Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Wrestlemania XII

WrestleManiaXII

WWF Wrestlemania XII
March 31, 1996
Anaheim, CA
Reviewed on December 12, 2014

The tide was turning.

Even without WCW breathing down the WWF’s neck, the WWF was in trouble. Wrestlers were unhappy about their payoffs. Business was down. Wrestlemania XII would in fact have no celebrity involvement whatsoever, the first (I think, I forget if IX did) Mania with that issue. It’s a big dropoff in that regard from Mania IX.

Here’s the real issue the WWF is dealing with: they’ve failed to build an undercard, and their top stars weren’t super top draws. Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Diesel and Undertaker didn’t draw anything like Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Randy Savage or a lot of other WCW guys. And the undercard? 1995’s undercard had already fallen apart or were on the way down. Sure The British Bulldog and Owen Hart were still there…but just the same there were either wasted opportunities like Bam Bam Bigelow, Lex Lugerand Hakushi, or absolute bad ideas like Tatanka and King Mabel. Also, some of the top guys from an earlier era were certainly on the way down. Sycho Sid was nowhere to be seen and Yokozuna wasn’t a main event guy anymore. The newer guys hadn’t completely connected yet either, although Vader and Goldust were on their way and Ahmed Johnson would at least be popular for a while. Part of the reason why Mania XII was structured with a 60 Minute Iron Man Match is because filling out the rest of the card would prove difficult.

Worse yet, some of the top guys were leaving. Diesel and Razor Ramon sent their notices in and would be leaving the WWF shortly. It’s said that the fix was in with Razor as he ended up suspended and missing Mania. Nonetheless, filling the top ranks of the WWF would prove very difficult. They had a lot of work to do.

The Card

We open with one of those black and white montages promoting Shawn vs. Bret. Those black and white montages were pretty awesome. Summerslam 97 has my favorite one.

Six Man Tag Team Match: If Camp Cornette Loses Cornette must spend five minutes with Yokozuna
Vader, The British Bulldog and Owen Hart vs. Yokozuna, Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Ahmed Johnson

Story here: Camp Cornette had a major issue when Yoko and Vader didn’t get along…and eventually Cornette chose Vader (or Yoko had enough of Cornette). Ahmed Johnson also slammed a then Camp Cornette Yoko back at Survivor Series. Jake had also recently made a return to help Yoko and Ahmed.

Yoko and Vader go at it right off the bat! While Vader is a monster, I always thought it was a great idea to pair him off with Yokozuna right away, since Vader could show ass there and still be fine.

Tope by Ahmed Johnson!

Vader’s punching combo was awesome.

Yoko with the Rock Bottom on Vader! The Rock Bottom was once known as the Samoan Slam afterall.

Nice camera shot hides the fact that Ahmed was setting up the Pearl River Plunge the wrong way…Owen takes him out with a top rope missile dropkick.

This has been ALL Camp Cornette.

Another botch where Owen drops way too early for an Ahmed clothesline.

Jake was one of those guys WWF brought back from the early 90s (along with Piper and Warrior). I assume it was to get some newer guys over.

Jake becomes the third face in peril here.

Jake survives the Bulldog Powerslam!

Jake then survivies a splash from Vader! Can he get the tag!

Yokozuna cleaning house…and we have a brawl!

Camp Cornette wins when Vader pins Roberts in 13:08. Jake drops Owen with the DDT…but the ref is distracted by the brawl. Cornette tries to break it up, but Jake stops him and sets him up for the DDT. Vader attacks him though, and the Vader Bomb wins it. Decent match. Problem was all three faces went through the face in peril situation…and they never really got any offense at all. It gets over Vader though, so that works.

Hollywood Backlot Brawl: Roddy Piper vs. Goldust

Originally was a Razor vs. Goldust rematch, but Razor was suspended.

The story here was that Goldust was…turned on by the authority of acting President Piper. Piper didn’t take it well.

It’s in an alleyway for sure. Goldust shows up in a gold Cadillac…and Piper beats the holy hell out of him.

Piper hits his perfect punch that just knocks down Goldust. You’ll know it when you see it. Goldust does turn the tables after it though with a low blow.

