[1992-04-05-WWF-Wrestlemania VIII] Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Video package and pre-match interviews, plus the last few minutes of the match. Hogan does his stupid shake sell for the powerbomb. Talk about bad timing, this is just a series of mistimed spots, with the long entrance to the ring not helping.

[flyonthewall2983]

Sid and Harvey doing that little promo to the camera during the match is still fun to watch.

[El-P]

Sid had an awesome entrance. I hated Hogan, and thought Sid was great back then. Yeah.

Was Papa Shango destined to have a big program on top next since he did the big run-in in teh main event ? Was the bad timing the reason it was scratched and he never became anything more than a JTTS ?

The Warrior's comeback is pretty impressive though in term of "Wrestlemania moment" as they would say nowadays. Last stint this guys was relevant in any way shape or form.

[shoe]

According to the Old Observers Shango was to be programmed with Taker after Mania. Dave even speculated that the matches might not be as bad as we think since the 2 are friends.

[Dooley]

According to the Old Observers Shango was to be programmed with Taker after Mania. Dave even speculated that the matches might not be as bad as we think since the 2 are friends.

We found out in '95 just how brutal the matches actually were, despite the two being friends.

[Victator]

You mean pretty good?

[Dooley]

No. I really don't. I'm reminded of Foley's book where he said the boys called Charles Wright "The Black Hole of Charisma" because not only did he have none of his own (pre-Godfather) he was also able to suck the life out of whoever he was in the ring with.

[Victator]

The Summerslam 95 match was good. Watched it a few months ago on Taker's second dvd set.

[Dooley]

Diff'rent strokes I guess. I found that match to be really boring and I'm also remembering a house show match I saw between the two during that run that totally killed the crowd. It had been a while since the WWF had been to town, so the crowd was super-hot for everything all night. But during Taker-Kama you could actually hear people chewing their popcorn.

 

'95 was pretty much a terrible year for Taker. From feuding with the various stiffs in DiBiase's stable for the first 3/4 of the year and Mabel the other 1/4, I can't think of much in the way of watchable stuff in there.

[Victator]

I really enjoyed the Mable casket match. Mable took some sick bumps for 500 pounder.

[Kevin Ridge]

Sid kicking out of the leg drop was interesting. The DQ finish was really cheap as it wasn't like Harvey had done enough to really cause it. This has to be the only WrestleMania to have a DQ finish in the last match. Can't remember it being done again. Warrior showing up is pretty cool. Shango just stands there against the ropes and waits to get clotheslined out. Show felt like an end of era with Hogan and Piper leaving and them not running big venues at WrestleMania for a long time.

[MikeCampbell]

I'd never seen Sid destroying the Barbershop before, that window really took beating between Sid and Shawn. Once again, the booking is awfully kind to Hogan, Warrior makes the save, but then Hogan gets to save Warrior and make Sid run off.

[WingedEagle]

I dare someone to find a well produced video package I don't want to watch. After that we jump to Hogan kicking out of the power bomb, hulk up, boot, slam, legdrop and the garbage DQ. Papa Shango is out followed by Warrior to a massive pop and some gratuitous posing afterwards.

 

I don't recall the details, but was the original plan for Hogan to get his win back the following year vs. Warrior?

[PeteF3]

The opening of this featured a laughable sequence--Sid jumps Hogan before the bell, whips him into the ropes, drops down, and then pops up with Hogan standing behind him. Hogan levels him with punches and Sid bails out of the ring.

 

Then after the bell rings, they run the EXACT SAME SPOTS in the exact same order. Just total fucking amateur night on the part of all involved.

 

The ending doesn't go much better. Sid's kickout of the legdrop, a DQ for a manager standing on the apron, Shango standing there agape when the Warrior runs at him...it's a good thing (the noticeably thinner) Warrior's return was such a shocker that made us forget all that. Monsoon tries to push the original finish, that Sid was disqualified for Shango's interference.

 

WM8 came off as a big show in a big setting, but it also marks the start of the WWF's Dark Ages. I know there will be good stuff to come but it will take the Monday Night Wars to get it out of the creative and financial rut to come.

[s1rweeze]

I watched this again this morning for some reason or another. What's fascinating to me is that Hogan definitely gets a tepid response (by his standards) for his entrance, but Sid attacks before the bell, Hogan fights him off (while "Real American" is still playing...?) and has the crowd going bananas. It was clear Hogan's run at the top was winding down, but man, he still knew exactly how to get a huge crowd lathered up. I love that opening sequence.

 

But then, as PeteF3 points out, they run through nearly the same comeback sequence again minutes later? ...the hell? I know Sid is limited but geez.

[Robert S]

Knowing what was supposed to happen the finish is even weirder. Papa Shango did not misstime his run-in by a few second but by a minute or so. Whoever was at Gorilla giving Wright the clue when to go hugely fucked up here.

[goc]

Knowing what was supposed to happen the finish is even weirder. Papa Shango did not misstime his run-in by a few second but by a minute or so. Whoever was at Gorilla giving Wright the clue when to go hugely fucked up here.

Probably just didn't factor in how much longer it was going to take for him to run down that super long entrance way instead of the normal set up.

[flyonthewall2983]

I'd never seen Sid destroying the Barbershop before, that window really took beating between Sid and Shawn.

 

Even as an 8 year old supposedly intimidated by this heel, I thought it was a little goofy when he was trying to be a badass with all that shaving cream on his face.

[garretta]

I loved the video package in the pre-match. Sid looks like the scariest man ever to walk the planet, which is exactly the point.

