Hulk Hogan entered 1988 as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion for four years and many wondered who was going to stop him. The biggest and baddest of the WWF could not take the title away from him so it figured that no one could beat him. However, one man had the idea of if you can't beat him, buy him.
That man was the "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, who entered the WWF wanting to be the WWF World Heavyweight Champion, but wanted to buy it, figuring he could buy it as he bought everything in his life. His famous quote was "everybody's got a price." However, Hogan could not be bought as he regularly refused DiBiase's offer.
DiBiase had another ace up his sleeve as ended up paying Andre the Giant to get the title from Hogan and sell it to him. Hogan continued his feud with Andre that lasted most of 1987 as the two were scheduled to meet for the title on the special edition of The Main Event (a spin off of Saturday Night's Main Event) held live on NBC on Friday Night, February 5, 1988 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
In order to defeat Hogan, DiBiase devised a plan to have a crooked referee screw him out of the title as it was the only way they could pry the title away from Hogan. Dave Hebner was the assigned referee for the match. However, DiBiase locked him in a closet and Dave's "evil" identical twin brother Earl Hebner took his place for the match as DiBiase paid him off.
Andre gave Hogan a belly-to-belly suplex and then pinned him. Earl Hebner counted three despite Hogan clearly having his shoulder up before three. Earl still counted the pin and Andre won the match and the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, ending Hogan's reign as champion of a whopping 1,474 days, the third-longest in WWE history.
Hogan complained that he got his shoulder up as Dave Hebner made his way down to confront Earl. The brothers argued and fought as Hogan knew Earl screwed him out of the championship as he picked him up and threw him out of the ring.
The Main Event drew a 15.2 Nielsen Rating and 33 million viewers, both American wrestling television records. Andre immediately surrendered the WWF Championship over to DiBiase, who bought the title from Andre. WWF President Jack Tunney declared that illegal and vacated the WWF Championship.
A 14-man tournament would be held at WrestleMania IV on March 27, 1988 from Atlantic City, New Jersey where the winner would be the new WWF World Heavyweight Champion. Since Hogan and Andre were the final two champions, they received an automatic bye into the second round and faced off against each other in the second round.
Hogan and Andre fought to a double disqualification when both men hit each other with a steel chair and both were eliminated from the tournament. Ted DiBiase beat Jim Duggan and Don Muraco and along with a bye from Hogan and Andre being eliminated, he went straight to the finals. He would face Randy Savage, who had a tough road defeating Butch Reed, Greg Valentine, and One Man Gang.
DiBiase was more fresh in the final matchup as he had the bye to the finals when he faced a more tired Savage in the finals of the WWF Title Tournament. Both Hogan and Andre made their way to the ring to interfere in the match.
Hogan hit DiBiase in the back with a steel chair. Savage climbed to the top rope and hit him with the Flying Elbow Drop to win the match and win the WWF Championship for the first time in his career. Hogan and Elizabeth celebrated Savage's title win as The Mega Powers were now in full force.
The Mega Powers continued to feud with Andre and DiBiase (who called themselves The Mega Bucks) after WrestleMania and it set up the main event at the inaugural SummerSlam PPV on August 29, 1988 from Madison Square Garden. SummerSlam was the third annual PPV for the WWF due to the success of the previous two PPVs and it runs every year late in August.
The Mega Powers took on The Mega Bucks in the main event with heel announcer Jesse "The Body" Ventura as the special guest referee as DiBiase paid for his services. The match came to an end when Miss Elizabeth climbed to the ring apron and took her skirt off and revealed her underwear, causing DiBiase, Andre, and Ventura to be distracted. The fact that neither Hogan nor Savage was distracted either was amazing because I'd sure as hell would have been.
Savage climbed to the top rope and hit DiBiase with the Flying Elbow Drop and Hogan gave DiBiase the leg drop and pinned DiBiase. Ventura was reluctant to count three, but Savage slammed Ventura's arm down for the third time to win the match.
Since DiBiase could not win or buy the WWF Championship, DiBiase considered to create his own belt; the "Million Dollar Championship" belt. The Million Dollar belt was gold plated with cubic zirconia representing three large dollar signs on the front of the belt. It was never an official WWF title so it was rarely defended.
The Mega Powers next feuded with newcomer the Big Boss Man (Ray Traylor playing a correction's officer which was a former job of his) and Akeem (formerly the One Man Gang) known as "The Twin Towers." The Boss Man feuded with Hogan after handcuffing him and attacking him with his nightstick and even managed to handcuff Elizabeth and was about to hit her with the nightstick before being stopped by Savage.
