WrestleMania VIII

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

When I checked my 24/7 programs this morning, I was very shocked to see WrestleMania VIII available. Not because I didn't know the airdate of the PYBO winner, but because Cogeco discontinued the PYBO show almsot a year ago. A welcome return.

 

I watched this show over the weekend on an aging VHS tape as part of my Mania countdown. I don't know if it's my tape or the lighting / Hoosier Dome roof but the lighting for this show always looks a bit off (and because it looks after sundown, I'm going to assume it's the building, but it could be a combination of both). In the first 15 years of WrestleMania, this show was one of my favourite shows. More recent Mania's have set a new standard in great world title matches but until Rock/Austin at Mania X7, Flair vs. Savage was my all time favourite WrestleMania world title match. The match placement might hold this show from being highly regarded from an overall standpoint when looked back on historically - the first half is great, the second half is dull and features a DQ in the main event - but I still love it.

 

Let's break it down:

 

1. "El Matador" Tito Santana vs. Shawn Michaels: These two could probably have had a faster paced match but while it's not all that exciting, I find nothing wrong with the mat work they did instead. It's a good match to open the show with. This is Tito's last televised WrestleMania bout - he often played very minor roles on the show but as I've gotten older and have been exposed to more of his work via 24/7, he was clearly a hard worker and perhaps never got his due at a WrestleMania.

 

2. Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs. The Undertaker: Not much of a match, but when I was 10 the idea of Undertaker surviving two DDTs was something else. Effective way to end their short feud (which was awesome - Jake slamming a casket on Undertaker's hand and giving him multiple chair shots that barely phase Taker, causing him to cahse Jake with the damn casket still on his hand is a memory from Superstars I will never forget - and won't need to since they show that footage on this show, so even better). A satisfying way to send Jake packing to WCW.

 

3. IC Champion Roddy Piper vs. Bret "Hitman" Hart: Recently watched this in restored digital quality as part of the Piper HOF month. Great match, probably Piper's best ever. Great drama, story telling, and wrestling.

 

4. Nasty Boys, Repo Man, and The Mountie vs. Jim Duggan, Sgt. Slaughter, Big Bossman, and Virgil: This match is nothing at all, but it's not bad. Just short and kind of pointless, though I was a big Bossman fan at this point. The quadruple clothesline spot is pretty cool though (but a bit mistimed). The highlight of this match is actually the locker room promo where Repo Man just jumps into frame. This is not something you'd put on Mania today (or is it? See the ECW 8 man from Mania 23...) but in 1992 this sort of thing was ok - just a way to get 8 characters into a match.

 

5. World Wrestling Federation Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage: Where was the centerfold picture, Ric? I was so, so happy to see Savage win the title in this awesome match. Great heel work by Flair and Perfect all the way, Liz looked good in her purple dress, and Shane McMahon tries to get her to go away. A classic.

 

Had the show ended here, we'd have a fairly short Mania but a pretty damn good one since both title matches delivered and the rest served it's purpose. This is what I mean about match placement as we now have 5 more matches to go and none are at this level.

 

6. British Bulldog vs. The Berzerker: Never happened, cut for time. I was actually looking forward to this as a 10 year old.

 

7. "The Model" Rick Martel vs. The Native American Tatanka (I'm pretty sure Monsoon calls him "Native American Tatanka" 9 out of every 10 times he makes reference to him): This is pretty dull but serves to put Tatanka over, I suppose. I'm always itching to FF during this match but Heenan's commentary is excellent ("Lumpy Indians" / "Hey how are ya, Hey how are ya!").

 

8. Tag Team Champions Money Incorporated vs. Natural Disasters: Very dull tag title match with no conclusive ending.

 

9. The Alligator Man, Skinner vs. "The Rocker" Owen Hart: Extremely short but I actually like this because it put Owen Hart over (he kicks out of Skinner's finisher and beats him quick).

