For as much as 1995 was the worst year in mainstream wrestling history, there were two big gambles taken by the WWF and WCW in an attempt to turn things around. The first came in May with the inaugural In Your House pay-per-view. Offered at a cheaper price and running for just two hours, the first event in the lineage saw Diesel defend the WWF Championship against Sycho Sid to a shockingly high buyrate, giving the concept the green light to stick around as the alternative to the Big 5(Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, King of the Ring, SummerSlam and Survivor Series). Then in September, WCW struck back with Eric Bischoff's baby, Monday Night Nitro, to go head-to-head with Raw. The Monday Night Wars had begun, forcing both companies to step up their game and leading, eventually, to the biggest boom in wrestling history near the end of the decade. With competition now breathing down his neck, let's take a look at what Vince McMahon had to offer at Survivor Series 1995, the first major show since Nitro's launch.
- Vince McMahon and Jim Ross are joined on the call by the returning Mr. Perfect, his first WWF appearance since screwing Lex Luger out of the title at WrestleMania 10. Hennig can be a charismatic presence, but really struggles in this spot as he just doesn't seem to have anything to offer and is drowned out by the two more talkative announcers.
- This show is taking place in Landover, Maryland, just outside Washington D.C. That means we get plenty of American patriotism on display, from the actually quite nice red, white and blue ropes to several segments with a Bill Clinton impersonator. Fake Clinton doesn't offer much here aside from a very awkward bit with Bob Backlund, but he does have Bill's cadence and mannerisms down pat.
- We open things with a traditional Survivor Series elimination match, as The Underdogs, who consist of Barry Horowitz, Bob Holly, Marty Jannetty and Hakushi, who seems sort of out of place in the midst of these energetic babyfaces, take on The BodyDonnas, who are lead by Skip, teaming with Tom Prichard, Rad Radford(the late Louie Spicolli) and The 1-2-3 Kid, Ted DiBiase's newest client. The Kid recently turned heel on Razor Ramon, who attempts to run before the match starts before being restrained and sent to the back. This is a very fun opener, especially when Hakushi is in the ring, as the crowd pops huge for every move he delivers. The match comes down to the veteran Jannetty against The Kid, who the company is clearly trying to establish as a top heel, though he feels incredibly ill-fitting in the role. Kid gets assistance from Sycho Sid, another member of the Million Dollar Corporation, to score the pinfall on Jannetty and become the Sole Survivor.
- For the first time since 1987, women are competing in an elimination match, as Women's Champion Alundra Blayze teams up with Kyoko Inoue, Sakie Hasegawa and Chaparita Asari to take on the heel team of Bertha Faye, Aja Kong, Tomoko Watanabe and Lioness Asuka, not to be confused with the modern day WWE Asuka. This match really exposes the lack of depth in the WWF's women's division, with so many Japanese talents brought in fill spots, almost none of whom are familiar to the crowd. JR takes over on commentary to try and put some of the women over, and he does do a fairly good job making the folks at home care about the wrestling they're witnessing. The in-ring action itself ranges from unwatchable to highly entertaining depending on who's in the ring at any given time, creating a very disjointed atmosphere. Kong is being pushed as the next challenger for Blayze and looks dominant here, ending Alundra's night with the devastating spinning backfist known as the Uraken Punch, one of my favorite finishers. A match between Kong and Blayze, given proper time, could've torn the house down but would never comes to pass in the WWF, as the division would crumble shortly after this match. Blayze was released due to budget cuts and infamously tossed the women's title into a trash can live on Nitro about a month later, literally canning the entire division until 1998.
- The previous month at the fourth iteration of In Your House, the flamboyant and bizarre Goldust made his debut, defeating Marty Jannetty, and was later to challenged to a match on this night by Bam Bam Bigelow. Dustin Rhodes has yet to quite find himself in the Goldust gimmick, as while he does have some of the character's signature taunts down, his in-ring style is still quite plain. That being said, the match here with Bam Bam is perfectly fine, nothing particularly memorable as Bigelow is booked to mostly be dominated while Goldust draws all the heat. The Bizarre One gets the win with a running bulldog, a very weak finisher that I don't think lasted too long for the character, as he was due for an overhaul during his forthcoming feud with Razor Ramon. I'll get to that later, but I do want to add that this is Bam Bam Bigelow's final WWF appearance. He would move on to the fledgling ECW before joining WCW in '97, and never would return to work for Vince before his passing in 2007. Certainly one of wrestling's great big men, especially during a time when most still weren't expected to work at the level that he could.
- In our third traditional Survivor Series match of the night, The Royals, consisting of Hunter Hearst Helmsley(already starting to be referred to as "Triple H"), King Mabel, Jerry "The King" Lawler and his dentist Isaac Yankem D.D.S. take on the Darkside, captained by The Undertaker and also featuring motivational speaker (Rikishi) Fatu, pig farmer Henry O. Godwinn and street thug Savio Vega, what a strange cast of characters that is. "The Deadman" is making his big return from a legitimate orbital bone injury suffered at the hands(or rather leg) of Mabel, leading to him sporting a new Phantom of the Opera-esque look, complete with grey protective mask. This was the only match on the card I was really worried about, given the general lack of ring experience from pretty much everyone involved except for Lawler. Fortunately, it's booked to be a 'Taker domination, as he pitches a shutout single-handedly, Tombstoning Lawler and Yankem, taking out Hunter with a sweet chokeslam from the apron back into the ring and no-selling a Mabel leg drop, sending the big man scurrying to the back for a count-out. This could've gone so much worse but I ended really enjoying just seeing Undertaker murder everyone, as did the Landover crowd.
