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Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Survivor Series ’95

Sur95poster

WWF Survivor Series 1995
November 19, 1995
Landover, MD
Reviewed on March 1, 2014

Background: 1995 was perhaps the worst year in the history of the WWF. Diesel had not been the major drawing champion the WWF needed, although I don’t believe that is really all on him (fighting Sid and Mabel and The British Bulldog on PPV after PPV didn’t help). The overall booking style of the WWF has suddenly become dated, especially with the edgier and at times much better WCW Nitro now on the air. The WWF had a lot of very good to great top talent in 1995: Diesel, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart,Undertaker, Razor Ramon to name a few, but often times they were wrestling guys not in their league rather than each other (like Razor vs. Dean Douglas, Diesel and Taker vs. Mabel, Bret vs. Jean-Pierre Lafitte). For some reason, WWF tried to create new stars despite having current stars to draw money with. It’s great to create new stars if your current guys are stale, but these guys weren’t. Often times, when these top guys were paired with one another, good results happen, and the evidence is in the main event of this PPV.

The Card

Here comes Mr. Perfect! I assume he’s doing commentary with Vince. I like Perfect’s commentary, so that’s a plus.

Promor video for Bret vs. Diesel. It’s the two time triple crown winner against the man who won the triple crown in one year. Cool facts there.

We’ve got a USA theme going, I guess that’s because Landover is right there with Washington DC.

The Bodydonnas (Skip, Rad Radford, Tom Pritchard and the 1-2-3 Kid) vs. The Underdogs (Marty Jannetty, Hakushi, Barry Horowitz, and Bob Holly)

Wooo Sunny!

I like that Tom Pritchard is on this Bodydonna team…since he would be Zip a few months later.

I believe the Kid just turned heel by costing Razor Ramon and match with Sid. Kid gets his own entrance with Ted Dibiase.

Here comes Razor! Refs send him to the back though.

Jannetty and Pritchard start us off. Jannetty owns the entire Bodydonna team to a good response. I am of the opinion that Jannetty could have been a big star had he not been a mess.

I didn’t realize Bob Holly had a frankensteiner in his arsenal.

I still hate the Modern Day Kamikaze nickname for Hakushi. It also makes me sad that Hakushi is in this match. He was feuding with Bret Hart 5 months ago.

The Kid is the biggest heel in this match.

Barry Horowitz chant! He hasn’t been tagged in.

Bob Holly hits Pritchard with a top rope bodypress and Pritchard is gone. Skip rolls up Holly to even the odds right away.

There have been a lot of fun moves in this one. It’s weird that Horowitz is being built up as the big star in this match…

I feel like Kid vs. Hakushi would have been a fun match.

Kid spin kicks Hakushi in the back of the head, and Rad Radford eliminates him.

Barry Horowitz is in!

Rad Radford does some pushups, and Horowitz rolls him up in ugly looking fashion for the pin, eliminating him.

The Kid nails Horowitz from behind and gets the pin after a legdrop. Down to Skip and Kid vs. Marty Jannetty.

Jannetty and Skip are having a nice match here.

Top rope powerbomb from Marty to Skip! Down to Jannetty and the Kid.

Perfect dropkick to the face of Jannetty.

Kid misses a somersault from the top.

Here comes Sid!

The Bodydonnas win when The Kid last pins Marty Jannetty in 18:45. Jannetty gets the Rocker Dropper, but the Kid gets his foot on the rope. Dibiase distracts the ref, and Sid hangs Marty on the top rope for the Kid to get the pin. Fun match. Great way to showcase a lot of the lower card guys. Too bad only a few would even be employed in six months.

Razor Ramon is pretty angry about the end of that match.

The wildcard match is later tonight. Faces and heels are mixed in their respective teams. Jim Cornette has Owen Hart and Yokozuna on one side with Dean Douglas and Razor Ramon. Cornette’s Bulldog is on the other side with Sid, HBK and Ahmed Johnson.

Bertha Faye, Aja Kong, Tomoko Watanabe and Lioness Asuka vs. Alundra Blayze, Kyoko Inoue, Sakie Hasegawa, and Chaparita Asari

Interesting that WCW got all the international male wrestlers, but the WWF got all the women. At least at this point. The women’s division was gone about a month later when Blayze showed up on Nitro with the women’s title.

I don’t know who is who to be honest, except for Kong, Blayze and Faye.

There’s a giant swing. Eat your heart out Cesaro!

Wow skytwister press by Asari. What the fuck that was awesome.

Blaze eliminates Asuka with a german suplex. Nice.

Wow a chained double underhook suplex by Hasegawa.

T-bone suplex on Kong from Hasegawa!

Kong eliminates Hasegawa with a suplex.

Kong hits a top rope splash takes out Asari.

Kong eliminates Inoue with a sitdown splash!

We have 3 vs. 1 against Blayze right now.

Mike Chioda accidentally counts out Watanabe, but Blayze piledrives her and gets a legit 3 count right after.

Bertha Faye was a stupid idea.

Blayze hits a german suplex and eliminates Faye!

Great action between Kong and Blayze. Standing moonsault from Blazye!

Team Faye wins when Kong pins Blayze in 10:01. Brutal swinging backhand from Kong for the win. Great match. Some things got botched, but overall, it was full of action and good spots.

Random fact: Roman Reigns was the 2nd person ever to eliminate an entire Survivor Series team this last year. Aja Kong was the first.

Fake Bill Clinton!

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Goldust

When Bigelow’s pyro goes off the fake Clinton dives for cover. I guess it’s supposed to be funny.

I believe this is Bigelow’s last WWF match. Shame that Bigelow didn’t have a bigger 1995.

I love these Goldust movie interviews. Goldust was such a tremendous character.

You can see Dustin Rhodes’ toughness when he wrestlers, which is a great contrast to what WWE was promoting with Goldust.

Goldust’s outfit is not rated PG for sure…

Goldust pinned Bam Bam Bigelow in 8:18. Goldust hits a bulldog for the win. Match was 80% Goldust and it was clear why. Bigelow was on his way out and was putting over Goldust. And it did the job.

Mr. Bob Backlund confronts the fake Clinton! This actually is funny.

The Royals (Jerry Lawler, King Mabel, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and Isaac Yankem) vs. The Darkside (The Undertaker, Savio Vega, Henry Godwinn and Fatu)

The main feud here is Mabel vs. Undertaker. At King of the Ring Mabel pinned Undertaker in one of the worst PPV finishes ever. Mabel and Yokozuna would injure Taker later in 95, breaking his face. Taker’s coming for revenge.

Godwinn had been feuding with HHH at the time as well. Hogpen matches or something.

Taker is more over than the other 7 men combined.

The Phantom of the Opera Undertaker is probably the best look Undertaker has ever had.

We have Undertaker, Rikishi, Triple H and Kane in this thing!

Fatu and HHH start. I think this is where they figured out how to run down Stone Cold in 4 years.

This is Make a Difference Fatu.

We are getting a lot of Godwinn-HHH here.

This all feels like unnecessary build-up to Taker-Mabel.

Vega kicks out of Lawler’s piledriver. A little later we get a Rock Bottom on HHH from Vega!

Another piledriver from Lawler to Vega…only Vega no sells and tags in Taker!

No one wants to tag in for Lawler. Tombstone to Lawler and he’s gone.

Tombstone to DDS, he’s gone.

HHH tries to escape, but Godwinn threatens to slop him. Leads to an over the top rope chokeslam! Taker pins HHH.

Team Darkside wins when Mabel gets counted out at 14:21). Mabel gets some shots in, but Taker sits-up from a belly to belly and a legdrop (which makes the KOTR finish even dumber), then hightails it after that. It’s not bad, but a bit too long for what the result was. If you thought Undertaker was levels above all these guys before the match, well, it was certainly booked that way. I don’t think that’s a bad thing though.

Vince announced Bulldog vs. Bret/Diesel winner at the December In Your House for the title.

Bret interview. Compares himself to Wayne Gretzky. Wonders if he is still the best. The truck stops here! Ok interview, but Bret is bland here.

Diesel interview. Says that he has to go through Bret to get the Bulldog. Weird way to look at it.

Owen Hart, Yokozuna, Dean Douglas and Razor Ramon vs. The British Bulldog, Ahmed Johnson, Shawn Michaels and Sid

Cornette tells the Bulldog he is on his side. Of course, he told Owen and Yoko that earlier.

This match is weird. Ramon, HBK and Ahmed are faces. The rest are heels. I assume WWE did it because that’s just how alignments work out at the time.

This match does have a lot of storylines intermingled. The Douglas-HBK-Ramon stuff. Cornette being on both sides. Ahmed Johnson slamming Yokozuna on RAW. Also Razor-Sid/Dibiase stuff. Even Sid and Shawn had history in 95.

Owen and Shawn start us off. Michaels beats up Cornette for no reason!

Mr. Perfect says on commentary that Michaels probably wasn’t hurt and just forfeited the IC title to Douglas last month because he didn’t want to get pinned. I wonder why Perfect said that and how Vince felt about it. Perfect probably said it as a heel commentator and not a shoot comment, but still.

Ahmed goes for the slam on Yoko, but no dice.

I think it’s a big weird to see Ahmed be the face that gets beat down, but he gets out of it himself with a powerslam to Douglas.

Shawn actually did the loading of the boot for Sweet Chin. Thought he didn’t do that till 96.

Razor hits his teammate Douglas, and HBK rolls him up for the pin.

Bulldog and Owen in there now. They shake hands but then both go for the punch. Nice spot considering they are both sneaky heels.

Shawn and Razor now. I feel like this would have been the WWF’s top feud of 1996 if Ramon stayed.

Razor’s Edge! Ahmed Johnson saves Razor.

Perfect keeps making comments that if you think about them you’d think they were shoot comments on HBK. (“HBK always makes friends with the big guys”)

Vince asks who woulda thought that Michaels and Razor would be going at it at the Survivor Series. Um..everyone? They are on opposite teams here.

Sid holds Ramon for HBK to hit SCM, but Razor ducks and HBK nails Sid. HBK didn’t seem to care. Ramon pins Sid.

Sid powerbombs HBK out of anger. Actually seems justified.

Yokozuna looks huge here. Like huge huge.

Pearl River Plunge on Owen and he’s gone. It is a cool looking move to be honest. Someone should bring it back.

Razor hits the Razor’s Edge on Ahmed, but the Bulldog makes the save. Here comes the Kid, Sid and Dibiase! Their distraction leads to a Bulldog powerslam on Razor for the pin.

Ahmed, Bulldog and Shawn vs. Yoko.

Team HBK wins when Ahmed Johnson pins Yokozuna in 27:24. Ahmed comes in and slams Yokozuna. The Bulldog actually saves Yoko, but HBK and Ahmed double clothesline him over the top rope. Sweet Chin Music…then a splash from Ahmed for the win. Pretty good match despite the weird team mechanics. Puts Ahmed over for sure.

More Fake Clinton. This time he has Sunny on his lap, and he offers her a cabinet position. Lol?

WWF Championship-No DQ
Diesel© vs. Bret Hart

Bret and Diesel each take a turnbuckle off the corners of the ring.

The match was built up as the powerful Diesel vs. the wrestler Hart. Diesel starts with all power moves.

At Rumble 95, Bret was the aggressor to keep Diesel as a face. It’s clear that this match is the exact opposite. Diesel absolutely destroys Bret early on and Bret gets the sympathy. It made the Diesel heel turn a lot easier to do.

Chair shot from Diesel to Bret. This has been all Diesel.

Bret bites Diesel and rakes him in the face a few times. Normally heel moves…but Bret makes use of them as ‘a survive at all costs’ kinda sequence, and it works.

Bret vs. Diesel was basically made for Bret Hart’s attack the legs offense.

Figure Four! Wooo!

Bret ties Diesel’s leg to the ringpost. This is the only part of the match that feels a bit out of place, although the spot itself is creative.

See, now Bret using the chair feels justified, since Diesel used it earlier.

Bret uses the back of the chair instead of the seating part. I wonder if that was a mistake.

People used to joke that Diesel only had 2 moves and one was the Sidewalk Slam. Yeah…but it was one of the best Sidewalk Slams in wrestling.

Diesel is really selling the knee, which is great storytelling.

In one of the best spots of pre-attitude WWF, Bret gets on the ring apron and Diesel shoves him off…sending Bret through the announcer’s desk! It’s the first time we see that happen in WWF history I believe, and the way Bret hits just looks like it killed him.

Bret Hart pins Diesel in 24:54 to win the title. Diesel is about to finish off the lifeless Hart. Even his jackknife attempt doesn’t happen as Bret collapses. Diesel picks him up…and Bret surprises with a small package, 1…2…3! An enraged Diesel jackknifes Bret twice and nails some referees, basically making him a heel (although, not completely until Feburary). Great match, best of Diesel’s career. Bret and Diesel had such great chemistry.

They put over Diesel snapping after the event video package.

Survivor Series 95 is an interesting event. All of the matches accomplish something and range from average to good.

The opener had some good wrestling, even if the Barry Horowitz story is a little misplaced. Kid stuff though was good.

Women’s Survivor Series match was very good. Too bad the division died about 6 weeks later.

Bam Bam putting over Goldust is well done.

If you are an Undertaker fan, the Darkside vs. Royals match is great. If not, it’s okay, I guess. It further establishes Undertaker, whether he needed it or not.

Wildcard match was a little confusing, but still good and helped make Ahmed a star. I would think it was strange that the Bulldog was getting a World title shot after seeing it.

Bret vs. Diesel is a great match, and a great culmination of Bret’s story in 1994 where he lost the title and never got a fair shake to regain it. The reason why Bret vs. Diesel works and nothing else in 1995 does is because you actually believe these two are the top guys in the WWF.

Random note: I don’t know how people feel about Mr. Perfect’s commentary. He puts himself over constantly…but I think he’s supposed to as that was his character. I personally don’t mind it.

Anyway, you see some traces of the Attitude Era at Survivor Series 95 with Goldust and how Bret vs. Diesel was worked. This is a damn good show and I’m pretty sure the best show the WWF had in 1995.

Final Grade: A-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Summerslam ’95

Summerslam_1995_Poster

WWF Summerslam ‘95
August 27, 1995
Pittsburgh, PA
Reviewed on August 9, 2014

Well, we saw arguably up onto that point the worst Wrestlemania of all time a few months prior. How did Vince respond? By giving us Diesel vs. Mabel!

The WWF in 1995 had the talent but for some reason wouldn’t use them correctly. Mabel, DDS Isaac Yank’em and Kama all have high profile matches against top guys here. Why? I have no idea really. Despite Vince having a loaded roster there is no Owen Hart match. Or British Bulldog match. Jeff Jarrett? Bam Bam Bigelow? Yoko? But Mabel! Woo!

When Nitro came around the WWF started taking things a little more seriously. But overall it looked like the WWF had no idea of what they are doing. They also made the Summerslam ’94 mistake of putting the wrong match as the main event. According to Mabel it was because “Vince said the title must be on last”. Where was that at Summerslam ’94?!

