Andrew Lutzke
Produced by Kayfabe Commentaries.
Skip and Sunny debut in June. Nash puts over Candido’s working abilities. Sunny never tried to screw Nash- which he believes was because he was a prick.
Kevin is really impressed with the WWE’s modern Hall of Fame presentation.
Sean Oliver asks about Backlund and Bruno not being in it (At the time…) and the first name Nash follows up with is “and Rick Rude…” which was a surprising show of loyalty to a guy I can’t really connect Kevin Nash to.
Nash says he’ll only go in the Hall of Fame if the WWE puts in the big names mentioned first.
Mabel is mocked for a bit. Kevin knew their match at Summerslam ‘95 would be a stinker. Nash also felt the Men on the Mission gimmick was sort of racist.
Kevin goes off on Jack Tunney being a crooked promoter.
1995 in the WWF is largely remembered for its poor roster that lacked depth and work rate. Looking at Smoky Mountain Wrestling and ECW at this point though proves that it was McMahon’s own fetish for big bodies prevented him from signing a bunch of talent that could have made the WWF a far more exciting place. Here’s a brief overview of some of the talent not in WCW or the WWF in January of 1995 and some booking ideas for using them in this scenario:
Ron Simmons: Too early for the edgy Nation of Domination angle but he had the skills to be a useful member of the roster – perhaps in the dying tag team division with either 2 Cold Scorpio as a babyface power move/high spot team or as partners with Ahmed Johnson (who came in to the WWF in late ’95) as two big scary ass kickers ala DOOM.
Gary Hart: Older manager – great promo. Could have been utilized to get over any number of useless slugs that were floating around at this point – or maybe even morph into the “Ring master” gimmick that was supposedly almost done around this time where Hart would be the evil manager/showman for Doink. Since Matt Bourne left the WWF and Doink had been turned good, Hart could have done the talking for Ray Apollo or whoever was under the Doink make up and made them bad once again.
Cactus Jack: Foley was still in his prime here and might have fit nicely into Hart’s Circus of Horrors stable before perhaps too much abuse from Hart drives Foley to the cellars where Mankind is born.
Chris Benoit: He did have a few try out matches here in 1995 with Ted Dibiase as his manager and I can really dig that combo. He can replace the aging and increasingly heatless IRS as Dibiase’s in ring ace. If nothing else he can have some kick ass PPV matches with 1-2-3 Kid, Bret Hart and Bob Holly before Vince jobs him out and sends him to WCW in 1996.
Al Snow and Marty Jannetty were used the following year as goof ball heels as “The New Rockers”, but I don’t see any issue with using them as a babyface mid-card team facing off with The Heavenly Bodies, Well Dunn, Smoking Gunns, The Kid and Bob Holly, Skip and Rad Radford etc etc. They can turn on Shawn eventually to at least give them some steam as heels in 1996.
Chris Jericho and Lance Storm as the Thrillseekers can be used in much the same way as the Rockers, or perhaps be brought in as stooges for Owen Hart – convinced Owen is the Canadian hero – not Bret – while having solid matches in the mid-card.
The Steiner Brothers were still prime talents in 1995 but they and Vince had issues in late 1993 and parted on not so great terms – nonetheless, Rick and Scott could have been used to help the upper card depth and probably had a solid heel run on top against Shawn/Diesel and Razor/Kid. We know now that Scott certainly had heel greatness in him and Rick always looked like a hard ass.
Tracy Smothers was a real solid hand that was considered too small to push but he deserved better than his 1996 run as “Freddy Joe Floyd” – but the Smoking Gunns already had claim to the best gimmick that Smothers could have used, since there was no way Vince would let Smothers wear his confederate gear on WWF TV. Maybe an angle for him could be heel Henry Godwin’s fun loving “cousin” who wanted to team with Godwin and Henry manipulates Smothers into doing bad things until Phineas shows up as Henry’s other goofy cousin and Smothers and PIG team until we run an angle where HOG needs saving from the heels who turn on him and the Godwin family saves him and joins his cousins – Tracy can transition to the worker/bumper of the trio who lets the heels get the heat on him before his bigger family members can save the day.
Tony Anthony was a rough and tumble worker in the south who couldn’t find a niche in the WWF as Uncle Cletus or T.L. Hopper and given his balding head and terrible body, I think he would be best served working under a mask – perhaps as “The Million Dollar Mystery” with Dibiase claiming the masked man is infamous and doesn’t want to cause a stir by his appearance being known –if not that, then he and Jim Neidhart can both be put under masks and used as a “meat and potatoes” mid-card duo to replace other useless acts like The Blu Twins and Well Dunn as card fillers.
Dan Severn had legit credentials but lacked charisma. He could still be utilized as a bodyguard by Cornette who neutralized threats with vicious takedowns into submissions – all while wearing a suit and a smirk. Silent but violent and used sparingly could make for a dangerous perception that the fans could buy into.
