Mike Reviews: WrestleMania VIII

Mike Reviews: WWF WrestleMania VIII

Seeing as we’re in WrestleMania week I thought I’d take a moment to post a review of a classic Mania event from 1992. This show kind of sums up 1992 WWF, with both the good and the bad on full display and a couple of notably great matches, as well as one of the biggest stinkers in Mania Main Event history.

So without further ado, let’s set the way back machine to 1992 for WrestleMania VIII

The event is emanating from the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana on the 5^th of April 1992

Calling the action are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Opening Match
Tito Santana Vs Shawn Michaels w/ Sensational Sherri

Tito was in the charming role of “Mexican Matador” during this period, which believe it or not was supposed to be the big repackaging that would reinvigorate him as a player on the roster, whereas Shawn had just thrown Marty Jannetty through a window a few months previously to start of his heel singles run. Sherri was still singing Shawn’s theme song here, and it’s definitely got a certain charm to it.

Bobby and Gorilla’s banter during this match really is hilarious, as they are throwing zingers at will. Shawn acts like a jerk to start so Tito shoves him and gets a cross body for two. Shawn fights out of a side headlock with some fists, but gets clotheslined over the top to the outside in response. Shawn yells at the crowd on the apron and gets dragged in with another headlock in a cute spot.

Tito continues to show good technical tactics by grinding Shawn down with the headlock, going back to it whenever he can. Gorilla does his usual annoying trait of talking down the technical wrestling; by saying he’s never seen anyone win with a headlock before. Thankfully, Bobby is on form and replies “I have. I can beat guys in hundreds of ways. I once made a guy submit during instructions!”

Sherri yells words of encouragement at Shawn, and it seems to work as he rallies to send Tito over the top to the outside. Sherri stalks Tito on the outside, but he crawls onto the apron before she can get him. That was still a great tease though. I really liked Sherri and Shawn as a tandem, they were perfect for each other at that particular period in time.

Back inside the ring, Shawn delivers a big back breaker for two, before going to a chin lock. Tito fights his way out of the hold but ends up walking into a super kick from Shawn. However, this was before Shawn was using that move as finisher, so the match continues. Shawn goes for the Tear Drop Suplex (The move he was actually using as his finish at the time) but Tito is able to counter it and sends Shawn tumbling outside with a flying forearm smash.

Tito heads outside to send Shawn face first into the ring steps and sends him back in, where he gets a sling shot shoulder block for two. Tito delivers an inverted atomic drop and gets another forearm, this time to the back of Shawn’s head, but Shawn once again rolls outside to avoid getting pinned. Tito tries to bring Shawn back in the hard way, but he tenaciously grabs the ropes and hangs on for dear life, which allows him to fall on top of Tito and hold him down long enough for three.

WINNER: SHAWN MICHAELS
RATING: ***

This was a solid opener, which did a good job of heating up the crowd whilst also giving the Michaels and Sherri pairing a semi-clean win on a big show.

Mean Gene Okerlund is on an interview podium and introduces the Legion of Doom, who come out with a debuting Paul Ellering. Ellering had managed the team during the NWA/WCW days, so his arrival in the WWF was supposed to highlight that the team was getting focused again for another run with the tag team titles. Sadly, they ended up saddling poor Ellering with a ventriloquist dummy called “Rocco”, which led to everything fizzling out, with the run coming to an end later in the year when Hawk bailed and Animal hurt his back in a match in Japan.

Jake “The Snake” Roberts cuts his usually evil and brilliant heel promo on The Undertaker, interspersed with clips of Jake assaulting Taker with a chair on an episode of the Funeral Parlour. Elsewhere, Taker and Bearer retort

Match Two
Jake “The Snake” Roberts Vs The Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer

Taker was merely 1-0 at this point in his WrestleMania streak. These two had been an evil duo during the latter half of 1991, but Undertaker had drawn the line at Jake trying to hit Elizabeth with a chair, and thus went face in the process. Jake ducks around to start and peppers Taker with right hands, which Taker cheerfully no sells in his usual style.

Jake knocks Taker over the top but he lands on his feet like a movie monster and drags Jake outside. Jake eats some ring post on the outside but gets the advantage back inside the ring. Taker blocks an Irish whip with one of his own and sends Jake into the corner, where he unleashes a choke (his primary offensive move for this period), before mixing things up with some throat thrusts. Well, no one ever pretended that early era Undertaker was a technical marvel did they?