Anyway, Shawn vs. Razor II is on this card, so there’s that to look forward to. Shawn had turned face the night after Mania XI (made little sense really, WWF needed top heels).

The Card

Dean Douglas is standing by! I wonder if Vince brought him in to show the WWF taught kids or something.

1-2-3 Kid vs. Hakushi

Not much of a story, but apparently no one wanted to really help out Hakushi except Bret Hart backstage, so once that feud ended no one cared about him. Meaning no one wanted to adapt to Hakushi’s unique style.

Kid was an amazing worker before he hurt is neck in 1997.

A feel like that tilt-a-whirl slam was supposed to be a backbreaker.

Bronco Buster from Hakushi! Kinda.

Nick kick to the back of the head.

Moonsault from Hakushi, nice!

PERFECT Flying Space Tiger Drop! Someone needs to add that to their repertoire immediately.

Kid gets some aerial moves of his own! This has picked up!

Hakushi pinned the 1-2-3 Kid in 9:27. Kid goes for a spin kick, and Hakushi drops him right on his head with a one arm powerbomb! It’s over there. It started a bit off, but turned into an excellent match. Too bad it wasn’t longer. That Tiger Drop was ridiculous.

King Mabel interview: BIG DADDY FOOL! Actually a pretty decent Mabel promo here, saying if he thought the Bulldog heel turn was a surprise, tonight he will have something bigger.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Bob “Spark Plugg” Holly

I believe this is the PPV of HHH. He still had the cane with him, and no lady yet.

Normally I’d lol at Holly’s WWF Racing jacket, but after reading his book it turned out that was a real race team!

HHH is acting like Regal with the lock up refusal. No surprise, he was just working with Regal in WCW.

Holly gets the early advantage!

Pretty nice turnbuckle bump from Holly there. Lawler makes a speeding reference.

We see the Bulldog has arrived! He attacked Diesel and turned heel in a tag match recently.

HHH hiptosses Holly over the top rope. Holly was an underrated worker.

Miscommunication on the Irish Whip there. Led to a great dropkick from Holly though.

HHH pins Bob Holly in 7:10. HHH turns a backdrop into the Pedigree (and not a facebuster!) for the win. Okay match, Holly looked good and HHH was fine too. It’s a match that feels like it shoulda been on RAW or even the main event of Superstars though. Not at Summerslam.

The Smokin’ Gunns vs. the Blu Brothers

Well, their Mania match was awful. Let’s see what the Harris Twins give us this time.

Random note, I was watching a DX vs. DOA match earlier, which had Billy Gunn against the Harris Twins. Just a weird coincidence.

There’s a almost messed up knee drop from one of the twins.

Billy Gunn pins Jacob? in 5:31. Sidewinder (awesome finish) for the win. Match was pretty nothing.

Barry Horowitz vs. Skip

Bodydonna Sunny is with Skip!

Horowitz is like a Mikey Whipwreck/Eugene/Zack Ryder hybrid.

Story here is Horowitz always lost, but he upset Skip in a tag match. So we are here.

Skip is suplexed out of the ring!

Sunny tries to throw in a towel, and gets ejected. Odd spot.

The crowd is behind Barry.

Hakushi is coming down to the ring! Fans know he does like Skip, which led to the Hakushi face turn.

Barry Horowitz pins Skip in 11:21. Hakushi springboard jumps over Skip, then Skip turns into a small package for the win! Horowitz wins! Horowitz wins! Match was okay I guess, pretty boring. The crowd popped big for Horowitz, but let’s be real, this isn’t a winner gimmick and the Horowitz push was gone shortly. Also, again, this hardly feels like a match worthy of Summerslam.

Dean Douglas goes over the last match, with “vivify” as the word to learn or something. Ref gets an F! Whatever.

We get some Ladder Match hype! Interview with IC Champ HBK!

WWF Women’s Championship
Alundra Blayze© vs. Bertha Faye

Ugh, Bertha Faye. What happened to Bull Nakano?

Kinda defeats the point of the monster if you knock her down in the first 10 seconds…

Hair pull botch. This isn’t going well.

Bertha Faye wins the title in 4:37. Horrible sitout powerbomb for the finish. All Blayze, but a pretty bad match. No one cared. Why didn’t Vince just let Rhonda Sing be herself I have no idea, but this was the 2nd to final nail in the coffin, with Madusa dumping the title in the trash can on Nitro being the final one. The crowd reaction difference from Summerslam ’94 and Summerslam ’95 is massive. No one cared here.

Casket Match
The Undertaker vs. Kama

Story here. Kama was able to steal the urn from Undertaker at Mania XI when part of the Million Dollar Corporation. Kama would melt it down to a chain (which was kinda awesome). So, Taker’s out for revenge!

Taker is seriously over here. Kinda shows how not over everything else had been since the opener.

Taker has cut the small sleeves of his shirt, leading to the #1 look he’s ever had in my opinion.

Kama catching Taker mid-Stinger Splash was pretty impressive.

They do an obvious Undertaker skinning the cat spot with Kama being sent into the casket by Taker’s legs. Looked bad. Cool intention though.

Paul Bearer is going after Dibiase! He’s got the blazer off and everything!

Kama tries to piledrive Taker on the casket, but Taker backdrops him into the ring. Pretty cool.

Both men are in the casket. It’s a draw!

The Undertaker wins in 16:26. Tombstone then casket roll for the win. Pretty much 16 minutes of nothing. What a boring match. Bearer was the highlight. At the piledriver attempt on the casket. But overall, yuck.

Bret Hart vs. D.D.S. Isaac Yank’em

A spinoff of the Bret vs. Lawler feud after Lawler lost a Kiss My Foot match to Bret. Weird, seems like Hart vs. Lawler blowoff should be here.

DDS is the future Kane of course.

Bret had an uncanny ability to go even with guys way lower than him and not lose anything as a result…and the other guy looks great. Yank’em looks solid here.

DDS tries to hang Bret on the top rope, but it’s a little bit short…

Legdrop off the top on a hanging on the top rope Bret! Nice, even if it missed a little.

Lawler saves Yank’em from the Sharpshooter!

Bret ties DDS like he would Diesel a few months later to the ringpost!

Blatant interference from Lawler doesn’t cause the DQ…right away.

Bret Hart wins by DQ in 16:07. Eventually the ref calls for the bell as Lawler and DDR tie Bret in the ropes and choke him. Match was good. Bret makes DDS look like a credible threat, but it is obvious DDS wasn’t ready yet. This was apparent when post-Bret he had zero notable matches until he was Kane two years later. Not sure why we got a DQ with a big new guy at the 2nd biggest show of the year, but whatever.

WWF Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match
Shawn Michaels© vs. Razor Ramon

Backstage story here: this was originally Shawn vs. Sid, but Vince realized he needed a good match on this card.

Also, Vince told Shawn they couldn’t use the ladder as a weapon in this match due to violence stuff.

Nice fake SCM spot early on. Good a good reaction from the crowd.
Now Razor goes for the Razor’s Edge!

Crazy suplex from the inside to the outside by Razor to Shawn, and Shawn’s foot nails the steel railing. That looked like it hurt!

They go for their finishers again, but no dice. No ladder so far.

Fall Away Slam off the second rope!

Razor is the first to go for the belt! Shawn shoves him off.

Haha, Shawn hits Razor “inadvertently” with the ladder. Nice creative spot considering the limitation.

Shawn gets his leg caught in the ladder and goes down with it. Looked brutal! Razor now stomps away on the knee!

Razor nails HBK with the ladder in the knee, and Vince covers it on commentary by saying Razor was trying to set up the ladder and hit HBK accidentally!

Slam on the ladder. Ouch!

Great psychology, HBK is selling the hell out of that knee.

Kneebreaker using the ladder. Just great stuff here.

Indian Deathlock from Ramon! Wow!

Ramon just drops the ladder on HBK’s knee!

Backsuplex off the ladder by HBK! What a match!

Ramon sells being slammed into the corner ladder by flying over the top rope. Great stuff.

Moonsault off the ladder by HBK!

HBK tries his top of the ladder splash on Ramon, but unlike Mania X, Ramon moves!

Double crotch spot, but Ramon misses a bit. Still looked good.

HBK misses Ramon on the apron and basically suicide dives with a ladder onto nothing. Ouch.

Ramon grabs a second ladder! There’s innovation!

HBK goes to climb…but gets Razor Edge’d off the ladder!

HBK climbs up one, and Razor climbs up the second ladder! HBK superkicks Ramon off his ladder!

HBK leaps for the belt and misses crashing to the mat and hurting his arm it looked like. Was that supposed to be the finish?

Ramon goes for the Edge but HBK backdrops him over! Michaels doesn’t set up the ladder correctly and actually does screw up as the belt doesn’t come down with him.

Shawn Michaels wins in 25:03. HBK actually throws a fit in the ring before going up and grabbing the belt to win. There was even a crowd shot thrown in. Way to go HBK. Anyway, the match saved Summerslam. It’s pretty amazing and had great psychology, which is something you will never see in a ladder match today. But overall incredible.

More Douglas. He’s defining bad here. Ramon gets in his face and punches him down.

WWF Championship
Diesel© vs. King Mabel

HBK standing tall with the IC belt would have made a great finish to the show.

Anyway, story is Mabel won King of the Ring and now got a title match with Big Daddy Fool!

Quick Diesel interview before the match. He’s gonna get MEDIVAL on Mabel!

They almost mess up the first spot, an Irish Whip. Shrug.

Diesel goes for a slam! Mabel stops him.

FLYING DIESEL OVER THE TOP ROPE. You can tell Diesel is at least trying here.

Mabel angles Diesel incorrectly on a whip into the post, so Diesel actually hits the bottom turnbuckle somehow.

Horrible Bossman slam there. Come on.

Diesel in a shoot said that he asked Mabel not to do the sitting on the back spot. Mabel does it anyway it looks like it hurt like hell. Diesel said he couldn’t feel his legs for a minute afterwards. Probably why we follow with a terrible camel clutch.

For some reason Mabel runs over the ref. No idea why.

Mo is in the ring! Double team on Diesel! Here comes Lex Luger!

Diesel actually takes a shot at him, smart booking there, as it seems like this is Mabel’s “surprise”, like the Bulldog heel turn.

Luger attacks Mo. This is the last time we’d see him till 8 nights later on Nitro!

Diesel retains the title by pin in 9:14. Mabel misses a 2nd rope splash (although he grazes Diesel). Diesel comes off the second rope with a flying clothesline! And we end the top two PPVs in 1995 for the WWF with flying clotheslines! Horrible. Mabel sucks. You know, sometimes I don’t blame Diesel for the poor title run. Just look at some of his opponents!

Anyway, we got one five star classic, a very good opener and Bret carrying a green Glenn Jacobs to something good. Everything ranged from bad to horrid. Diesel vs. Mabel is in Undertaker vs. Undertaker territory you know.

Historically? PPV debut of HHH and Kane, even though both wouldn’t really be the same guy when they got over?

I have a hard time giving this less than a C with the Ladder Match, even with Mabel vs. Diesel’s bad match. There was enough good stuff scattered around to keep it.

Jeez, why not just use the already over talent you had already Vince. How is Owen Hart not on this show?

What was the point of the Bulldog being at the arena anyway?

Final Grade: C

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews In Your House I

In_Your_House_1

WWF In Your House (IYH 1)
May 14, 1995
Syracuse, NY
Reviewed on February 27, 2014

Background: 1994 was a changing of the guard for the World Wrestling Federation. Firmly past the days of Hulkamania, Bret Hart was placed on top of the company. And while Bret had a stellar year in 1994, Vince McMahon clearly thought that he needed a World Champion that was big and strong, much like Hogan. Enter Big Daddy Cool Diesel. With Diesel on top, Bret was pushed back to the upper midcard; being the workhorse while Diesel got the top spot.

WCW had planned to run 10 PPV events in 1995. In 1994, the WWF ran five (Rumble, Mania, KOTR, Summerslam and Survivor Series). In Your House would become the PPV event to bridge the major shows. Thus, the monthly PPV format had been established. The WCW-WWF War continued on.

The Card

Todd Pettengill! WWF is giving away a house!

Bret Hart vs. Hakushi

Video before the match shows Hakushi doing a moonsault off a stage onto Bret. That’s good enough for me.

Maybe I am mistaken, but isn’t the name “The Modern Day Kamikaze” racist?

Anyway, Hakushi is an awesome heel, it’s a shame he didn’t do better in his one year in the WWF. This match should be absolutely awesome.

Bret dedicates the match to his mother, the PPV is on Mother’s Day afterall. Hakushi has an undefeated streak on the line. This is also the first of two matches that Bret Hart will be wrestling in. He fights Jerry Lawler later.

Crowd is chanting “USA”. Bret’s Canadian you know…

Nice scientific wrestling early on. Hakushi has control, which by default puts him over, as it seems like he is out wrestling Bret Hart.

Bret really is making Hakushi look like a million bucks here.

I had no idea Hakushi had the Bronco Buster in his arsenal.

This is still all Hakushi. Perfect handspring elbow into the corner.

Bret starts a comeback, but Hakushi stops him again. Beautiful diving headbutt by Hakushi. This match is also continually putting over Bret’s resilience.

Bret starts to make the comeback. I never understood the whole Bret Hart Five Moves of Doom thing in regards to him never changing it up. Unless a bulldog is one of those moves. Even so, he didn’t do all five.

Hakushi just sold a clothesline but flipping in the air. Wow.

Shinja (Hakushi’s manager) tried to trip up Bret, and Bret responded by diving through the ropes onto Shinja!

Hakushi goes for a vertical suplex…only for Bret to reverse it over the top rope. Both men go flying out. Hakushi hits a perfect springboard Asai Moonsault on the outside! What a match!

Bret Hart pins Hakushi in 14:39. Bret tries to roll Hakushi up, only Hakushi blocks and tries a roll up himself. Hakushi then tries a belly to back suplex, but Bret rolls Hakushi up and gets the win. Fantastic match. Hakushi and Bret looked strong.

Bret twists his knee coming down from the ring apron. Lawler then in the 1-900 hotline room tries to get the match started with Bret right away. Great stuff.

Handicap Match
Jeff Jarrett and The Roadie vs. Razor Ramon

This feud started at the Royal Rumble, where Jarrett won the IC title from Ramon. The Roadie caused a DQ in the Wrestlemania rematch.

Apparently The 1-2-3 Kid was supposed to be Ramon’s partner but he was injured.

Not sure why we didn’t just get Jarrett vs. Ramon for the IC Title here.

Ramon and Jarrett seem to have good chemistry. Story of the match is Jarrett dominating, and everytime Ramon takes control The Roadie attacks Ramon.

Apparently this is the Roadie’s first match. Roadie is the Road Dogg, in case anyone reading didn’t know.

