Wrestlemania 8
April 5, 1992
Live from the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana

Our hosts for the evening, Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan.

Arriba McIntyre opens the show with her rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner”. Bobby Heenan owns.

1 - “El Matador” Tito Santana vs. “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels with Sensational Sherri
Sherri looked REALLY hot when she was with Michaels. Ditching the evening gowns for a bra top and skirt improved her stock a lot. Compared to his physique now, Michaels was fucking a bodybuilder back in 1992. Some restholds to open from Santana. At this point, any worth Santana had had since disappeared, but he still performed well in his position at jobber to the stars. The dominance from Santana finally took a turn when he missed a cross body block and Michaels chucked him over the top rope as Sherri scowled on. She began to take off her gloves, preparing her fingernails as Michaels dropped Santana with a backbreaker and locked on a headlock. Michaels hit the Superkick on Santana out of nowhere, but at this point, it wasn't his finisher, so he didn't capitalize on it. Instead, he got decked in the face. Santana bought himself some time and Michaels kicked him in the face, but Santana hit his flying forearm sending Michaels right out of the ring. Outside, Santana planted HBK face first into the steps and then rolled him back in the ring and got another shoulder block. Michaels bumped around the ring like a damn bouncy ball. Amazing to see how Michaels has matured as a wrestler. Santana went for a bodyslam, but Michaels dropped his weight on him to pin him and win the match. The match was nothing special, and Michaels had yet to learn how to carry a match, hence the dominance from Santana. However, the match was good and you can't ask for much more than that. Post match, Heenan makes a bold statement claiming that one day, Michaels will be WWF Champion. Boy, he is an excellent judge of talent.**3/4
Winner: “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels

At the entrance way, “Mean” Gene Okerlund introduced the Legion of Doom and their manager, “Precious” Paul Ellering. He says that he formed the LOD and that they're the greatest team of all time. Hawk and Animal rant incoherently and Hawk ends it with the famous catchphrase, as usual. All this hype for a run that went nowhere. Beautiful.

Earlier today, Sean Mooney interviewed Jake Roberts. They show footage of Roberts and Undertaker on The Funeral Parlor. Roberts slamming Taker's hand in a casket, nailing Paul Bearer with a DDT and clobbering Undertaker with a chair. Meanwhile, Roberts cuts a scorching promo on Taker, saying that everything he's done to Taker has been simple foreplay.

2 – Jake “The Snake” Roberts vs. The Undertaker with Paul Bearer
Monsoon claims that whenever Taker is around, it reeks of formaldehyde. What an awesome claim. Roberts beats on Taker and clotheslines him over the top rope, but Taker lands on his feet and begins to ream Roberts. Pretty slow paced match here, but everything makes sense. Taker's invincible character was in full force here as Taker began to choke the life out of Roberts. Match stays slow until Roberts drops him with the DDT out of nowhere. However, Taker no sells it and sits out as Bearer plays with the urn outside the ring. Roberts figures why not try it again and gives him yet another DDT, preceded by a short arm clothesline. Again, Taker no sells the DDT. Mind you, this is when the DDT was actually a feared move rather than a transitional move. Outside the ring, Roberts begins beating up Paul Bearer and Undertaker gets up and gives him the Tombstone outside the ring, but the camera man sucks at life and films Jake's head not even coming close to the ground. His head was at least 4 inches away from the mat. Taker rolls him in, pins him and that is that. Nothing more than a match to showcase The Undertaker's streak of terror. This was #2 of what would become (to date) a 14-0 streak. Match was meh, but was fun to see Roberts get squashed. 3/4*
Winner: The Undertaker

In the back, Okerlund is with the Intercontinental Champion, Roddy Piper and the #1 Contender Bret Hart. This promo is excellent. Piper says he loves the Hart family and has known Hart since he was in diapers, claims Hart wasn't potty trained until he was 7. He says that Helen Hart used to make bologna SAMMICHES and is basically a freaking ball of caffine, but Hart is Mr. Serious. This promo was awesome, a must see.

