It’s arguably probably the most famous wrestling match within the history of the business, and on the 2026 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, the principal event of WrestleMania 3 between Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant will take its rightful place within the Hall of Fame as only the second match to be the recipient of the Immortal Award that was created last yr.
Hogan and Andre have already been inducted into the Hall of Fame previously, with Andre actually being the very first inductee all the way in which back in 1993 shortly after his death, while Hogan was inducted individually in 2005, and as a member of the Latest World Order in 2020. Each men are icons of the business, but when there’s one match that really defined their careers, their WWE Championship showdown on the Pontiac Silverdome on March 29, 1987 must be it.
The match’s story was born out of Andre feeling underappreciated by the corporate as Hogan overshadowed principally all the things Andre did. Despite being friends, Andre was offended at Hogan being the focus of WWE on the time, especially when Hogan’s trophy for being WWE Champion for 3 years was noticeably larger than Andre’s trophy for being undefeated for 15 years, and the Giant snapped. Andre would join forces with Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, rip the shirt off of Hogan’s back on an episode of “Piper’s Pit,” and issued the challenge of all challenges for WrestleMania 3 — something Hogan didn’t want to simply accept on the time as he desired to preserve their friendship. Nonetheless, when Hogan realized that Andre cared more about championship glory than friendship, Hogan accepted, and the match was on.
We here at Wrestling Inc. have covered quite a lot of matches on the road to WrestleMania 42 to get us excited for the massive event on April 18 and 19, and with this match now taking its place within the WWE Hall of Fame, there isn’t a higher time than now to shine a highlight on it. Let’s take a have a look at Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant for the WWE Championship from WWE WrestleMania 3!
It’s Superb. Historic, But Superb
Going back this far and watching certain matches from the Nineteen Eighties, you may have to try to put yourself within the mindset of what it will be like to look at it in 1987. You possibly can’t sit there with the eyes of somebody who has watched one other 39 years of wrestling, different styles, different countries, the evolution of the business. We have seen a lot change since Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant headlined WWE WrestleMania 3 so you may have to take a few of the sloppier moments with a grain of salt.
Having said all of that, for as historic as this match is, and as vital because it is… it’s high-quality.
Is it worthy of going into the WWE Hall of Fame this yr? For the body slam and the occasion and the setting and the lads involved, obviously it’s. On all of those bases it probably must have been inducted before Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin’s bout from WrestleMania 13 despite that being objectively the higher match. But is it an excellent match? That is just a little more debatable.
It’s actually an important performance from Hogan because the guy was literally working with a large of a person in Andre who at this point in his life could barely move. Andre famously wore his one-shoulder singlet over his traditional trunks to cover the back brace he was wearing because the pressure of being that giant on a regular basis worn down his spine into dust by 1987. The undeniable fact that Hogan was in a position to get him up for the body slam is THE WrestleMania moment, you only should ignore the undeniable fact that Hogan did actually body slam Andre a number of years earlier… and he is not the just one who did it… and most can be found to look at.
The finish does come out of nowhere for me, and with the match clocking in at just over 12 minutes, it doesn’t feel like a significant principal event style match at times. Just a few minutes earlier, Andre delivers a Back Body Drop to the exposed concrete that Hogan doesn’t need to take since it doesn’t work for him (brother), making the move appear to be it’s happening in slow motion. The purpose being that Andre does have control for the overwhelming majority of the match, so when Hogan bullrushes Andre to knock him off his feet for the primary time, he goes right for the body slam, then the Leg Drop, and that is it. It’s over similar to that. I might have liked to have seen some more construct up of the story of Hogan going for the body slam, relatively than him attempting it at first once, being worked over for 10 minutes after which just winning, but that is just my taste.
Again, it is important, it’s historic, it takes you back to an easier time. Nonetheless, it isn’t the best WrestleMania principal event ever, and it isn’t even the very best match on this show.
The Peak Of The World Wrestling Federation
Every generation of wrestling fans could have their distinct eras that they deem to be the very best. The “Attitude Era” will obviously be within the conversation of the very best era simply because of how successful it was, but additionally for the way accessible it was, making wrestling a mainstream talking point amongst normal, non-wrestling fans within the Nineties and 2000s. Some fans might even point to recently where WWE is making more cash than it knows what to do with, however the financial success of the past few years will likely be kind to the trendy era when it has been within the history books for some time.
Nonetheless, the “Rock and Wrestling Connection Era,” “The Hulkamania Era,” “The Nineteen Eighties Boom Era,” whatever you wish to call it, this for me is the height of the WWE. The corporate has never felt so vital and so grand because it was at WrestleMania 3. In any case, there can be not one of the eras mentioned in the primary paragraph without the success of an event like this or an era just like the one it exists in.
Yes, the 93,173 figure is fluffed up beyond belief to the purpose where shows like AEW All In London 2023 and WWE WrestleMania 32 have surpassed it from a ticket standpoint, but just have a look at this show. The concept of any wrestling company in 1987 filling a stadium this big should have been mindboggling. This wasn’t only a wrestling show, you can have found them in territories everywhere in the country in 1987, this was a cultural event that everybody, and I mean everyone knows about. Gorilla Monsoon’s call of “the irresistible force meeting the immovable object,” Andre The Giant’s singlet, Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat, even the little rings the wrestlers arrive on, there are such a lot of things from this show alone which can be embedded into each the minds of wrestling fans, and popular culture typically.
Whenever you have a look at what WrestleMania has grow to be up to now 40-plus years, every event chases what WWE achieved with WrestleMania 3. Hell, the corporate itself chases the success of this era with every decision it makes to at the present time it was that big. Nothing by way of size, figuratively and literally, has ever truly matched the era that many fans still seek advice from as “The Golden Era,” and that is the top of it. Is it a show that your friend who only began watching WWE when it moved to Netflix would enjoy? Probably not simply because it’s hard to look at a 1987 show through a 2026 set of eyeballs. But is it a show that each wrestling fan needs to look at? Absolutely.