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Survivor Series 95 (Scott Sez Version)

The Netcop Retro Rant for Survivor Series 1995

- This is one of those weird shows, in that Vince was completely self-destructing behind the scenes, but the product was great for some reason. Maybe distraction allows him to focus better or something, who knows.  (Well RAW was certainly not great at this point, as those who have been following along with the past few months of tapings can testify.) 

- Live from Washington, DC

- Your hosts are Vincent K, Jim Ross, and making his surprise return…Mr. Perfect. (Not gonna lie, I may have pooped my pants watching this on PPV.  Although clearly he didn’t give a shit, unlike myself, and didn’t prepare in the least for the show.)  By the way, I actually had a few people e-mail and ask me this, so let me clear up a Netcop Joke: Mr. Spiffy is my pet name for Mr. Perfect, because when he joined WCW in 1997 it was obvious he was never going to get over as “Curt Hennig”, so I suggested that they call him the next best thing -- Mr. Spiffy. He could then say things like “Now that’s what I call…spiffy!” and have some fun parodying himself by doing skits where he’d be almost, but not quite, perfect at various sports, missing by a few inches each time.  (Much like that attempt at a running joke.)  Anyway…

- Opening match: Marty Jannetty, Hakushi, Barry Horowitz & Bob Holly v. Bodydonna Skip, Rad Radford, Dr. Tom Pritchard & The 1-2-3 Kid.

This would be Kid’s debut as a heel, one week after guest-reffing a match between Ramon and Sid, and turning on him. Rad Radford (the late Louie Spicoli) is a “Bodydonna in training” at this point, although ironically it would be PRITCHARD who would shortly be repackaged as “Zip”, Skip’s partner. (Not really ironic.  That’s more in the realm of happenstance.  And man, Rad Radford, the most 90s gimmick of all and career-killing levels of bad.)  Jannetty cleans house to start, and he looks thoroughly baked so tags out quickly.  (Allegedly.)  Rad gets the better of Hakushi, who then gets beat on in the heel corner. Crowd starts chanting for Barry Horowitz, which is pretty surreal. I still wonder why Vince didn’t just PUSH the guy if he was so over. It’s not rocket science, I mean it’s not like there’s some genetic code that says a guy has to be a jobber his entire career. (So much wrong with the Horowitz deal, from the non-push after he started to get over, to repackaging him immediately as a Larger Than Life WWF Superstar Character™ who was a nerdy Jewish stereotype.)  Holly gets a quick pin on the Doctor with a flying bodypress, and Skip rolls *him* up right after to send him packing. Hakushi and the Kid do a great little sequence, and Radford pins Hakushi after Kid kicks him in the head. Horowitz and the Kid go next, with Barry taking a beating. Radford continues it, but keeps picking him up. And what happens when a heel keeps picking up a jobber, kids? That’s right -- he gets pinned while showboating, and this is no exception. Sunny yells at him, pretty much disqualifying him from the Bodydonna Sweepstakes. Skip & Barry have their showdown, but Kid pins Barry after a snap legdrop, leaving Jannetty 2-on-1. He does a cool sequence with Skip, pinning him after a top rope powerbomb! That was pretty unheard of at that time in the WWF. Kid comes in and mops up with Jannetty, pinning him after an assist from Sid at 18:36. Minus a bit for the bad ending, but otherwise this was the shiznit, if you will. ***3/4 Survivor: 1-2-3 Kid.  (This was setting up Sid & Kid as a tag team, but that wound up not happening for various reasons.) 

- Bertha Faye, Aja Kong, Tomoko Watanabe & Lioness Asuka v. Alundra Blayze, Sakie Hasegawa, Kyoko Inoue & Chapparita Asari.