One of my favorite spots is Jarrett going for a sunset flip, and Ramond breaking it by just punching Jarrett in the face. So effective.

Another good spot between these two is Ramon setting up the Razor’s Edge, and Jarrett just backdropping him over the top rope.

Razor Ramon def. Jeff Jarrett and the Roadie when he pinned Jarrett in 12:36. Ramon knocks Jarrett into the Roadie, then hits the Razor’s Edge for the win. It’s a standard Jarrett vs. Razor match with some Roadie stuff, but that’s not a bad thing.

Jarrett and Roadie double team Ramon afterwards…when Aldo Montoya tries to make the save? Okay? Montoya gets thrown out of the ring before a random guy comes in to save Ramon. This is the Savio Vega debut. They treat him as a random fan, with police and all coming to escort him out.

Michael gets in a funny line about Montoya. “Knocks that athletic support attire off his head”.

Lawler’s still begging to fight the injured Bret Hart right away. He tells Jack Tunney that he’s just a president, but Lawler’s a King!

We get a video hyping up Sycho Sid. Man the main event is going to suck.

King of the Ring Qualifier
Mabel vs. Adam Bomb

Mabel’s path to the main event starts here!

Never realized Adam Bomb was a high flyer. He hits a flying clothesline off the top rope and dives over the top onto Mabel.

Mabel pinned Adam Bomb in 1:54. It doesn’t matter though. An Adam Bomb crossbody leads to a slam for the win.

In the 1-900 room, Razor introduces Savio Vega as a Caribbean Superstar.

WWF World Tag Team Championship
Yokozuna and Owen Hart © vs. The Smokin’ Gunns

Owen Hart had a surprise partner at Wrestlemania to take on the Gunns and revealed Yokozuna. They won the titles. This is the rematch.

They show Bret with an icepack on his knee.

Apparently according to Bret Hart’s book, Jim Neidhart was supposed to be Owen’s partner in this whole storyline, but he got himself fired.

You know, Billy Gunn is in the ring here. This was 19 years ago. Billy Gunn is a Tag Team Champion today. Heck the Roadie is his partner today, and we saw him earlier.

Pretty standard match. The Gunns isolate Owen Hart while trying to keep Yokozuna out.

Yokozuna and Owen Hart retain the title when Owen pins Bart Gunn in 5:44. Weak finish. Yoko takes himself out on the outside by running into the ringpost. The Gunns double team Owen but Owen survives. Bart Gunn ends up on the outside and Yoko legdrops him…although he only gets him with the end of his leg and not the thigh, which looked horrible. He rolls Bart in and Owen gets the pin. I wish it got more time and the match itself wasn’t bad.

Diesel interview. Kevin Nash just is not the Hulk Hogan type babyface.

Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler

Lawler has a gorgeous woman in the ring with him…who he claims is his mother.

Bret backstage reveals that he faked the knee injury. This I believe is also when Vince McMahon says Gorilla Position on air, but it is edited out here.

Bret sells the knee injury everytime Lawler looks at him. Great stuff.

Bret dominates Lawler early on. Lawler though gets a piledriver…which Bret basically no sells.

Lawler regains control with a rake to the face, but it doesn’t last long as a top rope leap goes wrong.

Jerry Lawler pinned Bret Hart at 5:01. Shinja comes to ringside and as the ref tries to tell him to leave, he gets knocked through the ropes with his leg getting caught. Bret has the match won, but Hakushi comes off the top rope and nails the Hitman. Hakushi hits two more diving headbutts, and the ref comes back just to see Lawler get the pin on Bret. Good match, but too short. Showed that Lawler can’t hang with the Hitman without help, which is basically the truth.

We spend about 10 minutes giving away this house. What a fucking waste of time. With this and the Mabel vs. Adam Bomb matches, we could have added a few minutes to the Tag Title match and Lawler vs. Bret.

WWF Championship
Diesel© vs. Sycho Sid

Sid was part of the Million Dollar Corporation here. Sid was Shawn Michaels’ bodyguard at Wrestlemania XI, where he inadvertently cost HBK the title. He turned on HBK the next night. Diesel saved HBK, turning HBK and setting up Diesel vs. Sid.

Diesel starts off with these fast moving flying clotheslines into the corner. I admit I was surprised.

Apparently there was a Henry Godwinn attack on Diesel on Superstars that injured his back, so Sid is working on that.

Match has really gotten pretty slow. It’s hard for Diesel to get sympathy as a babyface, and with Bret Hart having great matches on the card, it’s hard for Diesel and Sid to be the main.

We get a couple of camel clutches. This match hasn’t been horrid, but it’s just boring and slow.

Sid hits a low chokeslam on Diesel.

Diesel power kicks out of a Sid powerbomb. Now Diesel “Hulk’s Up”. I’m sorry but it’s obvious to me why no one bought this.

Diesel retains the title by DQ when Tatanka interferes in 11:31. Diesel hits the Jackknife before Tatanka runs in. Bam Bam Bigelow comes in to even the odds…he was kicked out of the Million Dollar Corporation after losing to LT. Slow match. I guess the best you could do considering who was involved.

The first In Your House could have been really good. Bret vs. Hakushi was a great start. The Ramon vs. Jarrett/Roadie match was solid as well. It goes downhill from there. Either give Mabel and Adam Bomb more time or don’t have them on the card (I pick the latter). This whole house giveaway thing…if even real…do it on RAW or something. Both the Tag Team Title match and Bret vs. Lawler could have been helped by having an extra few minutes each. And Diesel vs. Sid is just not the way to go…and ending it with a DQ is even worse.

Final Grade: C

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews Wrestlemania XI

WrestleManiaXI

WWF Wrestlemania XI
April 2, 1995
Hartford, CT
Reviewed on July 10, 2014

Things were going wrong in the WWF, even if Vince didn’t want to accept it yet.

It seemed that the WWF was going into a really interesting direction with Bret Hart’s banner 1994 year. But ultimately Vince still didn’t believe a smaller guy could be THE guy, at least the real super over guy and Diesel was given the rocket babyface push. Diesel, who was actually pretty decent with the right opponent in 1994 and a pretty entertaining heel became a bland babyface. He also made a great point in a recent shoot interview that they gave him the rocket push…but wouldn’t let him go over Bret at the Rumble, which hurt his credibility somewhat. Of course, his buddy Shawn Michaels was basically 1b in terms of getting guys over with his selling, so Diesel had a chance here.

The WWF’s booking overall in 1995 is puzzling. It’s not really seen yet, but eventually Vince puts arguable his top 5 guys on the same alignment (Bret, Diesel, Shawn, Undertaker and Razor Ramon. Even stranger, Bam Bam Bigelow would join that face side as well as Vince tried to push him.

The Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Lawrence Taylor spectacle was interesting to say the least. Vince still had all the celebrities he could afford (note, in 1996 Mania had none) but it turned out to be more of a parody of previous Manias. Taylor vs. Bam Bam wasn’t Mr. T vs. Piper. Pam Anderson with Diesel didn’t have a good effect as Diesel just wasn’t Hulk Hogan. Hogan was mega over at the time, it seemed like he belonged with Cyndi Lauper or whomever. Just like The Rock would now. Not Big Daddy Cool Diesel…

Also, interestingly, Wrestlemania XI was held in Hartford. With all due respect to Hartford, this was a MAJOR step down from everywhere else Mania had been (NY, NY/LA/Chi, DET, AC, AC, TOR, LA, INDY, Vegas, NY). It smells to me like Vince knew money was gonna be tight, and to him it didn’t matter where the event was.

The Card

Here are some celebrities: Pam Anderson, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Nick Turturro, Salt-N-Peppa. Of course LT is in the main event.

The Allied Powers (Lex Luger and The British Bulldog) vs. The Blu Bros.

The Blu brothers are Ron and Don Harris.

The Blus also have Uncle Zebekiah, the future Zeb Culter. Zeb is against all American Luger here!

Bulldog and Luger should have had a better tag run, but Vince was still gonna push the Bulldog in singles (hence a later heel turn), and to be honest, they just didn’t have any chemistry together.

Evidence of this is Luger powerslamming a Blu Twin right onto the Bulldog.

The Bulldog’s hanging vertical suplex was one of my favorite moves as a kid.

Eli (I’m guessing here) with a terrible backbreaker on the Bulldog.

The flying forearm just had no steam as a top move. The Torture Rack was better.

TWIN MAGIC! Luger is shocked that the forearm didn’t get the job down. Crowd doesn’t care.

The Allied Powers win when the Bulldog pinned…Jacob? in 6:34. So Luger is upset his forearm not finishing the match, then the Bulldog hits a sunset flip on Jacob for the win. So much for tagging or anything as clearly Luger was legal, but Bulldog. In fact, there was ONE tag on the Allied Powers side. Jacob also kicks out. Awful opener, especially for Wrestlemania.

STORY OF BACKSTAGE…no one can find Pamela Anderson. Nick Turturro is a detective looking for her and finds Jenny McCarthy instead. Of course, there are technical problems, so we don’t hear a thing said.

WWF Intercontinental Championship
Jeff Jarrett© vs. Razor Ramon

This was probably Jarrett’s peak depending on how you feel about 1999.

This is a rematch from the Rumble where Jarrett beat Ramon for the title. The Roadie got involved.

Ramon has The 1-2-3 Kid with him.

Ramon’s pyro goes off after he attacks Jarrett. Weird.

Cool Jarrett fake out off the 2nd rope…turns into a mistimed something as Razor wasn’t in position?

Jarrett tries to leave but the Kid blocks him. Why Jarrett just didn’t shove the Kid out of the way I don’t know.

Not sure why I should be okay with face Kid getting involved. Lawler points out correctly that the Kid deserved to get kicked into the steel railing.

Jarrett works on the knee 10 minutes in, the same one Ramon hurt at the Rumble. Wonder why that wasn’t the game plan from the start.

Razor Ramon wins by DQ in 13:26. Seriously, all that for a DQ finish? Ramon has Jarrett in the Razor’s Edge and the Roadie attacks the knee for the DQ. This is Wrestlemania. Shrug. On the flip side…it’s not a bad match. Nothing special, but a lot better than the opener. Still, ugh at the finish. Just ugh.

Ha, they just redo the McCarthy segment. Then Shawn Michaels is in the house!

The Undertaker vs. King Kong Bundy

Some random MLB umpire is the referee. No idea why.

This storyline goes back to the Taker vs. Taker Summerslam feud where Ted Dibiase’s Undertaker lost. Then Dibiase send IRS Bundy and Bigelow to attack Taker during the Survivor Series Casket Match. Taker vs. IRS followed at The Rumble, where the Million Dollar Corp got the urn. And here we are.

What a waste of the Undertaker. In terms of look and appearance, Undertaker’s gimmick was at his peak here. Best entrance in all of wrestling. While Taker vs. Bundy name wise seems like a big deal…Bundy really couldn’t work and was an 80s guy.

Taker’s 1995 is really something: IRS, Bundy, Kama, Mabel. What a waste.

Taker gets back the urn, but Kama comes down to take it back from Paul Bearer.

Bundy’s clotheslines look awful.

The Undertaker pins King Kong Bundy in 6:36. In a cool moment, Bundy gives Taker the avalanche and Taker no-sells it, which is pretty bad ass and gets a rise from the crowd. Taker wins with the flying clothesline, I guess Bundy wasn’t going for the Chokeslam. Anyway, awful. Taker hits Bundy with some stuff that Bundy “sells”, Bundy hits horrible offense on Taker, the urn deal, and the finish. That’s the match. Somehow though…it was better than Taker’s last Mania match at Mania IX.

MONGO. Somehow he messes up his one line. He’s on the NFL team that will second LT. The NFLers challenge the Million Dollar Corp. That’s actually a great idea, they should have had a 10 man tag.

Turturro runs into Taylor Thomas and Bob Backlund playing chess. Backlund doesn’t know who Pamela Anderson is…and then Taylor Thomas checkmates him. Backlund goes crazy over JTT’s smarts. Funny segment, really because Backlund owns.

WWF World Tag Team Championship
The Smokin’ Gunns vs. Owen Hart and a secret partner

Owen says he picked his partner because he beat his brother Bret at Mania…Yokozuna! Might as well hand the belts over now Gunns.

Lawler and McMahon sell it like its death for the Gunns. Which is awesome.

The Gunns were not good promo men. At least not in ’95.

Only Shawn and Sid have had a good promo tonight. And Backlund…technically…

Lawler brings up that Owen debuted as the Blue Blazer at Mania six years prior. I thought that was interesting.

Owen’s partner was supposed to be Jim Neidhart, be he was fired previously, at least according to Bret’s book.

This is a very well booked match. Focus is the Gunns keeping Yoko on the outside and doing all they can to double team Owen. It is interesting to see what is basically the inverse of the hot tag setup.

Huge legdrop on Billy, and Billy sells it like a million dollars by rolling to the outside and crashing to the floor.

Billy Gunn hairpulling Yokozuna down was a little ridiculous.

Owen Hart and Yokozuna win the Tag Titles when Owen pinned Billy in 9:42. Yoko squashes Billy, then dumps Bart. Owen gets tagged in just to make the pin, which is also genius booking. It looks like Owen Hart took the shortest shortcut ever to win a title…which fit perfectly with the character. A good Mania moment for Owen, and a solid match overall. Finally.

Solid promo for Bam Bam Bigelow. Amazing he didn’t draw more money.

I Quit Match
Bob Backlund vs. Bret Hart

Roddy Piper is the ref.

This spawned from the Bret vs. Backlund WWF Title match at Survivor Series where Helen Hart threw in the towel. Of course, Bret never submitted, but since the towel was thrown in the title changed hands.

So here’s a huge problem with this match. Piper sticks the mic in Backlund and Bret’s face asking “whadda say”. Backlund sounds hilarious saying no. Fans audibly laugh. Bret was not happy about this.

Lawler asks Vince who Bret beat at Mania VIII and Vince says the British Bulldog. Seriously?

This match is basically Stone Cold vs. Bret at Mania 13…only the exact opposite. It’s all submission holds and it’s not good.

Bret Hart makes Backlund submit in 9:34. Backlund gets the Chicken Wing, but Bret counters and locks Backlund in his own hold. Backlund never says I quit, instead we just hear some groans and Piper calls it. Terrible. Bret called this his worst PPV match ever and I don’t blame him. Bret even looked pissed when it was over. Backlund says he saw the light afterwards. Weird thing too…these two had a great match (I think) at Survivor Series only five months earlier.

Pam Anderson can’t be found! Oh no!

Classic awful Diesel promo. It was fine until he screws up at the end.

WWF Championship
Diesel© vs. Shawn Michaels

Celebrity time keeper and announcers and whatever.

Shawn comes out with Jenny McCarthy. And Diesel is with Pam Anderson! Well no kidding.

Shawn does look like a superstar here.

Shawn has Sid in his corner. Vince still wasn’t sure HBK could look like a threat with a big man.

For the second match, we get some action…then the face’s in ring pyro. Weird.