Goldust actually hits Piper with his car. Piper recovers though…and gets into a white bronco to chase. More on this later…

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Savio Vega

Story here: I don’t remember how their beef started…I think Dibiase wanted Vega to be his chauffer. Also, with Razor out, Vega needed a tag partner to face the Bodydonnas in the Tag Team Title tournament…and randomly drew Austin. Austin cost him the match.

Austin was the Million Dollar Champion here. He had the Stone Cold name and serious demeanor…but still wasn’t the Stone Cold we all knew quite yet.

Really hot start here.

Something that takes away from this match: Vince gets Piper on the phone while he’s chasing Goldust. They even show “footage” of the chase…which is actually OJ footage. OJ footage was dated in 1995. Takes away from the importance of this match…although there was none really anyway.

The crowd does not care about this match.

Pretty awesome spot: Austin comes off the top but Vega just gets his boot up. The spot itself is nothing special, but it’s just done really well.

Savio nails the spin kick….on referee Tim White.

Stone Cold Steve Austin wins when Vega passes out in 10:05. Dibiase distracts Vega…and Austin nails him with the Million Dollar Belt. Austin hits him again. Austin locks in some variant of the Million Dollar Dream. Dibiase revives the ref, and the ref calls it. Good match, but no one cared. Not sure if it was a good idea to have two heels win right away at Mania either.

Mr. Perfect interviews Diesel. Simple promo here. He’s taking care of Taker…then Shawn’s next.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. The Ultimate Warrior

Funny enough, the most historical part of this match would be Sable’s debut as HHH’s valet. HHH should have taunted Brock Lesnar about this two years ago.

Crowd popped when they heard HHH’s theme. Because they were excited for the Warrior. Warrior had been gone for about 3 and a half years now.

It doesn’t go well for HHH. Warrior even no sells a Pedigree by standing straight up.

The Ultimate Warrior pins HHH in 1:38. After Warrior no sells everything, he clotheslines HHH a bunch of times and finishes him off with the Gorilla Press. Give HHH credit: this didn’t bury him. It’s 1:38 and the crowd was into it, so I mean, good for what it was I guess.

Marc Mero debuts in an interview, and HHH runs into him fighting over Sable. Of those three, it would be Mero who wouldn’t get over.

Diesel vs. The Undertaker

This started when Taker declared after beating Mabel that he was the #1 contender. Diesel said no, he deserved a rematch. Taker got the title match at the Rumble and Diesel cost him the belt. Taker did likewise at In Your House.

Diesel was still an odd tweener at that point…until he whacked HBK with a chair at the Garden.

Nice back and forth early on, a clear clash of the titans here. Taker also hits a cross bodyblock!

Match does slow down with Taker trying to get in the ring but Diesel knocking him out over and over.

Double big boot spot!

This match was part of the transition to “humanize” Undertaker, although a very early part of the transition.

Taker begins to make a comeback, and even hits a top rope clothesline!

Diesel stops the comeback with a Jackknife Powerbomb! He taunts Taker to rise and he does. Second Jackknife….but Taker rises ones again!

The Undertaker pins Diesel in 16:46. After rising from two Jackknife Bombs, Taker finishes Diesel with a Tombstone for the win. Slow at parts, but pretty good. I love the finish even though that transition I wrote earlier was lost in it. That transition would go through Taker’s next feud against Mankind. Taker was becoming more of a guy who just could deal with pain as opposed to the cartoonish Grim Reaper who rose from everything.

Goldust vs. Roddy Piper continued…

They’re here!

This time it’s all Goldust, until he kisses Piper and Piper goes nuts. Piper strips Goldust down, kisses him and hits a low blow. He wins as a result I guess. Crowd was hot for it and, like Benoit vs. Sullivan at GAB ’96, it did set the stage for future hardcore matches. And Bra and Panties matches I guess too. I don’t think much of this though.

WWF Championship: 60 Minute Iron Man Match
Bret Hart© vs. Shawn Michaels

Shawn comes from the ceiling, which is pretty cool. The big fight atmosphere is absolutely there.

Match starts off REALLY SLOW, with Shawn trapped in a headlock for six minutes. HBK responds with three minutes of armbars.

HBK gets a flying headscissors, the first highspot of the match.

