Five Backstage Myths Debunked

[The Brain]

Ok, debunk isn’t the right word because I don’t have any actual proof. It’s more like five stories The Brain doesn’t believe. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that in a business built on lies there are some people that don’t always tell the truth. Here are five backstage stories that the majority of the IWC has accepted as fact that don’t quite add up to me.

Hulk Hogan didn’t know the finish of WrestleMania III going into the match

Spoiler

[YOUTUBE]Cv9OOC006RI[/YOUTUBE]

I find this very hard to believe. So much so that I don’t believe it at all. You’re telling me that the main event championship match at the biggest show in the world in front of 93,000 fans was decided on the spot by one of the wrestlers in the match. I don’t think so. I have an easier time believing that Hogan actual did part the Hudson River when traffic was heavy on his way to SummerSlam 89 as he said in his promo that night.

Honky Tonk Man became IC champ because Butch Reed no showed

I guess it’s not totally unbelievable. Steamboat was taking time off because of the birth of his child so the belt needed to come off him. Reed was the one picked to be champion but he no showed the event. At the last minute the decision was made to put the belt on HTM. It’s not so far fetched. One problem with that story.

Spoiler

[YOUTUBE]urCN9oKcmZ4[/YOUTUBE]

There you see it. HTM wins the title and is congratulated by a group of wrestlers backstage, including Butch Reed. Maybe he arrived late. I doubt it. TV tapings took several hours and the order of matches was not important. If he was late the match could have waited. Maybe the backstage segment was taped another day. I doubt that too. WWF usually taped a month’s worth of shows in one night so it’s unlikely the celebration was taped a different night than the match. Maybe Butch Reed was the original plan but he was being punished for no showing other events. That sounds reasonable but my point is Butch Reed did not no show the event where Steamboat dropped the title.

Ted Dibiase was supposed to win the WrestleMania IV tournament

The story goes Randy Savage was supposed to beat the Honky Tonk Man for the IC title. HTM refused to drop the title to Savage. Savage was upset by this and was awarded the World title at WM4 to appease him. That’s one hell of a consolation prize don’t you think? Am I the only one having trouble buying this story? First of all why would HTM of all people have so much stroke that he could dictate who he drops the title to and change the entire plan for WrestleMania and the world title? Secondly, you expect me to believe that Vince McMahon was going to let a heel win the main event of WrestleMania and walk out champion in 1988? No chance. Even all these years later only twice (aside from a failed heel turn in the main event) has a heel won the mania main event, and it took until 2000 for it to happen the first time. Hulk was taking some time off in 1988 and Vince needed another good guy to take his place. That’s why he was paired with Savage in the first place. The wheels were already in motion for Savage to be champion after Hogan. In fact I’m sure WM5 was already planned out before WM4 even happened and the whole thing was built around Hogan and Savage. Sorry, but I see now logically reason to support Dibiase walking out of WM4 as champ.

Lex Luger was supposed to win the title at WrestleMania X

I’ve talked about this one a million times so you can either skip ahead or enjoy #one million one. Supposedly Luger was going to win the title at WM10 but he was shooting his mouth off at a bar the night before and let the cat out of the bag. This got back to Vince and as punishment to Luger he put the belt on Bret Hart instead. This makes ZERO sense if you look at everything leading up to WM10 months ahead of time. If Lex Luger was going to win the title at WM10 there was absolutely no reason to have Hart involved with the title at all. The main event would have simply been Luger vs. Yokozuna. It’s not like they needed to fit Hart in to give him something to do. He was feuding with Owen and ended up wrestling him on that same card anyway. If it was supposed to be Luger all along there was no need for co-winners at the Royal Rumble. Luger wins the Rumble and beats Yoko at mania while Bret faces Owen. Simple as that. Obviously the plan was to put the belt on Hart. Not only did they go with the co-winners at the rumble but they put Owen over Bret in the first match of the night to set up a logical and believable number one contender for the new champ going forward. I believe after SummerSlam 93 the plan was to put the belt on Luger at mania but by the time the Rumble came around Luger lost some steam and the plan was changed. It was certainly not changed the night before the show.

