Survivor Series '95

Legacy Review

Survivor Series '95

November 19, 1995 from the Capitol Centre in Landover, MD

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Mr. Perfect

After reviving the 5v5 format last year we're back to 4v4 for the traditional Survivor Series matches. The show opens with Mr. Perfect's introduction, his first WWF appearance since Wrestlemania 10. He would serve as a commentator for the rest of his WWF run as his chronic back problems were still playing up.

The BodyDonnas (Skip, Rad Radford, The 1-2-3 Kid and Dr. Tom Pritchard) def The Underdogs (Marty Janetty, Hakushi, Bob Holly and Barry Horowitz) in 18:45- Hilariously, all of the face team runs in instead of Hakushi, who can't be bothered and sticks with his slow walk. Kid is a surprise last second entrant into this match. Jean-Pierre Laffitte was originally scheduled to be on the heel team, but DiBiase bought his spot to get his newest hire in. Kid had turned on Razor Ramon the week prior on Raw to finally complete the heel turn that had been simmering for months. After Kid's intro Ramon runs out supremely pissed off at him. Officials have to drag him back to the locker room. Pritchard and Janetty start. Janetty gets stuck in the heel corner and knocks them all off the apron. Holly gets a hurricanrana on Radford (called a Frankensteiner by Vince even though the Steiners had been gone a long while). Radford tries a hurricanrana of his own but Holly blocks it and powerbombs him. Radford hits a nice spinebuster on Hakushi. Kid follows up with a splash off the top for 2. Skip tries a back superplex. Hakushi rolls over on him in midair and tags out. The crowd starts chanting "Barry" for Horowitz, the only guy that hasn't been in the match yet. Holly dodges a Pritchard moonsault, then hits a crossbody off the top to eliminate Pritchard. While Holly's celebrating Skip grabs him in a flash roll up for 3. Hakushi rolls through some flippy kicks. Skip gets his knees up on a Hakushi Vader bomb. Skip top rope hurricanrana on Hakushi! But Skip landed wrong (kayfabe) and he delayed flops down too. Kid comes back in and gets booed out of the building. Hakushi hits the handspring elbow and top rope tackle on Kid. Kid dodges a springboard splash and tags out. While Hakushi's back is turned Kid wallops him with a spinning kick in the back of the head and Radford covers to eliminate Hakushi. Horowitz finally gets in the match and is instantly in peril. Radford pulls Horowitz out of multiple pins because Skip wants him after Radford's worn him down a bit, remembering their Summerslam match. Radford gets a northern lights suplex for 2. He does some arrogant push ups (his whole gimmick at this point was he was trying to get into the Bodydonnas stable but he didn't quite have the body for it). Horowitz crawls up and cradles him for 3. Skip is furious and goes face to face with Horowitz again. That mistake would cost Radford Bodydonna membership. After a blind tag Kid knees Horowitz in the back and legdrops him for 3. Janetty dodges Skip in the corner. Skip counters a backdrop. Janetty tries a German suplex, Skip does a standing switch, tries a powerbomb, but Janetty rolls it over into a sunset flip for a long 2. Janetty hits the Rocker drop and goes up top. Sunny shakes the rope. Skip joins him. Janetty hits an avalanche powerbomb! That's it for Skip. It's down to Janetty and Kid, former tag champ partners. Kid hits a legdrop off the top for 2. Janetty dodges a senton off the top and gets some rapid fire offense. Sid comes out to support his new Million Dollar Corporation teammate. Janetty hits another Rocker drop but Kid gets a foot on the rope. While DiBiase's distracting the ref Sid pops Janetty and Kid covers to win the match. Afterward Kid and Sid celebrate in the ring while Ramon smashes a monitor in the back. The match was mostly a spotfest, but a good one, showing off the athletic high spot style wrestling was slowly trending toward. SOLE SURVIVOR: The 1-2-3 Kid ***1/4

 

