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Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. Nitro Week 3 – 9/18/95

Week 3

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Nitro: 9/18/95
Jefferson City, TN

It’s the night after Fall Brawl! Nitro had the better show last week so they’ll go first!

An ambulance starts the show…and inside is Kevin Sullivan and The Giant. Mean Gene tells him that this father would be disappointed. Remember, he’s the son of Andre! Kinda funny promo from the Giant. He had a solid three months in pro wrestling at the time, so we’ll have to cut him some slack.

The American Males vs. The Bluebloods

This would be Regal and Bobby Eaton. Jean-Paul was gone at this point.

Well, it wouldn’t really be them either, since Harlem Heat attacks. They offer the American Males a World Tag Team Title shot. The American Males get a free shot at the tag title just like that!

WCW World Tag Team Championship
Harlem Heat© vs. The American Males

Riggs sells the Axe Kick in seemingly slow motion. At least it wasn’t Booker’s finisher yet.

Booker’s flying side kick was always awesome. Watching Booker knowing what I know now I can’t say it’s surprising he became a big star.

Nice “WE WANT IT RAW” sign in the crowd there.

The American Males win the title in 4:40 when Marcus Bagwell pinned Booker T. Sherri Martel is about to hit Bagwell, but Col. Robert Parker comes down and Sherri falls into his arms (I totally forgot the slave owner angle of Harlem Heat. Yikes). Sherri and Parker are apparently in love. Whatever. Anyway Bagwell reverses a pump handle slam into a bodypress pin and gets the win. It’s a weak victory, but once again, something notable happens on Nitro.

SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM!

Ric Flair interview. He’s angry that Arn Anderson got a non-Horseman to help him in their feud (referring to Brian Pillman). He also calls it Johnson City, Tennessee. Based on what Mene Gene says I think that was a sexual reference.

Mr. Wonderful vs. Johnny B. Badd

I really love that music for Orndorff.
Badd was on his way out here. He’d be Marc Mero in the WWF in five months.

Mr. Wonderful pins Johnny B. Badd in 6:40. Orndorff blocks a sunset flip. The finish is botched though, as Badd’s shoulders were clearly up and the ref didn’t seem to actually count the three.

Randy Savage gets attacked by Sullivan on a beach, so Savage responds in an interview. Flair is one of those who help him. Savage says he thinks Luger is joining the Dungeon of Doom. Luger comes out to respond. He wants a match right now but Mean Gene says this isn’t the time of the place (the middle of the ring on Nitro?!).

We go back to the day of Fall Brawl for a Hulk Hogan interview. The Giant comes in on a monster truck and smashes the motorcycle Hogan was on. This would lead to the Monster Truck Match at Halloween Havoc of course. There’s a funny scene here where Hogan is slamming on the truck and Giant is just laughing.

Then a Fall Brawl recap of Giant at Fall Brawl interfering in the War Games, where he attacked Hogan.

Ric Flair vs. Flyin’ Brian Pillman

Flair actually comes off the top rope and hits Pillman with an axhandle smash on the floor. Didn’t expect that from Flair.

This match has been ALL Flair.

Flair goes for the Figure Four, but Pillman reverses into a small package, but doesn’t get the hook of the leg.

Ric Flair wins by submission in 5:24. Figure Four gets it done. Total burial of Pillman there? I mean I think he got two moves in. Flair taunts Arn afterwards.

Overall, I think this was a step back for Nitro. The first show felt like can’t miss TV. Same with the second show (with Sabu and the Hogan vs. Luger title match). Here? Nothing special really. American Males winning the tag titles is cool I guess and a moment for sure, but it doesn’t compare to watching international talents like Sabu and Jushin Liger. And Flair vs. Pillman wasn’t that good either.

Every show can’t be blow away, but there isn’t anything to take me away from RAW this week. Unless of course the RAW show blows. The rating here also indicated that this was a step back.

Oddly, they didn’t give away any RAW Results this week.

TV Rating: 1.9 (-0.5)
Grade: C+

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RAW: 9/18/95
Canton, Ohio

We get a recap of the 1-2-3 Kid vs. Razor Ramon issue from last week.

It should be pointed out that Vince keeps saying this is a special Thursday edition of RAW…but nothing else seems to indicate that. The research I did. The Network. Etc.

This is still taped from August, so no responding to Nitro yet.

1-2-3 Kid vs. Razor Ramon

Kid starts off fast. All of this would lead to the eventual Kid heel turn.

Nice flying over the top rope dropkick from the Kid!