I had to get the names from the PWI Almanac because they had fucking Dok Hendrix shilling the crappy Survivor Series Commemorative T-shirt during the ring introductions. (Now I use The History of WWE site!  http://www.thehistoryofwwe.com ) At least it’s not that Barry guy. And this would be a total spotfest as the women are basically given 10 minutes to wow the crowd. So Asari goes and pulls out the first ever Sky Twister Press on PPV, which is called “Whatamaneuver” by Vince, then called properly by JR. Blayze pins Asuka with the german suplex soon after. Hasegawa hits a chain of 5 double-underhook suplexes while we’re watching the replay of the Sky Twister Press. See, Vince had absolutely no idea how to deal with any match that exceeded the North American pace, which is why it took so long for him to grasp the whole cruiserweight concept. (It took him a lot of time to grasp a lot of concepts.)  Aja Kong comes in and kick’s Hasegawa’s ass. Kong can best be described as the female Vader, I guess. (Did she get beat up by the female Paul Orndorff, I wonder?)  The only woman I ever really followed in Japan was Akira Hokuto, so I’m pretty much at JR’s mercy for the backstory on these chicks. (It’s true, my sojourns into joshi tape trading were woefully underdeveloped.  If I had money to blow on Japan I usually binged on Michinoku Pro or New Japan Super Juniors stuff instead.  Now you can get all that stuff on one DVD for like $1 on Rudoreels or other sites like that.  Takes all the challenge out of it.  Jesus, if I had the resources I have now back when I had nothing but free time and disposable income, I probably would have done nothing but wrestling reviews 24 hours a day.  These days I literally have a 10-DVD set of Mid-South, 8 or 9 DVDs of recent New Japan, the WWE Network, and access to whatever I want on YouTube, and my free time is occupied by taking my 4-year old to see Big Hero 6.  TOTALLY WORTH IT.)  Aja nails a NASTY backdrop suplex, dropping Hasegawa right on her head, to get the pin. Asari comes in and tries a cross-body, bouncing right off Aja, then gets splashed and pinned. Inoue comes in and does a little more damage, but tries a sunset flip and gets sat on for the pin. That leaves Alundra 3-on-1. Blayze dominates Watanabe and pins her after a piledriver. Faye & Kong have a heel miscommunication moment and Bertha gets suplexed and pinned by Alundra. So it’s Kong v. Blayze. Alundra hits a missile dropkick and a standing moonsault, but Aja shoves her off the top rope and pins her after a spinning backhand at 10:00. Pretty damn good, given the circumstances. *** Survivor: Aja Kong. This was supposed to start Blayze’s next big program, but she went and dumped the Women’s title in a trash can on Nitro, the night after this if I’m not mistaken.  (About a month later.) 

- And since we’re in Washington, we get a visit from the fake Clinton for some hijinks.  (God, they were using him on RAW leading up to this, and it was just so pathetic.) 

- Bam Bam Bigelow v. Goldust.

(Poor Bam Bam was just so clearly beaten down by the Clique at this point and desperately wanted out.)  Goldust’s entrance takes FOREVER. At this point he was just weird, rather than sexually deviant. Goldust s..l..o..w..l..y wears down the Bammer, then pins him with a bulldog at 8:18. Oh my god, that sucked. 1/4* Honest to god, I had nothing interesting to write between the introductions and the pinfall, it was that boring.

- The Undertaker, Henry Godwinn, Fatu & Savio Vega v. King Mabel, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Isaac Yankem & Jerry Lawler.

The story here is that, during the crack-induced period (…allegedly…) when Vince hired Bill Watts to book, Mabel did a big fat legdrop on UT’s face and broke it, necessitating a goofy purple mask that looks like something Kyle Rayner would be wearing today. (I have since come around on Kyle and he’s pretty much one of my favorites now as the White Lantern.  Geoff Johns really did an awesome job rehabilitating him with the Ion/Parallax stuff a few years back.)  Needless to say, Taker is PISSED, and is thus more over than ever. Most of the match (11 minutes to be exact) is meaningless filler, as the teams go through the motions of a match and the faces deliberately don’t tag UT in, saving him up for the big finish. Perfect, by the way, tells McMahon that Helmsley prefers to be called “Triple H”, although that name didn’t catch on until two years after this. Undertaker finally gets the hot tag, and obliterates the heel team. (This was pretty awesome.)  Lawler tries to run away, but none of the team will tag him, and the result is a tombstone, to a HUGE pop. Goodbye. Yankem comes in next, tombstone, goodbye. Of course, it would take THREE tombstones for UT to do the same thing when Wrestlemania XIV rolled around. HHH tries, gets chokeslammed from the ring apron into the ring, see ya. Mabel gets the brief advantage but UT sits up, and that’s all Mabel needs to see, deciding to take the smart route and run away to fight another day. Taker’s team gets the win at 14:23, with the entire team surviving. 1/2*  (That rating belies the tremendous entertainment value in seeing Undertaker finally cutting loose and destroying the group of heels like a force of nature.) 

- Wild Card match: Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson, The British Bulldog & Sid v. Yokozuna, Owen Hart, Razor Ramon & Dean Douglas.

