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Repost: King of the Ring 95

(All right, you broke me down, but I’m not rewatching it.  This was originally written circa 1999.) 

- So you're the WWF. WCW pumps out Uncensored, Renegade, the Dungeon of Doom and Ric Flair in a dress...so what do you do to retaliate? Simple: Go back to the thing that defined the WWF: Really bad wrestling. (And big fat guys.) 

- Live from Philadelphia, PA. Mistake #1.

- Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Dok Hendrix.

- Pre-game show match: Savio Vega v. IRS. See, Razor Ramon had already qualified, but got injured, so we got this to see who would face Yokozuna in the first round. Decent but unspectacular match which sees Jobbio hit a leg lariat for the pin. *1/2  (Final PPV appearance of IRS, in fact.) 

- Okay, so the tournament looks like this...

- Mabel (d. Adam Bomb) v. Undertaker (d. Jeff Jarrett)

- Kama (d. Duke Droese) v. Shawn Michaels (d. King Kong Bundy)

- Roadie (d. Doink) v. Bob Holly (d. Mantaur)

- Savio Vega (d. IRS) v. Yokozuna (d. Lex Luger)

Conventional wisdom on RSPW at the time said that the tournament was merely a formality to put Shawn over.  (Also conventional wisdom from Dave Meltzer and anyone else with half a brain.) 

- Opening match: Savio Vega v. Yokozuna.

Yes, THIS is the match they picked for the opener. Savio had just made his debut as Ramon's buddy at the first In Your House. Yokozuna, who at this point had breasts larger than Debra, kicks the crap out of Savio for a while with devastating restholds and stomps. Wow, way to get the crowd going. It should be noted that Dok Hendrix is trying to do a less-edgy Michael Hayes-type color commentator here and not doing very well at it.  (He had his moments, but had to tone it down a LOT.)  Yoko misses the FAT-ASSED LEGDROP OF DOOM, and Savio makes the Pissed Off Racial Stereotype comeback. But Owen Hart appears at ringside to get some shots in on Ramon, triggering a sort-of brawl outside. Vega beats the count back into the ring for the win. DUD  (Gotta protect Yokozuna, you know.) 

- The Roadie v. Bob "Not Hardcore" Holly.

Okay, ya gotta admit that this match would be pretty cool today. (Ugh, OK then.)  Poor Jesse was still playing Jarrett's lackey at this point, and they were about to start the "With My Baby Tonight" angle. Good stuff to start as they trade two counts, but Holly goes for a rana and gets powerbombed for a two-count and the Roadie advantage. Jammes was very inexperienced at this point and dances between moves too much. (As opposed to the smooth technical worker he became in the late 90s?) Plus his hair extensions are idiotic. Match is fine otherwise, and would turn out to be the only one of the show to be any good. Holly makes the comeback and they end up on the top rope, but Holly goes for something and hits Roadie's foot...and Roadie gets the pin? That was a pretty innocuous spot to get a pin from, and further it looked like Holly kicked out, but the ref counted three. Anyone know what happened there? ***  (Nothing of note in the WON about it, that was just the finish they came up with.) 

- Shawn Michaels v. Kama Shango Mustafa, the Supreme Pimpin' Machine.

The first hint that something was severely fucked up with this show: Shawn Michaels stops by the throne to goof around...and the crown doesn't fit. Kama is still wearing the melted-down urn around his neck at this point, and he gets a black wreath from the weird Undertaker fans at ringside, who are NOT Shane and Stephanie McMahon, by the way. (Really, was that a thing at the time?  Obviously Steph would be way too young for the part at that point anyway.) A closeup reveals that quite clearly. (Thank you Sherlock.)  Shawn bounces around to stay out of Kama's way for the first little bit. Kama hits a pretty stiff roundhouse kick to the gut and knocks Shawn over the top to take control. Kicks abound. Shawn bumps like a pinball for Kama as the announcers keep making reference to the time limit. Kama misses an early prototype of the Ho Train and we get the double KO spot. They lay around for a while to waste time. Once the timer counting down the remaining 2:25 appears, you can guess the ending. Michaels makes the comeback with the KIP-UP OF DEATH and the other Shawn stuff. Shawn gets a few pin attempts, but the time limit expires and the crowd is PISSED. Well, no problem, the Undertaker is still in the tournament, right? **  (Considering the tournament was essentially sold on Shawn’s involvement and the idea that Shawn is the star of the moment and ready to go to the next level, the crowd had a right to be pissed.  Why even put him there?  Guys like Lex Luger, Owen Hart, Jeff Jarrett or even the newbies like Man Mountain Rock or HOG weren’t even on the show and could have been stuck in that kind of death slot.) 

