Obviously we don't own any of this. Knock yourself out IMO.

Wrestlemania VIII

Hmm. Where do I start? Flair performing in the WWF at Wrestlemania as the champ? Michaels in his first singles competition at a Mania? Piper and Hart? Anyone of of these should have either made it the best WM thus far or at least a close second. All three of these in the same show should have made it the greatest wrestling card of all time. Unfortunately for me it falls way short of that. Im not saying it was a bad show, its far from that, I was just expecting a lot more.

When I start watching one of these shows, the first thing I do is run my cursor over the match bubbles so I know what matches to expect. I was blown away by the matches that were booked for this show. I think they just missed the mark. Especially the top 3: Piper/Hart, Flair/Savage, and Hogan/Sid. Im not saying they were bad matches, well Hogan/Sid was bad, but the other two just missed being as great as they could have been.

Piper/Hart told a good story, it was just a bit botchy at times. I really liked the promo before the match, and it set the stage for the story going forward in the ring, I just wish some of the execution would have been crisper. Plus the finish just seemed clunky to me. My main problem with the Flair/Savage was that the whole match seemed rushed. Now maybe that is just a product of being used to 30+ minutes matches from Flair, but this one just didnt have time to breathe. Again it was still a very good match, and one of the better ones Ive seen so far at a WM.

With all of that said, lets get on to some of my rapid fire thoughts.

- Great to see only 9 matches on this card. Much better than the 13-16 matches that have been booked before. I really liked the idea of the 8 man tag, and in previous shows, this would have been 4 matches instead of one.

- Another great opening match with Santana and Michaels. This one easily beats out the VII first match as the best 1st match of a WM.

- 2-0

- This would also apparently mark the end of Jake Roberts WWF run,

- Eventhough I know he didnt need it, it was still really cool to see Piper as a champion of some sort.

-Heenan and Gorilla killed it again, and its nice to see them in action for these big shows. The vast majority of my Heenan/Gorilla work was Prime Time Wrestling. I really liked the "You're a Liar!" back and forth they had

- Flair was just so damn good on the mic, and both he and Henning knocked it out of the park after their match.

- I read on wikipedia after I watched the show that Flair was fined for blading but Hart wasnt because Hart's was a lot less obvious than Flair's. I actually thought it was the opposite. I thought Hart's was blatant and Flair's was disguised a little better.

- Why is Sean Mooney still on my monitor? How did this guy keep his gig after WM V?

- We can knock off Greg Valentine and Andre from the list of performers that have been in every WM to this point. That only leaves Tito Santana and Hogan. This is purely a guess, but I think Santana's streak ends here and Hogan's ends at IX. And if we want to count all performers, we can add in Monsoon, Heenan, Okerlund, and The Fink as people who have been in all the WMs. I dont think Joey Marella reffed at WM 1, but if someone knows otherwise, please let me know.

- That may have been the cheesiest press conference Ive ever seen

- Good to see Shane O'Mac getting his Mania debut

- How is a purposeful countout by the tag champs a good ending for a WM match? That should be a finish for the show before WM.


- What purpose did the Owen/Skinner match serve? Owen got in exactly 0 offense except for the ending rollup and the match lasted barely a minute, Im guessing it was time constraints, but the show lasted 2:41 so that shouldnt have been an issue.

- What a train wreck that Hogan/Sid match was. It was bad in the ring and then Sid was DQed for nothing. Harvey Whippleman came in the ring but never touched Hogan and still got the DQ. Im going to guess Papa Shango was late running in, and Hebner made the call regardless.

And now on to the awards:

Match of the Night

Flair/Savage. Despite what I worte, this was still a very good match between two very good performers. I think the pre match build up and post match promos also added tons to this match.

Worst Match of the Night

I would have normally said Owen/Skinner, but purely for the finish, or lack of finish, the Money Inc./Natural Disasters match was the worst. Again, how could anyone have thought this was a good idea at a WM. Ive always thought while watching a match that a intentional countout would be a great idea to get out of a match, but now that Ive seen it, I will never have that thought again.

Most Valuable Performer

I wont give it to Heenan again, although he could have easily won again. Ill go with the GOAT. Ric Flair. I wont restate it, he was just great in his WM debut. Shame they couldnt have kept the belt on him here.

Least Valuable Performer

Ray Combs. I dont know if you can tell, but Im very anti main stream celebrity, and Combs does nothing to help me feel otherwise. Unless Im forgetting someone they only had one celebrity here, and they went with Ray Combs? He had some seriously bad jokes and added nothing whatsoever to the presentation of the match he was introducing. I will give him credit for being able to move pretty good. He got out of the ring in a hurry, and looked decent doing it.