If you’re thinking this team looks weird, you’re right. It was set up by Gorilla Monsoon to stir things up. We get the one-and-only Shawn v. Shane match pretty early in, and it’s pretty good. Ahmed comes in and kicks ass, but tries to slam Yoko, which is immensely not smart. He gets beat on for a bit, then tags in Shawn, who pins Douglas on a rollup. Owen & Bulldog go next, then Shawn & Razor. JR wonders if they can have a match not involving a ladder. Razor gets the Edge, but Ahmed makes the save. Crowd is torn on who to cheer for. Sid comes in and stinks up the joint. He calls for Shawn’s help on a double-team superkick, but Ramon ducks and Sid takes it. Shawn gives a hilarious “Oh, well…” shrug, and Ramon pins Sid. (THAT was the World champion personality that Shawn should have had, not whatever bullshit they saddled him with to “fix” him.)  Sid powerbombs Shawn for being a smart-ass, and I can’t say as I blame him. Razor gets two from it. Shawn then gets pummeled by Yokozuna, including that VULCAN NERVE PINCH OF DOOM. Ahmed gets the hot tag and pins Owen quickly with the tiger bomb. (I was deliberately calling it that to troll guys like Scherer on RSPW, by the way.)  Ramon cleans house but takes a spinebuster from Ahmed. Ahmed poses on the second rope, and Ramon comes from behind and Edge’s him off. Sid & Kid wander to ringside and distract Ramon, and he walks into a Bulldog powerslam as a result and gets pinned. So Yoko is 3-on-1. He does well against Shawn, but misses the FAT-ASSED BUTTDROP OF DEATH and Ahmed gets the hot tag. Bodyslam! Davey Boy comes in to break up the pin, because he’s a bad person and all. So Shawn superkicks Yoko and then ties up the Bulldog, allowing Ahmed to get the pin unfettered at 27:23. And now of course the Bulldog wants to celebrate with his teammates. Match wasn’t terrible. **1/4 Survivors: Michaels, Johnson, Bulldog.

- WWF World title match: Diesel v. Bret Hart.

Hart v. Michaels was already pencilled in for WM12, so it’s not like the result here was a secret of national security or anything. (Guys in the locker room were openly talking about Bret’s title defense schedule and such weeks before the match, according to the Observers at the time, and Diesel himself was basically phased out of the top position on the main shows, and in fact barely appeared at all outside of being Shawn’s buddy.  Clearly the writing was on the wall for Nash.)  Diesel and Bret both pull off turnbuckle pads to reinforce that it’s no-DQ. Diesel pounds Bret in the corner, so Bret bails. They fight outside for a bit as Bret uncharacteristically runs like a chicken. Back in the ring for a slugfest, which Bret loses. He bails again, so Diesel rams him backfirst into the post. He grabs a chair and nails him for good measure. Back in the ring and he goes for the powerbomb early, but Bret blocks it and comes back. Lots of cheap stuff from Bret, then he starts working on the knees of the champ. Figure-four wears him down further, then Bret grabs a cable in an amazingly dickish move and hogties Diesel’s ankles around the post. He takes the chair and demolishes his knee with it, actually drawing boos. Diesel finally looses himself and slams Bret off the top rope, then chokes him out with the cable. Side slam gets a two count. Nash is doing an amazing job of selling the injury at this point, the best I’ve ever seen him do. He manages Snake Eyes, but Bret reverses a second attempt and comes back. FIVE MOVES OF DOOM! Bret sends Diesel to the floor, but the pescado misses. Bret crawls onto the apron, and it’s HISTORY TIME! The biggest running gag in WWF’s history begins here, as Diesel shoves Bret off the apron, right through the Spanish announce table. (VINTAGE ANNOUNCE TABLE!) Bret is acting like he’s on his deathbed. Diesel tosses him back in for the kill, but when he goes for the powerbomb Bret simply collapses. The ref wants to stop the match, but Diesel shoves him aside and tries it again…and Bret small packages him out of nowhere for the pin and the title at 24:50. Diesel clearly mouths a very naughty phrase at the camera which rhymes with “Another trucking skit”, then powerbombs Bret twice and takes out a bunch of refs, yelling “I’M BACK!” at the camera. He started pissing off the Undertaker soon after, and got jobbed out, leading to him joining WCW in 1996. Wonder whatever happened to him? This would be Nash’s second-best match ever, only eclipsed by the one he had with Michaels in 1996. ****1/4

The Bottom Line: Can’t lose here. Even if the offices of the WWF were going to hell, the workers were shining, especially the rising Shawn Michaels, the resurgent Bret Hart, and the newly motivated Diesel.

Recommended show.  (It was good but actually a bit disappointing based on how good you would have expected a couple of matches to be, like the Goldust-Bigelow and wild card matches.  Still an easy thumbs up, but one that could have been an all-timer with better depth in the midcard.) 

Comments

  1. Who would've expected Goldust v. Bigelow to be any good?

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  2. Problems with Shawn's first reign:


    1) horrible challenger (british bulldog) between diesel and vader. Really 3 ppvs against bulldog including 2 title shots. I know he had 3 ppv title shots against hart/diesel, but come on it's the freaking british bulldog. Why not undertaker or yokozuna to play up the little guy/big guy role.


