The Year in PPV- 1995, Part I

1995 is not a year I was too fond to watch on the WWE Network. When most people discuss worst years in the company's history, 1995 finds its way near the top choices alongside 1993. With a roster that had Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, Diesel, Bret Hart, Yokozuna, Owen Hart, and the Undertaker...where could they go wrong? The problem was with one thing: booking. At a time when WCW was providing higher quality matches on a weekly basis, WWF was relying on characters and so many of them had gimmicks that were too cartoony for older fans to get into. A year from this point, the nWo would begin in WCW and become the biggest thing in wrestling. In 1997, D-Generation X and Stone Cold Steve Austin would both show signs of how the Attitude Era would begin. For the attitude to develop, their needed to be a breaking point where fans had had enough. With years like 1995, it's easy to see that they wanted the new generation to be injected with some attitude.

One interesting thing to note about 1995 is that it was the beginning of the WWF's PPV expansion. For years, the WWF had 4 PPVs a year: Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series. In 1993, King of the Ring was added to the calendar, and now 1995 takes it to the next level by introducing the concept of the In Your House PPV. The best way to summarize the early years of In Your House was that they were 2 hour PPVs spaced between the Big 5 shows throughout the year. Are they the greatest things out there? No. But each does have at least one or two special moments to offer, and hey, they're two hours so they're easier to blow through on the WWE Network.

So let's head to the Royal Rumble to see how 1995 got started...


1. Royal Rumble

The Royal Rumble gets kicked off with an appearance by Pamela Anderson. At the time, she was one of the biggest names on TV thanks to Baywatch, and here she has promised to escort the winner of the Rumble match to the main event of WrestleMania. Naturally, they show tons of promos where the wrestlers are salivating over her presence, but she's not the only celebrity to make an impact on this show (watch the WWF Tag Team Championship match to see what I mean). On top of that, we have an excellent Intercontinental Championship match between Razor Ramon and Jeff Jarrett, and an epic contest of Diesel vs. Bret Hart for the WWF Championship that ends poorly but extends existing rivalries, so it's forgivable. It's a really good thing this midcard is excellent, because it makes up for what the main event lacks.

Here we have my nomination for the absolute WORST Royal Rumble match EVER! There are only a handful of legitimate main event talent thrown in this match and about 90% of the Rumble is filled with jobbers and some of the most ridiculous gimmicks of the decade. On top of that, in this match they had competitors entering every 60 seconds (the fastest in any Rumble match), which would work if there was a fast and furious work ethic on the roster, but it translated out more to cramming a 60 minute match down to 30. It's the shortest 30-man Rumble match we've seen, and it might be best to keep it that way. Even superstars like the British Bulldog, Owen Hart, and Lex Luger couldn't save this from being a stinker. The only man in the match that makes this worth watching is Shawn Michaels. Thanks to his performance in the Rumble match, we have the "Shawn Michaels rule" for having both feet touch the floor, as well as being the first man to enter first in the Rumble and walk out victorious.

Mild Recommendation


2. WrestleMania XI

For years, I called WrestleMania XI my least favorite Mania. Is it the all-time worse? Probably not, but it is the one I enjoy watching the least and here's why. They had the roster. They had the talent. The matches that were booked sounded good on paper. How do you screw up Mania so badly? The "I Quit" match between Bret Hart and Bob Backlund could've been a masterpiece like their Survivor Series match in 1994, but it's an absolute disaster. Lex Luger and the British Bulldog could've were over enough as a tag team to either challenge or defend the WWF Tag Team Championships, instead of opening the show in a throwaway tag squash match. The Intercontinental Championship match could have showed a great contest between Jeff Jarrett and Razor Ramon had it not been for the ending. And the Undertaker could've taken on anyone else in the Million Dollar Corporation and it would've been better than his match with King Kong Bundy.

With so much crap on one show, is there anything redeeming about it? Well, I guess there was some build up on who Owen Hart would select as his tag partner to challenge the Smoking Gunns for the WWF Tag Team Championships. As you can see in the picture, his decision had a BIG impact on the match's result. Diesel and Shawn Michaels had a match for the WWF Championship that has grown in popularity over the years, and had it been the main event it at least could have ended with a solid match. That isn't to say the match with Lawrence Taylor and Bam Bam Bigelow isn't entertaining, but it belongs nowhere near the main event. It should have been a upper midcard main event attraction thanks to Taylor's celebrity involvement, but that's it. And that really sums up the problem with this show. With so much focus on the "A-list" celebrities (seriously, I'm sure they were big in the '90s, but their star power hasn't aged gracefully at all), and little focus on the solid roster of talent they had, you have the result of a WrestleMania that was lacking in direction for putting on a quality show. Still, I'll slap a "mild recommendation" on this, since it's one of those train wreck shows you need to see to believe.

