Was the feud going into the match good?
This was yet another variation of an angle used over and over and over by wrestling promoters over the years; ie one "best friend" turns on another due to jealousy or envy or something to that effect. This particular case was a bit different in that, in North America, Andre the Giant was such a huge babyface with such a strong crowd following even at that late stage in his career. It was a shock for many longtime fans to see the erstwhile gentle giant become angry w/his former friend and demand a title shot, all of course helped along by the presence of Bobby "the brain" Heenan. In my opinion, yes, the feud was great, and the angle was perfectly executed by Andre and Heenan to come across as the heel.
Was the match entertaining?
While you couldn't call it a technical masterpiece, as by that point ATG was in pretty bad shape, just having come off back surgery, he did as well as he could have done at that point, even hitting Hogan with some pretty stiff reverse knife edges at one point in the match. Hogan, of course was selling everything that Andre threw at him to make the aging Giant look like an unstoppable monster, picking his spots carefully in which to work offense into his part of the match. I can still watch thsi match and not be bored to tears.
Was there good storytelling(psychology)
This was by far the best part of the match. As most everyone knows, Andre had been billed as undefeated for fifteen years in the WWF/E, and the basic psychology of the match, and which sold the most tickets in wrestlemania history, was could Hulk Hogan defeat the unbeatable Giant? In this respect, Andre and Hogan pulled this off beautifully during the course of the match, with Hogan wearing a look of ashen fear and shock for the bulk of the match, while Andre was AWESOME as the monster heel, berating Hogan during the bulk of the match and chidng the crowd w/typical heel behavior. Even Andre's offense,while not fancy or slick made sure that the crowd absobed what they were supposed to: an undefeated leviathan of a wrestler dominating the man that he believed had held him back. The stare down at the beginning was awesome to behold before the two of them made contact. Great stuff.
Were there any good spots?
Of course the bodyslam at the end was the most memorable spot, but the spot of the failed bodyslam in the very beginning stages of the match set up everything that was to follow. Also the reversal of the piledriver into the back bodydrop on the outside was pretty good too, considering Andre's back was junk at the time.
was the crowd into the match?
Yeah I'd say that they were. The boos that Andre recieved on the way to the ring were pretty intense and he had all kinds of trash chucked at him, which was all kinds of comical because while all this was going on, Andre was waving to the crowd. The pop at the end when Hogan slammed Andre then pinned him was deafening.
Actually it was about as long of a match that could have expected to see, given Andre's health at that point, there was just enough drama and back story to keep things interesting, so I'd say that the length was about right.
In retrospect, thsi match still holds up relatively well considering the limitations of Andre at this point in his career, and of course, the historical significance of Andre passing the torch and giving the rub to Hogan is what this match actually represented to the business, At least in my opinion.