Pam Anderson looks embarrassed to be there.

Shawn Michaels has already stolen the show and we are 3 minutes in.

Michaels’ actually clotheslines Diesel over and skins the cat. That would have been GREAT as the Rumble ’96 finish.

Michaels off the top to the outside on Diesel! Michaels is literally saving Wrestlemania here.

Michaels off the apron and splashes Diesel on the floor. You didn’t see this stuff in WWF ’95 for sure.

HBK bulldogs Diesel by leaping off the top!

The match does slow down and something seems off about Diesel’s comeback. It’s just hard to have sympathy for Diesel’s character.

We miss the ref bumping off the apron.

So HBK superkicks Diesel, but the ref is out. Sid throws the ref back in. Diesel gets a strong kickout at 2. There are boos. This is a very important moment in the WWF, and I will write why after the match is over.

Backsuplex not enough either for HBK, and the crowd seems upset, it does look like the crowd turned against Diesel here, and they have.

Diesel catches HBK off the top in the sidewalk slam position, which is ridiculous (in a good way).

There is no heat on the Diesel Hulk Up.

Diesel pins Michaels to retain in 20:35. Horrible powerbomb (which Nash blamed HBK in a shoot) to win. Match was great early on, but kinda went south, especially at the end. So let’s talk about the kickout.

There are two accounts here, Shawn’s and Bret Hart’s. According to Shawn, he and Diesel were laying out the match and Vince wanted Diesel to look strong on a kickout. Shawn felt Diesel needed all the sympathy he could get (he is correct…and for the record HE did a great job getting it for him until the kickout) and this needed to be a one…two…barely up. HBK compared it to Lex Luger’s 93-94 push interestingly. He thought it would look like shoving Diesel shown the fans throats. HBK and Diesel insisted on the slow kickout, and Vince said no.

Bret’s account of it was that as soon as the kickout happened, he thought Shawn had played Diesel and selfishly did all he could to make himself look good at Diesel’s expense (I think Shawn did do this, but not at Diesel’s expense. He got them BOTH over until the end). Bret thought Diesel’s reign was as good as dead when this happened, and he wasn’t completely wrong, although there are other reasons.

Also in Shawn’s book, Shawn say the reaction is what led to his face turn the night after, which I’ll get to at the end of the review. Let’s just say that was a huge mistake in hindsight, especially since HBK was probably the best heel in the business at the time.

Anyway, very good match, but I think the end (and the messed up finish) hold it back from being great. Somehow this was the overall Match of the Year for 1995. Crazy to me, since Bret Hart vs. Diesel at Survivor Series ’95 was a much better match.

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Lawrence Taylor

Media has been all over ringside for this show, it reminds me of Bash at the Beach ’98.

We get some NFL vs. Million Dollar Corporation stuff. Heavy chant for LT.

Bam Bam threatens Salt-n-Pepa. Again, Bigelow would have drawn money as a monster heel.

After listening to how Pat Patterson would insert himself into Mania somehow to get a Mania paycheck, I think it’s funny seeing him as the ref here.

Huge start for LT gets the fans into it.

Bulldog from Taylor!

Taylor actually looks pretty damn good in the ring early on.

Bigelow gets the advantage (which he should). Still good considering LT is involved.

Bigelow hits a huge moonsault, but then tends to the knee. Seems like a way to get Bigelow’s moonsault in without LT just kicking out of it…but it really doesn’t look great for Bam Bam when LT kicks out anyway.

Bigelow’s spinkick owns.

LT survives a top rope Bigelow headbutt. I never realized it, but these are pretty big problems for Bigelow’s future.

Lawrence Taylor pins Bam Bam Bigelow in 11:42. Taylor makes a comeback, then comes off the 2nd rope with a flying forearm for the win. Forearm did look good. This is a decent match, even good, especially considering that Taylor isn’t a pro wrestler. There is a problem here though. Bigelow wasn’t established as a main eventer and this loss did hurt him. Someone like Big Show could have done this, simply because Show is established, if that makes sense. LT survived a top rope Bigelow moonsault and flying headbutt. Still, for what it was, it was very good. I don’t think it should have mained though.

Let’s talk about the two main events, because without them (and Owen!) this show is a flat out F.

This becoming the catalyst to turning Shawn face was an unfortunate…near fatal WWF error. Shawn as a heel could have rematched Diesel (since he did beat him in this match really, ref bump screwed him), and if he won the title even faced off against Bret, Undertaker, and even had his match vs. Razor be the World Title match at Summerslam. INSTEAD…we got Shawn turning face…and Diesel vs. Sid for a few months before transitioning into Diesel vs. Mabel. They could have even done Shawn turning on Sid and did heel Shawn vs. Sid, as Shawn proved in ’96 he (and only he) could get great matches out of Sid. Keeping Shawn heel, and probably even winning the title, was the way to go.

So we need top heels. Somehow we LOSE a top heel here in Shawn. What about Bigelow? Nope. Somehow Bigelow gets turned face because he lost to LT. The remaining top heels were Yoko and Owen (which would have been fine to be honest, although Yoko had lost a step due to being huge…or bigger than he was) Jarrett and Sid. Faces were Bret, Diesel, Taker, Shawn etc. Talk about unbalanced.

Awful matches. A DQ in the IC title match. A decent tag. A very good World Title match that was hurt by its last 5 minutes. A main event that wasn’t bad, but I mean, it’s supposed to be the Wrestlemania Main Event. Pointless celebs.

Normally something like this is a C, but like I said, this is Wrestlemania, and really should have been better than it was.

Final Grade: D

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews AAA When Worlds Collide ’94

AAA When Worlds Collide 1994
November 6, 1994
Los Angeles, CA
Reviewed on May 18, 2014

I’m not going to pretend I really know anything about AAA in 1994 (or now, really), but this show did have some significance in regards to the future of American professional wrestling. I figure this could be a fun special project.

There are two things of significance that drew me to doing this show. The first is the WCW connection. AAA and WCW had some type of working relationship here (Mike Tenay’s commenating debut!) and WCW helped AAA in regards to securing the deal for an American PPV. WCW handled the American broadcast. A lot of the guys on this show (Rey Mysterio Jr., Eddy Guerrero, Psicosis, Chris Benoit) would eventually get to WCW when Eric Bischoff moved forward in acquiring talent…although they all would go through ECW first. Guerrero specifically wrote in his book about how this PPV was key in getting noticed by ECW and hoped he and tag team partner Art Barr would get picked up. This was because the peso had crashed, and Mexican wrestlers were not making as much as they were before.

This leads to my second point of significance: Los Gringos Locos, Eddy Guerrero and Art Barr. One of the true pioneers in tag team wrestling. They were actually called La Pareja del Terror as there was a bigger stable called Los Gringos Locos, but Eddy make it clear in his book that the stable version was watered down…that Eddy and Art were the real deal. It was rumored Paul Heyman was already planning on bringing in Los Gringos Locos to ECW to feud with Public Enemy, but Art Barr passed away two weeks after this show. Of course, Heyman still brought Guerrero in, and the rest is history. This show has a well-regarded two out of three falls Mask vs. Hair match between Los Gringos Locos and El Hijo del Santo and Octogon.

The Card

The opening hype package talks a lot about the IWC (International Wrestling Council). I think it is one big heel group that had its own titles, but I’m not sure.

Mini-Match
Espectrito and Jerrito Estrada vs. Mascarita Sagrada and Octagoncito

There’s history between these four, but Sagrada had made Espectrito unmask, which is one of the biggest things in Mexico.

A lot of cool armdrag sequences to start…but some of them do look pretty damn fake to be honest.

This match (and probably the whole card, since this is a Lucha Libra promotion) is Lucha Libre rules. That means tags aren’t necessarily required, if someone gets thrown out, their partner can just come in. This usually is a lot of fun.

Some really fun high flying moves, including a perfect suicide dive from Oct.

Mascarita Sagrada and Octagoncito defeated Jerrito Estrada and Espectrito when Sagrada pinned Espectrito in 8:30. Cool double team that led to a top rope moonsault for the win. Referee was out of place though and the count was awkward. Shame it ended as it was just picking up. To be fair though, this was just a string of spots with a billion armdrags. I would call it decent, leaning towards good.

Whoever the announcer is with Tenay is awful. He just got all the names confused.

Fuezra Guerrera, Psicosis and Madonna’s Boyfiend vs. Heavy Metal, Rey Mysterio Jr. and Latin Lover

Guerrera is Juvi’s father. We know Psicosis. Madonna’s Boyfield is Louie Spicolli. Heavy Metal and Latin Lover each made Royal Rumble 97 appearances. We all know Rey.

In Lucha Libra there are “captains”. Guerrera and Metal are the captains.

Team Guerrera are the rudos, or heels. They are part of Los Gringos Locos I believe.

Rey is 19 years old here.

Nice Rey vs. Psicosis early on.

Spicolli feels like such a weird member of this match.

We get some Spicolli and Latin Lover dancing. I bet Spicolli was pretty over in AAA.

Awesome sequence between Psicosis and Heavy Metal.

Man Rey was awesome even at 19.

Spicolli just tosses Rey from over his head into the crowd. That owned.

Heavy Metal no sells a trip kick from Psicosis by springboard backflipping. That was pretty awesome. Left the announcer that’s not Tenay speechless.

Damn to the outside Swanton from Rey to Spicolli.

Team Guerrera wins when Guerrera makes Metal submit in 12:46. Lame neck hold/armbar finishes. Match had some good stuff and some bad stuff. The good stuff was really good. Rey and Psicosis are in their own tier, but Metal and Lover were pretty good too. Spicolli is clearly the odd man out, but he wasn’t bad. My question is, is it generally accepted that Fuerza Guerrera sucks Mil Mascaras style? Or did he just have an off night? Guerrera no sold things, and generally looked awkward in the ring. The finish was also pretty bad. Overall though, this is a fun match.

Tito Santana, Pegasus Kid and 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Blue Panther, La Parka and Jerry Estrada

Interesting combination of guys here. Only one without an extended USA run is Panther. Santana is a famous WWE wrestler. Kid is Benoit of course. Scorpio was good in ECW, a WCW World Tag Team Champion and Flash Funk in WWE. La Parka was the chairman of WCW. Estrada was part of Savio Vega’s Los Boricas.

Captains are Pegasus Kid and I think Parka.

Team Benoit is IWC, so they are the rudos here.

The technico team (faces) are having problems.

2 Cold Scorpio was really good at one time.

I think I found one of the errors this show did. The whole conversation is about how Tito Santana is the weak link of his team because he hasn’t wrestled Mexican style a lot. If you are trying to appeal to an American audience, Santana was WAY the most accomplished of his team at this point.

La Parka and Scorpio with a funny meeting in the middle of the ring. La Parka is awesome.

Estrada and La Parka clearly not getting along.

Estrada and La Parka argue about who pins Scorpio. It will probably cost them the match.

Benoit, Scorpio and Santana win when Benoit pinned Panther in 14:58. Benoit counters a powerbomb with an ugly hurricanrana to get the pin. Crowd didn’t see that as the finish, and this is the third underwhelming finish out of three matches. Match was unfortunately hurt by the La Parka-Estrada storyline. There was some good stuff from Scorpio and Benoit though. Okay match.

Hey a Starrcade advert! Chris Cruise, the other announcer, actually says “I would guess Hulk Hogan would be at Starrcade” right after a video that promoted Hogan. Perceptive.

Two Out of Three Falls – Hair vs. Mask Match
La Pareja del Terror vs. El Hijo del Santo and Octagon

There is a lot of history here, as these two had feuded for a year. Back in July, Guerrero and Barr won the tag title from Santo and Octagon.

Weird thing here too. A fall only counts when both guys are defeated.

Chris Cruise tells us there is a 30 minute time limit, but that can be changed later. Why have it then?

Guerrero and Santo with some basic wrestling early.

First fall comes very quickly. Awesome doomsday device type move, with Eddy doing a hurricanrana instead of a clothesline to Santo. Art Barr frog splashes (Eddy took it from him as a tribute) Octagon shortly afterwards. 1-0 Gringos.

At first I thought the quick fall was stupid, but it works out great. HUGE heat for Gringos.

Eddy with a floatover fall away slam. Never saw that before.

This is the first match I’ve ever seen of Art Barr. But he seems awesome.

Top rope hurricanrana by Eddy, and he pins Santo! We are one pin of Octagon away here.

Barr backdrops Octagon into Guerrero…and Octagon hurricanranas him for the pin when Barr was playing toward the crowd! Octagon then traps Barr in some crazy octopus hold and Barr taps, and we are tied! Crowd is super hot now!

The logic kinda sucks for the beginning of the third fall. Each team separately breaks up submission holds at their leisure…without the opposing illegal man trying to help. Whatever.

Ok, quick history lesson here. Earlier in the card Cruise and Tenay talked about how the only move banned in Mexico is the piledriver because it severly injured someone. This matters because…

Behind the referee’s back Barr spikes Octagon with a Tombstone Piledriver and gets the easy pin. You heard the crowd gasp. AND Octagon gets stretchered out. Talk about great heel heat here. We have a handicap match left.

Santo survives the Barr frog splash. Santo chant breaks out.

Heel miscomminucation….and Santo goes crazy!

Blue Panther, who was in Santo and Octagon’s corner, attacks Barr from behind without the ref seeing…and spikes him with a piledriver! Crowd is going crazy. Santo gets the pin on Barr.

Santo and Octagon win when Santo pins Guerrero in 22:29. Guerrero hits some suplexes and hurricanranas, but Santo counters one and gets the roll up for the win! Huge pop! I think technically the match wasn’t perfect…but Los Gringos Locos were just awesome heels here. The whole pin both guys idea worked out great, as it allowed two big comebacks for Octagon and Santo. Great match overall. Barr and Eddy could have made big money in the future had Barr not passed away. Guerrero and Barr get a haircut, of course.

Steel Cage Match
Perro Aguayo vs. Konnan

Konnan was the biggest thing in Mexico. Aguayo is a legend. They were friends at one time, but Konnan turned. I believe this is the Mexican equivalent of the of Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, only if Hogan was the one who turned instead of Andre. Aguayo defeated Konnan to make Konnan lose his mask. Konnan beat Aguayo in a Hair match. Three years later after an alliance, this is the rubber match.

Aguayo gets a side slide pin, and the ref actually counts on the outside…even though it’s been said the only way to win is via escape.

A lot of sloppiness early on. The pin. Konna selling a dropkick that missed him by a mile. An ugly electric chair drop.

Aguayo’s is busted due to getting sent face first into the cage.

Aguayo goes for another pin for some reason. Cruise says the ref will count it, but it won’t count for anything. Pretty damn stupid if you ask me.

ANOTHER pin for Aguayo. What the hell? The ref isn’t even counting anymore.

We see a bald Eddy Guerrero backstage watching this match. Konnan is part of Los Gringos Locos I believe.