Worst Referee Ever

The ref with the bowl haircut. Who was this guy? I never got his name, and I never saw him in a match before this. He was so annoying between how he counted and when the mics picked up his annoying voice. I couldnt stand this guy and hope he doesnt pop up again.


Rankings

Eventhough it sounds like I didnt like this show, I did and I truely feel it is the second best Mania thus far.

III
VIII
VII
VI
V
1
IV
2

I think I may go back and review the shows after X, and then see if I need to adjust my rankings at all. Until then, I will go with what I have

I was immediately confused. But there's still time to edit your post!

Much appreciated.

It had to do with how the blade jobs looked in the dressing room after the matches. Bret's was one deep slice, while Flair's was several more shallow slices. Apparently Vince bought that Bret's was unintentional, but Flair's was obviously a blade job.

At least that's the story.

I've heard (because it's in Bret's book) that Piper and Bret fought in the locker room about it being too stiff or Bret being pissed that Piper was unsafe with him or something like that and everybody bought that and assumed it was a real cut instead of a blade job. The size of the cut thing may very well be a part of it as well.

I just started Flair's book, so I wonder if he talks about it

IS anyone ever gonna get past WM17? Seems everyone comes and does about the first 10 or a little more, then stops.

I'd love to read about 18-24 as I missed all of those and haven't gone back to watch outside of historic moments/matches. Going to listen to them soon on Lapsed Fan podcasts.

Incidentally, this woman was briefly shown holding up a Savage/Liz sign at WM 8 during the celebration of Savage's second WWF Title win. I wonder if she was related to someone or something, rather than just being a random fan.

I'm seriously thinking about doing this, but starting at 17.

But also I'm an awful person and will probably not follow through.

I'm trying but I have recently been hampered by my laptop going out. Now my viewing options are either my phone or the desktop on the third level of my house. Neither are ideal for my situation. But with that said I'm almost halfway through IX. Hopefully I can finish in the next couple days

I'm on this match now, I'll keep an eye out for her. And...spoiler alert...geeze...

I Kid.

Someone should try to track down this woman. In this day in age I'm sure it could be accomplished in about 17 minutes should someone actually try.

I dont know if she shows up anywhere else(I havent seen her in the crowd at IX), but I know the Lapsed Fan guys mentioned her so I dont know of they get any further in depth with her.

Listening to Mania IX on LF now. I do remember seeing on RAW that Hogan was the champion and being like "wtf! how the **** did he do that". I can't be alone in this on here.

I distinctly remember the following Superstars opening with, "After WM, who is the champion?" I didn't know the answer. "Is it the monster Yokozuna?" And of course I thought the other option was Bret. "Or is it Hulk Hogan?" I shook my head going "what..."

I wasn't the biggest Hogan guy anyway, but I was way over him by then.

That's just what this thread needs. We've had about 15 reviews of the first 10 or so, and pretty much no reviews of anything after 17.

Wrestlemania IX

Well, what can I say about this pile of suck that hasnt already been said? I cant believe that someone thought it was a good idea to go full blown Roman Empire for this. Also, **** you, Hulk Hogan. This entire production from start to finish just seemed disjointed. It was almost like someone had the entire written out and then forgot to bring it with them on the day of the show. There were 9 matches on the card counting the Hogan win at the end(**** you, Hulk Hogan), and only 2 of those matches ended cleanly. Sweet Baby Jesus, this show sucked to the high heavens.

Some thoughts.

- The debut of the GOAT, Jim Ross. Its very good to see him this young and with all of his facial muscles working. I really liked how he and Heenan worked together, but....

- WTF, was with Randy Savage? I dont understand how Vince thought he was a good choice to be the third man in the booth for this. The whole show it felt like he either was doing his own commentary inside his head and occasionally he would say something out loud, or someone had a Randy Savage soundboard and would every so often just click on a random phrase. He was so bad. "Do the thing!"

- Shawn Michaels with another really good opening match in a WM. This has to be the third or fourth straight WM he has had one. I never really saw Tatanka wrestle before but he had a very nice match here. I dont know if that was because of Michaels or if he was good as well.

- Speaking of Tatanka, I have a question that Im hoping someone can answer for me. I heard Heenan say it once, and also on the Lapsed Fan podcast for this show, they sometimes referred to him as Tano, or something like that. Does anyone know what this is? Is it a former gimmick of his, or something else?

- I cant believe Im going to type this, but I really liked the way Doink does his character here. I like his facial expressions, and really dig his theme music. Could have done without the two doinks, but I did enjoy the mirror gimmick they did in the ring.

