Almost but not quite 5 star material, both of these Wrestlemanias have ultimately classic moments that in of themselves make memories. But also both events are padded with matches that don't live up to the spectacle of Wrestlemania. I know that's no different from any PPV, but 'Mania's are meant to be different - meant to be on a bigger scale than them all. So how do these two compete with others?

*****************************************

* Wrestlemania 7

Wrestlemania 7 is perhaps the most 'patriotic' of them all, owing to the ongoing heat directed at Sgt. Slaughter for his Iraq portrayal of the character in a war-time scenario. Hulk Hogan represents the good ol' US of A. The heat on this match is phenominal - neither Hogan nor Slaughter have to even try to elicit maniac reactions from the crowd. Nontheless, they put in a good main event performance - not Hogan's best, nor really Slaughters' - but solid nontheless. You have to admire the energy of the crowd on this one and it shows how a crown can turn something pedestrian into something special.

Strangely enough, it's not match of the night. That honour goes to Ultimate Warrior vs. Savage. I'm a Warrior fan but I have to admit you don't watch his matches for a wrestling masterclass. You do with Savage, of course. So, then, it's surprising that this match is easily the best on the card. Savage bumps for Warrior whilst Warrior actually allows a story to be told. The match is Warriors' best and again, Savage steals the Wrestlemania show. He often did. If anything the match is sullied a tad by being a Career Match, and we most of us know the loser didn't stay retired for very long, which is a shame. I find Career Matches should be permanent; this wasn't very permanent at all.

But these two matches alone weren't the only history makers on the card. Undertaker started his Wrestlemania streak here but upending Superfly Snuka. The match isn't spectacular in of itself, but it's notable for how 'Taker legitimately squashes a living legend. The conclusion to the match seems a bit botched - seems to me 'Taker was meant to catch and Tombstone Snuka, not catch him, let him go and punch him - but otherwise it's a notable start for the streak.

Other good matches? Bossman vs. Perfect is decent, as is the Nasty's vs. Hart match. Also the Bulldog vs. Warlord match is pretty good too - seeing as Warlord is usually cardboard, and this is before Bulldog joined him, this turns out entertaining. Anything else is either hokey or not very good. -1 star alone for the Tornado / Dino Bravo match, that actually makes Kerry Von Erich look bad, which takes some doing. It's an appalling, appalling match - one of Wrestlemanias' worst easily - and makes me dislike Dino Bravo even more. How did that guy survive a roster cull for so many years?

Notable historical events:
Hogan vs. Slaughter.
1st Wrestlemania Career Match between Savage and the Warrior, giving Savage a face turn for the first time in years and ending a career (albeit temporarily)
The last PPV matches of the original Hart Foundation (!) and the team known as Demolition (no longer the originals, but the original gimmick).
The first in Undertaker's long streak.
The infamous 'Blind Man's' match between Jake Roberts and Rick Martel, two of my favourite Wrestlers but this match just isn't very good.
The last Wrestlemania for the Rockers as a team.

*******************************************************************************

* Wrestlemania 8

Weirdly enough, Wrestlemania VIII has better wrestling on it but somehow less spectacle. The event seems all skewed. The way WWE had been building it, it should have been Flair vs. Hogan, but we all know real life politics intervened and they went with a double main event - Hogan vs. Sid and Savage vs. Flair. In many respects, neither match is particularly 'wrong'. They're epic confrontations that were sold well... To some degree. The problem is the WWE Title match wasn't the main event - it wasn't even late on the card, with such fillers as Owen Hart vs. Skinner coming later! Not only is this disrespectful to the title caliber, but it's disrespectful to Flair / Savage, who really should have been main eventing. More's the point, it all took a back seat to Hogan vs. Sid. This was designed as a platform to close Hogan's career - and reinstate the returning Ultimate Warrior to take his place. Good idea, but somehow the whole thing feels wrong. Off somehow. The Hogan vs. Sid match was a damp squib. Somehow Sid hadn't built enough heat to be Hogan's 'final' opponent. You have to wonder whether Jake Roberts, Undertaker or even Savage or Flair would have been a better choice. But Sid felt 'wrong'. He wasn't even in his Sycho Sid persona, but a watered down villaineous 'Sid Justice' version.