The Kid has dominated the match-up. We also get a sleeper, which is also when they go to commercial. I’m okay with commercials during matches during a hold though.

We got a ref bump!

The 1-2-3 Kid pins Razor Ramon in 7:08. After a collision where the ref got hurt, Dean Douglas comes flying off the top onto Ramon. Kid rolls in to get the pin. The wheels of the turn were starting.

Dean Douglas interview now. Kid gets a D for dumb. Ramon gets an E. Elevate. He’s doing that in order to face Dean Douglas. A for Douglas! The PPV this weekend gets a N. No-Brainer on who will be victorious. That spells Dead. To be honest, that was a good promo.

Tatanka and Kama Mustafa vs. Savio Vega and Bob Holly

Crowd is pretty dead for this, although Vega got a solid reaction for his entrance.

Vega is your face in peril.

We don’t even see the hot tag to Holly on camera.

Kama and Tatanka win when Kama pins Holly in 5:47. Holly comes off the top with a bodypress, but Kama “rolls” through and gets the pin. Ugly finish. Match wasn’t too bad though.

Ramon interview. He’s of course responding to Douglas.

Jean Pierre LaFitte vs. Brian Walsh

Squash match for the pirate ahoy! We go over LaFitte stealing the Hitman sunglasses from fans. Yeah, that wasn’t Bret’s best feud.

We get Bret on the phone. He’s upset that Bret has gotten his jacket and stuff stolen. He’s also confused as he didn’t know pirates still existed. Poor Bret.

LaFitte pins Walsh in 3:18. Cannonball (Swanton?) for the win. I hope this is the last squash we get on RAW ever.

We get some hype about the In Your House main event of HBK and Diesel vs. Owen and Yoko. All titles on the line!

Owen Hart and Yokozuna vs. Men on a Mission

Non-title match here. This is your main event! It’s also heel vs. heel, which is strange.

Owen is playing the face in peril. Interesting. Well it can’t be anyone else in this match for sure.

Here comes Yokozuna! We get Yoko and Mabel going at it as Owen now plays the heel. I actually like both teams cheating. It’s an interesting dynamic.

Mo and Owen both go for spinning wheel kicks at the same time. Never seen that before.

Weird, now Mabel is playing the face making the big comeback.

Owen Hart and Yokozuna win when Owen pinned Mo in 9:30. Yoko kills Mo with the big legdrop, and then holds Mabel’s foot so he can’t break up the pin. Pretty good match amazingly. Owen carried the whole thing, and the heel vs. heel dynamic oddly worked.

Diesel and HBK interview about Owen and Yoko. Something about John Madden.

Cornette interview. Runs down HBK and Diesel of course. He brings up a good point that the last time Diesel and HBK were a team, they broke up.

Lawler predicts Yokozuna walks out of In Your House with the WWF Title. Vince then tells us that we are getting Undertaker vs. British Bulldog on RAW next week. Not bad.

Anyway…solid showing here. A good opener and a surprisingly good main event bookends a lot of boring stuff. The wrestling itself was also better than this week’s Nitro. Sure, nothing between Summerslam and Survivor Series really mattered, but they still had to get to Survivor Series…right?

TV Rating: 2.7
Grade: B

Weekly Review

All the talent in the world and that’s the Nitro we get? Shoulda just scrapped Badd vs. Orndorff and let Pillman and Flair go another five minutes in that case. Nitro for the first time felt like it could be a miss, unless you like monster trucks or something.

That doesn’t mean RAW was can’t miss either. But there were better matches on RAW, and solid build for a PPV no one was really talking about at all.

TV Ratings Score: 2-0 RAW

Grade Score: 1-1 Tie

Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. NITRO Week 2 (9/11/95)

Week 2

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Nitro: 9/11/95
Miami, FL

We’ve got a big name World Title match tonight, Hulk Hogan vs. Lex Luger!

I think it’s awesome that Bischoff put Luger in a Nitro main event immediately. Luger was all over WWF TV just two weeks prior.

This is the go home PPV for Fall Brawl ’95.

Mongo looks ridiculous with glasses.

Bischoff says that Vader has gown AWOL. I think Vader was just fired. Anyway, he’s out of the War Games match.

Sabu vs. Alex Wright

We’re not in ECW are we anymore Sabu?

Sabu takes Wright over the top with a frankensteiner.

Sabu uses a chair as a springboard…but Wright moves and Sabu leg lariats the railing!

Awesome backflip off the top from Wright…which transitions into a German Suplex.

