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Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF In Your House 3: The Triple Header

WWF In Your House 3: The Triple Header
September 24, 1995
Saginaw, MI

This is the first WWF PPV event after WCW Nitro had debuted. While the WWF finally had some competition, it wasn’t as if WCW was destroying them right off the bat. WCW began the war at about even ground with the WWF but Vince McMahon hadn’t gotten desperate yet.

Still, the WWF had to be reeling when Lex Luger showed up on Nitro. With a couple of In Your House PPVs left before Survivor Series, the WWF had to make sure to put on an interesting product in order to not allow WCW to take an early lead. To be fair the main event here is intriguing with the three big WWF belts on the line in one match (an idea copied at Backlash 2001). Is there any chance in hell Yokozuna or Owen Hart would walk out of Saginaw the WWF Champion? Well no…but let’s see what happens anyway.

The Card

Savio Vega vs. Waylon Mercy

Vega had started to get a push as Razor Ramon’s friend while Mercy was a nearly finished Dan Spivey.

Mercy gets the early advantage and slams Savio on the floor. Vince says he’s undefeated so far.

It looks like Spivey can’t really move. He hits Savio with a stun gun but it looked like his knee gave out.

Doc Hendrix tells us Owen Hart isn’t here for the main event.

Vega with one of the stranger pinfall attempts I’ve ever seen. It was like a slow reverse Russian Legsweep.

Brainbuster from Mercy that looked a bit dangerous. Again, you can tell Mercy physically was near his end.

Savio Vega pins Waylon Mercy in 7:06. Vega hits the flying spin kick for the upset victory. This was probably done because Mercy was close to retiring. It’s a shame that Dan Spivey was near retirement here as the Mercy character was pretty cool and is a really early prototype of what you see with Bray Wyatt. Match wasn’t good though.

Jim Cornette and Gorilla Monsoon argue backstage over whether the Triple Header is still on because Owen isn’t here. Monsoon says it’s on.

Henry Godwinn vs. Sycho Sid

The build-up seems to be that Sid went crazy after Godwinn slopped him. Godwinn also slopped Ted Dibiase but Sid powerbombed him on the floor as a result.

Godwinn’s dominating Sid early on. He suplexes Sid into the ring but hurts his own back. At least there’s some psychology here since he’s selling the back injury from being powerbombed on the floor.

Godwinn eventually makes a comeback and Slop Drops Sid. How low did Sid fall down the totem pole to nearly be beaten by Henry Godwinn?

Sid pins Henry Godwinn in 7:23. Dibiase trips Godwinn and Sid legdrops him. Powerbomb and its over. It had a good first minute and a boring last six minutes. Bam Bam Bigelow runs in on Sid (didn’t realize that was still a feud) and Kama comes in to take out Bigelow. Dibiase gets slopped anyway. Rough start to the PPV here.

Still talking about Owen not being here and if the match will still go down. Monsoon allows Cornette to pick a different partner if Owen doesn’t make it.

British Bulldog vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Amazing what happened to Bam Bam’s career after Wrestlemania XI. He turned face, teamed with Diesel, got frustrated with the Kliq backstage and was looking to get out by the summer.

The commentary completely focuses on the Bulldog, a surefire sign that the Bulldog was on his way up and Bam Bam’s just foddler here.

Gotta like the Bulldog obviously rolling into place for Bam Bam. Bulldog kicks out of Bigelow’s flying headbutt as well.

Nice enzugiri from Bigelow. Bulldog sells it with a full flip too.

The British Bulldog pins Bigelow in 12:00. Powerslam (not the standard running one though) finishes off Bigelow. This was a solid back and forth match that had some slow parts. Still, good enough and an improvement over the first two matches. Of course the Bulldog was going over here to prepare him for the Undertaker on RAW the next night.

Razor Ramon vs. Dean Douglas

Bob Backlund introduces Douglas. That could have been a great combo.

Douglas introduces Ramon, weird as that is.

Douglas finally gets control after slamming Razor into the steps. All the school puns do get annoying at some point.

Razor looks absolutely bored in a camel clutch. Jeez.

Douglas throws Razor into the referee, surprisingly this isn’t a DQ.

