411 Ranks The WrestleManias: #15 – WrestleMania 8

WrestleMania VII saw the retirement of the Macho Man and the World Title win of Hulk Hogan. But many changes would happen in the year between WrestleMania VII and VIII. The Macho Man would be reinstated as Ric Flair entered the WWF and won the WWF title, all while claiming, “before she was yours, she was mine” in regards to Miss Elizabeth. Hulkamania would find a new challenge in Sid Justice and the Rockers were dead; allowing Shawn Michaels to go solo and prove himself as a singles competitor. Roddy Piper returned and won the IC Title, his first WWF title. and would face off with Bret Hart….

* Shawn Michaels w/Sensational Sherri defeated Tito Santana@ 10:38 via pin
* The Undertaker w/Paul Bearer defeated Jake Roberts @ 6:42 via pin
* WWF IC Title Match: Bret Hart defeated Roddy Piper @ 13:51 via pin to become the NEW IC Champion
* Jim Duggan, Sgt. Slaughter, Big Bossman & Virgil defeated The Mountie, Repo Man, & the Nasty Boys @ 6:31 via pin
* WWF Title Match: Randy Savage w/Elizabeth defeated Ric Flair © w/Mr. Perfect @ 18:01 via pin to become the NEW WWF CHAMPION
* Tatanka defeated Rick Martel @ 4:24 via pin
* WWF Tag Title Match: The Natural Disasters defeated Money Inc. © @ 8:30 via Count Out
* Owen Hart defeated Skinner @ 1:13 via pin
* Hulk Hogan defeated Sid @ 12:28 via DQ

Arnold Furious
The Best Thing on the Show And Why: Bret Hart v Roddy Piper [****1/2] Roddy Piper was a stubborn man but he knew the business and he knew when it was time to do the right thing. When he laid down for Bret Hart at WM8 he made Bret’s career as a main eventer. Piper generally avoided jobs during his WWF tenure, especially against Hulk Hogan. So when Piper lost a match it meant something. But it wasn’t just the outcome that made this such an important match. It was the structure. The teasing of a heel act (the ring bell) from Piper in particular before a great finish where Piper’s reluctance to let go of his own hold allowed Bret to pin him. I know Savage-Flair on this show is great too but for me this is MOTN and its probably Piper’s best singles match.

The Worst Thing on the Show And Why: Jake Roberts v Undertaker [1/2*] On paper I’m sure it sounds like a dream match but it didn’t work out that way. There are plenty of throwaway nothing matches on WM8, as there were on every WM in the early days, but this one should have been so much more. As it turns out Jake was on his way to WCW, the Savage storyline all but concluded, and a freshly face turned Undertaker just squashed him. Hard on Jake, who was a great storyteller, to end up in lousy matches at major shows. This one he even threatened to no show based on Vince reneging on an earlier promise to add him to the writing staff. He wrestled like his heart wasn’t in it.

Show MVP And Why: Roddy Piper. If he hadn’t done the job for Bret I have no doubt that Bret would still have gotten over to the degree that he did. Eventually. Beating Piper meant something at a time when wins & losses were important sometimes. Piper’s reluctance to lose at other times made this job a famous one. Plus he busted his ass to have a great match with the Hitman.

Your Thoughts on The Show: One of the best Wrestlemania’s at the time. Probably only bettered by WM3. Two great matches and a wonderful overall vibe. The end of the Hogan, Piper, Flair & Savage era and the beginnings of Bret and Shawn coming up. It was an exciting time to be a fan. Of course Wrestlemania 9 was horrible but that’s wrestling for you. Ups and downs.

Michael Weyer
The Best Thing on the Show And Why: Roddy Piper vs. Bret Hart, Intercontinental title: In early ’92, Bret Hart was being wooed by WCW and Vince, worried about the IC champ jumping, forced Bret to drop the belt to comedy wrestler the Mountie right before the Royal Rumble. Bret agreed only if they put out the story he was sick and wrestling against doctor’s orders. Piper ended up winning the belt at the Rumble, a reward for all his years of loyal service to Vince. Naturally, a match between them made sense and the two were great building to it, both showing their pride and wanting the title badly, both faces but with some heat so fans naturally wondered if one guy would go heel. That came into a great battle, both guys trying at first to keep it clean with technical moves, Piper’s rough style against Bret’s more skilled turns. There was the nice theme that Piper usually fought like a guy with nothing to lose but as the champ, he now was more methodical to battle Bret, a great touch. Bret would fake a shoulder injury to sucker Piper into a near-fall and it soon turned brutal with slaps and Bret then doing a blade job (lying to Vince about it being just an accident so they wouldn’t get fined). Piper played dirty too by holding the ropes for Bret only to attack him and hit a nasty bulldog. They kept it up with wicked shots, the crowd totally into it as Bret went for the Sharpshooter but Piper blocked it and a kick before a whip attempt knocked the ref down. With Bret down, Piper went out to grab the ring bell, threatening to hit Bret with it but after looking around the crowd, just lowered it. They went at it trading punches with Roddy slapping on the sleeper but Bret using the corner turnbuckles to walk up and knock himself back, leveraging it into a pin for the title. The crowd cheered as Piper grabbed the belt but then handed it to Bret, the two hugging it out. A fantastic battle that helped elevate Bret more thanks to Piper’s rub and a showcase of how two guys with different but unique styles could produce a memorable Mania battle.

