WWE WrestleMania VIII

WWE WrestleMania VIII
April 4, 1992
Hoosier Dome
Indianapolis, Indiana

So after hyping up a big outdoor show at the LA Coliseum from WrestleMania VI to VII, the WWE had a big letdown on that front having to go to the much smaller LA Sports Arena. In 1992 the WWE would return to a big stadium, in hopes of catching some of that magic of WrestleMania’s 3 and 6. The atmosphere in Indianapolis was very good don’t get me wrong, but it was missing a little bit of mystique. Originally it was to be headlined by the dream match of the 1980’s between Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair. Plans change, and it was soon announced that Hogan wanted to call it quits after WrestleMania VIII. So plans had to be changed on the fly and the event was made into a double main event. Ric Flair would now defend his title against Randy Savage, while Hogan and Sid Justice would play off their confrontation at the Royal Rumble and have their big blow off match here. A lot of fans are still hung up on the fact that Hogan-Flair didn’t happen, and although I can’t disagree with them from a dream match point of view, I think the ends justified the means as this turned out to be a pretty good WrestleMania. 1992 was the mother of all transition years for the WWE. That’s not surprising considering that this would be Hulk Hogan’s last WWE show for a year. The WWE was in need of a serious re-branding from top to bottom.

Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Tito Santana vs. Shawn Michaels w/ Sensational Sherri
Speaking of re-branding, this guy Shawn Michaels would turn out to be a major player in that re-branding. He of course had recently turned on his Rockers partners Marty Jannetty and instantly became a hot new heel. They couldn’t have picked a better opponent to give him that first major PPV singles match in Santana. As I’ve stated many times before, Tito Santana is a pro’s pro. He’s a good wrestler, and always makes his opponents looks good. This match is very good. It isn’t as good as we will come to know from Shawn Michaels, but it’s a decent singles debut for Mr. WrestleMania. The outcome isn’t in doubt as Shawn was being pushed, and would already be spending the spring and summer wrestling Bret Hart for the IC Title at house shows. ***

Jake “The Snake” Roberts vs. Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer
The story here is Jake was about to blast Miss Elizabeth with a steel chair, when the Undertaker stopped him. Undertaker and Jake were supposed to be friends, but apparently the Undertaker has no friends and was tired of Jake’s dastardly ways. The real world story was Jake was on his way out and heading to WCW soon after this. This was a decisive victory for Undertaker, tombstoning Snake on the floor and pinning him. Certainly not a technical masterpiece here, but the point was emphatically made. 2-0. *

IC Championship
*Rated #17 on my Top 50 WrestleMania matches of all time*
Rowdy Roddy Piper (champion) vs. Bret “The Hitman” Hart
Oh hell yeah! Classic example of a match that has aged like a fine wine. The match is better today than it was the first time I saw it 15 years ago. The story is so simple that even a modern day fan could figure it out. Guy loses belt, other guy wins belt from the guy that the first guy lost it to, and the 1st guy wants it back. The difference here is that both guys come into the match as baby faces. This is Piper’s best match of his career, but I would argue it’s the most important match of Bret Hart’s career. This was the match that made people think that Bret Hart was a legit main eventer and potentially capable of winning the big prize down the road. You have to keep in mind, Roddy Piper doesn’t lose. He never lost clean to anyone, so this was a really big deal. What Piper did for Bret here was huge. He liked Bret so that’s why he did it. He never did clean jobs for Hogan. The match itself is a classic, as Piper teases a heel turn right up to the point where the ref gets knocked out and Piper has the ring bell and is about to hit Bret Hart, but decides not to. He gets his sleeper hold, but Bret leaps on the turnbuckle and pushes back onto Piper in a pinning maneuver and gets the 3 count. An absolute incredible match as Bret Hart continues to rise, and Piper did something that needs to be appreciated more by wrestling fans. It’s also yet another example for future (and current) pro wrestlers to watch to find out how to put another guy over. Bret and Piper do the baby-face hug. This would be Piper’s last time as a full time wrestler in WWE. ****1/2

8 Man Tag Team Match
Mountie, Repo Man, and Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Saggs) w/ “Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart vs. Big Bossman, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Sgt. Slaughter, and Virgil
With the reduced number of matches now that WWE went to the 2 hour and 45 minute PPV time, this would be your match thrown together to get as many guys a WrestleMania payday as you could. It’s just filler. The only thing of note here is that Virgil is wearing a protective mask (thanks to Sid) and at the end Mountie threw Sgt. Slaughter into the steps which set off a feud that no one cared about that spring. Match was nothing, baby faces win. ½*

