WrestleMania III
WrestleMania III was a 1987 professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It was the third annual WrestleMania and held on March 29, 1987, at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan. There were 12 matches, with the main event featuring Hulk Hogan successfully defending the WWF World Heavyweight Championship against André the Giant.
WWF claimed that paid attendance was 93,173, which would have made it the largest crowd for a WWF event as well as the largest recorded attendance of a live indoor event in North America at the time; however, retrospective analyses of the event have determined the actual attendance to be around 78,000. The event is considered to be the pinnacle of the 1980s wrestling boom, with almost one million fans watching the event at 160 closed-circuit locations in North America and the number of people watching via pay-per-view estimated at several million. The WWF generated $1.6 million in ticket sales, and pay-per-view revenue was estimated at $10.3 million, setting a record for the time. The promotion's only event with an official higher attendance was WrestleMania 32, held at AT&T Stadium in 2016. The record for the largest indoor event stood until January 27, 1999, when it was surpassed by the papal mass with Pope John Paul II at the TWA Dome in St. Louis, Missouri, which drew an audience of 104,000.
The event garnered positive reviews, with the main event bout between Hogan and Andre being called one of the most iconic matches of all time, though it received criticism for its overall qualty. Additionally, the bout for the Intercontinental Championship between Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat and "Macho Man" Randy Savage has gained critical acclaim, with many highlighting it as one of the greatest wrestling matches of all time.
Production
Background
is considered the World Wrestling Federation's flagship professional wrestling pay-per-view event, having first been held in 1985. It is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. Unlike the previous year's WrestleMania 2, WrestleMania III was only scheduled to be held at one location: the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan on March 29, 1987.Storylines
Like the previous WrestleMania events, WrestleMania III was promoted for several months in advance. The main feud stemmed from André the Giant's heel turn and betrayal of his friend, the WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan, which began on an episode of Piper's Pit when WWF President Jack Tunney presented Hogan with a trophy for being the WWF World Heavyweight Champion for three years. André, Hogan's good friend, came out to congratulate him but cryptically remarked: "Three years to be a champion, it's a long time". A week later on another episode of Piper's Pit, Tunney presented André with a visibly smaller trophy for being "undefeated in the WWF for 15 years", and Hogan came out to congratulate André. But before The Giant could speak, Hogan ended up being the focal point of the interview. Annoyed by this, André stormed out during Hogan's congratulation speech. A week later on yet another Piper's Pit segment, Jesse Ventura hinted he knew something about André, but wasn't telling. This infuriated Piper and the two nearly came to blows before Ventura asserted that he could produce André the next week, asking Piper, "Can you produce Hogan?". Piper agreed and nervously asked Hogan later on, who agreed. The following week, Hogan was on Piper's Pit first when André walked out with Bobby Heenan, a long-time adversary of Hogan and André. Heenan announced himself to be André's new manager. André then challenged Hogan to a title match at WrestleMania III and attacked Hogan, ripping off Hogan's T-shirt and crucifix necklace.Another main feud leading up to the event was between Ricky Steamboat and the Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage. The feud began during a title match between the two when Savage attacked Steamboat as he greeted fans at ringside. Savage then pushed Steamboat over the security rail and delivered an elbow shot that thrust Steamboat's throat into the rail and dropped the ring bell onto his throat from the top rope, injuring his larynx and sending him to the hospital. This resulted in a long, bitter feud that lasted for six months, included several bloody match-ups, and finally culminated at WrestleMania. George Steele was in Steamboat's corner, having developed a crush on Savage's valet, Miss Elizabeth.
Billy Jack Haynes and Hercules' feud started when Bobby Heenan continuously taunted Haynes, telling him that Hercules was the real master of Haynes' finishing move, the full nelson; which came to a boiling point when Hercules attacked Haynes on an edition of Superstars of Wrestling, which led to their match at WrestleMania. This battle was advertised as the "Full Nelson Challenge."
Another heated feud leading up to this event was between Harley Race and the Junkyard Dog. When the WWF Wrestling Classic became the King of the Ring tournament, Harley Race went on to win the tournament and began referring to himself as "King" Harley Race, coming to the ring in a royal crown and cape to the ceremonial accompaniment of the classical music piece, "Great Gates of Kiev" by Modest Mussorgsky. After each of his victories, Race would force his defeated opponent to bow and kneel before him. Usually, Race's manager, Bobby Heenan, forced the defeated opponent to bow and kneel by grabbing their hair. Junkyard Dog protested Race's self-proclaimed monarchy in the WWF and stated there would never be a complete ruler in the WWF, which led to a match on Saturday Night's Main Event IX, in which the King and his manager both tried to make Junkyard Dog bow for them. This set the stage for the WrestleMania match, which included the stipulation that the loser had to bow to the winner.
