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WrestleMania 8

HarleyQuinn

HarleyQuinn

Laugh This Off... Puddin'!
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Man I can't wait to watch this in full again. I've seen the usual Bret/Piper and Savage/Flair matches often but haven't really sat down and watched the entire event since I first saw it as a kid.
 
Bret/Piper was Match of the Night for me, an easy ****1/2 to ****3/4. Savage/Flair was good stuff but the match itself was maybe ***1/2. Savage's selling of the leg came too late (and short) in the match to matter much and it felt like the storyline itself overshadowed the actual match quality. Also the group of 5 officials surrounding Liz then 'breaking up' the post match brawl and holding down Savage were really distracting.

The PPV itself ran really long unedited and it seems that the WWE is much better "paced" nowadays in comparison. I'm not a fan of Paul Ellering being back with the LOD but Hawk's voice reminded me of Lemmy so I got that out of the segment. Poor Shango looked so confused on his run in and Warrior sprinting the entire walkway was physically impressive.

Overall, thumbs leaning down. Seek out Bret/Piper and Savage/Flair but meh. Tito/HBK just seemed to clash in a weird match with an abrupt finish, Undertaker was made to look like a star against Jake (IMO the start of his WM mythos legend), and Hogan/Sid was forgettable even with the Warrior return. Also the other matches were just there... 8 Man Tag was kind of off from the word go and the Tag Titles match had a shitty ending. Also Skinner/Owen squash seemed like a random Superstars match.
 
I loved the chaos after Savage/Flair.

Savage gets the pin, the fans are going nuts and then all hell breaks loose. It was great becuase his music didn't immediately start and they didn't announce him as winner contributing to the chaotic feel.

Savage was always my favorite and I remember my young marky self going nuts when Fink announced "And once again World Wrestling Federation champion!" and his music cut in. I still kind of get chills from it these days.
 
For HQ's reference, since we mentioned this in chat yesterday:

12 Mar 2012
Gorilla Monsoon used the term "History of our great sport" at #WrestleMania 8 during Sid/Hogan. That's @tonyschiavone24 's line!

Tony Schiavone ‏@tonyschiavone24 13 Mar 2012
@stephengray21 I'm honored you would reference me and Monsoon in the same Tweet. Thanks.
 
Harley Quinn said:
The PPV itself ran really long unedited and it seems that the WWE is much better "paced" nowadays in comparison.
Click to expand...

They had a match between Davey Boy Smith and The Berzerker get completely scratched from the show for that reason. And this was years before Billy Kidman had anything to do with timing out the show!
 
I always found the match order on this show really strange. Undertaker-Jake, Piper-Hart and Flair-Savage were all heavily hyped matches, then they went on before intermission. The second half was all filler, save for a bad Hogan-Sid match with messed up ending.

When Flair-Savage went on right before intermission, I was thinking that meant Savage was losing. (Wouldn't want a bad guy winning the final match of the night at WrestleMania!) So, when Savage kicked out after getting hit with the foreign object and pulled out the win out of nowhere, 10-year-old me went crazy. I probably watched that match 100 times on VHS after that.
 
http://culturecrossfire.com/wrestling/wwe/connors-wrestlemania-retrospective-wrestlemania-viii/#.UyXewvldXd4
I look back at WrestleMania VIII for Culture Crossfire.
 
Savage winning was a huge shock to 11 year old me. I was convinced Flair was retaining at the time.

11 year old Ramsus also didn't believe for one second that Hogan would actually stay retired.
 
I loved bret-piper and savage-flair. HBK-Tito was a nice little opener. And the Mountie, Nasty Boys and Repo man interview is the stuff of legends.

But, that main event sucked big time. 1992 was when I became a fan so I still love Mania 8, but my judgment is probably clouded by nostalgia.

1992-1993 was also Heenan at his peak as an announcer. I can watch those shows just to hear him call them.
 
I can go either way with match of the night honors between the IC and WWF title matches. I give the slight edge to Savage/Flair because both guys brought the insanity and their chemistry was off the charts.