 

10. Hulk Hogan vs. Sid: Another dull match (though I'm a sucker for spots where Hogan gets jumped during his entrance music, clears the ring while his muisc is still playing, then rips his shirt). It's cool to see Sid kick out of the legdrop, though. How can a WrestleMania main event end in a DQ? By having The Ultimate Warrior make an awesome return that had the schoolyard talking, that's how. The Warrior moment actually saves the 2nd half of the show.

 

Obviously I enjoy the 1st half WAY mroe then the 2nd, but for nostalgia sake - this is the first Mania I saw live on PPV and it was very exciting seeing Warrior, plus I didn't realize Hogan vs. Sid sucked - I enjoy the whole thing overall. The quality of the first half - specifically the fact that the two singles championship matches are incredibly strong, which is important to the legacy of a major show - make up for the dull 2nd half.

 

Great WrestleMania.

[King Kamala 0]

I agree Venkman with basically everything you said. VIII is probably in Top 5 favorite WrestleManias. I'll do a more detailed match by match rundown later but now I'll just ask a quick question. Have any two wrestlers had a longer series that didn't produce a good (or memorable) match than Rick Martel and Tatanka? It's not like either of them are bad workers and the matches certainly weren't terrible but they were all just sort of dull. I think it was the 90s equivalent of the Edge/William Regal feud from '02.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Chris Jericho/Steve Austin had quite a few matches with generally poor (or dull) results.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

A few notes on the 24/7 version (which I assume is just the WM Anthology DVD version) that are of no consequence to the overall event:

 

- The ads for the 900 number and Fan Club are gone. Of course, I didn't actually expect this to be kept, but it's one of those neat "Ha! Take that, people who only own this on DVD! I have a Fan Club ad on my VHS tape!".

 

- Ric Flair's original Fed music is replaced with his current music. This is really weird because in 2003 WWE was editing the version of the song Flair was using then off DVD and replacing it with the very theme that's now being removed. It also makes Heenan sound like he's randomly yelling "Woo!" twice - it was actually in tune to Flair's old theme. Even weirder is during the "Sid beating up jobbers" montage, Sid's music is replaced by some generic song with lyrics (not bad), but his theme is still there when he actually comes to the ring. It's been mentioned several times how confusing the consistency of what's ok and what isn't theme wise before... but yeah, confusing still.

 

Again, no affect on the show's quality at all, just worth noting for completists.

[MrRant 0]

They pulled that out but left in the Nitro 1-800 ads? Nice.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

- The ads for the 900 number and Fan Club are gone. Of course, I didn't actually expect this to be kept, but it's one of those neat "Ha! Take that, people who only own this on DVD! I have a Fan Club ad on my VHS tape!".

 

Gorilla: By joining the WWF Fan Club, you get autographed photos, free tickets, and a theme music tape!

Heenan: Hand me the phone.

Gorilla: NO, I'm NOT handing you the phone!

[Bruiser Chong 0]

I'm pretty sure Heenan asked, "You get all that just for joining?" before telling Gorilla to hand him the phone.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

I'm sure he did. I just remember Monsoon sounding completely exhausted when he refused Heenan's request.

[bob_barron 0]

This is some of the best commentary ever.

 

And wow, those LOD and Luger promos sure are boring

[Guest Bigelow34]

Yeah, RR 92 and this show are the peak of Gorilla & Bobby's excellence. Tremendous stuff.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

The Luger promo is great just for him saying "I can't say the same for the fat guy next to you" with Monsoon almost jumping out of his seat to reply "WHAT?!".

[Beast 0]

I've watched everything up to and including the Flair-Savage match on Wrestlemania VIII and it reaffirms why I have such fond memories of 1992 WWF. Piper-Bret is just fantastic and really stands out among all the average 80's style house show/tv style matches I've been watching. Flair-Savage started out hot, slowed down, but the final "act" of it was so hot that it made me wish 24/7 would show the follow up angles with the two of them. No matter how bad the WWF did business wise that year, I think they might have had the best roster talent wise. Hart, Piper, Michaels, Flair, Savage, Taker, all in the first five matches. Also, the Flair, Perfect, Heenan trio might be untouchable in amazingness.