Randy Savage and Stephanie McMahon

You probably all know about this one. Randy Savage was fired from the WWF because of an inappropriate relationship with an underage Stephanie McMahon. Vince was so upset that he never invited Savage back to the WWE and for years would barely mention his name. He held a very personal grudge against Savage. The story sounds far fetched but I guess it would explain why Savage never once came back to the WWE when just about everyone else did. You know what confuses me? If Vince was so upset and had such a personal grudge why did we see this?

Spoiler

[YOUTUBE]YauJQoPzpAY[/YOUTUBE]

No big deal, right? A 45 second shout out to one of the company’s best performers. Pretty small thing considering it was pretty much the last time he was mentioned for so long. Still, if Vince had such a strong hatred for Savage why did he even bother with that at all? Guys disappeared from the WWF without explanation all the time. There was no need to explain Savage’s absence. Even if he wanted to let the fans know Savage was gone he could have simply said they could not agree on a contract while calling a match and left it at that. Instead he went out of his way to thank Savage. Strange thing to do for a guy you just fired for boinking your 16 year old daughter.

There you have it. Five stories a lot of people accept as fact that I don’t believe. What do you think? Do you believe any of these stories? All of them? Maybe some exaggerated truth to some? Let’s hear your thoughts.

 

[sdelfin]

Interesting topic.

1 - No shocking revelations here, Hulk Hogan is a notorious liar. For him, it's about making a good story. I think the grain of truth here is not that they didn't have a finish, but the miniscule chance that Andre would deviate from the finish. I recall Vince saying in an interview somewhere that Andre was willing and agreed to do the job, so I don't think there's much more to it than that. Perhaps Hogan is being honest in that Andre played with his mind a bit. If so, that's pretty funny.

2 - Nice catch on the IC title celebration. As you already speculated, maybe Reed had no showed prior events. Reed was definitely in position to be a contender. I think it comes down to having Steamboat, coming off his epic victory over Savage, and having him lose to the most ridiculous character they could find as a "punishment."

3 - The detail that makes this one plausible is that supposedly HTM's contract was up and he was threatening to take the belt down south if he didn't get a lot more money. I've heard this one a lot, and a lot of claims that this scenario was true. HTM may even have admitted his part, but I can't find anything on that yet, even though I feel like I've seen such an interview. Though unprecedented then for WWF, they may have wanted to do a Ric Flair style run with a heel champ.

4 - This one has been debunked as far as I know. I can see that perhaps it was just a false leak intended to make people expect one thing, and then delivering something else.

5 - I got nothing for this one.

 

[shutie1214]

My brother and I met Ted Dibiase at Comic Con last year and asked him about this. Dibiase was going to win the tournament but Dibiase said that he could either win the tournament or he could create his own title. So he decided to create the Million Dollar Title instead of winning the tournament. He also said that the Million Dollar Title made him more money than the WWF Title could've ever made him.

 

[nickscarz]

i agree on everything except the last thing about savage... i think if anything, vince could have been rubbing it in savage's face. also he knew that he wanted to keep the lid on the macho/stephanie thing... if he publiclly gave a 45 sec shoutout to savage on tv then people wouldnt have necciarly known that theree was a huge issue there. here we are almost 20 years later talking about this and i just think vince tried to cover every base he could... besides how would the company look if the owners daughter was banging the 2nd biggest start there??

 

[dd23beatlesfan1]

Another great topic. Here are my thoughts on each of the myths you presented.

1. Hulk Hogan didn’t know the finish of WrestleMania III going into the match


I generally agree with you that the finish of the match certainly wasn't called on the spot at the end of the match. Vince would certainly not be that careless with the biggest match in the history of the company, even to appease Andre the Giant. I wouldn't, however, be surprised if Hulk himself didn't know the finish. I could see Vince and Andre obviously knowing the finish, but to have some fun, they didn't tell Hulk and Andre continued to play mind games with Hulk in the weeks leading up to the match and that night. I think that's possible. But ultimately, I agree, the finish was known well in advance, and Hulk has just been telling a more interesting story for the last 25 years since.