    2) he lost 2x against vader at summerslam; the dq against mankind; the draw with bulldog


    3) no rematch with bret


    4) To make him look like a man of the people, he had his mentor (some guy no one has heard of) come with him to every match. He has never needed a manager before as a face, but now he does? It just makes him look weak.

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  3. Watching the Raw with the Hardy/Taker ladder match since the first time it happened. Is this match as great as I remember?

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  4. Well the explanation for Goldust v. Jannetty being shit was "nerves" on Goldust's part and everyone just assumed that he would suddenly revert to awesome WCW Dustin sooner or later. Turned out to be much, much later.

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  5. Now answer my question. It's more important, because I'm probably drunker.

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  6. Bam Bam vs. Dustin in '92 would have kicked major ass. That said, in '95 Bigelow's motivation was at an all-time low and Dustin hadn't learned how to work heel or really work WWF-style yet.

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  7. Also, watching Lesnar v. Flair as a meaningless Raw curtain-jerker is fucking weird.

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  8. Yes. That match is tremendous. Such an awesome story and did a great job of using both guys' gimmicks to help sell the stipulation and story of the match.

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  9. Creepy diva-interviewing Coach is fucking spectacular.

    I might do this the rest of this Raw, I might be done. I don't know yet .

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  10. I like the cut of your jib.

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  11. That fucking Superbomb was ASTONISHING. Just an absolute INSANE move.

    The women's match is fascinating because so many of the workers are absolute top-tier greats, yet were given about a minute each. And you can tell that Alunda can't work with them, as she's botching shit all over the place. And also that U.S. fans had never seen an Uraken before and weren't accustomed to generic "strike" finishers, so were wondering why some random backspinning punch KO'd a chick.

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  12. Bam Bam was one of your better big men, Dustin could be carried by the right guy. The match should've been MUCH better than it was.

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  13. "These days I literally have a 10-DVD set of Mid-South, 8 or 9 DVDs of recent New Japan, the WWE Network, and access to whatever I want on YouTube, and my free time is occupied by taking my 4-year old to see Big Hero 6. TOTALLY WORTH IT."



    Is Big Hero 6 any good? I've heard people compare it to the Avengers, but I'm still on the fence about seeing it.

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  14. I love the RAW episode the following night after this show. It's pretty historic, as the seeds were planted for a changing of the product. You had Diesel's worked shoot promo that he did, just gingerly walking down the aisle in his street clothes during the middle of a match and calling out Vince as the guy who's running things. I think it was the first real tweener turn the company ever did as they would start embracing the "shades of gray" concept with their characters. And of course Shawn collapsing during his match with Owen with the EMT's in the ring deal, which had never really been done before in that manner, and something that would be done to death for the next 20 years. But this was the first time we ever saw it like that, and it even had the smarks fooled as to whether or not it was really real, what with the announcers not even talking during the whole thing. Good stuff.

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  15. Oh man, my friend and I watching it at the time were going NUTS. I didn't even LIKE Hardy as a performer by this point, but I was practically jumping off my chair in excitement.

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  16. What really sold Shawn's collapse was they went to break in the middle, came back and they were still tending to him. The show screeched to a halt when he went down. Owen and Cornette both still at ringside with "dear lord, he's dead" looks on their faces, no announcers yammering while he was being tended to......I remember being scared to death for Shawn watching that.

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  17. Adam "Colorado" CurryNovember 12, 2014 at 11:58 PM

    No shit. And Scott's being generous with that rating, that was definitely a negative-star affair.

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  18. Adam "Colorado" CurryNovember 13, 2014 at 12:04 AM

    "Maybe distraction allows him to focus better or something, who knows."


    Yeah, not anymore.


    Anyway, outside of that shitpile Golddust match this is one of those lost classics. And I remember being fucking furious at Bret winning the title, like Super Bowl 47 mad.

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  19. Adam "Colorado" CurryNovember 13, 2014 at 12:06 AM

    Wasn't that Bigelow's last WWF match.

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  20. It's fascinating how shitty Goldust was for the first year or so with that gimmick. It was like he decided that restholds and stalling Memphis-style were what his character needed.

    Though to be fair, that's pretty much what Gorgeous George did.

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  21. Virgil's Gimmick TableNovember 13, 2014 at 12:14 AM

    I keep wondering where Big Heros 1-5 were.

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  22. I took my youth group to see it last weekend. They loved it but I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected. It was entertaining but nothing I'd care to see again. It's nowhere near the level of Avengers or Lego Movie. Kids dig it, though.

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  23. It took him a really long time to adjust to that gimmick. Dustin recently admitted that in a Jericho podcast. About a year into it, once he found his footing, it was all good.

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  24. Kyle's always been my favorite. I dunno about this romance with Carol, though.