Once again, Savage steals the show with the match of the night with Flair - stealing the show seems to be something Savage does often at Wrestlemanias, like I already said - and Flair had his technique down perfected and patented. So Hogan / Sid could never live up to that. Not only does Hogan have a rubbish send off after a pedestrian match, but he's 'rescued' from even more rubbish Papa Shango (what the heck was THAT gimmick? Like a bad man's Undertaker gone wrong) by Ultimate Warrior who steals what really should be Hogan's final spotlight, especially if this was intended to be his 'last match'. Fortunately for Hogan - and hindsight - this wasn't, as I'm sure you know, Hogan's last match, so no long term damage done I suppose.

Glad, then, that we have an absolutely classic Roddy Piper vs. Bret match on the card. The two tear the house down over the Intercontinental Title - Piper's only WWE title, IIRC. Piper would be the first to categorise himself as a brawler, not a wrestler... but this match would prove him wrong as Piper stands toe to toe with the legendary Hitman in a very technically savvy and entertaining contest. And the right man won. The heat between the two in the pre-match interview, where Bret verbally cuts down Roddy and Piper looses his cool is a classic.

Not only was this event Hogan's 'last' but it was Jake Roberts' last. He did what the Warrior did half a year previous and held Vince up for money, and tried to hop over to WCW Wrasslin'. Bad idea, Jake. Nontheless, he puts in an okay performance with 'Taker here. The streak continues and once again, it's with a somber awe as 'Taker tears Roberts apart in a way few critics saw coming.

Other matches? Well, Shawn Michaels vs. El Matador is actually really good - as a curtain jerker it's better than the other rubbish on the card (Tatanka vs. Martel). The only gripe with it, and I mean only, is the end seemed to be a bit random - mistimed maybe? Otherwise it's the perfect match for two mid-carders. Showing once again how criminally underutilised Santana was, and how legendary HBK would become.

Apart from those things, the event was crowded by filler and squash. Even the Tag Team Title bout - something which was hot at the time - is badly judged. The Disasters fight Money Inc., but the problem is WWE basically told us from the start of the event who was going to win. Legion of Doom cut a very long and rambling promo - not one of their best - earlier in the show threatening the 'winning team' repeatedly, challenging them for the belts way before the win later on the show. This 'heat gathering' exercise left no doubt who would lose later on the show. Bad call.

Despite these niggles, WM8 is a solid event.

Notable Events:
The 'final' matches for Hulk Hogan and Jake Roberts, ending their original WWE runs. For that matter, it's Sid's last match in his first run too! Aaaaand IIRC it might be the end to Piper's first run as well, although he'd soon be back as a Commissioner style character.
Undertaker takes his streak to 2+ by finishing Roberts easily.
Paul Ellering rejoins the Legion of Doom.
Randy Savage and Ric Flair's rivalry continues to blow, but finishes it's current lap with an amazing match.
The Ultimate Warrior returns. He wasn't as good a second time as he was the first.
Bret vs. Piper, ending their dream feud.

**********************************************

So as you can see, both events do have significant historical value and some decent matches on them, more WM7 than WM8 on the match front. WM7 is definitely better than WM8 but that doesn't mean WM8 is without redeeming features; it's still pretty solid. The problem is the amount of pedestrian filler here and for this period in WWE's history, that's not really forgivable. Certainly not with the amount of talent they have on display in both events. And if these two events have a weakness, it's this. But the strengths outweigh the bad - you should pick up this classic Tagged whilst you can.

gutted just busted wrestlemainia 7 getting out of case will have to buy this again so i watch wrestlemainia 8 instead higly entertaining great wrestlemainia randy savage and flair match was the better of the two main events piper and hart math was the match of this wrestlemaina must buy tag though total vintage early ninties wrestlemainia

