WWE WrestleMania VII

WWE WrestleMania VII
March 24, 1991
LA Sports Arena
Los Angeles, California

Vince’s wet dream of setting the all-time attendance record didn’t come to fruition as he had hoped here. He wanted to have this show at the LA Coliseum with over 100,000 fans. This of course is the “bomb threat” show. That was the excuse they used anyway. In reality they hadn’t even come close to selling enough tickets, so they went to the much smaller LA Sports Arena. With that being said, Sgt. Slaughter was receiving death threats for his Iraqi sympathizer storyline. They decked the arena out in red white and blue colors everywhere and it really was a really hot crowd. Since they couldn’t tout the attendance record, they tried to tout that this was the biggest show with the biggest audience in PPV history. It was a lie, but a lie that Vince had Gorilla say over and over throughout the show. This would mark the last show that featured an obscene amount of matches to try and get workers a WrestleMania payday.

Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Barbarian and Haku w/ Bobby Heenan vs. Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty)
*Rated #48 on my Greatest WrestleMania Matches of All-time list*
“Hacksaw” Jim Duggan joins Gorilla for commentary in this match. This would be the best opener in WrestleMania history to this point. Not a surprise considering Shawn Michaels is involved. This is an excellent power vs. speed match, as the Rockers bump like crazy for Barbarian and Haku. Eventually the Rockers get control and Michaels hits the high cross body off the top to finish Haku. Excellent opener and the crowd were totally into it. Rockers would pretty much begin to be phased out and ultimately break up. ***1/2

Dino Bravo w/ “Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart vs. “Texas Tornado” Kerry Von Erich
Talk about a very sad match. Not because it’s bad, but because of the outcome on the lives of the two involved. For some reason when I think of all of the tragic deaths of wrestlers, this match comes to mind. Don’t know why, it just does. Match itself is bad. Short, but bad. Von Erich wins with the Greco roman punch (as Heenan calls it) DUD

“British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith vs. Warlord w/ Slick
This is a power vs. power match. They had been feuding for a couple months. Originally it was going to be battle of the power slams, as that was both guys’ finishing moves. The Warlord adopted the full nelson as his finisher, so now it became the story of Davey boy breaking the full nelson. The match is better than you would expect, especially when you consider Warlords limitations, but it’s actually a pretty decent match. Bulldog does break the full nelson finisher, and then hits Warlord with the running power slam for the win. **3/4

WWE Tag Team Championship
Hart Foundation (Bret “The Hitman” Hart and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart) (champions) vs. Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Saggs) w/ Jimmy Hart
The Nasties won a tag team battle royal not long before this match to earn a tag title shot. At the time the mark in me didn’t think the Nasty Boys had a shot in hell of beating the Harts here. What I didn’t know was that they were finally going to pull the trigger on Bret Hart’s long awaited singles push so losing the tag titles was going to be step one in that regard. This was a very good contest. A lot of people don’t like the Nasty Boys, but one thing they do is they work hard, and do a really good job as heels selling for baby faces. The end comes when Anvil gets hit with the biker’s helmet and the Nasties win the titles. ***1/2

Blindfold Match
Rick “The Model” Martel vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts
This would be the big blow-off match between these two. A lot of people don’t like this match due to some of the silliness. I found it to be very entertaining, particularly Martel and his shenanigans. Jake once told Martel that it would be the easiest payday he’d ever get because of course, you could see through the hoods. Jake hits the DDT and gets the win and a fitting end to a great feud. Jake would go onto feud with Earthquake in yet another “guy that Jake faces is afraid of snakes” storyline. They never would have an end, and Jake would eventually turn into one of the best heels you’ll ever see. This would be the last good feud Jake would have as a baby-face. **1/2

Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer vs. “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka
This would be the WrestleMania debut of the Undertaker. I always thought it was pretty cool that they used to call Snuka the phenom, and then the Undertaker became the phenom shortly after. Weird how wrestling works like that sometimes, as I’m sure at the time no one was thinking about the irony there. We all know the history of Undertaker at WrestleMania. It looks like they actually botch the ending here, but Undertaker hits Snuka with the tombstone for the finish. Not a great match by any stretch of the imagination, but Undertaker is 1-0. *