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  25. Adam "Colorado" CurryNovember 13, 2014 at 12:47 AM

    Horowitz was also old, he started wrestling in the late 70's. And I always thought him beating Skip was more of a "fuck you" to Candido than it was anything to get Barry over.

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  26. Fantastic show, even in the worst era's things sometimes come together on PPV.

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  27. The difference between Scott and Mr. Perfect is that Scott poops his pants, while Perfect doesn't give a shit.

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  28. I blame Triple H for the current malaise.

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  29. That was the RAW that prompted me to start the Monday Night Recap. There were so many people on r.s.p-w that either had USA Network, or TNT, but not both; and between the people freaking out over Shawn's collapse, and those who wanted Nitro results, since I got both shows I decided to put down my thoughts on them in a recap form. I never imagined that one angle would lead to me writing about the shows for over 5 years.

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  30. I've mentioned this before, but I've tried multiple times to watch Bret/Diesel and can never get into it. To me it feels like Bret spends the entire match resting on the mat while Nash spends the entire match resting on his feet, occasionally talking trash. I couldn't get into their Rumble 95 match either, though what killed that one for me was all of the interference. Maybe I'll give this match another shot soon.

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  31. I haven't seen any of the recent non-Pixar Disney animated films. I heard GREAT things about Wreck It Ralph but just never got around to watching it.

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  32. Dude. if you give a shit about video games at all, SEE WRECK-IT RALPH.

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  33. 1. Actually Shawn vs Bulldog was IMO a good combination.
    2. He should have lost the title against Vader and then they could have build a rematch for the Series.

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  34. He wasn't that old. According to wiki, he was born in 1960 so he was only 35 at the time.

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  35. That title had to be inspired by Leonard Part 6. At least there were no deaths caused by a stick of butter this time.

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  36. He gave Warrior some shit ...

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  37. HHH said that Shawn always called him that. I think this was around the time Vince flew out to have that famous meeting where he asked guys for ideas. One was to call him HHH and they slowly phased it in.

    btw, HHH said that no one buried Bam Bam in that meeting. They all said they wanted him on the team. Take that for what you will.

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  38. Great edition here. Really showed some good insights and also levied in some life perspective wh h really made me think while sitting on the crapper first thing in the morning. Thanks for all that you do. Keep up the great work.

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  39. Dustin/Vader had tremendous chemistry together in WCW and most people liken Bam Bam to Vader so that's why it seemed good on paper at least.

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  40. Can't remember. I remember he was announced for the 96 Rumble but never came to fruition because I think he got injured. It is a shame because they could have done a mini Vader/Bam Bam feud in the beginning of 96 instead of doing a Vader/Yoko feud.

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  41. I wasn't furious but I remember feeling Bret winning the title here was weird and Diesel's reign did end rather anticlimactically after being booked to be so dominant.

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  42. In hindsight it seems surprising that they phased Diesel out towards the end of his title run and having him hardly appear and as soon as he loses the title they book him to be a main eventer again.

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  43. It wouldn't have drew any better, but I wish they waited and had Owen challenge for Shawn's belt instead of Bulldog and not finish the feud off at IYH6.

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  44. Also Foley was actually gaining traction as a main event heel at the time, so I can forgive WWF wanting to protect Foley by doing the DQ finish. Of course in hindsight it didn't seem to matter because Foley was quickly booked to look like a jobber after this and would take 2 years for Foley to get that main event credibility back.

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  45. Personally I always preferred the Rumble 95 match over the Survivor Series match and I thought Bret/Diesel always had good chemistry together.

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  46. Yeah, I was a mark during the time and I can understand the Horowitz argument because even when he was beating Skip every week I still saw the guy as a jobber and anybody else who lost to him just annoyed me because I really didn't want to get behind the Barry push.

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  47. Yeah I knew Dustin was a good worker, but I figured he intentionally tanked his matches as the Goldust character because he was more interested in getting the gimmick over rather than having good matches, which is understandable as the former is more important in drawing more money.

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  48. Where is this info? Sounds like a good read.

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  49. Just yesterday, then somebody broke the news to HHH that Bam Bam had passed away and HHH was all like "awwww shit...wait did I ever pin that guy?" before Vince answered "no" and HHH became irate and said "that sneaky motherfucker".

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  50. I think it was HHH's appearance on Jericho's podcast. Should be on youtube.

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  51. When I heard Bret won the title back, all felt right in the world again.

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  52. I mentioned this non-important little detail in the past, but I liked how Razor was teamed up with 3 heels, while Taker's team knew well enough to leave him alone... So we saw Razor backstage hanging out with Taker's 3 teammates, which included his buddy Savio. Nice kayfabe there.

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  53. Don't forget both Razor and Fatu grew up on the streets and are now trying to make a difference, so they were probably discussing the troubled youths they helped out that week.

