WWF 1992

[Deleted]

So yeah, I haven't posted a sim on here in like...12 years? I'd been kicking this idea around on Discord with DTP recently and decided screw it, let's see if I have another HOF worthy sim in me. I've always liked the idea of toying around with a long-form alternate timeline and as you can see, that's what I'm doing right here. Now, with that said...

THE STORY SO FAR

1990

Following a big year for the World Wrestling Federation in 1989, and seeing a more evident slide in popularity, ratings and attendance across the board, as well as recognizing an incredible surge in popularity of its Intercontinental Champion, the WWF decided to put the World Championship on The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VI. Warrior defeated Hogan cleanly, an almost unthinkable conclusion, in the middle of the ring to not only capture Hogan's WWF Championship, but to also remain the Intercontinental Championship. The post-match saw Hogan hand over the title to the new Champion and leave Warrior in the ring to celebrate, the sun seemingly setting on the era of Hulkamania as it was also rising on the era of the Ultimate Warrior. A month after WrestleMania, an angle would be run on WWF's Superstars of Wrestling program, seeing the 450 pound monster Earthquake take Hogan out with a series of Earthquake splashes. The angle was two-fold; one, it establishes Earthquake as a top heel and gives him much-needed credibility and two, it allows Hogan to take time off to film Suburban Commando and contemplate his future in the World Wrestling Federation.

The newly-crowned Champion would see no rest, immediately defending the championship on the April edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, defeating Haku in a back-and-forth battle. From there, the rest of the Heenan Family took aim at the Champion throughout the summer. Next was Barbarian, followed by Rick Rude. No matter what the "Weasel" threw at Warrior, the Champion prevailed...until late July. Following the conclusion of Warrior's successful Championship defense against "Ravishing" Rick Rude, Warrior was attacked by Earthquake. As Earthquake prepared to drop his weight on Warrior the same way he did to Hogan, Warrior spring back to life and fought the gargantuan attacker off, signaling that SummerSlam 1990 had just found its main event. In a wild, violent brawl, Warrior defeated Earthquake by disqualification when Earthquake's manager, Jimmy Hart, interfered. The story, however, really began in the post-match.

As Quake, Bravo and Hart continued the onslaught on Warrior, the familiar sound of "Real American" blared through the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Hulk Hogan, who had not been seen on television in three months, darted to the ring with a steel chair in hand to fight off Hart and his men. A staredown took place between Warrior and Hogan, with the crowd buzzing around them. As much as the fans had been thrilled by Hogan coming to the rescue, it seemed there was equal interest in a potential rematch. There was no time, however, to focus on such a proposition. Immediately following SummerSlam, Earthquake and Bravo prodded Hogan and Warrior, repeatedly challenging them to a match. They would get their wish at the Oktoberfest-themed Saturday Night's Main Event in October 1990 and that match would see Hogan and Warrior win a disqualification victory when Earthquake hit Hogan with Hart's megaphone. It was clear that Hogan, in his first match back, was still feeling the aftershocks, pardon the expression, of what had happened to him five months earlier.

This brings us to the conclusion of 1990, at least the main event portion of it, which took place at the Survivor Series. On that night, Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior co-captained a team known as the Ultimate Maniacs, joined by the Legion of Doom to take on Earthquake and all three members of Demolition. The bout eventually came down to Hogan and Earthquake, each man their respective team's hope for ultimate survival. Hogan would best Earthquake, hitting him with a bodyslam and a leg drop that clearly took everything out of Hogan. As Hogan attempted to do his post match routine, just as the Pay-Per-View was winding down, Earthquake would strike. Earthquake dropped Hogan with a shot from behind, followed by a powerslam and an Earthquake splash before being run off by Ultimate Warrior. At the start of 1990, it appeared that Hulkamania was winding down and as the year came to a close, Hogan swore that he would not only gain revenge on Earthquake, but that Hulkamania would live forever.

