Joel: I have to say, it’s watching WrestleManias like this that make me wonder how more modern WrestleManias are going to look to an audience that is watching them thirty years from now. Yes, by this point they’re really starting to get the “WrestleMania feel” down. The show itself feels like a big deal, but pretty much all of that is centered around one match. The Mega Powers feud is a storyline that has pretty much been a year in the making since Randy Savage won the title at WrestleMania the previous year, but no other match on the card has that kind of feel to it. Instead it simply feels like there was a card to fill so they filled it. It didn’t help that so much time was dedicated to the Morton Downey Jr. segment which felt like a long Raw segment that somehow stumbled its way onto WrestleMania. (I know Raw didn’t exist yet, but you know what I mean.) Looking at this makes me wonder how we’re going to feel looking back at, let’s say WrestleMania 29. With so much buildup to the “Twice in a Lifetime” match is anybody going to remember any of the other feuds? The Punk/Undertaker buildup probably, but I’m having trouble remembering that card now and it’s only been a few years.
A few highlights were Mr. Perfect facing off with The Blue Blazer (Owen Hart) in what was probably the best in ring performance of the show, and Brutus Beefcake vs. Ted Dibiase which was a fine match with two talented performers that ended up leaving a bit of a sour taste when it ended with a double countout. But for the most part this WrestleMania was a struggle to get through. The show gave me no reason to care about any match other than the Main Event so everything prior to that point felt like a chore to get through.
Speaking of the Main Event, personal preference means that I would have loved to see a Savage victory but I understand that this is still a WrestleMania from the 1980s so Hogan has to be celebrating in the ring at the end of the show. Still, it did feel like a big deal that these two were fighting, and had I been watching live instead of twenty-five years later, I could see how I could have believed that the match might be going either way.
I do want to note however that WrestleMania V was the first show to ever win the Wrestling Observer’s “Worst Major Show of the Year” award.
Best WrestleMania so far: Still WrestleMania III.
Kue: Two things stand out from this particular Mania: the main event and the misuse of the soon-to-be-known-as the New Generation class of wrestlers. With a card so cluttered with tag matches, Teddy Long would have to buckle up for it, none delivered to the capacity of satisfaction. Even the Rockers (squandered in a match with the Twin Towers) and the Hart Foundation (in a snooze fest against Honky Tonk and Greg “the sexist” Valentine) were in throwaway performances. And besides Henning/Blazer, none of the singles matches were worth the watch either.
The main event, however, delivered in spades. Savage carried Hogan to a passable match, and the drama more than made up for anything lacking technically. This is by far my favorite match involving Hogan.
Other interesting mentions include Rude besting Warrior for the IC title, Piper’s Pit, and Run DMC’s “Wrestlemania Rap”
Chris: The show where the Mega Powers exploded. A former tag team in which Joel’s wife wanted to reform to face off against Axelmania and Macho Mandow and then Joel didn’t think to jump in and tell her in how many ways would that never be able to happen. That doesn’t really have anything to do with Wrestlemania 5, it’s just something fun I like to mention. Am I done with this review yet? Because man did this one fall flat for me and that sentiment was given an exclamation point during the Morton Downey Jr segment that should have never happened during a Wrestlemania and it damn sure should’ve have gone on that long. Sure, the main event helped out a ton to improve the show but that’s mostly because I’m fully in the proverbial tank for Macho Man (as the rest of you should be). But beyond all of that, this show went up in smoke. See what I did there?
BD: Ah, the first WrestleMania that felt like a real WrestleMania after 3 that didn’t and 1 transition year. Match quality, this main event blows the other ones out of the water. Certainly not the best match Savage ever had, but certainly one of the best Hogan ever had. It also had not much to speak of regarding an upper-card, but as far as a mid-card it was solid – Jake Andre, Warrior Rude, etc, and tag matches as far as the eye could see. Bizzare amount of tag matches. The Horsemen and The Bushwhackers both won.
We at Trashy Ring Attire recommend.
