WWF Royal Rumble 1995

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I've caught up to this point on RAW on WWE Network and got the weird urge to rewatch.

This is my third time rewatching this in five years or so. First time, I thought the undercard was surprisingly pretty good but the Rumble sucked. Second time, I thought the undercard was fine but paint by numbers but the Rumble was marginally better than I remembered. What way will I describe this show "as not great but not terrible?" on this go-around?

Show opens with a limo pulling up to the USF Sun Dome and Dink The Clown waiving the locker room down. Pamela Anderson comes out of the limo. The front line of WWF Superstars to greet her are Mabel, Tatanka, Doink The Clown, Jeff Jarrett, KWANG, Henry O. Godwinn, The Heavenly Bodies, The Bushwhackers, and Well Dunn. With a roster like that, you have to wonder why business was in the dumps!

Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler, and the Spanish Announce Team welcome us to the show! We got three titles on the line plus IRS Vs The Undertaker and The Royal Rumble! The WWF World Title match is a clash between the two most popular wrestlers in WWF history, Champion Diesel and former World Champ Bret Hart.

Vince McMahon says we're ready for BURGER KING, excuse me! Our first title match as Razor Ramon defends the WWF Intercontinental Title against "Double J" Jeff Jarrett, who's accompanied to the ring by his new sidekick, The Roadie

Scott Hall and Jeff Jarrett had to have dozens of matches and none of them are actively terrible (not even the ones in '99/'00 WCW, IIRC) but none of them are better than *** or so. Kind of weird.

Vince mentions that this pay per view is airing LIVE on Sky Box Office in the UK. Lawler is pissed because he's here instead of watching this pay per view at Prince Charles' Royal Pajama Party in England!

Close call between the who has the cooler/goofier tights, Razor's Banana Yellow tights with Cosby Sweater pattern silk vest. Or Jeff Jarrett's flashing cowboy/hat sunglasses with Dusty Rhodes-esque polka dot tights.

First incredibly fake Vince laugh of the night after Lawler says Jeff Jarrett's starring in a musical called "The Phantom of the Grand Ole Opry".

The Roadie helped give Jeff Jarrett a big countout victory over British Bulldog on RAW a little while back, can help Double J win the Intercontinental Title?

Watching these '94/'95 RAWs makes me realize what a big underdog Double J was in this match. His biggest singles victories was over Mabel (a glorified tag wrestler) at SummerSlam '94 and the aforementioned cheap countout win over Bulldog on RAW. He was one step above KWANG.

Vince mentions that Lawrence Taylor, of ALL PEOPLE, is here as an invited guest of Diesel. Huh. This won't come into play later...

Razor's knee is busted after he gets clipped by The Roadie. He gets counted out. Double J doesn't want to win this way! He wants to win the title and goads Razor into getting back into the ring! Razor's wearing yellow boots and yellow tights but he might as well paint a yellow stripe on his back! He ain't no CHICO! He's a chicken.

Razor's upset and limps back into the ring. The referee has restarted this match despite Razor's busted wheel. Questionable officiating, Tim White!

Razor puts up a vailant effort. He gets Double J up for the Razor's Edge but his knee is too busted and Double J rolls him up to win the WWF Intercontinental Title in a huge for '95 upset!

This is probably the best of the "good but not great" Jarrett-Ramon/Hall matches.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Speaking of mismatches, even as an eight year old, there's no way I bought IRS having a chance against Undertaker after Undertaker beat Yokozuna and the evil version of himself at previous pay per views. It didn't matter if IRS had druids, he didn't stand a chance against The Deadman.

I always crack up when Vince McMahon yells "WILL YOU STO P IT WITH THE DRUIDS!?" at Lawler.

Lik most '94/'95 IRS matches (and most '94/'95 Undertaker matches), this match is not very good but it's not quite as bad as I remembered it. No need for it to go 12-13 minutes though.

I always get Ted DiBiase's druids confused with The Undertaker's Creatures of the Nights that Kama beat up after Kama melted The Undertaker's urn into a dookie chain. Stupid '95 Undertaker storylines.