[Darth Pipes 0]

I originally saw this PPV over my cousin's house. WMVIII was always one of my favorites. The two matches alone made it. Piper/Hart as a classic "face vs face" contest and one of the best of Piper's career. Flair and Savage was just as good, if not better. That's a match that doesn't get talked about much but it really is a classic. The "She was mine before she was yours" storyline was awesome and it capped off a feud that went into WCW and featured five world title changes in two federations. Warrior's return was also a highlight and I always got a kick out of Gorilla's reaction to Luger calling him fat.

 

Interesting about them altering Flair's music. Flair's theme in his first WWF stint was a second-rate version of his 2001 theme. I actually noticed music editing with of all people, Hillbilly Jim, whenever he appears on 24/7. His "Don't go messin with a country boy" has now been replaced with the Godwins generic hillbilly music.

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah, WM VIII was a great show and a personal favorite of mine. Piper/Bret, Flair/Macho...both among the better WM matches ever. If that isn't Piper's best match maybe the chain match with Valentine from Starrcade 83 is instead.

 

This was also the PPV that got me back into wrestling after not watching at all in 1990-91. The first show I watched when I got back into wrestling was the SNME that set up this WM, with Sid turning on Hogan and UT's face turn on Jake. I was hooked again immediately.

 

Only drawback to this WM: Bulldog didn't get to wail on the Berserker! Oh well, I did get to see him beat the Berserker's ass in one of Davey Boy's last 1992 appearances circa Oct. 92. In fact it was the day after he lost the IC to Michaels.

[Jericholic82 0]

I originally saw this PPV over my cousin's house. WMVIII was always one of my favorites. The two matches alone made it. Piper/Hart as a classic "face vs face" contest and one of the best of Piper's career. Flair and Savage was just as good, if not better. That's a match that doesn't get talked about much but it really is a classic. The "She was mine before she was yours" storyline was awesome and it capped off a feud that went into WCW and featured five world title changes in two federations. Warrior's return was also a highlight and I always got a kick out of Gorilla's reaction to Luger calling him fat.

 

Interesting about them altering Flair's music. Flair's theme in his first WWF stint was a second-rate version of his 2001 theme. I actually noticed music editing with of all people, Hillbilly Jim, whenever he appears on 24/7. His "Don't go messin with a country boy" has now been replaced with the Godwins generic hillbilly music.

That's because the Godwinns were also using "Dont Go Messin With A country boy" as their theme in 96-97 (when Hillbilly Managed them)

 

anyhow as I said in the general discussion thread, the music editing on wm 8 makes me head hurt.

 

But the show is still one of my favs and it was cool seeing it in digital quality (and burning it to disc of course) and what an ending to the show.

 

the Flair/Savage match is still one of my all time favs, with a LUDICROUS amount of cheating by Flair and Perfect that's too awesome to describe. (outside interference, chair shot, brass knux, to name a few) Even as a smark you still want to yell "WHAT A DICK!" when Perfect breaks up Savages pin attempt after the big elbow. The Post-match promos are awesome as well, Heenan is freaking out, Flair is mad, yet strangely calm as he is already thinking of a plan to get his title back. Savage is completely insane, yelling and ripping his clothes apart.

 

And of course the Bret/Piper match. plus The great commentary makes this show one of the best.

 

 

[Darth Pipes 0]

I originally saw this PPV over my cousin's house. WMVIII was always one of my favorites. The two matches alone made it. Piper/Hart as a classic "face vs face" contest and one of the best of Piper's career. Flair and Savage was just as good, if not better. That's a match that doesn't get talked about much but it really is a classic. The "She was mine before she was yours" storyline was awesome and it capped off a feud that went into WCW and featured five world title changes in two federations. Warrior's return was also a highlight and I always got a kick out of Gorilla's reaction to Luger calling him fat.

