‘WWE Vintage Collection: Wrestlemania Road Trip’ TV Report #92 – March 7th, 2010 Shown on Sky Sports in the U.K. By Stephen Lyon. This week: The Road to Wrestlemania continued this week, with a retrospective on Wrestlemanias 9 and 10. Matches featured were Crush vs Doink the Clown (WM9), Yokozuna vs Lex Luger (WM10), Shawn Michaels vs Tatanka (WM9), and Yokozuna vs Bret Hart (WM10). The Show: 1) Doink the Clown defeated Crush. This match was from the 'WWF Wrestlemania 9’ pay-per-view event, held in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 4th, 1993. Announcers for this match were Jim Ross Macho Man Randy Savage Bobby Heenan. Match was joined in progress. Crush dominated Doink, clotheslining him to ringside. Doink kept trying to crawl under the ring. Crush brought him back in and placed the Kona Crush head vice on Doink, who tried to escape and elbowed the referee in the face, bumping him. Crush placed Doink in the move a second time, and this time a second Doink (identical to the first) appeared in the ring and nailed Crush several times with a loaded prosthetic arm. Heenan: This is an illusion! Ross: No it's not, it's cheating! Me: Whatever it is, it sucks! Doink pinned Crush to end this horrible debacle. Wrestlemania Moment Clip: Owen Hart shockingly defeated Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 10 in one of the best Wrestlemania matches of all time. 2) WWF Champion, Yokozuna (w/Jim Cornette Mr Fuji) defeated Lex Luger via Disqualification. This match was from the 'WWF Wrestlemania 10’ pay-per-view event, held in Madison Square Garden, New York, on March 20th, 1994. Announcers for this match were Vince McMahon Jerry Lawler. Special guest referee for this match was Mr Perfect, revealed as a surprise at the show. The winners of this title match would face Bret Hart in the main event of the show. Luger dominated Yoko with punches, throwing him into the ring steps outside the ring and even using a crossbody block on Yoko for a nearfall. Yoko came back into the match, with Luger attempting a powerslam and Yoko falling on him. Yoko then exposed one of the top turnbuckles. After a commercial break, Luger powered out of a Yoko nervehold, but Yoko then belly-to-belly suplexed him. Luger managed to recover enough to throw Yoko into the exposed turnbuckle to begin his comeback. Crowd chanted 'USA!' as Luger nailed him with several clotheslines, taking him down, then powerslamming him, before nailing him with his loaded running forearm. Both Jim Cornette and Mr Fuji tried to interfere, with Luger bringing both into the ring and knocking out both. Luger went to pin Yoko, but Perfect was concerned about both Cornette and Fuji and wouldn't count. Luger shoved him, and Perfect then disqualified Luger for man-handling him. Perfect walked out, and was interviewed by Todd Pettengill backstage. Luger confronted him backstage, and the two had a heated pullapart. This was supposed to be Perfect's heel turn, upon his return, and setting up Luger vs Perfect as a summer program, but after a handful of tv taping appearances, Perfect would leave again for another 18 month hiatus and the program would be dropped. Wrestlemania Moment Clip: Yokozuna defeated Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 9 to win the WWF title, after Mr Fuji threw salt in the Hitman's eyes. 3) Tatanka (w/Sherri Martel in his corner) defeated WWF Intercontinental Champion, Shawn Michaels (w/Luna Vachon in his corner) via count out. This match was from the 'WWF Wrestlemania 9’ pay-per-view event, held in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 4th, 1993. Announcers for this match were Jim Ross Macho Man Randy Savage Bobby Heenan. This was the WWF debut of Luna Vachon, who appeared in Michaels corner, mainly to start her program with the now-babyface Sherri Martel. Tatanka used chops on Michaels, then armdragged him off the top rope before throwing him to ringside. Michaels came back in and tried to use a sunset flip, but Tatanka caught him, and followed up by DDTing Michaels. After a commercial break, Tatanka continued to dominate HBK. He was on fire, using Tomohawk chops and a crossbody dive off the top, which garnered him a nearfall. Tatanka monkeyflipped Michaels into the turnbuckles, then powerslammed him off the top rope. Both wrestlers brawled on the outside, with the referee counting both men. Tatanka rolled back in the ring to break the count, but Michaels pulled referee Joey Marella out of the ring. Back inside, Tatanka nailed Michaels with the fallaway slam and had HBK pinned, but the referee signalled for the bell, instead revealing that he'd awarded the match to Tatanka via count out. Michaels, of course, kept the title as a result. 