Rewriting 1992, Part 2 of 4: Wrestlemania VIII

[LODemolition]

Actual results:

Dark Match: The Bushwhackers def. The Beverly Brothers

1. Shawn Michaels (w/ Sensational Sherri) def. "El Matador" Tito Santana

2. The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) def. Jake "The Snake" Roberts

3. Intercontinental Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart def. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (c)

4. 8-Man Tag Team Match: Big Boss Man, Virgil, Sgt. Slaughter and "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan def. The Nasty Boys, Repo Man and The Mountie (w/ Jimmy Hart)

5. WWE Championship: "Macho Man" Randy Savage def. Ric Flair (c) w/ Mr. Perfect

6. Tatanka def. "The Model" Rick Martel

7. Tag Team Championship: The Natural Disasters def. Money Inc. (c) w/ Jimmy Hart *by countout*

8. Owen Hart def. Skinner

9. Hulk Hogan def. Sid Justice (w/ Harvey Wippleman) *by disqualification*


WrestleMania VIII has always been remembered for getting the main event wrong. I have no complaints about the undercard, but Hogan vs Justice with a dq finish always left a bad taste in my mouth, even with the surprise return of the Ultimate Warrior to close the show. Although you can't argue with the Flair vs. Savage match and how that feud played out, it of course felt like it was the second choice because it was the second choice. I'm not even sure how they explained that Savage would be getting the title shot after they had already announced Hogan as the #1 contender to be honest with you. I'm also not sure on the reasoning of this, but the number of matches also went way down from 14 at the previous Mania to 9 this year. 10 were scheduled, but as you might remember, the British Bulldog vs. Berzerker match didn't happen due to time issues. Despite the card being overall decent to good, there is very little that I wouldn't change on this one.

Rewriting WrestleMania VIII​

1. Money Inc. def. The Natural Disasters

These are the only opponents on this card I would have kept the same, only not for the titles and without the countout finish. Natural Disasters had just beaten LOD by countout at the Rumble, so this was overkill. Unfortunately, at this point in time there are really only 4 teams that could be taken seriously. In my rewrite, the Nasty Boys were still champs after winning the titles at Survivor Series, so this battle between the 2nd tier teams made sense for the opening contest.


2. The British Bulldog def. The Mountie

Davey Boy Smith is still being booked as a strong midcarder in my rewrites, so you definitely need him on the card here. And I'm sure if they had known at the time that they'd go on to have him win the IC Title at SummerSlam, they'd have made time for him as well. The Mountie would have made a perfect opponent for him here imo.


3. Tag Team Championship: Legion of Doom def. The Nasty Boys (c)

I'm not too clear on why the LOD weren't a part of this card, but I vaguely recall something about a suspension for Hawk. To me, unless one of them is injured, to have them there strictly to cut a promo makes little sense. Either have them in a match or don't use them at all. This would be the long-awaited rematch from Survivor Series where Knobbs and Sags won their first championship. I always thought they really mishandled Hawk and Animal at WrestleManias, never having them go over for the titles. Especially at WM7, not booking them against Demolition for the belts was a huge mistake. Maybe there's a good reason for the way they were booked (or lack thereof) at WM8, but in a rewrite hindsight is always 20/20. LOD wins the tag team titles for the 2nd Mania in a row.


4. The Ultimate Warrior def. Papa Shango

I thought Warrior was another match they could have cashed in on. Again, if you have him, you should use him. I would have either had Papa Shango "put a spell" on his opponent (it could have been Owen Hart, Jimmy Snuka, Virgil, Von Erich, etc.) and the Warrior rushes the ring to take his place (you still have the element of surprise this way) OR in the weeks leading up, you have Papa Shango in promos claiming to have cursed the Warrior and being responsible for killing his spirit. I could go either way on this because with the latter, you're likely to generate more interest from the casual fan who will buy the ppv if Warrior has a match announced ahead of time. Either way, Warrior of course squashes Papa Shango. I always really liked Shango's character and thought their feud in the summer had potential. It would have been nice to have seen Shango get his own match here rather than the completely random run-in of the Hogan/Sid match which had absolutely nothing to do with him.


