Connor McGrath
WWF WrestleMania VIII
April 5th, 1992
Live from The Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana
Current WWF Champions
World: “Nature Boy” Ric Flair
Intercontinental: “Rowdy” Roddy Piper
Tag Team: Money Inc (Ted DiBiase/Irwin R. Schyster)
Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan
Ring Announcer: Howard Finkel and Ray Combs (8 Man Tag match only)
Interviewers: Sean Mooney and Mean Gene Okerlund
Disregard what I said about the video package at WrestleMania VII being the last to feature coked up, yelling Vince McMahon because the opening to VIII features him too.
We go to our announce team of Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan. Despite this being the commentary team, I identify with for the early ’90s, this was actually the only full WrestleMania they did together. This is also Gorilla Monsoon’s last WrestleMania as an announcer. Gorilla and Bobby run down the two main events as well as the two other title matches (Roddy Piper Vs Bret Hart for the Intercontinental Belt and Money Inc Vs The Natural Disasters for the Tag Team Straps) before throwing it down to Howard Finkel.
Howard Finkel introduces Reba McEntire. Reba sings The National Anthem instead of the customary “America The Beautiful” for some reason. I’ve heard that Reba didn’t particularly enjoy her WrestleMania Experience and was gone almost as soon as she got there. Which is why I guess we never saw John Cena do a guest turn on Reba.
For this show, we’re back to the huge stadiums they used for III and VI but god damn it, they didn’t bring back the ring carts and the wrestlers just walk to the entrance way, which takes up a long, long time. The problem of this will actually sort of come in play at the end of the main event so pay attention! This is the debut of the multicolored entrance set that they would use until early ’95. Incidentally, that was the entrance set when I started watching a year or two after this show. Memories.
“The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels (with Sensational Sherri) Vs “El Matador” Tito Santana
Background: Shawn Michaels had recently became a singles star after backstabbing his partner Marty Jannetty and throwing him through the window of the set of Brutus Beefcake’s talk show, “The Barber Shop”. He arrogantly dubbed himself “The Heartbreak Kid” and took on Sensational Sherri as his manager. He’s hoping for singles success at WrestleMania against Tito Santana, who after a tough past few years, went to Mexico to learn to become a bullfighter and dubbed himself El Matador. ARRIBA! You can guess which one of these two’s new persona was more successful… Shawn Michaels is 1-2 at ‘Mania while Tito is 1-6.
Match: In a very 1992 moment, Shawn Michaels’ jacket reads “I’m Too Sexy For This Crowd.” Shawn and Tito get into a shoving match to start, with Tito gaining the advantage. Tito gets a crossbody for two. Gorilla and Bobby talk about how traffic problems are leading a lot of fans to arrive late for this show. In fact, it was long suspected that traffic problems caused a match between The British Bulldog and The Berzerker scheduled for the show to get canceled but it was learned that wasn’t the case. WWF just didn’t want this card to be ridiculously long like the past four Manias. Tito works a headlock but Shawn gets out of it and they criss cross. Tito clotheslines Shawn to the floor. Back inside, Tito goes back to the headlock but Shawn hits him a few times and throws him into the corner. Tito reverses and throws Shawn into the corner and headlocks Michaels again. HBK tosses him over the top to escape. Shawn pummels Tito outside of the ring. Inside the ring again, Shawn Michaels hits a backbreaker for two. Shawn grabs a chinlock on Tito but Tito fights out of it. Shawn Michaels blasts Tito with the Sweet Chin Music superkick out of nowhere but it gets two since it’s a few years away from being called the Sweet Chin Music and being Shawn’s finisher. Shawn goes for his then finisher the Teardrop Suplex but Tito wallops Michaels in the face to get out of it and nails Michaels with the Flying Forearm. Michaels tumbles out of the ring. Tito and Michaels slug it out on the outside of the ring. Tito brings Michaels back in the ring with a slingshot shoulderblock. Tito hits an atomic drop. Tito goes for the El Paso de la Muerte but Michaels takes a breather outside of the ring. Tito goes to slam Michaels back in the ring but Michaels grabs the top rope and shifts his weight to land on top of Tito and get the win at 10:37. Rock solid match. ***. Bobby Heenan astutely declares Shawn Michaels as the Star of the ’90s and Gorilla Monsoon points out that Michaels has already challenged the winner of the WWF Intercontinental Championship Match tonight.