3 – Intercontinental Championship Match - “Rowdy” Roddy Piper © vs. Bret “The Hitman” Hart
It's amazing that the legendary Roddy Piper only won ONE title his entire tenure in the WWF (not counting his recent Tag Title win with Ric Flair). Piper defeated The Mountie for the IC Title at the Royal Rumble and this was his first title defense. Stare down to start followed by a collar and elbow tie up and a Ricky Steamboat armdrag by Hart to Piper. Piper gets a single leg take down and rides Bret before being tossed from the ring. Piper is pissed and spat at Hart as Monsoon demands an apology. Exchange of hammerlocks by Piper and Hart as a Four Horsemen sign makes it's way on to television. Piper begins working on the shoulder of Hart, so Hart tries to do the same. Bret hits a running dropkick on Piper, but hurts his shoulder that Piper was working on. However, he was playing possum, and rolls up Piper. He kicks out, then slaps Hart. Both men spill to the floor. From this point, Piper began to dominate Hart in the ring, even busting him open. Hart fought back and crotched Piper before dropping him face first out of the corner. Atomic drop, snap suplex, Russian leg sweep, backbreaker and elbow off the top rope to follow. Five Moves of Doom for the win. However, Piper moves out of the way and gets up a foot. Piper grabs a ring bell, feigns using it, but doesn't. He pays, locks on the Sleeper but Bret reverses it into a pin out of the corner win the match, and the title. Post match, they shake hands, hug and are all buddy buddy. Amazing, awesome match, worth any and all praise it gets. ****1/4
Winner and New Intercontinental Champion: Bret “The Hitman” Hart

Lex Luger, leader of the WBF, cuts a promo. The best part about this is Luger calling Gorilla Monsoon a fat guy. Monsoon: “WHAT?!?!” Promo climaxes with Luger showing off his steroid produced physique, and drinks a glass of milk given to him by some bimbo.

Cut to the back, The Mountie and the Nasty Boys are cutting a promo on Bossman, Sgt. Slaughter, Virgil and Jim Duggan. Repo Man shows up and adds some more comedy. Repo Man was excellent. Brian Knobbs spits everywhere. Cut to the face interview area, their opponents rant on everyone. Duggan, Bossman and Slaugter deliver their lines nicely. Virgil, not so much. It's that very reason he fails at life.

4 – 8 Man Tag Team Match – The Repo Man, The Mountie & The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Saggs) with “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart vs. Sgt. Slaughter, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Virgil & The Big Bossman
The host from Family Feud insults the heels a little bit before the match starts. Funny stuff. Dude killed himself like a month later or something like that. Sucks to be him. Heenan announces that “Shawn Michaels has left the building”. Awesome. This match started off with a big ole brawl, everyone attacking everyone. Not much to really keep up with. The heels beat up Virgil a lot, because he sucks. Bossman dominates and the crowd goes nuts. I forgot that he died until just now. Knobbs destroys Virgil's broken nose, but a miscommunication between the Nasty Boys leads to a Virgil victory for his team. Fun little match here, a good thing to get eight people on the card. **1/2
Winners: Sgt. Slaughter, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Virgil & The Big Bossman

Backstage, in their locker room, Mr. Perfect and Ric Flair are with Sean Mooney. They rant and rave and talk about how tonight, after they defeat Randy Savage, they're going to reveal the nude photo of Miss Elizabeth. According to Flair, she's ALL the way live! It's time for the big WWF Title match.

