1st Match: Vader, Owen Hart, and The British Bulldog vs Yokozuna, Ahmed Johnson, and Jake Roberts. A good match to get the crowd excited. A typical face vs heel match, but more unpredictable than what WCW was doing at the time. Even though the heels win, the match still does a good job of getting the crowd into the show. Rating: 3.5/52nd Match: Roddy Piper vs Goldust, Hollywood Backlot Brawl. The fight starts in the parking lot, and continues until just before the main event. I'm gonna go ahead and just review the whole match here though. A good comedy match, that's also pretty hard hitting. They even throw in some of the OJ car chase footage and it ends with Piper ripping the clothes off Goldust to reveal him wearing women's lingerie. Pretty funny stuff. Is it the best match, no, but it's pretty damn entertaining. Rating: 4/53rd Match: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Savio Vega. An alright match, but probably the weakest match of the night. It's still watchable, but Austin doesn't have his character quite down yet. It's an easy enough watch, but ultimately pretty forgettable. Rating: 3/54th Match: HHH vs The Ultimate Warrior. The match is just a squash, with Warrior no-selling a pedigree, and then beating Hunter in less than 2 minutes. It's a funny match, but not worth a rating. I won't count it against the show's final rating however, unlike some terrible WCW matches the week before this aired. Rating: None5th Match: Diesel vs The Undertaker. I don't think "The Streak" was a thing yet, but Taker sure comes close to losing this. Both guys get some good offense, and Taker almost loses on several occasions, but at the end of the day, Nash isn't Brock Lesnar, so Taker wins. The match also does a good job of finalizing Nash's heel character, which he would take to WCW in a couple of months. Rating: 3.5/56th Match: Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart, Iron Man match for the WWF Championship. This match is fantastic, the best Mania match I've seen since I started reviewing these for the site. There are better Mania matches, but this is easily in my Top 10 Favorite Matches of All Time list, if I were to make it. These guys go a full hour, and they're so evenly matched, that there's not a single decision throughout the whole thing. That's ballsy, to have a main event over an hour long, and not have a single fall. The first half is mostly Michaels showing off some impressive counter wrestling, and the second half is more acrobatic. There are a lot of rest holds, but there's still a constant pace to the match, so it doesn't feel like an hour. It legit feels a 30 minute match, but it's twice as long, you know how the best one-on-one ladder matches have a constant pace to them so they don't feel slow, this is equivalent to that. Fantastic stuff. The match ends in a draw of 0-0, but continues under Sudden Death rules because there must be a winner. Michaels then kicks Bret's head off and wins his first WWF Championship in one of the greatest Wrestlemania matches of all time. I understand that the match isn't for everyone, but I love it, I can easily see this winning "Match of the Year" when I do my list. Rating: 5/5Final Rating: 8 out of 10. The best Mania I've seen since starting these reviews. The small card helps keep the show from being overcrowded, and the main event somehow defies time in it's length. Quality over quantity, that's what WWF did with this event.

First off yes, going 60 minutes running and jumping around must have been tough and very tiring for Bret and Shawn and I commend them for that, but that alone does not make an incredible match. I saw the Iron Match between the Rock and HHH before seeing WM XII and so I was worried about this Iron match before it started. The Rock, HHH match started very slowly with punches and holds due to obvious reasons they didn't wanna get tired out, I understand that. They can't go at it guns blazing for 60 minutes, they'd die. But punches and holds, especially holds are the worst and most boring thing about wrestling. If you total up the decent moves and quality action in the Shawn vs. Bret match you might get, if you're lucky, 20 solid minutes. That leaves the other 40 though, right? And they certainly should have made it more interesting with a few pins or submissions rather than leaving it 0 - 0 right until the end. Good match, but not the best ever.

WrestleMania XII was a terrific event with some great matches.In the main event Bret Hart battled Shawn Michaels in a 60 minute Iron Man Match. This match was sensational. Bret and Shawn had 60 minutes to showcase their talents and they did a brilliant job.This event also saw the return of one of my favourites-The Ultimate Warrior who squashed future champion Hunter Hearst Helmsley in minutes. I really cheered during this match but to my disappointment the Warrior was gone from the WWF 3 months after this event took place.Roddy Piper and the truly bizarre Goldust had an entertaining match and it was great to see Goldust get his butt kicked. This was Roddy Piper's last WrestleMania and he didn't disappoint.There were two other great matches as well-The Undertaker battled Diesel in a match where both men performed above their usual standard. And there was an awesome six man match pitting Vader, Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith VS Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Ahmed Johnson and Yokosuna.Terrific card with terrific matches!

The 12th Wrestlemania was also one of the most interesting. For the first time ever the main event of Wrestlemania was guaranteed to last one hour. This would have been laughable in the days of Hogan, Andre and even Nash but the task has been given to two more capable athletes.The main event is by far the biggest match in Michaels career yet he still takes all the risks he became famous for and combined them with a solid, cerebral ground based attack. Bret on the other hand enters a hesitant performance and seems reluctant to give Michaels anything. The drama in the closing moments is excellent however and Michaels title win was long over due. Unfortunately, instead of staying in the ring after the decision and congratulating the new champ Bret storms out of the building like a spoilt child who had to share his favourite toy. Aside from this complaint the match is awesome.The undercard is a mixed bag, some good some bad. Overall the good outweighs the bad and makes WMXII a recommended event.