Austin101

Austin101's "WWF Wrestlemania 12" Review:


-Live on PPV from the Pond in Anaheim, California.

-Vince McMahon is with Jerry "The King" Lawler for the third consecutive year for commentary.

-There was a couple Free for All matches before they went onto PPV.

-Free for All match 1: The Bodydonnas (Skip and Zip) (w/Sunny) defeated The Godwinns (Henry and Phineas) (w/Hillbilly Jim) to win the vacant WWF Tag Team Championship as Skip pinned Phineas at 5:21.

-Free for All match 2: The Nacho Man fought The Huckster (w/Billionaire Ted as Special Referee) to a no-contest

-The Match ended in a no contest after the Huckster and Nacho Man "died" after the Huckster hit the Nacho Man with a chair and the Nacho Man hit The Huckster with a woman's high-heeled shoe.

That's actually pretty hillarious if I do say so myself.


-The main event of this show between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels is the longest match in the history of WrestleMania. No surprise there though, I'm sure.

-Portions of the Hollywood Backlot Brawl actually used stock footage of the LAPD Freeway Chase involving O.J. Simpson.

-The WrestleMania XII logo is a parody of the 20th Century Fox logo.

-This was the only WrestleMania to feature only one championship match (excluding the Free for All match).

-This event is the only WrestleMania to feature a logo on the ring canvas. Following the event, the canvas was cut into segments and sold through the WWF's retail shopping number.

-The main attraction of this WrestleMania was the novelty of the WWF championship match that was guaranteed to last at least one hour. On-screen WWF president "Rowdy" Roddy Piper had announced on an edition of Monday Night RAW that reigning champion Bret Hart, who had retained the WWF Championship against Diesel at WWF In Your House in February 1996, must defend the title against Shawn Michaels, who had won the 1996 Royal Rumble and had defeated Owen Hart at February's In Your House for the right to keep the WrestleMania title shot in the first ever "WWF Iron Man Match"; whereby the winner would be the man with the most decisions over a sixty minute time limit.

-The main event was built on Bret Hart wanting to retain the WWF Championship against Shawn Michaels, who had suffered a number of setbacks over the course of the previous year, including, losing his match the previous year at WrestleMania XI, being accosted by a group of thugs at a Syracuse, New York nightclub, forfeiting the WWF Intercontinental Championship at In Your House in October 1995 to Dean Douglas, suffering a (kayfabe) concussion at the hands of Owen Hart, and being betrayed by close friend Diesel at a house show at Madison Square Garden.


Onto the matches......





1) Camp Cornette (Vader, Owen Hart and British Bulldog) (w/Jim Cornette) vs Yokozuna, Jake Roberts and Ahmed Johnson (w/Mr. Fuji)


Ahhh, the days of Camp Cornette.

Ahhh, the days where even an opening match like this had plenty of build up on the Raw's before Mania. And this was even in the days where WWF "Monday Night Raw" was just 60 minutes long.

I remember this 6 man being hyped quite a bit actually and when I watched Wrestlemania 12 I couldn't wait for it as a kid.

It didn't come off all that great but it did it's job as the opening match of the show.

All six guys got there turns to show what they could do in the ring.

This was Yokozuna's last Wrestlemania appearance and this was Jake the Snake's first since Wrestlemania 8. This was also Ahmed Johnson and Vader's first Mania appearances.

The match WAS A LITTLE disjointed at times, but it had its moments for sure.

Vader ended up pinning Roberts after a Vaderbomb at 12:51 for a victory for the heel team. Camp Cornette always seemed to win the 6 man tags in the year 1996.


Pretty solid.



** 1/4





2) The Ringmaster (Steve Austin) (w/Ted DiBiase) vs Savio Vega


The debut of Steve Austin at Wrestlemania. Also Dibiase's last Mania appearance until he was backstage at Wrestlemania 22. (A whole 10 years.)


This match is incredibally underrated due to the dead crowd and how OVER these characters WEREN'T in this time period. This match is not as good as the Carribean Strap Match at In Your House a couple months later but it does its job.

Watching Steve Austin come down the entrance way to NO reaction is unbelievable, especially at a Wrestlemania. It's not like he was a no name here, as he was very successful in WCW and even with a pretty good although short run in ECW in 95. If this Mania was held around the Philly area, I'm more then sure he'd get a huge ovation.

The two battle back and forth with Austin using a lot of heel tactics like he could so well and was in the driver seat for most of the match.

Speaking of "driver seats" they were on the phone with Piper during the match who was apparently (Driving: Chasing down the Golden One) but we all know he wasn't.

The interuptions with the lack of crowd support hurt this match while you view it but if you pay attention to the psychology and moves it's actually pretty great, and for an undercard match it comes off very good.


The Ringmaster forced Vega to submit to the Million Dollar Dream after striking him repeatedly with the Million Dollar Belt at 10 minutes exactly.

Austin would go on to become the King of the Ring that year, and the biggest WWF draw in HISTORY. His next Mania appearance would help his character in more ways then one and it's safe to say I can't wait to review it.




** 3/4





3) The Ultimate Warrior vs Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Sable)

The WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRIOR IS BAAAAAAAACK! (In Vince's voice)........And he pounds the Game.

Oh wait, he's not the Game yet...that's proabably why this match is so short and the pedigree has little to no effect.


Both Hillarious and Ironic how the guy who gets squashed in this match would later do all the squashing in his career. Hey, I like Triple H but it's true.