The first thing you need to know before purchasing this set is that this is the Coliseum Video/Silver Vision Home Video version of Wrestlemania VII and VIII simply transferred to DVD. Like the previous two Wrestlemanias, Wrestlemania VII was a four hour event which was cut shorter to fit onto a 3 hour VHS tape. Nearly all matches with the exception the Hogan/Slaughter and the Randy Savage/Ultimate Warrior bouts are edited. If you are looking for the full uncut versions of this event then you need to be looking at the Wrestlemania Anthology Series. However there is one annoying drawback with the Anthology versions and that is, although the action is uncut, a lot of the original theme music is edited out as are any references to "WWF". Wrestlemania VIII however was a three hour event (as was every %u2018Mania up to XV) and therefore all the matches appear in their entirety.

Wrestlemania VII

The main story leading into Wrestlemania VII was the controversy surrounding Sgt. Slaughter%u2019s portrayal of an Iraqi sympathiser during the Persian Gulf War. The WWF were heavily criticized for exploiting the war in this way which perhaps led to low ticket sales for the event. Wrestlemania VII was originally supposed to be held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in front of around 100,000 fans but was changed to the much smaller Los Angeles Sports Arena. The official reason for this change was the concern for Sgt. Slaughter%u2019s wellbeing following various threats. Fortunately for the WWF, the 16,158 that did attend Wrestlemania VII were extremely vociferous and made for a really good atmosphere. Hulk Hogan defeated Slaughter in an average match to win the WWF Championship for a then unprecedented third time; the Ultimate Warrior ended Randy Savage%u2019s career (well, for a few months anyway) in an excellent battle, naturally carried by Savage; the Hart Foundation contested a very good championship bout with the Nasty Boys; The Rockers pulled a great match out of Haku and The Barbarian; and the Mr. Perfect had an exciting Intercontinental Title defence against the Big Boss Man. The rest of the bouts ranged from average to poor.

Wrestlemania VIII

Wrestlemania VIII was held in front of 62,167 at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis and featured a Double Main Event. Originally Hulk Hogan was to challenge Ric Flair for the World Wrestling Federation Championship but those plans were to be changed when Hogan decided to step away from the spotlight for a while during the infamous %u201Csteroid scandal%u201D. Hogan admitted lying about his use of steroids on the Arsenio Hall Show and was facing a huge backlash for it. Randy Savage was installed as the new number one contender and Hogan would instead face Sid Justice in what was billed as his %u201CFarewell Match%u201D. In truth, many thought at the time that Hogan would never return and would instead concentrate on movies and TV. The tears in Hogan%u2019s eyes as he made his way to the ring to face Sid fuelled the rumours that he was really leaving. The match with Sid itself was pretty poor but the ending certainly made up for it, even though they managed to mess it up! Papa Shango was supposed to interrupt the referee%u2019s count after Hogan nailed Sid with the legdrop, except Shango didn%u2019t make it to the ring anywhere near in time and Sid had to improvise and kick out. Shango and Sid then attacked Hogan until the Ultimate Warrior charged to the ring to save Hogan and send the fans into raptures.

Elsewhere there were a couple of excellent title matches. Randy Savage defeated Ric Flair for the WWF Championship in a heated encounter after which Flair was actually fined by Vince McMahon for blading during the match. Bret Hart also bladed in his Intercontinental Title win over Rowdy Roddy Piper but got away without any punishment after he and Piper convinced McMahon it was accidental. Also a good match was the opener between El Matador (Tito Santana) and Shawn Michaels, who had just began his first singles run. As for the rest, The Undertaker sent Jake Roberts packing to WCW after defeating him with a horribly executed tombstone on the outside; The Big Bossman, Sgt. Slaughter, Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Virgil beat The Mountie, Repo Man and the Nasty Boys in a fair 8-man tag team brawl; Tatanka beat Rick Martel in a quick match; Owen Hart squashed Skinner in just over a minute; and Natural Disasters fought Money Inc for the Tag Team Title in a terrible match with an awful finish.