Guerrero and Spicolli come out and Guerrero throws some liquid in Aguayo’s eyes when he was climbing the cage. They throw brass knuckes to Konnan as well. Konnan beats the crap out of Aguayo and he’s bleeding everywhere.

Los Dynamite Brothers (I don’t know who they are, except for Cein Caras) come out to chase away Guerrero and Spicolli. Cein Caras knocks Konnan off the top of the cage!

Perro Aguayo escapes in 17:50. One more double foot stop, and Aguayo wins it. Long celebration afterwards. I would say this is a good match wrestling wise (even though it was the best Konnan match I’ve ever seen), but the crowd was super into it and it did its job. The celebration with the legend is a nice touch and reminds me of the end of ECW Barely Legal.

An interesting Pay-Per-View. Only had one killer match, which was Octagon and Santo vs. Los Gringos Locos. The main event was fine for what it was. Everything else ranges from decent to good, although I would actually say that’s disappointing as I sense all three undercard matches could have been better.

In regards to American pro wrestling, a lot of guys on this show would get jobs indirectly because of this show. Mysterio, Psicosis, Guerrero, Benoit and Spicolli would all show up in ECW shortly after this, and Spicolli specifically said this show was the reason he got a job in the USA.

Not a bad show. Some great stuff. A cool look at some future superstars. Admittedly some disappointing stuff too though.

Final Grade: B

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Summerslam ’94

SummerSlam_1994

WWF Summerslam ‘94
August 29, 1994
Chicago, IL
Reviewed on July 25, 2014

We are clearly past the Hulkamania era and in the Bret Hart era. 1993 had tons of questionable things in a period of transition, but the WWF clearly realized it needed to create newer stars and move on. There’s a lot of New Generation references for sure.

We are in the midst of the Bret Hart WWF Championship run, and in the middle of the Hart Brothers’ feud. While maybe it wasn’t the biggest draw, it was critically an awesome feud that made Owen Hart.

The hokey stuff was still there though. The Undertaker was arguably the 2nd biggest babyface in the company when he left at the Royal Rumble 1994 (yeah, sorry Lex Luger, but Survivor Series 93 proved this), but took an extended break. The storyline here sucks though, as it is the infamous Undertaker vs. Underfaker feud.

Diesel vs. Razor Ramon is a notable match here, as it includes three guys (Shawn Michaels at ringside) who the WWF would be built upon for the next 18 months.

LET’S FIGURE OUT THE MYSTERY OF THE UNDERTAKERS SHALL WE?!

The Card

Randy Savage is our host and introduces us to Summerslam. You know, Vince wasting Savage here was a big reason he left at the end of the year.

We are told that Diesel and HBK won the tag belts at a house show last night. I don’t remember the storyline reason on why that was done.

The Headshrinkers vs. Bam Bam Bigelow and IRS

This was for the tag belts before the Headshrinkers lost them the night before.

The odd Headshrinker face run. Bigelow and IRS are part of the Million Dollar Corporation.

It’s sometimes jarring to see Fatu so skinny considering Rikishi later.

Really good hart hitting action here. Workrate overall really went up in 1994. Makes 1995 even more perplexing.

Samu backdrops Bigelow with ease, which was pretty cool.

Pretty terrible double reverse Russian legsweep there Shrinkers…

Bigelow and IRS win by DQ in 7:20. A billion managers (Albano, Afa, Dibiase all got involved and it leads to a DQ (Afa hit a headbutt first). Shame, this was a pretty fun match and I thought woulda been a good way to put Bigelow and IRS over, as the Headshrinkers were on their way out (which is also a shame).

The Leslie Nielson stuff is pretty horrible. He’s trying to find the Undertaker. This is like the WWF version of those terrible WCW minimovies.

Women’s Championship
Alundra Blayze© vs. Bull Nakano

Nakano has Luna Vachon with her, the story is Luna brought her because she couldn’t beat Blayze.

Crowd is into Blayze.

What a sick hair pull whip. Wow.

Hurricanrana from Blayze!

Standing sharpshooter from Nakano. Crowd popped huge. Probably because it was pretty bad ass.

Blayze goes for a piledriver, and while Nakano is countering she actually finger waves to the crowd “no”. That’s pretty awesome.

Blayze retains by pin in 8:10. German suplex gets the three and a HUGE pop. Great match. Blayze was the babyface in peril and Nakano was a bad ass. Why wasn’t this at Mania XI?

HBK and Diesel interview with their new tag belts.

Diesel wasn’t a promo guy at this point…although he looks like a bad ass here.

HBK calling Walter Payton a munchkin was something.

Intercontinental Championship
Diesel© vs. Razor Ramon

Ramon has Walter Payton in his corner.

Let’s be clear, Shawn Michaels was already one of the best heels in wrestling at this point.

This was Nash’s peak as a wrestler. Of course, he always did well against Kliq members.

Diesel is moving fast. Watching him here makes it obvious he phoned it in later in his career.

The dynamic of Shawn Michaels’ using Walter Payton’s inexperience to distract the referee…and attack Ramon…is fantastic.

One thing to say about Kevin Nash: He had the best sidewalk slam in the business.

Ramon is bumping everywhere.

Diesel with the abdominal stretch counter I always want to happen: the hip toss.

Shawn takes a punch from Ramon and goes flying off the apron into the guardrail. Wow!

Razor Ramon wins the title in 15:05. Michaels looks to hit Ramon with the IC belt, but Payton gets involved. Ref goes to Payton though, so HBK tries to superkick Ramon…and gets Diesel instead! Payton stops HBK from interfering, and Ramon wins his 2nd IC title. Another great match. No wonder Vince thought to put the title on Diesel after this. This of course was the start of the Diesel-HBK split and Diesel face turn.

Luger and Tatanka backstage with Todd. Tatanka has been claiming Luger sold out to Dibiase. Of course, how else will this end up?

Lex Luger vs. Tatanka

Fans are pretty dead, cheering Lex but not really.

Tatanka is acting all heel though. Fans respond in kind.

Here comes Dibiase! Just as Luger takes advantage.

Tatanka pins Lex Luger in 6:09. Luger yells at Dibiase and gets rolled up by Tatanka. Luger continues to yell at Dibiase, and Tatanka turns. Was a big deal at the time, even if Tatanka absolutely sucked from this point forward. Match wasn’t much, but it wasn’t horrible or anything.

Mabel vs. Jeff Jarrett

This would be cooler if Jarrett came out to “Rap is Crap”. I mean, that’s not possible, but still.

I have NO idea what Oscar is rapping.

Mabel was fine as a fun midcard babyface. Of course, he was main eventing Summerslam next year.

There’s a lot of Memphis style wrestling here (taunting, and wasting time).

Jarrett shoving Oscar into the stairs is a highlight.

Jarrett screws up a top rope fist drop. Looked terrible.

Match is structured poorly. Jarrett already survived a Mabel elbowdrop and corner avalanche. What?

Mabel’s spinkick was always cool.

ABE “KNUCKLEBALL” SCHWARTZ in the crowd. He’s on strike!

Way not to DQ Mabel for the Oscar punch ref. Lawler asks why that was allowed. GREAT QUESTION!

Jeff Jarrett pins Mabel in 5:50. Mabel misses a sit down splash, and Jarrett pins him off that. Well, everything was solid or at least okay before this. Throw away midcard match being horrible won’t hurt the show too badly. Yes, this was horrible. At least Jarrett won.

Ugh, more Mystery of the Undertaker crap. Behind them was a shadow of the Undertaker. It’s a shame this isn’t next, which I’ll explain later.

History of the Bret vs. Owen feud. How much did this get Owen over? He was a practically a jobber or wrestled for lower level teams before this feud and Bret helped him so much some thought he should have been the World Champion.

WWF Championship: Steel Cage Match
Bret Hart© vs. Owen Hart

Timeline here: Owen and Bret argue at Survivor Series ’93 after Owen was the only Hart Brother eliminated. They patch things up, but another miscommunication in their Tag Title match vs. the Quebecers led to Owen kicking “Bret’s leg out of his leg”. Owen Hart then upset Bret at Wrestlemania, but Bret won the World Title later, giving some credibility to Owen that he could be champ. At KOTR, Jim Neidhart helped Bret retain his title…but then helped Owen win KOTR. Now we are here.

Note: The British Bulldog is in the crowd, which is his return.

Lawler blames Stu and Helen Hart for this whole match. Lawler says that he’s happy to see the Bulldog because he beat Bret two years ago at Summerslam. They interview Neidhart too.

Owen goes RIGHT for Bret as soon as he walks in. Amazing. No waiting around bs here.

In any cage match, early escapes usually don’t make sense, but it’s an awesome dynamic here as Owen wants to win at any cost and Bret just wants this to end.

Suplex off the top rope cageside by Bret.

Owen nearly falls out of the cage, but I think it was intentional to get a reaction.

Just great non-stop action from the start here.

Sick crotch spot off the top rope by Owen.

Bret actually keeps Owen in at one point by merely his hair. Awesome.

Amazingly, the structure of this match is simple. Escape attempt, big move off the top rope. Bret and Owen make each attempt look like the match can be over. And it’s amazing.

Perfect piledriver from Owen Hart!

Bret with the most convincing door escape false finish I’d ever seen there. Owen stops him!

They’ve got the crowd in their hands with these door finishes.

Lawler’s commentary by the way, brilliant. Just adds to Owen’s legitimacy.

Match has been fought at a 50:50 split exactly. I can’t state how much this made Owen Hart.

Superplex from the (near) top of the cage by the Hitman! Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.

Amazingly that’s not the finish! Owen stops Bret from escaping out the door, somehow.

Sharpshooter by Owen!

Bret counters into his own Sharpshooter!

Owen actually calls for Neidhart while in the Sharpshooter, which is genius in itself.

It’s still not over! Owen stops Bret again! A punch, and both go flying off the side of the cage!

Bret Hart retains in 32:22. Owen tries to escape again and Bret grabs him. Bret then leaves as well, and both men are a three foot drop from winning! Owen gets his leg caught and gets stuck in an inverted position on the cage, and Bret leaps down for the win! Yeah so that was incredible. It actually has a legit claim to Match of the Year over the Razor-Shawn ladder match at Mania, that’s how amazing this is. Non-stop back and forth action with Bret JUST coming out on top. No surprise this got five stars from Meltzer. One of my favorite matches of all time. Probably still the greatest cage match in WWE history, some may say of all time period.

Owen and Neidhart then lock Bret in the cage, fend off the family, and beat the hell out of Bret. Also amazing. Bulldog eventually finds his way in to chase them off.

You know what else that was amazing? That wasn’t the main event of the show. Kinda a shame to be honest.

The Undertaker vs. The Undertaker

We get a review of what happened at the Royal Rumble (which I also covered in my Rumble review). Taker died, rose, etc. Also a soliloquy. Can’t forget that. Yokozuna beat him. (So um…why not the Undertaker vs. Yokozuna revenge match here?). So apparently random people have seen the Undertaker, and Dibiase (which did make sense since Dibiase brought him in) claimed to buy him off.

Then Dibiase brought in…the Undertaker! I like that in that segment, Taker was so over no one cared Dibiase was the one bringing him back and cheered him huge.

Brian Lee played a good Undertaker on Halloween, but it didn’t really work. WWF kept with the story about Brian Lee being the Undertaker though. There’s a crazy Paul Bearer in this though.

Todd Pettengill takes a great random shot at Lawler in all this build up.

I’m gonna use the Underfaker term from now on, it’s just easier to write.

Let me give you a (the only) positive in this whole debacle. Underfaker uses the same entrance Undertaker was using his whole career. Lights off, but nothing too crazy. Lee looks pretty stiff coming down though, like he hadn’t mastered the walk. This is the first half of this point.

After Paul Bearer’s theatrics with a coffin and the urn and all, the real Undertaker shows up and admittedly, it’s pretty awesome. When he appears in all that blue/purple smoke Vince calls it perfectly (“NOW THAT’S THE UNDERTAKER”). Lawler also sells it brilliantly (from all there’s no Undertaker to “oh my gosh” in shock). That’s the second half of this point. The Undertaker had evolved.

All of it does take WAY too long though.

The purple gloved Undertaker is probably the most awesome version in terms of look. Of course, it led to perhaps a horrible run of opponents, so it was wasted. Unless you were a Mabel fan.

Ok another positive. Undertaker I believe debuted the corner light turning on thing here. Also awesome.

Onto the match. Sigh.

The Takers mirror the hat and tie taking off deal. Taker is a few inches taller than Lee (way not to lead Lee’s boot).

You really see the Undertaker vs. guy in an Undertaker costume on Halloween comparison once they meet in the middle of the ring.

It’s worth noting that Undertaker’s style had clearly changed already. Leapfrog by the Undertaker, for example.

The story becomes which Undertaker can no-sell the most. Seriously.

Some kind of Undertaker into the ropes move by Lee.

Vince says that the crowd is in awe. No, the crowd is silent because this sucks.

Faker gets a chokeslam, and Taker sits up. Fans cheer as that probably means the end is near.

Faker with a Tombstone! Sit up!

Faker goes for another one, but Taker counters! Tombstone…and Faker isn’t getting up.

Undertaker pins Underfaker in 8:57. Three tombstones. And it’s over. Pretty bad. Crowd was dead silent the whole time. I will say I think this a good attempt at an awful idea. (Unlike Kane vs. Kane, a bad attempt at an awful idea). Can’t go farther in the good column than that. Boring, terrible match, but it brought back the Undertaker and all and the fans are happy about that at the end. Probably didn’t help that Bret vs. Owen was incredible and right before this. Still, a big downer. Just put this between Tatanka-Luger and Jarrett-Mabel and you’re fine.

Some last second George Kennedy and Leslie Neilson stuff, with a closed case pun. Whatever.

This PPV was an A and even could have been pushed to an A+ with a great main event. Matches were mostly good, even Luger vs. Tatanka was decent. Jarrett vs. Mabel is inoffensive filler. There’s some big history too, as Diesel vs. Razor was a big sign of where the WWF was going, as well as the establishment of Owen Hart. Bret and the Undertaker held their places at the main event.

But man, you know we complain about CM Punk not being in main events as champion…yet somehow Bret didn’t end one PPV in his 1994 World Title reign. The other times, I can kinda see it, but this time, what the hell? Maybe it was because they wanted to run the Owen thing and not finish on that, but the match absolutely ruled.

Undertaker vs. Undertaker was that bad too. Cool entrance, even good finish, but it really messed up the flow this show had going.

But the rest of the card was very good to great mostly, and Bret vs. Owen is just incredible. And since we never saw the Underfaker again, I can accept this conclusion to an awful storyline. Still drops it a little from A though.

Final Grade: A-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Spring Stampede 1994

Spring_Stampede_94

WCW Spring Stampede ‘94
April 17, 1994
Chicago, IL
Reviewed on June 7, 2014

An interesting era for WCW here. This is the last remnants of the old school NWA/WCW…as Hulkamania was only three months away. Ric Flair had come back to WCW last year and won the World Title at Starrcade, so Hogan vs. Flair was on the horizon. But first, a real throwback. Flair vs. Steamboat captivated audiences in the late 80s, with some hailing their matches as the greatest of all time. What could go wrong with a rematch?