But that's not all that happened in 1990. In the wake of Ultimate Warrior becoming WWF Champion, the Intercontinental Championship had to be vacated which lead to a tournament with eight of the finest athletes in the WWF competing for the honor of being the undisputed Intercontinental Champion. The tournament included Mr. Perfect, who on the final night of the tournament announced his new manager as Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Bad News Brown, Tito Santana, Rick Martel, Koko B. Ware, The Warlord, Dino Bravo and from the Hart Foundation, Bret "Hitman" Hart. The tournament came down to Perfect and Hart, the latter of whom defeated Martel in a thrilling semifinal match but emerged with a rib injury. Only having a week between matches to heal the injury, Hart fought as hard as he could against Perfect, only to fall to the Perfectplex in an 8 minute bout on Wrestling Challenge. Despite the loss, commentator Vince McMahon noted that Bret Hart showcased how tough he was and had earned the respect of the fans who had maybe only seen Hart's potential as being a tag team wrestler. It was an interesting way of McMahon, who actually owns the company, to let the fans know that this was the beginning of Hart's ascent up the card.

Perfect, however, would immediately be thrown into a feud with new signee Kerry von Erich, wrestling under the "Texas Tornado" moniker. Despite being a major star and one of the top workers in the United States a half-decade prior, von Erich had let his substance abuse issues consume him and was a mere shell of the wrestler that McMahon lusted to have on his roster in the mid-80s. The matches were a testament to the talent of Perfect in particular, and we would see the WWF try to make a star out of von Erich, as he won the title from Perfect at SummerSlam 1990. The reign would be short lived, as Perfect would win the title back on an untelevised show three weeks later. The pair continued their feud until Survivor Series 1990, where Perfect's team, which also included Power and Glory and The Warlord, swept Kerry's team which also included The Bushwackers and Koko B. Ware.

The tag team scene in the WWF, unbeknownst to anyone watching the live broadcast of WrestleMania VI, would undergo a massive shift throughout 1990. In June 1990, the World Wrestling Federation signed the most popular tag team in wrestling, The Road Warriors, and repackaged them as The Legion of Doom. The immediate reaction from fans was that they would finally find out what would happen if the Road Warriors tangled with their WWF-created dopplegangers, Demolition. Demolition themselves had just become three time WWF Tag Team Champions and had virtually run through the entire WWF tag team roster on both the babyface and heel side of the equation. Their 1989 saw them finish off the feud with the Powers of Pain and move into a successful feud with the Brain Busters, but the end of the year found them wrestling Haku and Andre the Giant in matches that were well below the quality of their previous feud. The hope, going into the summer of 1990, was that the WWF could find a way to get Demolition and the newly-christened Legion of Doom into the same ring for a major match.

As mentioned, the two teams were involved in the main event of Survivor Series 1990 against one another, but this was their first in-ring interaction. The Road Warriors were not on SummerSlam 1990, where Demolition retained the Tag Team Championship against the Hart Foundation, and the Oktoberfest Saturday Night's Main Event saw The Rockers fall to Crush and Smash. The Road Warriors, in the meantime, were plowing through every team put in front of them on TV, the WWF clearly content to make them the new top babyface team and as 1990 ended, it was more than clear what was on the horizon for Hawk, Animal, and their seemingly out-of-reach antagonists in Demolition.

"Macho King" Randy Savage started 1990 off in a feud with "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, which was blown off at WrestleMania VI as Dusty and Sapphire defeated Savage and "Sensational" Queen Sherri. Following that defeat, Savage took up a war with Jake "The Snake" Roberts, who himself had just finished a long-running feud with Ted DiBiase. Savage and Roberts waged a war that lasted through the 1990 Survivor Series, with a Savage-captained team that included Greg Valentine, Rick Martel and Dino Bravo disposed of Jake Roberts' team that also included Jim Neidhart, Bret Hart and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Following the Survivor Series, Savage began to zero in on the title he'd lost to Hulk Hogan nearly two years prior, attacking Ultimate Warrior backstage and laying waste to the champion, the footage being shown exclusively on Prime Time Wrestling the following week. Savage began to slowly unravel in his interviews, clearly spiraling into insanity due to his inability to recapture the title. In early 1991, he would finally go over the edge...