5. The Undertaker def. Tatanka

Shango would have been the opponent I chose for Taker had the Warriror not been available here. I always thought that was a feud they really missed the boat on. Taker, Roberts and Shango should have had an alliance when Shango debuted before Taker's face turn. And in my rewrite, Jake Roberts and The Undertaker had already met at WrestleMania VII before Roberts joined the darkside, so there was no reason to not keep Taker heel for the time being. I was also never big on Tatanka, so I have no problem making him the 2nd victim of the streak here.


6. Intercontinental Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart def. "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels (c)

As really good as the Piper/Hart matchup was at WM8, I still would have gone another direction. Both of these men's careers were so parallel, being the breakout star in a successful tag team and going their own way in 1991 (in my rewrite, Shawn turns on Marty at the '91 Rumble), so this match just makes too much sense to ignore. Michaels would have a nice run as IC Champ after winning it from Davey Boy Smith at SummerSlam '91, so the time would be right for a new champion in Bret Hart. This could have obviously given them great material for the video packages leading up to WrestleMania XII, where Shawn would go on to challenge Bret for the WWE Championship. I nearly made the tag team championship match at WM6 the Hart Foundation vs The Rockers for this reason as well. You could have had a trilogy of matches for each tier of the championship ladder between WM6 and WM12 if done correctly.


7. Sid Justice def. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper

I liked Sid's heel turn at Saturday Night's Main Event following the Royal Rumble, although I would switch places with Sid and Hogan with Sid pulling on Hogan's arm from the outside. I never got why Hogan used the heel tactics there and furthermore they never even acknowledged it. I would have had Piper be a part of that SNME match in a 6-man tag when Sid walked out and have Piper be the one who takes exception to it, leading to a face-off here.


8. Steel Cage Match: "Macho Man" Randy Savage def. Jake "The Snake" Roberts

This one will always get under my skin and I could argue that this was an even bigger missed opportunity than the main event. With everything that had gone down since the previous summer; Roberts making it personal and crashing the wedding reception, the cobra bite, slapping Elizabeth; how do you not give them the big send off match? In my rewrite, Savage had to be the sole survivor at Survivor Series to be reinstated, and then of course you have the Royal Rumble, so this was the first opportunity for the big 1-on-1 between them to cap off an amazing feud. You could even make it a retirement match with Roberts leaving after WM8, but seeing how Savage was just on the losing end of one the year before, I thought that a steel cage match would be the better way to go.


9. 10-Man Tag Team Match: Rick Martel, Skinner, The Berzerker and The Beverly Brothers def. Big Boss Man, Texas Tornado, Tito Santana and High Energy

More or less the same spot they had go out 5th, only with a majority of the names being different and the heels coming out on top in a cool down match before the big main event. I would have still had the Nasty Boys looking strong as champs going in with the division being as weak as it was here. I liked The Mountie better in his own match with Davey Boy and the Repo Man never existed in my rewrite. Boss Man is the only one I would have kept in the big tag match.


10. WWE Championship: Ric Flair (c) def. Hulk Hogan

I think the majority of people will agree that they got the main event here wrong. And although it's tough put either one of them over the other when they were both still in their prime, the solution is pretty simple. It can finish 2 ways, both involving Mr. Perfect. Flair either wins by pinfall with help or Hogan wins by DQ. I'm against ppv main events ending in dq or countout, but this is a situation where I could understand it. You could still have Warrior come out at the end to make the save when Flair and Hennig are taking turns beating up on Hogan while he's caught in the ropes. There were babyfaces winning the IC and tag team titles and the Warrior and Hogan cleaning house at the end, so the crowd has nothing to complain about.



Next up, the memorable SummerSlam '92 from Wembley Stadium in London. Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment and/or post your changes to this card.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

I like some of the changes, but feel Taker/Tatanka would have been a mistake. Tatanka was useful with his streak and there'd have been no problem changing this up to be someone like Crush or Rick Martel.

For mine, based on the Rumble results... Taker is still the champion... Warrior is heel and Flair and Savage are in an epic rivalry. I also start a big oil change of talent here. Some names will be leaving right after Mania.