We seem some of the last great days of some wrestlers here (Rick Rude) as the near end of some great WCW runs (Cactus Jack, Steve Austin). But for now, this is the last of the pre-Hogan era, and it is critically acclaimed. Let’s see how it looks 20 years later.

The Card

This show is apparently important enough to get an on-air National Anthem. Not sure if that means anything.

Johnny B. Badd vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Page was still a midcarder here. I think I’ve written enough about my dislike for Badd.

DDP looks a bit heavy here.

Kimberly! Woo!

DDP looks like the indy version of Diesel.

This actually hasn’t been that bad. It’s not particularly exciting, but it’s not horrid like I expected.

Johnny B. Badd pins Page in 5:55. Top rope sunset flip for the win. Not terrible, but pretty forgettable. Matched seemed like it was 3/4ths the speed it should have been.

WCW Television Championship
Steven Regal© vs. Flyin’ Brian

Pillman and Regal have some nice exchanges early.

Pillman works on the arm. A little weird as Regal has his leg bandaged and it seems like that should be the target.

There actually is some history here. Last year the Hollywood Blondes were the tag champs, but Pillman got hurt and Regal subbed in for him. Austin and Regal lost the belts.

This match has turned into Regal stretching Pillman for 10 minutes. Not sure why they went that route.

It’s being announced that 10 minutes have expired and 5 minutes are left. I feel like the finish is obvious.

Regal retains via time limit draw in 15:00. Ugh, a time limit draw. Pillman makes his last minute comeback but it doesn’t work as they go over the top rope. Regal for some reason when time was expiring went back into the ring. Horrible logic. Disappointing match considering who is involved. Regal just stretched Pillman for 12 of the 15 minutes, and it killed all the momentum. End was good until the very end. And the finish sucks.

Col. Robert Parker with Bunkhouse Bunk interview. Nothing really to note here.

Chicago Street Fight
Nasty Boys vs. Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne

Part of a huge de-push for Cactus…he was feuding with World Champ Vader last year.

Fun brawl here reminds me of some ECW ’95 stuff.

Holy shit that was a shovel shot right to Foley’s head.

Foley just gets shoved off the stage and he takes a back bump. God damn.

The Nasty Boys win when Sags pins Cactus in 8:58. Another sick shovel shot to Foley’s head while he lies on the concrete. Then the pin. Wow. This is 1994? This match is years ahead of its time and Foley takes a really sick bump on the floor at the end. Great brawl even if it seemed rather messy at times.

Badd wants a US Title Match. Woo?

WCW US Championship
Stunning Steve Austin© vs. The Great Muta

Er…I believe this is heel vs. heel. Sounds like a disaster.

There are big Muta chants, so I’m wrong about heel vs. heel.

Pretty slow to start, with Muta wearing down Austin.

They are announcing the time again. Does this have a time limit?

Austin with a creative jump off the middle of the middle rope. No typo there.

Muta uses Austin’s own move, the stun gun. Nice.

Top rope hurricanrana!

Muta kicks Parker off the apron! Crowd is hot.

Stunning Steve wins by DQ in 16:30. Ugh, Muta backdrops Austin over the top and gets DQed. That finish will never be any good. Crowd was just getting into this and it was picking up. Finish ruined it. Slow match that did build up. Just ugh.

WCW International Championship
Rick Rude© vs. Sting

The International Championship was a weird title that was a spinoff of the NWA World Title I believe. It used the Big Gold Belt though, which was smartly changed to the WCW World Title when Flair unified it by beating Sting (omg spoiler).

Harley Race comes out and says Vader wants the winner of this. Race attacks Sting and Sting blasts him.

Here we go! Sting starts off on fire!

Rude works on the back, which is ironic considering what would happen two weeks later.

No idea Rude had a victory roll in his arsenal, even if it was botched a bit.

Whoa Rude sells a backdrop by rotating all around. I’ve probably seen him do that before, but still. He doesn’t land on his feet though.

Scorpion!

It’s VADER!

Sting fights them off, but Rude retakes control.

Harley Race screws up the finish by forgetting his role, leaving Rude to just wait there!

Sting pins Rude to win the title in 12:50. Rude goes for Rude Awakening, but Race swings a chair and Sting escapes, and Rude gets nailed. Sting gets rid of Race and wins. Decent match, although it felt a little off. I’d even say it was good. Rude would injure his back in the rematch 2 weeks later, ending his active wrestling career.

Bunkhouse Match
Bunkhouse Buck vs. Dustin Rhodes

Dustin Rhodes bleeds pretty early here after a piece of wood gets broken over his head.

Brutal belt whipping from Bunk. Ouch.

This has been a good old school brawl.

Bulldog! But Dustin chases Parker away.

Bunk pins Dustin in 14:11. Brass knuckles shot for the win. I think the Bulldog would have been a fine finish, but this works too. Pretty solid brawl.

Vader and Rude go at it in the back.

The Boss vs. Vader

I must say, it took some big stones to name the Bossman the Boss and dress him up as cop. No wonder they got sued.

Man Boss is over. (CLEVER!) Vader accidentally takes out Race.

Boss just drops Vader on the railing. Serious strength there.

Vader just backdrops Boss over the top rope. I never knew the Bossman did stuff like this.

Boss one arm slams Vader off the ropes when Vader went for the Vader Bomb. Wow!

DDT off the top from Boss? What?!

Bossman comes off the top and Vader catches in midair and slams! What?!

Vader pins The Boss in 9:58. Vadersault! Wow, this was a really good match. I had no idea that the Boss could do any of this. Postmatch shows Boss beat up Vader with a nightstick, and Commissioner Nick Bockwinkel stops him…and actually takes his gimmick away. This is because they were getting sued, of course.

WCW World Championship
Ric Flair© vs. Ricky Steamboat

The joke here is that there’s no story here: they just looked for an excuse to have these two have a great match.

Mat wrestling to start, but a vicious slap wakes the crowd up by Steamboat.

A lot of the match focuses on how well each man knows the other. Good stuff.

Steamboat gets a figure four on Flair! Nice!

Steamboat with the most obvious counter to the figure four that I’d never seen, just using his hands to block Ric dropping the leg.

Flair and Steamboat wrestle to a no-contest via double pin in 32:19. Steamboat gets several near falls, then locks in a double chickenwing, the move that won him the title in 1989. Flair counters by dropping back, so he ends up on top of Steamboat still in the hold. Both men’s shoulders are down for the count. Steamboat thinks he’s won and the crowd does too, but the commish rewards the title to Flair. Look, it’s a great match, but I’m never going to buy a draw as a finish to the main event. Maybe that worked in the 80s, but this is 1994. The Saturday Night rematch should have happened 1st, then this should have been the rematch. For the record while I do think this match is great…it does feel a little forced in terms of the rematch. It feels more like a tribute to their 1989 series and doesn’t stand on its own.

What a tough PPV to judge. Positives: Several good to great matches. Innovative stuff with the Street Fight. Negatives: Every title match had a bullshit finish (Time Limit draw, over the top DQ, Race nails Rude with a chair, double pin), some matches that could have absolutely owned didn’t (Regal-Pillman).

I also don’t think Flair vs. Steamboat is revolutionary or anything that would put this PPV over the top. Just a great match.

This PPV had A+ potential, but way too much eh stuff brought it down big. If the main had a finish I’d be happier, but it didn’t so I’m not. It’s still pretty good overall though.

Final Grade: B+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews the WWF 1994 Royal Rumble

Ad-rr94

1994 Royal Rumble
January 22, 1994
Providence, RI
Reviewed on May 29, 2014

Background: Hulkamania had burnt out, brother.

Vince McMahon made a mistake in 1993. Thinking that Hulk Hogan still had some juice at the time, McMahon prematurely ended the first Bret Hart World Title run and had Hogan win the title at Wrestlemania IX via Yokozuna. The Hogan reign was a shell of the previous eight years. It set the WWE back a year. If you believe Vince was trying to build Hogan vs. Hart at Summerslam 93, fine, but it sure as well didn’t seem to work out that way post Hogan.

It’s interesting in 2014 that we talk about the whole forced push (Batista) vs. the naturally over star (Daniel Bryan). We got the same thing in 1993/1994. The difference is, being the TOP guy mattered a hell of a lot more then than it does not. The top guy needed the title in 1993. Now, it depends. While Lex Luger got some good reactions in his feud with Yoko, he was the poor man’s Hogan…and was not in the popularity discussion with Hart. Worse, Luger was actually the #3 babyface popularity wise as Survivor Series 93 showed (The Undertaker).

The 1994 Royal Rumble was perhaps the most organic way a world title program for a year had ever been decided. It’s interesting how 20 years later WWE dared not to try the same thing. Interestingly enough, they tease Bret not being in the 94 Rumble.

The Card

Ted Dibiase is Vince’s commentary partner!

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Tatanka

Tatanka still had that undefeated streak going here. (Actually, Dibiase says Tatanka has one loss, so I’m wrong there).

Match was originally Tatanka vs. Ludvig Borga. Borga left the WWF right before this.

Interestingly these two would be the members of the Million Dollar Corporation going for the Tag belts the next year.

Dibiase and McMahon mention that Tatanka and Bigelow may be running on empty in regards to stamina for the Rumble. Makes you wonder why someone would take a match before the Rumble, no?

Never would have expected a double crossbody spot between Bigelow and Tatanka.

Awesome heel spot here. Bigelow pounds on Tatanka..but Tatanka is…er…Nativing Up? Tatanka keeps no selling the forearms…so Bigelow just does a standing dropkick to the back of the head…then he mocks the Tatanka hopping or whatever he is doing. Bigelow can be awesome sometimes.

Tatanka pins Bam Bam Bigelow in 8:12. Bigelow misses the top rope moonsault…and Tatanka hits a flying crossbody off the top for the win. Decent match. I don’t really think much of Tatanka (who did really?) and I think this may be the best match I’ve ever seen of his. Not a bad opener.

Bret says 1-2-3 Keep somehow in an interview. Whatever, tag title match time.

WWF World Tag Team Title
The Quebecers© vs. The Hart Brothers

Story here: Owen and Bret collided at Survivor Series 93 in their match which resulted in Owen being the only Hart eliminated. Owen pushed Bret around a bit, blaming him. Owen challenged Bret, Bret said he’d never fight his own brother, but then they reconciled over Christmas for this tag team title match.

Gotta like Jacques trying to stir trouble between Owen and Bret early on. Quebecers were a great heel team.

Random botch from Owen early on when he puts on the brakes on a Jacques backdrop attempt.

Classic Hart Foundation Backbreaker Forearm combo from the Harts.

The Harts are doing a lot of lack of chemistry spots…which I can’t tell if it’s intentional or not, but I think it is. (Example, Bret trying to tag Owen when Owen had his boot on the top rope for Bret to slam Pierre into). Match is doing a good job of making this match seem like teamwork vs. individuals.

Double stun gun to Owen!

I do think this match made Owen someone that money could be made from.

Johnny Polo (Quote the Polo, never more) pulls down the rope and Bret goes flying to the outside (which didn’t look good to be honest). Bret injures the knee, and the Quebecers pounce!

Owen puts Bret back into the ring, which I never caught as a selfish move until a lot later. I’ll get into that afterwards.

The Quebecers retain via ref stoppage in 16:48. Bret moves out of the way as Pieree crashes to the mat. Instead of tagging Owen though, Bret goes for the Sharpshooter…but his knee collapses. Ref calls it there. One of the greatest heel turns ever follow, as Owen kicks Bret’s knee down…and when Bret gets carried out we get the famous “kicked your leg out of your leg” promo.

I think the match is rather disjointed. I do think the finish itself kinda sucks, even if it works storyline wise (and to protect Bret as the blame can be placed on the referee). It doesn’t really flow…but I think that’s because of the storyline of building up tension between Bret and Owen, and how they really weren’t on the same page. And the storyline is great. The best part about it is that the fans can choose how they feel about it. Was Bret selfish about trying to win the match on his own? Was Owen right to feel this way (surely real life little brothers can relate). Or was Owen selfish in putting Bret in the ring with the blown knee (the way the WWF went about it…as Owen’s whole thing for a year was about him trying to win his first title, which he does at Mania XI 14 months later). Interestingly, you can also see a lot of parallels between this feud and Taker vs. Kane in 97-98. Right down to the temporary reunion.

Intercontinental Championship
Razor Ramon© vs. IRS

Story here doesn’t really involve IRS. Former IC Champ Shawn Michaels was suspended (legit) and was stripped of the IC title. Then they ran the former IC Champ who was never beaten (HBK) vs. current champ (Ramon). Really leaves this one in doubt, eh?

For some reason, Jim Ross and Gorilla are commenating on this match.

IRS cuts a promo. All the tax cheats showed up tonight. I do think the IRS character was great.

Creative spot with IRS coming off the top then blocking Razor’s boot.

Ref bump. Briefcase shot to IRS!

It’s HBK! Fake IC belt shot to Razor!

IRS wins the title! Wait, second ref!

Razor Ramon retains by pin in 11:30. IRS gets screwed. Second ref comes out and tells the original ref that HBK interfered. Razor’s Edge to IRS and the pin. Here’s why this finish sucks: First off, always hate the referee correcting the call finish. Just have two refs then. And also…RAZOR HIT HIM WITH THE BRIEFCASE FIRST! Jeez. Anyway, match was uneventful, and this was just HBK-Razor Mania X build.

WWF Championship: Casket Match
Yokozuna© vs. The Undertaker

Story: Undertaker was added as a member of the All-American team at Survivor Series 93. Taker survived a Banzai Drop. Set up this match…where Cornette got in the stip that this was Taker’s only title match…but Paul Bearer got in that it would be a Casket match.

This is the last of the Western Mortician Undertaker. The promo video for this is Taker building the casket and Yokozuna looking scared shitless. The only problem here is that it makes Yoko look kinda weak…but this was how mid 90s Taker was booked. It also kinda explains the shit finish we’re going to get here.

In defense of the booking, Yokozuna is afraid of the casket and NOT the Undertaker.

Yoko hilariously runs into the ringpost on his own.

Taker whacks Yokozuna with a chair! To be honest, this is a fun start.

Salt to the eyes!

Chokeslam on Yokozuna! Big DDT from the Taker!

Yoko’s in the box! Here is where it goes off the rails.

It’s Crush!

Taker takes him out.

It’s the Great Kabuki and Tenryu!

Taker takes them out!

Bam Bam Bigelow!

Mr. Fuji stole the urn. But Bearer steals it back! And here’s the Taker comeback!

Jeff Jarrett, Adam Bomb, the Headshrinkers, Diesel! It’s a 10 on 1!

POWER OF THE URN. Taker still fights back.