Main Event
WWE Championship
*Rated #12 on my Top 50 WrestleMania matches of all time*
“Nature Boy” Ric Flair (champion) w/ Mr. Perfect vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage
1992 was the year of Flair in WWE, and this would be his big feud. After the plans for Hogan-Flair got scrapped, this match was made. This is a weird case of the storyline being developed after the match was made. Normally that doesn’t work, but with these two guys it was absolute gold. Shortly after the match was announced Ric Flair revealed some photos of him and Elizabeth. Now it turned out that he doctored those photos and they were really photos of Savage and Liz, but the damage was done and Savage raged. And trust me when I tell you, nobody plays the raged jealous human being better than Savage in pro wrestling. This match was a contest of Flair using Savage’s rage against him, but Savage wasn’t going to be denied. The interference from Perfect was, well, Perfect. Every time Savage came back Perfect was there to derail his momentum. The crowd was in it every step of the way too, and was ready to explode when Savage hit the big elbow but Perfect made the save. Flair was working on the leg at the end but got a little too cocky and Savage rolled him up with a handful of tights for the 3 count. The heel tactic by Savage was a nice touch too. It kept Flair strong, but it’s easily dismissed because everyone knew that Savage has in his words “Soared with the eagles, and slithered with the snakes.” An absolute incredible match. Easily the best match between these two guys, though they would go on to wrestle a 1000 times in WCW in 1995-1996. The aftermath was epic too, as Savage was selling his knee injury, Flair cornered Elizabeth, and planted a wet one right on her lips, which ENRAGES Savage. The whole thing turns into a crazy mess. Heenan was brilliant on commentary as usual, but he left the booth in disgust, and Gorilla didn’t have to say a word while the craziness was happening. Finally after all of the officials usher Flair out of the ring, Savage is able to celebrate his 2nd WWE title with Elizabeth, and this time without Hulk Hogan there sharing the limelight. ****3/4

“The Model” Rick Martel vs. Tatanka
Tatanka was in the middle of his midcard mega push. He was a stereotypical Native American character. Tatanka had recently debuted and Martel was at this point a heel JTTS. Match was not horrible, but it was pretty much just filler. The match is notable for Bobby Heenan melting down over Flair and Gorilla needling him. *1/4

WWE Tag Team Championship
Money Inc. (“Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase and IRS) (champions) w/ Jimmy Hart vs. Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon)
As previously mentioned in the Royal Rumble review, Vince was desperate to get the tag titles off of Legion of Doom, so Dibiase and IRS formed a team and called themselves Money Inc. Jimmy Hart managed them, and that pissed off Natural Disasters as they felt like they were being phased out. The booking makes sense, but the match isn’t that good. Disasters went over with a cheap count out win as Money Inc. took a walk to save the titles. Disasters would go on to win the tag titles in the summer before dropping them back to Money Inc. after SummerSlam, but I guess they weren’t ready to take the titles off of Money Inc. quite yet here I guess. *1/2

“The Rocket” Owen Hart vs. Skinner
We’re now pressed for time, so this match is a squash win for Owen. Nice to see Owen get the win here, but it was tough seeing Owen in general these years because they didn’t have any direction for him. He would start to team with Koko B. Ware soon after this and have matches with the Nasty Boys at house shows. DUD

Main Event
Hulk Hogan vs. Sid Justice w/ Harvey Wippleman
Sid predictably turned heel after the Rumble and this match was made. The match is pretty bad. It’s your standard Hogan match. Heel beats him down, Hogan makes his comeback. Then in one of the weirdest occurrences in WrestleMania history, Papa Shango forgets his cue to come out to interfere and Sid kicks out of the big leg drop. The ref calls for the DQ for no reason whatsoever. For the life of me I still don’t know why Hogan didn’t just go over here. Anyway, Papa Shango finally comes out and they are working over Hogan when the Ultimate Warrior’s music hits and he comes down and makes the save. Hogan and Warrior celebrate to close the show. Warrior’s return was a true and total surprise, and a total mark out moment. Even watching it today, it is pretty fun to watch even as a guy who wasn’t a big Warrior mark. ½* for the match ¼* for the surprise return from Warrior. ¾*

Final Analysis: WrestleMania VIII just flows real nice through the Savage-Flair match then sort of drags until the Warrior makes his surprise return. Still, with two matches clocking in over **** it makes it a top tier WrestleMania. Those two matches are definitely worth seeing, and the Warrior’s return was pure excitement. Hogan is gone though now, so the WWE was officially in full transition mode.