Taker gets the jumping clothesline and prepares to finish Jake off, but Jake counters a Tombstone Piledriver attempt with a DDT out of nowhere. Taker sits right back up to a huge pop, so Jake gets the short arm clothesline and follows that with another DDT. This one seems to keep Taker down, so Jake heads outside to attack Bearer. However, Taker sits up once again and splats Jake with a Tombstone on the floor, before rolling his carcass back into the ring, where the resulting three count is academic

WINNER: THE UNDERTAKER
RATING: *1/2

Jake was off to WCW and had given notice, so they decided to have Taker pretty much destroy him here to cement his face turn and finally kill off the heel Jake character. The match itself was all punching and kicking, but it served its purpose and the crowd really got behind Undertaker.

Mean Gene is with both Roddy Piper and Bret Hart ahead of their upcoming Intercontinental Title match. Roddy spends the promo making jokes at Bret’s expense, which Bret doesn’t take kindly to, so Piper gets angry and goes off on a crazy rant. Piper yelling “Uh uh! Not today! She be mine!” is classic stuff.

Match Three
WWF Intercontinental Championship
Champion: “Rowdy” Roddy Piper Vs Bret “Hitman” Hart

Due to genuine fear of Bret jumping to WCW, the WWF had decided to take the belt off him earlier in the year, as The Mountie got to beat Bret for a quickie reign, before subsequently losing it to Piper at the Royal Rumble. With Bret’s status now sorted, he’s back in the title hunt, against his long-time pal.

We get the epic stare down to start, which helps give the match that special feel. Bret gets the better of things in the early technical battle, with Piper eventually getting annoyed and demanding a test of strength instead. Bret manages to power Piper down, as they subtly play up that Bret is the better actual wrestler of the two, although Piper had certain intangibles that Bret doesn’t.

Bret gets a dropkick and sells like he has hurt his shoulder, but he’s actually only playing possum and uses the opportunity to catch Piper with an inside cradle for two. This causes a frustrated Piper to rear back and slap The Hitman, before going to a headlock. Bret fights back and goes for a cross body block, which sends both men tumbling over the top to the outside.

Piper gets in first and offers to hold the ropes for Bret, but it’s all a ruse as he cheap shots him. That’s Bret’s own stupid fault if you ask me. As if you could trust Piper in such a situation! That’s like giving Jon Jones the key to a medical cabinet and expecting everything to still be there when you get back. Piper takes control of the match, as it appears that Bret has been busted open.

The WWF actually had a no blood policy at the time, but Bret was canny enough to lie and say the cut happened accidentally, which managed to get him out of a fine. Thankfully he didn’t tell that bitch Julie, as she would have probably stooged him off. Anyway, after taking some shots from Piper, Bret fights back and sends his opponent to the outside. Piper comes back in and we have a double down after both men go for a clothesline.

Piper heads up top, but Bret brings him down the hard way before getting an inverted atomic drop and a suplex for two. Bret unleashes the Russian Leg Sweep and the side back breaker next, but neither of them brings him a victory. Bret goes for the Sharpshooter, but Piper fights him off. Bret tries coming off the second rope with something, but Piper gets his boot up to halt that.

The referee takes a bump, which leads to Piper sending Bret over the top to the outside with a clothesline. Bret eats some stairs on the outside and Piper grabs the ring bell. The crowd are not down with this at all and practically beg Piper not to use the bell. After struggling with his conscience, Piper finally decides to put the bell down and go for a clean win with the sleeper instead. However, Bret is able to kick off the turnbuckles, which allows him to roll on top of Piper, trapping his shoulders down for the three count and the title.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: BRET HART
RATING: ****

This was a tremendous match, with Piper playing up his internal conflict perfectly. The blood definitely added to the match as well, as it made Bret seem like he was in real peril and also made for a great visual. Piper even shakes Bret’s hand following the bout as well, just to really give him that extra rub. Roddy Piper doing a clean job like this on a major event was practically unheard of, so this was a big deal at the time and really helped establish Bret as a star.