- We take a look at Bob Backlund campaigning for President in Philadelphia.

- Mabel v. The Undertaker.

UT chokes a bunch, but Mabel hits the World's Worst Bossman Slam to take control. Mabel does a job of selling that can only be described as "looking mildly distracted". He hits a belly-to-belly and applies quite possibly the laziest rear chinlock this side of Stevie Ray. Man, that's just BAD. The match s.l.o.w.l.y progresses with Mabel taking every opportunity to rest that is humanly possible. (Well, he had to work TWO matches in one night, do you think he’s Tarzan or something?  No human being could sustain that kind of gruelling schedule!)  UT comes back and the ref gets bumped. Chokeslam, but Kama runs in, kicks UT in the head, and Mabel drops the leg for the pin. Talk about a brainfart. –*  (Yeah, of all the people to waste a clean-ish Undertaker job on, they go with MABEL?  They barely even had Taker appearing on TV at this point to keep him special.  Again, so many other guys at a decent level who weren’t even booked on the show that could have put Barney over.) 

- May I just ask who booked this crap?  (Jim Ross.) 

- We take a look at the Hall of Fame inductions from the night before.

- Semi-final: Savio Vega v. The Roadie.

The "Road Dog" nickname is coined in the pre-match interview. And what the FUCK is this doing on a major PPV anyway? Vince spends much of the match talking about how Savio is living a dream and all that crap. (That’s another problem with his “inspirational” run through the tournament, as he couldn’t actually beat Yokozuna and then his semi-final opponent was Jeff Jarrett’s bitch.  How is this supposed to be impressive?)  And speaking of crap, we have this match. Jammes kicks and punches, Vega does nothing. Crowd rapidly grows bored with this. Jarrett hops up on the apron, Roadie gets whipped into him, Vega gets the pin. DUD  (That’s probably harsh, it was at least watchable.) 

- Funny bit after the match as Carlos Cabrera interviews Savio and Dok provides "translation".  (Now THIS was funny.  I saw this again recently and it was the kind of edge that Hayes used to have.) 

- Kiss My Foot: Bret Hart v. Jerry Lawler.

What is with Jim Cornette booking humiliation matches? (Well it’s a southern wrestling thing but this wasn’t Cornette booking.)  They brawl for a bit, but go outside the ring and Bret gets tossed to the steps. Lawler alternates between pounding on Bret and jawing with the fans. Three piledrivers doesn't stop Bret, who makes the comeback. Lawler tosses him out of the ring and takes off his boot, nailing Bret with it for a two count. The story is that Lawler has been soaking his foot in horse manure for weeks, so the sock is colored brown and black in places. Fistdrop gets two. Hakushi makes the run-in, but hits Lawler by mistake and Bret goes into...wait for it...wait for it....THE FIVE MOVES OF DOOM! Jerry submits. (This was actually a pretty good finish with Bret convincingly beating the shit out of Lawler once and for all, and this time remembering to release the hold so as to avoid any reversed decisions.)  Bret takes off *his* boot and shoves his foot in Lawler's mouth, then makes Lawler kiss his own foot. This finally ended the years-long feud between the two. 1/2* (It was better than that, like **1/2.)  Vince sells it as the most humiliating moment of Lawler's career, although I'm pretty sure wrestling on an ECW PPV is right up there, too...  (And then they actually managed to tie this in with the debut of Isaac Yankem in an impressive bit of booking gymnastics, so kudos to whoever pulled that one off.) 

- Promo for the Special Olympics. So *that's* who booked this show...

- King of the Ring: Mabel v. Savio Vega.