2. Honky Tonk Man became IC champ because Butch Reed no showed

I actually believe this is true. I've heard this from multiple people over the years (both Hogan and Honky Tonk Man off the top of my head) and it sounds plausible to me. As to your "catch" of finding Butch Reed in the video for the post-match celebration, you gave your own explanation for that by Butch showing up late and then being thrown in the backstage celebration as a punishment of sorts. Although your argument certainly has a valid point and you may very well be right. I do believe though they were going with Butch Reed, and Honky Tonk Man was sort of a last minute replacement. It may not have been decided that very night with a no-show on Butch Reed's part as you believe, but I certainly don't feel the Honky Tonk Man was the plan all along. It was definitely a rushed switch either in a week's time, or that very night. I kind of lean towards that very night.


3. Ted Dibiase was supposed to win the WrestleMania IV tournament

It's close, but I'm gonna say that I believe this. I agree that the way things turned out made much more booking sense, and I do agree that it's hard to believe that the Honky Tonk Man had that much stroke to throw the entire I-C title picture and ultimately the World Championship picture into such disarray. Another point to add is that if Honky Tonk Man was really this much of a pain in the ass to Macho Man, Dibiase, Hogan, and Vince, it's hard to imagine that Vince would've allowed Honky to keep the title for another 8-9 months like he did. What I think is more possible is the fact that Vince originally did indeed have Dibiase chosen to win the title and the tournament and to have a heel run roughshed until Hogan returned. But I think he simply changed his mind and decided to go the "safe route" with a babyface as the champion, thus Savage getting the tournament win and the run. Maybe it's possible that if Savage didn't draw as well as Vince wanted, then he could've taken the title off Savage and given it to Dibiase, but ultimately Savage did just fine, so Dibiase never got his run with the belt. Either way, I do strongly believe that at some point Vince had planned on Dibiase getting a run with the belt. Vince created the character to be the ultimate villain, and it's just hard for me to believe that Vince would go that far and devote so much planning and time for that character and to not ever plan on having him win the belt. Of course, it's all speculation on my part. I don't know definitely, just what I believe.


4. Lex Luger was supposed to win the title at WrestleMania X

I'm pretty much with you on this. I don't buy this and never have. Mainly, because I've never heard anyone credible confirm this story. This has always been an urban legend type story (ala the Ultimate Warrior dying and them bringing in a fake one) that's never had any solid or credible backing from anyone. Obviously Lex was who they were going with in 1993 and I'm sure it was planned to have him win the belt at Wrestlemania, but like you stated Bret was the people's choice and Luger didn't do as well as they hoped, so they ultimately went with Bret. I think it's possible that having the double winners for the 94 Royal Rumble was their final test in who was gonna get the run. Whomever the fans responded to more would get the belt. And ultimately that was Bret.


Randy Savage and Stephanie McMahon

I have absolutely never bought this and I never will. I've actually posted about this before. I simply believe that for personal reasons, Vince was more hurt by Randy leaving than anyone else that went to WCW. Vince wanted Randy to become the Babe Ruth of the WWF and the ultimate legend, but as an ambassador and company man. But Randy wanted to keep wrestling and so he left. Also taking the Slim Jim endorsement with him probably didn't help either. I just think that for whatever reason Vince was deeply hurt with Randy leaving than anyone else, and it's like he never really forgave him for it.

But to play devil's advocate here, there is an argument to your point you brought up about why Vince would pay tribute to Randy upon his leaving if he had had sex with Stephanie McMahon. It's very possible that at the time that Randy left, Vince and no one knew about it. Maybe it was year's later that Vince found out about it and after that, Randy was never welcomed back into the company. Kind of like how WWE payed tribute to Chris Benoit, only to later find out he murdered his family and was then banished from WWE history. I suppose that could've been what happened with Vince and Randy.

But again, I don't buy it. I think it's just that it was a combination of Vince never forgiving Randy for leaving, and also, the fact that by the time WCW ended, Randy's interest in wrestling had declined and thus, why he never came back.

 

[Con T.]

[YOUTUBE]Hsey9lagnwU[/YOUTUBE]

Meltzer had claimed he didn't believe the myth, but frankly, I think it's believable. Think of all the people Vince welcomed back:

Hogan (multiple times)
Warrior (multiple times)
Sid (yeah, multiple times)

Hell, he welcomed back Bret. Vince is a man that sees dollar signs, and it's apparent.

So why would he not welcome back a man who screams money?

