WWE WrestleMania XII (1996)

People are voting emotionally.

Fantastic!

Absolutely Fantastic

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

(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.

1. Vader/The British Bulldog/Owen Hart Vs. Yokozuna/Ahmed Johnson/Jake Roberts - High quality tag team action from the very start. Vader pinned Roberts. 7.5/10 2. Stone Cold Steve Austin Vs. Savio Vega - Weird match with freaky ending. Austin won, thanks God. 6/10 3. Hunter Hearst Helmsley Vs. The Ultimate Warrior - Warrior won with 4 clotheslines, one Gorilla Press Slam and splash. WOHOU!! Worst match on the card. 3/10 4. Diesel Vs. The Undertaker - Finally some great feud for Taker at WM. Not Gonzales, not "Taker 2", Diesel was decent opponent. For clean victory over Big D. I give 7/10 5. (Oh no) Pajpa Vs. Goldust - Goldust in nylons Vs. The most old school guy after Hogan. Thx very much, I don't care. 4.5/10 6. WWF World Heavywight Title Iron Man match: Shawn Michaels Vs. Champ-Bret Hart - Slow start, but great ending of legal 60:00 time limit. Hate that continue part, Shawn deserve the belt and should win over Bret, but not in that match. 7/10

A passable Wrestlemania.Firstly lets get the bad out of the way. Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart fought for the WWF Heavyweight Championship in a 60 minute iron man match. However the match was mediocre and bored fans senseless with their methodical rest holds and boring moves. The match was restarted at the 60 minute interval and Michaels pinned Hart to capture the belt, but no one cared. At least 5,000 fans walked out on the match near the end because they were bored.'The Ringmaster' Steve Austin downed Savio Vega in another boring match. Austin did not like this gimmick at all and was made worse by the fact that he was managed by Ted DiBiase who still thought at the time it was the year 1988 and not 1996. Austin was relived when DiBiase left the WWF for WCW at the time which was understandable.The Ultimate Warrior squashed Hunter Hearst Hemsley in 30 seconds. Warrior refused to put Hemsley over in any way and even demanded he kick out of the pedigree, not believable at all. Triple H has stated many times that he found Jim Hellwig "The most unprofessional person, he's ever stepped into the ring with". Considering Triple H's record of winning nearly all his matches and screwing over people (Booker T at Wrestlemania 19 and Rob Van Dam at Unforgiven 2002 and many more) he's got a bit of a cheek.The PPV does have it's highlights though, such as the Hollywood Backlot Brawl featuring 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper and Goldust (the sight of two wrestlers chasing each other down the highway at the time was unbelievable, even though some of it was footage of OJ Simpson) and the match between The Undertaker and Diesel was fairly decent.Results from the show which was held in Anaheim, California: Owen Hart, The British Bulldog and Vader defeated Jake 'the snake' Roberts, Ahmed Johnson and Yokozuna in a fair 6 man tag match.... 'The Ringmaster' Steve Austin downed Savio Vega in a mediocre match.... The Ultimate Warrior pinned Hunter Hearst Hemsley in a 30 second squash.... The Undertaker downed Diesel in a fair match.... 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper went to a non finish with Goldust in an entertaining Hollywood Backlot Brawl.... Shawn Michaels defeated Bret Hart to capture the WWF title in a poor match.Overall Grade - C

WrestleMania XII was a terrific event with some great matches.In the main event Bret Hart battled Shawn Michaels in a 60 minute Iron Man Match. This match was sensational. Bret and Shawn had 60 minutes to showcase their talents and they did a brilliant job.This event also saw the return of one of my favourites-The Ultimate Warrior who squashed future champion Hunter Hearst Helmsley in minutes. I really cheered during this match but to my disappointment the Warrior was gone from the WWF 3 months after this event took place.Roddy Piper and the truly bizarre Goldust had an entertaining match and it was great to see Goldust get his butt kicked. This was Roddy Piper's last WrestleMania and he didn't disappoint.There were two other great matches as well-The Undertaker battled Diesel in a match where both men performed above their usual standard. And there was an awesome six man match pitting Vader, Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith VS Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Ahmed Johnson and Yokosuna.Terrific card with terrific matches!