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WrestleMania XII was centered around the “Boyhood Dream” of Shawn Michaels in his pursuit of capturing the WWF Championship. I always found it funny because there wasn’t a peep about it the year before when challenged Diesel as a heel. This time around was a much different story as the WWF relished the story of the grizzled veteran Bret Hart defending against the young hungry lion Shawn Michaels.
Rowdy Roddy Piper who came back that winter in an interim role as commissioner, decided to make this a “60 Minute Iron Man Match,” which turned out to be a great decision as the match was an instant classic. Even with 60 minutes to fill, and then a sudden death overtime period, the match never lagged and stayed extremely dramatic and intense at all times.
This was also a rare babyface vs babyface main event at WrestleMania for only the second time, and the first time since WrestleMania VI when Hulk Hogan took on The Ultimate Warrior in a title for title match. Just like at WrestleMania VI, the crowd was split in favor of both men.
The dramatic conclusion saw Shawn Michaels survive more then 45 seconds in the sharpshooter as the clock hit zero and made it a 0-0 tie at the end of 60 minutes. The returning commissioner Gorilla Monsoon arrived and ordered a re-start with sudden death overtime rules. 1 minute and 21 seconds later along with two superkicks, and Shawn Michaels was the new champion of the world.
This result would lead to Hart leaving the company and taking a six month break before returning to start a program with Stone Cold Steve Austin in November of 1996. As for Michaels, he went on a famous run that saw him squash monsters such as Diesel, the British Bulldog, Big Van Vader and Mankind in one memorable title reign. I’d go as far as to say that Michael’s initial run as a single babyface with the World Championship was easily the most popular stage of his career as members of the Clique were everywhere.
Speaking of Rowdy Roddy Piper who made the match, he also had a match on the card. Another classic, although I will use that term loosely as it became famous for a different reason. It wasn’t a match, but actually a brawl. Named, “The Hollywood Backlot Brawl” he squared off with Goldust in a Hollywood Back Lot. The action saw Piper get run over by a car, and then strip Goldust down to his lingerie before it was all over in a Piper Victory.
The Undertaker finally got a worthy opponent and a good match at WrestleMania. In previous years he had the over the hill and un-motived Jake Roberts. He had the unorthodox and unable to do anything Giant Gonzales, and then the King Kong Bundy the year before. This time he matched up with Diesel in the capping of a 90 plus day feud with several back-and-forth momentum swings.
Th Undertaker won the match and once again proved he can have one of the best matches on any card as long as he had someone good to work with. Diesel would somehow luck his way into a title match with Michaels at the next Pay Per View, but then be gone for good and off to form the NWO in WCW shortly afterwards.
Earlier in the show it was Stone Cold Steve Austin picking up his first WrestleMania win with a convincing win over Savio Vega. Austin was still known as “The Ringmaster” at this time, but this was the start of him breaking away from that and Ted Dibase, while forming his Stone-Cold persona.
The much hyped and long rumored return of The Ultimate Warrior happened that night as well. It was a 1:39 long squash match against newcomer HHH. While The Ultimate Warrior buzz faded quickly, HHH would become a staple of WrestleMania for the next 25 plus years.
The card opened with a fun six-man tag that saw Jake Roberts team with Yokozuna and Ahmed Johnson to square off against Camp Cornette which consisted of Owen Hart, The British Bulldog and Vader.
The original plan called for Vader vs Yokozuna, but it was more than apparent that Yokozuna was so far-gone weight wise, the days of him having any singles run was done. Camp Cornette won and Vader began a dominant run towards a WWF Title Match with Shawn Michaels at SummerSlam in Cleveland later that summer.