 

Interesting about them altering Flair's music. Flair's theme in his first WWF stint was a second-rate version of his 2001 theme. I actually noticed music editing with of all people, Hillbilly Jim, whenever he appears on 24/7. His "Don't go messin with a country boy" has now been replaced with the Godwins generic hillbilly music.

That's because the Godwinns were also using "Dont Go Messin With A country boy" as their theme in 96-97 (when Hillbilly Managed them)

 

anyhow as I said in the general discussion thread, the music editing on wm 8 makes me head hurt.

 

But the show is still one of my favs and it was cool seeing it in digital quality (and burning it to disc of course) and what an ending to the show.

 

the Flair/Savage match is still one of my all time favs, with a LUDICROUS amount of cheating by Flair and Perfect that's too awesome to describe. (outside interference, chair shot, brass knux, to name a few) Even as a smark you still want to yell "WHAT A DICK!" when Perfect breaks up Savages pin attempt after the big elbow. The Post-match promos are awesome as well, Heenan is freaking out, Flair is mad, yet strangely calm as he is already thinking of a plan to get his title back. Savage is completely insane, yelling and ripping his clothes apart.

 

And of course the Bret/Piper match. plus The great commentary makes this show one of the best.

 

Oh yeah, the out-and-out cheating by Perfect in the best. Whippleman gets DQ'd for just coming into the ring. Perfect does that for over a minute and nothing happens. Not to mention physically throwing Savage off of Flair. But it was a classic.

 

[Bruiser Chong 0]

I had a few friends over to watch this yesterday. We got to the Hart/Piper match when the show froze up and just restarted. It's only an eight-dollar monthly service, but it's frustrating how frequently 24/7 is plagued with technical problems with our cable provider. Foreseeing something like this, though, I had my Coliseum Video copy nearby and ready to roll.

 

It's funny how fondly I remember this show. There are two legitimately great matches here, but a lot of the undercard stuff is uneventful. From a technical standpoint, it's a two-match show with some fun commentary and a great atmosphere.

 

And since we watched the CV version, we were treated to the disclaimer after the show about how the Bulldog/Berzerker match was canceled due to circumstances beyond their control.

[bob_barron 0]

I remember when I rented Wrestlemania 8, as a Bulldog fan, that made me happy to see that they were looking out for his fans.

 

Weird how Wrestlemania 8-10 all had matches cancelled for time constraints.

[cabbageboy 0]

It's odd that they cut out Bulldog/Berserker, but did let Owen squash Skinner in under a minute. I guess they felt since Berserker was going to feud with UT post WM that him getting squashed like that as well was foolish.

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

Scout's honor that I did not happen upon this (now two-week old) until today, but I just happened to had popped in this tape last week. I am a sucker for the first half. Everything after Flair/Savage is not very good, but the finale with the Ultimate Warrior totally hits the spot the same way that it did back when I was a kid, experiencing my first live PPV WrestleMania with all of my friends.

 

- Santana and McEntyre greeting each other, after Heenan going on for weeks about how she was his sister (Arriba McEntyre) was funny as fuck. Man, has anybody ever seen the ending of that opening match anywhere else? After all these years I find it to be very... odd.

 

- LOD interview. When was the last time that they just brought somebody out in front of the crowd to do an interview at the big show? I can't remember either.

 

- Man, remember when a wrestler turning face or heel was intriguing? That Undertaker/Roberts affair was a strange thing to warm up to when you were just a young mark like I was.

 

- Piper/Hart. I love this shit.

 

- I was dumbfounded when Luger made a guest appearance on a WWF PPV promoting his upcoming NON-WRESTLING role with McMahon's other company. I thought that it was going to be a storyline or something that would eventually lead to a match and his eventual debut or... Now that I think about it, if they actually cross-promoted to the point that WBF guys were wrestling and defeating WWF heels it would... suck lots of dick.