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Deleted]

THE STORY SO FAR

1991

When the year of 1990 concluded, The Ultimate Warrior was still the WWF Champion and had no real clear threat in sight. On the very first episode of Superstars in 1991, "Macho King" Randy Savage attacked the Warrior while Warrior was being interviewed by "Mean" Gene Okerlund, igniting a bitter feud that would carry a heavy cost for Savage. Both men entered the 1991 Royal Rumble match and made it to the final six entrants when Warrior clotheslined Savage out of the ring. Savage immediately retailated and threw Warrior to the floor, costing Warrior the victory in the Rumble match. In the weeks that followed, Savage promised that he would take back the World Wrestling Federation Championship, the same one he'd lost two years prior to Hulk Hogan. Savage and his manager Sherri both called Warrior out repeatedly in interviews, telling him to name his price. After Warrior defeated Nasty Boy Brian Knobbs on an episode of Wrestling Challenge, Savage struck again, this time hitting Warrior with the King's sceptor and dropping an elbow on the Champion. The next time Savage and Sherri asked, they were met with an answer: Warrior would give Savage a Championship match at WrestleMania VII, in exchange for Savage's career. Savage accepted, guaranteeing that Warrior had just shut the book on his time as the WWF Champion.

Enter WrestleMania VII at the Olympic Coliseum in Los Angeles. A record crowd of 101,439 fans claimed, with the paid number being somewhere around 83,400, witnessed a classic battle as both men unloaded their entire arsenals. Savage hit Warrior with five, yes---five, consecutive elbow drops only for the Champion to kick out. Savage's face sent a clear message that for all his confidence and arrogance in the lead up to this match, he may have just risked it all in vain. And in fact, he had. Warrior obliterated Savage with five shoulderblocks and placed his foot on Savage's chest, signaling that he not only had ended Savage's career, he had finished him off. In the weeks that followed, it became clear that the former Sensational Queen had begun looking for a new charge.

A few weeks after WrestleMania, the WWF held what was now known to be the final Saturday Night's Main Event on the program's home channel of NBC and on that night, Savage would be interviewed by "Mean" Gene Okerlund. Savage made clear that he was not through with the Warrior. Savage told fans that he would abide by the retirement stipulation, but he'd begun a worldwide search to find the man to take the Warrior out. In June of 1991, we would meet Sid Justice. Standing 6'9", weighing 320 pounds, Justice was content to let Savage do his talking for him, feeling his actions in the ring would dispell any doubt that he was the man for the job. Sid laid waste to competition, both local talent and name talent alike, and made it known that he wanted to be the next man to challenge Ultimate Warrior for the WWF Championship. It took very little convincing for WWF President Jack Tunney to sign the match for SummerSlam.

Madison Square Garden, dubbed "the World's Most Famous Arena", played host to the 1991 edition of SummerSlam, just as it had for the inaugural edition in 1988. On this night, some 16 months into his reign as the WWF Champion, The Ultimate Warrior defended the championship against Sid Justice, with "Macho Man" Randy Savage in his corner. Going into this match, Warrior had seemed invincible, losing one time by pinfall in the preceeding four years since his debut. On this night, everything would change. Warrior hit the ring, immediately blasting Sid with two clotheslines and rallying for a third, only to be cut off by a big boot. Sid dominated the match, cutting off every attempt at a Warrior comeback before doing the very same thing to Warrior that Sid had done to everyone else since debuting in June: Sid hit a powerbomb and Sid became the WWF Champion. Randy Savage had done it, even in retirement he was able to finally get the championship off of the Ultimate Warrior and it was now in the possession of his monster.

In the final months of the year, Sid and Warrior composed their teams for the Survivor Series, with Warrior ending up the sole survivor by pinning Rick Martel after Sid was disqualified earlier in the match for attacking Warrior with a steel chair. The two agreed to a final confrontation of sorts six nights later at This Tuesday in Texas. In the interim between SummerSlam and Survivor Series, Jake "The Snake" Roberts had begun to mentor, in a way, the former World Champion. Jake tried to revive the Ultimate Warrior of old, saying this was the only way for Warrior to get back to the title. At Tuesday in Texas, with the referee down, Jake Roberts struck the Warrior down with a DDT. On the following weekend's Superstars of Wrestling, Jake reminded Warrior that you never trust a snake.