We get our HBK skinning the cat moment…just to go back to an armbar.

Sharpshooter attempt! HBK survives. Bret sends HBK over the top though next.

Best spot of the first half here: HBK slams Bret off the post and Bret lands on the timekeeper. HBK goes for the superkick…but nails the time keeper! Back to the Bret headlock now.

HBK rams Bret into the post and hits a shoulderbreaker at the 24 minute mark.

I’ll say it, I think the first half hour of this is pretty boring. They went with the “Shawn is surprising Bret” by wrestling a technical wrestling match. It’s just Bret trapping Shawn in a headlock with Shawn reversing it and getting am armbar for 30 minutes. There are some good moments inbetween, but this psychology being set up plays very little into the finish, and feels like just a way to fill time.

The pace picks up. Bulldog to HBK! Bret then with a weird facebuster off the top which hits the ref. Feels like a potential botch there. Not sure really.

Piledriver! HBK kicks out at two, which was the first false-finish fans reacted to. HBK got a lot of boos there too.

Frankensteiner from Shawn. All that headlock and armbar stuff seems like a thing of the past.

HBK takes out Bret by coming off the top to the outside!

Bret survives a Perfect-Plex.

HBK takes a crazy bump over the top rope onto the floor. He goes flying over the corner no less. Michaels survives the 10 count though, since Bret goes to get him.

With HBK’s back screwed, Bret goes on the attack. This basically becomes a Bret Hart match now.

Tremendous back suplex from the 2nd rope.

Shawn takes a crazy bump over the top rope…and he takes out Jose Lothario with him! Slam on the steps next!

Suicide dive from Bret!

It’s still all Bret. Big superplex with 6 to go!

HBK makes his comeback with 5 to go…and even hits a moonsault. Still not enough!

Bret traps HBK in the sharpshooter with 30 seconds to go! The time expires.

Shawn Michaels wins the Iron Man Match 1-0 in 61:52. Bret leaves with the title, as a draw means the champ retains the title. Returning President Gorilla Monsoon decides there must be winner, so this goes to OT. HBK gets two superkicks and wins it. Match is good, but not the all time classic people say it is. It didn’t age well. It feels like a great 30 minute match stretched out to an hour. The psychology in the first half just disappears. Still, the 2nd half is pretty good.

Mania 12 was an odd one. On one hand, HBK vs. Bret and Taker vs. Diesel were Mania worthy. But at this point we didn’t care about Austin and Vega. Warrior squashing HHH was just unnecessary. Piper vs. Goldust was what it was. The opener was decent but dragged.

Historically, some seeds were planted, but they wouldn’t bloom until after Mania. The Austin-Vega feud was the end of Dibiase ultimately, but that didn’t start here. HHH wasn’t anything here. Taker vs. Diesel represented nearly the last of the cartoon Undertaker, although shades of him would pop up in the feud with Mankind. HBK’s title win was fun, but it would lead to an uninspiring face run. I mean the only guy who really got elevated here was Vader and I guess Shawn, although Shawn felt like the top guy already at this point anyway.

Nothing terrible here though. A lot of decent to good and an odd time for the WWF. A hell of a lot better than last year’s Mania at least.

Final Grade: B-

Basketball

This Day in Sports 3-12: Michael Jordan drops 52 on Mourning and the Hornets

March 12, 1993

Michael Jordan leads the Bulls to a victory over the Hornets, 123-108. Jordan had a monster 52 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals.

It’s quite incredible to watch Jordan at the peak of his powers layup around and dunk on a rookie Alonzo Mourning. Despite being a rookie, Mourning was no slouch defensively then either.

Enjoy!

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Starrcade ’95

Starrcade95

WCW Starrcade ‘95
December 27, 1995
Nashville, TN
Reviewed on April 27, 2014

Background: There’s little point in going over the background of WCW 1995 leading up to this event. While yes, WCW was coming on strong with Nitro doing well against RAW earlier on, and Hulk Hogan had given them the national recognition they were looking for (the short term gain that eventually turned into a huge long term loss) none of that really matters for Starrcade 1995.

How does that make sense? Because Starrcade 1995 is a war between New Japan and WCW.

