Royal Rumble '95

Legacy Review

Royal Rumble '95

January 22, 1995 from the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, FL

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler

The show opens with super guest celebrity Pamela Anderson arriving in a limo and being eagerly greeted by much of the roster. At the time Anderson was known for Playboy and Baywatch, not yet for starring in the first ever internet leaked celebrity sex tape.

WWF Intercontinental Championship: "Double J" Jeff Jarrett (w/The Roadie) def Razor Ramon (c) in 18:06- Roadie is the future Road Dogg, who had jumped to WWF a couple of months prior after bouncing around WCW as a jobber for a few years. Ramon gives Roadie the toothpick flip, giving Jarrett an opening to ambush from behind. Ramon dodges, hits a few punches and the fallaway slam. Choke slam! After some thinking time on the outside Jarrett hits an armdrag and struts. Waistlock tradeoff. Jarrett gets a takedown and celebrates again. They trade hammerlocks, ending with Jarrett getting another takedown and celebrating some more. Ramon's getting hot. Another bit of basic wrestling ends with a Ramon punch and clothesline that sends Jarrett 360 and out. After some more recovery time Jarrett offers a test of strength that Ramon easily wins and follows up with some arm work. Vince mentions Lawrence Taylor is here for the first of about a thousand times tonight. Jarrett turns the tide with a series of dropkicks. Ramon ducks an enzuguri, then Jarrett dodges an elbow drop. Ramon backslide for 2. Jarrett clothesline for 2. Ramon punches out of a sunset flip. He puts his knees down, but Jarrett reverses it for 2. A nice speed sequence ends with Jarrett hitting a swinging neckbreaker. He tries rope leverage pins but Ramon still kicks out. Ramon slides out in the corner and gives Jarrett his now regular crotch post spot. Reverse bulldog off the second rope for 2. Jarrett uses momentum to throw Ramon over the top and out, and Ramon hurt his knee on the way down. Roadie sneaks up and clips him! Ramon's down on the entrance aisle, can't get back up in time and gets counted out. Jarrett takes the mic, says no one wants to see him win that way, he wants the title, demands the match be restarted and calls Ramon a coward to goad him into doing it. Ramon limps back to the ring, ref Tim White double checks he's sure, and rings the bell to restart. Jarrett plays with Ramon dodging punches until Ramon pushes him into the corner and rolls him up for 2. Jarrett decides it's time to get serious and starts picking apart the knee. Desperation Ramon small package for 2. Jarrett hits the kneebreaker. After some more softening up he slaps the figure four on. Ramon fights and tries to reverse it but can't. He goes down for a long 2 count, then gets back up and punches Jarrett to make him break. Punchy comeback by Ramon. He hoists Jarrett up for the back superplex and manages to do it with the bum knee. Jarrett tries to roll Ramon over, but Ramon rolls through the roll through for a 2 count! Huge Ramon clothesline. He calls for the Razor's Edge and manages to get Jarrett all the way up before his knee gives out. Jarrett rolls up a Paul Smackage and gets the 3 and the title! Other than Roadie's clip on Ramon's already hurt knee, Jarrett won that clean as a sheet. I liked that. Both guys worked good, the psychology was sound, and the overbooking with the stop and restart wasn't overdone. Definitely one of Ramon's better non-intraKliq matches. ***1/4

Todd Pettingill hits on Anderson in her dressing room and gets nowhere.

 