Yoko steals the urn…urn shot to Taker! Then we get some green smoke or something. I’m the biggest Undertaker fan of them all, but lol what the hell? Hey um…why didn’t these 10 guys just attack Paul Bearer?

Yokozuna retains the title in 14:18. They all beat up on Taker a bit more, then dump him in the casket. Bigelow jumps on it to close it. Taker does some crazy resurrection stuff with a big speech. Really, horrible stuff even for mid 90s Undertaker standards. Look, I get and even embrace the idea of the indestructible Terminator Undertaker of the mid 90s. I was a big fan. I’m all for Taker kicking out of a finish or two. But this is a bit much. If it takes 10 guys to beat the Undertaker…one of those guys being the dominant World Champ that ended Hulkamania, we’ve went a little too far here. If they wanted to run this finish, should have had maybe just Crush, Kabuki and Tenryu come in, and have Yoko drop five or six Banzai Drops. Of course, this whole idea made the King of the Ring 95 finish between Taker and Mabel look really ridiculous…and while Taker vs. Yoko was a good match later in 94 (probably because Taker practically killed him), this Taker character got wasted until Mankind showed up in 1996.

And really, the levitation and resurrection and all that stuff. Really too much. Green smoke and all. Match was pretty good until the clusterfuck. Some say it’s the worst match ever. I wouldn’t go that far, as there has been a lot of crap out there (I think Sting vs. Jarrett and six fake Stings is worse, for example), but it was pretty bad.

The Royal Rumble

Nice 20 second Royal Rumble interviews!

I think this was the first year to do 90 second intervals.

#1 is Scotty Steiner! Pre-Big Poppa Pump of course.

#2 is a Headshrinker, Samu.

#3 is Rick Steiner. Well so much for Samu.

Scott Steiner oddly shoves Samu off the apron to take him out. Weird elimination.

#4 is Kwang. Green Mist takes incapacitates Rick and evens the odds.

Scott practically kicks Kwang’s ass.

Huge heat for #5 Owen Hart. That’s how you know the angle earlier worked.

Owen dumps Rick Steiner.

#6 is Bart Gunn.

We are told there was an altercation backstage!

#7 is Diesel.

Diesel goes on an ass kicking spree. Bart Gunn is gone. Scott Steiner is gone! Owen Hart is gone to huge cheers! Kwang tries to hang on, but he’s gone too. Diesel Power has arrived!

#8 is Bob Backlund! Funny enough, these two were a WWF World Title match by November…where Diesel won the title.

Backlund almost gets rid of Diesel, but Diesel holds on…then just takes out Backlund. This is the match that got Diesel over, for the record.

#9 is Billy Gunn. And there he goes! Great reaction for Diesel. This was the first time something like this (one man owning the Rumble) had ever happened.

Kabuki and Tenryu have beat up Lex Luger in the back. They are hired to make sure Luger doesn’t win.

#10 is Virgil. Dibiase is of course going to enjoy this. Of course, Diesel takes him out. Apparently this could have been Kamala. Commentary like that is gold (Dibiase’s).

#11 is Randy Savage. This will be the end of Diesel Power for now. Diesel’s face sells it well though. Of course Dibiase doesn’t like him either.

#12 is Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett thinks he got rid of Savage..but he doesn’t…and Savage dumps him as…

#13 comes…and it’s Crush. Savage and Crush were feuding here.

Crush and Diesel prove to be too much for Savage, and as #14 comes, they get rid of him (what a waste of Randy Savage).

#14 is Doink. Comedy spots coming. Doink laughs at both Crush and Diesel. Flower water squirter to the eyes of both men. Steps on the foot! Poke in the eye. Going for the bodyslam on Diesel is Doink’s downfall.

#15 is Doink’s enemy, Bam Bam Bigelow. Bam Bam sends Doink flying out, and I believe this injured Doink legit.

#16 is Mabel. A lot of big men in there.

#17 is Thurmann Sparky Plugg. In other words, Bob Holly. This is his debut.

#18 is Shawn Michaels…and it looks like Diesel wants a piece of him! Shawn convinces him otherwise, but everyone attacks Diesel. Michaels actually does the final push, and Diesel is gone and gets a huge ovation. Also planted a really early seed in the Diesel-HBK storyline over the next year.

#19. Mo. Woo?

Greg Valentine is #20. Tatanka is #21. Time killing portion of the match now. Shawn is doing a lot of near eliminations.

#22 is Kabuki. Means we are getting Luger soon…of course…if LUGER CAN MAKE IT.

Everybody (but Mo) dumps Mabel.

#23 is Lex Luger! Good pop for him. Of course, we’ll see how that ends up.

Goodbye Kabuki. But Fuji’s other hired gun is #24…here comes Tenryu.

Vince says we’ll see Crush, Kabuki and Tenryu triple team Luger. Um…Kabuki is gone.

Tenryu with some awful looking chops. Probably why before I knew who he was I didn’t take him seriously as a threat.

#25 is no-one! Sadly, that must be Bret. What a shame.

Tenryu ups the chops on the next exchange.

#26 is Rick Martel.

Crazy Luger-Tatanka exchange.

#27 is…Bret Hart! Great fake with #25 (who Vince says was Bastion Booger, who got sick. Thank god). Huge reaction for Bret. Bret is heavily limping and everyone goes for the knee.

#28 is Fatu.

There goes Crush by Luger.

#29 is Marty Jannetty. Him and HBK just go at it! I love this stuff and you just don’t see it today. Two men who have always been enemies just going at it.

#30 is Adam Bomb. Your winner is in the ring! Despite Vince saying Bomb is going to win…I don’t see it.

There’s a 5 minute period where nothing happens.

People finally start to get dumped. Valentine was first. Adam Bomb probably has the worst #30 performance ever. Dibiase kills him for it.

Bret, Fatu, Luger and HBK are the final four. You know, one of these guys ran over the biggest star in the business six years from this point.

Luger and Bret simultaneously dump HBK and Fatu out.

Bret Hart and Lex Luger co-win the Rumble in 55:08. Luger and Bret go over at the same time (later proven that Bret hit last, but whatever). Jack Tunney comes down to make a decision. For the record, when they announce Luger as the winner, crowd cheers at first…but when Bret gets announced he gets a HUGE pop. When they keep going, the fans turn on Luger. This was the end of the Lex Luger as World Champion idea. Bret was the right choice here and for all of 1994. I think this was a pretty good Rumble, although the time after #30 was a bit slow. The finish though, sucks. Absolutely sucks. Just restart it right after the crowd reactions and let Bret win at least! I mean a draw? A draw? Come on. Hell at least run Yoko down there to lay both men out or something. What a lame ending.

What hurts this card a ton is that only one match had a clean finish: Tatanka vs. Bam Bam. Tag title match had a crap finish. IC title match had a Dusty Finish. No idea what Taker vs. Yoko was as a finish. And of course, the 2nd worst Rumble finish over (1999!).

But this card is significant historically. The rise of the Hitman. HBK and Diesel becoming stars in the Rumble. Owen Hart’s development into Summerslam main eventer. Undertaker going full terminator. A lot of these pieces would carry the WWF through 1995. And that means something.

That…and it is a well wrestled show overall. Only Taker vs. Yoko was bad, but it was pretty decent right up until the 10 on 1 green smoking urn or whatever.

Could have been high Bs with some good finishes.

Final Grade: B-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Beash Blast ’92

Beachblast92

WCW Beach Blast 92
June 20, 1992
Mobile, AL
Reviewed on March 26, 2014

Background: To be honest, I don’t know my WCW 1992 very well, but I do know of some things that were going on and how the company was struggling as a result.

WCW had lost their top two main eventers in the past year. The Jim Herd era had the NWA/WCW’s top draw leave without dropping the belt, as Ric Flair left in the middle of 1991. This led to the end of the new Lex Luger run as well…as Luger never beating Flair ended up ruining Luger’s reign, and he bolted shortly thereafter. This left Sting as the only top guy. WCW did have talent though, and we’ll see it on this show.

Herd was fired after the Flair fiasco and I believe Kip Frye took over for a while…but eventually Bill Watts was the head guy in WCW for this point. Watts was an extreme mixed bag…extremely old school…but at least his booking provided good stories and solid action. So let’s see how Beach Blast 92 shakes out.

The Card

Main event tonight is a World Tag Team Title bout: Steiners vs. Dr. Death and Terry Gordy. I guess that passes in 1992.

Bill Watts is on screen talking about tonight’s matches. He talks about hard hitting action and rules and stuff. I do think there is a way to do the old school stuff, and Watts was the way to do it. They weren’t going to beat the WWF like that though.

WCW Lightheavyweight Championship
Flyin’ Brian Pillman vs. Scotty Flamingo

I wonder how much it killed Raven to be Scotty Flamingo.

Crowd is very into Pillman. I think this is right after a series of matches with Jushin Liger.

Well wrestles match so far. Watts’ rules had no over the top rope moves…so unsurprisingly we’re getting a technical contest.

Not the best selling of the wristlock by Raven (unless you purposely flip to the canvas in a wristlock).

Most of my Brian Pillman viewing was post accident in 1997, watching him do cruiser stuff is a bit jarring (although I’ve seen it before). Pillman was really good.

Jim Ross points out that if Pillman jumped off the top rope it would have been a DQ. See, that was a bit too much for the old school stuff.

Scotty Flamingo looks like Carlito.

Getting close to the 20 minute time limit here.

Scotty Flamingo wins the title by pin in 17:29. Pillman clotheslines Raven over the top rope onto the ramp, but misses an over the top rope dive and lands on the ramp hard (both of which I thought would be DQs here. I guess I don’t understand the WCW rules at the time). Raven brings him back in and hits a knee from the 2nd rope (looked terrible though). Gets the three. Good match. Not great, but filled the 17 minutes pretty well and put over Flamingo.

Bikini Contest
Missy Hyatt vs. Madusa

Oh god Johnny B. Badd is hosting this. I actually prefer Marc Mero.

I guess it’s actually an evening gown contest first. Doesn’t really fit the Beach theme.

We’ll get back to this later apparently.

Ron Simmons vs. Taylor Made Man

Here’s another wrestling joke: Terry Taylor. At least this is better than the Red Rooster.

Horrible three point stance shoulder blocks…as Taylor practically jumps over Simmons.

Simmons presses Taylor over this head and tosses him into the ring from the ramp. Jesse Ventura says I guess that’s not a DQ because Taylor was thrown into the ring. Even the announcers were confused.

Angry Man Spinebuster wasn’t that angry yet.

Ron Simmons pinned Taylor in 7:10. Powerslam for the win. Honestly, I could see why Watts went with Simmons later. Simmons would have been a great guy for a territory to build around, and if Watts was going old school, it makes sense.

Marcus Bagwell vs. Greg Valentine

A really young Buff Bagwell here.

I can’t really tell, but I feel like Valentine is stiffing Bagwell here.

Good old school match with Valentine destroying the leg.

Greg Valentine makes Bagwell submit in 7:17. Figure four for the win. Interesting ending as Bagwell never makes a comeback, almost as if this was a “real” match. It was what it was, but good psychology with the leg I guess.

Falls Count Anywhere
Sting vs. Cactus Jack

Some story here, although I know more about the backstage stuff: Sting was beginning to be fed monsters to help put him over (I think preparing for a Sting vs. Rick Rude World Title match). As Mick Foley wrote in his first book, Cactus Jack came in to put over Sting…but Foley wanted to try some crazy stuff to put himself AND Sting over, which worried Sting at first. Mick Foley calls this his favorite match in his book. While Sting is the WCW World Champ here, it is a non-title match and it kinda makes sense as that’s not what Cactus Jack was about at this point.

In the storylines, Cactus Jack was kinda known as the king of the Falls Count Anywhere match at this point. That’s really the standard Hardcore Match. He beat Van Hammer in one where Abdullah the Butcher interfered.

Awesome backdrop sequence on the ramp! Awesome start so far.

Jack with the flying elbow off the apron. A killer move for the time.

Sunset Flip off the apron on the floor. I’d love to see someone Foley’s size do that today!

I can’t believe this match is taking place on USA national PPV in 1992. Crowd fighting. Rail bumps!

That was what was great about the Cactus Jack character. Yes he was a violent brawler…but he could wrestle too…and that only added to the danger (body scissors here).

Nice Stinger Splash on the floor where Cactus ends up dumping Sting on the railing.

Not sure if that was a botched piledriver or part of the story with Cactus’ knee. I’m actually gonna go with story here.

Sting bashes Jack in the knee with the chair. So yeah, I think the earlier spot was story. Cactus escapes the Scorpion!

Sting pins Cactus Jack in 11:24. Flying clothesline from the top to the ramp from Sting for the win. Great match! Nice brawl. Wish this was longer…and I am wondering why this didn’t main event? No wonder Sting wanted to work with Foley so much afterwards.

30 Minute Iron Man Match
Rick Rude vs. Ricky Steamboat

Oddly, another non-title match as Rude was the US Champ here.

I like how Rude’s gimmick hadn’t changed one bit since 1988, yet he was still over as hell anyway.

Before I even watch, same question about Sting vs. Jack. Why isn’t this the main event?

Steamboat brings his kid and wife Bonnie (Flair’s brings some insight there about here). He attacks Rude’s ribs and Ventura has a point about Steamboat using his kid as a way for Rude not to attack first.

Steamboat trying to win it with some submissions quickly. Interesting story they are trying to tell.

Rude gets a surprise pin after a knee to the face. Steamboat was absolutely owning before that. Pin seems a bit quick for me, but if we are going for realism a knee to the face I could see being a good finish (ain’t that right D-Bry).

Rude nails the Rude Awakening for a quick 2-0 lead now. I do like that booking a lot. Steamboat is dazed…so take advantage. Well done.

Rude comes off the top rope with a flying knee drop! That’s a DQ here! 2-1. But wait, that took out Steamboat…so Rude gets ANOTHER pin for the 3-1 lead. Awesome heel spot. HHH vs. Rock stole this idea at Judgment Day 2000.

Steamboat gets beat on for about six minutes, but nicely reverses a Tombstone and drills Rude to cut it to 3-2. I wanna see someone climb Undertaker like that.

Steamboat with an awesome bridge into a backslide for another three. 3-3! Still 10 minutes left.

Steamboat trying to take the lead with tons of pinning attempts. No dice though, Rude stops him.

Man even Rick Rude’s sleeper looks awesome.

This seriously is the best sleeper I’ve ever seen. And somehow Steamboat even sells it like a million bucks…which is crazy, again, because it’s a sleeper. Two minutes left.

Ricky Steamboat wins 4-3. Wow! Steamboat looks dead in the sleeper…but gets back to his feet and does the Bret Hart-Roddy Piper/Steve Austin Rude pins himself sequence…only the Rude’s injured ribs story makes it more effective…and he gets the pin! Rude goes batshit insane here and gets SEVEN two counts in 30 seconds to try to tie it…but no dice. Incredible finish. Match was great. I did think the first fall came too sudden but everything else worked really well. Really wondering why this wasn’t the main event especially since there was a great finish here. This was PWI’s Third Runner up for Match of the Year.