 

[ilapierre]

shutie124: The million dollar championship made Dibiase 'more money than the WWF title ever could'??? You do realize Dibiase had to have said that 'in character'. Because Dibiase would be 10 times as rich today had he ever won a world title. No one in their right mind chooses a meaningless title over the biggest title on the planet. And no one in their right mind would believe that story.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

shutie124: The million dollar championship made Dibiase 'more money than the WWF title ever could'??? You do realize Dibiase had to have said that 'in character'. Because Dibiase would be 10 times as rich today had he ever won a world title. No one in their right mind chooses a meaningless title over the biggest title on the planet. And no one in their right mind would believe that story.

Considering the climate of the WWF at the time, he likely would have been a short term champ as a heel (probably till Summerslam and that's it). WWF simply didn't go with long term heel champs back then. It was entirely against their model, and what they felt their fans wanted. At that point, the WWF title had been around for 25 years. Heels combined to hold the title for one year during that quarter century. It would also still be 5 years before McMahon finally went with a long term heel champ (Yokozuna). Even Flair could only get short reigns.

He makes good money for half a year at most as the champ, and then back down to his normal rate after that.

The run he had with the Million Dollar Belt though, was a lot longer than a WWF title run ever would have been, and with the deep roster that they had, kept him positioned for a higher spot on the card at all times (better payoffs). Plus there was also extra merchandising he would have gotten a piece of from it.

I absolutely believe that he could have made more money in the long run with the Million Dollar Belt over the run he would have had with the WWF belt.

 

[Christian Faith]

I'm sure I read somewhere that Vince was devastated by Savage's death and didn't WWE pay a glowing tribute to him?

Also he was once named greatest IC champion of all time on the website.

Bit odd if Vince truly hated him so much. He could have just ignored his death totally and made sure he was never mentioned on wwe.com.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

I think the truth with Savage is a lot more simpler than people realize.

Savage was good with his money. He was happy being out of the business. He was one of the rare guys that didn't NEED to come back, or have much desire to. It's not something that's considered, because so few of these guys are ever able to really move on from the business. I really do think that's closer to the truth than any of the rumors flying around like the Stephanie one.

 

[The Butcher]

1) As has been said, Hogan is a liar. That is just one of many.

2, 3, 4) Plausible either way. The end results were better than the myths, so everything worked out.

5) I'm of the belief that Randy walking out pissed Vince off, Randy never tried to make amends like the others who pissed Vince off, and then Randy sealed his fate by releasing this video (go to 4:30):

[youtube]n0nLzr4EDnQ[/youtube]

If I had a daughter and some guy said he'd take my daughter "around the block," a decade after he dissed me and my company, I wouldn't put him in my personal Hall of Fame either.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

I can't believe people don't remember what Rowdy Roddy Piper said!

I can't be arsed to find the video here, but Hot Rod basically said that the reason Savage was fired and never called back was because he pretty much clocked Vince in a bar. or choked him or some shit like that. See, VKM had one policy, no beating up the boss. Smart man Vinnie Mac. Nailz preety much did the same at SSlam all those years ago, ye that turned out very well for Vince actually.

Wrestlers would pull pranks and have stupid drunk fun with him like the strip bar incident Bret Hart mentioned in his induction speech (Special LOL at "Hogan was there, stirring the pot!" that look on Hogan's face who is right behind him.)

Could the Steph rumour be true? Maybe. But I'll take Roddy's version and hope Hunter popped that cherry.

 

[The Butcher]

I can't believe people don't remember what Rowdy Roddy Piper said!

I can't be arsed to find the video here, but Hot Rod basically said that the reason Savage was fired and never called back was because he pretty much clocked Vince in a bar. or choked him or some shit like that. See, VKM had one policy, no beating up the boss. Smart man Vinnie Mac. Nailz preety much did the same at SSlam all those years ago, ye that turned out very well for Vince actually.

Wrestlers would pull pranks and have stupid drunk fun with him like the strip bar incident Bret Hart mentioned in his induction speech (Special LOL at "Hogan was there, stirring the pot!" that look on Hogan's face who is right behind him.)

Could the Steph rumour be true? Maybe. But I'll take Roddy's version and hope Hunter popped that cherry.

