WWF SummerSlam 1995

WWF SummerSlam 1995
Pittsburgh, PA
Civic Arena
August 27, 1995

I’m continuing to really enjoy my run through the terribleness of 1995 WWF. I’ve said it in every one of these reports, but damn, 95 is such a crazy huge memory and every show is just a fun and entertaining trainwreck. Each pay-per-view sees at least a couple new characters come and go, and SummerSlam is no exception, with a very mid-card heavy first half. This show is so oddly booked, as they were desperately trying to put over some new stars, while creating more exciting matches.

Lots changed in the WWF between the July In Your House and SummerSlam, with Gorilla Monsoon becoming the interim President in storyline, something that lead to no end of laughs from Matt and myself. Gorilla’s major change on this show is to scrap the IC title match between Shawn Michaels and Sid, instead changing it to the far superior Shawn-Razor ladder match sequel. They also quietly scrapped the planned tag team title match between Owen and Yoko and the dead-in-the-water Allied Powers, instead opting to turn the Bulldog heel in a nonsensical storyline. I was reading up on this show, and the intention was to make it a more exciting pay-per-view and give some shine to some of the newcomers they saw the most potential in. There certainly is a ton of talent making their way in and out of the company, but the booking remains a fucking mess with such terrible decisions. There were a ton of better directions they could have been taking things in.

I have a lot of fondness for this SummerSlam and I really enjoy the oddball booking. Matt and I first watched this show live on satellite, but with no sound. It was a strange experience and we were left confused by a lot of what was going on. I rented it as soon as it showed up as a new release a month later and enjoyed it a lot more. I love all the weird mid-card matches, and there are some surprisingly great matches on this card, but certainly a lot of garbage in between.

I love that this event comes live from the Igloo in Pittsburgh, which was a great looking hockey building. The building is surprisingly packed and the crowd is red hot, considering how ice cold the product was at the time. Despite the downturn in business in the early 90s, WWF PPVs still felt like a big deal and they were drawing sellouts for the major events. Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler are thankfully on commentary together for most of the show, up until the Isaac Yankem match, when that fucking tool Dok Hendrix takes over.

They throw it to newcomer Dean Douglas, who’s critiquing the show live from his mobile classroom. This Dean Douglas shit was DEATH. Just fucking horrendous. I’ve never been a huge Shane Douglas fan, but it’s nuts that this is the best they could come up with for him. And he’s just terrible, going “Ha ha!” before every sentence and sounding like a complete a dumbass. Douglas was yet another new character who debuted in 95 with a sizeable push and was gone by the end of the year. Terrible! I just hated everything to do with Dean Douglas and this terrible fucking push.

1) Hakushi pinned the 1-2-3 Kid by reversing a spin wheel kick into a modified sit-down powerbomb at 9:29

Finally we get this match on a PPV, after months of them tearing it up on house shows. Hakushi and the Kid wrestled the kind of blueprint match that defined wrestling in the 2010s and beyond, with all kinds of crazy high flying to the floor, cool looking kicks, and innovative moves. The pace is a little slower compared to the modern style of wrestling from the last 10+ years, but no doubt this match was a huge influence on the American wrestling scene. Of course, WCW really accelerated this style a year later with the cruiserweight division, but this match was definitely ahead of its time. Hakushi was being phased into a face role, which ultimately was his downfall in the WWF and American wrestling it turned out. But I’m getting ahead of things. This was an outstanding opener that brought the crowd to its feet, and I love the subtleties of the Kid looking a little more heelish in this one.

2) Hunter Hearst Helmsley pinned Bob Holly by blocking a backdrop attempt and hitting the Pedigree after 7 minutes

According to the sheets, this match was added relatively last minute as the company was really high on Helmsley’s work and this was the start of a big push. It’s so interesting to watch through 95 and look at all of the new characters they were pushing and see who lasted and didn’t. No one at the kind could have predicted the success, staying power, and political influence that a “Greenwich blueblood” would go on to have. Holly’s career really sputtered after the “Cinderella” tag team title victory back at the Rumble and he never did much of anything in 95 despite making a few PPV appearances. Holly was a good wrestler and really could have used some better music and a better opportunity. This match was pretty basic, but definitely felt like it belonged on one of the In Your Houses. The WWF was doing a pretty good job of rotating their roster over these events at least. Helmsley winning clean with the pedigree was a nice surprise, as technically two heels won matches to open the show.

