The Complete Series of the Grandest Stage continues, as PWP’s Zak Fellows covers WrestleMania 12.
In 1996 as the then WWF was going to war with WCW in Monday Night Programming it seemed the two top men in the WWF were Bret “The Hitman” Hart and “The Heart Break Kid” Shawn Michaels. Bret at the time of WrestleMania 12 was a three time WWE Champion going into the event having won the title from Diesel at Survivor Series 1995 while Shawn Michaels was the challenger for the title having won his second Royal Rumble match in a row.
And at WrestleMania 12 coming from Anaheim California the two top stars of the company would square off in a 60 Minute Ironman match for the top championship in the company. No blood feuds, no fighting over custody of a dog just two men looking to prove who the best in the world was.
With this series of WrestleMania I chose WrestleMania 12 because despite the moments that have sprung from it I had never watched the show itself but thanks to the WWE Network (available for blah blah blah) and this series I now have the perfect opportunity to watch it.
With the Iron Man match taking up an hour of the PPV this was a comparatively small card as WrestleMania at the time was still a 3 hour show. And it kicked off with Jim Cornette’s team of Vader, the British Bulldog and Owen Hart taking on Yokozuna, Ahmed Johnson and Jake Roberts in a traditional six man tag team match with the stipulation that Cornette would be forced to be alone with the revenge seeking Yokozuna for five minutes if his team were to lose. With a stipulation like that and knowing the certain patterns that wrestling storylines tend to follow you would expect Yoko’s team to win and allow people to see Cornette get beaten up.
However this was an aversion as Yokozuna acted as a means to show the new monster of the WWE Vader destroyed the previous monster in Yokozuna in what was an enjoyable opening match that Vader would win by delivering the Vader Bomb to Jake Roberts. Incidentally in my opinion seeing Mr Fuji wave an American Flag is just an image that I shouldn’t be seeing but then again I guess in order for a foreigner to be cheered you have to be patriotic about another country (Odd logic I know)
A running gag throughout the night was a Hollywood Backlot Brawl between the WWE’s On Screen President at the time Roddy Piper with then Intercontinental Champion (Not that you would know though) Goldust. And when I say running gag I do mean it as the segment would start off taking up its own slot in the Backlot in your typical street fight no rules ‘match’ before devolving into a car chase going back to the Arrowhead Pond and them finishing their brawl just before the main event title match.
Fear not though violent match haters because since this does involve Piper and Goldust it wasn’t so serious that they could get away with having fun and that’s what this brawl was for the most part just fun and silly which fits in the characterisation of both the competitors. It ain’t the best hardcore style match you can find but is fun when you watch it so long as you can get past Goldust getting stripped down to lingerie afterwards.
But…as Piper was chasing down a gold Cadillac across California we were treated to a pretty overlooked match in Savio Vega facing the newly christened Stone Cold Steve Austin who of course came in as the Ringmaster originally. The match was very decent and definitely a good showcase of both individuals but it was unfortunately marred by the crowd not being into it as much as you would hope. And to be perfectly honest looking at it as a fan in hindsight you wonder if he wasn’t suspended and going to WCW would Razor Ramon have faced Austin as opposed to Savio Vega and would we have gotten that match 6 years earlier?
It is very noticeable how Austin wrestled both pre and post neck injury with this showcase and how changing his style during the height of the Attitude Era allowed him to go on for as long as he could before absolutely needing to have surgery. This match with Savio Vega (who is pretty overlooked so far as ability I will say) was decent and the wrestling fans in 1996 got a first glimpse into the cold blooded nature of the Stone Cold character before he became the everyman.
WrestleMania 12 also saw the final WrestleMania match of the Ultimate Warrior in his brief return to the WWF in 1996 as he took on Hunter Hearst Helmsley (who many casual fans of today will know better as Triple H) in what was a squash not unlike the matches of the Warriors previous times in the WWE during the Hogan era. A lot of people will have looked down on this and hated for the supposed “burial” of a younger talent if it were to happen today in my opinion but for the time just looking at the crowd at WrestleMania 12 they didn’t care they were just happy to see the Warrior again.
People can feel free to rip on Warrior for his lack of skills but he makes up for it with his character and raw energy that he brings to wrestling. If anything in retrospect wrestling fans on the internet (and I make that distinction because nobody in the audience really thinks about this kind of shit) would come to appreciate this squash of Helmsley when in later years he would be in the middle of one of his reigns of terror.
As we draw closer to the Iron Man Match we had our second most built up match of the night as the Undertaker, at than 4-0 at WrestleMania, took on the longest reigning WWE Champion of the 90’s Diesel. Of the matches on WrestleMania 12 this was the only one that I personally had watched prior to this review and I remember it being very good. And watching it back if anything the quality of it has increased. Of course it is less remembered in light of the great classics that the Undertaker would have defending his streak which is a shame but I would still recommend that everybody check out this match if they get the opportunity.
That said it was very weird hearing the lack of attention paid to Undertaker’s Streak at WrestleMania because of course these were the early days and Diesel wasn’t fighting him to be the one who beat him but rather because both cost each other the WWE Title. Watching at the time I’m sure the result wasn’t as obvious as it would appear what with Diesel challenging for the WWE Title at the very next PPV and Undertaker being moved into a feud with the debuting Mankind the next night. Let it be known that five great matches 6 great matches of Undertaker’s Streak were with the Kliq…yeah.
Now time for the match that everybody was waiting for as the title Iron Man match was next. And with the benefit of hindsight I can tell that just the whole presentation of Shawn Michaels Vs Bret Hart felt like a big time WrestleMania main event title match. And as I said it was a straight up who’s the better man match as opposed to seeking revenge or any personal reason. It’s a simple story of a kid who grew up and got to the point where he can fulfil his boyhood dream and it is those simple stories in wrestling that are the best told and the most cinematic.
In this Iron Man Match it was all about the psychology and ramifications of each move done by both champion and challenger: It was about wearing each other down, it was the mix of strategy and instincts in order to get that first fall and that first shot on each other there were some notable spots with dives outside the ring and moves off the top rope but for the most part it was a technical showcase. And Bret Hart saved the Sharpshooter for the very last minute as Shawn Michaels weathered it out in order to cling on to his dream. And finally in overtime the boyhood dream did come true as Shawn Michaels used the Sweet Chin Music to pin Bret Hart and win his first ever WWE Championship.
If somebody were to ask me if I would recommend the 60 minute Iron Man match I would honestly say that somebody would need to have the taste and tolerance (with no intention to try and sound negative) for the this style of wrestling with no additional stipulations attached to it. I myself enjoyed it and its story and psychology but I can perfectly understand if some people wouldn’t be up for watching it.
WrestleMania 12 was the home of many firsts and last in wrestling: It was the first WrestleMania appearance of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, Vader and Goldust; it was the last WrestleMania matches of Jake Roberts, Yokozuna, Roddy Piper, The Ultimate Warrior and Diesel. And since WrestleMania 12 happened at present it featured the appearances of eight WWE Hall of Famers. And it is host to the first and only Iron Man Match in WrestleMania history where Shawn Michaels climbed to the top of the mountain
[Zak Fellows can’t climb mountains can you?]
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