Mean Gene is at the interview podium on the arena floor (usually reserved for the TV shows) and he introduces former WWF Tag Team Champions Legion of Doom with their new/old manager Paul Ellering. Ellering is making his WWF debut but had managed the LOD for years in other promotions. LOD and Ellering vow that they will win back the WWF Tag Team Champions. This never quite worked out. Ellering ended up introducing his buddy, a dummy he named Rocco and Hawk would end up quitting WWF shortly after with Animal following him not too long after.
Sean Mooney talks to Jake “The Snake” Roberts. Jake’s snake Lucifer has been banned from ringside after it attacked Randy Savage but Jake still has some sadistic plans up his sleeves. The Snakeman cackles at footage of him assaulting The Undertaker and Paul Bearer.
The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer) Vs Jake “The Snake” Roberts
Background: Since the last WrestleMania, Jake The Snake turned to the dark side and became a menacing heel. He took Undertaker as his enforcer and tormented babyfaces like The Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage. But the Living Dead Man suddenly developed a conscious when he prevented Jake The Snake from whacking Miss Elizabeth with a chair during Roberts’ match with Randy Savage on Saturday Night’s Main Event. This allowed Savage to clobber Jake with a chair and get the win. The next week on Paul Bearer’s Funeral Parlor, Roberts demanded to know why Undertaker saved Elizabeth and when the Undertaker didn’t respond, Roberts DDT’d Bearer and slammed Taker’s hand in a coffin and whacked him with a chair. Miraculously, this did not faze The Undertaker and he chased Roberts backstage. A match between the two for WrestleMania VIII was set up. The Undertaker is 1-0 at the event and Roberts is 3-2-1
Match: Jake dodges the severely pissed Undertaker to start and then starts hitting him with jabs. This has no effect on the Undertaker. Jake clotheslines Undertaker out of the ring but Undertaker yanks Jake out with him. The Undertaker wallops Jake a few times. Jake gets in the ring and knee lifts Undertaker in the face while Taker’s going through the ropes and punches Undertaker a few more times but it doesn’t faze The Undertaker. The Undertaker chokes Jake The Snake in the corner. Taker drops a big elbow on Roberts and hits the flying clothesline but Jake nails Undertaker with the DDT. This fails to shake The Undertaker and The Dead Man is on his feet shortly thereafter. He chokes Jake some more but Jake hits a short clothesline and a second DDT. Jake showboats for the crowd but turns around to see The Undertaker is standing. Jake decides to say “Fuck it” and bails to taunt Paul Bearer. The Undertaker is ripshit and goes after Jake. The Undertaker tombstones Jake on the floor and throws him back in the ring to pin him at 6:41. Not a technical classic by any means but I love this match with the sadistic Jake throwing everything he has at the unstoppable Undertaker and The Undertaker shrugging it off and destroying him. ***
Mean Gene is with the two combatants in tonight’s WWF Intercontinental Championship match; “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Bret Hart. This is a rare babyface Vs babyface match. Roddy Piper playfully teases Bret Hart to lighten the mood but Bret is having none of it and snaps at him. Piper, in turn, gets angry and the two go nose to nose.