The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) def Irwin R Schyster (w/Ted DiBiase) in 12:21- The Taker vs the Million Dollar Corporation saga that began with Taker vs Taker at Summerslam is now in full swing and will continue most of the year. DiBiase had been having a couple of druids with him or his wrestlers during this feud, but they're not with IRS on his entrance and Lawler wonders where they are. Immediate Rotunda stalling. The crowd gets restless for the match to get going. Finally Taker turns his back to watch Bearer take the urn outside and IRS dropkicks him in the back. No sell. IRS turns right back around and rolls out again. We're officially on Rotunda Geologic Time. He gets back in, ducks some clotheslines, and rolls out again. This time he stalks Bearer. Taker jumps out to slow chase and IRS attacks him as he gets back in the ring. Taker reverses a whip and hits a big boot. IRS is whipped hard into the corners. Vince mentions Lawrence Taylor again so something is clearly happening with him. Taker tosses IRS by the tie and hits the rope walk drop. DiBiase gets on the apron. IRS goes for Taker but hits DiBiase instead. Taker sends IRS to the floor again. IRS gets mad at DiBiase and shoves him. DiBiase tries to calm him down, then walks over and calls the two druids down to the ring. IRS is satisfied. They surround the ring. IRS tries another ambush but Taker back elbows him. He tries the rope walk again but a druid shakes the rope and he falls down. IRS counters a backdrop and clotheslines Taker out. He lands on his feet and goozles the druids. IRS hits him with a double ax handle off the apron and the druids get some shots in. Rotunda abdominal stretch. After Taker gets out IRS hits a back elbow (that looked a little accidentally stiff) and diving clothesline. Taker dodges a splash. Midring collision. DiBiase distracts the ref and a druid drags IRS on top of Taker. Taker sits up at 2. A druid gets on the apron. Taker dodges an IRS charge and IRS takes the druid out. Taker hoists IRS up for the tombstone, but still gets annoyed by the druids like a couple of mosquitoes and has to kick them away, making him drop IRS. Another IRS diving clothesline. Taker sits up, hits the chokeslam, and gets the pin. We're getting into the period where they were trying to get the chokeslam over as a new finisher. Match was meh. Again, the overbooking wasn't as awful as it could have been. It was pretty much going to suck no matter what. *1/2

After the bell the druids attack again. Taker fights them off. King Kong Bundy gets in the ring and goes nose to nose with Taker. While Taker's occupied, IRS takes Bearer out and repossesses the urn (with the lid inadvertently coming off and giving away the fact there's nothing in there). Without the urn's power Bundy easily takes Taker down. Bearer uses the power of the crowd to get him up and out of the ring.

 

WWF Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart and Diesel (c) draw in 27:19- Diesel gets his super cool truck driving into camera and glass shattering entrance. Not much of a pop, though. Crowd feels about 70/30 pro Bret. Diesel says hi to Lawrence Taylor at ringside, the first time he's been on camera even though he's been mentioned all night. This is face vs face so we have a Code of Honor fistbump to start. It counts. Both guys have promised to do whatever they need to do to win, an angle Bret consistently got in all his face/face feuds that gives the match a nice edge. Diesel wins the first lockup. Bret tries a go behind waistlock and takedown. Diesel gets in the ropes. Bret gets chippy early and shoves Diesel while he's trying to get up. Slugfest! Diesel wins that. After some back and forth Bret gets clotheslined 360 and out. More slugfest on the apron and Bret falls to the floor again. He grabs Diesel's leg, drags him down, and posts his knee! Bret spends the next few minutes working the knee and hamstring, then slaps on the figure four! Diesel slowly gets to the ropes. Bret takes his time letting go, then repositions Diesel and slaps it on again. Diesel tries to crawl to the ropes, goes down, then just barely reaches out to grab it. Again Bret is slow to release. Diesel goes to the floor. TOPE SUICIDA! MAMA MIA! They positioned that well, at the end of the entrance ramp so there was room to really go for it. Diesel reverses a whip and Bret crashes into the steps. Back in, vintage Kevin Nash corner elbows. Side suplex for 2. Diesel does a decent job still selling the leg. Bret tries to fight back so Diesel gives him an eye rake. Canadian backbreaker! Bret powers out and rolls over to slap on a sleeper. Diesel quickly snap mares out. Diesel big boot. Bret gets a boot up in the corner and hits a clothesline off the second rope. He goes up top, but Diesel grabs him and presses him...until his knee gives out. Bret falls on top of him for a 2 count. Bret goes to the floor and grabs Diesel's leg again. He takes off his wrist tape and ties Diesel's legs around the ring post! Somewhere in Japan, young Toru Yano is taking notes. Bret stomps away while Hebner gets Diesel free. A bulldog kicks off the Five Moves of Doom run. Now it's Diesel's turn to get clotheslined 360 and out. Bret with a plancha! But Diesel catches him and posts his back! Now Diesel has a hurt knee and Bret has hurt ribs. Back in Diesel calls for the jackknife to a fair amount of boos. He hits it! Cover. Shawn Michaels runs in and breaks the pin up! He does more damage on Diesel's hurt knee before Hebner runs him off. Hebner consults with Fink, who announces per the referee this match MUST CONTINUE. Bret kicks the knee out again and hooks the figure four back on. Diesel punches Bret's sore ribs to get out. Bret twists Diesel's leg around the rope and pulls, then posts the knee again. He grabs a chair and whacks Diesel's knee with it. Hebner is doing his best Red Shoes impression letting literally anything go. The crowd finally starts booing Bret after heeling it up so much, but they immediately cheer again when Bret hooks in the Sharpshooter. Now Owen Hart runs in and breaks that up. He takes a turnbuckle pad off and RUNS Bret into it chest first! Hebner chases him out, goes over to Fink, and again this match must continue. Diesel slowly crawls over and covers. Bret kicks out! Diesel takes a shot into the exposed buckle. Lots of punches from Bret but Diesel won't go down. Finally he does, but pops right back up swinging forearms. Bret collapses and gets tied up in the ropes, dangling over the floor. Diesel gets a chair, but Bret gets free and Diesel lets it go. Bret feigns a hurt knee in the middle of the ring. Everyone but Diesel knows what's coming. Small package! Diesel kicks out. Bret tries a roll up and they run over Hebner. The floodgates from the locker room open. Shawn. Owen. Bob Backlund. Jeff Jarrett. The Roadie. Hebner finally calls for the bell while all the suits from backstage run in to try to restore order. Fink announces that because of the ref's inability to control the match, it's a draw. Very unpopular decision. Gee Hebner, think maybe you should have pulled the plug at the first sign this whole thing was going to collapse into chaos? Backlund puts Bret in the crossface chickenwing and WE'RE GOING BACK IN THE PILE EVERYONE! This time Diesel fights everyone off and saves Bret. Diesel and Bret have a short standoff, then handshake and hug it out. So that's two for two on PPV title matches between these two with a screwy non-finish, and three for three for matches tonight with some kind of shenanigans. The two guys in the ring did their job superbly, but the overbooking held this to just being really good instead of great. ***3/4

