It's also the first WrestleMania I can think of where blood is used as part of the story where Hogan blades fairly early on in the match and he does a great job throughout with the selling to get sympathy from the crowd before the inevitable comeback. Elizabeth ends up being kicked out of ringside and from that point it's just these two doing what they do best and putting on a classic as Savage gets all his trademark moves and looks like he has it won with the Elbow Drop and then Hogan kicks out and does his traditional Hulk-up routine and ends up winning with the Leg Drop."

[8.0] "So weirdly, when I was looking through my notes, I had somehow ended up reviewing this match twice, with a years gap between each one, with one being an 8.25 and one being a 7.75. I'll lean on the side of my more positive rating. Some great face-heel antics here, Macho Man playing the cat and mouse game with Hogan, using Elizabeth as a shield, and using various other things like the wrist tape to strangle Hogan and some Eye Rakes. Hogan also stoops a little below the bar for the time here - things like clothes fist strikes, sending savage out of the ring, and attempting to use the ring posts as a weapon. It made the feud feel incredibly personal. Was very cool to see Hogan get some colour here too, and again this really intensified the match. While obviously not the most extravagent in ring work here, it was very good, especially for the time. This is expected of Savage, but Hogan was also suprisingly good here, with some solid transitions and a lot of very good deliveries. The match does suffer a bit from the finish - Hogan feels like the wrong choice of winner here, it feels like it should have been Savage's moment, but the particularly egregious one is how fast Hogan kicked out of the flying Elbow. This does hurt the match a bit overall."

[7.0] "The only worthwhile match on this show. Nothing flashy, but gripping intensity and a solid effort to make every blow count. Hogan regains the title after a finish that's become his trademark. In-ring quality: 2/5. Stakes: 2/2. Justification: 1/1. Card placement: 1/1. Suspense: 1/1. Bonus/penalty: None. Total: 7/10. Match watched on Netflix (FR)."

[9.0] "Listen LMFAO! I just sat through two WrestleManias with so much putrid nonsense (even tho 5 is significantly better than 4), so this match was crack cocaine to me. I genuinely immersed myself into becoming a young 80s mark excited to watch two greats clash and they fucking nailed it. This match is SEISMIC! Every punch felt like a bomb. The near-falls were terrific and made the crowd explode. Hogan BLEEDS in this and its fucking awesome! There were moments in this I genuinely replayed just to watch again and see how incredibly well done it was. Now, if I go back and re-watch this without having to sit through this entire show, do I think I stick with the original rating? Probably not. Am I living in the moment? HELL YEAH BROTHER ****3/4"

[6.0] "The Mega Powers EXPLODE...to an ok match. Hogan getting color definitely helped and the lead up to the finish was nice. Hogan no-selling was both annoying but (honestly) fun. Savage was so good man. But - yeah - so was Hogan"

[9.0] "The first truly fantastic Wrestlemania main event. I love Hogan/Andre and enjoy Savage/Dibiase, but those come from a lot of pure nostalgia of the era. Randy gives Hogan arguably his greatest Wrestlemania match, excluding maybe Rock/Hogan. Now, I would have liked to have seen Randy Savage win. The answer would be yes; he was the better worker and, honestly, was just way cooler to me. I think the only thing preventing me from calling this match a 10/10, besides the result, was Hogan kicking out of the Flying Elbow after barely a 1 count."

[4.0] "Of course, this is the biggest build of the night. The story was essentially a year in the making, if you count Macho Man winning the belt with help from Hogan in the previous Mania. Basically, Randy thinks Hogan is Randy for Elizabeth. Randy also thinks Hogan is Randy for his title. Randy turns on Hogan because of this paranoia and sets up a hugely anticipated main event between the company's two biggest stars at the time. It's a decent match, with the pacing to match. But I think it lacked many real big moments to speak of. Elizabeth plays her role well, but I felt like the antics revolving around her were a bit much. It's very rare that I ever enjoy seeing someone no-sell finishers, and this was not an exception to that rule. Hogan eats Savage's patented elbow drop from the top rope like someone dropping a feather on him. It's a disappointing match, given the huge build it was given and the 17+ minute run time. On a positive note, the crowd loved the result."

[5.0] "A so-so match carried by a great story. Savage does a great job of making Hogan look good here, but unfortunately, it just becomes another typical Hogan match at a certain point, which is a real shame cause this had a great build behind it."

