14. WrestleMania IV - Perennial Push Plans Postponed
One of those additional WrestleMania backup plans had to be called upon in 1988. Initial plans that had Ted DiBiase winning the WrestleMania IV tournament were changed and a concession made to Randy Savage and the audience (Savage was getting red hot) when Honky Tonk Man refused to drop the Intercontinental title to Savage on The Main Event. This is probably one of the most well-known plan changes in WrestleMania history, but there was another superstar that was also supposed to use WrestleMania IV as a catapult into a singles push but didn't. In the show-opening battle royal, Bret "Hitman" Hart was the second-to-last man standing before having his loyalty betrayed by the match's winner, Bad News Brown. The Hitman then destroyed Bad News' trophy as a small measure of revenge. Bret was now the runner-up in two different WrestleMania battle royals, the first occurring when Andre The Giant last eliminated him at WrestleMania 2 (another event that impacted Bret's planned singles push). WrestleMania IV was supposed to lead to a Bret Hart versus Bad News program with The Hitman continuing his career as a solo performer. As it turned out, though, Bret would soon be paired back up with Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart and The Hart Foundation began their memorable run as a top babyface tag team.