Sabu gets the three on Alex Wright after a top rope victory roll…but Sabu continues the attack and drives Wright through a table!

Alex Wright wins by DQ in 3:58. Ref reverses the decision. Pretty fun 4 minute match with nice spots. Good showing off of Sabu and Wright.

Here comes Ric Flair!

Flair compares himself to Joe Montana and Arn Anderson to Lawrence Taylor. Uh…

Lex Luger comes out to tell Flair “he’s too much” and leaves. Ok?

What an odd segment that was. I mean the interview was fine…but the Luger cameo was what?

Sting vs. VK Wallstreet

Wallstreet is an absolute Million Dollar Man ripoff here.

Bischoff says that “Shawn Michaels beat the big guy with a superkick!” I’m sure Vince McMahon had a heart attack right there. HBK vs. Sid was the main event on RAW…which was taped on August 28th, 1995.

Bischoff says of Wallstreet: “It’s all about power, it’s all about money, and that’s why he’s in WCW”. You think Hogan said that about his contract negotiation?

A very heavy anti-WWF segment here. Bischoff points out Luger was wrestling for the WWF nine days ago but left because he wanted competition. Ouch.

Sting pins Wallstreet in 4:13. Crossbody off the top for the win. Too short for my tastes, but it was fine and the crowd was into it.

Bischoff makes sure that we watch Saturday Night for the debut of Disco Inferno!

Scott Norton vs. Randy Savage

Norton was treated as a big deal early on. No one remembers his debut on the first Nitro…and by this time next year he’d be wrestling Ice Train.

Savage is selling like a million bucks for Norton at least.

Randy Savage pins Scott Norton in 5:39. The Dungeon of Doom hit the ring, and Norton and The Shark bump heads and Shark falls on Norton’s legs. This let’s Savage drop the big elbow for the win. Pretty weird finish. Dungeon of Doom attack Savage as a precursor to War Games. Weird to build up Norton to have him lose right away though.

WCW World Championship: Hulk Hogan© vs. Lex Luger

Hogan does put Luger over like a million bucks here. Well, right until he survives the Torture Rack.

We get the Hulk Up as well. Crowd kinda died during it.

Hulk Hogan wins by DQ in 5:28. Dungeon of Doom ruins this one too. Hogan of course legdropped Luger…so much for putting him over.

Sting and Savage run in, but the DOD don’t attack Luger! Now Hogan doesn’t trust him. This would set up the untruthworthy Luger deal. Sting defends him. How didn’t this lead to the Megapowers vs. Sting and Luger?

Luger will be Vader’s replacement this Sunday! Well, at least that’s what Sting wants. Savage is against him. Hogan, the deciding vote, says yes. Savage is brilliant here.

A solid outing for Nitro again, but I thought some things missed this time around. I liked Sabu vs. Wright…but the reverse decision blows. I don’t think anyone thought Wallstreet was beating Sting…and the announcers decided to use that time to talk about the WWF anyway. Flair’s interview was there. Scott Norton was put over in losing, but he wasn’t really the right guy to draw anyway. Hogan vs. Luger…booked as a dream match and all, went a mere 5 minutes. I feel like they could have cut Sting vs. Wallstreet here. It may have been the best quality match involving a big name, but also the least important.

That being said…we still got a show full of nonstop action, and Hogan put on his working boots for Luger for 4 minutes and 45 seconds. Savage did too. It’s also a good sign that the Nitro rating barely moved…even though it was up against RAW this week.

For the record I am all for Bischoff giving away the RAW results.

TV Rating: 2.4 (-0.1)
Grade: B+

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RAW: 9/11/95
Canton, Ohio

Now that Vince saw what the competition was offering it was time to outshine them and own Monday Nights.

Oh wait…the show is taped.

Yes, taped back in August. Next week’s show is as well. Fun fact that Lex Luger was in a the dark match for this show.

The WWF is coming off a pretty awful Summerslam (a one match care if there ever was one, although The Kid vs. Hakushi was fine too). Now they’ve lost one of their main players, how will Vince respond? Despite a pretty good talent roster, somehow this meant more pushing for Mabel. No idea why.

The main event here is a match that was originally scheduled for Summerslam: HBK vs. Sid for the IC Title. Watching Nitro first though…Bischoff told us how that would turn out.

We have The Bulldog vs. Razor too. Two pretty big matches!

No idea why the WWF went to this terrible intro in 1995…especially when the classic RAW theme outright owned.