[7.0] "A good match between these 2. The story for this match is also great. Savage gets Hogan's best Wrestlemania match of his career. But in the end Hogan wins again."

[7.0] "Good Match for the era with some good drama even tho it started slow by the finish it delivered the best Main Event of WrestleMania up until this point even tho Savage was the true babyface."

[7.0] "A big time WrestleMania main event with Hogan going against the most talented in-ring performer he ever worked with by this point, and while Hogan proves up to the task, it's not quite the match I expected. There's a whole lotta drama, too much actually, especially the cheesy melodrama involving Elizabeth, and I have a hard time with Macho Man as a heel even though he does some very good work here. The psychology is excellent, Savage getting dirty and using anything to get the upper hand is nice, him pulling the hair, going after the cut, and even going for the throat, which is great! Of course Hogan kicks out of the Diving Elbow Drop, hulks up and gets it done, which is fine, but far from the epic I expected. ***1/2"

[8.0] "Fantastic main event, the tension was very high, and this lived up to the hype of the match where the 'Mega Powers explode'. After a great build, Hogan and Savage split their partnership because Savage was jealous of Hogan's close relationship with Elizabeth, his wife, and Randy's heel turn was incredibly well done, that whole story that he told with Hogan was super compelling and personal, it's the kind of stuff that gets people involved and connected with the product. With all the nuances, and Savage's WWF Title on the line, it was finally time for the big match, the collision of the Mega Powers, and Elizabeth was on a neutral corner. The match is great, it has a lovely progression, Randy start the match using the old tricks, running away from Hogan, and performing every dirty trick that he knows to prevail over his opponent's strength. He even put Elizabeth in front of Hogan, just like the old times, but of course this time Liz wasn't having it. The blade job on Hogan's forehead was tremendous, right above the eye, and that tells you a lot about the premise of a violent and personal confrontation, it was awesome. Elizabeth was 'ejected' from the corner after Randy started to poke her, and the referee decided to tell her to leave, to not start any trouble and disturb the match. There was a moment before Hogan's comeback, where Savage was completely dominating the match, and the atmosphere was very dark, and that's when you know the match is big and the stakes are high, when the wrestlers are able to create that feeling. Hogan however, managed to kickout Savage's finisher, did a hulking up, didn't sell Savage's punches, and won the match. The finish is probably the only thing I would change here, it wasn't bad, but this rivalry deserved something more elaborated, maybe Elizabeth choosing a definitive side, either helping Hogan or turning heel together with Savage, but they decided to write her off, and did the common Hogan finish, which works, but wasn't ideal - {****}"

[8.0] "Great match for what we had here, a good storytelling and both knew each other so well, The Mega powers, Hogan and Randy Savage, gave a great match with good storytelling, great action with interactions of Elizabeth too, and like it is obvious, Hogan buries Macho Man Randy Savage, 8/10 [****1/2]"

[4.0] "Look, my general dislike of hulk hogan is a factor of my rating. But damn, this one i found to be Boring. I just couldn't get into this, even with Macho's and miss elizabeth best efforts to make this angle work."

[8.0] "This match is WAY better than it's reputed to be. Jesse Ventura rules the world on commentary, just pissing all over Hulk and calling all of his fans Pukeamaniacs. We get a lot of sports entertainment soap opera melodrama with Elizabeth sitting on the fence and Savage's crazed performance here is nothing short of inspired. It's basically Randy doing every dirty, underhanded, opportunistic thing possible to negate Hogan's power advantage and the ebb and flow here is really well done. Hogan bleeds from the forehead and Randy smashes his trachea into the guardrail and drops STIFF knees onto Hulk's face and Hogan sells it like he's dying from Ebola or something. The ending is kinda abrupt but it still makes sense and even Randy looks pretty strong in defeat. It's a hell of a main event and one of the more overlooked big time WM matches -- too bad there weren't any "accidental" bumps so that one prick in the front row got steamrolled, though."

[5.0] "The match was just okay, honestly even below average. There was nothing special about it at all. Most of the moves felt like they were just hitting air, with zero realism. And that ending, especially when Hulk Hogan suddenly powered up and won the match, was super cheesy and overplayed. Overall, the match was boring"

[7.0] "I can't help but think that the potential for this match was enormous but in the end it's wasted. I know for sure that "Macho Man" couldn't let out the big game because of his place on the card, he is supposed to make Hogan look good and thus is forced to hold back to let the casual viewer (who came to the show or bought the PPV because of Hogan) enjoy another great win by the Hulkster. I wanted some more wrestling in my "sports entertainment". I don't feel a lot about the Miss Elizabeth storyline neither. Still, Randy Savage is one hell of a presence and for the time it was certainly the most fleshed out storyline wrestling fans had ever seen."