You’ve gotta give Eric Bischoff credit. He did everything he could to make WCW different that the WWF and it couldn’t be more evident here. The New Japan vs. WCW war was a really cool idea that actually serves as the prototype for the nWo later in 1996.

Here’s what you need to know: Seven New Japan vs. WCW matches, best of seven. Winner gets a big Cup.

The Card

World Cup of Wrestling Match 1
Chris Benoit (WCW) vs. Jushin Liger (New Japan)

I’m hyped for this.

Benoit was just named as a Horseman.

I like Liger’s rolling spinning heel kick.

Surfboard from Liger. One of my favorite holds.

Crowd randomly erupts on a Benoit superplex. Not sure why the crowd went crazy there.

Jushin Liger pins Chris Benoit in 10:29. Kevin Sullivan provides a distraction, and Liger gets a botches hurricanrana for the three. Good match, although it was getting really good right as it ended. I guess considering who was involved it could be considered disappointing. 1-0 New Japan.

Mean Gene with Eddy Guerrero. Talking about the Benoit-Liger match. This is bland face Eddy.

World Cup of Wrestling Match 2
Alex Wright (WCW) vs. Koji Kanemoto (New Japan)

I guess WCW didn’t want to bring out their best seven. I mean, how else does Alex Wright get a spot?

We get a USA chant. You know Alex Wright is German.

It’s kinda clear early on that Wright isn’t in Kanemoto’s league.

Nice kick combo with a spin kick from Kanemoto.

Definitely a botch there with Alex Wright running from an over the top bodypress…which Kanemoto just hit where Wright stopped running.

Nice moonsault from Kanemoto.

That dropkick that not hit as Kanemoto came off the top.

Koji Kanemoto pinned Alex Wright in 11:44. Jackknife pin for the win. Alex Wright was still pretty raw here and it showed. Not a bad match though, pretty decent. New Japan leads 2-0.

WCW HOTLINE!

World Cup of Wrestling Match 3
Lex Luger (WCW) vs. Masahiro Chono (New Japan)

Luger’s a heel here…but people are cheering him I guess because WCW is down 2-0. Which is smart match placement to be fair.

What a boring match. Chono and Luger skipped the importance of selling somewhere in their career.

That’s not fair I guess. Luger looks like he’s trying at least.

Ha, the famous Dusty and Heenan getting on Schiavone about the Mafia Kick call. Great stuff.

Lex Luger makes Masahiro Chono submit in 6:41. Torture Rack for the win. Commentary owned. Match did not. A whole lot of nothing happens with Chono and Luger selectively selling movies. 2-1 New Japan.

Sting interview. Okerlund brings up that Kensuke Sasaki beat Sting for the US Title a few months ago, which Sting hilariously responds too. They also talk about the Triangle Match later for the World Title shot.

World Cup of Wrestling Match 4
Johnny B. Badd (WCW) vs. Masa Saito (New Japan)

Sonny Oono trashes Kimberly, which ends with him telling Badd to control his woman because we (the Japanese) do. Good heel stuff, I laughed.

I think it’s interesting that two Johnny B. Badd valets in a row did Playboy. Kimberly here, and Sable later.

Johnny B. Badd wins by DQ in 5:52. Saito tosses Badd over the top rope to get the DQ. Pretty much a waste of time. A lot of choking and chopping…then of course a finish with the dumbest rule in pro wrestling. Series tied at 2.

Luger interview. More hype on the Triangle Match.

World Cup of Wrestling Match 5
Eddy Guerrero (WCW) vs. Shinjiro Otani (New Japan)

Really cool variation of the monkey flip from Otani.

Really nice fold up powerbomb from Eddy on Otani.

Awesome height on the springboard dropkick from Otani!

Sick German from Otani.

Eddy busts out the Flying Edge into a Sitout, which is really nice.

Springboard corkscrew press from the top from Eddy to the outside! Nice!

Shinjiro Otani pinned Eddy Guerrero in 13:43. Some crazy pinning combinations lead to Otani holding Eddy down for one. You don’t see that finish a lot, and I liked it. Really good match that was a bit slow at the beginning, but picked up perfectly. 3-2 New Japan.

Savage interview. TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!