3) The Smoking Gunns defeated Jacob & Eli Blu (w/ Uncle Zebakiah) with the Sidewinder after the Blus collided in the ring

The mid-card parade continues! I always forget how long the Blu jobbers hung around for. That team fucking SUCKED! And they sucked as DOA and the Grimm Twins and the Harris Twins and Creative Control and whatever other crappy repackaging that was done. Both of them were horrible workers and their matches were never any good. The Gunns were ice cold after dropping the titles, but the fans were still somewhat into them. A clean and simple PPV victory was very much needed, especially with the quickly evaporating tag team division. This was barely a TV quality match, but the Gunns got the fans cheering with their win. And thankfully the fucking Blu twins disappear for a couple years.

4) Barry Horowitz pinned Skip (w/ Sunny) with an inside cradle after Hakushi came ringside and hit a leap frog over Skip’s head into the ring

Out of all the crazy shit that was thrown against the wall in 1995, Barry Horowitz’s shocking first ever victory was a home run of a storyline. After years and years of losing, Horowitz pinning newcomer Skip was exactly the kind of fresh surprise the mid-card needed. Horowitz was a great character and had such a natural likeability. Too bad after this initial momentum they just made him into a nerd and stuck him in a low card team with Hakushi. The Jewish music and gimmick was fun, but I think they could have done something more with Horowitz. He’s hugely over here in Pittsburgh and this is a really great match. As a wrestling Candido was really good and smooth, but the Skip character was just awful. Made sense to have Horowitz go over such an unlikable piece of shit. Sunny is of course looking tremendous at ringside and pitching a fit every time Horowitz got control. Hakushi runs in for a surprise, thanks to an angle that started on Superstars of all things, and Barry takes advantage with an inside cradle. Really fun match and Horowitz was massively over!

5) Bertha Faye (w/ Harvey Wippleman) pinned WWF Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze to win the title at 4:37 with a sit-down powerbomb after Alundra missed a dropkick off the top

Oh wow, I forgot about what absolute death this feud was. It felt like the WWF had pretty much given up on the Women’s Division after the whole Blayze-Nakano feud wrapped up after Wrestlemania 11. Seriously, why the FUCK was the women’s title change not booked for Mania 11 or the first In Your House? Goes to show how low on the priority list it had dropped. The whole Bertha-Harvey Wippleman romance angle was absolutely terrible, including Bertha’s awful entrance music. From what I’ve read, Bertha was a pretty big star as the Monster Ripper in Japan and had some great matches, but this was overall bad. A nothing, sub five minute match, with Alundra losing clean to a powerbomb. And this terrible feud continues into the fall.

6) The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) defeated Kama (w/ Ted Dibiase) in a casket match at 16:26 following the tombstone

LOL this is the THIRD Undertaker-Kama match I’ve watched over the last couple months, following their two In Your House dark matches, including a casket match. I don’t know how much more Undertaker-Kama I can possibly take! This was another good, hard hitting match, but was overall kind of dull. There was just something really boring about these matches for the most part. Plus this goes on way too long. It should have been a 10 minute brawl, with all the chinlocks and shit cut out. Unsurprisingly, the Undertaker wins with the tombstone and rolls Kama into the casket and takes back the remnants of the urn. This FINALLY puts an end to the fucking YEAR LONG feud with Ted Dibiase. And of course it’s on to a feud with King Mabel for the Undertaker, as his year only gets worse.