Warrior pinned Helmsley after a Warrior Splash at 1:36. Warrior celebrates and then leaves.

Well, at least his colors and entrance theme was cool.

This was also Sable's WWF debut and Warrior's first match in the WWF since 1992.

This was also the debut of Sable's husband "The Wildman" Marc Mero (after the match backstage)...



1/4* (for the irony alone)





4) The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs "Big Daddy Cool" Diesel

*GONG* *GONG* *GONG*

At least Taker gets a good Mania match this time around. He worked well with Nash as the two big men slugged it out. This match can even be seen on the History of The Undertaker DVD set.

It can be painful in some spots but all around is a good watch when it comes down to the important stuff.


The Undertaker pinned Diesel after a Tombstone Piledriver at 16:46.


All in all some decent brawling by both guys, marred by a noticeable slow spot in the middle. Undertaker goes 5-0 at WrestleMania.


***






5) "Rowdy" Roddy Piper vs Goldust (w/Marlena) in a "Hollywood Backlot Brawl"

This is the Hot Rod's first Mania match since Wrestlemania 8 when he lost to the Hitman for the IC Gold in Indiana.

This IS however his third Mania appearance in a row as he special guest reffed both Mania 10 and 11 (Bret Hart's matches).

He would not make another Wrestlemania appearance for seven years where he would later make a surprise run in during the Hogan-McMahon street fight at Wrestlemania 19. This is the 2nd part of the match, as the first part happened earlier on in the show (outside.) It started in the backstage area, continued down the entrance way and ended up in the ring. Goldust gets stripped down in the match revealing Lingerie he had been wearing... (Hey, I don't like it but it's not like we haven't seen it before...It's Goldust!) The two brawled inside the ring until Goldust finally ran and Piper allowed him to escape.

There was no clear-cut winner, nor had any of the rules of the match been explained in the weeks leading up to the event.

This entire match (except for the finish) was taped before the event even started.


No Contest so I wont rate it





6) Main Event- The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels (w/Jose Lothario) vs Bret "The Hitman" Hart in an Iron Man match for the WWF Championship


Jose comes out to Shawn's music as some of the crowd is probably worried that HBK may have pulled a no show. Oh well, it didn't take long for HBK to come to the ring as Jose points to the rafters. Then Michaels descended to the ring on a zip-line. The WWF would use this harness entance type thing (not as much as WCW would) but quite often. I think it's safe to say they'll never do it again after May the 23rd 1999 though.

However it did come off pretty neat here as it's always a memorable Mania moment to watch Shawn fly from the roof all the way to ring side.

Bret kisses his belt (goodbye) and winks to his son Blade at ringside.

The legendary Stu Hart is also sitting at ring side for the match as he did for a lot of Bret's big matches. The first 10 minutes of the 60 minute match went extremely slow. A lot of arm bars and other holds to kill some time. They really should of changed the booking of the match. The pacing got a little better for the next 10 but not a whole lot better. It's probably safe to say that this match never even picked up till the half way-point. And never even got REALLY exciting until the 45 minute point, and the last 10 minutes was amazing.

But when you look at the entire match AS A WHOLE, it's pretty incredible. The match originally ended in a 0-0 draw after the 60 minutes was up as Bret had HBK in the sharp shooter. Bret walked off with the belt as if he were to keep it (as would be the rule in any other draw) until WWF President Gorilla Monsoon entered the ring and ordered the match to continue under "sudden death" rules. In the story surely Bret had a right to be mad because that wasn't pointed out before the match begun.

The two went back at it for another minute and a half.

Shawn Michaels pinned Hart after two Superkicks and won the WWF Championship for the first time in his life at 1:01:52. "The Boy Hood Dream...has come TRUE....for Shawn Michaels."

I was happy for him and still am despite him being a dick to not only Hebner (by pushing him off of him while he put the belt on) but to Bret himself by yelling "Get the fuck outta here!" so he could celebrate.

None the less, personal rivalry aside this was the best match the two would ever have together.

A lot of people don't like it because of how a lot of people treat it as a five star classic, and THAT'S FAIR because it isn't in my mind. However no one can argue that these two worked bad together because they didn't, they could have made the first 45 minutes a little better then it was though. The beginning started way to slow and in the end that was the matches biggest flaw.

But still Despite all that though this is still a classic and one of the best main events in wrestling history. There were some places where the psychology didn't hold, dragging it down a little. It has its problems, sure, but that doesn't keep it from being one of the top matches of the decade.



**** 3/4





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Final PPV Rating for Wrestlemania 12 = 6.5/10



This event is shit on a lot just like Wrestlemania 9 and it makes me sick. For that I boost my original rating of "6" for this event to a "6.5" when I take into consideration of all the factors. People don't like this event because it's short, it was still in a down period of the WWF, and because the main event took up half the show. I say screw all that and look at the big picture. The big picture is that it has one of the best main events ever. Endurance and star power, with a great story make up for the length of the show it took up. It has a pretty good couple matches with Austin and Vega, and the 6 man tag. It has a funny squash with the Warrior and Triple H. It has a great big man match with Taker and Diesel (Taker's best Mania match to this point although that's not saying much.) and it had a unique Hollywood Back Lot Brawl with the Hot Rod and Goldust. So all in all a rating of 6.5 if pretty fair but the show will forever be remembered for the one match.




Feedback appreciated as always if you want to discuss.....





Up Next From Austin101: "WWF Wrestlemania 13: Heat"




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