5 – WWF Championship Match - “Nature Boy” Ric Flair © with “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage
Savage sprints to the ring, ready to kicks Flair's ass after all the allegations and he begins beating Flair outside the ring as Perfect gets chased by Savage. In the ring, Flair gets dropped by Savage. Flair backdrops Savage over the top rope to the floor. Flair dominates the hell out of Savage, works the knee and drops knees on Savage's face as Heenan continues to claim that Liz still wants Ric Flair to put it in her butt. Flair nailed Savage with a beautiful delayed vertical suplex. Ring psychology, crowd psychology and the overall package right here at it's absolute best from both men. Such an amazing story. Savage makes a brief comeback, and hits Flair with a spinning neckbreaker, but is too hurt to capitalize. Savage and Flair get up, and Savage nails some right hands, but a thumb to the eye from Flair. He goes to the top rope, but gets tossed off, per usual. HUGE thud landing. Flair begs off, as Savage throws Flair into the turnbuckle and backdrops him. Clotheslines follow and Flair begs off more. Savage spits on him, but this time, Monsoon loves it. Savage throws him into the corner, Flair flips over, runs to the other side, comes off, but gets nailed in the face. Pinfall only gets a two count though. Hot spot there, and the crowd ate it up. Savage clotheslines Flair over the top rope and Savage dives off the top rope on to Flair with a double axe handle. Flair gets busted open and then flops on the floor. Heenan is frantic, begging for Flair to fight back. No dice as Savage almost wins with the double axe handle. Perfect gets involved and throws Flair a taped object. Flair uses it on Savage, and almost wins, but Macho kicks out. Perfect takes a chair and nails Savage in the knee with it, effectively killing all momentum he had. Elizabeth frantically power walks to the ring as road agents (including a young Shane McMahon) try and get her to leave ringside, but to no avail. Flair locks on the Figure Four Leg Lock as Liz tries to tell the road agents to STFU. Savage reverses it after about 2 minutes as Flair goes for a bodyslam, but Savage utilizes the small package. No victory though. Flair pulls Savage by the leg to the middle of the ring, goes for a right hand, but Savage reverses, hits Flair and rolls him up with a school boy and tights out of nowhere to get the victory! Post match, a pissed off Flair asks Liz “what about me?!” before forcing a kiss on her. Savage goes nuts and attacks him and a brawl ensues. Road agents try and break up the ordeal, and finally get Flair and Perfect away from ringside so that Savage and Liz can celebrate in the ring. This match is the finest example of overall psychology ever in a match. Best Wrestlemania match ever, IMO. *****
Winner and New WWF Champion: “Macho Man” Randy Savage

In the back, Sean Mooney interviews Ric Flair, Bobby Heenan and Mr. Perfect. A frantic, excellent promo here. Flair says it's not over, and guarantees to kiss Liz whenever he gets the opportunity. Such great mic work. Cut to Okerlund with Savage and Liz and Savage says that a win is a win, and that he's not finished kicking Flair's ass. He gives the title to Liz, says Flair hasn't been beat up properly, but next time, he'll get the whole Flair package.

From here, we get footage of the Wrestlemania press conference where he names Hulk Hogan the #1 Contender to the WWF Title. Sid gets pissed and tells President Jack Tunney that “what you did... WAS BOGUS!” Sid owns so hard. He apologized to Hogan, teamed up with him, and then turned on him for real, completing his heel turn. At ringside, he calls someone a “little wench” and threatens to slap her face before telling Brutus Beefcake that Hogan can help himself. Then he ruins the Barber Shop set with a chair. Awesome heel work here from Sid. From here, Sid destroys jobber after jobber after jobber on his road to his match with Hogan.

More interviews as Rick Martel says that indians have no class, style or fashion. He says that he'll disinfect the ring with Arrogance (the perfume). He says that Tatanka is still outside scalping tickets. Pwned.

6 – Tatanka with the Lumbee Tribe vs. “The Model” Rick Martel
Let me just say off the bat, Martel's gimmick and theme music both owned. Tatanka dominates early on, hitting multiple bodyslams before Martel fled the ring. Martel then goes back and dominates briefly, slamming Tatanka down with a mini chokebomb. From there, he chucks Tatanka over the top rope to the floor by his 1992 mullet which was still intact in 2006. Fun stuff there. Rib breaker to follow, and Martel went up top and Tatanka crotched him. Martel flipped off, and Tatanka chopped the hold hell out of him and backdropped him. Tomahawk Chop to follow, but Martel kicked him in the face. Crossbody block from Tatanka gets Martel and wins the match as Martel is pissed now. Match wasn't much, but wasn't bad either. Less than 5 minutes, but could have been more given a tad bit more time. **
Winner: Tatanka

In the back, Sean Mooney is with Money, Inc. Dibiase says that you don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit in the wind and don't write checks you don't have the funds to cover. IRS says that they aren't taking the Natural Disasters lightly, but they ARE taking them. They owned so hard.

