Henry's World

 1997 is one of my favorite years in WWE history, filled with fantastic characters arcs and insanely clever booking, mostly all revolving around the quartet of Bret Hart, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, and The Undertaker. With WCW dominating the Monday Night Wars thanks to the New World Order, Vince McMahon countered by creating more intricate storylines and creative characters, and also focused on offering some unique events throughout the year by investing in the concept of "partisan crowds". We'd see a lot more of that as 1997 went along, culminating in the insane atmosphere of In Your House: Canadian Stampede , one of the greatest crowds for any WWE event ever, and one that was whipped up into a fervor in support of their local heroes. To open the year, the Royal Rumble sets up shop in San Antonio, the hometown of former world champion Shawn Michaels. Shawn was originally intended to be booked to challenge Vader for the WWF title at this event, a...

As witnessed in my last review, SummerSlam , Shawn Michaels had controversially retained the WWF Championship against Vader in the main event, as though Shawn technically lost that match by both countout and disqualification, two match restarts allowed the champion to outlast his monstrous challenger. The original booking plans called for Vader to lay claim to the gold a few months later, here at the tenth annual Survivor Series, before Shawn could win it back at the Royal Rumble in San Antonio, finishing out the title changes by dropping it to Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13 one year after their 60 minute Iron Man match. It seemed like a foolproof plan, providing plenty of unpredictability to the main event picture while cementing Vader as a true contender, likely for a showcase match with The Undertaker at 'Mania. But none of that would come to pass. Instead, Michaels, with a penchant for stirring up trouble and unhappy with Vader's more physical style, got into the ear of Vinc...

 The summer of 1996 contained some of the most consequential events of any time period in wrestling history, with two major events that completely altered the direction of the business. The first major event came at King of the Ring in June, where a certain "Texas Rattlesnake" took down Marc Mero and Jake Roberts to lay claim to the cape and the crown, although he never actually wore either. Afterward, we got the famous "Austin 3:16" promo, and Stone Cold was off on his path to the top of the industry. In July, though, WCW provided a much bigger moment, at least at the time, during the main event of their Bash at the Beach pay-per-view. Hulk Hogan's heel turn, and the formation of the New World Order as Hogan partnered up with Kevin Nash (Diesel) and Scott Hall (Razor Ramon), would prove to be one of the most lucrative booking decisions ever made. World Championship Wrestling were now the preeminent wrestling power, and for the first time in over a decade, Vin...

 Say what you will about how Vince McMahon booked the World Wrestling Federation in the 90s, and goodness knows I've said plenty over the course of these reviews, but the one aspect he really nailed was the slow build-up of the next big names in the company. The Ultimate Warrior was one of the first of Vince McMahon's pet projects, steadily working his way up the card from squash matches, to a feature spot in the midcard, all the way to a showdown with Hulk Hogan in the main event of WrestleMania 6. Bret Hart would have a slower, less intentional arc of his own, earning fan support with great performances as part of the Hart Foundation, then proving his status as a future star after some incredible defenses as Intercontinental Champion. Diesel followed in the same vein as Warrior, and later on, Vince would continue to produce future stars with the same methodical formula, with the likes of Steve Austin, The Rock, and Triple H finding their footing in the midcard, connecting wit...

 There are a few pay-per-views that have earned significant notoriety over the years, a selection of dismal cards that Vince McMahon inexplicably decided was worth charging a healthy sum of money for. Two of the most infamously bad outings for the WWF somehow came in the same year, as 1995 managed to produce two reviled events within months of each other, WrestleMania 11 and King of the Ring 1995. I'll go into more detail into how awful this show was as my review goes along, but if reading me rant about terrible wrestling isn't of interest to you, turn away now. This is your best opportunity to run; believe me, misery awaits.  - King of the Ring 1995 comes to you from The Spectrum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which previously the host venue for SummerSlam 1990 . It's worth noting that Philly was rapidly becoming the home promotion of Extreme Championship Wrestling, which was really starting to make some waves in the wrestling world after Shane Douglas' infamous promo ...

 Vince McMahon's over-reliance on celebrity star power has been a theme of the past few WWF pay-per-views, with tons of promotion centering around the appearances of Walter Payton at SummerSlam , Chuck Norris at Survivor Series , and Pamela Anderson at the Royal Rumble . Vince is very inflexible as a booker, stubborn in his beliefs about who can get over, and draw new eyes to the product. With the departure of Hulk Hogan a few years prior, Vince had failed to adjust his booking philosophies to adapt to what his roster could provide, and rather than actually put in the work to turn someone like a Bret Hart or a Shawn Michaels into a legit star, he elected to heavily feature already-made draws from outside of the business. For WrestleMania 11, Anderson is back, and she's been joined by former Playboy model and future anti-vax nutjob Jenny McCarthy, as well as child star Jonathan Taylor-Thomas, and actor Nicolas Turturro. Of course, none of these cameos were quite as criticized as...

 You might not have been very impressed with the kind of star power Vince McMahon could pull in over the last couple shows, as the likes of Art Donovan, Walter Payton, and Chuck Norris might be a little too macho (not you, Savage) for the 5-10 year old demographic the WWF was shooting for with the current product. But worry not, because this time, Vince knows just who his audience would pay to see: Pamela Anderson, circa 1995. Yeah, this is another odd choice of a celebrity to be involved in a WWF show. Don't get me wrong, Baywatch was hot property in '95, and Pamela was becoming a global sensation as a result, but man, she just doesn't fit in with anything else on WWF programming. There has been almost no female influence on the product for years by this point, and while women of the, let's just call it more "showy" variety, would slowly gain a foothold on the roster in the years to come, this feels like it came completely out of left field. The decision to b...