Dean Douglas pins Razor Ramon in 14:53. Ramon nails a Razor’s Edge and pins Douglas. 1-2-3 Kid runs in and counts three. Ramon thinks he’s won but then sees the Kid and shoves him out. Douglas rolls Razor up (botched as well) and gets the win. I actually like the idea of the finish and it kind of worked. The match was pretty boring though. Douglas has a boring moveset overall and just doesn’t do anything interesting. Kid and Ramon nearly come to blows afterwards.

Bret Hart vs. Jean-Pierre Lafitte

The angle here was Lafitte stole Bret Hart’s ring jacket. Rough year storyline wise for Bret Hart.

I don’t even know when this happened as I watched the RAWs between Summerslam and this PPV and I don’t recall this happening.

Lafitte is dominating and this is pretty good so far. Bret Hart really knows how to make his opponent with his selling.

Bret backdrops Lafitte over the top rope but he lands on his feet, drags Bret out and slams him into the steps! Great spot.

Top rope legdrop from Lafitte but Bret kicks out. Lafitte with a pretty good taunt too.

Bret moves out of the way of the Cannonball. Crowd is really into this. They should be, this is a very good match.

Lafitte with a somersault plancha to the outside…but he MISSES as Bret moves out of the way. Wow!

Surprisingly, Lafitte blocks the elbow in Bret’s Five Moves of Doom.

Bret tries a crucifix pin, but Lafitte counters by putting Bret on his shoulders and hits a rolling Samoan Drop like move (I don’t know what it’s called). Really cool nonetheless.

So many great reversals. Bret goes for the bulldog…but Laffite shoves him right into the turnbuckles!

Bret crotches himself into the ropes after a missed tackle. Laffite then misses a top rope splash!

Bret Hart wins by submission in 16:37.. Bret sneakily locks in the Sharpshooter for the win. Great match and this becomes the 2nd In Your House out of three that Bret saves. To be far Laffite was good here too. Too bad his attitude didn’t allow him to last much longer. It looked like Bret was trying to make a point about being the best wrestler in the WWF at the time. Point taken.

Cornette picks the Bulldog. What a surprise…

WWF, IC and Tag Team Championship
Diesel (WC) and Shawn Michaels (IC) vs. The British Bulldog and Yokozuna (TTC)

This obviously has screwjob written all over it with the Bulldog/Owen switch. If I were watching at the time I could have easily told you what the finish would be.

Shawn mocks Yokozuna by doing the whole sumo routine and Yoko gets him with an elbow to the face. I thought that was hilarious.

Bulldog fails to get Diesel up for the big vertical suplex…but he impressively gets him up on a 2nd try.

Decent Bulldog-HBK match breaks out until Yokozuna comes in and just nerve holds HBK down. We were getting close to Yokozuna not being able to do much in the ring due to his size.

Diesel and Shawn Michaels win the Tag Title when Diesel pinned Owen Hart in 15:42. HBK superkicks Yokozuna to the outside. Bulldog slams Diesel, but HBK goes flying off the top rope with an elbow drop to take him out. Owen Hart runs down but Diesel dodges the flying dropkick. Jackknife Powerbomb gets the win. This was a bullshit finish as on RAW the titles were returned to Owen and Yokozuna because Owen wasn’t legally in the match. The WWF promoted this big Triple Header and then came up with a way for none of the title change. Pinning a guy not in the match? Come on now. At least the match was decent thanks to the Bulldog and HBK.

Really only one good (very good) match here which was Bret-Lafitte. While Bulldog-Bigelow wasn’t bad and the main event was decent despite a terrible finish everything else is pretty forgettable. I maybe could bump this a little if the main event had a good finish. Things would only get worse for the WWF I’m afraid.

Final Grade: C

Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. Nitro Week 6 – 10/9/95

Week 6

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RAW: 10/9/95
Grand Rapids, MI

I won’t lie, I really prefer the classic RAW theme (that gets brought back at some point in ’96).

Yokozuna, Owen Hart and The British Bulldog vs. Shawn Michaels, Diesel and The Undertaker

A huge main event kicks off RAW and honestly I can’t think of a better start!

Really cool segment where Shawn Michaels talks about doing a charity with kids. Honestly, 1996 HBK could have used a lot more of that. It seemed genuine and really cool overall.

Shawn and Owen kick the match off and we get a cool double arm drag.

