Grilling JR - WrestleMania XII [Show Notes] (Patreon)

This week on Grilling JR we start our look back at memorable WrestleManias as we will be covering 3 Manias all in a row!

WrestleMania 12 is our topic today and it is definitely an interesting time in the WWF and the business as a whole. JR what was your role in the company in early 1996?

Our story starts at the Rumble when Shawn Michaels wins the Rumble for an unprecedented second time. Do you think when the year began that Michaels had eclipsed Bret as the top babyface in the company?

Was the Bret vs. Shawn heat even on the radar at this point?

At In Your House from the Louisville Gardens the build to WrestleMania really ramped up. Shawn Michaels defeated Owen Hart to retain his #1 contendership and Bret Hart took on Diesel in a Steel Cage Match for the WWF Title. Kevin Nash has told the story about how he knew Scott Hall had already given notice to head to WCW and that night Bret refused to take the powerbomb from Nash for their finish in the cage. Nash has said that night was when he decided he was going to take Eric Bischoff’s offer. Have you ever heard that story?

The booking of Bret has been a point of contention as well all these years later. At Rumble Diesel screws over Taker and then here Taker screws over Diesel. Is Bret being built up to really make a Shawn Michaels’ title win the strongest it can be?

The Ultimate Warrior is announced as returning to the WWF for WrestleMania 12. You’ve covered the Warrior in our archives so be sure to go check that out but were you excited at the prospect of Warrior giving a boost in business?

The first Raw to build to Mania features Razor and Goldust facing off and Goldust retains the IC title by walking out on the match. Razor goes to Piper - the interim Commissioner after Gorilla Monsoon was attacked - and asks for a rematch and even mentions that he likes kids and doesn’t think Goldust is something kids could see. Did Scott ever talk to you about being uncomfortable with this story and did Dustin ever feel like he couldn’t trust Scott because of it?

Vader destroys Aldo Montoya & Barry Horowitz. What could’ve been with Vader if he had just been booked as a monster right?

I want to point this out from the Observer as it’s quite entertaining: “The Billionaire Ted segment saw Larry Fling (as in Larry King) of the Billionaire News Network (BNN) interviewed Ted. It was very well produced, and made fun of Savage's thinning hair and Hogan being knocked out by a size seven womens shoe and asked for Mondays off. When Fling started asking questions about the FTC complaint, TBS stockholders finding no record of the tens of millions in WCW losses and Hogan's salary being put on the books of a more profitable sister company, Ted pretended to have laryngitis with them saying he must have caught it from all the people in the wrestling company who also have laryngitis (spoof on the Turner imposed gag order on WCW in regard to all these subjects) and said he hoped Ted wouldn't catch anything else from the people in the rasslin company. When they said that next week they'd have Nacho Man and Huckster to talk about their "geriatric" match at Wrestlemania, Ted suddenly spoke up and said he was going to referee, thus blowing the laryngitis gimmick.”

Who wrote this stuff JR as it’s just so inside?

It’s announced that Bret & Shawn will be facing off at WrestleMania in a 60 minute iron man match. Is this something that excites you as a fan of professional wrestling and these two men?

What are your opinions on iron man matches?

Justin Bradshaw debuts almost looking like Stan Hansen. Did you think Bradshaw would be a player eventually?

From the Observer: “Johnny Ace had a tape sent in of his 3/4/95 match at Budokan Hall where he and Steve Williams had one of the best matches of the year against Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi, and Titan turned him down in a proposed role as a Texas Gunslinger type.”

How different is the business if Ace is hired by the WWF in 1996 do you think?

From the Observer: “Jeff Jarrett suffered a serious back injury on 2/17 in Memphis taking a bump wrong against Ahmed Johnson.”

This would be the last time Jarrett works for the WWF until his return in 1997. There’s so much roster fluctuation at the time between a lot of people coming, going and getting injured, it’s hard to really make focus on things is it not?

Scott Hall is suspended from a failed drug test which has always led to speculation that it was because he had given his notice. Care to comment on that Jim?