 

- Ah. Good ol' Ray Combs. I wish that more WrestleMania matches featured Repo Man.

 

- So, whatever happened to the Fabergé egg that was Elizabeth's marquee layout (complete with olive in belly-button) that Mr. Perfect was supposed to be waving at ringside? Aw fuck it, there was no need. Savage totally came off as a guy who hated Ric Flair's fucking guys, and Flair played a piece of shit scumbag to a tee here, with the aide of his sneaky little Executive Consultant. I love this match, the pandemonium, the bloody champ and the commentary of Bobby Heenan, panicked over his "investment" being in jeopardy of losing the top championship in the company.

 

- Having the first-ever box set that was released in 1997, there is a brief moment where they remind us that there used to be a five-minute intermission at these three hour shows. Boy, there's something that we will (gladly) never see again. Unless you count matches like Big Show/Akebono.

 

- Rick Martel cutting a promo about having "no reservations" for Tatanka. Yes, I am a Model. I'm stealing that giant pin. Also, they have match against each other on this card too.

 

- Wow, that Natural Disasters/Money Inc. was spared out of consensual dumbfoundedness. Fuck workrate. I'm still puzzled why the Natural Disasters, who (mainly Earthquake) were scum of the Earth for the longest time up until last month, are big babyfaces. I guess that it would be better to deal with a tsunami than the Internal Revenue Service.

 

You tax cheat.

 

- Owen Hart vs. Skinner. It happened. Barely.

 

- God I'm a mark for Doctor Harvey Wippleman. Hogan/Sid was the right choice for the main event, based solely on the extracurricular activities that happened after the match.

 

- Overall, still one of my favorite Manias. Like, top three. It makes me sad to think that the Hoosier Dome is going to be demolished at the end of the year.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

As far as the WBF, I remember at least one of the top "stars" in that thing was supposed to transition to wrestling, but it never happened.

[garfieldsnose 0]

Weird how that was the only time we saw Lex before he debuted at the '93 Rumble. Were there ever any plans to debut him before that, or was he strictly supposed to stay with the WBF? I never watched that or cared for it, so when I rewatched Mania VIII, it got me thinking.

[Red Baron 0]

It's weird seeing Shawn Michaels heatless in the match.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Weird how that was the only time we saw Lex before he debuted at the '93 Rumble. Were there ever any plans to debut him before that, or was he strictly supposed to stay with the WBF? I never watched that or cared for it, so when I rewatched Mania VIII, it got me thinking.

 

Not 100% sure but I seem to recall hearing about WBF being a deal where under the terms of Lex leaving WCW, Luger couldn't actually wrestle for Vince but there was nothing stopping him from being contracted to be a bodybuilder.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

I had a few friends over to watch this yesterday. We got to the Hart/Piper match when the show froze up and just restarted. It's only an eight-dollar monthly service, but it's frustrating how frequently 24/7 is plagued with technical problems with our cable provider. Foreseeing something like this, though, I had my Coliseum Video copy nearby and ready to roll.

 

It's funny how fondly I remember this show. There are two legitimately great matches here, but a lot of the undercard stuff is uneventful. From a technical standpoint, it's a two-match show with some fun commentary and a great atmosphere.

 

And since we watched the CV version, we were treated to the disclaimer after the show about how the Bulldog/Berzerker match was canceled due to circumstances beyond their control.

 

Kudos for knowing people that would sit through an old ppv.

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah I'm pretty sure the whole Luger/WBF thing was mainly a vehicle for Luger while his WCW contract ran out. It was something convoluted like Luger's dates were up in WCW and he wasn't required to work more shows, but he was still under actual contract for another year. If that is in fact correct would that mean WCW was actually still paying a guy who was sorta working for the competition?