I still get a kick out of the obsessed Piper fan a few rows back during Hart/Piper. Him begging Piper to use the bell is fantastic.
 
Rewatched this again this weekend.

Man, what an oddly paced show. They really front loaded the first half of the show. I kind of get why World Title Match was first half closer but did they have to stick every other interesting undercard match in first half of show? Swapping the IC and Tag Team Title matches would've solved a lot of problems.

Never got why they had those really long LOD and Lex Luger promos and cut Bulldog/Berzerker and made the Owen Hart/Skinner match 50 seconds long. My only guess is LOD and Luger had contractually obligated WrestleMania appearances or something? I guess Paul Ellering showing up in WWF was kind of a big deal but would have lost that much of its luster if it was at a post WM TV taping instead of PPV itself.
 
I was 10 when this show originally aired and I absolutely loved it. Rewatched it more than any other PPV that we had ordered when I was growing up, and I could practically recite the commentary from the entire Flair-Savage match.

Reading through some old Observer notes now, it's incredible what a disaster the company was behind the scenes at this point. Steroid scandal, sex abuse scandal, WBF flopping (which indirectly led to them burning through Flair-Hogan prematurely because they needed to boost gates in the fall/winter, thereby wasting one of the most obvious WM main events ever), Kerry Von Erich's legal and substance abuse problems, LOD being a disappointment, and on and on...

On the one hand, I can't ever imagine not following the "insider" stuff now, but it's kinda sad to know now how bad things were at a time I enjoyed so immensely.
 
Perfect saying "Shut up, Mooney!" during the promo before the Flair-Savage match is one of my favourite things ever.
 
One Epic Winter (OEW) said:
I like Zane a lot. One of the only wrestling content creators I can actually tolerate.
Click to expand...
I had to eye roll his questioning of Hogan going on last in the vid. The emotion of Hogan signing off/combined with the Warrior's return would have took all the air out of the show.
The second half was heatless regardless I guess.
I don't think it affected Savage/Flair drawing in the following months as nothing was drawing anyway.

--
Kunze's notes say: Big Boss Man & Davey Boy Smith & Virgil
vs. Nasty Boys & Mountie was rumored.

Of course the WWF mag preview had LOD vs Disasters in a street fight and Money Inc vs Duggan/Sarge and maybe a third match I'm forgetting off hand.
 
I'd be more ok with Hogan-Sid shitshow going on last if there was some other good stuff on the second half. Without changing anything else, make Bret-Piper the 'main event' of the second half with Owen-Skinner, the 8 man tag, HBK-Tito, the tag belts, and Model-Tatanka before it. Second half should be the recent world champions and the other 3 ME-level matches. Taker-Jake, Flair-Savage, Hogan-Sid. Hogan vs Sid would never be good but better to rip the bandaid off quick then to give the audience a boring hour and then think, "this is even WORSE!" I agree, the postmatch with Warrior makes up for a lot of the match and makes it make sense to close the show.
 
You can literally swap the eight man and tag titles and the pacing is improved dramatically, plus it makes the LOD promo not seem out of place.
 
Looking at results shortly after this show I'm guessing Berzerker was going over against Davey before the match got shelved? He was getting moved to Taker and Davey is doing a stretcher job for Repo Man. Kinda wonder where they go with Davey if they don't get Wembley for The SummerSlam
 
The thing with wrestling content creators is that I both hate looking at them and the shtick is either trying too hard or being completely inaccurate.
 
That's one of the reasons Zane is so good, honestly. The only time his shtick goes overboard is when he's playing on someone (Captain Lou, HHH, Russo, etc.). He's usually really level-headed in his takes and his reviews.
 
He's just got that smug reddit smark thing to him. The kinda guy who would see Rock and shout "It’s Flex Kavana!"
 
Yes! For the half dozen of us who'd enjoy it, just un-crumpling a piece of paper before beginning his real remarks would be a hoot.
 
I just had a sobering thought: everyone involved in that press conference is dead, except for Taker.
 
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