Do you take it as a slap in the face of the company when Hall & Nash want to take their talents to WCW for more guaranteed money and less dates? Or do you realize it’s a business decision?

Roddy Piper is sent on the road to cover for Nash & Hall after it’s announced they’re suspended or injured. Did you have to deal with Roddy at this time and what was he like?

From the Observer: “the originally scheduled match with Vader vs. Yokozuna has been changed to a six-man tag with Yokozuna & Ahmed Johnson & Jake Roberts vs. Vader & Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith, the feeling being that it'll be a better match in that form as Yokozuna's weight makes it difficult if not impossible to have a quality singles match.”

How much of an issue is Yokozuna’s weight at this time? Is this a demotion for the likes of Owen & Davey Boy to have to be grouped into this match in your mind?

There is a tag team title tournament going on after the Smoking Gunns were forced to vacate the titles due to injury. The finals will be going on at the pay-per-view…but on the free for all. Booking an hour long main event really limits what you can have on the main show but is this a disservice to the tag teams in the company at the time?

Also scheduled for the free-for-all is Nacho Man vs. the Huckster with Billionaire Ted as referee. It’s speculated on in the Observer that due to WCW owning the likenesses you can have the match but just can’t be on pay-per-view. Is that why it was on the free for all?

Mick Foley is going to be debuting after Mania as Mankind but he’s in the process of finishing up with ECW. Are you keeping an eye on that in case of injury? How excited are you to add Mick to the fold?

Diesel finally gives notice that he’s leaving for WCW. What is the internal reaction to this and your thoughts?

Hunter Hearst Helmsley is announced as Warrior’s opponent. Is this just the faith the company has in him to make sure he makes Warrior look great?

There’s a noticeable lack of celebrities for this WrestleMania, really unlike any others at this point in time. Why do you think the shift was made for this show?

Is it budget, creative, lack of willing participants?

Do you think the celebrities help or hurt WrestleManias?

Raw runs unopposed with one of their better shows featuring Shawn Michaels defeating the 1-2-3 Kid in a ***¾ match according to Meltzer and Bret over Hunter in a **½ match. Piper and Goldust are set up to take on each other with a Piper’s pit segment that nowadays probably wouldn’t get on air. Do you believe the best product the WWF put out at the time featured the right mix of wrestling and angles?

Anaheim and the Arrowhead Pond is hosting Mania for 12 and Meltzer would report: “As of 3/5, there were 11,340 tickets sold for Wrestlemania totalling $652,130. Because of a lot of giveaways, there are only about 2,000 tickets remaining.”

At this time in the business that’s a hell of a gate don’t you think?

Johnny B. Badd quits WCW and Marc Mero and Sable are going to find their way to the WWF not long after. What was it about Mero that made him a priority to be signed?

Did someone suggest him coming in?

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin is christened and renamed from the Ringmaster. What a change of creative here isn’t it?

Also on Raw on March 11th in San Antonio Skip beats a very young Dwayne Johnson. Was this your first look at the Rock?

Diesel puts on more of a heel persona in the run up to his match against the Undertaker. Is this a character that could’ve been more if he was a heel sooner? Was Kevin ever a fit as a smiling babyface champion?

Mark Henry is also on that Raw in an angle with Jerry Lawler. Jim you look at the talent in this time frame and it really is the building blocks for the Attitude era is it not?

You’re in Canada with Bret Hart for these vignettes training for Mania. What do you remember of shooting these?

Hakushi is out of the company around this time. Was the WWF just not ready for him?

From the Observer: “WWF has made a play to bring in Rey Misterio Jr. As of this point, it isn't going to happen.”

Jim is that even real to your knowledge in 1996?

The first sellout at MSG for a non pay-per-view event in forever takes place on March 17th, 1996 with an all-time record house gate of $299,596. On top … well actually 5th… but that’s how the Garden worked at that time … Undertaker & Bret Hart team up to take on Diesel & Shawn Michaels. The world revolves around the Garden at this time for Vince McMahon and the WWF. Is this a sign that the company is really moving in the right direction?