7) Bret Hart defeated Isaac Yankem DDS (w/ Jerry Lawler) via disqualification at 16:08 when Lawler interfered and the two tied Hart’s head in between the ring ropes and began choking him; after the bout, Dok Hendrix filled in for Lawler at the commentary table for the remainder of the show

Talk about another never-ending feud! This is yet another chapter in the endless Bret-Lawler saga, which at least is far more entertaining than the Undertaker’s shitty feuds. Speaking of the Undertaker, here’s the debut of his future brother! Honestly, if you looked over all the new ridiculous characters who debuted in 1995, who the fuck could possibly have predicted that Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Isaac Yankem DDS would go on to become two of the WWF’s most legendary stars?! The storyline leading up to this match is such a huge memory, and was both extremely bonkers and somewhat clever. Lawler’s gigantic, evil dentist is a fun use of the occupation gimmick, but again it had no shelf life. This was a shockingly great match, with Bret Hart proving that he was the unsung hero of the WWF in 1995. No matter what insane feud or character they threw at him, the Hitman worked his ass off to get it over and have matches that exceeded any rightful expectations. This was a classic big man vs little man formula, and Bret sold and bumped his ass off for Yankem, while utilizing his technical knowledge to try to thwart the giant. If anyone wants to know just how great Bret Hart was, study matches like this and look for all the subtleties and tricks that Bret pulls out. This match is far better than it has any right to be! The DQ ending was predictable, but I remember dreading that Lawler would have interfered and helped Yankem pin Bret. Thankfully that wasn’t the case!

8) WWF IC Champion Shawn Michaels defeated Razor Ramon in a ladder match at 24:58 after avoiding an attempt at the Razor’s Edge and backdropping the challenger to the floor; after the bout, Razor handed Michaels the title belt and the two shook hands

Unreal. This match is phenomenal, plain and simple. I’d go so far as to say I enjoy it even more than their original ladder match from the year prior. Originally it was booked to be Michaels-Sid in the logical big match stemming from the post Mania 11 beat down, but NEW INTERIM FAN FAVORITE PRESIDENT GORILLA MONSOON scrapped that, in storyline, and booked it to the much more fan friendly ladder match. Since the Jeff Jarrett feud sputtered out back in spring, Razor wasn’t doing much of anything, so this ladder match was a far better use of starpower. Really, what they needed to do was turn Razor heel months earlier. All of that aside, this ladder match is a brutal war. It’s a punishing match from start to finish and is so refreshingly different from the stunt shows that ladder matches have now become. The ladder is a solid weapon, both Razor and Shawn take a crazy amount of punishment from it. Shawn takes some sick bumps in this match, including a backdrop to the floor, that no doubt contributed to his pill addiction and the back injury that sidelined him for five years. Razor looks really aggressive, really working over Michaels and hammering him with the ladder. The slow climbing is done well in this because of the amount of punishment dished out. Really excellent match, with excellent psychology, and definitely one of the best matches of the year. If there was more of a storyline around this match it might be better remembered than the original. Both are iconic, but this one is a little bit more of a hidden gem given how hard they worked to tell an original story, building off the spots and psychology of the original.

Dean Douglas shows up again to grade Razor’s performance, and Razor steps in to confront the “bookworm,” even making goofy glasses with his fingers. Douglas tries to sucker Razor, but eats a right hand. Douglas was obviously lined up for a big IC push, but his heat with the clique derails it in a hurry. But also Douglas just fucking SUCKED. His gimmick and look were outright terrible.

9) WWF World Champion Diesel pinned King Mabel (w/ Sir Mo) with a forearm off the top at 9:15 after Lex Luger attacked Mo and ran him from ringside

And here we’ve reached the most notorious match of 1995. After the big rocket push of Mabel, it all comes apart in this shitty, shitty fucking match. Like this is the epitome of the drizzling shits and had no right to be the main event of SummerSlam. The British Bulldog had turned heel on Diesel the week prior, in another convoluted storyline, and shows up to SummerSlam, but has no involvement in this match. Bizarrely, Lex Luger makes his last ever WWF appearance and does a run in during this match for NO REASON, and Diesel mistakenly punches him out of the ring, making him look like an epic loser. When watching this live with no sound, we had no fucking clue what Luger was doing out there and why Diesel attacked him. Luger would of course debut on Nitro the following week, but prior to that, did work the TV tapings after SummerSlam. I was reading about the unaired Luger promos, where talks about being on Diesel’s side and picks a fight with King Mabel, in what surely would have been a HORRENDOUS feud. Luger worked a couple dark matches against Men on a Mission, and a few last house show matches before showing up on Nitro. What a sad end to Luger’s disappointing WWF run. All of this Luger stuff was far more interesting than this awful main event, which ends with a super lame finish.