Everyone’s in there early. Double big boot from Taker and Diesel take out Yokozuna!

Undertaker’s DDT on Yokozuna is always awesome.

Waylon Mercy is watching for some reason. Jerry Lawler mentions on Superstars that Diesel will face Mercy in what would turn out to be Mercy (Dan Spivey’s) last match.

Camp Cornette finally takes control on HBK.

Dean Douglas is out here now as he was feuding with Shawn at the time.

Vince McMahon hypes AOL chats with HBK and Lawler. Feels weird that AOL chats were 20 years ago now.

Owen Hart comes off the top rope right as we get a commercial break. On one hand it’s frustrating to see a commercial break right in the middle of a big spot like that. On the other hand it might have been a good idea because you want to see if Owen landed or not (which we are shown he missed). I’m against commercial breaks in any matches though.

HBK tags Diesel in and he cleans out until Owen gets a cheap shot in. Running powerslam from the Bulldog doesn’t get it down as Undertaker makes the save!

Camp Cornette wins when the British Bulldog pinned Diesel. When the referee tries to get Undertaker out, Yokozuna comes in and drops a big legdrop on Diesel and the Bulldog gets the pin. Good finish that at least gives the fans some hope that the Bulldog could beat Diesel for the title (not much hope though). Great match as 1995 RAW continues to impress.

Undertaker tries to fight Camp Cornette off, but Mabel comes down and the numbers are too much for Undertaker to handle. Yokozuna and Mabel continually drop legdrops and splashes on the Undertaker. This is where Mabel infamously broke Undertaker’s face which led to the Phantom of the Opera Undertaker. Douglas comes down to stop HBK from helping and hits a front suplex on the steel steps. The Bulldog continues his beatdown on Diesel. You even see Undertaker’s eye all purple from the injury. Awesome stuff absolutely everywhere here. A great first half of RAW.

We get a replay of the Bret Hart-Jean Lafitte match from last week and DDS attacking Bret. Next week on RAW: Bret vs. Yankeem in a cage.

For some reason we get a replay of the entire Yankeem vs. Bret match at Summerslam. A cheap way to get a Bret match on RAW without him wrestling perhaps? This was already the third RAW of the taping, and Bret wrestled on taping two and will on four.

Jerry Lawler is telling us Mabel is trying to get into Undertaker’s dressing room.

Fatu vs. Skip

I’m guessing this was an excuse to get Sunny on RAW?

In a pretty funny spot, Skip comes off the top rope with a flying headbutt, but Fatu’s samoan so you know how that went for Skip…

Fatu pins Skip. Flying splash off the top finishes Skip. Match was fine…although I don’t really like Vince trying to sell Skip as someone who is in good shape but is stupid. Also, the placement of the match seems strange. Unless people really like Sunny I assume they were switching to Nitro here.

We get a replay of the destruction of the Taker-Diesel-HBK team…especially the Mabel-Taker stuff.

Hilarious Cornette interview as he calls out Jim Ross for just barging into the Camp Cornette locker room and as a bonus the Bulldog is wearing a stupid hat. Turns out the hat is a gift from Princess Diana herself! Mabel comes in and says Undertaker will get buried at In Your House! Of course we wouldn’t get that match since Mabel broke Taker’s face here.

Even though it’s based off of one match what a great show this was. The big match delivered and pushed several storylines in one. Even though it was a replay we got some good hype for Bret vs. DDS. Fatu vs. Skip was fine and we had a good promo at the end by Cornette. I have to take a little off as a PPV match replay is a bit cheap…and the second half of the show didn’t live up to the first half. Still, RAW felt like a big deal.

TV Rating: 2.6 (+0.1)
Grade: B+

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Nitro: 10/9/95
Chicago, IL

We see what happened to Hulk Hogan last week at the hands of The Taskmaster and The Giant. IS HOGAN’S CAREER OVER?!

Nitro opening is so freakin’ cool.

Bobby Heenan says Hogan’s in the building but there’s a restraining order in place. Sting shows up though. He says he’s going to fix the Luger-Savage issue we’ve had in the past few weeks.