The company has struggled for a time going into this. Losing two of your top guys also to WCW for a lot higher pay…and Bret is about to go away…is this a scenario where you’re just waiting for the rug to be pulled out from underneath you?

A press conference is held on March 15th for the World Wrestling Peace Festival put on by Antonio Inoki in Los Angeles and it has Inoki, Eric Bischoff, Antonio Pena, Dan Severn and others representing various companies and it’s said the WWF was going to be participating as well. How does the WWF get involved with this and do you know why they later pulled out? Or was it just bullshit that they were announced to be involved?

The go-home Raw features one of the best interviews done by Bret in his career in my opinion promoting the show and you should go out of your way to find it. Were Bret’s promos underrated in your mind?

This WrestleMania the only fanfest activities before hand are the Slammy’s. Was there ever talk of fanfests back then?

Bret has been a subtle heel going into this. Was this for the best story do you think?

Well Jim WrestleMania 12 is finally here. It’s live from Anaheim, CA and it’s in front of a sold out 15,855 people (with 12,909 paying $737,440) and it’s the highest grossing wrestling show on the West Coast at the time.

What is your role at this show?

A. The Bodydonnas won the WWF tag titles in the tournament final over The Godwinns in 5:21. The finish saw Phinneus set up Skip for the slop drop, but Sunny lifted up her skirt to give a panty shot and he was stunned. This allowed Skip to come from behind with a schoolboy for the win. The best spot of the match was Skip being monkey-flipped over the top rope and he did a flip on the way over crashing onto Zip. Henry is a passable worker but Phinneus is pretty bad. *

Candido & Dr. Tom’s biggest career win on a WWF platform happens on the free-for-all sadly. If Chris is born 10 years later do you think his impact on the business would be bigger?

Was this better to be kept off the main show?

B. Nacho Man, Huckster, Billionaire Ted and this skit all died within seconds. They aired a taped segment of a high school gym filled with nothing but senior citizens. An even older Huckster came to the ring with a walker and expired. Nacho Man tried to climb the ropes and fell off and also expired. They managed to quickly work in womens shoe, chair and handcuff gags. Then Billionaire Ted talked about how he didn't care that his two biggest stars had died because he could just buy more stars since he can't create them himself. Then a big guy in a black robe came in with "FTC" on his outfit, Ted turned around and saw him, and he had a heart attack and was left for dead. This segment was awful and with the exception of the fans in the $300 seats, who cheered, it was met by mainly indifference and a large amount of boos.

Was there any point to this or were you just happy we’re finally at the payoff for this?

1. Vader & Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith beat Jake Roberts & Ahmed Johnson & Yokozuna in 12:51 when Vader pinned Roberts with a Vader bomb. Roberts gave Hart a DDT with the ref distracted. Jim Cornette then came in with his tennis racquet but Roberts beat him to the punch and set him up for the DDT. Vader ran in and destroyed Roberts from behind leading to the pin. As expected, the heels had to carry this thing. Roberts isn't nearly as over as he was when he first came in, and works smart (nobody has ever accused him of being a dumb worker) but is very limited physically because of age and injuries. Johnson is still really green but it was impressive to see a guy his size do a tope. Yokozuna looked good considering his weight limitations. There were pops for the signature points of the match and for Vader-Yokozuna, but not sustained heat. **½

This is the right finish for this match is it not? Was there worry about putting Jake out there the way he was body wise?

2. The first half of the Roddy Piper and Goldust match took place in a Hollywood back lot taped the day before. After editing, the footage aired in a 4:23 segment. It was basically a collection of movie fighting scenes and was about as good as would have been possible. Goldust came in driving a Gold Caddy, and Piper sprayed it with a water hose and bashed out the windows with a baseball bat. Piper got a few bat shots in, smashed Goldust into a food table and hard into a garbage bin and threw several garbage cans on him. He sprayed Goldust with the hose, slammed him on the car hood and gave him a fist drop on the hood. Piper's punches were so stiff he appeared to open up his hand and Goldust was opened hardway in probably three different spots. Finally Goldust used a low blow and rammed Piper into a garbage bin and got in his car and drove off. Piper got in front of the car and Goldust basically ran into him and Piper held onto the hood. The way the scene was shot and replayed, it appeared that running over segment was actually done by a stunt man dressed to look like Piper. Piper then got into a White Ford Bronco to pick up the chase. Even though this was on tape and shown on TV monitors and the big screen to the fans live, this segment got more reaction than anything on the show except for Ultimate Warrior.