The Worst Thing on the Show And Why: Big Bossman, Sgt. Slaughter, Virgil and Jim Dugan vs. the Mountie, Repo Man and the Nasty Boys—With “talent” like that, you could expect something messy and it came. The intros by Family Feud host Ray Combs were just insults on the heels before a messy brawl, no real story to things at all, just a total mess in so many ways. Virgil pinned Knobbs to win it but just a real low point to the show, just throwing more guys onto it and really forgettable.

Show MVP And Why: Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan. I’m dead serious on this as these guys had worked utter magic together at the Rumble and were riding that wave more into this big show. Heenan was pushing for Ric Flair against Randy Savage for the WWF title but before that, we had great gems like during Piper/Hart:

“There’s nothing like Wrestlemania, is there, Monsoon?”
“Absolutely not!”
“We agree on something!”
“Uh oh…” “We’re in trouble…” “Getting out of here…”

Also, when Undertaker got up from two DDT’s to crush Jake Roberts, Heenan broke out his “the man is not human!” rant that would help sell Taker to fans as this unstoppable force. Plus, Heenan announcing “Shawn Michaels has left the building!” Better was them during the Savage/Flair battle, Heenan in fine form needling Savage as Monsoon tried to be more objective. When Savage won, we got the genius of Heenan doing a total meltdown, frothing at the mouth and Gorilla just going “the Brain has really lost it folks.” They also did a great job livening up the Sid/Hogan main event with Heenan going wild at Hogan coming back and both erupting at the surprise return of the Ultimate Warrior. Making you think, laugh, actual smart insight to matches and building up the stories and wrestlers involved; Gorilla and the Brain were in fine form doing exactly what wrestling commentators should do and helped this show shine better.

Your Thoughts on The Show:I always have a soft spot for this, the last gasp of the original Hogan Era of WWF. Sure, some bad stuff like the eight-man tag, Owen Hart/Skinner and others but a lot of good too. The Piper/Hart and Savage/Flair battles are truly fantastic and still hold up great today. The Hogan/Sid main event is rough but highlighted by the return of the Ultimate Warrior, a true surprise moment back in 1992 that won you over. It’s also the passing of the torch in some ways as Hogan left for a while and we got to see the likes of Bret and Shawn Michaels showing their stuff. I know others may not like it but really one of my favorite Manias in a lot of ways and a show I remember fondly still.

Sean Garmer
The Best Thing on the Show And Why: Macho Man Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair [****] – The story going into this was that Flair was going to show some “naked centerfold” of Elizabeth if he won the match. So, this thing was a brawl mostly and included a really nasty blade job by Flair, where like half of his hair turns crimson. There was just a lot of good back-and-forth action in this one. Macho Man is supposed to be trying to defend his woman’s honor and his anger is felt throughout the match. I really liked that even though there was some shenanigans, the match didn’t end that way. The crowd was hot all the way through on this one and popped huge when Savage won. I think that is a testament to how much heat Flair can bring on himself and how much the fans loved Savage after Elizabeth came back. There was quite a few times where it looked like maybe Flair might win this thing, even though any fan that was above 15-years-old knew they weren’t going to be showing any centerfolds at Wrestlemania. I loved the post match stuff too, Flair kisses Elizabeth and Savage just whoops on him for a while. Flair’s promos before and after the match were epic.

The Worst Thing on the Show And Why: Tatanka vs. Rick Martel [½*] – This was the beginning of WWE’s push of Tatanka that extended to the next Wrestlemania as well. Tatanka wasn’t horrible, I’ve certainly seen worse characters receive pushes from WWE over the years. However, I just never got what the big deal about Tatanka was. Martel was a good worker but he just never got over with the fans for some reason and similar to Tito Santana kinda just played bit parts on these early Wrestlemania cards.

Show MVP And Why: Ric Flair – This was the only Wrestlemania that Flair was on during his first short run in WWE. Flair just made the title match seem so important with his promo at the beginning, while also furthering the Elizabeth story as well. I already talked about the match, and aside from the bad blade job, it was damn good. He then delivered a great promo later backstage as well that put over the result and let fans know he wasn’t done with all of this. Flair really gave WWE fans a show and they got to see what they were missing if they didn’t watch him all those years in the NWA/WCW. Since he doesn’t show up in WWE again at Wrestlemania until 10 years after this event, I thought his whole impact on this show was worth mentioning.

Your Thoughts on The Show: The WWE and IC title matches gave us some great Wrestlemania matches and moments. However, the rest of the show was lacking. The Undertaker had a little bit longer squash match with Jake Roberts (who is a perfect opponent for him) than he had with Jimmy Snuka at WM 7, and Shawn Michaels first Wrestlemania singles match was kinda blah. The rest of the show could have been skipped and you wouldn’t be missing much. The slow pace and disqualification in the main event totally ruins it in my view, and the Tag Team title match was worthless because of Earthquake and Typhoon being involved. The two matches I’ve mentioned many times were great, but there is hardly anything else worthwhile on this show. So, it gets an average rating from me and it is not as well rounded as WM 7 was.

What will #14 be? Come on back tomorrow to find out…

The List So Far…
30. WrestleMania 9
29. WrestleMania 2
28. WrestleMania 11
27. WrestleMania 4
26. WrestleMania 15
25. WrestleMania 27
24. WrestleMania 29
23. WrestleMania 25
22. WrestleMania 5
21. WrestleMania 13
20. WrestleMania
19. WrestleMania 6
18. WrestleMania 16
17. WrestleMania 7
16. WrestleMania 12
15. WrestleMania 8

REMINDER, each 411 writer had the opportunity to rank the WrestleMania events (based on overall quality, historical significance and personal preference), those rankings went into creating the final list.