Elsewhere, in the latter stages of 1990, Ted DiBiase began making regular appearances on the Brother Love show, handing his apparent-close friend lavish gifts week in and week out. On the December 23, 1990 episode, DiBiase would hand literally the biggest surprise of them all to Brother Love. Standing 6'10", weighing 300 pounds, DiBiase presented a giant of seemingly otherworldly origin. The monster's name was simple and fitting of the appearance he donned, "The Undertaker". Love would manage his new charge, watching as The Undertaker waged a path of destruction across the entirety of the WWF for all of 1991, most notably downing the legendary Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka at WrestleMania VII. The Undertaker would make another major appearance at SummerSlam 1991, putting away The Big Boss Man in convincing fashion. In November at the Survivor Series, Undertaker would be in the ring for just six minutes. Unfortunately for the opposing team, consisting of Dusty and Dustin Rhodes, Jim Neidhart and Tito Santana, those six minutes would be all it took for The Undertaker to guarantee victory for his team. With the end of 1991 approaching, the question of when this monster would get a shot at the WWF's top prize began to swirl amongst fans, pundits and WWF broadcasters alike. The answer, as we all would find out, was a lot sooner than we thought.

Hulk Hogan ended 1990 in a bitter feud with Earthquake that had not seen any sign of closure. Hogan would eliminate Earthquake to win the 1991 Royal Rumble, his second straight Rumble victory, but Hogan needed a definitive match with a definitive outcome to finally put the rumors of Hulkamania's demise at ease. Hogan would meet his gargantuan rival at WrestleMania VII, in the second match from the top, in a brutal match that saw Earthquake bodyslammed not once, but twice, before Hogan dropped the leg and erased all doubt about the condition of Hulkamania. Over the summer, Hogan found himself in a conflict with The Warlord, no longer a tag team wrestler and firmly in the stable of Slick. The two would meet at SummerSlam in a match that many insiders speculated was a 'test run' to see if Warlord had what it took to be a main event player in the WWF. Hogan routed Warlord, beating the big man in just under nine minutes, proving that the WWF saw little more in Warlord than being a potential big match one-and-done for Hogan. The big test for Hogan was just around the corner.

In September of 1991, on Prime Time Wrestling, Bobby Heenan began to proclaim that the greatest wrestler to ever walk the earth was headed to the WWF. Vince McMahon, Heenan's co-host and more than willing to raise a counterpoint, argued that the greatest wrestler of all time was Hulk Hogan and he'd been with the WWF for some time. Heenan told McMahon that McMahon was sheltered and brainwashed by the WWF's propaganda. The very next week, with the same championship he'd just departed WCW with, Ric Flair made his WWF debut and immediately challenged Hulk Hogan to a match. Flair said there were no two bigger legends and since Hogan didn't have a world title, Flair would put his on the line. Lawsuits prevented Flair from being able to use that exact belt on TV after his initial appearance, but the angle was a success. Fans now wanted to see Hogan and Flair battle to determine who really was the greatest wrestler of all time.

The two would meet at the Survivor Series, as Hogan captained a team with Roddy Piper and the Legion of Doom against Ric Flair, Mr. Perfect and Power and Glory. To the discontent of fans and critics alike, Hogan and Flair's interaction in the match was minimal, as Flair got counted out after a big boot and Hogan would eventually pin Hercules to become the sole survivor. Many believed the WWF had false advertised the Flair/Hogan confrontation and while they didn't have any significant segments of the match, they had done just enough to gauge how fans would react. The WWF knew they had a major match for WrestleMania VIII.

The Intercontinental Championship had an interesting road in 1991. Mr. Perfect started the year as champion and had continued providing quality matches with no real slam dunk WrestleMania opponents. Originally slated for a match with Big Boss Man, the match was changed due to Boss Man suffering an injury that would keep him out past WrestleMania and all of a sudden, the WWF needed a new challenger. Pat Patterson, who had the ear of the WWF's chairman, convinced McMahon to put Perfect in the ring with Bret Hart at WrestleMania. Patterson mentioned their great match the year before, which Vince did commentary voiceover work for, and said the two could potentially replicate the critically acclaimed Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat match from four years earlier. That was all Vince needed, he'd seen potential in Hart anyway and figured this could be the test to see if the push McMahon had been mulling over was a worthwhile endeavor. So the match was made on the second-to-last episode of Challenge before WrestleMania, giving them no time to really shoot or build an angle. It didn't really matter, MCMahon thought, the real appeal of this was in the ring.