Do we considering this the first cinematic match in pro wrestling history Jim? What did you think of the use of the Ford Bronco here?

3. Steve Austin pinned Savio Vega in 10:08. Finish saw Vega spin kick the ref, who sold it forever. Vega kicked Austin in the face for a fall but no ref. Ted DiBiase then got the Million Dollar belt and gave it to Austin who hit Vega with it twice, then put on the Million Dollar dream. The ref still was out, so DiBiase got a coke from an official and poured it on the ref, who revived and saw Vega out and signaled the finish. Austin got the move on for a long time after the match. Both guys worked hard but there was no heat and the finish died live. The work itself was good in spots and slightly off in other spots. **

The long forgotten WrestleMania debut for Steve Austin but he gets a win! These two never really had a bad match together did they? How much did Austin improve with just a change of finish from the Million Dollar Dream to the Stunner?

4. Ultimate Warrior pinned Hunter Hearst Helmsley in 1:38 with three clotheslines, a shoulderblock and press and a splash. Warrior got by far the biggest reaction on the show when he came out. It was amazing how quiet the crowd got after the ring intro, but since Helmsley did the Pedigree right away and Warrior didn't sell it and went right to the finish, the crowd picked up right away. Hellwig was a little smaller than at his peak, but he's also 39 years old, and he was quite a bit larger and more cut than when he returned the last time. DUD

Warrior coming back and the way this match goes is the right thing. But this is before the Curtain Call that “derailed” Hunter’s career. Do you find it amazing that most forget this was actually first on such a bigger stage that the “burial” of Hunter isn’t really as bad as something like this could’ve been?

Was there any worry or concern that Hunter wouldn’t be able to recover from this?

How was Warrior to deal with on this day?

This is also a yet to be named debut of Sable…

In a segment that didn't air to the live audience, they were doing an interview introducing "Wildman" Marc Mero, who did a heel interview until Helmsley came out and the two started arguing and fighting. Helmsley then blamed the fight on the woman who they called Sable that accompanied him to the ring. Lots of WCW folks found it humorous that WWF knocks WCW for not being original and then they take Johnny B. Badd and put him in a total copy of the angle he was already in.

This is in reference to Johnny B. Badd stealing Kimberly from DDP but I digress. Putting Mero with Hunter here…what was the hope for them?

5. Undertaker pinned Diesel in 16:46 with a tombstone. The match was slow moving and didn't have much heat, but it was better than you'd expect considering who was involved. Diesel basically pounded Undertaker for most of the match. Finally he used his jackknife, but then smirked forever allowing Undertaker to sit up. He did it again, and then when he went for the pin, Undertaker grabbed him by the throat. Diesel used a back suplex and Undertaker sat up again. Undertaker then finished Diesel off with a nice flying clothesline, a chokeslam, and the tombstone. **¼

Diesel puts Taker over here and the Streak really starts gaining some momentum for Taker. A lot of people will say a lot about Kevin Nash but this was just well professionally done on his part in putting Taker over on his way out. Is that just a sign of the respect Taker had in that locker room?