WWF Intercontinental Championship match: “Rowdy” Roddy Piper (c) Vs Bret “The Hitman” Hart
Background: Bret Hart had finally became a successful singles star and won the Intercontinental Championship from Mr. Perfect at SummerSlam ’91. His run ended prematurely when he defended the title against doctor’s orders during a 104 degree fever and lost to The Mountie at an untelevised show in Springfield, Massachusetts in January ’92. A few days later at the ’92 Royal Rumble, Roddy Piper challenged The Mountie and came out victorious, winning his first title in the WWF. Bret Hart invoked his rematch clause and at WrestleMania VIII, two lifelong buddies (and distant relatives) will square off with the 2nd Biggest Title on the line. Piper is 1-2-1 at Mania and The Hitman is 3-1 at the show and was runner up in the battle royals at 2 and IV.
Match: Piper and Bret Hart fight over a lockup. Piper gets an armdrag on Bret Hart. They lockup again and Hart armdrags Piper. Piper gets Hart down to the mat and Hart throws Piper out of the ring. Piper and Hart get into a shoving match. Piper and Hart engage in a test of strength and the two exchange wristlocks. Piper chops Hart but can’t get out of the wristlock so he throws The Hitman into the corner. Bret gets back to it and yanks Piper to the mat and gets an armbar. Piper gets out of it and Hart dropkicks him. Hart feigns a shoulder injury and Piper goes to check on him, allowing Hart to get a small package for two. Piper slaps Hart for fooling him. They criss cross and Piper knocks Hart out of the ring. Piper graciously holds the ropes open for Hart then sucker punches him. Piper is doing a fantastic job of subtly becoming more heelish throughout the match. Piper stomps away on Hart and Hart’s busted wide open. Piper gets a bulldog for two. Piper hits a kneelift for two and continues working on the cut. Bret gets a Sunset Flip for two. Piper punches Hart and knocks him down for a two. Bret Hart forearms Piper and gets him to the floor. Piper gets back in and they both knock each other out with clotheslines. Piper gets up first and goes up to the top but Bret gets up and crotches Piper on the turnbuckle and throws him off the top by the hair. Hitman hits an atomic drop and suplex for the two. Russian legsweep gets a two. Hart hits a backbreaker and goes for a Sharpshooter but Piper blocks it. Bret drops an elbow. Bret goes to the top but gets kicked by Piper on the way down. Bret and Piper trade fists, Bret goes for a headlock but the ref gets knocked down. Bret and Piper tumble outside. Piper throws Bret into the ring stairs. Piper grabs the ring bell. The crowd freaks out, thinking Piper is going to turn heel again and Heenan eggs Piper on but Piper opts not to drill Bret with the bell. Piper chooses to go for the sleeper instead. Bret pushes out of it and kicks off the top turnbuckle and lands on top. The ref recovers in time to count the three and Bret gets the win to become a two time WWF Intercontinental Champion at 13:49. Piper sulks for a bit and then hands Bret Hart the title and the two embrace. Excellent match here. ****. This was a rare occasion of Piper cleanly losing a match. He hadn’t even lost by pinfall to the Hulkster on TV. This match definitely did a great deal to herald in Bret’s arrival as a singles star.
Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan interview WBF Star Lex Luger, who cockily predicts that he’ll win the second WBF Championship. He kisses up to Bobby Heenan and calls Gorilla Monsoon a fat idiot. Yep, this was worth the lucrative contract they gave Luger!
The Nasty Boys, Repo Man, and The Mountie whoop it up in their locker room and talk about their upcoming eight man tag against The Big Bossman, Virgil, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, and Sgt. Slaughter. Meanwhile, their opponents are in the WrestleMania VIII event center and say they’re going to dish out law and order to Jimmy Hart’s team of baddies.
Family Feud host Ray Combs is guest ring announcer for the match and he dishes out some cheesy insults towards the heel. They go after him and the match begins.
