This was a big show for me, despite not officially being on the PPV event. Mania X8 was from SkyDome in Toronto and was my first chance as a wrestler to be a part of WrestleMania. I didn’t much expect to get on the card considering the size of the, post Invasion roster, so I wasn’t too surprised when I did not. I did get to work the live HEAT match before the PPV event and was very grateful for that. Getting to wrestle in SkyDome in front of approx. 68,000 people was a big thrill and if that wasn’t great enough I got to tag with “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig.
The HEAT match was Mr. Perfect, Test, and I facing off against Scotty 2 Hotty, Albert (The Hip Hop Hippo), and Rikishi. The match was fine, but watching it back it was rushed and in all honestly poorly booked. By poorly booked I mean the 6 of us should not have been facing off in Toronto. My team was supposed to be the heels but working in Toronto there was no way we were going to get booed. I was still fresh off my run as Mr. Canada in WCW, Test was the home town boy, and great respected workers like Mr. Perfect always get cheered in Toronto. There was one great spot in the match where Mr. Perfect got hit with the Stink Face but managed to block it with his towel and when Rikishi walked out of the corner he had Perfect’s towel stuck between his butt cheeks. If you watch really closely you might notice they set the Stink Face up in the wrong corner and the spot was saved when someone (initials LS) covertly retrieved the towel from the neutral corner and placed it on the apron near Curt so he could do the spot. Rikishi pinned Mr. Perfect in decent but not great match.
I was involved slightly in helping preparing for 2 other matches on this show. About a month out from Mania Ric Flair came to me and asked if I would help him get back into shape for his match with Taker. Ric had not worked in quite a while and wanted to get in the ring and take some bumps to break off some of the ring rust. When he asked me to work out he said it was because he needed to be in the ring with someone who was safe and would take care of him and he thought I was probably his best choice. I took this as a huge compliment, quite probably the biggest of my career and I was thrilled to get in the ring with the Nature Boy. We worked out in the ring before a couple TV tapings, where I gave Ric a bunch of backdrops and suplexes. We also planned to get in the ring at SkyDome and do a full match a couple days before Mania, to test his wind, but unfortunately we couldn’t get access to the ring. This is one of my biggest regrets, as it would have been This match was freakin awesome. This was an old school brawl and both guys were awesome. The heat the drama everything in this was perfect. Flair missed the upside down turnbuckle in the corner on the first attempt but got it on the second try and I remember everyone in the back popping for Ric and happy he managed to pull it off. Both guys were busted open and the crowd was so into this. The near fall spot they did with Arn Anderson running in and hitting Taker with the spine buster was fantastic and all the boys in the back popped huge, as did the crowd. Taker attempted the Last Ride, but it did not go well so he picked Flair up and gave him the Tombstone instead. This match was a piece of art and my favourite match on the show. Taker goes to 10-0