I am going to take everyone back in time, if I could.
April 5, 1992, in a small western Massachusetts town I went over to a cousin's house to watch WrestleMania VIII. Everyone was excited and piqued with their interests in Savage and Flair vying for the title, after all to make up for the changes they were making to the title match, that angle of Miss Elizabeth supposedly being courted by Ric Flair set the impetus for Savage and Flair's brutal grudge match. Jake Roberts and his protege The Undertaker had a very acrimonious split. Then there was the eternal question of whether or not WrestleMania VIIII was Hulk Hogan's last hurrah in the WWF.
While those were all exciting storylines for me amongst a lot of Mania VIII's matches such The Natural Disasters vs Money, Inc. and Shawn Michaels Vs Tito Santana was a very solid opener to me the match that really caught my eye was Roddy Piper vs Bret Hart for the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship.
Two feuding fan favorites going at it at a Mania, it was done on a grander scale just two years before, but to be honest I enjoyed this platform just as much. The emotion of the two in their prematch interview with Mean Gene was great. Leading up to this encounter you even had Bret Hart showing up at one of Piper's matches against Shawn Michaels, showing some rather palpable tension between the two.
The match itself was beautiful from bell to bell. The moment where Piper gets caught square in sight with the fluid dropkick of "The Hitman" to that very moment where Piper is tempted to go rule breaker once more with that ever acerbic (but lovable at the same time) Bobby Heenan encouraging Piper to reembrace his old ways, as Piper held that ring bell in his hands and he could have very well retained the IC strap that night, should he have chosen to go that route. But Piper didn't, the character development was great, Piper being someone we loved to hate all the way back in the 80s when he was feuding with the likes of Sammartino, Hogan, Snuka, and of course Mr. T decided to take the high road and throw that ring bell aside.
From there, I remember Piper having a bloodied Bret Hart locked into that sleeper hold but Bret found his wits and used that top turnbuckle to shift his momentum right into Piper and catch him in a pinball combination. That moment, I feel was one of the most creative finishes to a match I have ever seen. The post match embraced put the exclamation point on it. To me that is THE match I remember WrestleMania VIII the most by. It possibly is my favorite WrestleMania match ever, Taker's performances aside which still hold true to me.
But this very moment where two friends fought valiantly for the Intercontinental Title I think surpassed the rest of the card that night.
It's going to be a different world without "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, but I'm grateful to have said that I was a fan during his very lifetime.
