WWF Summerslam ‘95
August 27, 1995
Pittsburgh, PA
Reviewed on August 9, 2014
Well, we saw arguably up onto that point the worst Wrestlemania of all time a few months prior. How did Vince respond? By giving us Diesel vs. Mabel!
The WWF in 1995 had the talent but for some reason wouldn’t use them correctly. Mabel, DDS Isaac Yank’em and Kama all have high profile matches against top guys here. Why? I have no idea really. Despite Vince having a loaded roster there is no Owen Hart match. Or British Bulldog match. Jeff Jarrett? Bam Bam Bigelow? Yoko? But Mabel! Woo!
When Nitro came around the WWF started taking things a little more seriously. But overall it looked like the WWF had no idea of what they are doing. They also made the Summerslam ’94 mistake of putting the wrong match as the main event. According to Mabel it was because “Vince said the title must be on last. Where was that at Summerslam ’94?!
Anyway, Shawn vs. Razor II is on this card, so there’s that to look forward to. Shawn had turned face the night after Mania XI (made little sense really, WWF needed top heels).
The Card
Dean Douglas is standing by! I wonder if Vince brought him in to show the WWF taught kids or something.
1-2-3 Kid vs. Hakushi
Not much of a story, but apparently no one wanted to really help out Hakushi except Bret Hart backstage, so once that feud ended no one cared about him. Meaning no one wanted to adapt to Hakushi’s unique style.
Kid was an amazing worker before he hurt is neck in 1997.
A feel like that tilt-a-whirl slam was supposed to be a backbreaker.
Bronco Buster from Hakushi! Kinda.
Nick kick to the back of the head.
Moonsault from Hakushi, nice!
PERFECT Flying Space Tiger Drop! Someone needs to add that to their repertoire immediately.
Kid gets some aerial moves of his own! This has picked up!
Hakushi pinned the 1-2-3 Kid in 9:27. Kid goes for a spin kick, and Hakushi drops him right on his head with a one arm powerbomb! It’s over there. It started a bit off, but turned into an excellent match. Too bad it wasn’t longer. That Tiger Drop was ridiculous.
King Mabel interview: BIG DADDY FOOL! Actually a pretty decent Mabel promo here, saying if he thought the Bulldog heel turn was a surprise, tonight he will have something bigger.
Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Bob “Spark Plugg” Holly
I believe this is the PPV of HHH. He still had the cane with him, and no lady yet.
Normally I’d lol at Holly’s WWF Racing jacket, but after reading his book it turned out that was a real race team!
HHH is acting like Regal with the lock up refusal. No surprise, he was just working with Regal in WCW.
Holly gets the early advantage!
Pretty nice turnbuckle bump from Holly there. Lawler makes a speeding reference.
We see the Bulldog has arrived! He attacked Diesel and turned heel in a tag match recently.
HHH hiptosses Holly over the top rope. Holly was an underrated worker.
Miscommunication on the Irish Whip there. Led to a great dropkick from Holly though.
HHH pins Bob Holly in 7:10. HHH turns a backdrop into the Pedigree (and not a facebuster!) for the win. Okay match, Holly looked good and HHH was fine too. It’s a match that feels like it shoulda been on RAW or even the main event of Superstars though. Not at Summerslam.
The Smokin’ Gunns vs. the Blu Brothers
Well, their Mania match was awful. Let’s see what the Harris Twins give us this time.
Random note, I was watching a DX vs. DOA match earlier, which had Billy Gunn against the Harris Twins. Just a weird coincidence.
There’s a almost messed up knee drop from one of the twins.
Billy Gunn pins Jacob? in 5:31. Sidewinder (awesome finish) for the win. Match was pretty nothing.
Barry Horowitz vs. Skip
Bodydonna Sunny is with Skip!
Horowitz is like a Mikey Whipwreck/Eugene/Zack Ryder hybrid.
Story here is Horowitz always lost, but he upset Skip in a tag match. So we are here.
Skip is suplexed out of the ring!