World Cup of Wrestling Match 6
Randy Savage (WCW) vs. Tensan (New Japan)

Savage is the Champ. Probably one of the more obvious results you’ll ever see here.

Randy Savage pins Tensan in 6:55. Savage seemingly botches a suplex or some attempt of one into the ring…then hits the elbow off the top for the win. Finish came out of nowhere and I think was Savage’s only offense. Just a boring 7 minutes of Tensan beating up Savage before the quick comeback. Bad match. Anyway, we are tied at 3!

I think Bobby Heenan is drunk.

Ric Flair interview. Weird that he’s not part of the WCW team here…but Alex Wright is?

World Cup of Wrestling Match 7
Sting (WCW) vs. Kensuke Sasaki (New Japan)

There is some history here. Sasuke is the US Champ…and he beat Sting for it.

Sting makes Sasaki submit in 6:52. Scorpion for the win. Had the exact same formula as the last match, which is pretty lame. Crowd popped huge for the Scorpion. WCW wins 4-3.

Triangle Match: Winner gets a WCW World Championship Match
Sting vs. Lex Luger vs. Ric Flair

Interesting dynamic in this match as only two are in the ring, and someone will be on the apron and needs to be tagged in or out.

Not nearly sure on this, but this has to be one of the first type of three way matches on a national stage. I know WWF didn’t have one until 1996.

We start with Sting and Flair.

Typical good Sting vs. Flair stuff. This is probably going to be three matches in one, which I am fine with.

Flair shoves Sting into the corner and Luger gets tagged in. Interesting that we get 1991 face Luger here.

Flair works on the leg, of course.

Flair always got the best matches out of Luger. Kinda similar to Bret Hart and the British Bulldog.

Flair tags in Sting and I like the logic, forcing “best friends” Luger and Sting to go at it.

Ric Flair wins by countout in 28:03. Flair sends Luger and Sting to the outside when they were the legal men…and gets the countout win when Luger “inadvertently” pulls Sting back outside. Finish furthered the story at least. The match is pretty good though, as it’s basically three one on one matches. Very well done. I really like the tag dynamic for the three way for whatever reason.

WCW World Championship
Randy Savage© vs. Ric Flair

Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage: The only match to be a world title match on Wrestlemania and Starrcade.

There’s a Jimmy Hart dynamic here too. He hates the Horsemen. He was aligned with Luger, but when Flair won he came to ringside. So I guess he’s just gold digging and will align himself with the Horsemen if needed. Fine I guess, lol.

Flair had to be the best heel in the business at this point. He’s just cheating everywhere and it’s awesome.

Chaos begins with Jimmy Hart tossing the megaphone in…but Savage gets control and hits him with it…and Flair is bleeding everywhere!

Ric Flair wins the title by pin in 8:41. The Horsemen show up and cause all kinds of problems. Arn Anderson nails Savage with brass knuckles and Flair gets the pin. Crowd pops huge for the pin, showing that WCW is still Flair country even if he’s a heel. Not a bad match, even though Flair himself hated the finish (“I didn’t win the title, they won the title”), but I thought the finish was okay, although disappointingly not clean. Match was decent. A little short.

Starrcade 1995 is a strange show. Let’s break it up in parts.

The concept: The USA vs. Japan War seems out of place. I get WCW was trying to maximize their agreement with New Japan, I just don’t think this concept works in 1995. It doesn’t help that we don’t get the best Japanese guys either. No Great Muta? The WCW team is pretty random too. Why didn’t Flair wrestle in it but Alex Wright did? Was there really no one better than Alex Wright? Also, no surprise that Guerrero, Benoit and Wright all lost and Luger, Savage and Sting won (Badd won through BS). I think this idea works perhaps in the early 90s, but 1995 was pushing it. Starrcade only had 90k buys, which had to be disappointing. Of course, no Hogan was probably a factor there too.

But, you have to give WCW credit for trying something new. Especially since this idea was the prototype for the ultra popular nWo later. No point in shoving out the same old formula if you don’t have to.

The matches are hit or miss. Benoit-Liger, Guerrero-Otani, Triangle are hits. Tensan-Savage, Sasaki-Sting and Saito-Badd are misses. Main event was okay for what it was.