Undertaker wins with a chokeslam. I wonder why he didn't use the Tombstone. I guess he was so used to wrestling fatties during this era that he just resorted to the Chokeslam.

Undertaker fights off the druids then King Kong Bundy waddles down to have a staredown with Undertaker. Bundy beats down Undertaker as IRS and the druids repossess the urn. God damn WCW WWF.

Earlier on today, Diesel was readin' the funny papers on Action Zone but now he shoos away Todd Pettingell. Todd then interviews Bret Hart. Bret also sort of brushes off Todd. LOL.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

This Bret Vs Diesel match is probably in the Top 10 of matches I've watched the most times. Still enjoy it despite the crappy finish. Diesel's intro is one of the most underrated of all time.

Crowd reaction has always stood out as weird to me since Bret is the aggressor and is sort of wrestling like the heel but is still getting cheered by a vast majority of the crowd. Bret says in his book that he had to wrestle as the heel/aggressor because if he was getting beat up, the crowd would shit all over Diesel. I'm probably in the minority in having this opinion but I don't know if I'd agree with Bret. One of the things that made Diesel so appealing was that he was so dominant. Nobody's gonna really cheer for him if he's getting dominated by the little guy. Geez, no wonder why Nash hates the vanilla midgets...

I've never understood why Earl Hebner just stood there like an idiot after HBK attacked Diesel. Between this and Tim White letting Razor wrestle injured, this was a terrible night for WWF officials (kayfabe wise).

Earl finally throws out the match after he gets knocked out and Shawn Michaels, Owen Hart, Bob Backlund, and Jeff Jarrett & The Roadie run in to attack both guys. Don't know why Jeff Jarrett & The Roadie ran in.

This was a good match despite the awkward/dumb booking.

IRT all of this "Who was more popular?" talk, probably the biggest pop of the match is Bret and Diesel hugging it out after the match. The USF Sundome gives them a standing ovation, LT approves of the good sportsmanship.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Todd Pettingell is creepin' in Pam Anderson's dressing room.

Stephanie Wiand interviews Bob Holly & The 123 Kid about their match against Bam Bam Bigelow & Tatanka for the WWF Tag Team Titles. Bob Holly says they're the San Diego Chargers of the WWF. Just like the Chargers are getting a shot at the Super Bowl when no one thought they'd get that far, they're getting a shot at the WWF Tag Team Titles. Hmm. This match would go somewhat better than the Chargers appearance at Super Bowl XXIX.

Jerry Lawler uses the BrainScan Magistrator to show a slo-mo replay of the show opening to show that Pamela Anderson was REALLY thinking of him. He says he's got a hot date with her after the show. Highly ludicrous. Pretty sure Pam Anderson was over the age of 18 at this point. No way Lawler would be interested.

Wow. They're really selling the 123 Kid & Bob Holly as the San Diego Chargers of the WWF. Does that mean The Kid & Holly are KOAB's all time favorite tag team?

Also I don't remember WWF ever making more NFL/football references than they did in the New Generation era. All peaking with the main event of WrestleMania XI. THere was also the RAW Bowl. Can't wait till that comes on WWE Network in a few months!

Vince mentions how Bam Bam & Tatanka have never held gold in the WWF. To my knowledge, they never did (uh, spoiler alert). Behind Jake Roberts, I think they might be most notable guys in WWF history to never hold any titles.

Bret-Diesel is MOTN but this is a surprisingly close second. It's a fun big guys-little guys matches and I like the story of the bigger, stronger team being undone by the fact that they're just not very good tag team partners.

I still maintain Bam Bam running through the Million Dollar Corporation after he gets fed up with them browbeating him could have been a good storyline....but in reality, it certainly wasn't!

123 Kid & Spark Plugg win after heel miscommunication leads to Tatanka knocking Bam Bam off the top rope while Bammer's attempting a moonsault. The San Diego Chargers of the WWF are Tag Team Champs!