On January 26, 1987, The British Bulldogs lost the WWF Tag Team Championship to The Hart Foundation in a match that saw the Dynamite Kid so debilitated with a back injury that he was virtually carried to the ring by Davey Boy Smith and did not see any physical activity after being knocked out by the Harts' manager, Jimmy Hart, who had hit him with his megaphone as the match began. Danny Davis was the referee and allowed The Hart Foundation to use illegal double-team maneuvers. After being given some time off for Dynamite to recuperate, the Bulldogs continued their rivalry with The Hart Foundation when they teamed up with Tito Santana against the Foundation and the referee-turned-wrestler Danny Davis in a six-man tag team match at WrestleMania III. The match was billed as a revenge match with Santana's inclusion due to Davis being the referee in the Boston Garden in early 1986 when Santana had lost the Intercontinental title to the Macho Man, who used a foreign object to get the win.
Rock singer and Detroit native Alice Cooper was in Jake Roberts' corner during his match with The Honky Tonk Man managed by Jimmy Hart. The Honky Tonk Man had attacked Roberts with a guitar on Roberts' interview segment, The Snake Pit, which legitimately injured Roberts' neck. This event began Roberts' turn into a babyface as well as the feud between the wrestlers, which culminated in their WrestleMania match.
The feud between Adrian Adonis and Roddy Piper began when, following a leave of absence from the WWF in mid-1986, Piper returned to find his Piper's Pit segment replaced by The Flower Shop, a segment hosted by then-effeminate wrestler Adrian Adonis. Piper, who returned as a face, spent weeks crashing Adonis' show and trading insults, leading to a showdown between the two segments that ended with Piper being assaulted and humiliated by Adonis, Piper's former bodyguard Bob Orton, and Don Muraco. The trio left Piper with his face covered in red lipstick, lying in the middle of the remnants of the destroyed Piper's Pit set. In response, Piper stormed the set of Adonis' show and destroyed it with a baseball bat. This led to their Hair vs. Hair match at WrestleMania III, which was billed as Piper's retirement match from wrestling before becoming a full-time actor.
Event
WWF owner Vince McMahon claims that as he was about to announce "Welcome to WrestleMania III," he felt the spirit of his father Vincent J. McMahon, who had died three years earlier. After McMahon welcomed the audience, he introduced Aretha Franklin, who opened the show singing a rendition of "America the Beautiful."The first match of the night was The Can-Am Connection versus Bob Orton Jr. and The Magnificent Muraco. This match ended when Martel gave Muraco a high cross-body with Zenk on his hands and knees giving Muraco what Gorilla Monsoon called "A little high school trip from behind" allowing Martel to get the win for his team.
The next match that aired was Hercules against Billy Jack Haynes in the "Full Nelson Challenge." The match ended when Haynes locked Hercules in the full nelson outside the ring and both were counted out. After the match, Heenan assaulted Haynes by kneeing him in the back after Haynes had applied the full nelson to Hercules outside the ring. Haynes then chased Heenan into the ring, where Hercules blindsided Haynes with his chain, hitting him a number of times before locking a bloodied Haynes into his own full nelson.
The Mixed Tag Team Match between King Kong Bundy and his professional wrestling midget team of Lord Littlebrook and Little Tokyo against Hillbilly Jim and his own team of the Haiti Kid and Little Beaver was next. The rules were that only midgets could fight midgets and that neither Bundy nor Hillbilly was allowed to attack the midgets, though at one point, Bundy tagged in and Little Beaver refused to tag out immediately, even hitting the "Walking condominium" with a dropkick to no effect before bailing with a tag to Hillbilly Jim. King Kong Bundy's team was disqualified when Bundy attacked Little Beaver because Bundy was not supposed to be in the ring with the midgets. After Beaver had attacked Bundy on occasion during the match, he finally got caught and Bundy attacked Little Beaver, hitting him with a body slam before dropping an elbow across his chest.
The "Loser Must Bow" match between the Junkyard Dog and Harley Race followed. Prior to the match, Gene Okerlund interviewed Heenan, Race, and Moolah backstage, where Moolah predicted that Junkyard Dog would have to bow to the King as he is supposed to do. Bobby then gave Moolah the crown and told her to put it on the King's head after the match, "As only the Queen of Wrestling can do". Junkyard Dog came out to the ring to a big ovation in the Silverdome. During the match, the two battled back and forth, with Race even trying unsuccessfully to give the prone Dog a falling headbutt which naturally failed. Following this, Race recovered enough to give the Junkyard Dog a belly to belly suplex when he was distracted by Bobby Heenan to get the win. Due to the pre-match stipulation, JYD did a little bow and then hit Race from the blindside with a steel chair to a rousing ovation from the crowd. After attacking Race, Junkyard Dog took the King's royal robe and left the ring with it in hand to a standing ovation.
