Wrestlemania 12: A Retrospective Look

We get to 12 and as someone said, perhaps the most overrated show.

There are 3 big elephants in the room for me with this show... they affected how it was booked, how it could have been and how I would have rebooked it.

First let's get this out of the way. I am not a big fan of the Ironman match. Not the effort that went into it or even that Shawn ended up with the win... just the 0-0 tie made it dull to me. To me an Iron Man match should always have at least 3 falls and a 2-1 finish, in an hour probably 3-2. It's great they managed to call a match that long without, but it got dull for me quite quickly, especially with Bret's rep for rollups etc... but more on this later.

The Tag matches being vacated again barely a year after they had been previously shows what a joke WWE booking was at the time. There was never any real reason for Shawn and Diesel to get the belts in 95 other than "Kliq-teasing" (TM), they had the belts cos they could have them... no other reason. The division was now sadly petering out, wasting talent such as Chris Candido now everyone is saying Bulldog and Owen should have had the belts or being contending. I disagree, Davey Boy was far more valuable in the World title picture, the Kliq just didn't accept or allow him to be. Owen was IC material all the way, they could even have had him tweener at the time and I'll explain why in a mo...

The only real "proper" tag teams they seemed to have were The Gunns and The Godwinns who were a strong team, just with pig shit gimmicks. Irony is as Southern Justice they were great, I'd have given them this gimmick in 96 and had them win the titles from the Gunns. By all means throw in some makeshift teams but leave Davey and Owen out of it...

Dumbo's brother...A.K.A. 2nd big elephant in the room is Brian Pillman. For my purposes, I get him into WWE a little sooner, made sure he was at least on the road with Austin...ergo he didn't crash hims Humvee... This also means he didn't go to ECW.

Make no mistake, Pillman was signed in early 96 to be a World title contender to Bret and Shawn and more than likely the "Attitude" champion. Not Austin, Not Shawn with DX... The Pillman who signed his deal was as good if not better than Shawn and an equal to Bret. There were built in rivalries and stories to be had and a ready made ally in Stone Cold. So to me, it should have been priority to get him "integrated" for a potential Mania debut. He had other ideas/commitments, went out and celebrated and the rest is history... but this was 10 days after Mania 12... So I make sure he is there and working, not celebrating his deal.

The final "elephant" is I know Hall and Nash are offski and Shawn WANTS to go... The Kliq's power is finally crumbling, although those of you who have been reading my other posts know I booked matches around reducing this power... so some talent to me is available that wouldn't be in the real world (Bam Bam for example)

So analyzing the card as it was, we've covered the tags. So onto the IC title.

As much as I love They Live's street fight and appreciated the joke of OJ and Goldust's defrocking... I didn't need to see any of them at Mania 12. Piper can be there sure, as a referee for the Ironman match or even in the role I pick for him, but not in this as it was a waste of a title opportunity... If you're going to use a legend, here is where you use Warrior and have him pick up the IC in a similar way to Honky... maybe, if you trust him.

Here is where my Owen tweener theory comes in. Owen was known for being a thoroughly decent guy, family oriented and quite "straight", when the Razor angle wasn't working out cos of Hall's failed drugs test I can see why they went with Piper, the "blow on your bagpipe" promo etc... but to me Owen was the perfect opponent for Goldust at that time, someone who cos he had a wife and kids etc Goldust would almost "pick on" and try to dare I say "turn him". It would have been a risky angle, but no more so than Piper and Razor's borderline homophobia. Owen starts off bemused, embarrased, puzzled...then as Goldust's attentions become more outrageous and he starts to involve Marlena offering "Triple Threat Matches" it starts to really piss Owen off... They could almost have played off the movie Disclosure which was out at the time and have Owen file suit against Goldust... which he agrees to drop for an IC title match at Mania with the stipulation that if he loses, he must be Goldust's "toy" for 30 days... if he wins Goldust must end his campaign of "terror". You'd have gotten a great match out of both guys guaranteed, it's the kind of angle that Owen might have not been too happy with, but as he was the sympathetic figure he might have done it knowing he's going over for the belt. Goldust would win it back quite quickly after promising to "turn over a new leaf" only to go right back to his old ways. They kind of did a lite version of this with Ahmed Johnson, but again it went a little too far down the homophobic route to really work. With Owen in this kind of feud it'd be more about "Hey man I'm flattered, but I don't go that way and you're really upsetting my wife..." Owen could still be heel, for other matches but against "Dust" he'd be tweener/face.

