Sunday, April 5th, 1992
Hoosier Dome
Indianapolis, Indiana
If there is one thing that I miss most about the old WrestleMania shows, it is the old intro music with Vince McMahon shouting the matches over it. Followed by the brilliant team of Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan. Jim Ross is the best actual play-by-play man in wrestling history, but in terms of just his vocals, I'll take Gorilla every day of the week.
Reba McIntyre is here to sing "America The Beautiful", which is actually a fairly big get for the WWF at this time. Especially with business on the downturn big time. I could be wrong, but this is the one major WWF/E show that I can think of that doesn't hide large sections of empty seats. With the early start time (5:00 pm Eastern), they may not have really had a choice.
El Matador Tito Santana vs. Shawn Michaels
This was Vince's last ditch effort to make Tito relevant towards the end of his career, which was very similarly done with Ricky Steamboat in 1991. Sherri Martel truly was a one of a kind. Both wrestlers came out to small reactions, but the crowd is definitely into the action. Santana was without a doubt one of the greatest mid-card performers of the era, which really made him the perfect opponent for Michaels here. This match is a perfect example of how much has changed in wrestling in the last 25 years or so, most notably the number of rest holds and art of selling. Every move that is done between the rest holds feels so important because of the way they sell it. Michaels gets the sloppy victory here by pinfall in a pretty good opener.
Match Rating: **3/4 (out of 5)
Mean Gene then introduces the Legion of Doom along with the WWF debut of Paul Ellering. They were originally supposed to fight Money, Inc. here, but Hawk failed a drug test and instead we get this pointless interview segment. This was the beginning of the end for LOD in WWF until 1996.
Backstage to Sean Mooney with Jake Roberts. They show a clip of one of the more memorable scenes for me from this era, where Undertaker's hand is slammed shut in the casket and Jake destroys him with a chair. It's been said a million times, but it's too bad Roberts' bad habits ended this heel run. It would have led to what would have eventually been a great face turn.
Jake Roberts vs. Undertaker
Unless you never have watched WWE television, I think you can probably guess who is going to win this match. This is WrestleMania match #2 for Taker. Props to Gorilla for saying "a tremendous crowd" as opposed to having to pretend that it was a sell out. I am pretty sure that if this character debuted today, he would never get over if this was the pace he wrestled at. It really is amazing that they allowed him to wrestle this slowly for as long as they did. Jake nails him with the DDT, which leads to a sit up by Taker. Was Taker the first person to not lose after a DDT from Jake? Jake hits another, which leads to a tombstone on the outside of the ring. Taker drags him in the ring and that's all she wrote.
Match Rating: 3/4*
Backstage with Mean Gene, Roddy Piper and Bret Hart. This is Piper at his goofiest, but it works for me. Bret says about 5 words.
Intercontinental Championship Match
Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper
Going into this show, this was the match I was most excited about. Both guys come out to good reactions. It takes approximately for Piper to lose his temper and spit at Hart. This is one of the few matches between "smaller guys" that I can think of to do the test of strength. Speaking of which, when was the last time someone did one of those? I'm sure it has happened, but I am drawing a blank. Bret then pulls a heel move by faking a shoulder injury. They almost have a big botch, as Piper struggles to flip over the ropes after catching Hart. With the amount of wrestlers who admire Bret's work so much, I am shocked we don't see more guys trying to imitate his style and pacing. Hart is busted open, which they fooled Vince into thinking was done accidentally. This is just an absolutely brilliant story that these two guys pulled off. Face vs. face matches are typically extremely difficult matches to pull off, and yet these two guys did it with ease. The climax leads to Piper unable to decide if he should hit Hart with the ring bell when the ref is out, which Hart takes advantage of for the pinfall victory. The crowd absolutely ate all of this up. Great match.
Match Rating: ****
Bobby Heenan then goes live to Atlanta to introduce Lex Luger. He literally looks like he was injected with every steroid on the planet before the interview. Oh yeah, this was for WBF. How did no one tell Vince that this was such a terrible idea? Luger is pretty terrible here, which I know is shocking news.