The Nasty Boys, Repo Man, and The Mountie (with Jimmy Hart) Vs The Big Bossman, Virgil, Sgt. Slaughter, and “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan
Background: Sgt. Slaughter and “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan became friends in conspicuously quick fashion after Slaughter renounced his anti-American/pro-Iraq viewpoints and became a tag team, feuding with The Nasty Boys. The Mountie and Big Bossman constantly squabbled claiming the other was an abusive law enforcer while Virgil and The Repo Man (Demolition Smash had taken off the face paint and taken up repossessing) had a feud over The Repo Man stealing The Million Dollar Championship, which Virg had won from Ted DiBiase at SummerSlam ’91. The Nasty Boys are 1-0 at Mania, The Mountie is 1-2, Repo Man is 3-1. On the babyface side, The Big Bossman is 3-0, Duggan is 1-1-1, Slaughter is 0-1, and Virgil is 1-0.
Match: Big brawl to start. The babyfaces hit a quadruple clothesline on the heels. Duggan and Nasty Boy Saggs start off the match. Saggs jumps Duggan from behind and rams him into the turnbuckles but Duggan fights back with some clotheslines and an atomic drops. Tags in Slaughter and man, it sure doesn’t feel like he was World Champion just a year ago but he was. Slaughter hits a gutbuster on Knobbs. Bossman tags in and hits Knobbs with a boot. Bossman misses a charge and Repo Man comes in to work him over. Repo knocks Bossman to the mat but gets hit with a fist and Bossman slugs him down. Virgil tags in and dropkicks Repo Man and hits a high cross for two. The Mountie jumps him from behind. Repo gets a backdrop suplex on Virg and sucker punches Jim Duggan. Saggs hits a pumphandle slam for two. Mountie tags in and gets spinebustered by Big Bossman. It’s a pier six brawl. Knobbs punches Virgil in his broken nose but accidentally gets hit by Saggs with Virgil’s face protector and Virg gets the pin at 6:31. Yuck. *
WWF World Champion Ric Flair and his Executive Consultant Mr. Perfect are with Sean Mooney. Flair gloats about his incriminating pictures of Randy Savage’s wife Miss Elizabeth that he plans to show after he beats Savage. Flair says Elizabeth can ride Space Mountain anytime. Mean Gene is outside of “Macho Man” Randy Savage’s locker room. Macho Man will not speaking to him because he’s upset about Flair’s accusation and wants to let his fighting do the talking.
WWF World Championship match: “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair (with Mr. Perfect) (c) Vs “Macho Man” Randy Savage (with Miss Elizabeth)
Background: Ric Flair, the biggest star of wrestling outside of the WWF in the ’80s, shocked the world by signing with McMahon in the Summer of ’91. Even more shockingly, he left while still WCW World Champion and took the belt with him to WWF while claiming he was “The Real World Champion.” Flair verified his claims when he won the 1992 Royal Rumble with the vacant WWF World title on the line. After Flair’s original opponent, Hulk Hogan dropped out of the World title match to get revenge on his former friend, Sid Justice, Randy Savage challenged for the World Title. Flair accepted and taunted Savage by claiming he had an affair with Miss Elizabeth and threatened to reveal incriminating photos of him and Elizabeth to the world at WrestleMania. Flair is making his ‘Mania debut and Savage is 5-4.