This is, by the way, a special unadvertised match that I put on the end of Netcop Busts. (Yeah, no one would pay money for it even on that tape.)  Yes, Vince, Savio's rise to the finals is indeed unbelievable -- it's NOT BELIEVABLE! (Well, the thing is, the character had only been introduced literally a month beforehand, so we didn’t even know who he was. You can’t do an inspirational story with a guy who’s basically a generic babyface.  If it was 1-2-3 Kid, then absolutely they would have earned the underdog comeback story and it would have tied in with his character perfectly.  Plus you also get the “Razor Ramon’s buddy” side-story out of it.)   So we go punch, kick, punch, kick. And bearhug. Can't be a fat black man unless the bearhug is in your repertoire. I think it's a law. And, amazingly, Mabel even has a lazy bearhug. Then we go into the chinlock. Crowd gets so bored they start chanting "ECW" and Vince is suddenly at a loss for words. (Funny story behind that, as Vince heard the chants and demanded that the sound guys turn up the crowd noise because he thought they were chanting for Savio due to him not having any clue what ECW was.  Then when he realized what was happening, he freaked out and had them turn the noise down equally fast.)  Savio comes back and hits the leg lariat, but Mabel kicks out, thus sealing it right there. Big splash finishes it for Mabel and ends this joke of a tournament. DUD

- Men on a Mission destroy Ramon and Savio. The Kid tries a save but gets pummelled too.

- Mabel gets crowned, and the fans surrounding him absolutely pelt him with crap. Too funny.  (And yet they STILL didn’t take the hint from that reaction.) 

- Sadly, this show isn't over yet.

- Main event: Diesel & Bam Bam Bigelow v. Sid & Tatanka.

You know, they blew the whole Tatanka heel turn from the get-go. If he had changed his name back to Chris Chavis and stopped dressing like an indian it would have worked, but the Evil Native American thing never flew. (Yeah yeah, we know, this has only been in the last bazillion RAW rants.) I would also be remiss in not mentioning Bam Bam's...uh...interesting ring outfit, complete with flame-shooting gauntlets. I wonder if the Clique used to get stoned and think of shit like that to mess with the Bammer's mind. Okay, so the match: Diesel has a bad elbow, which the heels hit a bunch. Vince notes that they're "blatantly" hammering on the elbow...and it's legal! As opposed to what? Being disqualified for an *illegal* shot to the elbow? Bam Bam gets a hot tag, but falls prey to some devastating forearms to the back from Sid, and an admittedly impressive top rope chokeslam. Hey, that brings it above DUD. Tatanka with more kicks. Man, this is exciting. Viva la New WWF Generation. Sid comes in and kicks some more. Bigelow heads out of the ring, and trips Sid. Sid suddenly drops down and sells it as though he's been shot in the head with a high powered rifle at close range. Well, you have to admire the effort, but he missed the Oscars by several weeks. Diesel makes the hot tag, but drops an elbow using his bad elbow and has to tag Bigelow back in. More kicking and resting from Tatanka. He wasn't that great to begin with, but his workrate absolutely went to shit once he turned. (Not to disagree, but I think it was more that he could disguise his weakness by selling a bunch as a babyface and limiting his offense to short comebacks.)  Finally, Diesel gets the hot tag and powerbombs the shit out of Tatanka, but picks him up at two. He wants Sid. Sid disagrees and walks, so Diesel drops an elbow on Tatanka and pins him to put everyone out of their misery, finally. Call it about 1/4*  (What a TERRIBLE finish, making Sid look like a coward to build up another match between them.  This was supposed to be the match to put Bigelow on the main event level and just made him look like another midcard geek like Tatanka.) 

The Bottom Line: While certainly not the *worst* PPV of all time, it's certainly one that best makes the case for mandatory drug testing on the booking committee. (Was Michael Hayes booking yet?)  But then, I think we all want to know what the WWF was thinking between 1993 and 1996. Sadly for Vince, King Mabel didn't quite turn the industry on it's ear the way he had hoped, and the whole stupid idea was dropped a few months later, but not before making everyone suffer through Diesel v. Mabel.  (And what a funeral dirge the march to THAT main event was.) 

Strongest recommendation to avoid this show.

Comments

  1. Weird to think that this tournament could have produced the first match between HBK and Undertaker.

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  2. Good call. Why the heck wasn't the 123 kid out in the savio role? As much as we've all heard about this I don't think I've seen anyone suggest that.

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  3. If not this, then what IS the worst WWF/E PPV of all time? This has to be at least somewhere in the top ten worst PPVs that WWF/E has ever done.

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  4. Thank you, Scott.
    According to Bret's book, it was Lawler who came up with the match. That would make sense, as it had a very Memphis feel.

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  5. December to Dismember

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  6. Did Jim Ross really book this show?

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  7. Mabel gets crowned, and the fans surrounding him absolutely pelt him with crap. Too funny. (And yet they STILL didn’t take the hint from that reaction.)

    Wouldn't people take that as a sign that Mabel was getting a massive heel reaction?