Unfortunately, this show has almost no historical value at all outside of the idea that this served as the prototype for the nWo. The Flair-Savage-Sting-Luger main event scene sounds awesome…but Hogan would overshadow them all in the coming months so it wouldn’t matter. And while Evil Japan still had a presence in WCW (Starrcade 96 even began that way), this invasion didn’t really lead to anything significant.

Mostly a well wrestled show, but the concept doesn’t work enough for me. Would have preferred a clean finish in the main event of the biggest PPV of the year too.

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF In Your House V: Season’s Beatings

Wwf_In_Your_House_5--cdcovers_cc--front

WWF In Your House 5: Seasons Beatings
December 17, 1995
Hershey, Pennsylvania
Reviewed on February 6, 2015

The War is under way.

With WCW breathing down their throats, the WWF looked to change course. Diesel dropped the WWF Champion to Bret Hart, with the ultimate plan to get the belt to Shawn Michaels. A solid plan, but it wouldn’t remotely be enough.

The WWF also looked to end some experiments here. King Mabel’s reign of terror looked to be just about over here. Gimmicks like Dean Douglas were also on its last legs. The WWF looked to be trying to go with edgier characters, such as Sycho Sid and Goldust.

Really, right now the WWF is just trying to get to Wrestlemania.

The Card

The opening promo hypes up the Bret vs. Bulldog title match, still pointing out how, never in a 1 v. 1 match, had Bret ever beaten the Bulldog. Of course, they call back to Summerslam ’92.

1-2-3 Kid and Sycho Sid vs. Razor Ramon and Marty Jannetty

The Kid recently joined the Million Dollar Corporation after turning on Razor Ramon in a match against Sid. Marty Jannetty’s comeback has kinda been considered a big deal, so I guess he fits as a partner here. Sid did cost Jannetty a Survivor Series match against the Kid last month as well.

Goldust is at ringside and he obviously has his eye on Razor.

Good storytelling early on, as Jannetty tries to get Razor in there against the Kid, but the Kid keeps running away.

We get sidetracked by a mid-match Goldust promo, to which he seems to be attracted to Razor Ramon.

Unfortunately the match went downhill…no one seems to care about Jannetty. All the heat is with Ramon.

Razor Ramon and Marty Jannetty win when Ramon pins Sid in 12:20. Ramon hits a second rope bulldog for the win. Fun start, but match cooled off when Jannetty was the face in peril. Still, a good enough opener.

The ring announcer tries to set up the next match, but Jerry Lawler stops him. It looked like the ring announcer messed up, as he was announcing Buddy Landell, who had to be introduced by Dean Douglas anyway.

Lawler announces that Jeff Jarrett is back! He’d be back for like 8 weeks. Lawler presents a Gold Album to him. Jarrett also enters the Royal Rumble…which I feel like he wasn’t in for some reason. What a waste of PPV space this is. Jarrett joins the commentary team.

Dean Douglas is hurt, but no worries, his pupil will take over for this match.

Ahmed Johnson vs. Buddy Landell

Landell is the homeless man’s Flair here. This is an inside joke of course, since Douglas hates Flair. So Landell is Douglas’ student here. Landell even uses Flair’s old WWF music.

Ahmed Johnson made a splash at Survivor Series by bodyslamming Yokozuna. What was wrong with an Ahmed vs. Yoko match here?

Ahmed Johnson pins Buddy Landell in 0:45. Pearl River Plunge in 40 seconds. Not sure what this was supposed to accomplish, but sure why not. I think this is the last of Dean Douglas.

Lawler and Jarrett mock Ahmed, then Lawler tries to interview him. This sets up Jarrett vs. Ahmed for the future when Jarrett smashes the gold CD over Ahmed’s head. Ahmed does make his comeback and goes after Jarrett.

Razor Ramon interview. He’s defending the IC title against Yoko on RAW He receives the telegram from Goldust here, which seems like some sort of poem.

Hogpen Match
Henry O. Godwinn vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley

Hillbilly Jim is your referee!

I think to win you have to dump your opponent in the pigpen.

Henry tries to slop Hunter, but Hunter moves and Henry gets an official.

I mean, if you ignore the gimmick this isn’t too bad.

