1995 WWF should not have been so bad

steelcityblues

In recent weeks, I have been revisiting several of the pay per views online from this year, and the most frustrating thing is this year did not have to turn out so craptastic.

Granted, WCW had a roster that poached the likes of Hogan, Savage, Flair, along with ever present Sting, but still the WWF roster did not look so bad. Bret, Shawn, Taker, Owen, Bulldog, Nash, Hall, were all popular guys on this roster - guys who could produce at their best either good or great matches.

Instead, Vince saw it fit to give us the worst Mania ever, with not even one great match, and a card with an NFL footballer in the main event. Bret Hart became embroiled in feuds with pirates and dentists, Taker was left to work with several useless stiffs like Kama - the future pimp.

Worst of all though was 'King' Mabel, a slow 475 lbs pound guy, with only passable crowd heat. This was a guy who was thrust into the Summerslam main event against Diesel, and Lord wonders why. Brought back as Viscera during the Attitude Era, but at least nowhere near the main event by then.

Again, this was never going to be the greatest year in wrestling history, but it could have been decent, and it arguably allowed WCW to exploit on it for the next few years.

Is this the worst ever year to anyone else? If not, what is?

rovert

Vince was held captive by the Kliq - who refused to do jobs/work with people.

In major contrast to today's Wrestling Vince didnt panic and change course during Diesel's title reign he kept to his long term plans for better or worse.

The year was as good as it could be given those two factors.

steelcityblues

Of course, the Kliq had stroke, but I wonder if it has been a bit exaggerated at various times.

For example, could Shawn Michaels or Scott Hall not have pushed themselves into the main event at Summerslam, instead of letting a midcarder in Mabel have the honour as Nash's opponent?

Also, even Nash jobbed to Bret at Survivor Series, in one of the few decent matches from that year.

Bret, Owen, Bulldog, Taker could all have been put in feuds against each other without the Kliq anyway.

Degag

steelcityblues wrote: »

Of course, the Kliq had stroke, but I wonder if it has been a bit exaggerated at various times.

For example, could Shawn Michaels or Scott Hall not have pushed themselves into the main event at Summerslam, instead of letting a midcarder in Mabel have the honour as Nash's opponent?

I think the point is that they wouldn't job to eachother. Mabel would job to Nash no problem but HBK or Hall would not or vice versa. Reminds me of that famous Taker "taping up his wrists" story:)

TheTosh

Was that the year Bill Clinton was at survivor series because that was a good ppv

steelcityblues

Degag wrote: »

I think the point is that they wouldn't job to eachother.

The Kliq guys had plenty of matches against each other during this era.

jaykhunter

I think 1995's WWF really shows the massive influence booking has on the overall product. No matter what talents you have, if you're using everyone at 50% or worse of their ability etc, or having just crap storylines, lame/passe gimmicks, a bad company outlook, wrong people in the wrong place on the card, it'll all implode no matter what. (I'm finding it real hard not to mention TNA here)

Vince loves his big men but wow, Mabel. Injure taker, injure nash, alright get out I think besides not having some big names, WWF and WCW were still stuck in the late 80s/early 90s and the campy neon vibe was pretty lame by the mid-90s. All the kids that had grown up with Hulkamania in the 80s were now teens that needed something more contemporary (and thankfully WCW kickstarted that in 96). I am quite glad that WWF was bereft of old talent so with their backs to the wall they were forced to build up fresh talent.

That said, Bulldog was popular but he was fairly bad on the mic. But i'd contend that it would've been worth having him champion during this lull period. He was well out of place in the Attitude Era.

Oh and yes, 1995 was the worst year ever!

PTO

Degag wrote: »

I think the point is that they wouldn't job to eachother. Mabel would job to Nash no problem but HBK or Hall would not or vice versa. Reminds me of that famous Taker "taping up his wrists" story:)

Wasnt Nash v HBK the title match at 1995's mania?

steelcityblues

Don't know about Bulldog being champion, but I would have preferred to see Owen take the belt off Bret, instead of the Backlund to Diesel situation.

Along with Shawn, he was the best heel of the New Generation era, and a high calibre wrestler.

rovert

Bulldog never really took as a houseshow draw in the role of challenger. He was just an upper card midcarder at best nothing more.

I would have picked Bret as Champion but Vince was in panic about business and went to his default mod putting the title on a big guy. Vince tried to recreate Hogan with Diesel beating Backlund in MSG and feuding with big dudes.

jaykhunter

steelcityblues wrote: »

Don't know about Bulldog being champion, but I would have preferred to see Owen take the belt off Bret, instead of the Backlund to Diesel situation. Along with Shawn, he was the best heel of the New Generation era, and a high calibre wrestler.

I know, he was hottest at this period; i'd do it more for the overseas market; much like Khali was champion for a few months when trying to shill WWE to India.

Owen was extremely talented but the type of heel he was didn't lend himself to being a champion; disgruntled younger brother; at the time he couldn't step out of bret's shadow (either his own or vince's fault, i don't know). Just the way he'd say "now it's Mr. Backlund's title" etc was self-depreciating, like he was below backlund.

It definitely felt like stuff backstage really hurt the onscreen product; from WM9 where Hogan wouldn't drop the belt to Bret; to WMX when there was two #1 contenders (WWE didn't make up their mind between which to push) and WM11-ish with LT and bringing backlund in ahead of pushing newer younger talent.

If Owen was to get the belt he'd've needed to beat Bret for it, win the feud and drop the whining bratty brother gimmick. I don't think that was something Vince'd'be all for.

Sirsok

The main event talent at that stage wasnt held in as high esteem as they were to be held years later.......Hogan, Warrior, Andre and Macho were the past big talents, big draws and the likes of Shawn, Bret and Diesel werent that callibre quite yet I think, it must be viewed as a transitional period. So its easy to say now that 95 shouldn of been bad but thats when we known what the wrestlers have done in the attitude era after certain other factors came into play like WCW, Stone Colds character emergence as with The Rock, Tyson, Hell Jerry Springer and south park have contributed to that attitude type of television being wildly accepted in 98-99. This type of tv wouldn fly in 95 hence the stale product

New stars HAD to be create hence the push of Mabel however as stated the cliq's interfernece really seemed to hinder this

parker kent

Degag wrote: »

I think the point is that they wouldn't job to eachother. Mabel would job to Nash no problem but HBK or Hall would not or vice versa. Reminds me of that famous Taker "taping up his wrists" story:)

Shawn Michaels was pinned by Nash at Wrestlemania 11. Scot Hall lost an Intercontinental title Ladder Match at Summerslam to Shawn Michaels.

As Jay said, the problem in 1995 was the booking. They were still stuck in the late 80s. Thankfully that horrible lull created the niche for ECW which led to Steve Austin, Brian Pillman's Loose Cannon gimmick and the emergence of WCW and the NWO in 1996.

Also it is a shame that Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker had so many wasted years in terrible feuds. Owen is another waste. 1995 should have been used to consolidate him as a main event heel.

FreezeUp

As a kid I didn't notice whether the product was stale or not to be honest - I loved it. Mania 11 was on my VHS ALL the time.

Looking back, yeah i agree it was a bit so so, when the roster could have delivered some classic PPV's to stand the test of time. Summerslam that year was classic mind...