WrestleMania VIII Finish

[Aberle4Life]

Thanks for the response, everyone! I figured it was on Harvey, the ref, or that Sid went in business for himself as someone else said. I thought Papa Shango was supposed to just come in after the match, as Warrior did--but perhaps Shango did get to the ring too late.

As others have said, I agree this was a weak finish to a WrestleMania and that other matches should have closed the show. However, it was supposed to be Hogan's last match (hehe) so I understand why they would have it last. Hulk had finished every other 'Mania (even IV as he was involved in the Savage/DiBiase match) to that point, so it was his show to close.

[AJ1981]

My favourite bit was the crowd not intially reacting to Warrior because he'd lost so much muscle mass they didn't recognise him

[ProWrestlingFan84]

Ah yeah, Mania 8 with the oddest and probably dumbest main event match. I'm pretty sure it went on last because well Hogan is a power trip. The ending was just awful. I mean even from a booking stand point just why would they do that? It does make me wonder though how people would react in today's age if something like that would happen, imagine the backlash. Not even sure how that would work. *ponders*

[Moneyinc]

Very interesting stuff here. I loved Wrestlemania VIII. Macho Man Vs Flair is one of the more entertaining matches ever in my opinion. I love when Hogan comes to the ring at the start of his match vs Sid and then pounds him while Hulks music is still blasting. I watched this a couple weeks ago and definitely noticed the weird ending, but never thought that it was botched.

[HBsam31]

One of the most screwy finishes in Mania history. I always thought Sid went into business for himself and kicked out of the leg drop. I remember as a kid being crushed that this was Hogan last match lol. If only I knew then what I knew now. It kinda clears things up for me now knowing it was Papa Shango that missed his cue. Great thread.

[EastCoastFan]

I heard the "Sid went into business for himself" story years ago, and is somewhat understandable as it was Sid's last night and he had nothing to lose, so why not kick out of the biggest star in wrestling history's finisher (prior to that, I can't think of anyone who kicked out of Hulk Hogan's legdrop in the WWF). Vince didn't own the business like he does now, so even if he got blackballed by the WWF, Sid could still go to WCW or Japan or somewhere else.

It wasn't until this past year that I heard the "Papa Shango missed his cue/was late getting to the ring" story. I always thought that was unusual. As someone pointed out, WM always ended with the face winning clean in the main event, to send people home happy. Why have a messy finish like that, unless Sid balked at putting Hogan over clean.

Of course, the original plan for WrestleMania 8 was that the main event was to be Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair for the WWF title. This one also has two stories. The most common one is that Hogan announced his retirement, which put Vince in a bind: If Flair wins, it means JCP/WCW had the better man all along. If Hogan wins, he goes out as champion and it taints anyone who comes after him because they didn't beat "the biggest star in wrestling history" to become champ.

The other version, which I heard in the last year or two, was that the WWF didn't think there was enough "buzz" from the fans to go through with it, that too much time had passed. I find this one a little hard to believe.

[CrucifiedRaven]

Originally Posted by Charismatic Enigma

I'm pretty sure Shango was supposed to hit the ring as Hogan was going for the pin. There's a quote from him on this site: http://www.imetawrestler.com/2012/11...pa-shango.html



It would be interesting to get stories from Hogan, Sid, and Warrior and see how everyone's retelling of the situation lines up with each others.

My guess though, is that Hogan was supposed to hit the leg drop, and as he was about to go for the cover, Wippleman is supposed to distract the ref, and as that is happening Shango comes out to help take out Hogan and give Sid time to come back, but just as Shango starts to interfere, Warrior makes his shocking return to the ring. Ref rings the bell to stop the chaos, and ultimately we get the ending we did anyway with Hogan and Warrior having a fireworks posedown in the ring.

I don't know if I buy this. When Shango FINALLY comes out.. it is WAYYYYY later... like long after the kickout and after Wippleman gets involves. Not only that... if he came out on time but the aisle was too long, why does he come out so damn slow and even stop part way through? When he finally comes out he's basically walking to the ring.

I don't know if buy the Sid going into business for himself story either. But Hogan does CONVINCINGLY kick out of Sid's powerbomb finisher. So either way, I'm sure Sid enjoyed it.

[justtxyank]

FWIW, I'm pretty sure Sid has sworn in shoots over the years that he was supposed to kick out. The drug test he failed was the next day according to Sid and had nothing to do with what happened that night. Of course he also claims that Vince knew he was using other people's urine to pass tests previously.

[Just Do It]

Considering what happened is public knowledge told by those who were part of it (Sid, Shango, Harvey) why the hell is there a two page debate as to what happened?

Shango was late getting to the ring - Sid had to kick out.

End of debate. Go home people, nothing else to see here.