US Title: Sting© vs. The Shark

Sting retains by pin. Match takes about a minute. Shark gets some offense in, but Sting hits a couple of Stinger Splashes and a top rope cross bodyblock for the win. While it was short, Sting got a good reaction and it got Nitro off and running on a positive note. This was pretty much the end for John Tenta though.

We get a replay of what happened last week with Hogan and being attacked by Grandma Sullivan. Sounds like I’m making fun of it sure…but this was pretty awesome.

Sabu vs. Mr. JL

That’s right, Sabu vs. Jerry Lynn four years before it would be a big ECW match.

WCW fans give us a “Sabu” chant. It’s still quite bizarre that Sabu had a WCW run.

Sabu starts quickly with a somersault legdrop over the top rope. He follows up with a leg lariat.

“Hogan sucks” chant now. Smark crowd in ’95!

Suicide dive from JL!

More flying from Sabu! Over the top rope somersault to the outside!

Air Sabu into the railing!

German suplex then a running dropkick by JL! Really fun match here!

JL drops Sabu with a DDT where Sabu was propped on the top rope. That was the Randy Orton-RVD finish at Armaggedon ’03 I think.

Sabu makes Mr. JL submit. JL comes off the top rope but Sabu counters and locks in the Camel Clutch for the win. Maybe it was a bit of a spot fest, but this still gets the 1995 curve of being awesome stuff that just wasn’t on TV yet. And it was fun. For the heck of it Sabu hits JL with a bit of a botched sunset flip over the top rope onto the floor. But it still worked.

For some reason Eric Bischoff has to talk about Hogan as the camera cuts to him…even though Sabu is still attacking JL. Come on!

Sting is in the ring with Luger and he calls out Savage. Savage actually gets some boos. Really smarky crowd. Savage questions Sting right off the bat and wants to know why the Giant has chokeslammed Hogan, Luger and himself…but not Sting. Sting thinks Luger and Savage should go at it if they beat Meng and Kamala in their respective matches. Luger is hesitant and Sting basically calls him a whiny coward.

Seems weird that Sting came up with this solution. Segment was fine.

Chris Benoit comes to Nitro in a limo. “WCW, where the big boys play”. Bischoff really puts Benoit over as well. WCW made a big deal out of everything and that really worked early on.

Disco Inferno is dancing for some reason.

Big Bubba vs. Road Warrior Hawk

Both Hawk and Bubba walk past a dancing Disco. For some reason Disco put a WCW hat on Hawk’s spiked shoulder pads. Not sure what the point of Disco doing this was.

Hawk gets a huge chant. Obviously this is because this is his hometown.

Big Bubba wins by countout. Disco jumps onto the apron at about the 2 minute mark and Hawk goes after him and beats him up down the aisleway. What the heck was that?

Here comes Hogan and he gets some boos. This was the beginning of Hogan’s short term dark side period where he wore black all the time. Even the neckbrace is black.

The Giant is Andre’s son angle felt tasteless even though it technically wasn’t. Hogan seemingly takes a shot at Vince here as he says in New York City the promotor got jealous over Hulkamania’s success. He gets back to wanting to fight the Giant. What a random shot that was though.

Here comes a monster truck with the Dungeon of Doom in it! Police are in pursuit! Hogan goes out to face the Giant. Not Hogan’s best promo to be honest.

Does Monster Truck vs. Monster Truck really sound like a great idea for a gimmick match?

Bischoff is told by police that Hogan and the Giant are being kept apart.

Cage Match
Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson

Bischoff brings up that normally you have to buy a PPV to see a match of this caliber. That’s a good point you know. Exciting as it is, hotshotting is dangerous in the long run.

Flair is pretty much dominating this match, slamming Double A into the cage multiple times.

“We Want Blood” chant. Jeez.

Flyin’ Brian tries to get into cage…and Flair knocks him off the side of the cage onto the floor!

Arn Anderson pins Ric Flair. Anderson hits Flair with brass knuckles or some object and gets the pin. Too short for what Flair vs. Anderson in a cage should be. It wasn’t bad or anything but I’m left disappointed.

Flair challenges Anderson and Pillman to a handicap match on Nitro.

Heenan: “I’ve had enough of Hulk Hogan shoved down my throat all these years.” I know Heenan respects Hogan, but man what a comment that is considering it’s not a shoot comment.

Next week we get DDP vs. Johnny B. Badd and Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero!