Career Match
“Macho King” Randy Savage w/ “Sensational Queen” Sherri vs. Ultimate Warrior
*Rated #13 on my Greatest WrestleMania Matches of All-time list*
Hogan and Slaughter got the main event, but this was the show-stealer. Watching all of these early WrestleMania’s, the first true Mr. WrestleMania is Randy Savage. This is a great match and one of the best, most compelling storylines you’ll ever see. Savage at one point hits 5 flying elbows, but the Warrior kicks out. That seems excessive, but it sort of fit the story that they were going for in this match. Warrior comes back and hits Savage with the gorilla press slam and splash combo but only gets two. I also would like to point out here that Sherri is looking very hot for her. I usually didn’t find her very attractive, but she’s looking good here. Warrior eventually makes a comeback and hits 3 flying shoulder tackles and wins the match. Of course, that isn’t what people will remember. What people will remember is the re-unification of Savage and Miss Elizabeth. Elizabeth comes out and prevents Sherri from doing a number on Savage. Savage and Liz then embrace to the pure joy of the crowd. True drama and I seem to get dust in my eyes every time I watch it. Savage’s retirement wouldn’t last long, as he would come back later that year to feud with Jake Roberts. Warrior would feud with the Undertaker, and then leave the WWE after SummerSlam due to a contract dispute. Any way you look at it, this was a great match, and the best of Warrior’s career. ****1/2

Demolition (Smash and Crush) w/ Mr. Fuji vs. Genichiro Tenryu and Koji Kitao
Demolition’s best days were long since passed. This was just filler; in fact I’m still not even sure why this was even on the card. It’s an awful match with Tenryu and Kitao winning. DUD

WWE IC Championship
Mr. Perfect (champion) w/ Bobby Heenan vs. Big Bossman
Lord Alfred Hayes joins Gorilla Monsoon on commentary so Heenan can join Perfect. This would be the culmination of the Bossman-Heenan Family feud. It’s a great feud, as Bossman finally can end it against Heenan’s “prized henchman”. It’s a fun match too. Perfect oversells everything as usual, and the Bossman is very much in stride as a worker. The ending comes when Barbarian and Haku come out and basically get Perfect disqualified to keep the title. Andre the Giant makes his last WrestleMania appearance here and he and Bossman take care of the Heenan family. Crap ending, but they had to keep the title on Perfect, and Bossman had to win, so the DQ finish was really the only way. Otherwise it was a good match. **3/4

Greg “The Hammer” Valentine vs. Earthquake w/ Jimmy Hart
More filler here, as Earthquake needed something to do. He was just coming off of his feud with Hogan, and still one of the bigger heels in the company. Valentine turned baby-face after Honky Tonk Man left the company early in 1991, so I guess that was the story here. Earthquake wins pretty easily. The match isn’t very good. DUD

Power and Glory (Hercules and Paul Roma) w/ Slick vs. Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal)
Legion of Doom was on their way to winning that aforementioned tag team battle royal and get a title shot against the Harts here, but Power and Glory cost them the win and allowed the Nasty Boys to become #1 contenders. Because of time constraints, the LOD wins easily here in less than a minute with the doomsday device. Total squash here. DUD

“Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase vs. Virgil w/ Rowdy Roddy Piper
A lot of people, me included, were looking forward to this. This was one of the best booked storylines of all time, in terms of longevity, and the payoff was worth the wait. This match isn’t the payoff, but it’s the first step. Most people didn’t know that Virgil was actually a pro wrestler in his own right, which makes the story even better because they do a nice job of making Virgil as an upstart rookie rather than accomplished pro. Piper was the one instrumental in getting Virgil to finally turn on Dibiase. He had a motorcycle accident not long before this, so he was out on crutches. Virgil wins by count out when Dibiase is distracted by Piper. This prompts Sensational Sherri to come out and she and Dibiase work Piper over with the crutch until Virgil makes the save. Virgil and Piper embrace, in a great WrestleMania moment between two friends. Match was ok; they would go onto have a much better match at SummerSlam. **1/4

Mountie w/ Jimmy Hart vs. Tito Santana
They were clearly running out of time here and this match is booked into a short, terrible, squash match win for Mountie. They would have a rematch on the next Saturday Nights Main Event, and given a little more time. DUD

Main Event
WWE Championship
Sgt. Slaughter (champion) w/ General Adnan vs. Hulk Hogan
Regis Philbin is out to commentate with Gorilla and Brain. Alex Trebek is your guest ring announcer, and Marla Maples is the guest timekeeper, for anyone that cares. This of course is the big match that everyone was waiting to see. Leave it to the WWE to exploit the Persian Gulf war like this. It’s as disturbing now as it was even then when I was a youngster. The match is actually pretty good. Slaughter works hard and bumps real nice for Hogan, and Hogan himself put his working boots on and the two of them were determined to have a good match. Hogan even blades for good effect. Of course the match is a formality and never in doubt. Hogan goes over after the big leg drop, and wins an unprecedented third WWE championship. ***

Final Analysis: The show is a mixed bag. The main matches all delivered either in work rate, or raw emotion, but the filler is about as bad is it can get for a WrestleMania. The Warrior-Savage match is one of the best moments in WrestleMania history. The Hogan-Slaughter match is better than expected. Bret Hart was set to begin his singles career. I say the good outweigh the bad in this show and it should be seen. Big changes were ahead, as a big star was on his way.