7 – WWF World Tag Team Championship Match – Money, Inc. (“The Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase & Irwin R. Schyster) © with “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart vs. The Natural Disasters (Earthquake & Typhoon)
Money Inc. tried to match power with the Disasters, but fail miserably and get their asses squashed and handed to them. Dibiase and IRS pull a Hennig special and bounce up and down the ring to make this match passable. Dibiase briefly dominates Typhoon, chopping him in the corner, but it doesn't last long. It's sad to know that this match features another dead wrestler in John Tenta. It's more sad seeing Typhoon botch an over the top flip after Dibiase ducked a clothesline. IRS nailed Typhoon with the ring steps giving the advantage to the champs as Jimmy Hart shouted from outside the ring. The Diasters attempted to take turn hitting their finishers on IRS and the fans go nuts. Typhoon with the big Splash and Earthquake went for the big ass drop, but Jimmy Hart pulled IRS out of the ring and they got themselves intentionally counted out, saving themselves and their coveted World Tag Team Titles. Match was passable, if only for Dibiase and Rotunda bumping across the ring. Other than that, it was pretty much a miss. **
Winners: The Natural Disasters

Okerlund interviews “one of the all-time greats”, Brutus Beefcake about the career of Hulk Hogan. Wow, he sucks so badly.

8 - “The Rocket” Owen Hart vs. Skinner
Match starts off quickly as Skinner spits some tobacco chew in Owen's face, pummels Owen with right hands and headbutts him and chokes him in the ropes, looking impressive. However, not so much when Owen rolls him up to win the match in just over a minute. Impressive Wrestlemania debut for Owen, despite the fact that he debuted and lost to Curt Hennig at Wrestlemania 5. Owen's attire and garb at this time were ridiculous too. Match, obviously, was nothing at all. DUD
Winner: “The Rocket” Owen Hart

MORE Okerlund goodness as he tries to interview Sid, who calls him a “fat, bald headed, little oaf”. Sid is the master, and Hogan is but... the... learner. Okerlund shows footage of a touching, emo interview with Hogan and McMahon. He doesn't know for sure if it's his last match tonight. Sid doesn't give a DAMN about the memories of Hulk Hogan, and claims that he curses Hogan and will kill his career.

9 – Sid Justice with Dr. Harvey Whippleman vs. Hulk Hogan
To hell with those who say that Sid sucks. He was at least above average at everything he did. He got unfairly crapped on and suffered a horrible end to his mainstream career. Sid attacks Hogan as his music is still playing, but Hogan sends him from the ring, rips the shrit and poses before the match finally starts. They messed up here it seems, as everything that they did before the match, the re-did in the opening 3 minutes here. Sid basically dominated here, and seeing Hogan get squashed is always fun. A power struggle goes in Sid's favor as Hogan cowers to Sid's feet. He continues to dominate Hogan before cutting a promo mid match saying that he has an old saying: “Do onto others, and they would do unto you... but do it first,” further proving his awesomeness. Sid throws Hogan from the ring and nails Hogan with Whippleman's doctor bag. After about 8 minutes of getting his ass beat, Hogan tries to Hulk up, but it fails as Sid hits a sidewalk slam. Sid gives Hogan the last rites and hits him with a Powerbomb. Hogan goes into convulsions, and kicks out of a pinfall. He hulks up here, as Sid is incensed. Big boot and bodyslam to follow and the of course, the big leg drop of doom. Whippleman hops on the ring apron, Sid kicks out and Hebner calls for the bell, signifying a DQ. At that point, the match had fallen apart, the fans were confused, and the whole thing went to crap. Papa Shango (The Godfather) ran down, and he and Sid beat up Hogan. Ultimate Warrior's music hit and he made his return to the WWF after a long absence. He and Hogan beat up Shango and Sid and then pose to close the show. This match was going perfectly fine until the screwed up ending which took away from the match a lot. It also gets unfairly crapped on. **1/4
Winner: Hulk Hogan