I don't think there is a video. Piper said it on Twitter. It's still one of many conflicting stories:

http://wrestleheat.com/more-extensive-details-on-randy-savage-vince-mcmahon-relationship=7073

 

[legendkiller1979]

1. The reason that was always given for this was "Andre wasn't going to do anything he didn't want to do". This seems reasonable but it does seem odd that things would not be set in stone going into the event so I'm not sure on this one.

2. I don't know how to upload videos to my post or I would post the footage of HTM's celebration. Butch Reed is in this video

3. I would say this is completely false if I hadn't heard both Randy Savage and Ted Dibiase both say this is indeed true

4. I think this is proabably true. I just wonder when Vince soured on him. The double winner at the rumble does make sense. If Bret just wins the rumble, it kills the Luger/Yokzuna feud and it also doesn't allow the Bret/Owen feud to gain steam.
This feud was much more having Owen going over Bret clean.

5. No...just no

 

[THTRobtaylor]

1) I don't disbelive than Andre could have prevented Hogan from the win, but he knew by then that his body would have had a hard time back up the war that may have caused and that his reputation would have been irrevocably damaged. Andre was a big part for the Princess Bride, released right after the match and didn't need to be anything other than the class act he was known for. Now I AM sure he made Hogan play the game and show proper respect, but that Andre would never have done less than the right thing for the business - although he made damn sure Hogan earned that favour.

2) Butch Reed was no doubt a contender for the IC title under Rick Steamboat, but I doubt he was "punished" out of the title match. I think it was more a case of that had Steamboat stuck around for a few months as IC champ, then a feud with Reed worked, but as Ricky bailed pretty much immediately after winning the belt there wasn't time to build the heat needed with Reed for the change to have meaning and more importantly a money feud. HTM was hot after his match with Jake at Mania 3 and had the right kind of heat that his IC title win was shocking in that fans were stunned Ricky lost it so quick. Where 3 comes into play is a little more murky. I am not certain that the plan when HTM got the belt was for him to hold it so long. What did happen though was that the IC level talent they tried to push all stalled or had their runs aborted. Once Hogan was taking his time off a lot of them found themselves in the World title tourney at Mania, Savage, Steamboat, Jake and Bam Bam had to be a part of that - winning it or not so then you were into guys from that lower drawer who could be convincing beating Honky who had Jimmy Hart, Valentine and momentum. I am sure one guy originally planned for the slot was Jim Duggan, although his drugs bust ended that. Brutus got a feud but never quite got the nod and Bret Hart had his singles push stalled, despite it starting well at Mania. To me it was more a case of HTM was doing enough right that they left it until they had to get it off him. Did he refuse a job to Savage, I can see it, but not at Mania 4 but I think the Dual Champion push may have been Savage's original booking plan and the 30 second job to the Warrior a punishment for Honky not playing ball.

As to the tourney itself, DiBiase did have a shot of winning it and many will feel he should have. Vince was resigned to trying something new regardless as Hogan was away - Vince botched by not having DiBiase be the one to beat Hogan for the title - with a massive Andre assist. The tourney could still have happened, the title vacant but the momen Hogan and Andre were added to it the brackets were distorted and you knew DiBiase was screwed. In some ways DiBiase did more with the Million Dollar belt than he would have with the WWF title, but in the scheme of things Vince rather than the fans wasn't ready for a heel champ so he didn't pull the trigger on DiBiase.

5) IF this is true, then it will remain quiet until Vince is gone. In today's climate, with scandals like Jimmy Saville and the current case of a teacher going to jail for sleeping with a student in the UK - this kind of thing is very sensitive. Steph has 3 daughters that could be seriously damaged if it comes out, although silence could also do the same. You have a girl here on the front pages saying that SHE "groomed" her teacher, seduced him rather than the other way round. That isn't impossible, however repellent some may view it. What we know of Randy is that he was hyper jealous of Liz, so he clearly loved her - but once she'd gone it's entirely possible that if Steph had made it clear she wanted him, shit could have happened or vice versa. At the end of the day, the yardstick for me on this is Lanny, who cryptically says "if I wouldn't talk to him about it while he was alive, I never would now he's gone" - if there was nothing wouldn't you just flat out deny it? The Piper stuff is interesting, again Randy could be volatile but why would he hit Vince? Maybe Vince asked him if the above was true?