Match: Savage pounds on Ric Flair outside of the ring to begin with but Mr. Perfect distracts Savage which allows if Ric Flair to hit Macho with some of his patented chops. Savage hits Flair with a clothesline and knees him into the corner.Savage gets a clothesline and a back elbow for a two count. Macho rakes Flair’s eyes and the ref breaks it up. Flair backdrops Savage back to the floor. Flair follows Savage out and stomps on Savage’s knee. Savage gets back in the ring and Flair continues to stomp a mudhole in him. Flair chops Savage some more and hits a delayed suplex for two. Backdrop suplex also gets a two. Naitch knocks Macho down with another chop for a two count. Flair hits a kneedrop and Savage bails out of the ring. The commentary in this match is terrific with Flair’s lackey Bobby Heenan wavering from blustery confidence to complete hysterics with Monsoon playing an excellent straight man. Flair follows Savage out and rams him into the apron. The two go back in and Flair suplexes Savage to get a two count. Savage gets whipped into the corner and Flair stomps him down. They slug it out with Savage getting the advantage. Mach gets a neckbreaker for a two count. Savage blocks a Flair punch and backs him into the corner. Flair goes to the top but get slammed down. Macho hits a backdrop and two clotheslines. Flair goes off the top again and slammed off by Savage. That had only not been working for the past ten years at this point. Savage clotheslines Flair out of the ring and hits the Flying Axhandle to the outside. Flair is busted open. Savage suplexes him on the floor. Back in the ring, Savage hits an double axhandle for two. Macho Man goes to finish Flair off with the Flying Elbow Drop but Perfect yanks him off the rope. Savage tussles with Perfect and this allows Flair to get some brass knuckles and knock Savage out with a punch. Flair only gets a two and gets upset and starts choking and punching Savage. Perfect rams a chair into Savage’s bum knee behind the ref’s back. And people complain about Cena always overcoming the odds! Flair WOOO goes for the Figure Four but Miss Elizabeth runs out (surrounded by the usual gang of idiot WWF officials, which this time includes a young, twentysomething Shane McMahon) to support her husband. Savage fights back and reverses the hold. Flair breaks the hold but stays on Savage’s knee. Savage hits a fluke small package on Flair for the two. Flair whips Savage into the corner and hits on Miss Elizabeth, kicking Savage’s leg. Flair gets too distracted and Savage rolls him up with a handful of tights to win his second WWF World Championship at 18:01 Heenan cries about how this is unfair to Flair. Nature Boy blows a kiss at Elizabeth on his way out of the ring and Savage flips out and the two brawl before the officials break it up. Definitely the best WWF World Championship title match at WrestleMania to this point. ****
Sean Mooney talks to Ric Flair, Mr. Perfect, and Bobby Heenan. Bobby Heenan cries about how unfair to Flair the officiating was while Flair vows to get revenge and win his WWF World Championship back from Savage at any cost. Mean Gene talks to Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth. Macho Man says he only took part of Flair tonight but he’s gonna take him down piece by piece. Savage tells Flair that the feud is just beginning.
We take a look back at the WrestleMania VIII Press Conference where Hulk Hogan was named #1 Contender for the WWF World Championship and Sid’s ensuing flip out that led to Sid/Hogan. Then we get an awesome video package of Sid destroying jobbers.
Rick Martel talks to Sean Mooney about his match with the Native American Tatanka. The Model says he doesn’t need any reservations to beat this Indian but he’s afraid Tatanka might still be outside scalping tickets. *shakes head*
Tatanka Vs “The Model” Rick Martel
Background: Tatanka is the WWF’s new, undefeated Native American sensation and is having the toughest test of his career against the venerable three time WWF Tag Team Champ “The Model” Rick Martel. Tatanka is making his WrestleMania debut while Martel is 2-3.
Match: Tatanka slams The Model and Martel bails and Tatanka gives chase. Bobby Heenan is still in hysterics over Flair losing and Gorilla gleefully winds him up. Heenan eventually challenges Gorilla Monsoon to a fistfight and Monsoon threatens to throw him out of the booth. Back in the ring, Martel misses a charge and Tatanka works on his arm. Martel takes over with a choke, Martel hits him with some forearms and a backbreaker. The Model goes to the top but gets crotched on the ropes. Tatanka hits him with some chops and a backdrop. Martel hits a slam on Tatanka and clotheslines him but Tatanka recovers and hits a crossbody for the win at 4:35. *1/2. This was simply put on the card to calm things down a bit after Flair-Savage.
Sean Mooney talk to WWF Tag Team Champions Money Inc and their manager Jimmy Hart about their title defense against The Natural Disasters. Money Inc tease The Disasters for being a bunch of whiners. The Natural Disasters talk to Mean Gene and talk about how they were cheated out of a tag team titles shot and they’re finally going to win them at WrestleMania.