Savage was not happy with Hogan getting Liz into trouble and having Liz as his manager. Savage also became jealous of Hogan giving tons of attention to Elizabeth and being rated lower on the totem pole even though he was the WWF World Champion as this would cause the eventual end of The Mega Powers.
Vince McMahon decided to air a special program the same night Jim Crockett Promotions held their Bunkhouse Stampede PPV on January 24, 1988. McMahon created the inaugural Royal Rumble event that was aired live on the USA Network the same night as the Bunkhouse Stampede, but that was shown on PPV instead of "free" on cable TV.
The inaugural Royal Rumble event took place at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main event featured a 20-man "Royal Rumble" battle royal where it saw two wrestlers starting the event following a random draw and every two minutes a new wrestler joined the Frey until all 20 wrestlers entered the match. The only way to eliminate your opponent was to throw them over the top rope and both of their feet have to touch the floor.
Bret "The Hitman" Hart was the very first contestant to enter the Royal Rumble as he drew number one and lasted over 25 minutes before being eliminated. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan won the very first Royal Rumble match by last eliminating the One Man Gang. The event was a success as it drew a then-cable TV wrestling record 8.2 rating.
The Royal Rumble began to be shown on PPV starting in 1989 as it joined WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series in the WWF PPV lineup. The Royal Rumble would always be shown at the end of January. The Royal Rumble match soon changed from 20 men to 30 and now the winner of the Royal Rumble gets a World title shot at that year's WrestleMania.
Demolition became the hot new top tag team in the company in 1988. Ax and Smash wore studded black leather outfits and leather style hockey masks to the ring, which they would take off to unveil their face paint as it resembled a lot like the band KISS. They had this awesome, bad ass sounding heavy metal sounding entrance theme. They would be heels and accompanied to the ring by their manager Mr. Fuji.
At WrestleMania IV, Demolition defeated Strike Force to win the WWF Tag Team Championship for the first time. They would hold off challenges from top tag teams like The British Bulldogs and The Hart Foundation. Demolition defeated The Hart Foundation at SummerSlam '88. Demolition next feuded with newcomers The Powers of Pain, who came over from Jim Crockett Promotions.
At Survivor Series, Mr. Fuji betrayed Demolition as he helped The Powers of Pain win the tag team elimination match. Demolition turned face while The Powers of Pain turned heel. Demolition were super popular with the fans despite being heels as it was time to turn them into faces. Demolition ended the year still as champions.
"Ravishing" Rick Rude was one of the company's top heels as he took off his robe to unveil his really muscular body for all the women in the audience. He would also make fun of the men in the audience calling them "Fat" and "out of shape" and telling their ladies to see what a real man looks like. Rude would even kiss a woman from the audience that his manager Bobby Heenan picked for him.
One time, Heenan picked a woman sitting in the front row, but she refused to kiss him. After asking why she wouldn't kiss him, she revealed she was actually Cheryl Roberts, the wife of Jake "The Snake" Roberts.
Roberts would then attack Rude any chance he could get. Rude once wore a pair of tights with a picture of Cheryl airbrushed on them and an angry Roberts ran in and attacked him and stripped him of his tights.
One of the company's rising young stars started to become big as they started to push The Ultimate Warrior less than a year after he entered the company. The Ultimate Warrior was one of the most popular if not most popular superstars in the company.
He was known for his high energy ring entrances as he ran to the ring at full speed and entered the ring violently shaking the ropes to amazement of the crowd. He was also known for his bright, neon-colored face paint and outfits with tassels around his biceps.
Much like Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior would "no sell" his opponents attacks as he starts to shake the ropes as he showed he was impervious to pain. He would channel his "warriors" (known as his fan base) to help him out to win a match.
The Ultimate Warrior defeated Hercules Hernandez at WrestleMania IV in his Wrestlemania and WWF PPV debut. His next PPV appearance would definitely be the biggest of his young career so far. He was scheduled to face The Honky Tonk Man for the Intercontinental Championship at SummerSlam '88.
Honky Tonk Man was supposed to defend the title against Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake at SummerSlam, but Beefcake was injured by "Outlaw" Ron Bass before the event and could not compete. They made Honky face a mystery opponent as Honky said it didn't matter who he'd face he'd beat them.
All of a sudden, The Ultimate Warrior's music played and he burst to the ring. The Warrior quickly squashed Honky in about 30 seconds to win the match and win the WWF Intercontinental Championship, his first title. Honky's reign as champion ended at 454 days, which still remains the record for longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion of all-time.
The Ultimate Warrior would continue his rise in popularity in 1989 as Hulk Hogan and "Macho Man" Randy Savage would split as The Mega Powers split up.
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