Swimsuit Competition
Missy Hyatt vs. Madusa

Oh god more Johnny B. Badd.

Um…I think Missy Hyatt wins. There’s a round three later though.

Six Man Tag Team Match: Ole Anderson is the special referee
The Dangerous Alliance (Steve Austin, Arn Anderson and Beautiful Bobby Eaton) vs. Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes

A young Stone Cold and Goldust in this one. Young Heyman at ringside too.

Windham and Austin start. Not sure if this is really a good comparison, but I actually see some Austin in Windham at this point.

They tease Arn Anderson coming off the top. Really pushing the new rules of WCW here.

Koloff clotheslines Arn over the rope…and Paul E. wants a DQ. He doesn’t get the call though…which it least is consistent from the Lightheavy title match.

During the match Ross and Ventura say that Madusa is beating Hyatt 51% to 49%. A lot of blind people voting I guess.

I like Ole Anderson as a referee.

Rhodes, Windham and Koloff win in 15:32 by DQ. Arn Anderson is caught coming off the top rope for the DQ. Ugh. Look, that’s fine if you want to get the new rules over, but don’t waste a PPV finish on it. This is a well wrestled match but utterly pointless due to the finish.

Paul E. tells Steamboat no more US Title shots. Then Steamboat is attacked by Cactus Jack. Good stuff.

Bikini Contest
Missy Hyatt vs. Madusa

Hyatt uses Ventura’s scarves as a bikini. Johnny B. Badd says she wins. Madusa gets mad. For the record, Hyatt’s swimsuit was more of a bikini. Whatever. How did Missy Hyatt get so unhot though? She was practically Sunny before Sunny.

WCW World Tag Team Championship
The Steiner Bros.(c) vs. The Miracle Violence Connection (Dr. Death Steve Williams and Bam Bam Terry Gordy)

I think the story here is the Steiners have destroyed everyone…but these two from Japan can match amateur wrestling and power with the Steiners.

A lot of amateur wrestling early.

Jesse Ventura with the line of the night. JR: “Rick Steiner has a degree in Education for Michigan.” Ventura: “Oh yeah right. From Kindergarten?”

Crowd is really into the Steiners, for what it’s worth about this being the main event.

All this technical wrestling leads to a Bow and Arrow lock from Scott. I like the rarer unique submissions as you can see.

Working on Scotty Steiner’s knee. Always good psychology.

Dr. Death with the Walls of Jericho!

I always wondered how people killed JBL for his Clothesline From Hell when the Steiners used Steinerlines as a finisher at times.

Time Limit Draw in 30:00. Scott Steiner gets a Frankensteiner, but it’s too late. Of course, in any era, this is a shit finish for the last match on the show. Match itself was pretty boring. Maybe it was a big deal in 1992, and it was wrestled well I guess, but I just wasn’t feeling it. This match also has another bigger issue. Throughout the show a NWA World Tag Team Title tournament was being promoted. So, why should I care about the WCW World Tag Team title?

Interesting PPV. It’s wrestled well from top to bottom, but it has some major problems. One is the match order. Having two non-finishes as the last two matches on a PPV is very unsatisfying. Especially when Steamboat-Rude was an excellent Iron Man Match and quite main event worthy…and the WCW Champ Sting could have also main evented in a great brawl with Cactus Jack. But a DQ by coming off the top and a time limit draw? Bad way to end the show in any era. I’m guessing the tag match main evented because Watts liked tough guys, and Dr. Death, Gordy and the Steiners were all as tough as they come. It’s still the wrong choice though and really messes up the card.

The bikini stuff didn’t need three different segments.

There could have been some emphasis on the stories. While Cactus Jack got some story, I had no idea about why Steamboat-Rude wasn’t for the title and why he still can’t have a title shot. Also no idea why, as alluded to in the commentary, Vader was happy that Cactus was beating up Sting.

Those may be the only bad things, but they are major.

A lot of good stuff though. Great wrestling. A couple great matches. Some of the bikini stuff was great. Very good opener. A clear showing that they were going to go with Ron Simmons at some point. The storytelling is there…they just need to tell us.

Good outweighs the bad for sure.

Final Grade: B

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Wrestlewar ’92

WW_92

WCW Wrestlewar ‘92
May 17, 1992
Jacksonville, FL
Reviewed on May 26, 2014

We are now in a post Ric Flair, post Lex Luger and I believe a post Jim Herd WCW. With losing Luger and Flair, WCW was down to one main eventer (Sting), but a lot of potential.Rick Rude had come in and the Dangerous Alliance storyline was a big deal. As all big stable angles end up going, Wrestlewar would feature the War Games.

1992 was an interesting year for WCW as a lot of the pieces seen on this show would end up never truly making it and getting ousted in one way or another by 1995. Also, perhaps with the exceptions of Rick Rude, Ricky Steamboat and Arn Anderson, it’s clear that Sting was in a different class than everyone else in WCW at the time. WCW was still ways away from challenging the WWF to anything resembling a rivalry, but at least they had gotten past the worst of the Jim Herd era.

The Card

WCW US Tag Team Championship
The Taylor Made Man and Greg Valentine© vs. The Freebirds

Terry Taylor as the Taylor Made Man just looks awful.

I don’t think these titles had any real value at this point.

I often wonder how Greg Valentine ended up with such gimmicky teammates. Honky Tonk Man and Taylor are two examples.

The Freebirds as faces here is also a bit strange to me.

The crowd is very into the Freebirds though.

The Freebirds win the title when Jimmy Garvin pins Taylor in 16:02. Garvin sets Taylor up for the DDT and backdrops Valentine while keeping the head locked. Hayes holds Valentine back and Garvin gets the DDT and the win. Good finish to an otherwise boring tag match. Fans popped big.

Johnny B. Badd vs. Tracy Smothers

The story revolves around Johnny B. Badd’s boxing history and the use of a closed fist.

Nice twisting bodyblock from the top from Smothers, but the Badd rollover counters is botched a bit, but it’s passable. I never pictures Smothers as a high flying guy.

Nice top rope sunset flip by Badd!

Johnny B. Badd pins Tracy Smothers in 7:03. Left hook gets the win, which was predictable due to the commentary. A lot better than I expected, considering I expected nothing. Wasn’t too bad at all.

Missy Hyatt interviews the Freebirds! Obviously they are happy.

Scotty Flamingo vs. Marcus Alexander Bagwell

Raven vs. Buff Bagwell here. How strange.

Quite the bitchslapping contest here.

Pretty bad back suplex from Flamingo, although I think Bagwell didn’t go up for the move.

There’s a double over the top sequence that the commentators wonder on whose fault it was. I guess we were in the Bill Watts era? Seems too early though.

Scotty Flamingo pins Marcus Bagwell in 7:11. Bagwell rolls Flamingo over, but Flamingo counters and holds the tights for three. Nothing to say here really. Both guys were still young…and Flamingo would get better. Pretty subpar first fifth minutes to the PPV though.

Junkyard Dog and Ron Simmons vs. Mr. Hughes and Cactus Jack

Story here: Abdullah the Butcher and Cactus Jack beat up Simmons, and JYD made the save. No idea why Hughes is Jack’s partner.

Jack attacks JYD on the outside…and Jack drops the big elbow off the ramp on JYD!

Simmons takes out Jack on the ramp.

Mr. Hughes and Cactus Jack has to be up there with oddest tag teams ever.

Simmons helps JYD to the back, but then comes out and cleans house.

This is now Hughes vs. Simmons.

Ron Simmons pinned Mr. Hughes in 5:22. Big Spinebuster, then Simmons attacks the interfering Jack. Simmons hits a chop block for the win. You know what…not bad! This should have been horrible, but Hughes’ offense was okay and Simmons showed off some damn good power slamming around the 400 pound Hughes. Cactus Jack being around is a good bonus too. Probably the best Mr. Hughes match I’ve ever seen (not really saying much there). No surprise this launched a Simmons push.

Todd Champion vs. Super Invader

Super Invader is Hercules I believe. Hercules sucks, so I think that’s a bad sign for this match.

This match has sucked, but Champion does take a surprisingly good bump to the outside into the guardrail.

Champion’s offense is terrible.

Invader pins Champion in 5:26. Powerbomb wins it. Pretty bad. Champion can’t really hit clotheslines correctly. Invader’s offense is a bunch of punches and headlocks with the occasional move like a backbreaker (just like Hercules). Squash here. Funny enough, I felt like this match would have been on a 1993 RAW with Champion being the babyface Vince would push. Whatever. This didn’t belong on PPV.

Big Josh vs. Richard Morton

For some reason Ricky Morton goes by Richard here.

Of course, Big Josh is the future Doink the Clown.

The story is Josh’s power vs. Morton’s er…flying ability? Also, how disgusting Josh is. Like he’s a Godwinn before the Godwinns were a thing.

Big Josh pinned Morton in 7:33. Josh hits a flying butt drop (I like how he used the Whoopie Cushion before he was Doink) for the win. Really boring match. Sorry, but no one has ever cared about the Rock’N’Roll Express when they were in singles matches. A very basic back and forth match.

WCW Lightheavyweight Championship
Flyin Brian Pillman© vs. The Z-Man Tom Zenk

Story here: Former partners. Pillman thinks Zenk didn’t have any gratitude for Pillman helping him out recently. Zenk says Pillman is arrogant, sticking his nose into things that don’t involve him.

Zenk gets scared by his own pyro. Great start there.

This is an example of a really good back and forth match. First match with any type of psychology as well, with Pillman working the leg, and Zenk working the back.

I’ve already see two figure fours now in this match. I wonder how many were done when Flair was around.

Pretty awesome counter to the over the top rope dive by Pillman when Zenk seamlessly slammed him out of it.

Awesome selling of the crossbody from Pillman there.

Pancake from Zenk and Pillman goes sky high for it!

Brian Pillman retains by pin in 15:30. Pillman goes to the top but eats a superkick on the way down! Zenk gets two on the cover, as Pillman got his foot on the ropes. Zenk comes off the top with a dropkick but Pillman sidesteps then folds Zenk up in a jackknife pin for the win. Pretty good match here. It built up to the frantic climax and had a good ending.

#1 Contender to the IWGP Tag Team Championship
The Steiner Bros. vs. Tatsumi Fujinami and Takayuki Iizuka

Steiners are the WCW World Tag Team Champions…I wish this was just for those belts. I wonder if people back in 1992 really cared about the Japanese titles. It bothers me that the Steiners would go for other tag belts. They are the World champions! Who cares about the other belts!

Fujinami has some WCW cred though, as he had that WCW Title/NWA Title deal with Flair in 91.

Nice elbow off the top from Rick in Iizuka when Scott had him in the rack.

Rick just dropped Fujinami on his head with a German suplex. Ouch.

Fujinami has Rick in the Doomsday Device setup, but Rick actually catches Iizuka and slams him when he comes off the top. Never seen anything like that. I do think Rick’s knee landed on Iizuka’s face though.

Man Scott Steiner just no sells a legdrop when he was on his knees. Steiners have dominated and it seems obvious to me that they aren’t being professional with Fujinami and Iizuka.

Really awesome counters by Scott Steiner of a double wristlock. I really can’t explain what he did though.

The Steiners win when Rick pins Iizuki in 18:05. Belly to belly off the top for the win. Someone is going to have to convince me that the Steiners didn’t purposely bury Fujinami and Iizuki here. The Steiners had 75% of the match, won in convincing fashion and there was some no selling from both Rick and Scott, and there was definitely some stiff takedowns from both Steiners.

NOTE: I did some research, and apparently the PWTorch had an article written about his match. Spoilered for length.

PWTorch Article About Steiners vs. Fujinami and Iizuka

Fuck the Steiners. The more old stuff I watch of them the more I hate them.

War Games
Sting’s Squadron (Sting, Nikita Koloff, Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham and Ricky Steamboat) vs. The Dangerous Alliance (Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Rick Rude, Bobby Eaton and Larry Zbyszko)

Sometimes it’s easy to forget Paul Heyman did stuff before ECW.

Austin and Windham start. I believe Windham won the TV title from Austin recently, so there is history here.

Nice DDT from Windham to Austin.

Austin’s busted open 4 minutes in. Good opening period from Windham and Austin.

Heels win the coin toss, and they waste no time. In comes Rick Rude!

Ricky Steamboat is the Squadron’s choice! There is history between Steamboat and Rude too!

Steamboat is owning everyone.

Alliance sends in Arn Anderson. A lot of great workers in that ring right now.

Massive spinebuster to Steamboat. Wow.

Steamboat gets thrown over BOTH top ropes into the other ring. What a bump.

Dustin Rhodes is in!

Larry Z is in, and Dustin beats the hell out of him!

Madusa climbs to the top of the cage and drops the cell phone (huge at the time) into the ring for Anderson, who uses it as a weapon. Sting goes up there to chase her away!

Huge pop! Here comes Sting!

Sting kicks all kinds of ass of course.

Sting just backdrops Austin into the cage! Austin hit hard!

Austin with a great clothesline that Windham sells like a million bucks. Wow!

Bobby Eaton is the last member of the Alliance in.

Larry Z messes with the turnbuckle.

Koloff is in! Match beyond begins!

Koloff and Sting had their issues in the past, but Koloff shows his allegiance by saving Sting from an attack and then they hug!

We have a rope torn down!

Sting’s Squadron wins when Sting makes Eaton submit in 23:27. Larry Z gets a metal hook from the broken ring rope. Eaton holds Sting, but Sting moves and Larry smacks Eaton on the arm with the hook. Sting takes out Larry, then puts Eaton in an arm bar for the submission. Post match the Alliance bitches out Larry Z for the screw-up. So, wow. What a match. Nonstop action for 24 minutes. Literally. It doesn’t stop starting from Austin vs. Windham all the way until the submission. Just wow. I am blown away here. Also, I think it’s something that Paul E. sucks chants were the biggest for any heel in 1992. Heyman owns.

I was wondering what the big deal was all the way until the main event, and I got it. This is basically a two match show, unless you think the Steiners match was good (which I don’t). War Games was awesome and Pillman vs. Zenk was solid. The rest? I mean nothing was mindblowningly bad, but it all ranged from boring to average at best (except Invader vs. Champion, that sucked). It makes sense though, all the workrate was in the Lightheavyweight title match and the main.

Funny enough, this card reminds me of Great American Bash 2004. One big bloody brawl. One good lightheavyweight/cruiserweight match. And a lot of disappointing crap. I’d say this is the much better version of that though. Maybe if there was some historic stuff here I’d give it a higher grade, but the only man who really did anything of note regarding their match here was Sting. Austin would be gone in three years. Rhodes in and out. Rude retired soon. Steamboat hung around but also retired soon. Windham probably peaked here. Etc. etc.

Final Grade: B-