Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

SlyGuy21 1st Match: Vader, Owen Hart, and The British Bulldog vs Yokozuna, Ahmed Johnson, and Jake Roberts. A good match to get the crowd excited. A typical face vs heel match, but more unpredictable than what WCW was doing at the time. Even though the heels win, the match still does a good job of getting the crowd into the show. Rating: 3.5/52nd Match: Roddy Piper vs Goldust, Hollywood Backlot Brawl. The fight starts in the parking lot, and continues until just before the main event. I'm gonna go ahead and just review the whole match here though. A good comedy match, that's also pretty hard hitting. They even throw in some of the OJ car chase footage and it ends with Piper ripping the clothes off Goldust to reveal him wearing women's lingerie. Pretty funny stuff. Is it the best match, no, but it's pretty damn entertaining. Rating: 4/53rd Match: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Savio Vega. An alright match, but probably the weakest match of the night. It's still watchable, but Austin doesn't have his character quite down yet. It's an easy enough watch, but ultimately pretty forgettable. Rating: 3/54th Match: HHH vs The Ultimate Warrior. The match is just a squash, with Warrior no-selling a pedigree, and then beating Hunter in less than 2 minutes. It's a funny match, but not worth a rating. I won't count it against the show's final rating however, unlike some terrible WCW matches the week before this aired. Rating: None5th Match: Diesel vs The Undertaker. I don't think "The Streak" was a thing yet, but Taker sure comes close to losing this. Both guys get some good offense, and Taker almost loses on several occasions, but at the end of the day, Nash isn't Brock Lesnar, so Taker wins. The match also does a good job of finalizing Nash's heel character, which he would take to WCW in a couple of months. Rating: 3.5/56th Match: Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart, Iron Man match for the WWF Championship. This match is fantastic, the best Mania match I've seen since I started reviewing these for the site. There are better Mania matches, but this is easily in my Top 10 Favorite Matches of All Time list, if I were to make it. These guys go a full hour, and they're so evenly matched, that there's not a single decision throughout the whole thing. That's ballsy, to have a main event over an hour long, and not have a single fall. The first half is mostly Michaels showing off some impressive counter wrestling, and the second half is more acrobatic. There are a lot of rest holds, but there's still a constant pace to the match, so it doesn't feel like an hour. It legit feels a 30 minute match, but it's twice as long, you know how the best one-on-one ladder matches have a constant pace to them so they don't feel slow, this is equivalent to that. Fantastic stuff. The match ends in a draw of 0-0, but continues under Sudden Death rules because there must be a winner. Michaels then kicks Bret's head off and wins his first WWF Championship in one of the greatest Wrestlemania matches of all time. I understand that the match isn't for everyone, but I love it, I can easily see this winning "Match of the Year" when I do my list. Rating: 5/5Final Rating: 8 out of 10. The best Mania I've seen since starting these reviews. The small card helps keep the show from being overcrowded, and the main event somehow defies time in it's length. Quality over quantity, that's what WWF did with this event.