Razor Ramon vs. The British Bulldog

The Bulldog just turned heel on Diesel. Ramon just lost the IC title Ladder Match…and also had problems with Dean Douglas.

The Bulldog cutting his hair short was a great look for him.

This has been a solid back and forth contest so far. Good heat for Davey Boy.

Accidental ref bump…leads to Douglas attacking Ramon after Ramon had hit the Razor’s Edge.

Kid makes the save…and takes an awesome bump off the apron!

British Bulldog wins by DQ in 7:10. Kid comes off the top, but misses the Bulldog and hits Razor. Shouldn’t Razor win by DQ? Anyway, pretty good opening segment.

Vince interviews Kid and Razor, and it turns into an argument with Kid and Ramon when Vince says Kid cost Razor the match. Kid says last week (during tennis?) Razor cost him the match. He challenges Razor to a match for next week! He makes sure to point out he beat Razor the first time. Ramon accepts.

Weird poem from Todd Pettengill. Anyway, Yokozuna and Owen vs. Mabel and Mo next week I guess?

The Smokin’ Gunns vs. Rad Radford and The Brooklyn Brawler

No idea who’s winning this one.

Smokin’ Gunns win when Bart Gunn pins The Brawler in 2:46. It was an action packed 3 minutes at least. Did the Gunns ever name that sidewalk slam flying legdrop combo?

Goldust promo. No idea what he’s talking about…but who cares. It owns. References The Undertaker here, interestingly enough. The Goldust character is brilliant.

I like that they use the helicopter stock footage that would appear in The Rock’s 2003 heel titantron.

D.D.S. Isaac Yank’em vs. Scott Taylor

Two Attitude wrestlers here!

Awful chokeslam there. Funny what a long way that move has come for the future Kane.

Yank’em pins Taylor in 2:14. He wins with the DDS…which yes…is a DDT. How many people switched to Savage vs. Norton here?

In Your House hype. All the matches set already it looks like. It doesn’t look too bad!

WWF Intercontinental Championship
Shawn Michaels© vs. Sycho Sid

No one knows how to get a solid match out of Sid like Shawn does.

Shawn makes Sid look amazing here.

Awesome nip up from Sid, which led to a chokeslam.

Shawn Michaels pins Sid in 7:21. Three superkicks…one of them a real superkick, gets Shawn the win. Shawn bumps everywhere for Sid, and it leads to a very good match…even if it’s a bit short.

In retrospect, it’s odd that Vince allowed Shawn to do a striptease in the middle of the ring.

One last backstage interview with Diesel and HBK before we call it a night.

The show had a very good beginning and end, but it’s hard to care about any of that stuff in the middle. Thanks to Nitro, RAW squash matches would begin to be phased out. Unless you thought people were sticking around for The Brooklyn Brawler and Scott Taylor.

That along hurts the show enough. The 5 minute In Your House commercial is bothersome too. Nothing is built up (on RAW at least) yet a whole card is set already? Should I be watching Superstars instead?

Again…the opener and main were good.

TV Rating: 2.5
Grade: B

Weekly Review

Watching Nitro made me feel like WCW had so much talent they had to get in on the show. Watching RAW made me wonder why the WWF didn’t use all their top guys. Now that Nitro set that standard, RAW would have to catch up.

Even though Shawn vs. Sid was the better match in terms quality, Hogan vs. Luger was a huge deal with the WCW World Title on the line and everything. Nitro had an action packed show from top to bottom. RAW had a good start and good ending with stuff no one cared about in the middle.

Plus, Bischoff told you what would happen anyway…

Great start for Nitro ratings wise. First week of competition and they lose by merely 0.1. Not bad at all.

TV Ratings Score: 1-0 RAW

Grade Score: 1-0 Nitro

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF In Your House XIX: De-Generation X

IYH19

WWF: In Your House De-Generation X
December 7, 1997
Springfield, MA
Reviewed on March 15, 2014

Background: Where to start? This was the first PPV after the infamous Montreal Screwjob. The WWF was looking toward the Stone Cold Steve Austin era, but now had this lull between Survivor Series and the Royal Rumble. Reportedly, Bret vs. Shawn was supposed to be the top feud to get us to Mania for Austin vs. Bret, but here we are.

The WWF had just turned to the Attitude phase of their marketing. You can’t really blame them for their lack of success though…WCW was promoting the Match of the Century: Hollywood Hogan vs. Sting which everyone watched. All eyes for the short term were on Bret Hart as well, so WCW really had all the momentum (and with a great Starrcade could have really put the pressure on the WWF). As the WWF was in the lame duck status, they decided to try to get some money out of Ken Shamrock and threw him in the main event with Shawn. The WWF had two really big time things here: DX was in fact revolutionary, and Austin was on the rise.

