From: nittmo@camelot.bradley.edu (Christopher Taylor)
Subject: WrestleMania8 Report
Organization: Bradley University
Date:  7 Apr 92 14:50:29 GMT

My apologies for this taking so long but our great Bradley University 
notes server was down and I was unable to post anything until late last 
night.
But anyway, here is my report of what I saw at WM8 in Indianapolis: 

I arrived at the HoosierDome (with Mr. Wawczak) at about 2:45 (or about
an hour before the proceedings began).  With our early arrival we were able
to watch most of the crowd file in and were quite surprised to see most of
the dome filled by 4:00.  There was no official announcement of the
attendance, but our guess was at least 60,000.
The only entertainment during the hour before the first match was a big
fat guy in a blue shirt who was holding up a big yellow sign with red
letters that read 'FLAIR RULES'.  All the Hulkamaniacs in their yellow and
red were booing and holding up their signs, and a few guys were yelling 
"WOOOOO!" in support of the sign, so this guy had basically gotten the
entire dome excited--which helped make the time go by faster. 

At 3:40 Howard Finkel came out and told us the first match was about to
begin and one of my nightmares was realized as we had to watch the Beverly
Brothers take on the Bushwhackers.  About the best part of this match was
the poem by the Genius which ended with a comment about Duke beating
Indiana in the NCAA the night before.  Needless to say, this started the
crowd booing.  But they would soon be going wild as the Bushwhackers put
the Beverlys away after about 10 minutes.   
Rating: ** (out of 4) because this match did it's job of getting the crowd
        fired up for the *real* wrestling.
Time:  Beats me.  I didn't care to time this one.

Finally 4:00 rolled around and we were treated to a very good rendition of
the national anthem by Reba McEntire before the wrestling began.

Match 1--Shawn Michaels (with Sensational Sherri) vs. El Matador
   
This was a longer match than necessary with both men holding the upper hand
for certain parts of the match.  Finally Chico tried to pull Michaels in
over the ropes, but Shawn grabbed the top rope and eventually landed on top
of Santana to make the pin.  
 
Rating: * as this match was just too long.
Unofficial Casio Time:  10 minutes, 38.28 seconds

Next was an interview with the Legion of Doom (with Paul Ellery returning)
who pledged to do all they could to get the tag team titles back.

Match 2--Jake 'The Snake' Roberts vs.  The Undertaker 

Jake began by unloading several times on the Undertaker but failed to get
him down to the canvas.  Finally he was able to put Mark down after awhile
with a DDT and thought he had the victory, but as he turned his back on the
Undertaker, Mark climbed back up--only to be DDT'd once more with Jake this
time chasing after Paul Bearer in hopes of grabbing the urn.  But the
Undertaker got back up and grabbed Jake right before he made it to Bearer.
A quick tombstone followed and the Undertaker pushed Jake back in the ring
before pinning him.

Rating: *1/2 due to the lame ending of the match.
UCT:  6 minutes, 43.21 seconds

Match 3--Bret 'The Hitman' Hart vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper for the IC Title

This was perhaps the best match of the card as both men engaged in an
all-out brawl.  Twice Piper let Hart off the hook--the first time when 
the Hitman was outside the ring with little hope of climbing back in.
Piper sat on the ropes and let Hart collect himself and get back in the
ring.  Then later the referee was knocked unconscious and Piper grabbed the
bell to go after Hart (who was down on the canvas).  But after much
indecision, Piper elected not to hit Hart with the bell and Bret was able
to bring Piper down just as the ref regained consciousness to count to 3
and give Hart the Intercontinental Title back.  Piper went and grabbed the
belt and presented it to Hart himself. 

Rating:  ***1/4 because there was lots of action and few dead spots. 
UCT:  13 minutes, 49.94 seconds

Match 4--8 Man Tag Team (The Mountie, Repo Man, and the Nasty Boys vs.
         Virgil, Sgt. Slaughter, Jim 'Hacksaw' Duggan, and Big Boss Man)

The 'highlight' of this one were the lame jokes by Ray Combs (special  
ring announcer).  He made cracks about Repo Man not being two faced because
if he was he would be wearing the other face and then mentioned Repo Man's
parents were disappointed with him because they wanted a boy.  And then he
said the Nasty Boys were 'lucky' and with that last remark was chased from
the ring.  If he'd been caught and beaten to a pulp this could have rated
4 stars, but unfortunately he escaped.
Mass confusion reigned much of the time in this one and Virgil finally won
it for his team when the Nasty Boys tried to use his mask to knock him out
and ended up hitting each other instead.