 

Back in the hijinks dressing room, Pamela Anderson wears a body stocking behind a screen pretending to be naked while Pettingill acts like a 15 year old that's never been alone with a woman before.

 

Tournament Final for the Vacant WWF Tag Team Championship: The 1-2-3 Kid and Bob "Spark Plugg" Holly def Tatanka and Bam Bam Bigelow (w/Ted DiBiase) in 15:32- This is to fill the tag titles after Shawn and Diesel vacated them due to their divorce. Kid and Holly weren't originally in the tournament. They replaced the Smokin' Gunns after Bart got hurt in a "rodeo accident". He's already recovered and the Gunns are set to challenge the winner for the titles on Raw the next night. Holly and Tatanka start. Tatanka throws Holly around and legit badly whiffs on a chop. Holly counters with a tiltawhirl flying headscissors! Tatanka backs off and Bigelow wants in. He charges but Holly drops him with a drop toe hold. The faces try to double team but Bigelow kills them both with a double clothesline. He literally throws Kid across the ring. Bigelow goes for a pop up powerbomb, but in midair Kid flips him with a hurricanrana! Bigelow hits an enzuguri for 2. Bigelow charges. Kid backdrops him over the top rope to the floor! He sets up a plancha, but Tatanka hits him from behind. Kid flips over and dropkicks Tatanka into Bigelow! Both faces go to the top rope, but both are caught in midair by the heels. They try to throw them, but the faces counter by pushing the heels into each other. Holly rolls Tatanka up for 2. Bigelow pulls the top rope down and Holly crashes to the floor on a rope run. Kid is pissed, and while the ref's getting him out Bigelow posts Holly. Holly is officially racer in peril. Tatanka hits a powerslam. Kid tries to break the pin up, but Tatanka dodges and Kid lands on Holly instead. The heels go for a double team. Holly dodges and Tatanka chops Bigelow off the top rope. Holly goes for the tag, but Tatanka taunts Kid out of his corner and when Holly gets there no one's home. Bigelow squashes Holly from behind. You know, I know he's young, but out of all the guys in this match Kid is the only one that's had a WWF tag title before. You'd think he'd be better at this. (Yes, Bigelow's a former IWGP tag champ but we all know that doesn't count in Vinceland) Bigelow hits another enzuguri for 2. Holly's completely dazed and confused, crawls into the heel corner and tags Tatanka. Kid runs in again, allowing more heel double teams. Tatanka rams Holly's head into Bigelow's. After some very obvious spot communication by Tatanka they do the dual crossbody spot! Tags on both sides. Kid hits Bigelow with a missile dropkick. Cannonball plancha on Tatanka! He gives Bigelow a crossbody off the top but Tatanka breaks it up. Donnybrook! Bigelow press slams Kid to the floor! He gets Kid back in and sets up for the moonsault, but dumbass Tatanka hits the ropes at the same time and Bigelow falls to the mat! Holly takes Tatanka out, and Kid very slooooooooooowly crawls over, drapes an arm over Bigelow, and gets the pin! Fun stuff. The underdog title reign would only last a day, as the Gunns would win the titles they were originally scheduled to win before the injury on Raw the following night. ***1/2