I’ll be honest, I didn’t like most of this show. The beginning with Sting was fine as was the Mr. JL vs. Sabu match. Sting helping make Savage vs. Luger was weird but okay. Hawk vs. Rogers? Yuck. Hogan’s promo? Not good and the Monster Truck silliness didn’t work for me. Flair vs. Double A could have been a lot better.

Still, Nitro got a solid rating this week. I guess that’s what counts.

TV Rating: 2.6 (+0.1)
Grade: C+

Weekly Review

I wrote for last week that RAW only had a chance if the Hogan-Giant angle got too hokey…and well that’s what happened. Hogan taking shots at Vince for no reason was also unnecessary. While Nitro had some enjoyable parts I didn’t really enjoy the show overall. RAW on the other hand came out like a house of fire with the big six man tag team match and only didn’t score a higher grade because the rest of the show was merely okay.

Another tie in the ratings, but RAW definitely had the stronger show this week. WCW still has tons of cards to play though as the Flair vs. Anderson feud can easily be great next week just because of who’s involved. Plus Eddie vs. Benoit? We don’t know what’s going to happen next with Hogan either. If they can just get a little more serious about the feud, perhaps it’ll come off better on TV. I can only see the Giant screaming and riding a monster truck so many times.

TV Ratings Score: 2-1-2 RAW

Grade Score: 2-1-2 RAW

Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. Nitro Week 5 – 10/2/95

October 1995 Background

WCW Nitro had come out and shockingly given Vince McMahon a run for his money. Still, it had to be a promising sign that the current WWF stars: Diesel, Bret, Undertaker, Shawn seemed to be drawing as well as Flair, Hogan, Luger, Savage, Sting on TV. Maybe Vince is right about all those guys (sans Sting) being washed up. Or maybe the WWF brand is really what matters.

Still, WCW had a really strong start. Vince still needed some time to build to one of his big events: Survivor Series. Could WCW put on the pressure with the Hogan vs. Giant feud? Could Vince make the October In Your House mean something?

Week 5

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RAW: 10/2/95
Grand Rapids, MI

We get a recap of last week’s RAW, where the Smokin’ Gunns regained the Tag Titles.

Now we recap the history between Razor Ramon and The 1-2-3 Kid. It’s cool to see an angle referenced back to 1993. Kid beat Ramon twice now, once in 1993 and two weeks ago thanks to Dean Douglas. I don’t understand what Vince means by “will the third time be the charm for the Kid?” Um…he’s won both times!

Razor Ramon vs. 1-2-3 Kid

Hot start. Kid and Ramon waste no time and go back and forth until Ramon catches him for a fall away slam.

Dean Douglas is out here taking notes once again. Dean Douglas was not a bad character to be honest.

Razor Ramon pins the 1-2-3 Kid. Clothesline ends it. Surprising ending. But wait, the Kid wants to keep going…and the match continues?

During the break, the Kid gets driven hard by a Ramon powerbomb after Kid came off the top. Ramond got ANOTHER pin…but the Kid wanted a SECOND rematch.

Razor Ramon pins 1-2-3 Kid. Ramon teases the Razor’s Edge, but then beats the Kid with a small package. Ramon beats the Kid three times…but he didn’t go out to injure him. Ramon and Kid shake hands…then Kid tries a small package which Razor kicks out of. Razor actually smiles, showing admiration for the Kid. This is pretty great storytelling. The Kid was the youngster who felt like he needed to earn Razor’s respect and did so without having to win. Great start to RAW.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Barry Horowitz

Horowitz was actually pretty over after his upset of Skip at Summerslam.

Pretty cool armbar takedown leading to a shot to the face with the leg by HHH.

Last week was the most watched RAW ever. The Monday Night Wars really ejected an adrenaline shot into pro wrestling that WCW would take advantage of a lot better than the WWF would.

It’s amazing how over Horowitz was. He gets several creative near falls and the fans are with him at every turn.

HHH pins Horowitz. Horowitz makes one mistake though, as an attempted backdrop becomes the Pedigree and it’s over. Good match. HHH continues his undefeated streak and Horowitz keeps doing the underdog thing.

PG-13 vs. Al Brown and Sonny Rogers

PG-13 are the USWA World Tag Team Champions. They can be described as a cross between ECW and Too Cool.

