Intro:
WrestleMania XII took place on 3/31/96 and was held at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, CA. The main event featured a 60 minute Iron Man match between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. The other highlight of this show was a great match between The Undertaker and Diesel.
The Huckster vs The Nacho Man:
As part of the pre-show, this “match” took place with Billionaire Ted as the referee. This was the culmination of the bizarre Billionaire Ted sketches, which were the WWF’s way of fighting WCW. They also took up placing ads in newspapers begging fans to contact the FTC to make sure that the sale of Turner’s assets to Time Warner not be allowed because it would be unfair to the WWF.
The Main Event Setup:
Shawn earned this title match against Bret Hart by winning the Royal Rumble. The match was promoted with Rocky style training vignettes. The disparity between videos for the men was laughable. Shawn was shown training with his original trainer Jose Lothario and doing amazing feats to accomplish his boyhood dream. Bret was getting beaten up by his father and was shown running in what appeared to be awkward slow motion. What was not noticeable to fans was that he was running on ice.
The Match:
Shawn had a spectacular entrance by coming down a zip line. The champ just walked to the ring. The rules of the match were that the man to win the most falls in an hour would win the match. At the 60 minute mark, Shawn was trapped in the sharpshooter with the match was tied 0-0. President Gorilla Monsoon called for overtime which Shawn won in overtime. If Bret thought the ending of this match was unfair, he’d really learn what unfair was at their rematch year and a half later.
The Aftermath:
Bret was left the WWF for several months after this match and almost signed a contract with WCW. While he didn’t, both Kevin Nash and Scott Hall did. With Hulk Hogan, they formed the NWO. The WWF countered by creating many wrestlers that had day jobs and made up for the losses of Hall and Nash by creating Fake Diesel and Fake Razor Ramon. WCW would go on to win the Monday Night Wars for the next year and a half.
Random Facts:
- Footage of the OJ Simpson car chase was used in the Roddy Piper-Goldust car chase.
- This was The Ultimate Warrior’s return match to the WWF.
- Sable was Triple H’s valet for this match
- Marc Mero made his WWF debut in an interview in the back and in the process came to the defense of Sable.
Match Results:
- Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, & Big Van Vader beat Yokozuna, Ahmed Johnson, & Jake Roberts
- Hollywood Back Lot Brawl: Roddy Piper beat Goldust in a match that started in a back lot and ended up in the ring after a highway car chase.
- Steve Austin beat Savio Vega
- The Ultimate Warrior pinned Hunter Hearst Helmsley
- The Undertaker pinned Diesel
- 60 minute Iron Man Match for WWF Title: Shawn Michaels beat Champion Bret Hart 1 falls to 0 in overtime to become the new WWF Champion