callanvass (03.31.96)Live from Anaheim CAAttendance: 18,853Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jerry LawlerVader, Owen Hart & The British Bulldog (W/Jim Cornette) Vs Yokozuna, Ahmed Johnson & Jake "The Snake" Roberts (W/Mr. Fuji)Vader's team wins after Vader pins Roberts with a Vader bomb from the second rope. This was a perfect way to start the show. It was exciting and the crowd was into it, even if it was obvious from the outset that Roberts was the one who was going to be pinned. One thing I was surprised about was the positive reception for Yokozuna. The crowd ate up everything he did against Vader.***Backlot Brawl"Rowdy" Roddy Piper Vs GoldustPiper is standing in the backlot with a bat in his hands. Goldust shows up in a gold Cadillac. Piper smashes the windows of the car with the baseball bat and brawls with Goldust. Piper absolutely DESTROYS Goldust in very stiff fashion to the point where Goldust is busted open the hard way. Goldust comes back with a low-blow, then he runs over Piper with a car. Piper luckily avoided any major damage and a vehicle chase ensues with Piper following Goldust in his ford.Thoughts: This is very good stuff. The brawl was very intense and Piper looked like a man possessed. Goldust was on such a roll as a heel here, you were begging to see Piper kick his ass."Stone Cold" Steve Austin (W/Ted Dibiase) Vs Savio VegaStone Cold makes Vega submit with The Million Dollar Dream after drilling Vega twice with the Million Dollar belt while the referee was knocked out. I commend both on their effort here. This match was virtually unannounced with no hype. They showed good chemistry out there. This is Stone Cold's Wrestlemania debut. Next year would be huge for him.**1/2Hunter Hearst Helmsley (W/Sable) Vs The Ultimate WarriorThis is Warrior's first match with the WWF in over three years. Warrior gets a good, yet unspectacular pop. Warrior wins in 1 minute and 39 seconds with a gorilla press slam and a big splash. Normally, I would be very annoyed if a solid wrestler got treated like Hunter did. Considering how many people Hunter has buried over the years, I don't feel sorry for him what so ever. As I said, the crowd was kinda lukewarm towards Warrior. DUDMarc Mero debuts in the WWF with a backstage interview. Helmsley interrupts, then he and Mero get into a backstage brawl. Thoughts: Mero had some fame in WCW as Johnny B Badd. There are worse ways you can have a superstar debut. Helmsley attacking out of frustration makes sense.Diesel Vs The Undertaker (W/Paul Bearer)The Undertaker wins with a tombstone. This is one of the best big man matches you'll ever see. It's not very often that two behemoths can put on a match that's over 3 stars. The Undertaker is one of the best big men to ever lace their boots, and Kevin Nash is talented when he's motivated. I rank this is as one of the most underrated matches.***1/2Roddy Piper and Goldust arrive to the arena in their vehicles. Piper and Goldust take the fight all the way inside the ring. Goldust kicks Piper's ass for a while until Goldust kisses Piper, which makes Piper snap. Disgustingly, Piper disrobed Goldust, who is wearing lingerie. Piper stands tall to end the fight.Thoughts: The Backlot brawl was both good and bad. It started off as a very intense brawl, but slowly lost steam and petered out after a while. It would have been better if they had an actual street fight or something. Goldust wearing lingerie is something I try to put out of my mind as quickly as possible when I watch Wrestlemania 12. WWF Championship (Iron Man Match)Bret Hart (C) Vs Shawn Michaels (W/Jose Lothario)For those that don't know, an Iron Man Match is where two wrestlers wrestle for 60 minutes. Whoever has the most pinfalls or submissions during the 60 minutes is the winner. Shawn's entrance is absolutely spectacular! He uses a zipline of over 100 feet in the air to come down into the crowd. After 60 minutes pass, it's still tied 0-0. Bret is leaving with the WWF title, but Gorilla Monsoon orders sudden death between Bret and Shawn. Shawn drills Bret with Sweet Chin Music in the opening minutes of sudden death and wins the WWF title.Thoughts: This is undoubtedly a fantastic match, I'm not denying that. It told a wonderful story of the perseverance of Shawn Michaels, and the tenacity of Bret Hart. It's not the classic that many people make it out to be, though. I understand that they had to pace themselves in a 60 minute match, but there were far too many rest holds in this match. There is plenty of action and a ton of excitement, but it's also bogged down by the rest holds. I also felt the sudden death cheapened the impact a little bit. The 60 minutes felt real, the sudden death felt tacked on. As I said, this is definitely a wonderful match that ranks highly in my favorites, I just don't consider it to be the 5 star match many claim it is. I say it falls just short of 5 stars.****3/4I'll give this an 8/10. It's a very entertaining PPV and one of the most underrated Wrestlemania's. Even though fans overrate the iron man match, it's still an unforgettable match.

