Wrestlemania 12

**WrestleMania 12** was the twelfth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on March 27, 1996, at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California. The show's main event was Duke "The Dumpster" Droese verus Diesel with the WWF Championship on the line. The show's attendance was 20,544 people and the buy rate on PPV was 1.90.

## Background

The main contest on the show was a no disqualifications match between the WWF Champion Diesel and the Royal Rumble winner Droese. The main event was built on former friends and tag team champions Diesel and Droese imploding when Diesel attacked Droese following Droese's Royal Rumble win. Diesel saw Droese as a threat to his title reign, and his attack was meant to injure Droese and prevent him from being able to fight at Wrestlemania. Droese suffered a broken hand, however he was cleared to wrestle in the main event match.

The undercard featured several different matches, one of which was Undertaker vs European Champion Lex Luger. Luger and Taker were bitter rivals due to Luger using cheap tactics to beat Undertaker before, having traded the European Championship back and forth numerous times. With each person having two wins each this seemed to be the rubber match to their feud.

Another match on the undercard was for the Intercontinental Championship, between two members of the white hot stable XXX The New Generation XXX. Stableleader Scotty 3 Hotty 5 Me had become jealous of the recent sucess of one of his henchmen, Villano IV. IV was the runner up in the Royal Rumble (outlasting Scotty), and at Filler PPV Before Wrestlemania the feud ignited. In an elimination fatal four way match involving Villano, Scotty, Owen Hart, and Bret Hart, Villano IV and Scotty had worked together to eliminate the Harts. However, Scotty demanded that Villano lie down so Scotty could pin him and retain his title. However Villano rolled up Scotty and won the title, officially breaking away from The New Generation. Scotty resorted by having the remaining henchmen destroy Villano IV post match.

The feud involving the S'BradBradShaw Memorial Title was between Stunning Steve Austin and Yoshi Kwan. Kwan's friend and New Generation member G.Q. eliminated Austin from the Royal Rumble. Austin retaliated by turning heel and brutally assaulting G.Q. Kwan would make the save to help G.Q, turning face in the process (unlike the rest of his stable, which were heels). Kwan and Austin then got engaged in a feud over Austin's title with Kwan winning a #1 contenders match to get a shot at the title.

There was also a feud between authority members Sgt. Slaughter and Vince McMahon. McMahon was unhappy about Sarge putting the WWF Tag Team Championships on random teams (or "Sarging"). Fed up with Slaughters ideas for the tag team division, Vince fired Slaughter to the anger of the fans. The fan favorite Sarge proposed a match at Wrestlemania, where if Sarge won he got his job back, but if Vince won Sarge would be banned from all future WWF events. Vince accepted.

The last major feud was between authority member Joseph Yancheson and The Ultimate Warrior. At the 1996 Royal Rumble, Yancheson laced up the boots and fought in his first ever match, competing in the Royal Rumble match. Yancheson entered at #12 but was eliminated by Warrior shortly after his entrance. An enraged Yancheson threw Warrior out of the ring and put him through the announce table. The next night on RAW, Warrior fought in a title match for the S'BradBradshaw title, but lost due to a distraction from Yancheson. The following week, Warrior was on Kwang TV but was attacked by Yancheson. Warrior then had a sit down protest, with Vince McMahon booking a match between the two at Filler PPV before Wrestlemania. Warrior won the match against Yancheson, finaly getting revenge. However, the next RAW Yancheson booked a rematch at Wrestlemania in a tables match.