Really don’t care about a jobber match. This is the stuff the WWF needed to get rid of when facing Nitro.

Gotta give credit where it is due though. Some great double team moves from PG-13. Dropkick + Russian Legsweep combo for example.

PG-13 wins by pin. Cool twisting slam by Wolfie D on JC Ice onto Green. I wonder why the WWF didn’t keep going with PG-13. They challenged the Gunns and everything!

Bret Hart vs. Jean Pierre-Lafitte

A rematch from In Your House a couple of weeks ago.

Early on Bret slams Lafitte into the ring steps. Seems pretty extreme for WWF 1995!

Lafitte eventually takes over and Bret makes him look like a million bucks.

Jerry Lawler’s anti-Bret commentary is pretty great here as well.

Bret Hart wins by submission. Superplex and Sharpshooter. Great main event, although I believe this was the end of Lafitte. Bret confronts Lawler and beats him up afterwards before Isaac Yankem shows up and attacks Bret. That’s the last midcard feud Bret would deal with before setting sight on the WWF Title again.

Vince hypes up next week’s RAW Main Event: Diesel, Shawn Michaels and Undertaker vs. Yokozuna, Owen Hart and the British Bulldog. To say that’s a huge main event is an understatement and it shows Vince was giving it a real shot against Nitro here.

Anyway, I enjoyed this show from top to bottom, even the PG-13 stuff. These 1995 RAWs are pretty good!

TV Rating: 2.5
Grade: B+

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Nitro: 10/2/95
Denver, CO

Ric Flair with a crazy promo to kick things off. Nice. He’s coming for you Double A!

We kick it off with a match that feels like it should be on PPV, Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage with Luger’s WCW career on the line. While it feels like this is something that happened too fast, I guess this was definitely something you couldn’t miss.

Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage: If Luger loses he leaves WCW

Randy Savage wears the most ridiculous colors for his attire and it doesn’t matter one bit. Savage is so good.

The promo for the Monster Truck Match for Halloween Havoc is hilarious. Absolutely hilarious.

The match has had two spots where neither man got the advantage. It’s pretty well done. Luger eventually gets a neckbreaker on the floor and the advantage.

Ref is out and Savage hits the big elbow…and here comes The Giant!

Lex Luger wins when Randy Savage doesn’t respond to the referee in 12:30. Luger gets Savage up in the Rack and Savage is out from a Giant chokeslam, and Luger keeps his career. It’s oddly not treated as a huge deal that Luger just saved his career, but whatever. Pretty good match, a lot better than I was expecting. It went back and forth and it continues telling a great story about Luger (is he a good guy or bad?)

Disco Inferno! Eddy Guerrero interrupts Disco’s dancing (with Juvi‘s future music).

Dean Malenko vs. Eddy Guerrero

Basically ECW’s TV Title feud of 1995 here.

Malenko kips up from being pushed down, which was freakin’ awesome.

Just awesome sequences early on.

We get a side by side camera shot with the match…as Hulk Hogan shows up. Ah, the WCW tradition of ignoring the match in the ring for Hogan.

We don’t even see the match anymore. It’s all Hogan!

Back to the match, and Malenko and Guerrero are putting on a technical exhibition.

AWESOME top rope plancha from Guerrero to Malenko on the floor! He hit the aisleway!

Eddie Guerrero pins Dean Malenko in 5:41. Ending came out of nowhere where Eddie trapped Malenko on the mat, similar to Bret-Bulldog at Summerslam ’92. Shame it was so short as it was owning. Malenko says Guerrero got lucky and wants a rematch. Guerrero said any place any time.

Here comes Hogan in a neck brace. I am annoyed his stuff cut into the last match.

Generic promo where Hogan says he is going to get the Giant since he’s not out yet. Hogan decides to slap all the fans hands and is attacked by a random old woman (which Mean Gene hilariously calls). Of course, it’s Kevin Sullivan. Giant makes his way out and “breaks” Hogan’s neck. American Males and Nasty Boys run in but Giant and Zodiac Man take them out. The Dungeon of Doom shave Hogan’s mustache off. While Hogan’s promo was nothing to write home about, the attack was pretty brilliant and the Giant looks like a bad ass heel taking out everyone.