We have a break from the wrestling as Bobby Heenan interviews “The future WBF Champion” Lex Luger, on satellite delay. He cuts a good arrogant heel promo about how he’ll conquer the WWF and then downs a glass of milk. Once the WBF went under, he’d be back wrestling again as The Narcissist.

The Mountie, Nasty Boys and Repo Man cut a promo on their opponents in tonight’s big 8 Man Tag Match. Repo Man sneaking into the interview segment was a nice touch. It was a total loser gimmick, but he played it to the hilt and the entrance music is an all timer. We cut to Sgt Slaughter, Big Bossman, Jim Duggan and Virgil/Vincent/Shane/Curly Bill for their retort. Duggan says this will be a fight, not a wrestling match. Thanks for clearing that up for us Jim…

Match Four
Repo Man, The Nasty Boys and The Mountie
Vs
Virgil, Big Bossman, Jim Duggan and SGT Slaughter

Ray Combs from “Family Feud” introduces the heels and makes fun of them. The best insult is probably when he says that Repo Man isn’t two faced, because if he was he would be wearing the other one right now. Big kafuffle to start, as the faces clear the ring. Duggan and Saggs start things off officially, as Saggs jumps Duggan as he HOOOOOOOOOS at the fans. How dare you interrupt Jim Duggan mid HOOOOOOOOO!!! Duggan gets a couple of clotheslines and an atomic drop, before tagging in Slaughter. Knobs comes in and pounds away on Slaughter but takes a clothesline for his trouble and a chest breaker. That move was pretty powerful on WWF WrestleFest if I recall.

Bossman comes in with a big boot and some fists in the corner on Knobs, who manages to dodge a charge in the corner and tag in Repo. Bossman fights back with a low blow and some right hands. Virgil, the good technical wrestler of his team (And think about that for a second), comes in with a dropkick, but gets clobbered by The Mountie and becomes the face in peril. Virgil was actually wearing a protective mask at the time due to an assault from Sid Justice. Saggs gets a nice Pumphandle Slam on Virgil for two, but Bossman comes in with a spine buster and it all breaks loose. Some heel miscommunication involving Virgil’s mask allows Virgil to make the pin on Knobs for the win.

WINNER: DUGGAN, SLAUGHTER, BOSSMAN AND VIRGIL
RATING: *

Are you a connoisseur of clotheslines? Well then this is the match for you! It was perfectly serviceable as a cool down match, but little more.

Sean Mooney is backstage with Ric Flair and his Executive Consultant, Mr. Perfect. Both of them taunt Randy Savage by claiming that Miss Elizabeth is damaged goods due to a previous affair with The Nature Boy. “She was MINE, before she was YOURS!”. The evil duo promise to unveil a giant centrefold of Liz following Flair’s impending victory later. Needless to say, this was a great angle and Flair was in his element here.

Meanwhile, Randy Savage won’t retort with a promo of his own as he’s just too gosh darn angry over Flair’s comments. Did I mention that this storyline was awesome? Because it’s chuffing awesome!

Match Five
WWF Championship
Champion: Ric Flair w/ Mr. Perfect Vs “Macho Man” Randy Savage

Due to the nature of this rivalry, Savage has left Liz in the back and is doing this on his own so he won’t have any distractions. Savage wastes no time taking it to Flair, nailing him with a barrage of right hands in the aisle way. Perfect drags Savage away from Flair, which gives Flair time to recover and get back into the ring. Back inside, Flair unloads with some choppage to Savage, but The Macho Man fights back and with some right hands and a clothesline.

Flair replies by back body dropping Savage to the outside and sending him back first into the apron whilst on the floor. Back inside, Flair stomps away on Savage, with the story being that Savage came at Flair 100 miles an hour due to his level of hatred, but Flair has remained calm and is now slowly picking the challenger apart. That’s great storytelling and another reason why this feud was so good. Savage gets kicked outside the ring once more, where Flair again uses the apron as a weapon to wear his rival down.

Flair continues to work the back, but Savage no sells some chops and fights back with right hands and spinning neck breaker to send both men down to the mat. Savage unloads with some rights and lefts, but Flair gets a thumb to the eyes to halt the momentum. Flair heads to the top rope now and manages to hit a picture perfect moonsault to floor Savage and pick up the win. Wait, no, hang on, that doesn’t seem right. Oh yeah, actually he gets thrown off the top rope by Savage because…

Thanks, Cenk.