Tatanka and DiBiase leave Bigelow lying in the ring. When he gets back up he soaks up the crowd's taunts and yells to not laugh at him. Eventually he works his way to......Lawrence Taylor. Bigelow thinks Taylor is laughing at him and wants him to stand up. Taylor does and offers a handshake. Bigelow shoves him! Taylor pops up and looks like he's ready to murder a QB. After some highlights from the '94 Rumble Vince apologizes to us for what happened and to LT personally, all the while seeing dollar signs in his eyes.

 

Royal Rumble

 

Pamela Anderson is brought out before we get things started. She'll be escorting the Rumble winner to the ring at Wrestlemania. Fink doesn't announce it but this is the first and thankfully to date only Rumble to cut the entrance interval down to a scant 60 seconds. The reason for that will be very clear at the end. Then whoever cues up the music steals Fink's thunder by starting Shawn's music before Fink says "Let's find out who drew #1".

1 & 2. "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels and "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith- Shawn jumps Bulldog as soon as he gets in the ring. Bulldog with a big backdrop and press slam. Shawn does the corner flip but lands in the ring.

3. Eli Blu- One half of the identical twin Blu Brothers tag team. They look like the Berzerker without the fur boots. 

4. Duke "The Dumpster" Drose- The famous garbage man gimmick. It's the mid '90s. He eats a big boot from Blu. Drose puts Shawn in a bear hug. Why?

5. "Gigolo" Jimmy Del Ray- Shawn and Bulldog pair off on one side and the riff raff on the other. Del Ray punches get Shawn on the top rope in the corner.

6. Sione- Shawn sells a Sione headbutt like a gunshot. Needless to say he's in Shawn overdrive selling mode. Bulldog eliminates Del Ray.

7. Dr. Tom Pritchard- Never been sure what he's supposed to be a doctor of. Shawn's already up to around a dozen elimination teases.

8. Doink the Clown- Thankfully Dink doesn't get in. Then again maybe it might have helped. Not much of note happening.

9. Kwang- I'd honestly forgotten this gimmick lasted this long, this is two straight Rumbles for him. Shawn super sells a Doink punch, so at least he's keeping himself amused.

10. "The Model" Rick Martel- Martel had been working backstage for a while, but was pressed into action to replace Jim Neidhart when he got fired again. Shawn's up on the ropes in the corner again.

11. "The King of Harts" Owen Hart- While Owen's on the apron Bret attacks him! Beatdown on the entrance aisle! The intervals are so short they barely get done before the clock hits zero again.

12. Timothy Well- Of the tag team Well Dunn. You can guess what the other guy's last name is. Sometime during his entrance Owen got in the ring off camera and was promptly dumped out. Shawn eliminates Drose, who takes a ref down with him. Bulldog eliminates Well, thanks for coming. Sione eliminates Martel and Shawn eliminates Pritchard. Sione lifts Doink over but he lands on the apron. Kwang superkicks him off. 

13. Luke- During his entrance Kwang, Sione and Blu all eliminate each other. Shawn quickly tosses Luke and it's just Shawn and Bulldog again.

14. Jacob Blu- He kills Shawn with a clothesline. Shawn recovers and dumps Blu out. Bulldog gets Shawn over but he hangs on.

15. King Kong Bundy- We get a replay of Bulldog eliminating Owen. Bundy tries to leverage Bulldog.

16. Mo- He gets in, charges, and immediately Bundy eliminates him. That puts Mo in the coveted sub-5 second club. Bulldog fails to slam Bundy. Shawn looks at the two of them fighting and says screw it, I'm resting.

17. Mabel- Big man standoff with Bundy. Mabel tries to get Bundy over.

18. Butch- Mabel slowly works Bundy over the top and eliminates him. Shawn eliminates Butch because it's in the rules a Bushwhacker can't be in there long enough for the next entrant.

19. "Made in the USA" Lex Luger- If there's a favorite this year it's probably Luger after the tie last year. He was still being pushed as a big deal even though most of the fan base had passed him by. Luger grabs Mabel and dumps him over with little effort.

20. Mantaur- Sadly without his minotaur head because it's the Rumble. He works Bulldog over while Shawn and Luger fight.

21. "The Portuguese Man O' War" Aldo Montoya- Oh man, it's like a hall of fame of shitty '90s gimmicks. If Max Moon, The Goon or Battle Kat show up next I'm outta here.