HHH with a great counter to the Slop Drop…he holds the guardrail and HOG crashes to the floor. HOG would get him a few minutes later though.

HHH wins in 8:58. Henry runs at HHH, and HHH backdrops him over into the pen for the win. Jim and Henry would get HHH in the pen anyway. Whatever to all of this. Its amazing HHH survived all of this get to the very top four years later. HHH would feud withDuke “The Dumpster” Droese next, so things weren’t really looking up.

Diesel vs. Owen Hart

Diesle had begun turning, but he still was on Shawn Michaels’ side, and Owen had taken him out a few weeks prior. So, he’s out for revenge.

This is a weird match as they cram in a 12 minute match in 5 minutes total.

Owen Hart wins by DQ in 4:34. Poor Owen gets destroyed and Jackknife Powerbombed. Diesel puts his foot on the chest, but takes it back at 2. He then shoves the referee to draw the DQ, then hits a 2nd Jackknife. This was to add edge to Diesel, who would be a heel soon enough. Poor Owen really didn’t need to get killed that way, did he though?

Ted Dibiase introduces us to Xanta Claus, the future Balls Mahoney. It’s almost like we could have had another match in there somewhere. Anyway Savio Vega gets involved and gets beat down by Xanta before making a comeback. Whatever.

Casket Match
The Undertaker vs. King Mabel

The conclusion of the Mabel-Taker storyline. During Mabel’s reign of terror he broke Taker’s face with a legdrop. He also (horrifically) beat him at King of the Ring ’95. Taker came back with the Phantom of the Opera mask at Survivor Series and ripped through Mabel’s team before Mabel ran. So here we are.

Yes, that is Jeff Hardy struggling to carry Mabel.

I have no idea why, but this match has a special place in my heart. It’s such a stereotypical early 90s Undertaker match, and really the last one.

Here’s the match. Mabel is shocked Taker rises up a couple of times. Mabel hits a fat guy move (belly to belly, splash) and Taker is done. They fail to close the lid on the casket. Taker comes back and destroys Mabel and wins.

Undertaker wins in 6:11. He gets the urn back too. There were a couple of more appearances, but for all intents and purposes this was the end of the King Mabel experiment. And what a failure it was. Taker afterwards calls for the WWF Title. Well it’s about time. 1995 was a real waste for the Undertaker. His PPV opponents were IRS, King Kong Bundy, Mabel and Kama. Yikes.

WWF Championship
Bret Hart© vs. The British Bulldog

The only way that they can push the Bulldog as a realistic threat here is to continually refer to Summerslam ’92.

Early on the Bulldog knocks down Earl Hebner, then helps him up. That’s not really playing a good heel there Davey.

Bret Hart had a crazy good piledriver.

Awesome superplex counter from the Bulldog as he crotches Bret on the top rope, then comes down with a top rope stomp!

Bulldog sends Bret into the steps, and Bret “accidentally” bleeds. Bret admitted he did this purposely to make this match mean more. The WWF had a no blood policy at the time. You can hear Vince is clearly taken about on commentary.

Vince points out how we don’t need any close-ups as well.

Bow and Arrow from the Bulldog…and Bret almost turns that into the Sharpshooter. Bret always found creative Sharpshooter spots.

Bret with the odd Vader Bomb type move on the outside, which is caught by the Bulldog. Running Powerslam on the floor!

The floor Running Powerslam is oddly no selled. But whatever, this match is picking up!

Bret Hart retains by pin in 21:09. Bret rolls the Bulldog up in La Majastral, and gets the win. Chris Jericho taught Bret that for this finish! Anyway, great main event that at least made something out of this show. The blood sure as hell helped as well.

We get one more In Your House extra, as we get a staredown between Diesel and The Undertaker after Taker is declared the #1 Contender for Bret’s title.

Total nothing show here, but at least it was building for the future. Ramon vs. Goldust was set-up. Diesel vs. Taker was set-up. Bret and the Bulldog had a great main event. That’s enough for a C at least. Can’t give it more because well, hogpen matches, Buddy Landell and King Mabel can’t really be half your show here. And Diesel really didn’t need to squash Owen Hart.

Final Grade: C

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-