Miss Elizabeth was at ringside in a neutral corner for the first half of the main event before the referee sent her to the locker room area.

The undercard included matches pitting Ravishing Rick Rude against The Ultimate Warrior for the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship, The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) against Greg Valentine, and The Honky Tonk Man, and Demolition (Ax and Smash) against Powers of Pain, and Mr. Fuji in a handicap match for the WWF Tag Team Championship.

WrestleMania is considered the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF, now WWE) flagship pay-per-view (PPV) event, having first been held in 1985.

[1] Following the advent of Survivor Series in 1987 and then Royal Rumble and SummerSlam in 1988—WWF's four original annual pay-per-views—the four would eventually be dubbed the "Big Four".

[3] Other celebrity guests in attendance included Donald Trump, whose Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino was the main sponsor of the event, and Morton Downey Jr.[citation needed] The main feud heading into WrestleMania was between Hulk Hogan, and Randy Savage, who for most of the previous year were a unified team that referred to themselves as The Mega Powers.

The unit began forming after Savage wrestled The Honky Tonk Man for his Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship on the October 3, 1987 airing of Saturday Night's Main Event.

Later, Hogan faced Andre the Giant in a rematch of their championship bout from WrestleMania III on the premiere episode of The Main Event, which was broadcast live on February 5, 1988, in Indianapolis.

Still, the WWF World Heavyweight Championship was declared vacant as Andre was not permitted to surrender the title to another wrestler.

Another sign that tensions were beginning to mount came when Savage picked up Boss Man’s nightstick after a match with Akeem and glared at Hogan while he had his back turned, posing as he often did for the crowd.

On the January 7 Saturday Night’s Main Event in Tampa, Savage came out and cleared the ring with a steel chair after Hogan was receiving a post-match beating by the Twin Towers, and Akeem and Boss Man began threatening Elizabeth, Boss Man going so far as to grab Elizabeth's wrist.

[7] Finally, on February 2 at the live The Main Event II program from Milwaukee, the tensions between Hogan and Savage boiled over.

The two got into a loud and physical confrontation, where Savage blamed Hogan for what happened to Elizabeth and accused him of being jealous of his championship reign.

Savage eventually left the room, but not before assaulting Beefcake and the WWF officials who were dispatched to defuse the situation and tend to the injured Hogan.

The second main feud heading into WrestleMania was between Rick Rude and The Ultimate Warrior over the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship.

[12] Powers of Pain made Mr. Fuji their manager, leading to their WrestleMania encounter with Demolition for the tag titles in a 3-on-2 handicap match.

The André-Roberts feud, meanwhile, continued into early 1989, and eventually, Studd agreed to become the special guest referee for their match at WrestleMania.

The ninth match was between Jake "The Snake" Roberts and André the Giant (with Bobby Heenan), with Big John Studd as the Special Guest Referee.

André started the match by grabbing Roberts as he rolled into the ring and ran his head into the exposed steel turnbuckle.

Hart tagged in and connected with a backbreaker on Honky, but missed a double axe handle middle rope elbow drop.

As the match began, Heenan (still favoring his ribs due to his prior run-in with The Warrior), immediately covered on Rooster but failed.

[13][14][15] The main event was for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship between defending champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan with their manager Miss Elizabeth in a neutral corner.

Hogan threw Savage back in the ring and smashed him in the turnbuckle and followed with a running clothesline, a series of elbow drops and a big boot.

WWF financed a movie in 1989 titled No Holds Barred, which starred Hogan as the lead character Rip, and Tom Lister, Jr. acted as the villain Zeus.

This led to a tag team main event at SummerSlam, where Hogan and Beefcake defeated Zeus and Savage.

[19] After the No Holds Barred cage match, Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan would meet one last time in a WrestleMania V rematch for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship on The Main Event III.

Sensational Sherri interrupted the interview along with Savage, which caused Hogan to get involved and fall victim to a steel chair shot from the dethroned champion.

[21] Rick Martel turned heel and eventually transformed into "The Model", breaking up Strike Force and feuded with now former partner Tito Santana.

[22] Rick Rude defended his Intercontinental Championship primarily against The Ultimate Warrior, but also against other faces such as Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Jimmy Snuka.

With a successful Tag Team Championship defense, Demolition moved on to new feuds with The Twin Towers (Akeem and Big Boss Man) and the Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard).

Demolition would eventually lose the titles to Anderson and Blanchard on Saturday Night's Main Event XXII (taped July 18, 1989), following interference from André the Giant; Demolition's reign was 478 days, which remains the longest uninterrupted reign in the history of the classic WWF World Tag Team Championship, which was decommissioned in 2010.