After the match, Tatanka & DiBiase leave Bam Bam by himself. He gets trolled by some fans. Bam Bam thinks this isn't FUNNY! We got Stephanie Wiand in the back. But waitjustasecond! Bam Bam is confronting LT, who is laughing at Bam Bam's misfortunes. Bam Bam shoves LT and storms off.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

One Year Ago Today! Diesel eliminated seven men at the '94 Royal Rumble but his partner Shawn Michaels "accidentally" caused Diesel to be eliminated. Back to present, Shawn Michaels laughs about eliminating Diesel. HBK says he single handedly eliminated Diesel, he's gonna eliminate the 29 other guys in the Rumble.

As a mark, I was shocked that HBK won the Rumble but watching the RAWs leading up to this on WWE Network, they blatantly telegraphed that he would have an "upset win". The only other guys portrayed as serious contenders on the RAW before hand were King Kong Bundy and Mabel. Guys who should have been built up as contenders like Lex Luger (the guy who co-won the previous Rumble), Bob Backlund (who just lost the World Title two months before), British Bulldog and Owen Hart were treated like afterthoughts during the pre-match buildup. Rest of the field was just jobber city.

Hey, speaking of the finish to the '94 Rumble, we see that again and get a quick promo from Lex Luger. 1995 is gonna go better than 1994 for Lex Luger. Yeah, he'd get to go back to WCW! I mentioned biggest names to never win a title in WWF and Luger's got to be high on the list as well.

Vince McMahon, in his serious voice, apologizes to Lawrence Taylor on behalf of the World Wrestling Federation.

Pamela Anderson enters, accompanied by the future Stooges, Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco and some nerdy bodyguards.

Shawn Michaels is #1 in the Royal Rumble. CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS!? HBK will NOT be going to WrestleMania XI as the #1 Contender. :

HBK has TK written on his gloves. First wife's initials?

#2 is The British Bulldog! Bulldog throws around HBK.

This is the first year with one minute intervals so at least we'll get through this Who's Who of Who Cares lineup quickly.

#3 is...uh, one of the Blu Twins. "It's, uh, Eli" according to Vince. Your guess is good as mine, Vince.

DUke "The Dumpster" Droese enters in at #4. He's here to take out The Trash. Babyfaces and heels square off. Dumpster against HBK and Bulldog against Eli Blu.

"THE GIGOLO" Jimmy Del Ray is #5.
Jerry Lawler: I like this guy!
Vince McMahon: Do you think he's gonna win the Rumble.
Lawler: I don't like him that match.

Michaels and The Gigolo square off to determine the TRUE Heartbreak Kid of the WWF.

The new BARBARIC Headshrinker, Sionne comes in at #6!

Jimmy Del Ray is the first man eliminated from a British Bulldog clothesline.

Cornette doesn't have much time to wring hands over the Gigolo's elimination as his Heavenly Bodies partner Dr. Tom Prichard is #7. Vince and Lawler repeat the "I like this guy" "Enough to win the Rumble?" "I don't like him that much!" schtick.

#8 is Doink, who comes out to a huge pop. No accounting for taste in Central Florida. Lawler is as appalled as I am at Doink's popularity.

Kwang comes out at #9. This is not exactly the best and brightest of the World Wrestling Federation...

Vince mentions the Royal Rumble starting in 1989 in Houston, Texas, raising the ire of Brody and wrestling geeks everywhere! It was 1988 in Hamilton, Ontario (or 1987 in St. Louis if you really want to get technical!

"The Model" Rick Martel is #10, making his last in-ring appearance in the WWF IIRC. He's been in more Royal Rumbles than anybody, at this point! He'd been in every Rumble since '89.

#11 is "The King of Harts" Owen Hart! ...who gets his ass kicked by Bret Hart in the aisle and immediately eliminated by Bulldog. Great way to use one of the biggest/only stars in this match, Vince. : And his elimination is completely missed by the cameras so they can focus on Timothy Well entering in at #12. : :

Duke Droese is the third man eliminated from the match, getting tossed by Shawn Michaels. In the process he knocks out a cameraman.

Like a lot of mid '90s Rumbles, ring seems too clogged up with guys. Jerry Lawler is very upset at Owen Hart getting jobbed.

Bulldog tosses out Timothy Well. Sionne throws out Rick Martel. Au revoir, The Model. See you in a few years in WCW!

Dr. Tom Prichard gets thrown out by HBK. Huh. Weird this happens just as I type about the ring getting too full.