Bertha Faye, Aja Kong, Tomoko Watanabe and Lioness Asuka def WWF Women's Champion Alundra Blayze, Kyoko Inoue, Sakie Hasegawa and Chaparita Asari in 10:01- Thank goodness JR is here to call this one, and to his credit Vince lets him take over most of the match. Perfect has zero interest other than making the occasional "man watching women's wrestling" joke. Asuka and Asari start. Asuka gives her a giant swing. Blayze and Asuka can't get on the same page on a whip spot, and Asari's standing there the whole time waiting for the cue to hit her big spot. She does, nailing Asuka with a sky twister press! Blayze hits Asuka with a German with a bridge to eliminate her. Watanabe misses a moonsault and rolls to the floor. Blayze dives off the top rope onto her on the floor! Hasegawa rolls through multiple butterfly suplexes. That temporarily wakes the crowd up. Watanabe hits a vertical splash off the top for 2. Kong comes in and swings in Hasegawa's general direction. She flies across the ring to sell it anyway. Hasegawa gets an exploder suplex on Kong for 2. Kong kicks Haegawa in the gut coming off the top rope, hits a suplex, and Hasegawa is gone. Little Asari (think Riho's size) tries to crossbody Kong and bounces off a figurative brick wall. Fantastic. Kong hits a splash off the second rope and Asari is gone. Blayze hits an enzuguri and tags Inoue in. Inoue tries a sunset flip but Kong sits on her and gets a pin. Thanks for coming Inoue-chan. Blayze is the only one left on her team. All three heel women back her into the corner and pound on her. It settles down with Blayze hitting a suplex on Watanabe and getting a near fall that it looks like should have been a pin. Blayze piledrives Watanabe and pins her for real. Faye finally gets in for the first time and hits an avalanche. Faye and Kong collide and Blayze Germans Faye for 3. Down to Blayze and Kong. Blayze flips over in the corner and goes up top. Kong joins her and superplexes her for 2. Blayze hits a hurricanrana that Kong barely gets over on for 2. Standing moonsault for 2. Kong body blocks Blayze down a couple of times, hits the spinning back fist, and that wins the match. Kong gets the old Orient Express music. Blayze vs Kong was supposed to be the next big women's feud. However, Blayze didn't want to work with her, which was one of the reasons for her WWF departure soon after this and reemergence on WCW as Medusa, where she famously dropped the WWF Women's title belt she still had possession of in a trash can. After that WWF put the whole women's division back on ice for a few years. The match itself swung wildly between solid and sloppy. It doesn't hold a candle to the Jumping Bomb Angels' '80s WWF performances. SOLE SURVIVOR: Aja Kong **1/4

The Bill Clinton impersonator is here again. Bigelow's pyro goes off and a bunch of "secret service" guys dive in to protect the president. It's worth a chuckle.

 

Goldust def Bam Bam Bigelow in 8:18- It's still early days for Goldust, at this point he's still just spouting famous movie lines and acting generally weird. That would change soon after this. After taking foreeeeeeeeever on his entrance Goldust beats Bigelow to the punch, literally. Goldust goes to the floor a couple of times, dragging Bigelow down with him the second time. Bigelow dodges and Goldust clotheslines the post. He doesn't bother selling it shakes it off and clotheslines Bigelow 360 and over to the floor again. Every time Bigelow tries to go on offense Goldust shuts it down. He tosses Bigelow out again and gives him a stair shot. Bigelow finally gets a back suplex but Goldust dodges the follow up falling headbutt. Bigelow electric chair slams out of a chinlock. Slugfest on knees. Goldust with a flying lariat and kneedrop for 2. Bigelow back suplexes out of another chinlock and hits a series of clotheslines for 2. Goldust dodges an avalanche, hits a bulldog, and gets the pin. Another indication it's early days for Goldust, he's still using all of Dustin Rhodes' big moves. Way too long for what they were offering. Bigelow had already mentally checked out, negotiating his release after getting sick of Kliq politics running everything backstage. This was his last WWF match. 3/4*

The Clinton impersonator and potential '96 presidential candidate Mr. Bob Backlund have a very lackluster debate exchange. It almost makes a Biden/Trump debate look good by comparison. After that is a recap of the Undertaker/Mabel feud.

 

The Darkside (The Undertaker, Fatu, Savio Vega and Henry Godwinn) def The Royals (King Mabel, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Issac Yankem DDS and Hunter Hearst Helmsley) in 14:21- Taker is making his big return after having his "face crushed" by Mabel and Yokozuna, and this is the debut of Facemask Taker. After the heels scurry away from Taker Fatu gets a hot start on HHH. HHH sets up a Pedigree after a backdrop attempt and Fatu squeaks out. Godwinn tags in and HHH runs away. Lawler and his gold lamê tights come in, but he's not interested and tags right out to Yankem. Yankem wears Godwinn down and now Trips wants in. Classic HHH high knee for 2. Godwinn comes back with a press slam. Lawler and Vega trade dance moves. Lawler dropkicks Vega in the back, but it sends him into the face corner. On a whip reversal Lawler runs Fatu into Yankem's knee. Fatu dodges a Mabel avalanche. Vega runs into a Mabel rock bottom and goes in peril for a while. Triple choke in the heel corner. Lawler hits him with a piledriver, but is slow to cover and Vega kicks out. Vega gives HHH a rock bottom. Lawler cuts the tag off and hits another piledriver, but the bounce sends Vega into the corner and he tags Taker! Nicely done. Lawler tries to tag out but all his teammates jump off the apron or, in Mabel's case, hide behind the post. Tombstone and Lawler's done. Flying clothesline on Yankem. Tombstone and he's done. HHH skedaddles. Godwinn cuts him off with the slop bucket. Taker choke slams Trips off the apron into the ring and he's done. Mabel comes from behind on Taker with a belly to belly suplex. Legdrop. Mabel taunts and Taker does the zombie situp. Mabel collapses in terror and runs off. Mo takes a choke slam as Mabel is counted out. Dull match, but the Taker elimination run was fun. Also a small slice of history here as Taker shared the ring for the first time on a major show with future long term rivals Kane (Yankem) and Trips. SURVIVORS: Undertaker, Fatu, Vega and Godwinn. *1/2

