WrestleMania III

Production

Background

WrestleMania is considered the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF, now WWE) flagship professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event, having first been held in 1985. It is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. Unlike the previous year's WrestleMania 2, WrestleMania III was only scheduled to be held at one location: the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan on March 29, 1987.

Storylines

Like the previous WrestleMania events, WrestleMania III was promoted for several months in advance. The main feud stemmed from André the Giant's heel turn and betrayal of his friend, the WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan, which began on an episode of Piper's Pit when WWF President Jack Tunney presented Hogan with a trophy for being the WWF World Heavyweight Champion for three years. André, Hogan's good friend, came out to congratulate him but cryptically remarked: "Three years to be a champion, it's a long time". A week later on another episode of Piper's Pit, Tunney presented André with a visibly smaller trophy for being "undefeated in the WWF for 15 years", and Hogan came out to congratulate André. But before The Giant could speak, Hogan ended up being the focal point of the interview. Annoyed by this, André stormed out during Hogan's congratulation speech. A week later on yet another Piper's Pit segment, Jesse Ventura hinted he knew something about André, but wasn't telling. This infuriated Piper and the two nearly came to blows before Ventura asserted that he could produce André the next week, asking Piper, "Can you produce Hogan?". Piper agreed and nervously asked Hogan later on, who agreed. The following week, Hogan was on Piper's Pit first when André walked out with Bobby Heenan, a long-time adversary of Hogan and André. Heenan announced himself to be André's new manager. André then challenged Hogan to a title match at WrestleMania III and attacked Hogan, ripping off Hogan's T-shirt and crucifix necklace.

Another main feud leading up to the event was between Ricky Steamboat and the Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage. The feud began during a title match between the two when Savage attacked Steamboat as he greeted fans at ringside. Savage then pushed Steamboat over the security rail and delivered an elbow shot that thrust Steamboat's throat into the rail and dropped the ring bell onto his throat from the top rope, injuring his larynx and sending him to the hospital. This resulted in a long, bitter feud that lasted for six months, included several bloody match-ups, and finally culminated at WrestleMania. George Steele was in Steamboat's corner, having developed a crush on Savage's valet, Miss Elizabeth.

Billy Jack Haynes and Hercules' feud started when Bobby Heenan continuously taunted Haynes, telling him that Hercules was the real master of Haynes' finishing move, the full nelson; which came to a boiling point when Hercules attacked Haynes on an edition of Superstars of Wrestling, which led to their match at WrestleMania. This battle was advertised as the "Full Nelson Challenge."

Event

WWF owner Vince McMahon claims that as he was about to announce "Welcome to WrestleMania III," he felt the spirit of his father Vincent J. McMahon, who had died three years earlier. After McMahon welcomed the audience, he introduced Aretha Franklin, who opened the show singing a rendition of "America the Beautiful."

The first match of the night was The Can-Am Connection (Rick Martel and Tom Zenk) versus Bob Orton Jr. and The Magnificent Muraco (with Mr. Fuji). This match ended when Martel gave Muraco a high cross-body with Zenk on his hands and knees giving Muraco what Gorilla Monsoon called "A little high school trip from behind" allowing Martel to get the win for his team.

The next match that aired was Hercules (with Bobby Heenan in his corner) against Billy Jack Haynes in the "Full Nelson Challenge." The match ended when Haynes locked Hercules in the full nelson outside the ring and both were counted out. After the match, Heenan assaulted Haynes by kneeing him in the back after Haynes had applied the full nelson to Hercules outside the ring. Haynes then chased Heenan into the ring, where Hercules blindsided Haynes with his chain, hitting him a number of times before locking a bloodied Haynes into his own full nelson.

The Mixed Tag Team Match between King Kong Bundy and his professional wrestling midget team of Lord Littlebrook and Little Tokyo against Hillbilly Jim and his own team of the Haiti Kid and Little Beaver was next. The rules were that only midgets could fight midgets and that neither Bundy nor Hillbilly was allowed to attack the midgets, though at one point, Bundy tagged in and Little Beaver refused to tag out immediately, even hitting the 458 lb (208 kg) "Walking condominium" with a dropkick to no effect before bailing with a tag to Hillbilly Jim. King Kong Bundy's team was disqualified when Bundy attacked Little Beaver because Bundy was not supposed to be in the ring with the midgets. After Beaver had attacked Bundy on occasion during the match, he finally got caught and Bundy attacked Little Beaver, hitting him with a body slam before dropping an elbow across his chest.

The "Loser Must Bow" match between the Junkyard Dog and Harley Race (with Bobby Heenan and The Fabulous Moolah) followed. Prior to the match, Gene Okerlund interviewed Heenan, Race, and Moolah backstage, where Moolah predicted that Junkyard Dog would have to bow to the King as he is supposed to do. Bobby then gave Moolah the crown and told her to put it on the King's head after the match, "As only the Queen of Wrestling can do". Junkyard Dog came out to the ring to a big ovation in the Silverdome. During the match, the two battled back and forth, with Race even trying unsuccessfully to give the prone Dog a falling headbutt which naturally failed. Following this, Race recovered enough to give the Junkyard Dog a belly to belly suplex when he was distracted by Bobby Heenan to get the win. Due to the pre-match stipulation, JYD did a little bow and then hit Race from the blindside with a steel chair to a rousing ovation from the crowd. After attacking Race, Junkyard Dog took the King's royal robe and left the ring with it in hand to a standing ovation.