Anyway, Savage gets a back body drop, which causes Flair to beg for mercy, but mercy is not in Savage’s memory banks right now and he spits in the champions face for that extra touch of hatred. Flair takes the Flair Flop™ and then comes straight off the top rope into a waiting lariat from Savage for two. The crowd was totally buying that as a potential finish, which is a credit to how Flair sold it. Savage sends Flair outside and comes down with an axe handle smash, which sends Flair face first into the guardrail.

Flair uses this as an opportunity to blade, which ended up getting him in hot water with Vince McMahon, as he wasn’t as canny as Bret to lie about it being accidental. Savage adds a suplex onto the floor, as Flair’s hair is starting to get stained by the blood. These two are just going all out for a great match here. Savage continues to pound away and gets an axe handle smash back inside the ring for two. The crowd was totally buying that Randy Savage was going to beat Ric Flair in the co-main event of WrestleMania with an axe handle smash there. That’s just amazing!

Savage finally delivers the Macho Elbow from the top rope, but Perfect manages to break the count without getting his man DQ’ed. Savage goes after Perfect unsuccessfully, which allows Flair to hit him with a concealed international object for two. Great near fall there, and one that would usually be a victory for Flair, which only puts Savage over that much more. Angered and desperate, Flair resorts to just plain choking Savage in full view of the ref. As the referee chides him for this, Perfect wallops Savage in the knee with a chair, as things seem bleak for our hero.

However, this is Elizabeth’s cue to come down to the ring, complete with a gaggle of agents and refs, to cheer her husband on. Annoyingly the officials won’t leave her alone for the rest of match, meaning she has to turn around every five seconds to tell them to go away. Flair starts to take Savage’s knee apart in his usual enigmatic style. He goes to the Figure Four, but makes the mistake of slapping Savage, which only serves to fire the challenger up. Savage is able to turn the Figure Four and follows up with a desperation inside cradle, but that only gets him two.

With his last gasp attempt coming up short, it looks like Savage is doomed to defeat, but Flair just can’t help being Flair and goes over to WOOOOOO at Liz when he should being going in for the kill. He goes to put the finishing touches to Savage, but Macho is able to block it and counter to a school boy roll up, complete with strategic grab of the tights, and that’s enough to get the win and his second WWF Title for a gigantic pop from the crowd!

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: RANDY SAVAGE
RATING: ****1/2

This was a fantastic match and one of the best title matches in WrestleMania history. The story of Flair having the perfect (no pun intended) game plan to take Savage down, only for him to get distracted by Liz and undone at the very end was brilliant. I love how Liz didn’t even do anything either. She was just there to provide moral support, and just merely by existing she gave Savage the window he needed to finally win the title again after years of failure without her in his corner. Just wonderful, wonderful stuff! Flair forces a kiss onto Liz following the bout, which causes the fight to start up again. Once officials finally separate everyone, Savage and Liz are allowed to celebrate together in the ring with the title, secure in the knowledge that the feud must continue.

Backstage, Flair and Perfect are furious about the result. Bobby Heenan comes in to complain as well. Flair declares that winning one time means nothing, and that he’ll be back for vengeance soon enough. Flair was feeling it there.

Meanwhile, Savage isn’t happy with the result either, because he only got a piece of Ric Flair and he wants the whole thing! Angry Savage rules all.

Match Six
Rick “The Model” Martel Vs Tatanka

Tatanka actually has a tribe of Native Americans with him here to give his Mania entrance a bit of pizzazz. This was an odd match, as the two would actually feud later in the year over Martel stealing some feathers from Tatanka (Yes, I’m serious) but right now there’s no issue between them and it’s just a normal match. Interesting that throwaway match like this actually lead to a prolonged program post-Mania.

Martel unloads with stuff in the corner to start, but his Irish whip attempt is countered with a hip toss and some body slams from the Native American. Martel bails to regroup, as Bobby is cracking up in the commentary booth due to Flair’s loss. Tatanka targets the arm of Martel, but Martel comes back with some choking. Martel sends Tatanka over the top to the outside, which allows him to take over when Tatanka gets back in.