[Bruiser Chong 0]

I had a few friends over to watch this yesterday. We got to the Hart/Piper match when the show froze up and just restarted. It's only an eight-dollar monthly service, but it's frustrating how frequently 24/7 is plagued with technical problems with our cable provider. Foreseeing something like this, though, I had my Coliseum Video copy nearby and ready to roll.

 

It's funny how fondly I remember this show. There are two legitimately great matches here, but a lot of the undercard stuff is uneventful. From a technical standpoint, it's a two-match show with some fun commentary and a great atmosphere.

 

And since we watched the CV version, we were treated to the disclaimer after the show about how the Bulldog/Berzerker match was canceled due to circumstances beyond their control.

 

Kudos for knowing people that would sit through an old ppv.

It's nice, albeit something I don't advertise outside of venues such as this. Only one of us still watches the current product, but we all grew up on this era, so I don't need to pull teeth to make these gatherings happen. I did tempt fate when we watched Survivor Series '90 damn near in its entirety.

[Promoter 0]

I have mixed emotions about this Mania. It's a good one, but not a great one imo. Just something about the show seems incomplete to me. Savage/Flair was great and so was Piper/Bret(I liked Hogan/Sid too), however the show seemed going through the motions to me. I've had this discussion before where I know the net loves this show. IMO, the way the wwf promoted Hogan as having his last match the show seemed like it was suppose to end an era. I really think the wwf screwed up this Mania in terms of long term ramifications. Remember the wwf was under steroid scandal at the time.

I think this Mania could have been WAY better and being 2 hours was ridiculous.

 

Remember Hogan vs. Flair was suppose to be the title match until the steroid problems came up where Hogan wanted to go into hiding. If the wwf had went with that main event the whole year is changed, but they went with the whole perhaps Hogan's last match promo with Sid. They could have gone with Savage/Hart at SummerSlam instead of Mania. The way they set up Mania messed up 2 years of wrestling until WM X and is a reason for poor business imo.

 

Sid was brought in as the next Hogan if you can remember in the summer of 91. Flair came in as the real world champion. All this before SummerSlam. LOD won their first wwf tag title at SummerSlam 91. Now the wwf had somewhat of an invasion angle at their disposal and didn't pull the trigger. This would have made Hogan and Savage gain some of the super heat they had in 1988 and 1989 if they were put in a position to defend the wwf. Hogan and Savage's heat was waning in 1992. The dream match of Hogan/Flair could have matched Hogan/Andre if the wwf had gone the invasion type angle.

 

I'm saying this because WM 9 sucked monkey balls because of the booking of Mania 8. If Vince let Hogan run out his Hulkamania in 1992 and went on to push Bret in 1993 he would have more heat imo. There would be nothing left for Hogan to do after dethroning his 80's counterpart. You could still have Bret going over Piper who Hogan never beat by pinfall at the event. It sets up the heir apparent, but of course they thought Warrior would pan out.

 

To make this short, Hogan doesn't win convincingly against SID who came in as the next Hogan. SID suddenly disappears. UW returns and does a stupid feud with Papa Shango. Savage goes over Flair killing the feud imo. Flair winning would carry on the feud and I bet that is how they would book it today. Bret beats Piper and has no contenders in sight except Million Dollar Man. The tag situation was horrible as LOD should have been in the tag title match. They disappeared because of the steroid thing too. HBK/Santana was sort of a passing of the torch thing imo as Santana was a great IC worker. I hated that phony looking tombstone by UT on Jake. It was a passing of the torch, but the match seemed going through the motions to me. The wwf should have booked the show to either end the 80's era or have it something like wwf vs. nwa. Business would have picked up imo. There were some good to great matches in 1992, but the storylines and booking was bad. Does anyone agree that year seemed like an end to an era especially with all the steroid scandal around it? They should have booked the show in that fashion. How they opened up WM X should have been this show. If not, get heat back on the 80 guys by making an invasion angle. Flair, Luger, LOD, and Sid were perfect.