Savage/Honky/Dibiase Wrestlemania deal?

[RCS1988]

Watch the beginning of PTW 11/26/87, and you will find the commentary to be hilarious. Monsoon says that this is pre-recorded and says that right now were currently at the Richfield Coliseum.

[MeanMike]

I dont really buy the warrior reason. They had been booking Beefcake to win the ic belt at summerslam 88 just like summerslam 90 was and both didnt happen. They were probably going to happen as mania 4 they started the feud so for some reason they played a injury angle.

Bad news feud I really dont see why they couldnt just book a wwf title match at the Rumble. You could still have say Hogan coming down at the end and accidentally nailing savage after bad news pearl harbours savage.

[Lee]

Neither was supposed to happen. Warrior was going to win the belt at SummerSlam 88 and Texas Tornado was going to win it in 1990 or 1991, his win just got pushed up to SummerSlam after Beefcake had his boating accident.

[MeanMike]

Neither was supposed to happen. Warrior was going to win the belt at SummerSlam 88 and Texas Tornado was going to win it in 1990 or 1991, his win just got pushed up to SummerSlam after Beefcake had his boating accident.

I think the early shows did actually say beefcake was wrestling perfect.

[Martelfan]

I think the intention was for Beefcake to put Perfect over at Summerslam, he wouldn't have won the belt, after the accident - which nobody could have forseen - the plans were changed and Von Erich was given a premature push.

The information in Lee's post is fascinating, I wonder how much it is 100% and how much is fabricated, you hear so many different versions of events.

Knowing Vince, knowing how he booked in those days, knowing that he had Hogans' LOUD refusal of the million dollar man bucks as a staple for 1988...why would he then just make DiBiase the champion without paying for it...from a booking angle, it didnt make sense. The way Ted did 'win' the belt (Andre giving it to him) is the ONLY way he could have won it.

I think - with a good six-seven weeks in between the The Main Event and WrestleMania, Honky could have won the belt back from Savage leaving Savage free for the tournament, it was only Honky's refusal to job that perpetuated the rumours.

[Lee]

I think the early shows did actually say beefcake was wrestling perfect.

Yes, in 1990 Beefcake was definitely supposed to face Perfect at SummerSlam, but as Martelfan says, the plan was for Beefcake to 'return the favour' from WrestleMania VI and Perfect would retain the title and drop it to Texas Tornado later on. Beefcake's accident was only a few days before SummerSlam which forced the substitution, and the call was made for Tornado to take the title instead since that was the long term goal anyway, and in those days if there was a substitution, you generally would put the babyface over to keep the crowd happy (plus bringing in Tornado and then having him lose his first high profile match so quickly wouldn't have done him any good.)

Knowing Vince, knowing how he booked in those days, knowing that he had Hogans' LOUD refusal of the million dollar man bucks as a staple for 1988...why would he then just make DiBiase the champion without paying for it...from a booking angle, it didnt make sense. The way Ted did 'win' the belt (Andre giving it to him) is the ONLY way he could have won it.

I think it would have given DiBiase more heat if anything, to 'prove' that he could win it on his own merits but having had the temerity to think he could just buy it, and based on the brackets that came out before plans changed, it's possible DiBiase wouldn't have even beat Hogan, essentially making Hogan a guy who'd lost his title unjustly with DiBiase as the perpetrator (even if things hadn't gone strictly to plan.)

[MeanMike]

Im sure one of the UK mags said Beefcake was booked to take the belt at summerslam. Alough agreed by survivor series he would of probably dropped it back. Alot of fans tend to forget that Vince was highly into Beefcake as if you look at his matches in 1988 - 1990 he rarely lost on tv if he did lose it was via a double DQ or double co. If vince wanted he could of booked perfect to beat Tornado and feud with someone else but it wasent happenning.

Part of me would of love to have seen Tito Santana get a rematch for the title seeing as he came so close to beating Curt at SNME. That was one match I thoroughly enjoyed.

[Lee]

Do you remember which magazine it was? As far as everything I've heard, once Tornado was signed, the belt was going to him and Beefcake was just going to give Perfect his win back from WrestleMania. 89-90 Beefcake was probably at his peak popularity-wise, although there were quite a few guys who were protected by never losing on TV. Anyone who was a mid-carder (or upper mid-card) would be protected unless they faced someone higher on the card, a tip top main eventer whoever.

Like I said, I think Beefcake was in line for the title in 1988 until Honky Tonk Man made his stand but after that I don't think he was considered as a champion, just a contender.

I'm not sure Santana-Perfect would have been any kind of draw for PPV at that point, especially after Santana had already lost but I gotta agree, that was a HELL of a match they had on SNME, LOVED that one, and Perfect's match with Boss Man a couple of months later.

[JJFlamingo]

Speaking of the Tito match, I wonder why on the WWE Mr. Perfect DVD set, all the matches were either losses or draws for Curt Hennig. A couple of his actual wins (loser leaves town over Flair, the Tito Title win etc.) would have been nice.

[MeanMike]

Maybe WWE thought people woulnt want to see heel wins.

As for Tito/Perfect drawing on PPV probably not but back then fans were behind Santana I remember marking out when he beat Akeem. The SNME match for me seemed like a better match than the one they had on Superstars. Shame the people wernt really behind Tito as it would of been a great chance to reclaim the belt.