Martel gets a back breaker and heads up top, but he takes too long and this allows Tatanka to crotch him on the top. Tatanka gets some stiff chops, a back body drop and a big Tomahawk chop, but he puts his head down towards a rebounding Martel and gets a kick in the face for his troubles.

Martel gets a slam and a clothesline, looking thoroughly disinterested. It’s amazing how Martel’s work rate just went to pot during this run, as it seemed like he was happy just having a marginally over gimmick and wasn’t going to over exert himself in the actual matches. Tatanka ducks another clothesline and gets a cross body block for the win.

WINNER: TATANKA
RATING: *1/4

Not much going on in this one. Amazingly, Martel went to WCW during the Monday Night War and actually managed to find his working boots again. Sadly that run was ended prematurely due to injury, but for a while there he was having great matches. It makes you wonder why he was so awful during this period. Was he carrying an injury or was he just not bothered?

Sean Mooney is backstage with Money Inc of Ted Dibiase and Irwin R Shyster, who promise to beat The Natural Disasters tonight. Meanwhile, Mean Gene is with the challengers, who do a lot of shouting and growling before promising to beat Money Inc into burger meat. That was what every sitcom writer thinks a wrestling promo is.

Match Seven
WWF Tag Team Championship
Champions: Money Inc w/ Jimmy Hart Vs The Natural Disasters

Hart had cheated TND out of a deserved title shot and thrown his lot in with Money Inc, which had led to the resulting face turn of the challengers. Earthquake and IRS look to be starting out, but then Dibiase tags in to play mind games. Dibiase tries to match power with Quake, and that goes exactly how you’d imagine it would. Dibiase ends up on the wrong side of a clothesline, as does IRS. Typhoon comes in and they reintroduce IRS and Dibiase to each other, VIOLENTLY. Um, they did a noggin knocker, I was just trying to make it sound dramatic. Typhoon no sells some IRS punches and sends him face first into the turnbuckle ten times.

Typhoon misses a charge in the corner and Dibiase comes in with some chops, which Typhoon fights back from with a head butt, but he misses a charge and goes over the top to the outside. That was kind of the problem with TND as faces, you could only really cut them off due to them being clumsy, and who wants to cheer for big clumsy blokes? IRS sends Typhoon into the steps on the outside, setting up the heat segment back inside. Quake eventually gets the lukewarm tag and crushes everything in sight. This isn’t a good spot for this match at all. Money Inc gets whipped into one another and Typhoon squishes IRS with a splash, but the Taxman isn’t legal and the pin can’t be counted. Quake goes for the Aftershock, but the heels bail and get counted out for the super weak ending.

WINNERS BY COUNT OUT: THE NATURAL DISASTERS (BELTS STAY WITH MONEY INC DUE TO LAZINESS)
RATING: ½*

Dull match with a lame ending. Would it have killed them to do a cheap pin fall victory for the heels, just to give us an actual finish? It’s not as if it wouldn’t have left the door open for future rematches.

Mean Gene is with Brutus Beefcake, who’s here to support Hulk Hogan tonight.

Match Eight
Owen Hart Vs Skinner

Skinner spits some tobacco juice in Owens face to start and pounds away on him with right hands. Scorpion Death Drop gets Skinner a two count, but Owen comes back with a roll up for three.

WINNER: OWEN HART
RATING: TOO SHORT TO RATE

Well, that was abrupt…

Mean Gene is with Sid Justice, who promises that tonight’s main event will be Hulk Hogan’s last ever match. He takes umbrage at Gene calling it a possible barnburner, declaring Gene to be “a fat, bald headed oaf” before stating “A barnburner it will not be!”

Main Event
Sid Justice w/ Harvey Whippleman Vs Hulk Hogan

This match came about due to Sid turning on Hogan in a tag match against Undertaker and Ric Flair. Originally, Hogan was supposed to get the title shot on this show against Flair, but when Sid turned on him he demanded a match with him instead, which led to Savage getting inserted as Flair’s challenger. In reality, Sid had been promised the main event slot upon signing with the company, so the WWF never had any intention of delivering the Hogan Vs Flair title match. The WWF had wanted Hogan to announce this as his retirement match, but he didn’t want to do that so instead it’s just being suggested that it “might” be his retirement match, which doesn’t have the same level of oomph to be honest.