Sunny tries to throw in a towel, and gets ejected. Odd spot.
The crowd is behind Barry.
Hakushi is coming down to the ring! Fans know he does like Skip, which led to the Hakushi face turn.
Barry Horowitz pins Skip in 11:21. Hakushi springboard jumps over Skip, then Skip turns into a small package for the win! Horowitz wins! Horowitz wins! Match was okay I guess, pretty boring. The crowd popped big for Horowitz, but let’s be real, this isn’t a winner gimmick and the Horowitz push was gone shortly. Also, again, this hardly feels like a match worthy of Summerslam.
Dean Douglas goes over the last match, with “vivify” as the word to learn or something. Ref gets an F! Whatever.
We get some Ladder Match hype! Interview with IC Champ HBK!
WWF Women’s Championship
Alundra Blayze© vs. Bertha Faye
Ugh, Bertha Faye. What happened to Bull Nakano?
Kinda defeats the point of the monster if you knock her down in the first 10 seconds…
Hair pull botch. This isn’t going well.
Bertha Faye wins the title in 4:37. Horrible sitout powerbomb for the finish. All Blayze, but a pretty bad match. No one cared. Why didn’t Vince just let Rhonda Sing be herself I have no idea, but this was the 2nd to final nail in the coffin, with Madusa dumping the title in the trash can on Nitro being the final one. The crowd reaction difference from Summerslam ’94 and Summerslam ’95 is massive. No one cared here.
Casket Match
The Undertaker vs. Kama
Story here. Kama was able to steal the urn from Undertaker at Mania XI when part of the Million Dollar Corporation. Kama would melt it down to a chain (which was kinda awesome). So, Taker’s out for revenge!
Taker is seriously over here. Kinda shows how not over everything else had been since the opener.
Taker has cut the small sleeves of his shirt, leading to the #1 look he’s ever had in my opinion.
Kama catching Taker mid-Stinger Splash was pretty impressive.
They do an obvious Undertaker skinning the cat spot with Kama being sent into the casket by Taker’s legs. Looked bad. Cool intention though.
Paul Bearer is going after Dibiase! He’s got the blazer off and everything!
Kama tries to piledrive Taker on the casket, but Taker backdrops him into the ring. Pretty cool.
Both men are in the casket. It’s a draw!
The Undertaker wins in 16:26. Tombstone then casket roll for the win. Pretty much 16 minutes of nothing. What a boring match. Bearer was the highlight. At the piledriver attempt on the casket. But overall, yuck.
Bret Hart vs. D.D.S. Isaac Yank’em
A spinoff of the Bret vs. Lawler feud after Lawler lost a Kiss My Foot match to Bret. Weird, seems like Hart vs. Lawler blowoff should be here.
DDS is the future Kane of course.
Bret had an uncanny ability to go even with guys way lower than him and not lose anything as a result…and the other guy looks great. Yank’em looks solid here.
DDS tries to hang Bret on the top rope, but it’s a little bit short…
Legdrop off the top on a hanging on the top rope Bret! Nice, even if it missed a little.
Lawler saves Yank’em from the Sharpshooter!
Bret ties DDS like he would Diesel a few months later to the ringpost!
Blatant interference from Lawler doesn’t cause the DQ…right away.
Bret Hart wins by DQ in 16:07. Eventually the ref calls for the bell as Lawler and DDR tie Bret in the ropes and choke him. Match was good. Bret makes DDS look like a credible threat, but it is obvious DDS wasn’t ready yet. This was apparent when post-Bret he had zero notable matches until he was Kane two years later. Not sure why we got a DQ with a big new guy at the 2nd biggest show of the year, but whatever.
WWF Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match
Shawn Michaels© vs. Razor Ramon
Backstage story here: this was originally Shawn vs. Sid, but Vince realized he needed a good match on this card.
Also, Vince told Shawn they couldn’t use the ladder as a weapon in this match due to violence stuff.
Nice fake SCM spot early on. Good a good reaction from the crowd.
