Happy Wednesday Everyone!
We’ve got another owner mandated scenario this week. For those of you who haven’t read my Rebooking features from the past two weeks; this scenario entails me getting some form of order/direction from the owner of the promotion requiring me to book a certain match at the event. I’m free to book the rest of the show to my own whims, but one particular match MUST be mandated by the owner. This week it’s WrestleMania XII getting the rebooking treatment, with Vince McMahon demanding that we continue to run the WWF on Diesel Power™.
Yes, in this scenario I’m imagining that Vince McMahon has had one of his many stubborn turns and has demanded that Big Daddy Cool remain the WWF Champion into WrestleMania XII, as Vince refuses to let it go in an effort to thoroughly Roman Reigns his giant WWF Champion.
Thus I’ve been diligently set to work with the goal of coming up with a WrestleMania XII Main Event match for ol’ Big Daddy, although thankfully Vince has at least allowed me to dethrone the big lug. Thus here comes WrestleMania XII with Diesel closing the show. Wish me luck.
You can view the original card for the show by clicking below;
A big chance is we’re not running in Anaheim because that crowd at both WrestleMania XII and WrestleMania 2000 were horrible and they did NOT help either of those shows. We can keep it in California but will move it to somewhere like Sacramento in the hope of getting a hotter crowd. Sorry Anaheim but you had two chances and blew it both times. No WrestleMania for you!
Opening Match
Hunter Hearst Helmsley w/ Sable Vs Ahmed Johnson
8 Minutes
I’m not going to bother with bringing Ultimate Warrior back. That run was dismal and I don’t think he added much to the product. Instead we’ll keep Triple H undefeated from his debut up to this show and then pair him up with another rising star at WrestleMania XII in the form of Ahmed Johnson. Triple H was already mechanically sound by 1996 and was just needing a good character to send him on his way up the card, so he should be capable of walking Ahmed through a decent opener here. Ahmed can get the win with the Pearl River Plunge but Triple H will get his fair share of offence in and hopefully both wrestlers should gain something from the bout. We’ll debut Marc Mero later on to rescue Sable from Triple H and start up that feud.
Match Two
Finals of the WWF Tag Team Title Tournament
Camp Cornette (Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith) w/ Jim Cornette Vs Patriot and The Eagle
12 Minutes
I think Billy Gunn suffered a legitimate injury in early 1996 because he seemingly took a few months off if CageMatch.com is anything to go by. Seeing as The Smoking Gunns were the Tag Champs at the time, we’ll have to vacate the belts and do a tournament. The WWF’s tag division wasn’t exactly stacked at the time, but they did seem to have some kind of relationship going on with All Japan Pro Wrestling as Takao Omori appeared in the Royal Rumble in 1996. We’ll work out a deal here and get Del Wilkes and George Hines in to compete in the tournament, leading to them reaching the Finals here against Camp Cornette. This should hopefully be a fun match and we’ll have Camp Cornette win the belts. We might even bring in The Freebird rule so any two of Owen, Davey or Vader can defend the belts as needed.
Match Three
Stone Cold Steve Austin Vs Savio Vega
8 Minutes
We won’t bother with putting Austin with Ted Dibiase and will just bring him in as a singles Heel from the get-go without the Million $ Corporation connection. This should be a solid bout and we’ll keep the two feuding throughout the spring. Austin picks up the win with the Stun Gun following something nefarious to keep the feud alive and eventually we’ll have him start Stunning people as well.
Match Four
The 1-2-3 Kid w/ Ted Dibiase Vs Bret Hart
15 Minutes
The story we’ll tell here is that Bret Hart will have failed to defeat Diesel back at Survivor Series 1995, leading to Dibiase trying to get him to join his Corporation with promises of getting him back to the top by using his wealth and influence. Bret will refuse and that will lead to a feud between him and Dibiase’s clients, leading to a match here where Bret can get some revenge and win the feud. Bret and Kid had a good match together for the WWF Title in 1994, so hopefully they’ll be able to do so here as well. We’ll give them enough time to have an enjoyable bout and Bret can win to set up another shot at the WWF Title down the line.
Match Five
WWF Intercontinental Title
Champ: Goldust w/ Marlena Vs Rowdy Roddy Piper
7 Minutes
We’ll tone down the homophobia with the feud here, but essentially we’ll keep it to the idea that Goldust is infatuated with Piper and being inappropriate with it, leading to Piper snapping and challenging Goldust to a match. Piper can pick up win the win via DQ so that the fans can get a babyface win whilst Goldust can hold on to the belt. This will be our only DQ finish of the evening.
Match Six
Vader w/ Jim Cornette Vs Yokozuna
5 Minutes
We keep this one short, with Cornette’s new monster Heel taking on his previous one. Vader eventually picks up the win but Cornette gets involved somehow to lead to it. Yoko will eventually get his revenge on Cornette down the line but Vader needs to be winning here and it gives Camp Cornette the clean sweep in order to get them over as a real threat.
Semi-Main
Razor Ramon Vs The Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer
15 Minutes
With Taker’s real life WrestleMania XII opponent doing something else, we’ll turn Razor Ramon and have him do a feud with Taker. It’ll freshen Razor up after nearly 3 years of being a babyface and it’s a match we haven’t seen on pay per view yet. Taker will pick up the win to keep the streak alive but we’ll give Razor plenty of the match so that he should hopefully still gain something from it. If Razor is still off to WCW then we’ll finish him up in April and move Taker on to Mankind
Main Event
WWF Title
Champ: Diesel Vs Shawn Michaels
20 Minutes
We’ll also turn Diesel back into a Heel around Survivor Series 1995 when he wrestles Bret Hart, which should hopefully get the character back on track after a limp run as top babyface. Shawn can still live out his Boyhood Dream™ by winning the Rumble and overcoming his concussion issues to pull off the big upset here at WrestleMania XII and avenge his loss from WrestleMania XI. If Kevin Nash is also setting off to WCW then we can do the rubber match in April and send him on his way, but if he’s sticking around we can hold off the rematch to a later date.
In Conclusion
I think if nothing else there should be some good wrestling on this show, with Bret/Kid, Austin/Vega and the Tag Title match all having potential to be fun. We’ve paired Ahmed up with Triple H to carry him through his match, and we’re keeping Vader/Yoko and Goldust/Piper relatively short in order to keep as watchable as possible. The two show closing bouts are getting more time but Razor/Taker features two experienced guys who have their characters down, so that match should deliver and Shawn Michaels will be jazzed to win the Title at Mania and will no doubt enter a Mr. WrestleMania™ level performance.
Ultimately we’re going to want to still do Shawn Vs Bret at one stage, possibly either at SummerSlam or at WrestleMania 13, but Vince will get his longer Diesel run and I think that turning Diesel Heel would inject some life into his act and he’ll make a good mountain for Shawn to climb on his way to the summit of the WWF.
Please let me know what you think and share any ideas you would have for WrestleMania XII if Vinny Mac demanded that you put Diesel in the Main Event.
Take care until next time!