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  8. Massive Heels get Massive Buyrates. Summerslam 1995 did not at all.

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  9. He was still out with a neck injury at this point. He did the run-in at the end but wasn't cleared to wrestle.

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  10. He was head of the booking committee at this point, although Bill Watts would be taking over very shortly.

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  11. But you wouldn't know that just from the KotR reaction Scott was talking about.

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  12. I'm pretty sure the Philly crowd pelting someone with garbage is not the kind of heat they were after.

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  13. Anybody can book in a vacuum. Dealing with real world shit is the challenge.

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  14. How does that differ from Bash At The Beach heat?

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  15. CruelConnectionNumber2September 8, 2014 at 8:05 PM

    Mania 4 rings a bell.

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  16. You can't book a guy with a broken neck to win a bunch of matches.

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  17. I think one of the IYH was - there was one that had no good matches and nothing significant happened. Can't recall which one though (real helpful I know...)

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  18. Yes yes. Forgot he was injured

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  19. Because Hogan was already a star of 800 magnitudes greater than Mabel and could afford the risk of having people reject the angle? It's not like people reacted really well to Hogan's heel turn out of the gate, either.

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  20. Stranger in the AlpsSeptember 8, 2014 at 8:07 PM

    So, what would be the equivalent of this KOTR final today? Featuring a rather new, uninteresting babyface taking on a talentless slug of a monster heel that they are intent on cramming down our throats.


    Maybe Big E vs. Rusev? Although Rusev isn't nearly as talentless as Mabel.


    Run that final in a smark city like Miami or Chicago.

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  21. That would be In Your House #4 from Winnipeg you're searching for, with the Diesel v. Bulldog main event that was so bad Vince pulled the plug on Nash's title reign on the spot.

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  22. CruelConnectionNumber2September 8, 2014 at 8:10 PM

    First HBK/Taker match was in February 1995. A one-off house show match. Weird pairing.

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  23. I'd say it would be like putting one of the Usos in the finals in the Savio role against, say, a heel turned Great Khali.

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  24. OF COURSE this was in Philly

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  25. Face Bo Dallas vs big show

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  26. Stranger in the AlpsSeptember 8, 2014 at 8:14 PM

    There's your $9.99, right there, baby!

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  27. "Kama is still wearing the melted-down urn around his neck at this point, and he gets a black wreath from the weird Undertaker fans at ringside, who are NOT Shane and Stephanie McMahon, by the way. (Really, was that a thing at the time? Obviously Steph would be way too young for the part at that point anyway.)"



    I don't think it was a thing in 1995. I think it might have been a thing when you wrote this (99ish? 2000ish?), as the "smart" RSPWers got 2 + 2 = Thomas Jefferson, remembering that a young man and woman were posing as "Undertaker fans" and HEY THAT MUSTA BEEN VINCE AND SHANE!!!!!

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  28. What would the tag team main event be? Cena & Randy Orton v. Rollins & Brock?

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  29. Bad neck.


    Although he did show up in the main and take bumps for Mabel, so what the fuck?

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  30. Stranger in the AlpsSeptember 8, 2014 at 8:17 PM

    John Cena and Roman Reigns vs. Kane and Seth Rollins.

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  31. Oh yeah, I wanna change my answer from Khali to THE DEMON KANE. Much better one.

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  32. How do you book this match to make Bigelow a main event threat? Seriously the whole thing was beyond dumb, this show was pretty much an unsalvagable mess from the get-go.

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  33. Now you sound like Vince. "You know what will make this better? THEDEMONKANE!"

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  34. It was longer than that, wasn't it? They did the whole "Undertaker's busted face" angle and tried to give Diesel some edge again. It was definitely over before Shawn's marine run-in because Watts famously said that if he was booking at that point he would have fired Shawn for losing the fight, though.

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  35. Kid may have been somewhat healthy on the day KOTR was shown but the tournament was taped a month beforehand.

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  36. I've said this before in another 1995 post - but you have Nash, Shawn, Razor, Bam Bam, Owen, Bret, Luger, Bulldog, Jarrett, Kid, and Undertaker in their primes and THIS is what we get? Sprinkle in Kama (who was mildly interesting) , Lawler (who sells everything), and Sid (who at least knew how to get over) and you should be having incredible pay per views left and right.


    Unbelievable that this shit is what we got.