The Steiner Brothers defeat Legion Of Doom (c)

Since their debut at Survivor Series, these teams have been on a collision course and they stun LOD when Rick evades the Doomsday Device and Scott turns Animal inside out with the Frankensteiner.

Owen Hart vs The Mountie

Debut match for Owen as a singles competitor, The Mountie never got the IC title here and loses in a 10 minute match... after he tries for the cattle-prod but Owen evades it.

Big Bossman & Jim Duggan vs The Natural Disasters - Here, the Natural Disasters are a newer team, only forming at Survivor Series. They defeat Bossman and Duggan when Jimmy Hart distracts Duggan long enough to be Earthquaked.

Rick Martel vs Rick Rude - Their feud began after Martel's unexpected face turn at The Survivor Series. Rude is dismissive of Martel "selling out to the fans" and the two really went at it during the Rumble, eliminating each other. This has a loser leaves WWE stip and Rude steals the win when his manager Sherri nails Martel with her stilleto.

Tatanka v Crush - Fresh off leaving Demolition and destroying his former partner Smash at The Rumble, Crush is on a tear... Tatanka is a new force and manages to upset him with the "End Of The Trail".

The Horsemen vs The Alliance

Shawn Michaels, the IC champion and his fellow Horsemen Jim Neidhart and Haku take on Bret Hart, Roddy Piper and Davey Boy Smith with Davey scoring an upset pinfall over Shawn.

Randy Savage v Ric Flair

Classic match, just not for the title... Flair defeats Savage with the figure four after injuring his knee... Bret Hart makes the save when Flair refuses to release the hold.

Sgt. Slaughter vs Sid Justice

Sid falls foul of Sarge and his cronies and he has to face him in a Boot Camp Match... Sid pulls out the win when Mustafa mistakenly nails Sarge.

Ted DiBiase & IRS vs Roddy Piper & Kerry Von Erich

DiBiase and Piper's feud reignited over Virgil, and Virgil was injured by IRS... Texas Tornado takes his place but DiBiase manages to steal the win after Kerry misses the discus punch and gets rolled up.

The Undertaker (c) vs Jake The Snake Roberts - Bodybag Match

Undertaker and Jake fell out when Jake felt he didn't have his back during the Savage feud. Taker declares that Jake is simply a dead man walking and defeats Jake to retain the title, putting him into a body bag and ending his WWE career.

Main Event

Hulk Hogan vs The Ultimate Warrior

Ever since The Undertaker won the title during the Survivor Series match, Hogan has blamed the "masked man"... The Ultimate Warrior appears to indeed be that man, having debuted at #30 in the Rumble as promised and loosely fitting the description. Warrior hasn't denied attacking Hogan, but never admitted it either, simply stating the gods have decided they must tussle again.

This leads to both being considered the heel in some ways during the feud and match in a reverse of their prior encounter. This time however there IS a plot afoot.

Jack Tunney announces that due to the controversial nature of the bout, a special referee has been assigned but will only be revealed at the start of the match.

That man is Lex Luger.... and it was HE who cost Hogan the title and set the Warrior up after appearing to play down the middle... he nails puts Hogan into the Torture Rack, forcing Warrior to save Hogan... Luger and Warrior stare down and Hogan begins his Hulk Up routine... Hogan misses Luger with the big boot aimed for him and clocks Warrior... Hogan reluctantly hits the legdrop and allows Luger to count the pin...

This 3 way feud carries much of 1992... ultimately Flair is involved and "fires" Neidhart in favour of Luger in The Horsemen allowing both to feud with Hogan and Warrior.

 

[FlairFan2003]

A few things to remember here...Hogan & Piper were leaving due to the ongoing Steroid investigation, Sid (at this time) was not leaving (although he was fired shortly after).

SNME sets up much of this card (Taker vs Jake, Hogan vs Sid, Flair vs Savage all result from SNME). With that in mind, I would have changed SNME to Savage & Sid vs Taker & Jake Roberts, with no face turn by Taker.

Most of the Mania 8 card and results are fine, especially giving HBK a nice 15-20 minute showcase for a big win to jumpstart his singles push.