Doink gets eliminated by a Kwang super kick. Kwang gets chucked by Sionne while we're focusing on Bushwhacker Luke stomping in at #13.

Sionne and Eli Blu eliminate each other. It's down to Luke, HBK, and Bulldog. Not for long as HBK tosses out Bushwhacker Luke. Oh well, better performance than in '91 for the Lukester.

At the unlucky #14 slot if Jacob Blu. It's a repeat of the first three of this match. Jacob nearly clotheslines HBK's head off like they're in the MSG locker room. Jacob Blu gets eliminated after HBK ducks a charge.

#15 is King Kong Bundy. To be continued in next post...

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

We finally see Owen getting tossed by The Bulldog ten minutes ago. It was necessary to miss that so we could see Timothy Well run into the ring, I'm sure. :

HBk takes a breather as Bundy mauls Davey Boy Smith.

#16 is Mo. Let's Go Mo! Uh oh! Goodbye Mo as Bundy chucks him over the top! Mo breaks Luke's record for shortest Rumble appearance. Lawler laughs.

Big Mabel comes out at #17 to avenge his fallen partner Mo. Him and King Kong Bundy have a fatman showdown as the crowd goes mild.

At #18 is Bushwhacker Butch. Mabel tosses out King Kong Bundy. Shawn Michaels chucks out Butch. He eliminated both Bushwhackers tonight. IMPRESSIVE!

Bulldog and Mabel team up to try and eliminate HBK.

Last year's co-winner "Made in the USA" Lex Luger comes in at #19 and immediately tosses Mabel. Michaels takes some very impressive bumps off Luger's clotheslines.

The immortal MANTAUR is #20. Faces and heels square off again.

#21 is Aldo Montoya. HOW DID WCW THINK THEY COULD COMPETE WITH THIS!? Allied Powers double team Mantaur as HBK and Aldo square off.

Coming in at #22 is HOG. This might be the worst three person stretch in Royal Rumble history...HBK and Bulldog rest as Luger squares off against Godwinn and Aldo Montoya fights Mantaur in one of the most riveting showdowns in Rumble history (...er, or not)

Billy Gunn is entrant #23. Billy & Bart had to bow out of the WWF Tag Team Titles tournament but they're back in time to compete in the Rumble. Tomorrow on RAW, him and Bart face off against 123 Kid & Bob Holly! Read the recap for that in three weeks on Culture Crossfire.

Speaking of Bart, he's entrant #24. He immediately gets jumped by Mantaur.

MISTER Bob Backlund is #25 in the match. Like Owen, Backlund gets jumped by Bret Hart before he can even enter. Again, way to use one of the biggest/only big stars in the match, Vince!

#26 is Steven Dunn, no relation to Vince's right hand man (and TSM thread subject) Kevin. Luger eliminates Backlund by clotheslining him over the top. Lawler thinks this is a travesty. Backlund and Bret brawl in the aisle. Well, anything so I don't have to pay attention to this match.

"Captain Redneck" Dick Murdoch makes a guest appearance at #27 to absolutely no crowd reaction.Vince waxes poetic about Murdoch's tag team with the late Adrian Adonis. Ring getting too packed again.

Adam Bomb enters at #28 to a nice pop. CAN YOU BELIEVE that Shawn Michaels and British Bulldog are still in this!? Yes, Vince, yes, we can.

Second to last man in, at #29 is Jimmy and Jey's daddy, Headshrinker Fatu! He was in the final four last year. Could he go all the way this year? No, he will not!

Luger tosses Mantaur.

The 30th and final entrant is Kona Crush making a surprise return. Vince is despondent. Crush is DEFINITELY gonna win this match, according to him. Crush and HOG immediately toss Billy & Bart.

Steven Dunn is eliminated by Aldo Montoya. Somehow, Aldo Montoya made the final nine in a Royal Rumble...Lawler laughs and says DUNN IS DONE! TSM probably wishes he were talking about Kevin. Unfortunately, Steve Dunn is DONE from this mortal coil. :'(


The future Kronik EXPLODES as Crush & Adam Bomb duke it out.