Final Thoughts: A very underrated Wrestlemania and event in general. No, not ever match was a workrate classic, but you had 2 AMAZING matches, 4 really fun matches, and a couple of decent showcase matches. Plus, everyone was at their peak in promo goodness here. Outside of the fact that the Sid/Hogan and Savage/Flair matches should have been reversed in position, the show still is way good. Most of the matches and storylines withstand the test of time, and even 15 years later, the show is above average. In my opinion, this was the very first Wrestlemania that you can watch over and over again and not get tired of. 1 through 7 were all horrible to average at best. This one was actually awesome. Definitely worth finding and watching – you won't be disappointed. 4.5/5

Strongly recommended.

I have seen this at some point, but for some reason, I have no recollection of the Flair/ Savage match. I'll have to find that one at least.

Here ya go, WMD:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

I'd love to hear your thoughts when you've completed the match.

Hey! Thanks a alot, man. Hopefully I'll have time to see this today.

The Flair/Savage match IS awesome, but VERY far from *****.

Hogan/Sid is probably the worst "show ending match" in WrestleMania history, other than Hogan/Andre, and even that's up for debate.

For the people who talk about what a horrible match Hogan / Andre was : It did exactly what a wrestling match is supposed to do. It completely captured the popular imagination, drew huge money, and delivered as an exciting main event. No match ever could have gone on after that match.

I understand, but I meant from a technical stand-point. The match gets a a lot of praise because of the amazing atmosphere and aura surrounding it, but Andre shloudn't have been in the ring anymore at that point. His body wouldn't let him do anything.

I get the reasoning, and with almost any other "technically bad" match I'd agree with you. This match is different, however, as it really gets to the point of what pro-wrestling is all about. First, the show was sold on that match alone. Everyone in the world wanted to see it, and wanted to see if Hogan could slam Andre. After all that money spent, noone left that show feeling ripped-off. Hogan / Andre got the ultimate build and delivered. I don't think Hogan / Sid compares in anw way.

Touche. Hogan/Sid was balls, period. And the finish? AT WM? Jesus tap dancing Christ... a DQ to end WrestleMania. 2 weeks later, Sid was gone, Hogan was gone, and Warrior was puking on T.V.

At least they had that going for them.

A dq finish in the main event of Wrestlemania sounds like the lamest thing ever and would probably not be tolerated by any fans in this day an age. Still, sounds like a really good show, I should probably sit down and watch it someday.

As of now, I've only seen Savage/Flair and I'd peg it at around ****1/2.

How can you not have seen a WrestleMania?! :D

Honestly, I haven't seen a lot of them. I've seen the big matches from all of them, but the only Wrestlemania's I've actually sat down and watched from beginning to end are: WM, WMVI, WMVII, WMX, WMXIV, WMXV, WMX7, WMX8, WMXIX, WMXX, WM21, and WM22.

... Oh No. You need WrestleMania IX.

I get that a lot, but I stand by my guns that it's the best put together title match in Wrestlemania history (with the WM X7 and WM 20 main events coming in at a close second and third) due to the emotion, quality, atmosphere and overall psychology. The match, the crowd and the elements (Savage, Flair, Perfect, Liz, Monsoon and Heenan) were all at their very best here, and together, put together this 5 star match. It's a shame it didn't get to close the show -- it deserved it. Instead, we got the Hogan ego stroke.

I definitely see what Cage is saying, and I fully agree that it should have closed the show (don't know who would disagree, but still).

Really, Hogan's fucking ego ruined the last two 'Mania's he was involved with before heading to WCW (though IX was already a disaster, Hogan's greed made it somehow even worse).

Is that possible?