[7.0] "Fantastic performance from Macho Man Randy Savage here, perfect heel work the entire way through. Would've liked Hogan to show more fire in his moves, but at least he did so for the finish. Good stuff."

[7.0] "The saviour of this poor show. Stake of this match was felt in the air. A lot of innovative psychology and soap opera, however in an acceptable amount. One of the best matches in Hogan's career."

[8.0] "A truly incredible main event that wrapped up one of the most memorable storylines in professional wrestling history! Both Savage and Hogan play their roles perfectly, the action is well paced and performed with many great spots, and the finish, if divisive, was perfect for what the crowd wanted to see. At this point in time without a doubt the best main event when it comes to both the in-ring quality AND atmosphere. While technically a Wrestlemania classic, and as mentioned really good, I don't wanna consider it one of THE best of all time (10) nor one of my absolute personal favourites (9), but without a doubt standout match in Wrestlemania history that deserves an 8/10 rating."

[6.0] "As far as big Hogan matches go, this is for sure one of the better ones. For one thing, the pace was steady throughout and the match noticeably lacked any boring periods that Hogan matches often suffer from. This is certainly because Savage was able to control the match and work on top for most of it; still, I will give kudos to Hogan for allowing him Savage to do that given that he almost certainly could have chosen to wrestle it in a more dominant fashion with the immense clout he had. I also liked that Hogan got colour, and that Savage was ruthless in exploiting it. Hogan using underhanded tactics to try and fight back was actually well justified here given Savage was the one who started doing them first so it made sense for the former to strike back with his own tricks. I also thought Miss Elizabeth was well utilized; she didn't interfere in the match much at all, really only once toward the end when she caused Hogan to lose the advantage given her still present concern for Savage despite his heel turn. My primary criticism was the finish, which felt really abrupt as most Hogan matches often do. While his kicking out of Savage's patented elbow drop was a big moment and popped the crowd given it had hitherto never failed to deliver Savage the victory, I thought Hogan simply doing his usual 'hulking up' shtick before dropping the big leg for the 1-2-3 was as trite as can be. I would have liked some more back-and-forth at the end, perhaps with Savage dodging the initial leg drop attempt. My problem with the finish was really a microcosm of my problem with the match in general: while it was better than your usual Hogan fare, it still never really rose to become anything truly great or special. I can't necessarily fault them though given how hot the crowd was for the match, though that is not too surprising given that WMV was WWE(F)'s best drawing PPV up to this point and would remain so until WMXV some ten years later. ***"

[8.0] "It's beautiful how Savage builds up a dynamic throughout the whole match of baiting Hogan out of his comfort zone, poking him into more aggression, and getting the edge over him for it, and Hogan slides himself right into this dynamic. An example is the sequence in the outside after Miss Elizabeth is sent out of Savage attempting to ram Hogan's head onto various surfaces but Hogan's stopping it each time and eventually reverses it, but is angered enough to try to ram Savage's head into the steel post but he gets rammed into it instead. If he kept to his usual game plan he would've beaten Savage easily. There are anecdotes of Savage meticulously planning out his matches, and you can get a great sense of that here. The match's pacing is really lovely too, creatively invigorating yet it left the right amount of room for my brain, as my blood was definitely flowing up there afterwards. And not too many peaks, the match feels like a mostly even but elevated (cause its an 80s WM main event) line throughout. Then the ending of Hogan completely nuking Savage's glittering pyramid of artistry in 10 seconds through his usual ending sequence. Actually maybe that actually aligns with what the match set up, though the ending is sudden and cheap enough that it's unlikely. Oh well, still a great match. If it all gets rendered worthless within the stakes of the match, it's still worth enough outside of it to justify its existence."

[6.0] "If I remove my rose colored nostalgia glasses, the match didn't meet the build up from the story. That was Hogan's modus operandi for his entire career. It was a decent match and not boring but it really is a paint by the numbers match that's carried by Savage's athleticism and the spectacle of Wrestlemania."

[3.0] "Can only knock off so much points for the conclusion of one of the most premier and fleshed out WWF storylines being put on screen for an absolutely hype filled spectacle but holy shit the match is unwatchable. Just a big old nothing burger that ends with Hulk absolutely no selling a top rope elbow drop."

