10 Fascinating WWE WrestleMania 4 Facts
1. Ted Dibiase Was Originally Booked To Win The Tournament
Shock of shocks, Savage's big night originally was not to be. Stories have made the rounds that The Million Dollar Man was supposed to escape Atlantic City with the gold. Based on the original brackets, it makes a little more sense how it was to have played out.
The quarterfinals would have been (based on long-held beliefs, as well as speculation on my part) Hulk-Andre, possibly Rude-Muraco, Savage-Valentine, and Gang-Dibiase. Hulk would've barely survived Andre (taking a heavy toll on him), Rude beats Muraco, Savage topples Valentine, and Dibiase pays Gang to fake an injury and forfeit their match. In the semis, an exhausted Hogan outlasts Rude, and Dibiase uses chicanery to beat Savage. The final was likely to have been Dibiase beating Hogan by countout with Andre's help to win the belt, and then Hogan would've chased Dibiase for the gold throughout the summer.
So what happened? The Honky Tonk Man refused to drop the Intercontinental title to Savage in February, and WWE apparently didn't have the means to force him to do so. So they reconfigured the tournament brackets to have Savage beat Dibiase in the finals, to have at least one babyface champion. There was apparently heat for some time between Honky and Dibiase over this. The Million Dollar Belt was created as something of a consolation prize for Dibiase as a result.