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  54. Don't be too harsh on the Mr Spiffy line. I remember finding it funny back in what they call, "the day".

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  55. Oh yeah. I remember me and my sister watching it and actually freaking out.

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  56. I remember watching this one in my friends basement on an illegal box and being totally stoked for the Bret win, and shocked over the table spot.


    Bret beating Diesel was the realignment of the universe into the correct place.

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  57. I watched this show the other night and what was the deal with Goldust's dick and thong showing right through that suit the entire match? Awful.

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  58. I would expect Bigelow vs Dustin Rhodes (or GD after say 2000) to be good, not so much when the character was overshadowing the wrestling.

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  59. I've said this a few times on here, but I absolutely LOVE when Bret and Diesel undo their respective turnbuckles before the bell. Like two cowboys drawing their guns.

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  60. yeah Wreck-It Ralph rules, especially the opening 30 mins or so when they are world introducing.

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  61. "There were so many people on r.s.p-w that either had USA Network, or TNT, but not both"

    I had no idea r.s.p-w was a haven for hillbillies.

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  62. He's history's greatest monster!

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  63. I actually didn't like the match the first time it aired because it was too obvious that Hardy wasn't going to win. I saw it again recently and it's WAY better then I ever remembered it.

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  64. HOG does some Moonshinin' on the side of course.

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  65. Yeah, the Goldust thing was strange because it's clear they had an idea that he was going to be 1000% different, but Dustin hadn't figured out yet how to incorporate his character into his wrestling and was just being a generic NWA slow-the-match heel. He didn't really come into his own for me until he had Roddy Piper to play off of.


    HOTTAEK: the Hollywood Backlot Brawl is a diamond in the rough. The two are stiff as fuck in the pre-taped section, and the crowd is eating everything up with a spoon when they make the arena. They told the story well enough that the crowd got into the psychology of Goldust trying to play with Piper's mind by being "smitten" with him, but also knew that Piper was going to hate that. (You can hear the crowd go "OH SHIT" when Goldust finally kisses Piper.)

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  66. I never liked how people regard that angle as wrestlecrap because of the attemted murder and the whole car chase thing because the actual brawl itself was really gritty and realistic and well done.

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  67. You were furious at Bret winning? You must have been the only one left running on Diesel Power.

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  68. I remember having a friend who wasn't a big fan of Bret's, because he kept bragging about all of his title wins. So he was totally on Team Luger and Team Diesel.

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  69. Perfect on Rocker Dropper: "Man, that'll break your neck!"

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  70. There's a lot of Wrestlecrap opinions that don't hold up today.

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  71. From what I understand Big Hero 6 is the actual title of an obscure Marvel comic styled after your typical team manga. The name itself is intentionally awkward to reference a shaky Japanese-to-English translation ("the six big heroes" or whatever).

    Here's a cover: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/blog_post_349_width/2014/05/big_hero_6_cover.jpg

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  72. It's understandable. Nothing against Bret, just the way the whole thing was booked. I never liked how Bret won either as it felt like it was slip on a banana peel finish as Diesel had the match clearly won and Bret acted like a little shit with that small package finish and Bret was suppose to be the babyface in that situation.

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  73. This never would've happened if Marge Simpson had been here.

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  74. Eddiesploitation wasn't really THAT bad, was it?

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  75. You better ask Eddie...Down there....

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  76. "Thanks, Satan!"
    "That's SA-TEEN."

    Loved that movie.

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  77. No. It's just Taker beating up Hardy while JR yells every time Hardy has a hope spot

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  78. I saw that match at a house show

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  79. I never got into it. It's boring

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  80. I agree with that. But in 1995, Bam Bam had checked out and Goldust was awful ring wise his first few months. I loved the gimmick though.

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  81. The presidential assassination joke they made was definitely a pre 9-11 era. And its pretty sad that a fake Bill Clinton got more promo time that month than most of the talent.

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  82. Gunther the Nasty LoserNovember 13, 2014 at 10:23 AM

    "I was deliberately calling it that to troll guys like Scherer on RSPW, by the way"


    That poor dog

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  83. Gunther the Nasty LoserNovember 13, 2014 at 10:24 AM

    "HOTTAEK"

    wut

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  84. When it comes to favorite Survivor Series PPVs, after the 1st annual edition in 87, this one would probably be second for me, such an underrated show imo.

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  85. No, college students. The makeup of wrestling fans online was much different back then than it is today. In 1995 people were on dial-up, and not every household had internet & cable. Many that did have internet had it via AOL. Even if you had cable you maybe only had the basic package, which might or might not include either USA or TNT. TNT was still a relatively new channel (started 1988) and some rural cable companies were slow to pick it up. But a huge part of the budding IWC was college students, and lots of those people didn't have cable.