- The final elmination match is a wildcard affair, forcing rivals to team up and allies to fight in a very intriguing concept. In kayfabe, it's attributed to new WWF President Gorilla Monsoon, who I guess just decided to f*** with everyone for no reason, a very realistic move for a new boss to make. Faces Shawn Michaels and Ahmed Johnson team up with heels The British Bulldog and Sycho Sid to take on heels Owen Hart, Yokozuna and Dean (Shane) Douglas, as well as Razor Ramon, the lone face on his team. This match is booked to perfection, taking advantage of every possible way to stir up drama. You've got the interactions between Ramon and Douglas, with Razor having won the IC Title from Dean just moments after Dean himself was awarded it after Shawn vacated following the Syracuse incident. There's also the fact that Owen, Yoko and Bulldog are all part of Camp Cornette, as well as Owen and Bulldog being brothers-in-law and on opposite sides. You've got Shawn and Sid teaming up after Sid replaced Diesel as Shawn's bodyguard earlier in the year before turning on him post-WrestleMania 11, and finally Johnson, who became the second man to slam Yokozuna on Raw in October. There's so much going on here, and it's given nearly half an hour to run through so many different layers of storytelling. Ramon causes Douglas to be eliminated by Michaels, as poor Dean is again screwed over by The Kliq. Shawn and Razor fight, which gets a big pop from the crowd who remember their two ladder matches, before HBK "accidentally" delivers a Sweet Chin Music to Sid, who powerbombs him in revenge. Ramon's feud with The 1-2-3 Kid also comes into play when Sid returns with Kid and DiBiase, causing Razor to be eliminated by Bulldog. Ahmed slams Yoko again and looks to have the match won, only for Bulldog to interfere, saving his ally but costing his team the chance for a win, getting beaten up by his own teammates for his trouble. The two big babyfaces finally get it done to a big pop following a Sweet Chin Music from Shawn and a big splash from Ahmed, celebrating together to send a clear sign that Johnson is now to be taken seriously. The wrestling in this match was never more than good, there's enough talent here to make things interesting but the story was the focal point and the booking was absolutely perfect. It's got to be difficult to stick the landing on such an intricate idea, so all the more credit needs to go to Vince and the guys in the ring for the marvelous execution of the concept.
- It's main event time, as Diesel defends the WWF Championship against Bret Hart in a No Disqualification match. These two men have met twice before in singles action, at King of the Ring '94 and Royal Rumble '95, both ending in a DQ, which led to Monsoon adding the extra stipulation. Just like the last match, this is another booking masterclass, as the story is very clear; Diesel is much more powerful than Bret and could end the match at any time, so the challenger will need to be resourceful to win. It starts with a battle of mind games, as both men untie a turnbuckle pad to expose the steel, before the champion dominates the opening minutes. Bret gets back in it and is absolutely remorseless on the attack, targeting Diesel's knee. He gets the big man tied to the corner with a cable in a great spot, repeatedly battering the champion as Diesel can't escape. Kevin Nash is still pretty green at this spot but his selling of the knee is perfect, hobbling around the ring and failing to deliver big moves without a power base to work from. To keep with the vicious style, we also get some nasty offense from both guys, with a lot of attacking the face and some occasional chair shots. In a famous bump, Bret is sent flying off the apron and through the Spanish announce table, which sounds sickening and the crowd goes berserk. Diesel has the match won, but Bret outsmarts the champion, pretending to be knocked out before rolling up Diesel to score his third world title. Diesel then goes wild afterward, attacking referees and hitting Bret with two Jackknife Powerbombs to officially become a tweener, before turning fully heel the following year. This ironically gets him cheered, those damn smarks are starting to take over the product. I thought this was a very good match, a little slow at times but told a great story and allowed the viewer to cheer for either guy, if they so pleased. Kevin Nash may not have ever been the greatest worker in the world but he got his character and had the distinct advantage of being in there with Bret. This match established for me that the Hitman is the absolute GOAT, at least when it comes to telling a story in the ring. He made Diesel legitimately cool as a resilient badass and sold the tone of the match perfectly, making everything look great. My only small negative to the match was how obviously it was intended to setup what was to come on WWF television, making it slightly less enjoyable as a one-off viewing. That being said, considering how little hype there was for anything the company was doing at the time, I can't blame Vince for wanting to use this spotlight to give fans a reason to come back, that's just good business.
8/10
I debated heavily between an 8 or a 9 for this show, and decided to go for the lower end, as most of the matches were mediocre at best, aside from the main event. That being said, Survivor Series 1995 is still without a doubt the best show I've watched for a review thus far. Top to bottom, every match had a reason to be on this card, and built up so many new and interesting characters to carry the future of the company. Not all of the night's big winners ended up doing much to follow these wins up, but that doesn't take anything away from what was accomplished here. I especially loved the booking of the final three matches, all unique in their own right and providing great entertainment. First, you had The Undertaker's dominant win, coming off a big return from injury. Then, you had the wildcard tag match, with layers and layers of intrigue just all stacking on top of each other, telling an amazing story that provided another triumphant babyface victory. Finally, the main event, two of the biggest stars in the company doing whatever it takes to beat the other person, a perfect combination of absolute hate and insanely high stakes. In retrospect, this show unfortunately did very little to turn the WWF or the wrestling industry around. But it's the faintest glimmer of hope that wrestling still could be great when in the right hands. That's all it ever needed to be.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: I don't have to move that far ahead in the timeline to find the next intriguing event, that being WrestleMania 12, where the Boyhood Dream came true. See you soon.
- Henry
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