Definately keep Piper vs Hart, especially with Piper leaving.

Id replace Taker vs Jake with Jake vs Savage (Steel Cage) with Savage going over. Jake attacks Savage post match, Papa Shango joins him, Liz is attacked, Taker makes his face turn and makes the save. Sid comes down and helps to clear the ring.

Taker vs Sid would be on the card also, here Id have Shango attack Sid before the match, badly injuring him, Taker wins easily, then Shango & Jake attack Sid post match after Taker exits the ring but Taker returns & clears house. Taker would tombstone Jake, preferably outside the ring on the floor or through a table, and Jake wouldnt be seen again.

Flair vs Hogan would have been my main event, Flair as defending champion putting his title vs Hulk's career in a No DQ Match. This would have been a wild brawl, with Hogan dominating, and a lot of help from Henning & Heenan. Finally Hogan wins in dramatic fashion but is beatdown post match only to be saved by the return of The Ultimate Warrior.

Shortly afterwards Hogan would announce his retirement, needing to be home more for his family, but feeling good that the fate of WWE was safe in the hands of friends like Warrior and having vindicated himself by beating Flair. This would set up a tournament for the vacant World Title.

 

[LODemolition]

I forgot to mention I would have had Taker's face turn take place during the Savage/Roberts match.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

A few things to remember here...Hogan & Piper were leaving due to the ongoing Steroid investigation, Sid (at this time) was not leaving (although he was fired shortly after).

SNME sets up much of this card (Taker vs Jake, Hogan vs Sid, Flair vs Savage all result from SNME). With that in mind, I would have changed SNME to Savage & Sid vs Taker & Jake Roberts, with no face turn by Taker.

Most of the Mania 8 card and results are fine, especially giving HBK a nice 15-20 minute showcase for a big win to jumpstart his singles push.

Definately keep Piper vs Hart, especially with Piper leaving.

Id replace Taker vs Jake with Jake vs Savage (Steel Cage) with Savage going over. Jake attacks Savage post match, Papa Shango joins him, Liz is attacked, Taker makes his face turn and makes the save. Sid comes down and helps to clear the ring.

Taker vs Sid would be on the card also, here Id have Shango attack Sid before the match, badly injuring him, Taker wins easily, then Shango & Jake attack Sid post match after Taker exits the ring but Taker returns & clears house. Taker would tombstone Jake, preferably outside the ring on the floor or through a table, and Jake wouldnt be seen again.

Flair vs Hogan would have been my main event, Flair as defending champion putting his title vs Hulk's career in a No DQ Match. This would have been a wild brawl, with Hogan dominating, and a lot of help from Henning & Heenan. Finally Hogan wins in dramatic fashion but is beatdown post match only to be saved by the return of The Ultimate Warrior.

Shortly afterwards Hogan would announce his retirement, needing to be home more for his family, but feeling good that the fate of WWE was safe in the hands of friends like Warrior and having vindicated himself by beating Flair. This would set up a tournament for the vacant World Title.

This is Fantasy Booking...

That means the whole previous period is different, so we can say certain peeps didn't mail each other a prescription too...

 

[dd23beatlesfan1]

I'm torn on Wrestlemania VIII.

On the one hand, it's one of my favorite events ever. Not just because I attended it and it was only my second live wrestling event (and first ppv), but it also had two top 25 WM matches of all-time. Bret and Piper and Savage and Flair.

It's hard for any WM to have one top 25-30 level match, let alone two. If you can have two or more, you've had a pretty darn good card, especially for that era.

That being said, the booking for WM 8 ran very contrary to the months leading up to it.

All logic states you go with Hogan/Flair and Macho/Roberts as your two main matches.

And then you've gotta have Sid and Taker involved too as they were major players. Probably makes sense to put them two together. But I definitely feel the time was right for Taker to turn babyface, especially as Sid was more than ready to be a monster heel (and would've been too if he hadn't left so soon after). How you do that, I'm not sure? I love the Taker being "too soft" storyline causing Jake to turn his back on him. So I hate to give that up.