4) Luger I can well believe cocking it up - that story was in the mainstream press in the UK 2 or 3 days after Mania, so it's not like urban legend territory. There is a reason Luger didn't win and I think it may have been "Ric Flair" syndrome. In Flair's book he alludes to Mania 8 where he bladed without permission. On his return to Gorilla Vince told him "Just when you reach greatness, you do something stupid.", that was arguably the moment Vince soured on Flair as he proved he wasn't a "WWF guy" but wanted to do things like "down south" and I can imagine Vince feeling the same with Luger around Mania 10. Luger was not the most humble guy so quite possibly felt he was teflon, but Vince had to show the locker room who was boss so not only did Luger lose, but he lost "stupid" by touching Perfect - not only did he not get the title, he didn't even get a finish.

 

[deadelviX]

1. Nowhere does Hogan say that the WINNER of the match wasn't predetermined by the officials... he said he didn't know what the FINISH of the match was.
this could be completely possible. none of us know what type of person Andre was. maybe he didn't like planning too far ahead and wanted the match to progress.... hey.. even Jackie Gleason refused to rehearse the scripts before going onto the set and nailing each scene of The Honeymooners.

so there...

Andre the Giant....JUST like Jackie Gleason! lol

 

[d_henderson1810]

i agree on everything except the last thing about savage... i think if anything, vince could have been rubbing it in savage's face. also he knew that he wanted to keep the lid on the macho/stephanie thing... if he publiclly gave a 45 sec shoutout to savage on tv then people wouldnt have necciarly known that theree was a huge issue there. here we are almost 20 years later talking about this and i just think vince tried to cover every base he could... besides how would the company look if the owners daughter was banging the 2nd biggest start there??

No. Instead the owner's daughter was banging one of the biggest stars of the "Attitude Era", and later married him instead.

 

[lil bitch Kid]

1) I believe that Hogan may not have known the finish. It was still a passing of the torch, per se, and they might have been trying to gauge Hogan's professionalism throughout the match.

2) possible but less likely. The F at the time was booking months to a year in advance, injuries notwithstanding, if they wanted to punish Reed for being late, they could have run the match later in the taping, and then jobbed Reed to Koko B Ware. That would have been far worse than having to be in a celebration segment for a match you were supposed to win.

3) Savage as of Before February that year was scheduled to in the tournament. WWF in fact, let their own cat out of the bag in the March WWF magazine, released in Feb, printed before, in an article about Liz, saying Savage was the undisputed Champ.

4) doubtful. If they were going to put the strap on Luger, they'd have done it at SS, with the Lex Express BS.

5) if you don't want people asking questions, you get ahead of the story. Nuff said!

 

[louchratis]

The only one of these myths that seems to have any credence today is, incredibly, the Savage-Stephanie story. I don't doubt that Hogan wasn't sure of the ending to WM3 but Andre and Vince definitely knew well in advance that Hulk was winning. The others are all really flawed in the first place. As for Savage-Stephanie, no one has ever really attempted to dispute it. Instead, Vince just tried to keep people from talking about it by giving Savage a shout out but never inviting him back in any capacity.

 

[The Butcher]

I can't believe so many people think Hogan didn't know the finish. He had been champion for over 3 years at that point, was hands-down the biggest name in the sport already, and it was the biggest match in company history up to that point. He knew the finish. He may have been skeptical about whether or not Andre was going to go along with the plan, but he knew.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

Course he knew the finish. Who here is saying he didn't? Are you crazy? Wrestle-fucking-Mania, The Main Event. The only thing he wasn't sure of was if Andre was gonna go down easy. I remember hearing that they considered a fast count too. But Hogan, uhhhhh, Hogan has a way of just glamourizing the past beyond fuck. Like he was in 'Nam or something.

 

[d_henderson1810]

[YOUTUBE]Hsey9lagnwU[/YOUTUBE]

Meltzer had claimed he didn't believe the myth, but frankly, I think it's believable. Think of all the people Vince welcomed back:

Hogan (multiple times)
Warrior (multiple times)
Sid (yeah, multiple times)

Hell, he welcomed back Bret. Vince is a man that sees dollar signs, and it's apparent.

So why would he not welcome back a man who screams money?

There is another possibility.

Maybe it was Randy "Macho Man" Savage who refused to come back.

How do we know that Vince didn't try to get Savage back, but he refused? Apparently, from what I have heard, Savage can carry a grudge, and he did for Hulk Hogan for many years.

