This is a personal blog for this WrestleMania. My brother and I begged Mom to get this pay-per-view. She delivered. Thank you and love you, Mom. (Hopefully, she doesn't read this and find out that you can buy the network for $9.99 and get the pay-per-views along with it.) WrestleMania 8 was held on April 5, 1992 at the Hooiser/RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana. Apparently, there were traffic problems getting into the stadium as Gorilla Monsoon will point out during the first match. Reba McIntyre graced us with a sterling rendition of the Star Spangled Banner that rivaled Whitney Houston's vision at Super Bowl XXV.
EL MATADOR VS. SHAWN MICHAELS
A very competitive match between two Hall of Famers. Michaels was in the beginning of his legendary singles run and had Sensational Sherri in his corner, which actually clicked. Matthews would get the win by using heel tactics.
JAKE "THE SNAKE" ROBERTS VS. THE UNDERTAKER
Okay, right off the bat, Jake Roberts' tights were just not PG or even PG-13. There was a naked woman with a snake surrounding her while covering her private parts. 12 year old me was in shock. And awe also. The match was an Undertaker domination. Despite Jake Roberts hitting two picture-perfect DDT's, the Undertaker gets the win by hitting the Tombstone from the outside, which Jake sold as if he was straight up murdered in front of the Hooiser/RCA Dome crowd.
INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE: "ROWDY" RODDY PIPER VS. BRET "HITMAN" HART
In the pre-match interview, Piper kept referencing how he and Hart were when they were kids. Remember folks, Roderick Toombs (Roddy Piper) is originally from Canada, not Scotland. The match was an absolute classic. WWE writers and agents of today, this is how you book a babyface vs. babyface championship match. Back and forth, one man goes up, one man goes down. Hart would be bloodied, because he bladed!? However, Hart wasn't fined for it. Towards the end of the match, Piper teased a heel turn by grabbing the ring bell and threatening to hit Hart with it. The crowd was pleading Piper not to do it, which he complied to the fans' liking. The ending featured Piper putting a sleeperhold on Hart. Hart countered in one of the most brilliant manuevers in wrestling history. While in the sleeperhold, Hart put his feet on the top turnbuckle, pushed off and while falling backwards with Piper still using the sleeperhold, Hart used his body weight to pin him. Piper and Hart would embrace after the match.
Then they did a segment with Heenan interviewing Lex Luger to announce the World Bodybuilding Federation. People will give Vince McMahon crap about the XFL tanking, but not everyone really talks about the failure of the WBF. Remember IcoPro?
EIGHT MAN TAG MATCH: NASTY BOYS, REPO MAN AND THE MOUNTIE VS. HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN, SGT. SLAUGHTER, BIG BOSS MAN AND VIRGIL
Very serviceable, quick match. Nothing special. Virgil pins one of the Nasty Boys for the victory. The highlight was before the match when Family Feud host Ray Combs was making fun of the heels.
WWF CHAMPIONSHIP: RIC FLAIR VS. "MACHO MAN" RANDY SAVAGE
This should have been the main event. This also should have been Flair vs. Hogan. As legend goes, Flair vs. Hogan didn't get the reaction that the company wanted at house shows, so they inserted Macho Man in the title match. It turned into one of the greatest title matches in WrestleMania history. My opinion, of course. I'm not going to get deep into this, because I plan on doing a blog for this match alone. Flair claimed that he had a fling with Macho Man's wife, Miss Elizabeth. It turned out to be a ruse. In a near 20 minute classic, Savage defeated Flair by an inside cradle while yanking on Flair's tights as leverage.
TATANKA VS. RICK MARTEL
This match was good, but the highlight was the squabble between Monsoon and Heenan regarding the title match. This match would start a very profitable months long rivalry between both competitiors.
TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP: MONEY INC. VS. NATURAL DISASTERS
I liked the Money Inc. tag team, because they consist of two technically sound wrestlers in Ted DiBiase and Mike Rotunda. They really didn't need Jimmy Hart since both were good on the mic, but Hart was the third element that worked. The match wasn't great, because the Disasters dominated. The ending was that Money Inc. decided to grab their belts and go home.
OWEN HART VS. SKINNER
This lasted less than 2 minutes. Owen Hart did a sweet flip off the turnbuckle, only for Skinner to spit tobacco in his face. Hart wins with a roll-up. Not really exciting.
SID JUSTICE VS. HULK HOGAN
This was the main event. Meh. This was supposed to Hogan's "retirement" match as he would take a "vacation" from the WWF. Justice as a psycho heel is a treat. During one promo weeks before the event, Justice called himself "a fuel-injected suicide machine". Savage! He would destroy jobbers and dress them in Hogan's merch as he would continue to pummel them after the match was over. This match was.....below expectations. As Justice enters the ring, Bobby Heenan uses quotes to describe how unstable Sid Justice is. "The ol' elevator doesn't go to the top, he's not playing with a full deck of cards". I actually use these quotes today! Thank you, Bobby Hennan, R.I.P. So, Hogan was "hulking" up and hit his "patented" legdrop. This is where the twist happens. Justice kicked out and Harvey Whippleman came on the apron and caused a DQ, but that wasn't supposed to happen. Papa Shango came out and help Justice beat down Hogan. Unfortunately, Shango should have done that minutes earlier since he missed his cue to go to the ring. Then the Ultimate Warrior appears! Yes, the same Ultimate Warrior that held the company up for more money at SummerSlam 1991 (Blog for that event at a later date). Warrior helps Hogan fight off the heels and they celebrate in the ring as fireworks go off to end the show.
WrestleMania 8 is an underrated classic and one of my personal favorites. Obviously.
So, I have one more WrestleMania review to do before the big event next Sunday and I will pick one randomly and it will be......Oh, f
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