The Best and Worst Moment of WrestleMania 5
WrestleMania 5 saw WWE return to Atlantic City for its second straight WrestleMania held under the auspices of Donald Trump and his hotel and casino empire. In some ways, it could be seen as a conclusion of a story that had started in earnest the year before when Hulk Hogan helped Randy Savage win the world title and set the Mega Powers super team in motion.
While the main event largely overshadowed the rest of the show, that’s not necessarily to say it was without memorable moments. This article takes a look back at the best and worst of WrestleMania 5.
Best Moment: Hulk Hogan pins Randy Savage
For as popular as Hulk Hogan was from the mid-1980s to early 1990s, he wasn’t known for putting on great matches. Indeed, that characteristic contributed to a schism between WWE and NWA fans of the time—those drawn in by the spectacle and theatrics of WWE versus the more traditional and technical in-ring action from their competition.
Randy Savage helped Hogan bridge that gap. Not only did the two tell an excellent, organic story of friendship torn apart by both personal and professional jealousies, but Savage was at the head of the class when it came to in-ring workers in WWE. WrestleMania 5 saw one of the greatest matches in Hogan’s career, and when he dropped the leg and pinned The Macho Man, it offered a fittingly epic climactic moment to a great story.
Worst Moment: Mr. Perfect makes short work of The Blue Blazer
From a historical perspective, the idea of Curt Hennig and Owen Hart working a WrestleMania match sounds like it would have every chance of stealing the show. In the year 1989, however, WWE wasn’t necessarily featuring either guy at the highest level—particularly Hart, working under a hood as The Blue Blazer—and they only got five minutes to work.
The result was by no means an all-time bad match, however, it does represent a historical disappointment for how special this match might have been given the talents involved. Rather than an ahead of its time technical clash, we got a forgettable TV-quality match that underserved everyone involved.