He was right.

Perfect and Hart got 22 minutes total of the four-hour broadcast, about 18 of those were spent in the actual match itself, and the two turned in one of the greatest in-ring performances in the history of the WWF. Perfect had been seemingly bored, handing in his usual great performances but not going further. Here, he put forth the absolute best effort possible. He knew Hart would push him, really challenge him to be creative in the ring, and Perfect got what he expected. In a match that saw Hart come close, but not quite able to finish the job, Perfect narrowly escaped with the title. Heel commentator Jesse Ventura, who'd just returned to the WWF after a brief falling out, praised Hart by saying tonight wasn't bret's night, but Bret's night was coming sometime soon. It was clear the next big star was right in front of the fans' eyes.

Toward the summer, Perfect began a short feud with "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Piper would beat Perfect in a non-title match at SummerSlam, where the stipulation was that Perfect would have to grant Piper a future title match if Piper were victorious. It was an angle that confused fans, the Pay-Per-Views were meant for title matches and in terms of name value, this was the biggest Intercontinental Title match in some time. The title match itself would come four months later at Tuesday in Texas, with Piper substituting for an "injured" Bret Hart. Piper defeated Perfect for the Championship and ended that program, but was immediately put into a feud with Matt Borne, who'd recently returned to the WWF under his real name. Following the title loss, Perfect fired Bobby Heenan, promptly turning babyface as we headed towards 1992.

The Legion of Doom were the WWF's top babyface team at the end of 1990, and headed into 1991 were seemingly destined to face Demolition for the WWF Tag Team Championship. The two teams brawled during the 1991 Royal Rumble match and to the surprise of very few, were set up to wrestle one another at WrestleMania VII. This was, with little hesitation, the most anticipated WWF Tag Title match in years, perhaps ever. The Legion of Doom ended the four year run of Demolition, dominating and squashing them to take the titles. Barry Darsow would continue wrestling as Smash until the end of 1991 before disappearing from WWF TV. Ax left the company immediately following WrestleMania. Crush would also disappear for months before coming back at the end of the year as a babyface, with a blonde mullet and sporting more colorful ring gear.

The Legion of Doom feuded with Power and Glory over the summer, with Roma and Hercules proving to be a decent enough pairing to work with Hawk and Animal. To the confusion of many backstage, and many of the insiders reporting, Power and Glory were passed over for a shot at the WWF Tag Team Championship at SummerSlam, that honor instead going to the Nasty Boys. As you'd expect, the Legion of Doom ran through the Nasty Boys and resumed their house show loops with Roma and Hercules.

Late in the year, the WWF took a huge gamble. The Legion of Doom were selling a lot of merchandise and were as hot as they'd been in years as babyfaces, so it came as a surprise in December 1991 when the team turned heel following a match with The Rockers on Wrestling Challenge. The WWF had been teasing dissension between Michaels and Jannetty following SummerSlam 1991's loss to The Warlord and Rick Martel, but the heel turn people were expecting was pushed back. The reasoning, reported by insiders, was that the WWF had just signed away the top babyface tag team in WCW, the Steiner Brothers, and they would be debuting at the beginning of 1992 to feud with the Legion of Doom.

Elsewhere in the tag division, in the summer of 1991, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart returned to the WWF with another member of the Hart Family, Owen, to form the "New Foundation". The team was a more uptempo, flashier version of the Hart Foundation from years prior. The team mostly defeated local talent but late in the year defeated Power and Glory on Prime TIme Wrestling in a critically acclaimed match. On the final Challenge of 1991, it was announced that the pairing would meet The Rockers on the first Superstars of 1992.

Dusty Rhodes had come into the WWF in the summer of 1989 and aside from his feud in 1990 with Randy Savage, had not accomplished much in the WWF. Dusty had been making overtures to get his son Dustin signed by the WWF, and was able to get that deal done in the summer of 1991. The WWF put the Rhodes family together with Ted DiBiase and at SummerSlam 1991, Dustin Rhodes would beat Ted DiBiase in his singles debut. Following the match, DiBiase demanded Virgil, his man servant, put the Million Dollar Title around his waist. Virgil reluctantly did what his boss told him, but it was clear that Virgil was interested in a new line of work.