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  37. the goal of a tag team main event should be, IMO, for a heel to get the pin on a babyface champion. That SHOULD have been Sid, but they blew that load for two previous PPVs. Having a tag team main event made exactly ZERO sense.

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  38. No doubt. You would have thought that Bigelow running through the Corporation in a series of singles matches, like they were teasing with the IRS match on RAW, would have been the way to go. He could have squashed Tatanka here and the rumor was Bundy v. Bigelow at IYH2 but Bundy was gone by that point and replaced with HOG. Would have made more sense at least.

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  39. And doing a HBK-Undertaker match here would have been pretty stupid booking choice.

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  40. I feel like I read about this in the Observer watching some of the older Raws last week, and it felt like he was made the head booker at that September taping, then quit/fired before the In Your House in Winnipeg over the long-term direction of the company (i.e. Vince wanted Shawn as world Champion, Bill wanted "not Shawn.")

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  41. And actually Kid was wrestling again the week after this. Pretty good for a guy with a broken neck two months before.

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  42. Well the Winnipeg IYH was October, so that would put him at about a month in charge. I mean clearly everyone but Vince knew it was gonna be a disaster anyway.

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  43. And he was stupid enough to take a second rope piledriver just a month later. Maybe he had a deathwish at the time.

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  44. Would a Bret title run with Lawler challenging really have been bad for a few PPVs? Jerry could have booked it himself.

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  45. I know the PPV ended up being terrible, but seemed decent on paper. If Shawn had been healthy he probably would have carried Douglas to a great match, Diesel/Bulldog seemed like a good match on paper at least and the Kid/Razor tag title match seemed like it'd be a great match too, but in the end, everyone just went through the motions without putting much effort in.

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  46. It was xpac heat 3 years before xpac existed. Vince was just too moronic at the time to realize.

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  47. They did do the Bigelow storyline where he ran through the Corporation. The Bam Bam/Tatanka was a IYH dark match, not sure why they couldn't put it on Raw, and Bammer eventually lost to Sid to build Sid up for IYH 2 I think. Then eventually Bam Bam teamed up with Henry Godwinn to have a short lived feud with the Corporation on a few episodes of Superstars.

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  48. Yeah, Lawler's not really a draw outside Memphis, but the feud could have still been entertaining even if it didn't draw.

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  49. That was the one where he just ripped into both of them right after the match as the ppv went off the air right?

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  50. In other words, nobody would know that throwing garbage at a heel was an undesirable reaction.

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  51. Since Philly loves talented heels, they really should have picked Owen Hart for the Savio role as Owen could turn face for one night saying he wants to keep his KOTR crown and I'm pretty sure the fans would have been behind him.

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  52. Well Hart wasn't a draw in the US, so I guess that makes it even.

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  53. Slight T/J, did anyone see the Cean-Heyman promo tonight? Awesome stuff.

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  54. Cean Michaels and Heyman did a promo? I gotta see that!

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  55. Bret drew respectable numbers in the US, but yeah, he was a bigger draw in Europe.

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  56. Wouldn't the RAW thread be a better place?

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  57. Mine too, although it no longer makes sense.

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  58. Just to get your argument straight here, your stance is that taking into account reactions and matches leading up to the show and reactions during the show, WWF bookers would have no clue that the Mabel push was going to be ineffective?

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  59. No match for SCUBAKANE.

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  60. Boring doesn't come close to this, IYH #4, December to Dismember, IYH: DX, and others I'm sure I forgot. Heck, 4 isn't even the worst Mania. 15 wins that one.

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  61. Yeah, such respectable numbers that they kept taking the belt off of him. They were really not into making money in the mid 90s.

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  62. Well he wasn't a Steve AustinHulk Hogan type draw, but WWF wasn't on the verge of going bankrupt when Bret was on top either. I think Meltzer wrote about it in an old issue of the Observer, where he explained that WWF would use Bret to keep their company afloat until they found their "next Hulk Hogan".

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  63. It was a simpler time. Heat wasn't classified; heat was just heat. If the fans were reacting in the proper manner (boo for heels, cheer for faces), it was considered good.

    In fact, the "internet fuckheads" were already taking over in places like Philly, but nobody realized that yet.

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  64. In other words, there was nobody else. High praise indeed.

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  65. This wasn't 1908, they knew perfectly well that Mabel wasn't over. They just chose to push him anyway.

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  66. Austin must have drawn shitty numbers as well, seeing as they kep taking the belt off of him.

