Post by hbkjason on Mar 2, 2020 7:02:39 GMT -5
Wrestling Memories WrestleMania VIII
As we are in WrestleMania season I thought it would be fitting to talk about one of my favorite WrestleMania’s, 8! I know a lot of folks have talked about this on here and it always gets some good discussion going. I thought I would throw my hat in the ring and share my memories of the event.
The first thing that I need to talk about is how here in the UK this was a double whammy! Sky decided to air No Holds Barred before WrestleMania VIII so that was pretty awesome. It was cheesy as hell, but I loved that movie as a kid. Apart from that super awkward and weird bit when Hogan is working out in his underwear! One of the things that I love about this event is the state of the WWF at the time. It was such an interesting time that this is one of the biggest “what if?” events in history with people theorizing different ways the event could have gone down.
This is going to sound really boring, but I legit would not change WrestleMania VIII for the world. I love this event the way it is and I know that we could have had Hogan vs Flair, Savage vs Robberts, Legion of Doom vs Money Inc and Shawn Michaels vs Marty Jannetty, but I am more than happy with the card that we actually got. WrestleMania VIII to me is a near-perfect event from start to end, but before I get there, I have to talk about Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice.
As a kid, I was never what you would call a Hulkamaniac. Do not get me wrong I liked Hogan and I was pulling for him to beat Slaughter just one year prior. However, even then he was not in my top five wrestlers. Even more so after the way he was portrayed during this time. His hissy fit at the 1992 Royal Rumble never sat well with me as a kid as I liked Sid Justice and felt Hogan cost him the match, Hogan was the heel here not Sid Justice. If you ask me, everything Sid did after this was Hogan’s own doing. If the roles had been reversed, people would be saying that Hogan was the hero trying to get payback for the man that cost him the title. It was a very strange way to build a main event.
It was cool how the event was in a stadium and I thought that it looked fantastic on TV. This was the first WrestleMania to not have a ton of matches. I think the final card has like 8 matches whereas before this we got far more matches on a WrestleMania. The opener with Shawn Michaels vs Tito Santana was great as these were two of my favorites at this time. I really do not think there is what you would call a bad match on this show. Even the 8 man tag and the short match between Skinner and Owen Hart are fun.
Bret Hart and Roddy Piper is a real classic and one of my favorite WrestleMania matches. I actually really liked both of these guys, but I was pulling for Bret to win his belt back. What I remember most about this match was that I legit never had a clue which way it was going to go, right up until the end when Bret Hart reversed Roddy Piper’s sleeper hold, a move he would repeat four years later at the Survivor Series against Stone Cold Steve Austin.
The first part of the main event with Randy Savage vs Ric Flair was just pure gold. These two worked magic together and I know that many people wanted Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair, but honestly, I am 100 percent glad we got this match instead. These two had great chemistry and the whole “I had her first” thing that the feud was built around was so great. It felt completely real and that is because Savage, Flair, Perfect and Heenan all made you think it was real. Randy Savage is just so good. I know that everyone knows that, but he really was on a level all to himself. He was so intense, so real and you believed in everything he did. One funny thing about this match is the interview after it with Randy Savage and Elizabeth. It is like she is terrified every time that he turns around.
The second part of the main event, Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice is a match that I was all in on, but I was rooting for Sid Justice. One thing I want to touch on first is the entrances. This is the best entrance that Hulk Hogan ever did in my opinion. I loved how he fought Sid for a bit while his music was still playing, it was such a small thing, but it got you pumped up for the match big time. It is kind of funny that this was billed as potentially “Hulk Hogan's farewell match” when he would go on to wrestle for two more decades. The actual match is rather slow-paced and I was getting a bit sleepy as a kid…. Until the Warrior returned. I have spoken many times about how he was my hero as a kid and at the time this event happened I was 11 years old and I had no clue where Warrior had been, he just disappeared. Him coming back blew the roof of the stadium and my living room as well. He was smaller and his hair was different, but I knew that was the Warrior!
This is a fantastic WrestleMania and I love the “what ifs” that are around it, but I love it just the way it is.