Sid attacks Hogan during his entrance, but Hogan knocks him out of the ring and keeps him out there with an Axe Bomber off the apron. Sid takes over once the match actually starts, and works Hogan over with his usual dazzling array of rubbish offence. Hogan comes back with some right hands and sends Sid outside again. Sid bides his time outside before coming back in and asking for a test of strength. Unfortunately this isn’t Hogan Vs Warrior, not even close. Sid starts to win the test of strength, but Hogan miraculously powers back up. You know, it’s kind of hard for me to get excited by this tripe when Flair and Savage just tore the house down about an hour ago.

Sid keeps control with some knees to the gut but has an Irish whip reversed into a clothesline. Whippleman earns his managers fee by causing a distraction, which allows Sid to drop Hogan with a choke slam. Sid, instead of doing something smart like pinning Hogan, chooses to instead mug for the camera, as this insipid match must continue. Sid goes after Hogan’s spine with some clubbing, before heading outside to dish out further punishment, courtesy of Whippleman’s doctor bag.

Back inside, Sid aggravates me even more by going to my most hated rest hold of all time in the nerve pinch. Not only is it incredibly lazy, but it also goes completely against the work on the spine. The nerve pinch hurts the upper body, not the lower back. Sid is a big tall bloke weighing close to 300 pounds, if you want to rest here then put Hogan in a camel clutch. Not only does it look more impressive, but it also suits the story of the match better as it actually works over the area of the body you’ve been targeting all match. Did Sid even know what wrestling was? I mean, did he have even the slightest clue?

Somehow Hogan manages to fight his way out of the dreaded nerve pinch, but he ends running into a side slam and a powerbomb. Sid finally deigns to go for a cover, but Hogan’s Refuseustosellusfinishingmovesofyouropponentus gene kicks in and it’s time for the Hulk Up routine. Punches, big boot and leg drop follow, but Papa Shango misses his cue for a run in and Sid actually gets to kick out. Shango finally does make his way down to the ring and we have our DQ finish.

WINNER BY DISQUALIFICATION: HULK HOGAN
RATING: *

As a general rule I don’t mind Hogan matches when he’s motivated and actually trying, but he had this one stuck firmly into cruise control. It might have helped if he had been in there with someone talented, but Sid completely stank the joint out in the heat segment and match died a death as consequence. Shango and Sid look ready to destroy Hogan 2 on 1, but Ultimate Warrior makes a surprise run in after leaving the company the previous summer to make the rescue. This at least wakes the crowd up and they cheer along to Warrior and Hogan posing as the show closes

In Conclusion

1992 was a strange year for the WWF to say the least. Pay per view wise, the company had three home runs with Royal Rumble, WrestleMania and Summer Slam, with the latter two shows drawing big crowds. Wrestling wise, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Ric Flair and Randy Savage were all having very good years’ inside the ropes, and this spruced up the match quality no end, with at least one classic match per event on pay per view.

However, despite some good wrestling on the big shows, business wasn’t flourishing, and Hogan’s hiatus after WrestleMania didn’t help things either. By the end of the year, McMahon had forsook Flair as a classic heel champion and had begun grooming the monstrous Yokozuna as the new top heel, with plans of a top babyface slaying him. Thus the era of athletic title matches featuring good workers came to an abrupt end.

Ultimately this show is an automatic thumbs up simply for the great Hoosier Dome crowd and the two excellent matches between Piper/Hart and Flair/Savage. Things go downhill pretty sharply following the WWF Title match, but everything before that is fine, with even the lesser matches getting improved upon thanks to the jazzed crowd (The Undertaker match especially)

You even have a decent opener from Michaels and Santana as well. Trust me, three matches *** or higher on an early 90’s WWF pay per view event is usually grounds for celebration, especially when two of them are as good as the Piper and Flair matches. I can happily recommend this show, although you might want to fast forward to Ultimate Warrior running out once you reach the end of the Flair Vs Savage segments.

I hope you enjoy whatever wrestling you’re planning to watch this weekend and I’ll hopefully have Six of the Best for WrestleMania’s 21-34 prior to Sunday.

Thanks for reading and remember, She was MINE before she was YOURS! WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!