City Anaheim, California Date 31 March 1996 Venue Honda Center Promotion WWE | WrestleMania XII WrestleMania 13 Attendance 18,853 Sponsor Tyco Toys | |
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WrestleMania XII In Your House 7 Good Friends, Better Enemies Location Honda Center, Anaheim, California, United States Other Instances WrestleMania 33, WrestleMania 32, WrestleMania XXX, WrestleMania 29, WrestleMania XXVIII | ||
Mania a week wrestlemania xii review
WrestleMania XII was the twelfth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on March 31, 1996, at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California.
Contents
- Mania a week wrestlemania xii review
- Bret hart vs shawn michaels wwe championship iron man match wrestlemania xii
- Background
- Reception
- References
In the main event, Bret Hart lost the WWF World Heavyweight Championship to Shawn Michaels in a 60-minute Iron Man match. In his return to the company after a four-year hiatus, The Ultimate Warrior defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley. The event featured the WWF debut of rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW) mainstay Marc Mero, who had just left WCW a few weeks prior. Roddy Piper competed in his first match since 1994, after which he left for WCW.
Bret hart vs shawn michaels wwe championship iron man match wrestlemania xii
Background
The main attraction of this WrestleMania was the WWF World Heavyweight Championship contested in an Iron Man match; whereby the winner would be the man to win most falls over sixty minutes. Michaels had earned the opportunity to face reigning champion Bret Hart by winning the 1996 Royal Rumble, and had also defeated Owen Hart at In Your House 6 for the right to keep the WrestleMania title shot.
The main event was built on Bret Hart wanting to retain the WWF World Heavyweight Championship against Shawn Michaels, who had suffered a number of setbacks over the course of the previous year, including: failing to win Diesel's WWF World Heavyweight Championship the previous year at WrestleMania XI, being accosted by a group of Marines at a Syracuse, New York nightclub, forfeiting the WWF Intercontinental Championship at In Your House 4 in October 1995 to Dean Douglas, suffering a storyline concussion at the hands of Owen Hart, and being betrayed in storyline by close friend Diesel at a house show at Madison Square Garden.
Reception
WrestleMania XII received generally positive reviews from critics, who aimed praise particularly at the main event. Rob McNew of 411mania called the opening match "really good," and gave it 3 and 1/4 stars (out of 5 stars). However, he called the match between Helmsley and The Ultimate Warrior the worst of the night, going on to it call it the "funniest squash ever, considering that HHH is now arguably a bigger star than Warrior was." He gave the main event the highest score of the night, with 4 stars. However, he says the match "isn't for everyone." Continuing, he says, "It's about a three star match for the first 40 minutes, the last 20+ are an easy five stars." He gave the entire event a score of 7 out of 10. In 2015, Ryan Dilbert of Bleacher Report called it the 16th greatest of the first 30 WrestleMania events.