At Tuesday in Texas, the Rhodes family faced DiBiase and Virgil in a tag team match. Late in the match, DiBiase began to berate Virgil on the apron. Virgil responded by hitting DiBiase with a solid right cross to turn DiBiase around into a bionic elbow from Dusty, followed by a big bulldog from Dustin. The Rhodes family had freed Virgil, Dustin was beginning to be established as an on-screen star for the WWF, and Dusty Rhodes rode off into retirement at the end of 1991.

The end of 1991 saw the returns of two familiar faces from the late-80s boom. Davey Boy Smith returned, simply named "The British Bulldog" and the final episode of Prime Time Wrestling of 1991 saw the return of Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat. Both had departed the company in 1988 and were brought back under the guise that the WWF had major plans for them. Given how late in the year they returned, no plans really seemed clear for them, but that's where the next bit of this story comes in, I suppose.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Deleted]

THE STORY SO FAR

1992

As 1992 began, the table had more than been set for a Hulk Hogan/Ric Flair confrontation. At the 1992 Royal Rumble event, Hogan was eliminated by Ric Flair in the final four of the Rumble match. Though Flair did not win the Rumble---that honor went to The Undertaker, who last eliminated Sid to win---Flair used the elimination of Hogan as a rallying cry to prove his superiority to Hogan. En route to Saturday Night's Main Event's return, this time on FOX instead of NBC, Flair had told Hogan there was no need for a one-on-one contest. However, on that Saturday Night's Main Event, Hogan teamed with Ultimate Warrior to take on Jake Roberts and Ric Flair. Hogan and Warrior won via disqualification when Roberts freed a cobra from a bag in the corner. More on that in a bit, but Hogan believed he'd shown superiority to Flair and demanded Flair put his money where his mouth is and put it all on the line at WrestleMania VIII. Flair accepted and promised that Hulkamania would die at WrestleMania. Throughout the build in March and into the week of WrestleMania, rumors had swirled about a potential retirement on Hogan's part. He'd been out of the WWF Title picture for two years, replaced by Warrior as the top babyface and now possibly further down the list with another turn we'll get to in just a moment, Hogan saw his window to get out and make possibly the largest payout of his career. On the March to WrestleMania special just six days before WrestleMania, Hogan had a sit-down interview with Vince McMahon to address the rumors, saying he didn't know for sure what he would do but if he were to defeat Ric Flair on Sunday night, he could probably ride off into the sunset having proven once and for all who was the greatest wrestler of all time.

During the storyline, Hogan enlisted Ricky Steamboat, who'd recently returned to the WWF, as his trainer for the bout. In a rare moment of acknowledging the outside world, the WWF explained to their fanbase that Steamboat had previously defeated Flair for a World Championship and combined with his success in the WWF, was the perfect trainer for the bout. Flair, I suppose to counter this, enlisted Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. The choice was solid, Heenan was the most successful heel manager the WWF had ever seen. As the event drew closer, the promos really sold this as an old west shootout, only one gunslinger would remain when it was over.

At the start of 1992, The Undertaker was still a heel, although becoming more frequently cheered by the fans. Brother Love, feeling the pressure and stress of being on the road as Undertaker's regular manager, was phased out towards the end of 1991 in favor of Paul Bearer. Bearer, previously known as Percy Pringle, was a perfect fit as the ghoulish manager of the undead monster tearing through the World Wrestling Federation. At the Royal Rumble, as mentioned before, Undertaker eliminated the WWF Champion to win the match. We would see footage a week later on television that Sid assaulted Undertaker with a steel chair as Undertaker came through the curtain, at the urging of Sid's still-manager, Randy Savage. The footage also showed that despite such a brutal onslaught, Undertaker rose up as if nothing had happened. Sid destroyed Ultimate Warrior and virtually everyone else in his path, but brute force didn't seem to work here. For the first time, Sid appeared to have an equal.

The angle served both to turn Undertaker fully babyface and to set up a monumental WWF Championship match. In early March, WWF president Jack Tunney determined that Undertaker's resume built across the previous year in addition to winning the Royal Rumble, was enough to land The Undertaker a Championship match against the man who brutally attacked him. In promos leading up to the event, Bearer promised his Undertaker would put Sid and Savage in matching plots underneath the ring in the Hoosier Dome. Interestingly, the WWF started to also hint at tension between Sid and Savage, with Sid opting to do his own interviews and telling Savage to "let me speak for myself for once".