The Card

WWF Lightheavyweight Championship Tournament Final
Taka Michinoku vs. Brian Christopher

You knew the WWF blew the Lightheavyweight title when Brian Christopher was in the final of the inaugural tournament.

Match starts off with a LOT of stalling.

Taka’s springboard plancha was always a thing of beauty.

Taka is doing all he can to steal the show. Nice Asai moonsault using the corner.

Most of the commentary is about Christopher being (or not being) Jerry Lawler’s son.

Taka Michinoku wins the title when he pins Christopher in 12:00. Christopher misses the Tennessee Jam and Taka gets the Driver for the win. Way too much stalling from Christopher for this to have any flow. At least Taka gets a good pop when he wins the title.

The Disciples of Apocalypse (Chainz, Skull and 8-Ball) vs. Los Boricuas (Miguel Perez Jr, Jesus Castillo Jr, Jose Estrada Jr.)

The sooner this is over the better.

Does anyone care about this feud anymore? This spawned from when Crush and Savio Vega were members of the Nation of Domination, but were fired. They created their own gang and have been feuding with each other ever since. The Truth Commissionalso got involved at some point. The Gang Warz these are, and they suck.

Miguel Perez gets the Albert shave your back chants.

Miguel Perez with a standing moonsault. More excitement that I expected.

Skull or 8-Ball (can’t be assed to figure out who is who) can’t even take an Irish Whip correctly.

Los Boricuas win when Estrada pinned Chainz in 7:58. Perez was faking a knee injury! Somersault legdrop on Chainz! Perez puts Estrada on Chainz for the win. Ridiculously boring.

Toughman Match
Butterbean vs. Marc Mero

Story: Mero thinks Butterbean is a nobody. Mero’s also been treating Sable like crap, which Butterbean doesn’t like.

The only person to get over from this whole thing was Sable, and well, that’s how it should be.

Four round boxing match here. This is a WRESTLING PPV you know.

A whole lot of nothing happens in round 1.

Mero takes a cheap shot in between rounds.

Mero with some heel tactics in round 2. A knee to the back and a choke with tape.

Boring chants are faint, but there.

Mero nails Butterbean with a dropkick after the bell.

Mero gets his ass kicked in round 3 but is saved by the bell. Butterbean then tosses ice cold water on Mero at the end.

Butterbean wins by DQ in 10:20. Mero gets nailed again early in round 4, and Mero lowbridges Butterbean for the DQ. This sucked and the finish sucked. What a waste of PPV time. No one cared.

Oh god…here comes The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust and Luna. This shit is just disturbing. He reads Green Eggs and Ham.

JR wins the segment by apologizing to Dr. Seuss.

You know there’s not a Mick Foley or Kane match on the card for this shit.

Luna then shoves Goldust down and then pulls him by his chain. It’s over thank god.

LOD promo. Hawk compares the Outlaws to a booger. At least there was intensity there.

World Tag Team Championship
The New Age Outalws© vs. The Legion of Doom

Let me say this, the LOD may have not really worked here…but they way they put over the Outlaws was fantastic. They received instant legitimacy from this feud.

Very strange start with LOD trying to fight NAO and the Outalws just running to the back to stretch.

Funny spot where Road Dogg crawls to a corner where Billy Gunn isn’t.

It ends up happening again, but at least Dogg crawled to the correct corner (Gunn was knocked out from Hawk earlier).

Ice bucket shot to the head! This match kinda sucks.

Road Dogg busts out the worm? The hell?

Hawk sells the knee to the gut with a spin. Well at least he sold it.

The New Age Outlaws win by DQ in 10:32. Doomsday Device set up…but Henry Godwinn comes down and smacks Animal with a bucket. Hawk goes nuts with the bucket and gets DQed. Match and finish sucked. I guess putting over the Outlaws again was too much to ask.

Promo video putting over Sgt. Slaughter. Look, Slaughter looked washed up against Hogan at Mania VII. This was a bad idea at this point.

Boot Camp Match
Triple H vs. Sgt. Slaughter

Slaughter has the Kurt Angle music…although I assume it was considered The Patriot’s music at the time.

This match starts with all Slaughter. What?

Slaughter goes for the cover on the outside but ref says it has to be in the ring. What was the point of that?