We now go backstage to the Mountie, Repo Man and Nasty Boys. If you love the cheese, this one is for you. This is naturally followed up by Big Boss Man, Sgt. Slaughter, Virgil and Jim Duggan. Virgil sporting the mask for his broken nose is amazing.
Mountie, Repo Man & Nasty Boys vs. Big Boss Man, Virgil, Sgt. Slaughter & Hacksaw Jim Duggan
The match is introduced by Ray Combs of Family Feud fame. He spouts out a few zingers about the heels, which 9 year old me ate up. This leads to the heels going after Combs and the faces coming to his rescue. Kind of crazy to think of where some of these guys were just one year prior at WrestleMania VII. Virgil was in a big feud with Ted Dibiase, the Nasty Boys stole the titles from the Hart Foundation, Big Boss Man was the #1 contender to the Intercontinental title and Sgt. Slaughter was in the main event. Now they are in a throwaway match. Heenan lets us know that "SHAWN MICHAELS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING". To call this match sloppy would be letting it off too easy. Boss Man's swinging punch is so laughably bad. Things just completely fall apart and somehow the match gets even sloppier. Danny Davis isn't exactly doing much to help these guys along, either. Virgil gets the pin and we get to hear his semi-underrated entrance music.
Match Rating: 3/4*
Sean Mooney is back with Ric Flair and Mr. Perfect. They are hyping up the photos that they have been talking about for weeks leading up to the big match. This story on paper is a little corny, but Savage and Flair were the right guys to pull it off.
Mean Gene is outside the dressing room of Randy Savage, who is not allowing Okerlund in, so he just hypes the match like only he can.
WWF Championship Match
Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage
I had forgotten how different Flair's original entrance music was. The backdrop over the top rope spot they do is a great visual. Unsurprisingly, Savage made it look spectacular.. It's crazy how young Mr. Perfect looks here. Being a WWF loyalist at the time, I was only semi-familiar with Flair when he was brought in back in 1991. I remember getting made fun of by my friends for liking Flair because he didn't have big muscles. Flair then pulls off one of the more famous blade jobs in WWF/E history that got him into big trouble with Vince. Unlike Hart earlier in the night, it was clear that this one was a blade job. These guys have the crowd right in the palm of their hands and they definitely capitalized on it. Elizabeth is now down at ringside to check on Savage, who is taking a beating and selling it like only he can. One of the earlier Shane McMahon appearances as he is one of the stooges trying to get Elizabeth to go to the back. Then out of nowhere, Savage rolls up Flair out of nowhere and he gets the loudest pop of the night so far. This was an excellent WWF style main event type match, that proves interference can be effective when it makes sense within the story and this most definitely does. Easily the best WWF Championship at a WrestleMania up until this point and I would still put it pretty high up there. After the match Flair gets some revenge and leaves the ring to some major booing.
Match Rating: ****1/2
Back to Sean Mooney with a bloody Flair and irate Mr. Perfect. In walks Heenan in a panic. To anyone who was a fan during this era, this is a dream come true. If this feud happened in the current era, this would have been the first of pay-per-view matches. They show the replay of Savage grabbing the tights.
Mean Gene is with Savage who is still selling the bad knee and gives a classic Macho Man interview. Good stuff.
We now get clips of the big WrestleMania VIII "press conference", which is the cheapest looking press conference I have seen, even by 1992 standards. Then we get the Sid Justice heel turn clip on Saturday Night Main Event, which despite being pretty obvious, was well done. Sid then destroys Barber Shop set. Thankfully for Sid, WrestleMania wasn't during softball season or else he would have missed his big moment.
Sean Mooney is with Rick Martel, who is forever the most underrated wrestler of early 90s WWF. He then makes a tasteless Native American comment and that's about all.
Tatanka vs. Rick Martel
Tatanka has a tribe with him at ringside, which makes for an interesting atmosphere. This is kind of the death spot, as they have to follow an awesome match and Heenan is bent out of shape and Monsoon keeps egging him on. Both guys are putting in a solid effort and Tatanka was definitely getting over. Heenan now goes off on all of his Native American jokes. After some back and forth action, Tatanka gets a pinfall pretty much out of nowhere to the point where it almost feels like a mistake.
