WrestleMania VIII

As a child, "Wrestlemania 8" was the first Wrestlemania I remember really getting into (anything before this I was just too young for). Thus, it will always hold a special place in my WM rankings. However, more objectively speaking, I also feel as if it was a pretty quality event in its own right.

The highlights for me included...

-The debut of Shawn Michael's "Sexy Boy" persona. -The Undertaker absolutely manhandling Jake "The Snake" Roberts -"Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Bret "Hit Man" Hart squaring off in an emotional friend-vs.-friend contest -Ric Flair and "Macho Man" Randy Savage battling for the true affections of Elizabeth (a lot of emotion in this one) -WM debut of Tatanka, always a fun character.

Sadly, as with "Wrestlemania VII", the reason I can't give this event the full five stars is because the final Hulk Hogan vs. Sid Justice match falls flat. Maybe the least inspiring final match of a Wrestlemania since the first one.

Other than that, though, "Wrestlemania VIII" is a solid event filled with some great wrestling and some great characters. There are fewer matches in this event than ever before, but its very much a "quality over quantity" approach at play instead.

Wrestlemania VIII is one of my personal favorites. There are a few duds on the card. Tatanka and Rick Martel's feud at the time was highly hyped, and although the match was good, they should've delivered something a little better. Owen Hart vs Skinner is clearly the worst match on the card, but you can't expect anything better. Skinner was basically a jobber at the time, and Owen Hart was very new to audiences. The 8 Man-Tag match would've made the crowd sleep had it not been for Ray Combs introduction to the match. Those few flaws aside, the rest of the event was up to Wrestlemania standards.

The IC Title match between Bret Hart and Roddy Piper was a great display of technical wrestling, and the finish of the match had me watching it in replay for several minutes afterwards. This was Bret Hart's final wrestling event, prior to becoming a main eventer. His performance here makes you wonder why WWF had him positioned as a mid-carder for so long. The true highlight of the show was the WWF Title match between "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Ric Flair. It was possibly the single most intense WWF match ever, at that point. Savage did what he did best, take a huge beating. I remember Savage and Flair's feud as being the best thing about WWF in the early 90s, and their Wrestlemania match was the perfect conclusion to their rivalry.

The only unfortunate thing about the show was that the Savage/Flair match was positioned in the middle of the show, saving the poorly performed Hulk Hogan/Sid Vicious match for the finale. That decision was obviously made because at the time, Hogan was supposedly retiring. Luckily The Ultimate Warrior's return at the end of the match was enough to leave a good final impression on this event. I found it funny at the time that Warrior's unexpected return got a bigger response than Hogan's so called "Retirement match".

If you're more interested in the good old school wrestling style, as opposed to the over the top soap opera style of today's wrestling, check out Wrestlemania VIII. It's a great event built on great wrestling.

Shawn Michaels defeated Tito Santana via pinfall Tatanka defeated The Model via pinfall Natural Disasters defeated Tag Team Champions Money Inc. by countout Undertaker defeated Jake Roberts via pinfall Virgil, Big Boss Man, Sgt. Slaughter & Jim Duggan defeated The Mountie, Repo Man & the Nasty Boys via pinfall Randy Savage defeated Ric Flair for the World Wrestling Championship Bret Hart defeated Roddy Piper for the Intercontinental Championship Owen Hart defeated Skinner via pinfall Hulk Hogan defeated Sid Justice via DQ

Overall Mark: D

Okay I understand Wrestling has changed and evolved but god, Hogan pre nWo is so Hokey it's hard to watch. Hokey rest spot after rest spot in the Main Event, and don't get me started on Papa Shango's Botch! Alot of matches shoved into this card, but there's a couple that save it. If you can get over the generation gap and the absence of Wrestling then maybe watch this, otherwise stick to 96-now.

I would put this in the top 6 wrestlemanias of all time based strictly off the Bret/Piper & Savage/Flair matches. Piper's match with Bret is easily the best match of his career. Why Piper claims this was the first time he was pinned in 17yrs is beyond me,being he lost countless times in the old NWA. This Mania was also Undertakers first as a face,and Shawm Michaels first as a singles wrestler,facing Tito Santana,in a decent match to open the show. This Mania also contained a little behind the scenes controversy,most notably with Jake Roberts forcing McMahon to let him out of his contract before he went out for his match with Undertaker. Ric Flair also got himself into a bit of trouble by blading during his match with Randy Savage,which is one of the great forgotten matches in Wrestlemania history. Inexplicibly,the Road Warriors weren't used on this show,only for a interview,yet Skinner was. Still a great Mania worth watching again years later.