6. During the show, they continually showed scenes of the O.J. chase trying to put over that it was Piper's White Ford Bronco chasing Goldust. Piper did a couple of cell phone interviews during the Austin match. When Goldust arrived at the building to pick up Marlena, he bumped into Pat Patterson who was either back there just for the weekend or back involved in booking depending upon who you talk with. Piper then showed up and chased Goldust into the ring and started pounding on him. Goldust made the comeback with another low blow and rammed Piper's leg into the post (the announcers failed to make the connection that was the leg injured by the car running into him). Goldust got on top of Piper basically attempting to screw him and wanting to start kissing him. He went to the top rope but Piper shook the rope and Goldust crotched himself. Goldust came back with head-butts and kissed Piper, which led to Piper making the superman comeback. Piper grabbed Goldust's crotch and started squeezing, threw a knee to the groin and started spanking him, then ripped his costume off and Goldust was wearing womens black undies. After another knee to the groin, Marlena managed to cover Goldust up and he ran off leaving Piper, celebrating with his son Colton in the ring. This segment went 5:37. For what it was, it was really good and also had great heat.

First off Jim…do you remember what Pat’s role was on the show?

Goldust being stipped down to the women’s garments…did that add or hurt the segment…and then having Roddy bring his son in…it’s all odd isn’t it?

Would this had been better if Goldust got a clean win over a legend at WrestleMania or was it just not in the cards at this time?

7. Shawn Michaels captured the WWF title from Bret Hart in 1:52 of sudden death overtime after the two had battled 60:00 with no falls taken. Michaels came out from the ceiling of the building. Hart didn't get as big a pop coming out as Michaels, but he didn't do an elaborate entrance, and he received no boos coming out. The first half of the match was slow paced with little crowd noise. It wasn't as if the crowd was intensely watching because people were steadily leaving for the concession stands. But the execution on both sides was tremendous in what they were doing. The first big pop came when Michaels accidentally superkicked the timekeeper outside the ring when Hart moved, and he did a stretcher job. This is the type of match where announcing plays a big part, and Vince McMahon was good, but Jerry Lawler was the wrong color commentator for this match, especially since after playing the Bret Hart-hater role for the past three years, he suddenly dropped his hatred for Hart during this match except for a few one-liners about Stu and Helen. Michaels hit an awesome Santo dive at the 33:00 mark, then hit a crossbody with Hart rolling through for a near fall. The match picked up from that point with Michaels hitting a fisherman suplex (Perfect plex) for a near fall. The crowd booed when they used a sleeper. Michaels took a bump over the top and crashed into Jose Lothario at 44:00. Hart then whipped Michaels into Lothario, but Lothario didn't really sell it as an injury. After several more near falls, Hart hit a tope and then used a german suplex for a near fall at 48:35 and then went back into a camel clutch. At this point the number of fans leaving the building picked up. Hart used a superplex while standing on the top rope for a near fall, went for the sharpshooter but Michaels blocked it. Hart used a half crab and Michaels got a rope break and the fans booed. Hart came off the top but Michaels got his feet up. Hart took his chest bump into the buckles hard leading to a near fall with a double sledge off the top at 57:05. Michaels did the Randy Savage elbow for a near fall in 57:40, a Doctor bomb for a near fall and a moonsault block for a near fall in 58:20. Michaels tried a flying huracanrana off the middle ropes but it was messed up. He went for a dropkick off the top but Hart caught his legs and got the sharpshooter on with :34 left and Michaels held out until the end without submitting. Hart left with the belt, but Gorilla Monsoon told the ref to re-start the match with a sudden death stipulation, which had never been previously advertised. The pop for that announcement was shockingly tepid. In the overtime, Michaels immediately hit two superkicks and got the pin in 1:52 and celebrated in the ring for several minutes afterwards, nearly choking up. In the celebration, Michaels kissed Helen Hart and hugged Bret's son Blade. Bret walked out of the ring at the finish rather than doing a symbolic in-ring passing of the torch. ****¼

OK Jim there has been so much talk about this match. How great, or non-great it was. Meltzer even points out that a lot of fans were leaving during it. What say you?

The clip of Shawn telling Earl to get that “piece of shit” referring to Bret out of the ring for his moment has lived in infamy. Do you think it actually happened?

Jim if you call this match does the “Boyhood Dream” line happen? Do you think you would’ve been better sitting next to Vince for this than Jerry was as Meltzer points out?

The Wrestling Observer readers enjoyed the show. 69% voted that it was a thumbs up. What did you think?