Match Rating: *1/2
Sean Mooney is with Money, Inc. who cut a pretty blah promo. This leads to a rather intense promo from your heroes that Natural Disasters. They really couldn't have cut these promos and given the world the Berzerker vs. British Bulldog match that we all deserved?
WWF Tag Team Championship Match
Money, Inc. vs. Natural Disasters
IRS is one of my all time least favorite wrestlers. Yet, somehow he lasted seemingly forever in a one note gimmick. Simpler times, I suppose. The Natural Disasters clean house, but the crowd just isn't buying them as faces. 1992 was the year the golden era of tag team wrestling in WWF died. The difference in ability between Typhoon and Earthquake is very apparent. Earthquake overall was an underrated worker at this time. Earthquake was going for the big splash, but Jimmy Hart comes in and pulls IRS out and Money, Inc. is counted out. I love that Monsoon explains that they are forfeiting the winners purse. They need to start emphasizing that again.
Match Rating: 1/2*
Mean Gene introduces us to one of the "all time greats", Brutus Beefcake. Yes, this really happened. Beefcake's mullet is pretty glorious here. He lets us know that Hulkamania will never die.
Owen Hart vs. Skinner
Skinner is already in the ring and as Owen Hart enters, Skinner spits in his face and attacks him. Skinner had some of the more memorable introduction vignettes of my childhood. Owen does a roll up for the victory out of nowhere. Why did this match even happen?
Match Rating: 1/4*
Mean Gene is with Sid Justice and we are in for a treat. Sid says it will be Hogan's last match. I bet it won't be. They cut to a sit down interview between Hogan and Vince McMahon. Vince ends the interview with one of the creepier handshakes ever caught on film. Then they go back to Sid spouting out more nonsense. Sid was a one in a million. I'm not really quite sure what the point of pairing Harvey Wippleman with Sid was. He didn't say a word.
Sid Justice vs. Hulk Hogan
I guess this is Wippleman's purpose, to rip the mic from Howard Finkel and introduce Sid Justice. Gorilla refers to Sid as "straightjacket material". They also say Gorilla coined the nickname Psycho Sid. It's kind of remarkable that Sid somehow was in the main event at more than one WrestleMania. Hogan is out and we get the typical heel attacks Hogan, Hogan fights him off and then rips his shirt off all while his entrance music still plays. Hogan matches are always more entertaining with Heenan constantly bashing him. We then are treated to over two minutes of them standing in the center of the ring holding hands. Such drama. You'll quickly learn that I am not a Hulk Hogan fan. I was the one kid at school who couldn't stand the Hulkster. I'd like to think that I was a more knowledgeable fan, but my favorite was Ultimate Warrior, so that theory goes right out the window. Sid does a close up interview during the middle of the match, which definitely was not something that happened often during this era. Good lord, this match is awful. This is a house show quality workrate. How many rest holds does one 13 minute match need? Here comes the powerbomb and Hogan kicks out. A big boot doesn't knock Sid down, so he goes for the body slam. Wippleman is in there and somehow that is a DQ. Papa Shango missed his spot, so we get treated to one of the weakest DQs in history. No big deal. It was just the main event of your biggest show of the year. Hall of Famer Papa Shango is going to work on Hogan and we are treated to one of the biggest surprise returns in WWF history. Ultimate Warrior comes sprinting out and the Hoosier Dome is rocking. All is right in cartoon era WWF. Warrior isn't even capable of being on the same page as someone during a post match celebration. Terrible match, but a feel good ending that McMahon was always dead set on having.
Match Rating: 1/2*
Overall, this is a mixed bag and the second half of the show is pretty weak. However, you get two matches at ****s and above plus a lot of nostalgia. If you were a fan of this era, I feel this is a winner. If not, you should still enjoy Hart/Piper and Flair/Savage.
Overall Show Score: 80%
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