Wrestlemania 12
Date: March 31st, 1996
City: Anaheim, California
Venue: Arrowhead Pond
Combined Attendance: 18,853
Sub-Theme: n/a
Celebrities: n/a
Wrestlemania 12 was back in California and looking to be the rebound Wrestlemania. The Main event was announced on an episode of Monday Night Raw, that for the World Wrestling Federation Championship; Bret “The Hitman” Hart would defend the title against “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels in an 1 hour Iron Man match. The winner of the match would be the man with the most decisions over a 60 min period. Shawn won the 1996 Royal Rumble in January (first back to back winner since Hulk Hogan in 1990 and 1991) and earned the spot to wrestle the champion at wrestlemania. Bret and Shawn have had history in the past, main eventing two Survivor Series PPV’s (1992 and 1993) and also being the first to introduce the ladder match to the WWF. For those who are familiar with their past, this was a fantastic match to look forward to. Especially considering the fact that the WWF never did an iron match before. This was more prevalent in the NWA and WCW.
The show was an overall hit and a blatant rebound from the previous year. This Wrestlemania would be Steve Austin’s wrestlemania debut. He wrestled Savio Vega in a grudge match with Austin winning.
The Ultimate Warrior made his in ring return to the WWF to wrestle Hunter Hurst Helmsley. The last time the Warrior was in the WWF was in Oct 1992. When he was announced that he would be making his return, it just added to the already beefed up card. Warrior Returned with the full head of steam that we are so used to seeing him have, with a bit more of a modern look to him. He defeated Hunter in about a min and a half, in typical Warrior way.
Undertaker Note: The Undertaker faced Big Daddy Cool Diesel in a one on one match. Physical match of the battle of the big men; but Taker was just too much for Diesel as he defeated him with the Tombstone piledriver. This would be Diesel’s last Wrestlemania for the next 6 years. Undertaker is now 5-0 at wrestlemania.
Goldust and Rowdy Roddy Piper fought in what was called a Hollywood back lot brawl. They started their match, earlier in the evening, in the “back lot” of the Arrowhead Pond, in what looked to be a shoot fight. Both men gave each other potatoes and receipts, as there seemed to be legit blood. Goldust took off in his Gold Cadillac and Piper followed and chased him in his White Bronco. The WWF production did a parody of the OJ Simpson police chase, due to this. Later in the evening after the Undertaker match, both men “made it back” to the arena and finished the match in the ring, with Piper being victorious.
It was now time for the main event. The 1 hour Iron Man Match. Both men went back to their home towns to train for this match. We’ve seen weeks and weeks of footage of Shawn training at Jose Lothario’s gym and Bret Training with his father Stu Hart in the dungeon and in Calgary in general. Shawn entered the match in an overtop elaborate way of entering the ring, from doing a zip line from the very top of the Arrow Head pond and slid down all the way to ringside. Very impressive. Bret had the traditional entrance to the ring. The match build was so intense for this match, that even the mere going over the rule of the match, heightened the anticipation. Two year prior, both of these men stole the show in their matches at Wrestlemania 10 and here we are, 12 years later in what is to be looked upon as an epic. Let the classic begin.
As soon as the bell rang, the crowd sits down, to enjoy this story that was going to be told to them for the next hour. Bret and Shawn went at each other, and we see a more technical side to Shawn Michaels, that we’ve never seen before. We’re used to Shawn being more so in attack mode, but due to his endurance needing to be taken into consideration, he ground based his offense considerably. Bret on the other hand was a countering master. Not letting Shawn’s unseen style get the best of him, Bret made sure to capitalize on all any and all counters that he could onto Shawn, to make sure that Bret had very close holds on him. For the most part, that is what the match was, very close very tight between the two. They did a great job in breaking up the monotony and not making the match dull at all. There were parts in the match where we saw an immediate burst of energy. Shawn unexpectedly hits Bret with a flying cross body block to the outside of the ring. Shawn meaning to superkick Bret, accidently superkicks the time keeper at ringside, due to Bret ducking and moving. The match had many surprises from both men and kept the match going. At the final minutes of the film, we see Shawn getting a new surge of energy in him, after being dominated by the champ for a while; however, the score is still 0-0. Shawn goes for his patent moves for fly elbow off the ropes and flying elbow drops off from the top turnbuckles. We were seeing the Shawn Michaels that we are all familiar with, until the closing minute, Bret, counters one of Shawn’s offenses and turns the counters into the Sharpshooter. Bret locked the sharpshooter on perfectly and Shawn was left there screaming in pain. The clock continued to clock down until the final seconds and then the buzzer sounded. 60 min have past and the match was over with a tied score of 0-0. Bret “The Hitman” Hart was still the champion and leaves the ring. However, Interim President Gorilla Monsoon comes to ringside and orders that the match to continue and for it to be sudden death overtime. Bret was besides himself as he couldn’t understand as to why this was the decision, since the original rules were “60 Min Match”. Bret voiced his disagreement with the ref, but with no choice, the bell rang and Bret went back after Shawn. This was not the Bret that we saw for the last hour, but a more aggressive unorthodox Bret, who was attacking Michaels lower back with punches and with back body drops. When Bret went to throw Shawn into the turnbuckle; Shawn leaped over Bret when Bret came in to run in for the offense, but when Bret turned around POW, Shawn hits Bret with the superkick. But not thinking it was enough, Shawn prepares for a more set and on the money superkick, measures him and hits Bret Hart spot on.
Shawn goes for the cover; and for the first time ever, Shawn Michaels defeats Bret Hart and wins his first World Wrestling Federation Championship.
Personally, I thought this wrestlemania was great to watch and went back to being a epic level event. It felt like a mega event again, unlike the year before. I was not a Shawn Michaels fan, I was (and still am) a mega Bret Hart fan, and I was convinced that Bret would win the match and retain the title, since he beat Shawn before, but that wasn’t the fact though. For the rest of the year, I had to watch my WWF weekly programs without one of my wrestling heroes on the show, and I despised the companies champion, since he was the sole reason why Bret was no longer on the show. But as I got older, I learned to appreciate the match and I can see how and why it is regarded as the best match in the company history.
Match Card
– The Bodydonnas (Skip and Zip) (with Sunny) defeated The Godwinns (Henry and Phineas) (with Hillbilly Jim) to win the vacant WWF Tag Team Championships (Finals of Tournament)
– Camp Cornette (Vader, Owen Hart and The British Bulldog) (with Jim Cornette) defeated Yokozuna, Jake Roberts and Ahmed Johnson (with Mr. Fuji)
-Steve Austin (with Ted DiBiase) defeated Savio Vega
-The Ultimate Warrior defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley (with Sable)
– Roddy Piper defeated Goldust (with Marlena)
– Shawn Michaels (with Jose Lothario) defeated Bret Hart (c) 1-0 to win the 1 hour Iron Man Match to win the World Wrestling Federation Championship.
Maurice D. Proffit
proffitspiledriver 