Mild Recommendation


3. In Your House

The first In Your House PPV gets off on the right foot thanks to an opening contest from Bret Hart and Hakushi that is usually referred to as one of the best matches from the In Your House franchise. After that, not much is memorable on the card. This will become pretty repetitive on most of the In Your House PPV reviews since the shows are best known for about one or two moments on each show. Here, it's the opening match for quality and historical value.

A handful of the matches capitalized on the post-Mania feuds and rivalries, like Bret's feud with Jerry Lawler and Razor Ramon's feud with Jeff Jarrett and the Roadie. A lot of build up was on the main event match for the WWF Championship. In a battle of the big men, Sycho Sid challenged Diesel for the title, but the match is insignificant to Sid's career. Rather, it's his live screw up during his promo that is more synonymous with his career (you know...the one where he asks Jim Ross if he can start over, with J.R. replying that they're live). Classic Sid mediocrity at its finest. Still, you can see that there was effort in making Diesel a fighting champion and trying to build Sid up as a legitimate threat for the title...so give them a C- for overall quality: that being a B for the concept, and a D+ for the actual execution.

Skip It


4. King of the Ring

This year's King of the Ring tournament had some big names attached, including Yokozuna, the Undertaker, and Shawn Michaels. Just thinking of the idea that Shawn and Taker could have been the tournament final and they weren't blows my mind. What an opportunity they had, they just didn't know it. Watching it, it's obvious they were building Savio Vega up in this tournament as the underdog, and Mabel as the definitive favorite. Sadly, that's the tournament final, and sadly Mabel won King of the Ring. Not Shawn Michaels. Not the Undertaker. Not even Yokozuna. Mabel...from Men on a Mission...won the King of the Ring tournament, and became the number one contender for the WWF Championship. Had they repackaged Mabel...it could have worked, but they still had him wearing the purple and gold and keeping his previous affiliation with Men on a Mission part of the storyline...with the only difference in his character being that he was a heel. Can you see where the problem was? Because I sure can.

As if the tournament wasn't bad enough, we have to endure a "Kiss My Foot" match: a match where if you lose the match, you must kiss your opponent's foot. Not only is this match gimmick absolutely ludicrous, but it also features two of the all-time greats in Bret Hart and Jerry Lawler being subjected to a stipulation that is so embarrassing that it lands in the "so bad, it's good" category. The main event also saw Diesel team with Bam Bam Bigelow to take on Sycho Sid and Tatanka, but by the time we got to it, the show's momentum is straight up GONE. There is nothing this main event could have done to get the audience to care. And why should they? Shawn didn't win King of the Ring, even worse...Mabel did, and their golden boy Bret Hart was in the middle of the ring with his foot in Jerry Lawler's mouth. THIS. SHOW. SUCKED!

Skip It


5. In Your House 2: The Lumberjacks

Here we have a much better concept for the Diesel/Sycho Sid rivalry: a gimmick match. As you can tell by the show's title, the main event is a Lumberjack match, which opens up a handful of opportunities for the shortcomings in their match quality (particularly on Sid's part) to be overshadowed by the concept of the match stipulations. There's an exceptionally entertaining part of the match where Diesel goes airborne, something that he wasn't well-known for doing....ever in his career (with quads that fragile, it's easy to see why). Is it the best match in either Sid or Kevin Nash's careers? Absolutely not, not even close. But it's still fun and improves where their match at the first In Your House PPV left off.

Like the last In Your House (and pretty much EVERY In Your House show), the midcard is fine, but there should be significance on one match in particular. That match is for the Intercontinental Championship and saw Jeff Jarrett square off against Shawn Michaels. Whether or not it was planned this way, the crowd was fully invested in this match and showed they were fully behind Shawn to win the Intercontinental Championship. It's glimpses like this that you can clearly see that the fans wanted Shawn as the next face of the company. Wouldn't it have been so much better if he had won King of the Ring? We will never know.

Mild Recommendation


Initial Thoughts: It's easy to see that the first half of 1995 was the Shawn Michaels and Diesel show, and how could it not be? Even with Razor Ramon being a constant staple of the midcard at the time, the Kliq was running wild on booking and the crowd was firmly behind them. Guys like Bret Hart, Lex Luger, and the British Bulldog felt absolutely wasted during this time, and some of the main eventers being groomed (Sid and Mabel specifically) weren't exactly striking the chord with the fans that the company had intended. The In Your House shows were also an interesting concept that was introduced, but would need some fine tuning if it wanted to be a permanent part of the PPV lineup. Would anything change in the second half of 1995?

Concluded in Part II...


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