Vince talks about how only one man can win the Royal Rumble and Lawler brings up two men winning just last year. Vince seems to get pissed IRL and says that's the ONLY time we'll see that ever happen!

Lex Luger saves HBK from getting eliminated by Dick Murdoch, which is one of those little moves that made no sense and Lawler points it out but Vince just says "ANYTHING WILL HAPPEN in the Rumble!"

Vince seems awfully insistent that HBK will NOT want win the Rumble which in retrospect makes it really obvious.

Adam Bomb is elimination #22 as he gets thrown out by Crush.

Aldo Montoya is 23rd guy eliminated as HBK heaves him over the top.

Luger saves HBK from a Dick Murdoch elimination again. Wow. Why is Made in the USA going against Captain Redneck?

Crush tosses out Fatu (elimination #25)

Weirdest final six of the 30 man Rumble era possibly here in HBK, British Bulldog, Lex Luger, HOG, Crush, and Dick Murdoch.

Dick Murdoch Airplane Spins HOG in a moment meant to get a huge nostalgia pop that again gets no reaction. Murdoch is tossed by HOG.

Faces and heels square off. Luger and Bulldog Vs HBK, Crush, and HOG. Crowd goes mild.

Luger tosses HOG. HBK shows his gratitude towards Luger for saving him twice in this match by trying to throw him out with Crush. Luger fights them off.

Luger is an idiot and tries to do the punches in the corner on Crush which leads to HBK pushing him out for elimination #27. Stupid Luger. STUPID!

Our final three were #1, #2, and #30 in the match which I find kind of cool. HBK wants to make a deal with Kona Crush. Lawler actually calls a heel an idiot and thinks he should try to take out the fresher man. Crush the ingrate tries to toss out poor HBK but HBK escapes by raking Crush's eyes. Bulldog clotheslines Crush over the top and Crush is 28th man eliminated. See you after prison, Crush!

The first two men in the Rumble are the last two men in the Rumble and the crowd comes really alive for the first time in this match.

Bulldog wins by eliminating Shawn Michaels and they play his music! Or did he win!?!? HBK sneak attacks Bulldog and tosses Bulldog. Vince McMahon would like to know what is going on!? Only one of Shawn Michaels feet touched the floor. Therefore he is the winner of the 1995 Royal Rumble.

We get a replay. Vince yells out "ONE FOOT...ONE FOOT...ONE FOOT" in a funny voice. Pamela Anderson celebrates with HBK. Do you think they smushed? Probably not but wasn't Tommy Lee legit pissed at HBK at one point during this period. Pam really doesn't seem impressed by any of this.

Regardless, Shawn Michaels will be going to WrestleMania XI to face "Big Daddy Cool" Diesel for the WWF World Title in the (semi) main event!

I liked this show! Two matches in the **** range, a pretty good Razor-Jeff match. Only stinker was IRS-Undertaker. Ten years ago, I would have said the Rumble was the worst ever but it's not nearly bad as I remember it on the last two rewatches. Yeah, lot of quick/forgettable appearances by forgettable wrestlers and the only truly memorable performances are HBK and Bulldog but it's not near the worst ever. I'd say '99 and '06 are definitely worse and there are a few others that are almost if not as bad as it. I'd say it's a *** match.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Yeah, this show was pretty great. Especially by 1995 standards.

Bulldog got screwed though. They were playing his music! I hope somebody got fired for that blunder.

 

[MillenniumMan831]

In regards to Jeff Jarrett's involvement in the WWF Title match, it would lead to Diesel title defenses against Jeff Jarrett w/ Shawn Michaels & The Roadie in his corner all along the In High Gear tour.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Plus Jarrett just seemed to like getting involved in these high profile matches with lots of run ins, like with Taker at Rumble 1994 and Survivor Series 1994.

Speaking of Jarrett, him winning the IC Title here was one of my biggest markout moments of the New Generation Era.

 

[Taxman]

I believe the "TK" on Shawn's wristband was for The Kliq. He may have mentioned this in his book. I could be wrong though.

 

[Ed Wood Caulfield]

It was for his girlfriend at the time. She was a RAW Girl at one point. Now she's a congresswoman.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

Shawn was dating Thelma Kalemias or whatever?