We get the Halloween Havoc promo again. Just hilarious.

Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson

They just go at it right from the outset, knocking each other down with chops and hard shots.

A good back and forth that really showed Arn was at an elite level.

Ric Flair wins by DQ in 8:30. Flair has the Figure Four when Brian Pillman comes flying off the top to cause the DQ. Anderson and Pillman beat up Flair. Shame about the DQ. Solid match.

Apparently, we’re getting Flair vs. Arn Anderson in a cage on Nitro next week! Screw waiting for PPV!

WCW brought it this week, but I thought shortchanged two of their matches. Luger defeating Savage seemed like something that just happened, and Luger’s career hanging in the balance was an afterthought. Guerrero vs. Malenko was good but short, and overshadowed by Hogan. BUT, those matches and the main event were all solid, and the Hogan beat down was well done too. Another good Nitro. Best of all for Nitro, their rating has stabilized in the mid 2s.

TV Rating: 2.5
Grade: B+

Weekly Review

Both shows brought it this week once again. I think the WWF’s only real shot here is if the Hogan-Giant angle gets too hokey. I mean, a Monster Truck Match is pretty out there. Then again, we just had a pirate in the main event of RAW. The big victory for WCW is that Nitro is hanging tough with the WWF and even outshining them at some points (like Malenko vs. Guerrero).

A pure tie this week. Both shows brought it this week and it showed in TV Ratings. Hopefully both can keep the momentum. Hotshotting is becoming a bit of an issue, especially with career ending matches on Nitro (and a potential feud ending cage match next week).

TV Ratings Score: 2-1-1 RAW

Grade Score: 1-1-2

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 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

2015 WWE Royal Rumble Preview

royalrumble2015

The 2015 Royal Rumble is upon us. I will be attending the event, my 2nd Rumble (2008 in MSG), even though my interest in the current state of the WWE is at an all-time low. A great Royal Rumble though and all of that can change. To be honest, we haven’t had a real crowd pleasing winner of the Royal Rumble since 2010 when Edge returned from a seven month neck injury and won. In 2011 Alberto Del Rio won, opened Wrestlemania, lost to Edge and won Money in the Bank. In 2012 Sheamus surprisingly outlasted Chris Jericho, beat Daniel Bryan in 18 seconds at Wrestlemania and has had his career take a nosedive since. John Cena won the 2013 version just to set-up a rematch with The Rock at Wrestlemania XXIX. Batista made his return to the ring in 2014 to win the Rumble match, and pissed off the entire WWE Universe in the process. Fun fact here is that two of these Royal Rumble results cemented Daniel Bryan as a top guy, and yet he wasn’t apart of either of them (2012 because of what happened at Wrestlemania and 2014, which we will get to).

Let’s talk about the 2014 Royal Rumble. First, we’ll compare it to a scenario to a previous Royal Rumble: the 1998 version.

In 1998 there was clearly one man who was to win the Royal Rumble: Stone Cold Steve Austin. Any other situation would have made absolutely no sense. Business wise, logic wise, any of it. No sense whatsoever. Austin had to win. This was because of his anti-authority attitude that had been in place all the way back to the 1997 Royal Rumble. Austin was the most popular wrestler (really, in both major promotions at that time) in the WWF and a showdown with Shawn Michaels was where the obvious money was.

Daniel Bryan is perhaps the most popular wrestler since John Cena himself in 2005. The crowd has connected with him in an insane way that even CM Punk couldn’t accomplish in his 2011 run (matches in Chicago notwithstanding…and really this whole thing wasn’t his fault anyway). Bryan pretty much got his 2013 Summerslam World Title match because of his crowd reactions, and promptly beat Cena clean for the title. This led to a feud with The Authority when Triple H pedigreed Bryan and Randy Orton cashed in Money in the Bank to steal the title from him. Bryan would get close, but fail at regaining the title (except for one day) throughout the rest of 2013. The feud was clearly designed for Bryan to win the Royal Rumble and get one last shot at Orton, where he would ultimately win the title. Sometimes the obvious route is the best one.