 

"The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson, "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith and Sycho Sid def WWF Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon, Yokozuna, "The King of Harts" Owen Hart and Dean Douglas in 27:24- This is the "wild card" match promised by WWF President Gorilla Monsoon, teaming up faces and heels Lethal Lottery style. Ahmed Johnson is making his big WWF PPV debut after already slamming Yokozuna to start a massive push. No mention of the first man to slam Yoko, of course. After much discussion on both sides Shawn and Owen start. Yes please. Unsurprisingly it's a very quick start. Shawn skins the cat and headscissors Owen to the floor. He teases a plancha but lands on his feet, ducks a Cornette racket shot, kicks him away and spanks him with the racket. On another speed run Owen comes back with a belly to belly throw. Douglas hits a brain buster on Shawn. Shawn with a flying forearm and double ax handle off the top for 2. Commentary talks about the IC title drop at the last In Your House and Perfect says "I don't think Shawn was hurt that bad, he just didn't want Douglas to beat him". I'll take shoot comments that weren't meant to be shoot comments for 100, Alex. Or maybe it was. Shawn with a moonsault! Owen breaks the pin up. Johnson takes Owen and Douglas out, then tries to slam Yoko again but gets jumped from behind. Yoko pounds away as Johnson goes in peril. Ramon joins in a corner beatdown. Johnson comes back with a powerslam on Douglas, then press slams Shawn into Douglas! Douglas sees the superkick coming and bails. Ramon and Douglas fight on the floor and apron. Shawn takes advantage and rolls Douglas up to eliminate him. Owen and Bulldog are in together, both heels now. Bulldog offers a handshake and they both try a cheap shot! Owen spinning heel kick for 2. Both sides tag and now Shawn and Ramon are in. JR: "Do they know how to wrestle each other without a ladder?" After some stalling and shrugs they dive in and run through their usual (good) spots. Ramon hits the Razor's Edge! Johnson breaks the pin up. After a midring collision Shawn tags Sid's back. Sid's here to kill the match and chew bubble gum, and he's all outta bubble gum. Slow beatdown on Ramon. Yoko hits Sid from behind. The ref gets him out and they continue like it never happened. OK then. Sid goes up top and Ramon slams him off. Sid hits a choke slam but doesn't cover. Instead he tags Shawn in and holds Ramon. Ramon dodges and Sid gets superkicked. Shawn doesn't care. Ramon covers. Bulldog breaks it up. Ramon ignores it, covers again and Sid's gone. OK then. Pissed off Sid powerbombs Shawn on his way out. Ramon crawls over and covers. Shawn kicks out! Owen and Yoko work Shawn over. Vince turns to the bar attack incident in Syracuse again and says it was "nine thugs" that took Shawn out. He's like a drunk Klingon, the story gets bigger every time it's told. Next it'll be a whole platoon of Jem'Hadar he fought off. Shawn dodges an Owen headbutt off the top and tags Johnson. Pearl River Plunge and Owen's gone. Ramon wants to hit Johnson with the second rope bulldog but Johnson wanders too far away. Ramon says "screw it", drops down and hits a regular bulldog. Shawn and Bulldog run in and get knocked around. Johnson hits a spinebuster. He goes up on the turnbuckles to brag, but it's a very obvious setup for Ramon to hit him with a Razor's Edge, which he does. But Bulldog tagged Johnson while he was in the corner! Sid and the 1-2-3 Kid wander out. Kid grabs Ramon's boot. Ramon pops him, but the distraction allows Bulldog to hit him with the powerslam and Ramon's gone. That groan you heard was Yokozuna realizing he's going to have to work the rest of this match alone. Shawn plays weebles wobble with Yoko for a bit before eating a legdrop. Yoko goes for the Banzai Drop but Shawn dodges and tags Johnson. Johnson slams Yoko again. Bulldog breaks up his teammate's pin! Shawn and Johnson have had enough and take Bulldog out. Shawn superkicks Yoko, Johnson hits a splash and it's over. There was a lot of great wrestlers working hard out there and the wild card format was a neat idea, but for whatever reason the whole was less than the sum of the parts. SURVIVORS: Michaels, Bulldog and Johnson **3/4