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Wikipedia tells me HBK's first wife's name was Theresa Wood so the TK probably wasn't for her.

And yeah, this PPV has definitely aged well. I'd say it's the second best WWF PPV of '95 which sounds like faint praise but honestly, every match was at least decent except for the Undertaker-IRS match and even that wasn't show derailing levels bad.

 

[snuffbox]

1995's Rumble and Survivor Series are excellent shows & hold up well against a lot of stuff from the best years.

 

[Skywarp!]

The immortal MANTAUR is #20. Faces and heels square off again.

#21 is Aldo Montoya. HOW DID WCW THINK THEY COULD COMPETE WITH THIS!? Allied Powers double team Mantaur as HBK and Aldo square off.

Coming in at #22 is HOG. This might be the worst three person stretch in Royal Rumble history...

Without going line-by-line through Rumble stats, it very well could be. '99's Vince, Golga, Droz run from 2-4 is a contender for worst 3-number stretch, though (on both paper and in practice, since Golga lasted 5 seconds and the ring was empty for Droz).

 

[Skywarp!]

I know it's viewed pretty fondly in hindsight, but I can't imagine ever wanting to watch this show again. Looking at the roster and feuds, it was no wonder that--with a few exceptions--I pretty much stopped watching wrestling from Spring '93 until Spring '98.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

'99 is the only Rumble match I derive no enjoyment from. Outside of maybe Vince commentating part of the match. Every other one I can find a few positives about it but not that one. No siree.


'97 and '98 I remember having some lame sequences. Looking at '97, it looked like they break it up with decent/name guys in between the lame-os. '98 has a bad Mosh-PIG-8-Ball-Blackjack Bradshaw stretch from #6 through #9. I still maintain '95 is worse than that or '99 because the Mantaur-Aldo-HOG stretch came in the final third of the match when they should have been throwing in the heavy hitters (except all of the heavy hitters except Backlund, who got eliminated in less than a minute, had already entered or been eliminated at that point!)

'98 is another Rumble I think I like less than '95 though. It was the most predictable Rumble ever and it has scrubs like 8-Ball and Bradshaw going 30+ minutes for no reason. Three Faces of Foley and Rock's Iron Man run are fun but there's not much there otherwise.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I'm with you. 99 is the only one I'd really consider 'bad'. The others are more 'bad for a Rumble'.

 

[Skywarp!]

'99 also sucked because it was that era the side-match roster was pulling double duty, so guys like Billy Gunn, Bossman, X-Pac and Gangrel are wrestling twice. Looking at the lineup, you might be able to pull another "worst 3 stretch" from some combination of numbers 6-14: Gillberg, Blackman, Severn, Tiger Ali Singh, Blue Meanie, Mabel (originally Mosh), Road Dogg, Gangrel, Kurrgan. Yikes!

Even though '94 had some fun moments, the ending really stains it. I think that was the first time as a kid that I critized the company's decision making instead of just accepting it like a little mark.

But yeah, looking at '97 and '98's rumbles made me cringe. It's almost like Ric Flair's title win put a curse on the match for the rest of the century.

 

[Dobbs3K]

I actually liked the ending of the 1994 Royal Rumble and marked out for it at the time. Definitely hated '95 at the time when first viewed it. Maybe someday I will re-watch it and see if it's aged better.

 

[snuffbox]

One of the best undercards of any Royal Rumble. The Rumble itself makes up for some of its lack of star power with a quicker pace than some of the other weaker 90s Rumbles (and 2006). I'd recommend watching it again sometime.

 

[MillenniumMan831]

The 1995 Rumble match is the most symmetrical in history.

- Ends with 1, 3, & 30
- The Blu Twins separately break up a DBS/HBK confrontation
- Lawler & Vince do the same routine for the Heavenly Bodies
- Backlund & Owen have the same fate
- Too tired to think of other examples

 

[Skywarp!]

-MANTAUR is half-man, half-TAUR!