Going back to 1998, imagine if The Ultimate Warrior returned and won that Royal Rumble while Stone Cold wasn’t in it? That would pretty much suck, wouldn’t it? Well we got the same thing in 2014 with Batista. And surprise surprise…it sucked. It did make it seem that there was a star in the making (who was already being pushed hard anyway) in Roman Reigns, as Reigns broke the elimination record and finished runner up to Batista. Still, the WWF had to rectify the situation, and Bryan got his World Title victory at Mania. And it was pretty awesome at that.

Austin vs. McMahon made the '98 Rumble obvious.
Austin vs. McMahon made the ’98 Rumble obvious.

Fast forward to 2015. We have a new obstacle in Bryan’s way, Diesel Power 2K15. I’ll explain in a moment, but first let’s go over why Daniel Bryan should be winning this match. For one, he’s still the most popular wrestler in the promotion. Now he has the injury comeback going for him. Bryan broke his neck and there were even retirement rumors for him throughout 2014, cutting short his title reign. How could there be any more money made than Bryan coming back in the Rumble and winning it outright? It’s a storyline that’s worked one way or another in 2001 with Austin, 2002 with Triple H, 2008 with Cena and 2010 with Edge. Once again Daniel Bryan is the clear path to an awesome Wrestlemania main event, where he could face Brock Lesnar for the WWE Title in a version of the Wrestlemania X Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna title match. We even have our Lex Luger in Roman Reigns.

I have no issues with Reigns, but the writing team has screwed him over a ton. He still doesn’t have the workrate down pat either. He had his Diesel Power moment at Summerslam when he kicked out of Randy Orton’s super RKO. The Diesel Power moment refers to Diesel strongly kicking out of Shawn Michaels’ superkick at Wrestlemania XI. He’s just not ready yet. I do think Roman Reigns has the tools to be a huge star down the line. He’s just not there yet. WWE has constantly blown top face runs by pushing them way too fast. Best example is Sheamus beating Bryan in 18 seconds. There’s big money in Reigns, but if he’s pushed way too fast too soon, he will fall. The best thing for Reigns to do is to fight someone like Big Show at Wrestlemania. It worked for Cena didn’t it? If Roman Reigns wins the 2015 Royal Rumble…he will be booed out of the building as fans chant “NO! NO! NO!” They want Bryan. He’s the logical choice once again.

Fans did not want Batista to win the Rumble
Fans did not want Batista to win the Rumble

The other key component of the Royal Rumble is the WWE World Title Match itself. There’s an argument for any of Cena, Lesnar or Seth Rollins to win the title. I’m pretty much the only person in the world who isn’t a huge fan of Rollins and I don’t think he’s quite earned the right to defend the WWE Title at Wrestlemania yet (he too can get there one day though. I just think he won MITB because Bad News Barrett got hurt). I don’t see Seth Rollins having the name value needed to main event a Wrestlemania in a World Title match yet (this is one of the drawbacks of having only one world title, although it’s still better that way). That leaves Cena and Lesnar. If Bryan wins the Rumble, either one of these winning the title will be fine. Cena vs. Bryan II would be awesome, and I already outline why Lesnar and Bryan would be awesome.

The other matches on the card don’t have huge implications. Mizdow seem to be breaking up soon, so I assume they aren’t winning the titles back from the Usos. I don’t even know why The Bellas are back together and I really don’t care. It’s a shame as I was a fan of the Bellas right up until Nikki turned on Brie. The New Age Outlaws being back last year and winning the tag titles was good for nostalgia, but hopefully The Ascension gets the win they need as they’ve been treated like a joke since their call up to WWE. I think the Outlaws are going to steal a Mania payday though. I’m not sure how Tyson Kidd, Cesaro and Adam Rose became a trio, but their match against The New Day seems irrelevant.

As for surprise Rumble entrants, I’ve heard about a couple but I’m trying to keep this spoiler free. I’ll just write for those I am hoping for that in no way have been confirmed or I’ve heard about. RVD (I’m a RVD mark and its Philly), The Sandman, Raven, The Dudley Boyz (all ECW talents. Raven is by far the least likely and Sandman isn’t likely either. The Dudleyz wouldn’t shock me now that they are free from TNA.), and someone totally out of nowhere, like Flash Funk (he was from Philly, right? He also has a Philly ECW rep).

But none of this matters unless Daniel Bryan wins at the end. Do the ring thing WWE.