 

No DQ Match for the WWF Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart def Diesel (c) in 24:54- These two have had two prior WWF Title PPV matches, both with non-finishes: heel Diesel won by DQ over then-champ Bret at King of the Ring '94 after Jim Neidhart attacked Bret to continue the Bret/Owen feud, then they had a no contest at the '95 Rumble after Owen, Bob Backlund and Jeff Jarrett all interfered. It's still face vs face but both guys show that "walk the heel line" edge, especially with the no DQ stips. While they're in their corners right after the bell Diesel pulls the top buckle pad off. Bret says "OK, I see how it is" and does the same in his corner. Bret waistlocks Diesel into the corner. Diesel pounds on Bret's back to turn it around, then hits corner elbows and knees. After a lot of punishment in the corner Bret escapes to the floor. Diesel follows and drops Bret on the guardrail. It's a very, as JR says, methodical pace early on with Diesel in control. Punches send Bret out again. Diesel whips Bret into the stairs and posts his back, then nicks Mark Yeaton's chair to whack Bret with. He hits him with the padded side but whatever. Back in Diesel hits a short clothesline and calls for the jackknife to a 50/50 reaction at best. Bret grabs a leg to block it, then bites Diesel's elbow! He jumps on Diesel's back trying to hook on a sleeper, but can't and does a huge face rake instead. Bret then once again targets Diesel's knee. After some softening up he hooks on a figure four. Diesel uses his long arms to get to the ropes. After some more knee work Bret goes for the Sharpshooter. Diesel rakes Bret's eyes then pushes him back into the corner. The back of Bret's head hit the exposed turnbuckle! Bret drops down and wraps Diesel's knee around the post. He then grabs a mic cable, ties it around the post, and then ties Diesel's foot up! Diesel is trapped in the corner. Bret hits an elbow off the second rope for 2. He grabs a chair and gives Diesel a shot back with it, and unlike Diesel uses the correct side. Then he rams the point of the chair into Diesel's knee. Bret goes to the top rope with the chair, but Diesel knocks him down and Bret gets crotched, then he slams Bret off. Diesel finally gets his foot untied and the match can get out of the corner. That's pretty much the end of the knee work, but Diesel does a good job of selling the knee the whole rest of the match. Diesel side suplex for 2. Bret bump into the exposed buckle! Snake eyes into a padded corner. Diesel goes for it again to an exposed buckle, but Bret slips out and rams Diesel's head into it. Bret diving clothesline for 2. Bulldog off the second rope for 2. A clothesline sends Diesel 360 and out. Diesel dodges Bret's plancha! Bret climbs up on the apron. Diesel pushes the rope and Bret FLIES OFF AND GOES THROUGH THE SPANISH ANNOUNCE TABLE! HOLY SHIT! That, dear readers, is the first ever Spanish announce table spot in WWF history. It will not be the last. If holy shit chants were a thing in 1995 there'd be a huge one happening right now. Diesel rolls Bret back in and calls for the jackknife again to even more boos than before. Bret sandbags and Diesel hesitates. He reaches for Bret again. PAUL SMACKAGE! 3 COUNT! BRET WINS THE TITLE! Diesel goes off and buries Bret with a jackknife, fights off a group of refs, hits a second one, and drops the belt on top of Bret as he leaves. Bret joins Hulk Hogan as the only 3 time WWF Champions to date. Diesel's title reign ends at just 2 days short of one full calendar year, business wise one of the worst in company history and didn't exactly set the world on fire creatively either, but the title loss would spark an attitude shift that would lead him to becoming one of the first true tweeners in mainstream wrestling and generally way more interesting. The show ends with Bret still laid out on the canvas. ****

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- WWF continues to slowly crawl out of the hole they spent most of 1995 digging themselves into. They got the title back on arguably their biggest star (Shawn Michaels was quickly catching up, and would soon be in the title picture again), and found a new edge in what had been a rather generic babyface character for Diesel. Too bad he was already planning his WCW departure.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-