The next match was The Dream Team, with Luscious Johnny V and Canadian strongman Dino Bravo in their corner, against The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers. Ray Rougeau started off the match by locking up with Beefcake. The two men later tagged out, and Valentine brawled with Jacques Rougeau as Bravo looked on from the outside of the ring. Raymond performed a sleeper hold on Valentine and was followed by Beefcake jumping off the ropes and accidentally hitting The Hammer with a double axe handle. The Rougeau Brothers gave Valentine a double team move, but the referee was arguing with Beefcake. The match ended when Dino Bravo jumped off the top rope and hit Raymond while he was pinning Valentine, then rolling Valentine on top of him for the win. The Dream Team argued for most of the match, which led to Valentine, Bravo and Luscious Johnny departing together, without Beefcake.
Footage of an interview with Rowdy Roddy Piper was aired as Piper made his way to the ring to face Adrian Adonis, who was accompanied by Jimmy Hart, in Piper's retirement match. Piper and Adonis began the match by attacking each other with Piper's belt. Adonis put a sleeper hold on Piper in the middle of the ring and released the hold prior to Piper's arm going down for a 3rd time, thinking that he won the match. When Jimmy Hart got in the ring to celebrate with Adonis, Brutus Beefcake came to the ring to help Piper recover, and Piper attacked Adonis and performed a sleeper hold of his own. Piper got the victory, and after the match was over, Brutus got in the ring and cut Adrian Adonis' hair as Piper held Jimmy Hart down. After being woken by Beefcake and seeing himself in the mirror he had brought to the ring that Piper was holding, Adonis hit the mirror and chased Piper around the ring before leaving the ring in embarrassment with Hart using his jacket to cover Adonis' head.
Up next was a six-man tag team match featuring former referee Danny Davis and The Hart Foundation against The British Bulldogs and Tito Santana with Matilda the Bulldog in their corner. As a referee, Davis' bias towards heel wrestlers had led to the Bulldogs losing the tag titles to the Harts and also led to Santana losing the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship to Randy Savage. The Bulldogs had many near-falls, yet Neidhart broke up most of them. After all three members of the Bulldogs/Santana team had gotten a measure of revenge on Davis, all six wrestlers ended up brawling in the ring. Danny Davis recovered and hit Davey Boy with Jimmy Hart's megaphone and pinned him for the win.
Butch Reed, making his pay-per-view debut, against Koko B. Ware, was the following match. Reed won the match with a rollup,, after a high cross-body from Koko. After the contest, Reed's manager Slick got in the ring and attacked Koko B. Ware with his cane, but Tito Santana quickly rushed to the ring and stopped Slick, and ripped some of his clothes off. Slick retreated as Reed got back in the ring, only for Reed to get a double drop kick from Koko and Santana.
The next contest was a title match involving reigning WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion, Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat. The match itself lasted for nearly fifteen minutes. At one point, Savage was about to use the ring bell as a weapon, but was stopped by Steele, who knocked him off of the top rope. When Savage attempted to give Steamboat a scoop slam, Steamboat reversed it into a small package to get the win and become the new WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion, marking the first time in WrestleMania history that the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship changed hands. This match is considered by many to be one of the greatest matches in WWE history.
The tenth match of the night was between The Honky Tonk Man and Jake Roberts, who along with his pet Python "Damien", had Detroit native Alice Cooper in his corner. When Jake went for the DDT, Honky Tonk Man's manager Jimmy Hart pulled Roberts' legs, and the Honky Tonk Man rolled up Roberts from behind, held on to the ropes, and pinned him for the win. After the match, Roberts narrowly missed hitting Honky with his own guitar, smashing it against a ring post and causing Honky to run off down the aisle, leaving Hart alone in the ring. Alice Cooper got in the ring and, with Roberts' holding Hart in a full nelson, attacked him with Roberts' python Damien.
Ring announcer Howard Finkel then introduced Gene Okerlund to the crowd. Okerlund then announced the reported attendance of the event, which set a new indoor-attendance record of 93,173.
The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff were in action next, against The Killer Bees. Slick asked all of the fans to rise and respect Nikolai Volkoff's singing of the Soviet National Anthem, and when Volkoff began singing, Jim Duggan came to the ring with his two-by-four, which had a tiny American flag attached to it, got on the microphone and said that Volkoff was not going to sing because America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. While the match ensued, Duggan stayed at ringside. When The Iron Sheik locked a camel clutch on Brunzell, Duggan, who was chasing Volkoff around the ring and finally into it, stopped and hit an unsuspecting Sheik across the back with his 2x4 in front of the referee, resulting in The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff winning the bout by disqualification.