Senseless Things Throughout Wrestling History

[Fuji Vice]

While the whole twin refs plastic surgery angle was a little too over the top, I thought things were perfect. Having Andre just cleanly pin Hogan would have ruined the entire story they were going for. After four years of being champion, it was clear that no one could defeat Hogan for the belt. This only added to the frustration of Ted DiBiase since from the moment he stepped in the WWE some months earlier, he had been trying to secure the belt. He tried beating Hogan, that failed. He tried buying Hogan off, that failed. Since DiBiase couldn't just buy someone off to beat Hogan and give DiBiase the belt (Remember, no one could beat Hogan), having anyone else do the bidding would have failed too.

This is where DiBiase was really put over as the top heel. First, he buys off the one guy who came closest to beating Hogan - Andre. WM 3 showed us that that wouldn't have been enough, so DiBiase did more evil deeds. He went out and paid a guy to imposter referee, Dave Hebner. Even that wasn't enough so DiBiase made sure that Virgil and himself were at ringside to distract Hogan as often as they could.

It was vital to make the win as dirty as possible to add more and more heel heat to DiBiase. For the fans, all they'd remember is that Hogan was screwed over more than anyone else in history. Hogan had everything going against him and that no good bastard, DiBiase, weaseled his way into being WWE World Champion, not by earning it, but by buying it.

It's an amazing beginning of an angle, but the angle also failed since they didn't conclude it properly. Having Savage win the belt didn't make any sense at the time. The whole story was DiBiase buying the belt and Hogan having to chase after it until the fans got to see what they wanted the most - Hogan beating DiBiase to get back what was truly his. Instead, they just used the start of this angle to begin the awesome Savage/Hogan program.

Having Andre cleanly beat Hogan wouldn't have done anything of real significance.

Admittedly me wanting Hogan to lose clean was probably more of an anti-Hogan sentiment than anything else, because even as a kid I wasn't a fan. That being said, would it have really mattered if they'd gone the clean route? As you say, the entire angle was a wash anyway, in the long run that is. I guess having the benefit of hindsight is a real blessing, because if the whole angle was going to fall apart at 'Mania IV I wouldn't have run it that way in the first place.

 

[Horrorfan_1986]

Well if Andre was going to win cleanly, why hold the belt up? I feel as if everything was built around making DiBiase seem as evil as possible. If Andre could just cleanly beat Hogan, then the story isn't really about DiBiase/Hogan. Furthermore, you're doing a hell of a job putting over a guy who could be done with wrestling at any moment.

 

[Fuji Vice]

Well if Andre was going to win cleanly, why hold the belt up? I feel as if everything was built around making DiBiase seem as evil as possible. If Andre could just cleanly beat Hogan, then the story isn't really about DiBiase/Hogan. Furthermore, you're doing a hell of a job putting over a guy who could be done with wrestling at any moment.

I guess I just felt that DiBiase already was as evil as possible. I mean the little vignettes of him screwing kids out of money was enough for me (as a kid) to hate him. Then there was his blatant racism in hiring a black man-servant and getting him to do his dirty work. Stuffing money in the mouths of his opponents was more fodder for hate, not to mention that I believe in his first match on Superstars he "payed" someone else to fight for him and then beat that guy up when he lost.

I think all of that was more than enough to make the hate for him hit the molten level, but yeah, I guess having a dummy ref have "plastic surgery" to cheat Hogan out of the belt helped as well! :

That being said, the money match would then logically have been Hogan/DiBiase. Regardless of the backstage politics going on at the time, I'm still not sure why that didn't come to fruition and the belt was put on Savage instead. I know the rumours, but none of them really fly with me.

 

[Horrorfan_1986]

All of that heel work by DiBiase was fine and well, but it's small time stuff. Any heel is a jerk enough to be mean to fans or other wrestlers. It takes a real heel to set up a master plan to "Win" the WWE World Title without actually stepping in the ring. DiBiase's actions at The Main Event separated him from every other heel in the company.

 

[Fuji Vice]

All of that heel work by DiBiase was fine and well, but it's small time stuff. Any heel is a jerk enough to be mean to fans or other wrestlers. It takes a real heel to set up a master plan to "Win" the WWE World Title without actually stepping in the ring. DiBiase's actions at The Main Event separated him from every other heel in the company.

I agree that they separated him, if even for a short time. Going into 'Mania IV I was sure he would somehow cheat his way to the title, which he almost did. After that he was set up to be the top heel for a long, long time. Sadly all that work ultimately led nowhere because of the Savage title win. A year later Savage was the top heel, Hogan was back as the number one face and DiBiase was fighting Beefcake at WM 5. How the mighty fell so quickly. I'm probably just bitter because the potential for a great angle was wasted and all that work making DiBiase the top heel was for naught.

 

[Swamps]

Harvey Whippleman winning the women's championship was too much. As was, Hornswoggle winning the Cruiserweight title.

Also the booking of Yokozuna was horrific. As Jim pointed out when discussing Yoko's run in 1993-94.