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  86. Good match, not a classic imo.

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  87. Definitely a small touch that worked.

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  88. Yes indeed, Bret and Diesel did have good chemistry together. Their match at the 95 Rumble was very good, but I do like their Survivor Series 95 a lil more.

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  89. I remember reading a lot of your recaps back in the day. I can't recall the name of the site, but it all most, if not all, of your work.

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  90. Slobberknocker Central.

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  91. I do remember on that "Bret vs Shawn" DVD, Bret himself says Shawn gets a raw deal over "not drawing as champ," pointing out it didn't matter who was on top in '96, WCW would still be dominating thanks to the NWO.

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  92. Still love the Taker stuff. Yeah, the mask was goofy but it was fantastic how they booked him, staying on till the very end and when he does come in, he just obliterates Lawler (the part of no one wanting to tag him was priceless), Yankem and Hunter in fast fashion to scare Mabel off. That's how to properly book a monster and great spot for the show.

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  93. Of the horror show that was 1995 in professional wrestling, I loved this show. I dug the Wild Card concept, and as an undersized dorky kid, the finish of Bret using his brain to sucker the bigger, stronger opponent was one I adored.

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  94. Match ruled. JR's calling of it was superb, as was the postmatch stuff about Jeff earning Taker's respect.

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  95. Even during Bret's worst anti-WWE, anti-Vince stuff, I don't recall him ever saying anything different about Shawn getting hit with "didn't draw as champ." I think he always said "hey, it was the friggin' nWo, nobody was going to draw against that angle."

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  96. Adam "Colorado" CurryNovember 13, 2014 at 11:51 AM

    Not that, I've just always hated Bret.

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  97. To me, the debut of Goldust was the unannounced start of the era.

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  98. Nash said the same thing to Austin on Austin's podcast about a year ago.

    "Did we like Bam Bam? Hell no, we thought he was a dick and almost got us killed once but could the motherfucker go? Hell yeah, he could play on our team."

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  99. Hmmmm...maybe it would be different if Yankem really knew UT well, like he was his brother or something.

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  100. Bad example!

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  101. That fake Clinton was pushed harder than Dolph Ziggler ever was. One of those things that just screams Vince thinking he is so clever.

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  102. He ended up being Kane. WE GET IT.

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  103. If the wild card match moved at a better pace and had more dramatic near falls that could have been one of the great Survivor Series.

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  104. Sorry, but Nash is about as reliable as Hogan on these type of things.

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  105. They never ever ever buried anybody and just had Vince's ear because they had the best ideas.

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  106. Which could make one thing it was intentional to start planting the seeds of Bret being disgruntled with the company and the US.

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  107. Curious on who prefers KOTR94 Bret/Diesel over SurSeries95 Bret/Diesel

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  108. I like the KOTR match but the 95 matches were far superior as Diesel was a baby in 94 still learning to work and improving.

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  109. I prefer the Rumble match over the other two, does that count for anything?

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  110. I know wrestling was "fake" by then but I was absolutely convinced that Michaels was legitimately injured.

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  111. I knew wrestling was "fake" by then but I was absolutely convinced that Michaels was legitimately injured (yes, at that point the "everything you see is fake except this!"-approach worked with me).

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  112. I am not sure if his former style would have suited his new persona at all.

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  113. I would have liked Owen Hart to win against Michaels. would at least make it a tiny percent less obvious that HBK was getting the superpush and new champion.

    it also would have been a readymade post-WrestleMania feud - Owen bragging about he beat the current champion after putting him out of action before - and a smoother transition to Michaels vs. Bulldog (if they would really still wanted to go with that) instead of the weird angle with Diana.

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  114. That fake Clinton is the best impersonator I've ever seen. When i was watching WrestleMania X a while back, I actually thought it was him before remembering that nobody above the C-List would be caught dead on WWF TV in 1994.

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  115. I'm a few weeks away from getting to SurSer '95 (it's a process, trust me), but I actually liked KOTR quite a bit better than the Rumble. The bullshit finish was better, and somehow even with more experience the Rumble match felt more like a Bret carryjob. They were both carryjobs, but Diesel actually brought some things to the table in '94 and it felt like a breakout performance, whereas in '95 he seemed more along for the ride. That said, the Rumble match has Bret working as a heel, which was really cool to see in the context of New Generation WWF.

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  116. I'd be really curious if WWF Mania had its highest ratings ever the next Saturday. I also go into old-fogey mode at today's kidz, who literally can't comprehend having to wait 6 whole days for a health update.
    Triviata: the announcers-not-talking was Nash's idea, and he got it from Cal Ripken's record-breaking game when Berman & co. went silent in the booth for pretty much the whole celebration.