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  67. I actually dug up your initial reaction to this show in 1995 on the RSPW archives at Google a while ago, but I lost the link. You HATED it, lol.

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  68. I'm confused and don't know what points/arguments we're making here, but to go back to my original argument, Bret/Lawler just wouldn't have done good business anyway, not only for the Memphis comment I made earlier, but because WWF booked Lawler like a comedy heel for the most part and someone not to take as a serious threat.

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  69. They chose to deliberately screw themselves over? Fine, I agree to disagree.

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  70. I read some '95 timeline a week ago and he was apparently head booker for a good 3 months until he and Vince had major creative differences. This was a weird time because Vince was starting to crack under pressure a little bit.

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  71. He could teach Daniel Bryan a thing or two about recovery.

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  72. Ha ha, touche. Yeah, I'm reading it over again and it was pretty bad. Emergency meetings, damn near having a meltodwn at the October In Your House Pay-Per-View...it was pretty ugly.

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  73. Adam "Colorado" CurrySeptember 8, 2014 at 9:20 PM

    27 and 9 are right up (down?) there too. If not for Bret/Austin 13 would be in the conversation too.

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  74. I hope that's on the network version of the show.

    Also why have they stopped updating the Raw archives? I wanna see Bulldog turn on Diesel damnit!

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  75. I can see why Nash's run was horrible. He had nobody to work with as a face. If Tatanka is the number 2 heel at this point, you're screwed! They should have either turned Luger or Nash himself heel and maybe had hbk chase Nash most of 95.

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  76. For some ungodly reason, I must have seen this show a good dozen times. Even with that, it is incredibly difficult to find positives about it. Just a totally @$$-backwards show.

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  77. Crikey Mate Down Under AussieSeptember 8, 2014 at 9:26 PM

    Is Miami a smark city? You can't really count the raw post WM28 crowd cause it was an international audience. Just thinking back to the awfully received Nexus debut.

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  78. Are you referring to the time he lost it for one day or the time he lost it because he was hurt?

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  79. Nobody would've drawn with Bret. He was not a draw.

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  80. Not sure if you watched during that time but for all of us that did it was clearly heatless from the start. Mabel was not over at all and the whole summer push was just boring as hell with no chance of a decent match to pay it off. And it wasn't even in a "so bad it's funny" sort of way. It just sucked

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  81. I think bulldog was already a heel here no?

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  82. "Promo for the Special Olympics. So *that's* who booked this show..."


    Man, how sad is it that this joke still works just as well today as it did nearly 20 years ago?

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  83. I kind of get his point though that "heat is heat", and back in 1995, still in total mark mode, I didn't care about match quality, I just wanted a good guy/face to be the champ, and Mabel felt like a threat. I guess I saw it more like a sport.

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  84. Happened right before Summerslam. In fact, the announcers still had no idea if Luger approved of Bulldog's turn or not. So it must have been the Raw right before.

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  85. Right and to each their own and all, but the build for this was so bad. Why were they even fighting? They had Mabel do things like "lift the crown above his head to taunt diesel". As if the king of the ring is something to brag about to the champion.

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  86. I agree with that, the booking was good where Mabel never looked weak in a situation and Mabel did carry himself pretty well as a main event monster.

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  87. Why were they fighting?? BECAUSE MABEL WANTED TO BE CHAMP?!??

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  88. Adam "Colorado" CurrySeptember 8, 2014 at 9:44 PM

    He probably should have turned heel again after WM, or never turned face in the first place. By this time he was pretty much tied for the #3 face with Razor, behind HBK and Bret.

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  89. Ok good point. What I meant was why was Mabel if all people given the shot? Ok he won't kotr but why have him win it? I don't know - sticking with my memory that this feud was dull as heck and bored me to no end. Then again were talking about it 19 yrs later so it did something. (But it still sucked)

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  90. I give up trying to understand the Network's addition schedule. They rammed through an entire year and a half of the show in a few weeks and then just randomly stopped at the first week of August. I'm gonna be caught up in about three days with no announcements of new shows coming and I'm gonna have to switch to Nitro at that point, because I like having a serialized show to review again and if I fall out of the habit I won't get back into it very easily.

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  91. Huh, I had no idea. Of course a KotR match would have been the first meeting between the two that most of would have been aware of.

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  92. Not as dumb as the booking choice they made.

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  93. They also met in a tag match with Bret and Diesel right before WrestleMania 12.

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  94. Guess it's not too soon anymore?

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