4) Bret Hart defeated Yokozuna (w/Jim Cornette Mr Fuji) to win the WWF title. This was the main event match from the 'WWF Wrestlemania 10’ pay-per-view event, held in Madison Square Garden, New York, on March 20th, 1994. Announcers for this match were Vince McMahon Jerry Lawler. Before the match, special guest ring announcer, Burt Reynolds introduced the special guest referee for this match, Rowdy Roddy Piper. Bret's ring entrance was shown, as Reynolds introduced him by saying ... and in my opinion, one of the greatest athletes in wrestling today... Yoko jumped Bret as he was climbing into the ring and pummelled him. Bret was selling a knee injury from his earlier match on the card with brother Owen, and despite throwing a dropkick out of desperation, was dominated by Yoko in the early going. Yoko missed a splash in the corner, and Bret regained some momentum, nailing the big Sumo wrestler with punches and headbutt, resulting in Yoko falling down. Bret had Yoko pinned and Piper had started to count the pinfall when Cornette pulled Piper out of the ring. Piper simply shrugged and punched Cornette in the face at ringside. After a commercial break, Yoko threw Bret into the turnbuckles, but missed with his charge. Bret then bulldogged the staggered big man from the second rope for a nearfall. Bret attempted a crossbody block dive, but Yoko caught him and belly-to-belly suplexed him. This led into the finish, as Yoko signalled for the Bonzai splash and dragged Bret to the corner. But inexplicably, as Yoko stood on the middle rope, he lost his balance and fell backwards, and Bret simply pinned the fallen Yoko to win the match and the title. Huge crowd reaction for the title change. Afterwards, Yoko chased Piper to the back. Vince McMahon went into overdrive on commentary, yelling, We are witnessing a brand new era! We are witnessing the blast off of the next decade in the World Wrestling Federation! Lex Luger came out and embraced Hart, and the ring filled with wrestlers - Razor Ramon, 1-2-3 Kid, Tatanka, Bob Holly, Roddy Piper, Randy Savage, plus the celebrities, Burt Reynolds, Rhonda Shear, Donni Wahlberg, as well as Gorilla Monsoon and even Vince McMahon himself. All congratulated the new champion Bret, as Razor and Luger paraded around the ring with Bret on their shoulders. One of the great endings to a Wrestlemania. Closing thoughts: Below average show this week. No match was particularly good - Crush vs Doink was horrible, Yokozuna vs Luger was borderline passable with a screwjob finish, Michaels vs Tatanka was a disappointment with a screwjob finish, and Yokozuna vs Bret was kept short, with a strange finish (as in, Yoko simply fell on his back, and Bret immediately pinned him, rather than execute any sort of move on him). The scene at the end of Wrestlemania 10, with everyone congratulating Bret, was really great though. Match Results: 1) Doink the Clown defeated Crush ('WWF Wrestlemania 9’ pay-per-view event – Las Vegas, Nevada: 04/04/93). 2) Yokozuna (w/Jim Cornette Mr Fuji) defeated Lex Luger via Disqualification ('WWF Wrestlemania 10’ pay-per-view event – MSG, New York: 20/03/94). 3) Tatanka (w/Sherri Martel in his corner) defeated WWF Intercontinental Champion, Shawn Michaels (w/Luna Vachon in his corner) via count out ('WWF Wrestlemania 9’ pay-per-view event – Las Vegas, Nevada: 04/04/93). 4) Bret Hart defeated Yokozuna (w/Jim Cornette Mr Fuji) to win the WWF title ('WWF Wrestlemania 10’ pay-per-view event – MSG, New York: 20/03/94). Please note: I DO NOT sell DVDs or tapes of any of these shows. Sorry! I hope you enjoyed this week’s report. For other reports like this one, be sure to check it out my website archive at http://www.classicwrestlingreports.com . It’s no longer updated, but this website carries all of my previous WWE Classics tv reports that have been featured on the old WrestlingObserver.com website. As always your questions, comments and thoughts are always welcomed, and you can contact me at slyon10yearsago@hotmail.com. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Until next week, have a good week. Stephen Lyon, St Helens, England, U.K.