[6.0] "Miss Elizabeth is in a "neutral corner" until sent away by Dave Hebner. Despite Hogan only going at 20% here, this is pretty good. Hogan is willing to bump a bit, and "half-sell", which is all he needs to do as this is Heel Randy Savage hitting moves and flying around and capturing attention. There are some nice touches, notably Hogan beginning to fight dirty to counter Savage's cheating and Miss Elizabeth in general. Hulk eventually Hulks Up and quickly wins. In a funny way, you have to accept that that was over; you can't harp on against the gate sales. But it's a way of underselling the work here, when just a bit more serious work, even in the same time frame, could have pushed this up. 3/5"

[9.0] "Just great pro wrestling and possibly my favourite Hogan match. Savage was just brilliant. It had a hot crowd, a true babyface and true heel and a great story backed up by one hell of a memorable storyline. The quick sudden finish following the no show of the elbow is the only thing I wasn't that keen on."

[7.0] "And finally the big main event of WrestleMania V, the build up to this was great. Randy turned heel in a great way and all this led to the mega powers explode. The match itself was good, Randy did great here he carried most of the match. Hogan was same as always. This is definitely the match of the night not because it was a great match but because the rest wasnt that good. Overall a nice match."

[7.0] "a match mostly carried by being part of one of the best storys in wwe of this era, the ring work in this match is not half bad either and its clear that macho worked his usual magic here as he put with hogan that isnt that much worse then the one he had with steamboat 2 yeras before, hogan dose his job well tho its clear he is the much weaker of the 2, i most liked about this match the part where randy was working on hogens throat"

[8.0] "Easily the MOTN and definitely Hogans best match at least in the United States. Randy deserves multiple awards for this carry job he did on Hogan. The in-ring was really fun and the crowd was super excited to see this main event. Overall I really enjoyed this match and this might be one of the few Hogan matches I think are good."

[8.0] "SO many people contributed so much to this match! Miss Elizabeth you were fantastic, the emotions and conflict on her face was so PALPABLE! She is the best ever at one specific emotion and this match showcased that emotion to a tee (she is great at other stuff too but god she is so perfect heeeereeee). Jessie Ventura fucking kills it on commentary, I love a good heel commentator but it's next level just how heated he and Gorilla get at eachother. Obviously Macho Man is legendary, but how absurd his persona is can make it easy to overlook just how meticulously constructed his best matches are and this might be one of them. Being totally sooooooooo #girlreal with you for a secs here but I'm 100% a moves girl. I have always loved Ospreay vs Ricochet, I like it when two small guys do lots of flips with no story about as much as a good storytelling match, so I have been struggling a little bit with a couple of these early Manias, but Savage's storytelling is just so strong that I can overlook the slower workrate. Did you know that Macho Man wrestled this match with an infected elbow? Did you know that? Did you? DId you nknow? DId you know that? DID ouou? I didn't!"

"[7.5] This is really as good as its gonna get for a Hogan match Randy savage was the kind of wrestler who could have a good match with pretty much anyone and it shows here as he was in control most of the match and all hogan really did was hulk up at the end and hit the leg drop the wrestling was ok but the storytelling and getting ms Elizabeth involved made it so much better."

[9.0] "This is easily Hulk Hogans best North American match. One of the best Wrestlemania main events. ****1/2"

[8.0] "In hindsight they messed up with Savage here by having him do the clean job because the heel run had A LOT more legs to it, so switching the belt when Hogan draws regardless isn't a great move. But other than that, this was pretty tremendous. The work is obviously fairly simple but the story is excellent and you can't help but get invested in the whole thing, which is what wrestling is all about."

[7.0] "The best American soil Hulk Hogan match isn't even close to the best Randy Savage match. Randy Savage elevates the pukester to levels not seen before. Hogan matches don't get much better, there is a case to be made when Yokozuna killed hulkamania in the WWF though... I love Macho Man Randy Savage and this speaks volumes as to why he was the "GOAT", getting this much out of the chump. There is one extreme caveat though. lust hogan wins in a rather repulsive and fairly nauseating way, so much so that I can never finish the match/ppv. pardon my language but FUCK terry bollea in every possible regard."