At Tuesday in Texas, Jake Roberts turned on the Ultimate Warrior and cost him the WWF Championship. The two eliminated one another in the 1992 Royal Rumble, brawling to the back. Roberts began cutting promos calling the Warrior weak, feeble minded and past his prime while Warrior assured all his Warriors that he would make Roberts pay for costing him the title he'd held for 16 months. The big angle leading into WrestleMania saw Roberts unleash a cobra on Ultimate Warrior following an interview segment with Gene Okerlund. Roberts laid Warrior out on the podium and unleashed the cobra, which promptly latched onto the Warrior's arm. On television, the angle was censored and frequently panned to horrified children in the crowd. The decision drew criticism, but the WWF knew the angle had worked. Roberts was as hot of a heel as the company had and en route to a marquee match with the top babyface in the company at WrestleMania.

Roddy Piper promptly finished off the feud he'd began against Matt Borne at the end of 1991 at the 1992 Royal Rumble. Interestingly, the WWF didn't have a heel planned as Piper's opponent. Piper had replaced Bret Hart at Tuesday in Texas and Hart, feeling like that title win was his in fact, challenged Piper for the title at WrestleMania VIII. There was no animosity shown during the build, after all, both were babyfaces. This was a match built by the company as being pure competition between the toughest "real" fighter the WWF had ever seen in Piper and the next big superstar in Hart. After the Hart/Perfect classic at WrestleMania the previous year, it appeared to finally be Hart's time in the spotlight as the constantly-shifting landscape of the WWF looked to be creating a window that someone Hart's size could finally jump through to move up the card.

After the Legion of Doom's heel turn, the WWF promptly signed the Steiner Brothers from WCW and began pushing them as the new top babyface team. It worked, the combination of the physicality of their styles and Scott's freakish athleticism quickly won over fans who didn't really seem to mind that you could never quite make heads or tails of what their promos said. The Steiners beat Power and Glory at Royal Rumble 1992 in the latter team's final match as Hercules departed the company immediately after and the stage was set for the Steiners to take on LOD at WrestleMania VIII.

Another turn that happened that very few people didn't already predict, was Shawn Michaels turning on Marty Jannetty. Shawn eliminated Jannetty in the 1992 Royal Rumble match and during an interview segment on the first episode of Wrestling Challenge following the Rumble, Shawn attacked Jannetty, blaming Jannetty for the Rockers' inability to get over the hump and become Tag Team Champions. Around the same time, Mr. Perfect had turned babyface, fresh off of firing Bobby Heenan as his manager. Perfect took exception to Michaels' new attitude, and his new arm candy, Sensational Sherri. Perfect accused Michaels of trying to leap frog up the ranks in the WWF and challenged Michaels to a match at WrestleMania VIII.

With all of this out of the way, these were the major plot points heading into WrestleMania VIII. There are matches on the card that don't really have any setup because, frankly, that's still how the product was handled until a couple of years later. The card is below and will be posted sometime in the next few days.

WWF WrestleMania VIII
The Hoosier Dome; Indianapolis, Indiana
April 5, 1992
WWF Championship: Sid Justice (c; w/Randy Savage) vs. The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer)
Hulk Hogan (w/Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat) vs. "Nature Boy" Ric Flair
(w/Bobby "The Brain" Heenan)
The Ultimate Warrior vs. Jake "The Snake" Roberts
WWF Intercontinental Championship: "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (c) vs. Bret "Hitman" Hart
Mr. Perfect vs. Shawn Michaels (w/"Sensational" Sherri)
WWF Tag Team Championship: The Legion of Doom (c; w/Paul Ellering) vs. The Steiner Brothers
The Big Boss Man, Virgil, Tito Santana and Crush vs. "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, IRS, Earthquake and Dino Bravo (w/Jimmy Hart)
The British Bulldog vs. The Berzerker
Dustin Rhodes vs "The Model" Rick Martel
Marty Jannetty vs. Skinner

UP NEXT...
WRESTLEMANIA VIII!