- What the heck was the deal with the Backlund/Razor match. This just felt completely out of place. Almost like they just threw them together because they needed some work. The worst part is that this was only 1 of 2 clean finishes on the night, but even that was odd. It was a small package pin for Ramon which was just goofy looking. I didnt understand this one bit.

- **** you, Hulk Hogan

- I cant believe that there was someone WWF could hire that would make me actually miss Sean Mooney. I want to know who lied to Todd Pettingill and told him he was entertaining. As bad as everyone looked in togas, he looked extra douchey with his terrible sunglasses and backwards hat. Im conviced this is the guy who inspired the term "assclown".

- I dont know if we can count Tito Snatana as having a WM appearance since he only wrestled a dark match, but either way Im guessing his and Hogan's streak ends here. So as far as wrestlers go, no one is left appearing in every WM. As for non wrestling performers, I think its Monsson, Heenan, Howard Finkle, Okerlund, and maybe Joey Marella. Im not sure if Marella reffed a match at WM1. Let me know if Im missing anyone.

- Just when I thought Oz had the worst pyro ever in wrestling, Lex's mirror sparklers are an excellent contender to the throne. That was bad and the wind didnt help.

- 3-0. Chloroform? Really? They have a 7ft 6in guy and they decide chloroform is a good idea here. If you need to use a foriegn object like that to end a match, then maybe the match should have never taken place.

- I find it rather amusing knowing what we know now, that Hogan used a term like "Jap" to describe Yokozuna. God, I hate that man.

- What a terrible main event that was, but Ill guess they booked it like that because of Yoko's conditioning issues. They could have it go too long or be too intense so they could do there business afterwards.

- **** you, Hulk Hogan

- Actually now that I think about it, I want to take back that last one. I have come to the realization? that it isnt Hulk Hogan I hate. I hate Terry Bollea. Hulk Hogan the character is fine, its the man behind it that is a piece of crap. **** you, Terry Bollea

Awards Time

Match of the Night

There was just so much bad here, I guess Ill give it to Michaels/Tatanka. Usually I like this award to go to a match with a clean finish, but those two werent cose to this match. Could have done without the Sherri confusing things during the match, but the action inside was really good. I especially enjoyed the spot where Michaels came off the top rope and Tatanka turned it into a arm drag takedown. Real smooth.

Worst Match of the Night


Hogan/Yokozuna. **** you, Terry Bollea.

MVP

Bret Hart. For a man to get screwed the way he did here, he still went out there and made the most of his appearance. He knew ahead of time he was going to get buried by Hogan, but still did job to the best of his ability. As far as Im concerned that's enough to earn that title from me here.

LVP

Savage and Pettengill. I have already laid out how bad these two were,so I wont do it again. It was hard to pick who was worse between the two of them so Ill give it to both. You could have literally edited both of them completely out of the broadcast and you wouldnt have missed a thing. Actually the show would have beena little better.

Show Rankings

I am half tempted to put this below WM 2 on the rankings, but for now Ill out it just above it. I am going to go back and re rank them after I watch WMX but for now here are the Rankings:

III
VIII
VII
VI
V
1
IV
IX
2


Onward and upward. Ill start watching X as soon as I can. As I mentioned earlier the laptop I was using to watch these crapped out, so my options are my phone or the PC upstairs, so Im slowed down a little, but I will get these cranked out. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Hulk Hogan the character is an indefensible, insecure, whiny diva who was one of the most underhanded babyfaces of that era.

For all of the creative power he wielded, he didn't seem to veto a lot of stuff that made his character look awful.

I just listened to the LF of this a few days ago. Don't remember the answer to the "Tano" thing. But to the quoted, Backlund refused to take the Razors Edge.

You keep it up and I'm going to start hating both the character and the man. For the record, I have no problem with that at all. My hate flows freely like the Nile

I think they were calling Tatanka - Tanto. As in Tanto Apache. Well that's the first thing I thought anyway. However Tatanka - or the wrestler the plays him - is from the Lumbee tribe.

On second thought, maybe he meant this - he Taíno are an Arawak people who were indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and Florida. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (presently Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and Puerto Rico. In the Greater Antilles, the northern Lesser Antilles, and the Bahamas, where they were known as the Lucayans. They spoke the Taíno language, one of the Arawakan languages.

More specifically, I'm guessing Heenan was making a reference to someone in a movie or a tv show. I've looked entirely to far into this.

I always thought they were saying "Tonto," like the Lone Ranger's sidekick. I just took it as another derisive race-based remark like referring to Santana as "Chico."

It is most certainly Tano, but I don't know the reasoning for it either. I know the guys on TLF love Heenan to death, so maybe Heenan just made a gaff by calling him Tano instead of Tatanka and they just glommed onto it.