bh_tafe3 Well, hello and welcome to Wrestlemania 12. The big story going in was the first one on one meeting since Survivor Series 1992 between fan favourites Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. From somewhere Vince got the idea that Shawn Michaels was going to be the next megastar of wrestling, right up there with Hogan. Sadly he was wrong, and Micheals, despite being an excellent worker would join the long list of failed champions since Hogans glory days in the WWE effectively ended at Wrestlemania 6.It was decided that the match between Hart and Michaels would be no ordinary wrestling match, but a 60 minute iron man match with whoever collected the most falls in that period would be declared the winner and WWE Champion. Given how the match went, the stipulation could just as easily have been left out completely and would have stopped no end of whining from HBK marks years later, annoyed that there are still many fans who rate Hart higher than the "The Show Stopper." Whatever.This PPV would also mark the in ring return of former WWE Champion The ULtimate Warrior, making his first PPV appearance since Summerslam 1992 and taking on Hunter Hearst Helmsley.The other big match on the card was the long awaited showdown between Diesel and the Undertaker, who had cost each other title matches in recent PPVs.The night started off with Owen Hart, Vader and the British Bulldog defeating Yokozuna, Jake Roberts and Ahmed Johnson in a forgettable opener. Yokozuna had recently turned on long time manager Jim Cornette. THis was Roberts first Wrestlemania appearance for some time and a rather disappointing final wrestlemania match for him. He never really had a "Wrestlemania moment." Next up we had Steve Austin making his Wrestlemania debut with Million Dollar Man Ted DiBIase at his side and defeating Savio Vega in a passable match. There wasn't really much more to it than that.Next up, in the only match I have ever given six stars the Ultimate Warrior took on Triple H. Triple H dominated the early part of the match and looked to have it won when he hit the pedigree, but Warrior no sold the pedigree (yes, you read that right, no sold the pedigree) called down the powers, hit a gorilla press slam and a splash for the pin, all in under two minutes. Wow, what a match! Now its was time for the big match between The Undertaker and Diesel, won by the Undertaker after surviving three jack knife power bombs. This was not a technical masterpiece but it was nice little match telling a fun story which both guys sold well. Easily the best thing on the card so far.It wouldn't get much competition from the next match, a backlot brawl won by Roddy Piper against Goldust. The match parodied the OJ Simpson car chase for a brief period. Really awful and pretty late too I would have thought.Finally comes our main event, with Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels putting on a clinic. The only problem was the match made a nonsense of the stipulation by having Hart and Michaels battle to a sixty minute draw, which would have been a heck of a lot more exciting without the time clock down the bottom basically advertising that nothing in the way of a pin or submission was going to happen in the next sixty minutes. Anyway, time expired with Michaels in the Sharpshooter with no hope of escape and Hart released the hold and, thinking the match had been drawn and he had retained his title began to walk away, but he was informed by Gorilla Monsoon that the match was going to continue under sudden death rules. Michaels eventually won about 5 minutes later with Sweet Chin Music to win his first WWE Championship. Hart looked very angry as he left for the back. In the storyline he had every reason to be annoyed. Had he known about the sudden death rule he never would have released the sharpshooter and thus would have won the match by submission. In real life he had a pretty good reason too. Michaels had told him to "Get the F-ck out of the ring," after the match had finished.There you have it, an average Wrestlemania lifted by a superb title match.

JosephBrenner First off yes, going 60 minutes running and jumping around must have been tough and very tiring for Bret and Shawn and I commend them for that, but that alone does not make an incredible match. I saw the Iron Match between the Rock and HHH before seeing WM XII and so I was worried about this Iron match before it started. The Rock, HHH match started very slowly with punches and holds due to obvious reasons they didn't wanna get tired out, I understand that. They can't go at it guns blazing for 60 minutes, they'd die. But punches and holds, especially holds are the worst and most boring thing about wrestling. If you total up the decent moves and quality action in the Shawn vs. Bret match you might get, if you're lucky, 20 solid minutes. That leaves the other 40 though, right? And they certainly should have made it more interesting with a few pins or submissions rather than leaving it 0 - 0 right until the end. Good match, but not the best ever.