WWF Tag Team Championship match: Money Inc (c) (with Jimmy Hart) Vs The Natural Disasters
Background: “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase had formed an alliance with “Taxman” Irwin R. Schyster and tried to go after the WWf Tag Team Championship. Jimmy Hart quickly aligned himself with this super team and gave The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and his equally massive pal Typhoon)’ shot at Champs The Legion of Doom at the last minute. Money Inc won the match and enraged that their shot was taken away from them, The Disasters fired Jimmy Hart and challenged Money Inc for the titles at WrestleMania VIII. Ted DiBiase is 3-2-1 at WrestleMania, IRS is 0-1 (he was Mike Rotunda of the U.S. Express in a previous gimmick), Earthquake is 2-0, and Typhoon is making his Mania debut.
Match: Million Dollar Man is overpowered by Quake to start. The Disasters clean house and Money Inc goes out to go over strategy. In the ring, The Natural Disasters work over IRS and Typhoon gives him a hip toss. IRS tries to leave the ring but Typhoon grabs him by his tie and rams him into the turnbuckles. Typhoon goes for a charge and misses. Ted DiBiase back in. DiBiase hammers away at Typhoon and Money Inc hits a double clothesline for a two count. They hit Typhoon with a double back elbow for two. False tag to Earthquake. DiBiase gets a two on Typhoon. Another double clothesline on Typhoon. Earthquake finally gets the hot tag and he hits everybody with clotheslines. DiBiase gets thrown out of the ring. Typhoon hits a splash on IRS and Earthquake goes for the AfterShock but DiBiase and Hart pulls IRS out of the ring. Money Inc get counted out at 8:37. Ugly match with a bad finish. *
Owen Hart Vs Skinner
Background: Bret’s younger brother, Owen is WWF’s newest high flying sensation. After a short stint teaming with Bret’s old partner Jim Neidhart as The New Foundation, Owen is striking out on his own as a solo star. He’ll be facing the grizzled, alligator man Skinner. Owen is 0-1 at Mania (he previously appeared at V as the masked Blue Blazer) and Skinner is making his first in ring appearance at the event.
Match: Skinner spits tobacco juice in Owen’s face and momentarily blinds him. Skinner hits a shoulderbreaker. He hits his finisher The Gatorbreaker but only gets a two. Skinner headbutts Owen and throws him out of the ring but Owen skins the cat and rolls Skinner up for the quick win at 1:10. Well, that was kind of pointless. Zero Stars.
Mean Gene talks to SID and his manager Dr. Harvey Whippleman. And boy, Sid’s style of promos is wacky. He’ll be whispering inaudibly THEN HE’LL START SHOUTING FOR NO PARTICULAR REASON! He’s my biggest guilty pleasure in wrestling. I can’t deny he’s responsible for some terrible, terrible matches though! Sid vows to end Hogan’s career. Mean Gene claims Hulk Hogan hasn’t necessarily said he would retire after the match but Sid says he’llFORCE HULK HOGAN INTO RETIREMENT!
During this promo, we get a look back at Vince McMahon’s interview with Hulk Hogan at The March to WrestleMania VIII on USA Network and Hulk says he’s not sure whether or not he wants to retire until after he leaves the ring. Vince thanks Hulk Hogan for the years of entertainment and goodwill he’s given The Hulkamaniacs. Vince seems genuinely moved (and a bit teary eyed) during this segment.