 

The Barber Shop was a total joke. Look, I know Beefcake wasn't supposed to take any contact, especially in the face, but the way he crawled away from Sid and then ran back to the dressing room like the devil was after him killed his character for good and all. Where were the officials to come down and take control? Sid moved slowly enough for the likes of Garea, Goulet, and company to come down and stop him while other people helped Beefcake. Anything would have been preferable to making him look like such a coward. If nothing else, have him make a move to stab Sid with the scissors or have him throw the barber chair at Sid, then take off. By the way, why did Sid have shaving cream on his nose, of all places?

 

Sid's interview had to be chilling to the Hulkamaniacs. Not even Warrior at his craziest, Savage at his most jealous, or Heenan at his most diabolical seem so committed to not only ending Hogan's career, but killing the idea of Hulkamania itself. These interviews are even scarier because despite Bruno's presence, Sid does all his own talking. This isn't just another wisp of a man spouting idle threats, this is a maniac with all the physical tools in the world doing his best to live up to a solemn vow.

 

Now for the match. Believe it or not, I hold Gino responsible for calling attention to what a big mess the finish was. All he had to do was call what he saw: Bruno interfered by coming into the ring, so Sid was disqualified. Shango's interference is then just another postmatch run-in. But by saying that Shango's interference caused the DQ, he not only needlessly hung Shango and whoever sent him to the ring late out to dry in public, he set the smarks in motion, because there's no way in hell he could possibly have mistaken 130-pound Harvey Wippleman for 280-pound Papa Shango, even if he was half-blind. It's a damn shame that his regular career as a play-by-play guy on pay-per-view had to end this way. He probably thought he was protecting Wright and the agent from Vince's wrath by putting his own neck on the line, but it totally backfired.

 

Line of the match goes, of course, to Heenan following Hogan's kickout from Sid's powerbomb: "They're both nuts!"

 

Warrior looked really good here, and Wright made a bad situation worse by just standing near the ropes and waiting to bump for Warrior's clothesline. This after stopping on his way down the aisle, almost unsure if he should go ahead with the run-in or not. Wouldn't it have been a riot if he'd decided not to under the circumstances?

 

Hogan's (temporary) farewell deserved better than this. If I'd been Vince, I might have even had him go over by clean pinfall, then used the postmatch attack to get Sid his heat back. But the DQ was fine; how it happened was the problem. I've gotten on Vince for years for heavily scripting matches and making wrestlers do blown finishes over again, but after seeing this I know why he went that way, much as I hate it. The main event of WrestleMania is no place for this type of a screwup, period.

[dawho5]

Goofy finish (due to timing I guess) aside, I thought it was crazy how they had the coked-up, screaming Sid promos bookending the replay of the toned down Hulk interview.  The rest was...well, the rest.

[cactus]

Sid is the ultimate guilty pleasure wrestler. He can't work his way out of a paper bag, but his charisma and mic skills makes him impossible to hate. The video package they showed of him destroying jobbers and trashing Brutus' barber shop (somehow he gets a face full of shaving cream, it's never shown how this happened) is golden.

Big Dave gave this a negative rating and I think that's a bit harsh, it's not even the worst match on the show. It's your standard Hogan affair. No frills, just a big test of strength and a long rest hold, but the crowd love every second of it. Papa Shango misses his run and it causes for a crap finish, but Warrior returning to clean house and to celebrate with Hogan was a cool moment. It's better than the stinker that Sid had with Undertaker at Wrestlemania 13, that's for sure. 

★★½

[Superstar Sleeze]

Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice - WWF WrestleMania VIII

One of the worst matches I have ever had the displeasure of watching. I’m a big Hogan defender and I thought I was a big Sid fan but watching his Skyscrapers, Four Horsemen and Justice run make me realize I just like mid-90s Sid. Lots of background here, so since SNME they have changed course on what the angle is here.

It is now being billed as Hogan’s farewell match. It is matter of whether it will be on Hogan’s terms or Sid will force him out. This is much better than predicating your WrestleMania main event on a “six month friendship” gone sour. They have also changed Sid’s character into an unhinged, violent lunatic. Gorilla even calls him Psycho. Laying the foundations for the 95 run. Also funny that Hogan didn’t return until a full year later for the WrestleMania IX build and Sid was gone by the end of the month. Also something I find so interesting this was only Sid’s second singles PPV match over ten minutes the other being Havoc ‘90 against Sting. The dude just doesn’t get many reps. 
 

There was zero effort in this match. If there’s one thing I can’t stand it is a lack of effort. As much as I take issue with a lot of wrestlers today their issues are not for lack of effort, it is more organization and thought process. They are trying their hardest. I can respect that. These two phoned in the biggest show of the year is pathetic. I am a big defender of the test of strength and that was the most anemic, pathetic test of strength I have ever seen. They repeated the exact same Hogan shine sequence before and after the bell. The nerve pinch was the shits. Outside of the randomly awesome Chokeslam, the body of the match was atrocious. The finish run at least had some life to it. I’m a big defender of the No-Sell but everything is circumstantial. I am not sure this was the best time or use of it BUT it did get the crowd going and Sid was gone by the end of the month. Even the Hogan finish stretch felt perfunctory. The DQ finish was bizarre. I assume Sid was not supposed to kick out of the Atomic Legdrop but neither Harvey nor Shango did anything. It was 1992 so different times but the Warrior’s did not get a deafening roar. They crowd did get hotter once they saw him flying down the ramp. The Warrior save and double posedown was cool.

Perfunctory is the word of the match. Everything felt like they were going through the motions and just checking off boxes. There’s a lot of things I can forgive and find value in BUT a lack of effort is unforgivable. One of the worst matches ever.