[7.0] "Liz had more security on her than Trump did after he got shot at. She sure as hell wasnt popping her hand out of the security convoy. Hogans music started with the lyrics instead of the opening bit of the song, which was weird. Savage kept bailing out to start, forcing Hogan into a chase before hiding behind Liz. The start of the match was a lot of Savage lying on Hogan with a chinlock, with Hogan bleeding above the eye at some point. Monsoon said that no referee would stop a title match for a cut above the eye, tell that to Lex Luger. The Baltimore Commission would disagree. Hogan fired up before bodyslamming Savage from the ring to the floor. Savage waved off Lizs attempts to help before pulling Hogan to the floor and repeatedly raking the cut. Hogan went to send Macho into the post, but Liz gets in the fucking way? Go be neutral somewhere else. Savage shoved Hogan into the post and walked Liz down, but Hebner got in between them and sent Liz to the back. Macho hit the Steamboat Special, hitting the double axe handle off the top rope and sending Hogans throat into the metal barricade. The match picked up here with Savage going after the throat, choking Hogan with his wrist tape before just strangling him with his hands. Macho hit the big elbow, but Hogan hulked up, hit the big boot and the leg drop for the win. This was different to the Hogan formula, as he had the smaller Savage to work with instead of a big giant to pinball around. I wish more of the match had the intensity that the match had after Liz got booted, as Savages control at the start was nothing interesting. This was still the match of the night, but there was absolutely no competition. ***1/2"

[9.0] "One of the true pinnacles of storytelling in the 1980's era of WWE. The ring work itself was fine. Savage was obviously hamstrung by Hogan's athletic limitations, but the two still executed moves cleanly and kept a moderately engaging pace. My high score is all about the atmosphere and storytelling. Elizabeth is used to great success as a human McGuffin in a main event storyline again here, which is kind of an amazing feat in itself when you consider how awful she was on a microphone whenever called upon. This has everything you want in a big story main event match. The crowd ate it up, and it's easy to see why. It's even easier when you think about how how many mediocre-to-terrible matches they had to sit through before getting to this point in the night."

[9.0] "Savage works his ass off to make this match and this is the best match Hulk Hogan ever had in my eyes, the whole storyline and everything surrounding it boosts it a quarter a star up in my eyes (****1/2)"

[8.0] "Really good match. Hogan and Savage had great chemistry in the ring. This match had a great story with all three, Hogan, Savage and Elizabeth told the story very well. The finish of the match could have been better than Hogan kicking out of the elbow drop before getting the win"

[7.0] "Arguably the first Wrestlemania main event that was actually good. Hogan and Savage had one of the all time great storylines going into this match and it shined through as they went at it. Obviously this match is as good as it is because Savage is the man. Hogan did a respectable enough job but Savage was always the better performer. These two had a lot of chemistry and put on an iconic classic, but I still wouldnt call it a masterpiece. As a match, its pretty decent."

[8.0] "This was a really great match for the time. Miss Elizabeth kept getting involved for the first half, which admittedly got a bit tedious at times, but when she stopped, the match hit that third gear. There was some really good heel psychology from Savage. Hogan was able to overcome the odds and was able to defeat Savage."

[8.0] "The Mega-Powers explode! I'll never understand Miss Elizabeth abandoning Savage after years of being with him and just being "neutral" to some dude who saved Savage a couple of times. Especially since Hogan had lust in his eyes. I saw it. Savage did, too. I wouldn't call this match an all-time great, but it played off the storyline perfectly."

[9.0] "Wow what a main event to this show! The story is what brought this match to the pinnacle, what a feud this two had. The blood was perfectly executed. The finish, I would have mabye changed a little, instead of kicking out of the elbow, mabye Macho takes a bit of time to pin, or perhaps he tries to go for it a second time cause he's not confident he can put the Hulkster away. Anyway, really loved this match, its a classic."

[6.0] "The first mania main event that I would consider good. A good story was told throughout the match however, the ending was stupid and way too abrubt."

[8.0] "This is the first good wrestlemania main event and this match was really good I think it is really fun and both men worked great together. ****1/4"

[10.0] "This just felt like a big WrestleMania main event. Such a spectacle, and the in ring action and story is good enough to back it up. Legendary WrestleMania main event. The build to this match was arguably second to none. Macho Man played his desperate heel to perfection. Paranoid and desperate to retain his title and prove hes better than Hogan."

[7.0] "It was an okay wrestling match, wasnt my favorite but the pure Iconic moments, and the superpowers turns this into a match that ages well."