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  117. Alundra not being able to work with them doesn't make a lot of sense--she was out of practice, I guess, but she wrestled extensively in Japan, more than maybe any American woman of the era behind Debbie Malenko. Actually, the person with the most botches in that match was referee Mike Chioda.

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  118. She was always a pretty weak, sloppy worker in the WWF. She could be carried sometimes, but generally was pretty bad.

    I noticed one fuck up by Chioda, who counted a fall on one of the girls that clearly wasn't supposed to go to 3, judging by the body language of the wrestlers.

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  119. HHH=Hollywood Hulk Hogan
    Vince=Eric
    Bam Bam=Yoko

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  120. KOTR had that sweet backslide battle that Bret flips out of using his trademark turnbuckle counter and chained into a small package.

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  121. This is one of my favourite PPVs of all time; it's great fun, never drags, and has some major highlights. Best 95 PPV by a country mile (not exactly difficult, admittedly), the best WWF show since WM X (and I'd argue that this show was more consistent - whilst obviously lacking the major, all-time classic standouts that PPV boasted), and the best thing they'd do until Survivor Series the next year (whereas the reverse is often the case in the present day).

    I'd disagree with most of the star ratings here massively, of course (apart from Bigelow/Dust, which was objectively trash) - especially the Wildcard, the opener and the women's match. Even the UT bout was, if nothing else, a bit of trashy fun - not good or anything, of course, but it didn't need to be.

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  122. Totally agreed - it's clearly one of the best WWF PPVs of the 90s. It has a consistency that no other PPV from this epoch really has - generally, shows during this time had one or two great matches (if that) and a ton of crud and shitty booking.

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  123. That match is such a blast. The violence and action was off the hook for 95 - I'd almost be tempted to edge towards the full monty if there'd been colour, or Bret's bumping had reached HBK 'Good Friends, Better Enemies' levels. Even today, the meagre bump off the apron to the announce desk seems a bit shocking. Great, great stuff.

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  124. Isn't the point that, ultimately, brain trumps brawn? I think that Vince wanted to put this idea over as the title was about to be given to the smallest guy to ever hold it yet (HBK).

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  125. I love the ending. It's great psychology - we don't see enough 'goldbricking' in wrestling nowadays. Bret used it brilliantly on a number of occasions. It's so simple but devastatingly effective at putting over the cerebral aspect to wrestling. Jake Roberts was another one who was great at putting over the fact that his brain was as important (if not more important) a weapon when it came to trouncing opponents as his strength.

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  126. I revisited the show a few months ago (not on the Network, but the original PPV version) and it definitely has aged well. Now when I think about it, this may have been the best WWF PPV in 95.

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  127. No may about it. Inarguably the best PPV in 95. Competition isn't particularly stiff, of course - most 95 shows were absolute stinkers. RR is pretty good (but not a very good Rumble), WM XI is reasonably decent too. Can't think of anything else (beyond the odd match here and there) which is actually any good.

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  128. I would put Summerslam 95 behind the Survivor Series, followed by the Royal Rumble.

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  129. Interesting that the first Survivor Series also had an absolutely killer women's match that sailed way over the heads of the audience too.

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  130. His shunting down the card after this was fucking weird. It would've been even worse if he hadn't put his foot down and vetoed a horrible feud with Marc Mero.

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  131. Fair enough, SS 95 is a one match show for me (with a *dreadful* main event and a large irredeemable undercard), but it's quite some one match.

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  132. Best WWF show of 1995, hands down and one of my childhood favourite shows.

    As you said, Undertaker as a force of nature was SWEET to watch. Especially when Mabel squashed him again and he just sits up like a pissed off fury.

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  133. "I remember watching this one in my friends basement on an illegal box"


    NAUGHTY!

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  134. I mean, just about any match could sound shitty if you described it in the most reductive possible way. After watching it for the first time in 13 years...it's a pretty kickass match.

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  135. It's a one sided boring squash match. I've watched it a few times and it's really nothing more than what I described.


    And then Taker beats him up again afterward but he raises his hand so it's okay

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  136. I mean, sorry you didn't like it, I guess. But describing it in such a declarative manner like your opinion is a factual recounting is kinda silly. I just watched the thing yesterday and thought it was pretty fucking good. I guess I was wrong.

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  137. " -And since we’re in Washington, we get a visit from the fake Clinton for some hijinks. (God, they were using him on RAW leading up to this, and it was just so pathetic.)"

    Well it certainly can't touch the Cryme Tyme/George W. Bush segment in 2006. :P

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gsv6eEOwtc

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  138. Just calling it like I see it. I watched it again recently. Hardy's hope spots aren't even that good.

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  139. Oddly enough, Triple H would stand a chance against UT too after he changed his family tree.

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