Maybe you could go with that same storyline, only instead of Roberts attacking Taker, you have Jake get a new henchman who's stronger and more......"vicious?" And have Sid join up with Roberts to take Taker down. That might seem a step down from him beings he was involved with Hogan and Flair at the Rumble, but considering he would be leaving shortly anyway, it's not like he really needed to be in the main event.


So maybe a nucleus of Hogan/Flair, Macho/Roberts (totally agree on the Steel Cage stipulation, absolutely perfect for that match/feud), Taker/Sid, Bret/Piper (yes, keep that match), and then either find a way to bring Jannetty back to match up with Shawn, or put Shawn against the Bulldog, and then you have a potential for one of the all-time best WM's.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

First what I'd keep: Michaels v Santana, Hart v Piper for the IC belt, Tatanka v Martel. That's about it.

Tag titles would be a feud ended between the Legion of Doom (yes I know Hawk was suspended in real life but that suspension was clearaly up by Wrestlemania so did they really need to drop the titles so soon to Money Inc?). Here, I'd have Hawk and Animal pick up the decisive victory over Earthquake and Typhoon, which would lead to Jimmy Hart dumping them and their subsequent face turn (more on that in the Summerslam rewrite)

The 8-man tag would now be a 10-man tag. Big Boss Man, Jim Duggan, Virgil, the Texas Tornado and Crush (who would debut his Hawaiian surfer gimmick a month earlier than he did in reality) against Ted DiBiase, IRS, the Nasty Boys and the Repo Man (yes, I'd give Barry Darsow this gimmick, but only for his final year in the company) - storyline shenanigans with DiBiase paying Smash to retrieve something, maybe his Million Dollar Belt, from the faces, which transitioned Smash into Repo after his final hurrah as Demolition in the Royal Rumble match. The heels would win this though, as the newly forged Money Inc need to look strong in advance of their assault on the tag team titles later in the year. IRS pins Tornado or Virgil for the win.

Undertaker faces Sid, after both have instututed a double turn in that saturday Night's Main event tag team match. So this is 'Taker's first ppv as a babyface, and beating Sid makes for a good start to his 'monster of the moment' rollcall of opponents that followed in real life. A competitive match but ultimately Sid falls victim to a tombstone piledriver

As much as I like Owen Hart, I immensely disliked his match here. Two minutes of getting the snot kicked out of him by Skinner before winning with a roll up. Not an impressive way to build a rising star. That match would be cut, replaced with a boot camp match between Sgt Slaughter and Col Mustafa. It needent take long, in fact it would probably be quite short, but as a 'breather' match between the two main events, it works and the two have a stiryline which I don't think was ever culminated. Mustafa would disappear after the subsequent European tour anyway, so this would be a way to write him off, and give Sarge a Wrestlemania win as he wound up his in-ring career too

Skinner can face the British Bulldog in a match again designed to bring out the best in Davey Boy, who would win fairly quickly. It would be a lot more even than the Skinner v Hart match though. The extra time needed for these two matches is taken from not needing the ridiculous LOD/Paul Ellering interview segment, and the 10 man tag not having the family feud gimmick/introductions

Then the double main event. The marketing would remain the same, but the matches would be different. Jake the Snake faces Macho Man Randy Savage in a feud ender - who knows? A title run, and eight months as top heel, plus joint top billing at Wrestlemania might have been enough to persuade Jake to stick around longer? Savage of course wins though.

Then the WWF title match. I don't care if Hogan was being ushered into the background whilst the steroid scandal rumbled on, if Hogan is going to be in a match at Wrestlemania 8, it HAS to be a title match against Flair. All roads led up to this, both in my revision and in reality. And if Hogan is taking a sabbatical, if this is to be his retirement match, he LOSES. First and foremost, ask any wrestler these days and they always say the time honoured tradition is to go out on your back (hence Undertaker losing to Reigns this year), but also because the previous Hogan title run only lasted a few hours, we couldn't have history repeat itself. By all means, bring back the Warrior if you want, to fill the void left by the Hulkster, and to leave the ppv on a seminal high note in spite of the result, but Flair retains the title here.