Next was Undertaker v Diesel... Assuming my other bookings had gone ahead, Diesel would have not been champion by now... but I would have made a big deal to keep him... assuming I can't and knowing what I have planned for Pillman, I let him go and keep this as is. Jobbing out to Taker wasn't the worst thing he could do on the way out, he looked strong and more to the point so did Taker. This was right off of the Mabel injury (RIP) and the start of the phase where Taker was booked right instead of against Monster Of The Month... his learning process started with Diesel in that match and he learned bloody quick.

I also make Hall job out on the night but not to Austin... Davey Boy gets the win here as he is Shawn's first challenger and he wins very strong indeed... no cheap finishes, none of Hall's favourite "kick out of your finish", he takes the Powerslam once and stays down... "don't let the door hit you in de ass chico". In reality he was on a drugs suspension/self imposed strike from it... so fuck him, he wants the money let him take it but he's going over having made someone to replace him.

This leaves Vader out of the Camp Cornette match so I am going with a tag match... Vader and Bam Bam Bigelow vs Ahmed Johnson and Ron Simmons (in My WWF Bam Bam doesn't go face or leave cos of the Kliq... he and Vader teamed in NJPW and were one of the most exciting teams so I play up on that. Simmons debuted last year and has had a solid mid-upper mid spot since.

Here is where I also bring Jake Roberts back as referee... however he turns on Ahmed and Ron and becomes manager for Bam Bam and later Vader as well moving Cornette to focus solely on Davey and Owen.

Stone Cold Vs Marc Mero - This ends up at KOTR anyway but I put Mero on the card ahead of Savio purely from the perspective of Sable being in the match.

Shane Douglas vs The Ultimate Warrior - No squash here and a countout loss for Warrior when old enemy Jake shows up and costs him the win... Over the next weeks I build a stable of Douglas,Jake, Bam Bam and Hunter Hearst Helmsley called The Snake Pit. Warrior of course runs them off after the bell and the feud continues with him going over Hunter on RAW, losing to Bam Bam at KOTR and a no contest at Summerslam vs Jake when Vader joins the group... This sets up a Survivor match later in the year with Vader, Bam Bam, Douglas, Jake and Helmsley v Warrior, Ahmed, Sid, and the Smokin Gunns.

Piper's Pit - Piper the WWF commissioner comes out and introduces his guest - Brian Pillman who makes his way to the ring in his bearded/sunglasses look with the cane. This is a very controversial skit with lots of barb throwing between the two men and Pillman pushes Roddy to his limit... Pillman then goes one further and threatens to kick his ass (first use of the word in WWF history) back to Scotland. Piper loses it but just as he is about to attack he is grabbed by Austin, who he hasn't seen come in... Pillman breaks his cane over Piper's head, causing juice and tells the camera that this is just the beginning and if you don't like it you can F.... Vince just manages to speak over the F-Bomb and the camera cuts but it's clear what Pillman meant as he and Austin trash the Piper's Pit set. I do this cos Monsoon was just a bad idea, it I personally wouldn't have had Monsoon at all and had Piper as commish all through 95-96... of course Piper being hurt this way this has ramifications later on for Bret v Shawn and the next 6 months.

So we come to the main event and much of the match is as I described earlier, many of the spots are the same but I have a Bret roll up pin to go 1-0 up, Shawn to counter that with a crucifix for 1-1. As time ticks down there is a referee bump. Pillman sees his chance and counts as both guys shoulders are down... declaring the match a 2-2 draw! Earl Hebner says he can't do that but Pillman removes his jacket to show a referee's outfit and says the NEW commisioner said he could... and that this match is gonna continue cos he says so!

Bret is furious of course, just as he was when Monsoon did it but he really gets in Pillman's face, adding that element of he can't touch him or he loses his title... Shawn is quicker to accept but also unhappy as the match restarts with Pillman ejecting Hebner and now the referee...

The match ends similarly to how it did... Bret is furious as Pillman backs away from the ring saying "he called it down the middle" and smirking while Shawn celebrates.

The upshot of all this is that the "Commish" would be a mystery for a period of time before being revealed as a returning Rick Rude (who had stayed a lot longer with my Manias)... he allows Pillman and Austin unusual leeway while making life difficult for old foes Bret and Ultimate Warrior. Pillman wins KOTR and goes on to face Bret and Shawn in the first Triple Threat main event to Summerslam.