Road Warrior Hawk had issues with Vince McMahon and vice versa, but Hawk could have been utilized in the tag team division and brought immediate upper card credibility to whomever the WWF chose as his partner. If we look outside of the WWF, I would suggest Mike Awesome would have possibly fit the role nicely and had not had any mainstream runs yet, so he’d seem fresh and surprising as a choice. They can make a run of it until Animal decides to return in 1996 and Awesome can turn on Hawk and find a partner to do a feud with the re-united Road Warriors with. I can also envision a Hawk singles heel run at this time – perhaps as a surprise entrant at the Rumble, then attacking the Undertaker the next night on RAW – a clean Taker win at Wrestlemania where Taker sits up after the flying clothesline – catches a shocked Hawk with chokeslam and tombstone for the win. A brawl the next night leads to a street fight at IYH 1 where the giant wood casket is brought out and both men are sent through the gimmicked roof of it and are laid out for a no contest, which leads to a casket match finale to avoid making Hawk lose “clean” again.
Gorilla Monsoon never showed emotions – even when his son died in a car wreck Monsoon kept up appearances in front of the boys.
When Vince told Kevin he was losing the strap, Vince (Nash assumes) made up an elaborate story of Nash facing Tyson in Central Park in New York in an exhibition for charity, in order to soften the blow. Nash didn’t feel the need to have that much smoke blown up his butt.
Jeff Jarrett hung out with the Kliq quite a bit.
Nash whines about the WWE making him do a ladder match at age 52. He figures the office was mad that he treated wrasslin’ as a business and not kow-tow the promoter’s line.
Bret Hart gave the Kliq headaches with his ego. (*cough*) Shawn and Nash argued for the first time ever when Nash contemplated not losing the belt the Bret to punish Hart – but then Hart wouldn’t have it to drop to Shawn at Wrestlemania 12.
WWF: The Arcade Game is released. Doink makes the cut for a character – World Champ Diesel does not.
Kevin admits to tossing potatoes for working punches 1/3 of the time.
The Giant felt Nash injured him on purpose via a botched power bomb in WCW – Nash says lifting the Giant hurt his back more than what happened to the big man.
WWF newbie HHH helped put together most of Summerslam ‘95’s ladder match between Shawn and Razor.
Nash believes he won the WWF title with fewer matches behind him than anyone before or since.
Mabel was told to be gentle with Nash’s back at Summerslam – then butt splashed him on his back anyway. Mabel was gone within 6 months – probably for injuring guys.
A story of Jimmy Del Ray drugging ring rats is shared.
The WWF canceled B-shows in a cost cutting move – Nash was glad they didn’t have to go to so many Podunk towns.
Luger jumping to WCW in time for the first Nitro was a legit shock to the locker room. Savage taking off in 1994 was a similar shock.
Shane Douglas enters the WWF, Nash says he wouldn’t have gotten over with any gimmick. Nash liked that Douglas could talk about things other than wrestling since Douglas was educated.
Taping a roof top “brawl” that was to open up RAW took all night and the guys weren’t paid for their time. Nash says they built a ring on rat nests and other gross things.
Nash didn’t think the first Nitro was any good. (Flair vs. Sting and Pillman vs. Liger = bad wrestling I guess….)
Man Mountain Rock taped portions of the WWF locker room doing naughty things while tour in Europe – he later tried releasing it as a documentary until a lawsuit by the WWF ended all that.
The Harris Boys roughed up Shawn Michaels since Shawn’s buddies were on a European tour.
Bill Watts was a bully – in WCW Watts was pissed at Nash for throwing a crappy looking punch. He shoot punches Nash as hard as he could to “teach him a lesson” and Kevin claims he no-sold it and walked away.
Nash and Yoko were supposed to have a cage match – the cage takes forever to set up and to spite Bill Watts, Nash wins under a minute. Nash then tells Watts off and warns him that Nash will eat him up in WWF land.
Not quite as Nash remembers it – but here’s the squash.
Shawn Michaels is beat up by a number of marines. Stories differ, but Nash claims Shawn was passed out in his car when he was dragged out and roughed up by the marines.
Bill Watts says he would’ve fired Shawn for losing a fight in real life.
A year after escaping federal charges, Vince McMahon dresses up as a prisoner for a Halloween version of RAW.
The locker room forbade “dirt sheets” from being read – thus a lot of new guys were unknown to the guys unless they came from WCW.
Razor was bothered by the Goldust angle, since he had to explain to his son why Goldust was making sexual overtures to Razor.
Nash explains that shitty booking made him not care and that’s why he was a lazy worker.
ECW was not on Nash’s radar. Nash says Steve Austin basically took Kevin’s November 1995 gimmick of being an anti-corporate tweener and ran with it.
Shane Douglas misses a shot due to a sore back and Yokozuna went off on him. Nash suggests Douglas should’ve drugged up like the rest of the crew and worked through it.
Another group forms in the splintered locker room – The Smoking Gunns, British Bulldogs and Dustin Rhodes. Owen Hart and Duke “The Dumpster” Drose were now part of Taker’s crew. The Kliq was still together….
Nash likes gimmick matches because he can hide his limitations better.
TNA’s all cage match PPVs destroy the gimmick in Kevin’s opinion.
Nash vs. HHH in a Hell in a Cell is discussed. Nash insisted on not leaving the Cell for psychology reasons. He believes “the office” set him up to have his finisher killed, since he feels Foley counted too fast when HHH was going to kick out of the powerbomb.
Red wine and DVR every night is Nash’s retirement plan.
Final Thoughts: Nash is entertaining in spite of himself and looking around online it appears the consensus seems to be that this is one of the better releases from Kayfabe Commentaries. Nash claims constantly throughout the DVD that he’s not a mark for himself, yet at the same time he complains anytime he’s booked to be anything but superman. A fun viewing overall but lots of bull being spread as it is.