22. Henry O. Godwinn- The point almost stands.

23. Billy Gunn- The cowboy goes right for the bull. There's a joke in there somewhere.

24. Bart Gunn- Mantaur jumps him. Sometimes you get the bull, sometimes the bull gets you. Hey, there's jack all happening in the ring so I've got to fill the space up somehow.

25. Mr. Bob Backlund- Bret's out again! He tries to claw Backlund's face off on the floor at ringside as the officials try to pull him off.

26. Steven Dunn- You guessed right. Backlund gets in the ring and promptly gets eliminated by a Luger clothesline from behind. As he's leaving Bret jumps him again! I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!

27. "Dirty" Dick Murdoch- Now here's a blast from the past! Murdoch worked about every major territory in the world in the '80s and was a former WWF tag champ with Adrian Adonis. He's probably here because he had done some work with Jim Cornette in Smokey Mountain. He takes a shot at everyone. His gimmick (or lack thereof) is way too old school for this shit.

28. Adam Bomb- We're in the killing time before the last stage section. Shawn's hanging upside down again.

29. Fatu- Luger eliminates Mantaur.

30. Crush- He steps in and immediately dumps both Gunns, who were fighting with each other. Montoya eliminates Dunn. Like last year, the ring's awfully full once the last guy is in and they take forever to clear it out since the entrances were so quick. Fatu and Shawn have some fun....Plod, plod....Murdoch and Fatu have a pretty entertaining slugfest. Leave it to the old school guys to perk things up. Murdoch does crawling JYD style headbutts on Fatu and naturally only hurts himself. Crush eliminates Bomb. Crush tosses Fatu but he lands on the apron. Shawn eliminates Montoya. Luger keeps saving Shawn for some reason. Well, Luger was never the brightest. Crush dumps Fatu for real. Murdoch unloads on Godwinn and gives him an airplane spin! He tries to drop him to the floor, but Godwinn hangs onto the rope and Murdoch goes over and out, ending a fine run in a flat Rumble for the old man. They do a reset and standoff with the final five but we all know the final five isn't a real thing so I'm ignoring it. Shawn runs across the ring and jumps Luger. Luger eliminates Godwinn. NOW we're in the home stretch.

FINAL FOUR: Shawn, Bulldog, Luger and Crush. The heels double team Luger while Shawn keeps knocking Bulldog down whenever he gets up. Luger fights out. He goes for mounted punches on Crush. Big mistake. Crush eliminates Luger. See, not the brightest. Shawn forms a truce with Crush against Bulldog and they go to work on him. They high ten, and Crush turns on Shawn! Beat him to the punch. Bulldog charges and eliminates Crush. And the first two are the final two. This is the reason for the super short intervals and keeping the whole match to less than 45 minutes. The crowd is into it, as hot as they've been all night, which sadly isn't saying much. Slugfest. Shawn gets draped over the corner and Bulldog kicks him off, but Shawn falls into the ring. He presses Shawn and drops him crotch first over the top rope. Shawn's favorite spot. Clothesline! Shawn goes over the top but is still holding onto the top rope. Bulldog decides that's enough and celebrates winning even though there's no bell. His music even plays. But here comes Shawn from behind! He dumps Bulldog out and the bell rings! Fink says only one of Shawn's feet hit the floor, and he is the winner!

 

The replay shows that indeed, only one foot hit while Shawn swung himself back over onto the apron. He did a hell of a job not accidentally hitting with the other foot. After spending most of the second half of '94 seconding Diesel and barely wrestling on PPV, Shawn Michaels' push to the main event is officially on. This is definitely one of the weakest Rumbles. Between the depleted roster and the shortened intervals they never got anything going other than Shawn and Bulldog going wire to wire, and in retrospect Shawn was a pretty obvious winner. Shawn did everything he could to make this good and it was a hell of a job, but one man in a match this size can only do so much. Even Flair in '92, awesome as he was, had a good supporting cast. **1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: It's a weird Rumble when the Rumble match is one of the weakest things on the show, but that's what we have here. Most of the undercard is worth checking out, especially the WWF title match, which could definitely be 4 stars for some people depending on your take on overbooking and non-finishes. I'd only recommend the Rumble match as a historical novelty with the short intervals, for completionists (which I have always been, I tend to need to watch everything, good or bad) or for Shawn Michaels fans. An OK start to what would be a very troubled year.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-