We don't know that Savage turned down Vince, like Sting has many times over the years. Maybe Vince is upset with Savage because he is one of the few people who has said "No" to him, and it pricked Vince's pride.

I mean, Vince McMahon wouldn't ever admit that he was turned down by someone, would he?

On the other rumours:-

1. I think that both men would have known the finish in advance.

2. If Butch Reed wasn't available, why not put it on someone like Jake "The Snake" or "The Million-Dollar Man"? Anyone but the terrible HTM. That was disrespectful to Ricky Steamboat, but then, WWF have never given "The Dragon" his proper dues.

I think they put it on Honky Tonk because they were molding him as the top mid-carder in the company, and wanted to play the old" keep the belt by DQ and countout".

3. I only think M$M would have got the title if he was going to fight Hogan at "Summerslam", but Vince decided there was more money in Hogan-Savage. If there had been monthly PPV's back then, who knows.

4. Luger may not have been touted to win the belt at WMXX, but he should have, for a short time. I actually would have liked to have seen Luger beat Yokozuna for the title earlier in the night, and then lose the belt to Bret Hart later that night. So you have two WWF Title switches at the one WM (which would have been a twist).

This would have worked on a number of levels. Bret had fought Yokozuna the previous year, so we had seen it, but we never got to find out who was the better man between Luger and Hart (the Rumble didn't tell us), so it would have been a "new" match, and quite interesting. Also, I would have loved to have seen Luger go heel on Bret during the match, and have them feud for the next few months, with Owen in the background, waiting to strike.

I wouldn't be surprised if Luger was slated to win the belt, but got in hot water with Vince, so he screwed Luger out of the title. Anyway, it would have made more sense to have had Luger win the belt against Yokozuna back at the previous year's Wrestlemania, when the character was white-hot. He could have been the new top guy if they had put the belt on him then.

 

[klunderbunker]

The tournament story has some more legs than that. The brackets were originally as follows:

Hulk Hogan
Andre the Giant
(2nd Round Bout)

Jake the Snake
Ravishing Rick Rude

Don Muraco
Dino Bravo

Ricky Steamboat
Greg Valentine

Macho Man
Butch Reed

One Man Gang
Bam Bam Bigelow

Ted Dibiase
Hacksaw Jim Duggan


Notice the different order than you got at the actual show. DiBiase is on the other side of the bracket as Hogan and Andre, setting up Hogan vs. Ted for the title. Brain is right in that Hogan vs. Savage was carved into granite for Wrestlemania V and had been for months leading up to IV, but the original plan was to have the Mega Powers start to explode at Summerslam.

DiBiase walking out with the title wasn't that big of a stretch when you think about it. Hogan was indeed taking time off, but there's another big name on the roster that people are forgetting: Bam Bam Bigelow. This guy was HUGE around this time and would have easily been able to chase the WWF Title on house shows in Hogan's absence. Savage wound up taking his place due to being champion, but Bigelow was likely the fallback plan.

As for Honky, it makes more sense than it sounds to. Honky was the Intercontinental Champion and a pretty big draw due to people wanting to see him lose. The same night as Wrestlemania there was an NWA show going on at the same time: Clash of the Champions. Honky threatened to show up there with the belt unless Vince let him keep the title. It's a stretch, but I think it holds up when you look at the original brackets and Vince screwing with the NWA so much at the time. The fear of them screwing him back could have made him alter his plans, especially since DiBiase would have been nothing more than a placeholder until the Mega Powers exploded anyway.

 

[rge2010]

I read that Savage didnt want to commentate and wanted to carry on Wrasslin so he left for the mega bucks at WCW.

Vince looked upon Savage as a WWE 'lifer' and in some ways a son, so he has upset when Savage upped and left for the competition. I think this ripped his heart out and Vince simply held a grudge all those years.

Remember the 'Nacho Man'? Would Vince have made light of Savage if he was fucking his Daughter? Doubtful.

 

[Gavschenko]

I don't know much about the other stories but i remember watching the story of wrestlemania dvd and vince said that hogan didnt know what the finish was gonna be and he didnt know if andre was gonna let him slam him. I believe that's what vince said i havent watched it in ages but thats what i remeber him saying