HHH finally takes control. Slaughter takes his over the top rope corner bump which shocks the hell out of me to be fair.

HHH tries to grab the ring bell, and the timekeeper holds on for dear life. HHH smacks him with it. How randomly awesome was that?

Slaughter does the Ric Flair slammed off the top spot.

Powder to Chyna!

HHH pins Slaughter in 17:36. Chyna saves HHH from the Cobra Clutch. Pedigree on the chair for the win. Horrible match. Slaughter shouldn’t be in the ring. What was the point of making HHH barely beat Slaughter and for Slaughter to look like the better wrestler? Absolutely horrible on all accounts.

Jeff Jarrett interview! He calls Michael Cole “Mark”.

The Undertaker vs. Jeff Jarrett

This was a quick push Jarrett got as he just returned from WCW. His gimmick was to shoot on things. It would lead to the midcard and the NWA North American Champion gimmick. I’m a Jarrett fan, but this sucked.

This is a pretty random match for Undertaker.

Jeff Jarrett wins by DQ in 2:52. Here’s Kane! Jarrett tells Kane to attacks Taker, so Kane chokeslams him for the DQ. Funny as he got Taker DQed the same way at Deadly Games. Kane wants to fight Taker. Taker doesn’t want to fight him…yet. Nothing match that felt longer than three minutes, but I guess the postmatch is what mattered.

Jeff Jarrett with the postmatch attack! This Jarrett push did not last. Jarrett gets chokeslammed for his troubles.

Michael Cole is in the crowd with [Mark Henry! Henry will return from an injury soon! Woo?

Intercontinental Championship
Stone Cold Steve Austin© vs. The Rock

There are a lot of similarities between early Randy Orton and early Rock.

This was the classic feud with the 3:16 beeper. This was the first real attitude Austin feud.

Rock is out with the entire Nation.

Austin drives the truck into the arena!

D’Lo gets backdropped on the truck. Stunner on the truck!

Austin whips Kama into the truck!

People’s Elbow didn’t have a name yet!

Austin accidentally stuns the ref! Nice spot that worked into the story on RAW!

Steve Austin retains when he pinned Rock in 5:31. Stunner gets the win. You can see the first ref calling for the DQ. Fun little match, although too short. The ref bump would led to Austin forfeiting the title to Rock on RAW. This became the standard Stone Cold main event style, so historically, this match is a huge deal.

We get a recap of HBK vs. Shamrock. Then a bland Shamrock promo.

WWF Championship
Shawn Michaels© vs. Ken Shamrock

Great kick from Shamrock that HBK sold like a million bucks.

Overall HBK is just making Shamrock look like a million bucks.

Despite the great selling from HBK this match isn’t clicking. A lot of slow Shamrock stuff with HBK ducking and moving.

DX getting involved. Slam by Chyna!

HBK with a splash from the apron. That’s new.

Shamrock near the end gets caught in the top rope in a weird way and it hits his eye it seems. Strange.

Ken Shamrock wins by DQ in 18:27. Shamrock makes a comeback and hits the belly to belly. Ankle Lock but HHH and Chyna cause the DQ in record time. Match didn’t click at all and I assume how this went ended any chance of a Shamrock main event run (I always assumed it would have been Austin vs. Shamrock at some point in 98). Finish blew as well. You know that was the fourth DQ finish of the PPV. Not good.

As HBK celebrates on the apron Owen Hart shows up out of nowhere and shoves HBK off and through the announcer’s table (although the camera misses it). It’s a cool moment though and it’s a shame they don’t run with HBK vs. Owen (this would have worked at No Way Out, as both had a history with Stone Cold). Rumor has it that HBK didn’t want to work with Owen (ugh) and we know Austin didn’t (a lot more understandable). So, Owen’s main event push was DOA.

Anyway, this PPV is awful. No really good matches. A lot of crap. A boxing match. Whatever the fuck that was with Goldust. Bad finishes. Boring main event. Very close to F status. But this show has a big redeeming quality that helps it tremendously.

This was THE SHOW where Stone Cold vaunted to the main event. He was still really an upper midcarder at this point. This also showed The Rock could have a fun match and be that upper midcard guy for a while. HHH was also shown off here, even if the match blew, as another guy at that Rock level. Kane too continued his path of destruction. At least storylines showed progression here. This PPV also showed that some guys just weren’t going to make it on top. Shamrock and Jarrett, I’m looking at you two.
And again, the Owen thing was pretty cool, just a shame it went nowhere.

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-