Hulk Hogan Vs Sid Justice (with Harvey Whippleman)
Background: Sid Justice had arrived from WWF in July ’91 and quickly aligned himself with Hulk Hogan. Their friendship took a sour note when Sid eliminated Hogan from the 1992 Royal Rumble. From the outside of the ring, an angry Hogan pulled on Sid’s arm and distracted him for long enough to let Ric Flair eliminate the big man from The Rumble. Although the two men apologized to each other after the match, Sid eventually abandoned Hogan during a tag team match against Ric Flair and The Undertaker. A few weeks later, Sid assaulted Hogan’s best friend Brutus Beefcake and finished the job Shawn Michaels had started and destroyed the set of The Barber Shop. The next week, it was announced that Hogan would drop out of his World title match against Ric Flair to get revenge on the undefeated Sid. To add further oomph to the match, Hogan announced that his match at WrestleMania VIII would be the last of his career. HAH! Hogan is 5-1-1 at WrestleMania while Sid making his debut at the show.
Match: Hogan is noticeably a lot leaner and smaller here as he would be for the next three years or so. GEE, I WONDER WHY!? Sid attacks Hogan before the bell. Hogan punches him out of the ring and poses to the crowd. The bell is rung. Sid knees Hogan in the gut and pounds him in the corner. Hogan slugs him out of the ring again. Sid gets back in and challenges Hogan to a test of strength, which ya just shouldn’t do and of course, Sid loses. Sid knees Hogan in the corner and chokeslams The Hulkster. He rants into the camera like a maniac. Sid clubs Hogan with some forearms and Hogan bails. Sid goes after him and whacks him with Dr. Harvey’s medical bag. Sid and Hogan back in the ring and Sid uses the dreaded nerve pinch on the Hulkster. Hogan fights out but Sid hits him with a sideslam and his finisher, the Powerbomb. Hogan kicks out at two and starts Hulking up. Punch, punch, big boot, Atomic Legdrop but Sid kicks out in one of the more interesting moments. Papa Shango was supposed to run in and draw the DQ but ran out later. Lot of theories as to why that happened. Harvey Whippleman runs in and gets tossed around by Hogan. The ref rings the bell and ends the match at 12:26 for no particular reason. 1/2*. This was undoubtedly the worst WrestleMania main event to this point. Papa Shango finally comes out and him and Sid double team The Hulkster. The Ultimate Warrior shows up out of nowhere and saves Hogan from Sid and Shango. The Warrior was also a lot smaller than he was the last time he appeared in WWF (GEE, I WONDER WHY?) and his hair is also different (back to its natural color and not using hairspray) and all of this led to fans believing that original Ultimate Warrior was dead. Life before the internet was wacky. Anyway, the fans go banana for the surprise return and Hulk Hogan and The Warrior pose to end the show.
Match of the Night: Very, very close here between the World Title Match and the IC Title Bout but I’ll give the slightest of an edge to Macho Man Vs Ric Flair! And they’d have countless more good matches in the years to come. Though only some of them would be in WWF!
Worst Match of the Night: Hulk Hogan and Sid are capable of being in really good matches and really, really bad matches. For some reason, when they’re paired against each other, it’s almost always the latter!
Unintentional Comedic Moment: I’m not sure if Papa Shango was taking a Poopa Shango but he really, really messed up the flow of the main event. Luckily, Warrior was there to salvage things somewhat but really, how the heck do you mess up your appearance in the main event of the biggest show of the year?
This was probably one of the most uneven WrestleManias of all time. The first half of the show is pretty kickin’. I like the element of stars of the ’80s putting over the stars of the ’90s in the first three matches. Everything is pretty good except the eight man tag, which at least moves along at a nice pace. After the World Title match/the first half of the main event, the show dies a long and painful death. It really displays how thin the roster had gotten by the Spring of ’92 and how tired Hulkamania had become. It was in need of a rest but that thin roster would lead to the Hulkster getting one more call to try and headline another ‘Mania.
Next Week on Connor’s WrestleMania Retrospective: WrestleMania goes Outdoors for the first time as the WWF presses its luck at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Its time for another double main event and the World’s Largest Toga Party! Oh My! I’ll take a look back at one of the most widely maligned WrestleManias of all time and one of the first WrestleManias I ever saw! It’s ’93 and it’s time for WrestleMania IX!
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