Rating:  * (And a reluctant * at that.)
UCT:  6 minutes 30.67 seconds

Match 5--Randy 'Macho Man' Savage vs. Ric Flair for the WWF Heavyweight
         Championship

If Piper/Hart wasn't the best match of the day, then this was.  Again this
was filled with action and featured blood (Flair cutting himself like Hart
had in the earlier match).  The match began with Savage attacking Flair and
chasing him back towards the locker room where Mr. Perfect interfered and
draggged Savage back towards the ring.  Once Flair got back in the ring
things went back and forth until Perfect nailed Savage with a chair while
Flair got the referee's back turned.  Savage would have to go the rest of
the match with a bad leg and Flair took advantage for awhile.  Suddenly   
Elizabeth came running down the aisle with 5 or 6 security guys and started
to encourage her man (Savage).  And eventually Savage took over and came up
with the shocking pin to win the title.  Flair and Perfect went after the
injured Savage, but Elizabeth slapped Flair a couple times to chase him out
of the ring and Perfect left with him to a chorus of boos.  Then we were
treated to Elizabeth and Savage standing in the ring celebrating to myriad
fireworks (that nearly scared the Hell out of Wawczak and myself).  All in
all a very entertaining match and it all concluded with the champ nearly 
being carried to the locker room by the security guards. 

Rating:  ***1/2
UCT:  18 minutes, 7.58 seconds

***************INTERMISSION FOR 15 MINUTES*****************

Match 6--Tatanka vs. 'The Model' Rick Martel

After a stupid tribal dance by 'Indians' from Tatanka's tribe, we were 
treated to a very boring match.  This just plain sucked in my opinion as
Tatanka got his expected win after a slow match.

Rating: -* because it was just plain terrible.
UCT:  4 minutes, 31.52 seconds (and very boring ones at that)

Match 7--Natural Disasters vs. Money Inc. for the WWF Tag Team Title

This match was just a little better than the Tatanka debacle, but wasn't 
really earthshattering.  The Disasters had control through most of the
match and the Earthquake was set to do his quake on IRS when Jimmy Hart
reached into the ring and pulled his man out and then walked his team down
the aisle to the locker room.  This of course resulted in a
disqualification but Money Inc. kept their belts (which actually surprised
some of the idiots in the stands who obviously didn't knwo the rules).

Rating:  *1/2 because the ending was a little inventive--not the usual DQ.
UCT:  8 minutes, 33.85 seconds

Match 8--'The Rocket' Owen Hart vs. 'The Undefeated' Skinner

'The Fink' didn't even get to announce Skinner to the crowd, because when
Hart entered the ring and did his backflip off the ropes, Skinner attacked
him and held the upper hand at the outset.  He pushed Hart over the ropes
(or so he thought) and was celebrating to the crowd with his back turned to
Hart when Owen pulled himself back over the ropes, wrapped up Skinner from
behind and pulled off the pin.

Rating:  ** as this was short and sweet.
UCT:  1 minute, 8.79 seconds

Match 9--The Berzerker vs. The Bulldog

NO SHOW

Rating:  *** as we were spared having to watch Mr. Steroid and that 'Huff,
         Huff, Huss, Huss' guy.
Official Casio Time: 0 minutes, 0 seconds

Match 10--Hulk Hogan vs. Sid Justice

Hogan and Justice went after each other for a minute before the bell rang
and once they both got in the ring and the bell rang the crowd was treated
to a few minutes of Sid beating up on Hogan.  I know this is typical in all
Hogan matches, but he seemed even more pathetic in person.  The guy doesn't
do anything, yet he's got 40,000 screaming fans in the seats.  About the
only work Hogan did early on was a test of strength with Sid (I'll bet that
really winded him) and eventually he finally decided to make his three
moves--hitting Sid after coming out of a sleeper, then slamming Sid and
then using his patented 'Leg Drop of Doom'.  But Sid appeared to kick out
after a 2 count and all of the sudden Justice was disqualified because
Whippleman was up on the apron and Hogan was beating up on Harvey.  For the
life of me I couldn't figure out what the DQ was for--we know there was a
DQ because they announced it that way after a few minutes.  
Anyway, Justice starts beating up on Hogan and then Papa Shango runs in to
join Sid and soon after Shango reached the ring the Ultimate Warrior came
running out to save the Hulkster.  Then we had about a 10-minute Hulk
Hogan/Ultimate Warrior pose fest and had to listen to that stupid 'Real
American' song over and over.  In a way it was fun to experience the
atmosphere of the whole thing, but I just can't believe that Hogan ever
made it so big with that *very* low amount of wrestling ability.

Rating:  **1/2
UCT:  12 minutes, 27.16 seconds

All in all a fairly entertaining afternoon (save the Tatanka match) with
the only real surprise being the Flair loss to Savage--I had all the other
winners correct while Mr. W went 7-2.
I'd never been to a wrestling event before and I found this to be a very
fun afternoon.  It surely could have been better but it was entertaining 
nonetheless.

Overall Rating:  **1/2 
UCT:  2 hours 50+ minutes