 

[Ed Wood Caulfield]

I wanted to mention this somewhere, but didn't feel like continuing the Facebook thread: Anyway, Pamela Anderson is urging people not to donate to ALSA because they test on animals and she's a member of PETA I think. Nobody's gonna listen to her because nobody is gonna listen to Pamela Anderson in 2014, but they might have in 1995.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Watching this show now.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Razor Ramon. I was a big fan of Jarrett at the time and hated Ramon, so the outcome made me quite happy and pretty much gave the show my approval right out of the gate at the time. Probably the best of the televised Jarrett/Razor matches, but still nothing great. ***-ish.

Undertaker vs. IRS. Usual crappy mid-90s Taker feud. Bad match. At least Kama melting down the urn after Wrestlemania would spare from having to see this hideous version of it for very long. The 91-94 Urn looked much better. IRS accidently knocks the top off the Urn while stealing it. One of the Druids is clearly wearing the Heavenly Bodies trunks and kneepads. I liked 80s Bundy, but he was washed up in 1995. Just a mess. 94 & 95 were two horrible years for Taker.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Yeah. I've pointed in the '94/'95 RAW threads but I never got why KKB chose WWF over WCW in '94 and I think he's even said he should have went with WCW in shoot interviews afterward. Bundy would have had a nice run in Hogan and Friends era WCW and might have even gotten to stick around as midcard fodder into the nWo. He just stook out like a sore thumb in New Generation era WWF.

He did get a WrestleMania match with Undertaker though out of it (albeit probably the most forgettable Taker WM match, maybe outside of Bossman at XV or Mark Henry at 22) so it wasn't that horrible of a run, all things considered.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Diesel vs. Bret Hart. Diesel/Bret always seems to produce great matches and this is no exception. Bret acts heelish in this match even using a chair on Diesel's knee and getting booed for it (but not DQd for some reason). I hate the idea of booking a schmozz finish in a World Title match on PPV. Given how Bret was shuffled down the card after this match, he probably should have jobbed. Diesel's reign wasn't dead in the water yet, and it was a bad omen that he couldn't win his first big title defence. I loved how Jeff Jarrett ran in for the hell of it despite not being a blood enemy of Diesel or Bret like the others. I also like how the first PPV of the year has Bret & Diesel hug it out after their championship match, and the last PPV of the year has Diesel NOT doing that.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

123 Kid & Bob Holly vs. Bam Bam Bigelow & Tatanka. I found it amusing how Holly compares nobody believing in his team to the San Diego Chargers being in the Super Bowl when a week later the Chargers got destroyed in one of the biggest Super Bowl blowouts ever. I don't understand the point of putting the belts on the underdogs just to job them the next night. They couldn't have let them get squashed by Yoko & Owen at Mania instead of the Gunns? Good match though. Lawler says he is going to change his bet to the Chargers. Ha! Good thing they were able to get LT, because WM XI likely would have been a disaster otherwise. It was a bad show anyways, but the LT/Bigelow match at least gave it one memorable match as opposed to the zero it would have had.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

The Royal Rumble: The star power is ridiculously poor this year, with only about five guys with any chance whatsoever (and two of those are taken out of the match via an attack by Bret Hart). Shawn and Bulldog's Iron Man run is somewhat tainted by the short intervals. Thankfully, they never did it again. So many jobbers. Vince must of been really fascinated with Rural America at this point as this match features two hillbillies, two cowboys, a hog farmer, and a cow. I love the spot where Murdoch has Godwin in an airplane spin and Shawn comes over and gets kicked in the head by the spinning Godwin. At least the final four participants are pretty good. Luger chokes yet again. Crowd goes crazy with Shawn and Bulldog at the final two, so at least that part of the booking worked. Bulldog really got screwed here by the sound guy. Still one of, if not the, most famous ending in the history of the Royal Rumble. This is sometimes named the worst Rumble ever, but I don't think it is accurate. Yes, there are problems like the lack of star power and short intervals, but there are a lot of fun moments here as well. Not one of the better Rumbles, for sure, but there are a handful I would say are worse.

As for the show, 1995 had a great start to the year. It also had a great finish to the year. Just too bad the 10 months in between were terrible.

Best Match: Bret/Diesel
Worst Match: Taker/IRS

 

[Ed Wood Caulfield]

I liked Survivor Series 1995 and SummerSlam 1995 is okay.