Main event

In what has since been billed as the "biggest main event in sports entertainment," the final match pitted WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan defending the title against André the Giant. Howard Finkel introduced the guest ring announcer, Bob Uecker, who in turn introduced the guest timekeeper, Entertainment Tonight host Mary Hart. The fans booed André heavily and pelted him and his manager Bobby Heenan with trash as they rode the cart to the ring. In contrast, Hogan, who walked to the ring, came out to a huge ovation. Approximately one minute into the match, Hogan attempted to bodyslam André, but was unable to lift The Giant and nearly lost when Andre fell on him and almost pinned him. After the match had battled back and forth, André gave Hogan an Irish whip to the far side of the ring and attempted a big boot on Hogan, but Hogan ducked it and came off the ropes to give André a clothesline to take him off his feet for the first time in the match. Hogan then "Hulked up" and scoop slammed the 525 lb (238 kg) Giant before hitting the ropes and executing his leg drop pin to get the win and retain the championship.

Reception

The event has received positive reviews. In the years after WrestleMania III, the Savage vs. Steamboat match has been ranked by critics and other wrestlers as one of the greatest matches in professional wrestling. Pro Wrestling Illustrated and Wrestling Observer Newsletter named it 1987's Match of the Year. IGN ranked it at number 6 in their Top 20 Matches in WrestleMania History. Steamboat described the match as "the moment in time that defined me as a wrestler." Thomas Golianopoulos of Complex Sports ranked it at number two in his list of the 50 Greatest Matches in WrestleMania History, citing that "Both guys worked lightning fast and everything from Steamboat's aggressiveness to the involvement of George "The Animal" Steele played off their part." David Otunga picked it as WWE.com's Five-Star Match of the Week in December 19, 2012.

The main event between Hulk Hogan and André the Giant is regarded as one of the pivotal matches in the history of the WWE, with Hogan's body slam on André having become an iconic moment of both wrestlers' careers as well as of the 1980s professional wrestling boom overall. Despite its historic importance, the match was also criticized for its quality. At the time, it received a negative four star rating from Dave Meltzer and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter named it the "Worst Worked Match of the Year." Meltzer would later increase his rating to one star out of five. In 2020, 411Mania's Larry Csonka gave the match one star, stating "The match is not good in any way shape or form; but is one I completely appreciate for its historical importance." Kevin Pantoja, also a writer for 411Mania, gave the match two stars in 2019, stating "Technically, this isn't any good. However, I don't think it's nearly as bad as some people do". The match will be inducted into the 2026 WWE Hall of Fame in the Immortal Moment category.

There have been numerous claims that the quoted attendance figure of 93,173 — which established a world record attendance for an indoor event — was false and that the real attendance figure was only around 78,000. Meltzer pointed that 78,000 is attributed to Zane Bresloff, the local promoter for the event.

Officially, WrestleMania III remained highest-attended event in WWE history until surpassed by WrestleMania 32 in 2016, with an official figure of just over 101,000 in attendance. As with WrestleMania III, this figure has also been disputed, with subsequent analyses assessing the actual number between 93–94,000.

Aftermath

Roddy Piper went on to film Hell Comes to Frogtown and They Live and made sporadic appearances on television before finally returning to host a Piper's Pit segment at WrestleMania V. Piper continued to be active in professional wrestling at various points for more than two decades. The first televised match between André and Hogan after WrestleMania III was on The Main Event I on NBC on February 5, 1988, drawing a record 33 million viewers, making it the most-watched match in North American professional wrestling history. The angle surrounding this match was that after winning the match, André ended Hogan's four-year reign as WWF champion with the help of a worked screwjob finish involving twin referees Earl and Dave Hebner. Their feud culminated in a rematch at WrestleMania IV as part of a tournament to crown a new champion (both ended up being disqualified during the match for using a steel chair in front of referee Joey Marella). The Hogan/Andre match at WrestleMania IV was the first-ever WrestleMania rematch.

Randy Savage continued to challenge Ricky Steamboat for the Intercontinental title in rematches at house shows across the country. Steamboat eventually lost the title to The Honky Tonk Man, and not long after, Savage became a face and feuded with Honky Tonk over the title. On September 4, 1987, Randy Savage won the King of the Ring by defeating King Kong Bundy.

Twenty years later, WrestleMania 23 celebrated WrestleMania III by returning to the Detroit metropolitan area, showing footage from WrestleMania III, having Aretha Franklin ("Who's Zoomin' Who?" by Franklin was the theme song to WrestleMania III) sing "America the Beautiful", and having Kane scoop slam The Great Khali. WrestleMania 23 had the highest buyrate of any WrestleMania in history, before getting beaten by WrestleMania XXVIII.

Also in 2007, WrestleMania III was re-released on DVD. The DVD included pre-WrestleMania interviews and matches, including the battle royal from Saturday Night's Main Event X that Hercules won, and optional pop-up trivia facts about the event. WrestleMania III was re-released on DVD on March 12, 2013. Fox Sports 1 later rebroadcast the event on May 12, 2020.

The event's Hogan/Andre match was inducted into the "Immortal Moment" wing of the 2026 WWE Hall of Fame by Jimmy Hart, with Hogan's son Nick and Andre's daughter Robin accepting the induction of their parents; both Andre and Hogan were by this point in time deceased.