WWE WrestleMania: What every main event should have been

WrestleMania IV

Actual main event: Randy Savage vs. Ted Dibiase

What the main event should have been: Randy Savage vs. Ted Dibiase

In a perfect world, I would have gone with a rematch of Ricky Steamboat and Randy Savage here. Their match at WrestleMania III is still one of the greatest matches in WrestleMania history (some would even call it the best of all time), and them winding up in the finals of the WWE Championship tournament would have been epic. However, Steamboat was essentially on his way out of WWE at the time, so I just couldn’t justify doing that.

Therefore, I’ve decided to keep the main event of WrestleMania IV what it was, Randy Savage vs. Ted Dibiase for the vacant WWE Championship. Some would say that Hogan vs. Dibiase would have made for the better ending to the drama surrounding that storyline, but this was the right call. Hogan had been champion for more than four years before losing the belt to Andre the Giant on The Main Event on Feb. 5, 1988, which was done to perfection. Andre then handed the belt to The Million Dollar Man, who had been trying to buy it from Hogan for months. That didn’t sit well with WWE President Jack Tunney, who vacated the title and created a 14-man tournament to crown a new champion.

Hogan and Andre would once again square off, but they battled to a double disqualification in the second round after receiving first-round byes. Hogan then threw his support to Savage, with whom he’d formed an unlikely alliance in the months leading up to the event, and actually helped Savage win the belt in the finals. Savage and Dibiase didn’t get a ton of time, but they put on a good match and told a great story. I still think Hogan stayed in the ring a little too long during Macho Man’s celebration, but Savage finally got his moment and ended up holding the WWE Championship for nearly a full year.