Now Razor goes for the Razor’s Edge!
Crazy suplex from the inside to the outside by Razor to Shawn, and Shawn’s foot nails the steel railing. That looked like it hurt!
They go for their finishers again, but no dice. No ladder so far.
Fall Away Slam off the second rope!
Razor is the first to go for the belt! Shawn shoves him off.
Haha, Shawn hits Razor “inadvertently” with the ladder. Nice creative spot considering the limitation.
Shawn gets his leg caught in the ladder and goes down with it. Looked brutal! Razor now stomps away on the knee!
Razor nails HBK with the ladder in the knee, and Vince covers it on commentary by saying Razor was trying to set up the ladder and hit HBK accidentally!
Slam on the ladder. Ouch!
Great psychology, HBK is selling the hell out of that knee.
Kneebreaker using the ladder. Just great stuff here.
Indian Deathlock from Ramon! Wow!
Ramon just drops the ladder on HBK’s knee!
Backsuplex off the ladder by HBK! What a match!
Ramon sells being slammed into the corner ladder by flying over the top rope. Great stuff.
Moonsault off the ladder by HBK!
HBK tries his top of the ladder splash on Ramon, but unlike Mania X, Ramon moves!
Double crotch spot, but Ramon misses a bit. Still looked good.
HBK misses Ramon on the apron and basically suicide dives with a ladder onto nothing. Ouch.
Ramon grabs a second ladder! There’s innovation!
HBK goes to climb…but gets Razor Edge’d off the ladder!
HBK climbs up one, and Razor climbs up the second ladder! HBK superkicks Ramon off his ladder!
HBK leaps for the belt and misses crashing to the mat and hurting his arm it looked like. Was that supposed to be the finish?
Ramon goes for the Edge but HBK backdrops him over! Michaels doesn’t set up the ladder correctly and actually does screw up as the belt doesn’t come down with him.
Shawn Michaels wins in 25:03. HBK actually throws a fit in the ring before going up and grabbing the belt to win. There was even a crowd shot thrown in. Way to go HBK. Anyway, the match saved Summerslam. It’s pretty amazing and had great psychology, which is something you will never see in a ladder match today. But overall incredible.
More Douglas. He’s defining bad here. Ramon gets in his face and punches him down.
WWF Championship
Diesel© vs. King Mabel
HBK standing tall with the IC belt would have made a great finish to the show.
Anyway, story is Mabel won King of the Ring and now got a title match with Big Daddy Fool!
Quick Diesel interview before the match. He’s gonna get MEDIVAL on Mabel!
They almost mess up the first spot, an Irish Whip. Shrug.
Diesel goes for a slam! Mabel stops him.
FLYING DIESEL OVER THE TOP ROPE. You can tell Diesel is at least trying here.
Mabel angles Diesel incorrectly on a whip into the post, so Diesel actually hits the bottom turnbuckle somehow.
Horrible Bossman slam there. Come on.
Diesel in a shoot said that he asked Mabel not to do the sitting on the back spot. Mabel does it anyway it looks like it hurt like hell. Diesel said he couldn’t feel his legs for a minute afterwards. Probably why we follow with a terrible camel clutch.
For some reason Mabel runs over the ref. No idea why.
Mo is in the ring! Double team on Diesel! Here comes Lex Luger!
Diesel actually takes a shot at him, smart booking there, as it seems like this is Mabel’s “surprise”, like the Bulldog heel turn.
Luger attacks Mo. This is the last time we’d see him till 8 nights later on Nitro!
Diesel retains the title by pin in 9:14. Mabel misses a 2nd rope splash (although he grazes Diesel). Diesel comes off the second rope with a flying clothesline! And we end the top two PPVs in 1995 for the WWF with flying clotheslines! Horrible. Mabel sucks. You know, sometimes I don’t blame Diesel for the poor title run. Just look at some of his opponents!
Anyway, we got one five star classic, a very good opener and Bret carrying a green Glenn Jacobs to something good. Everything ranged from bad to horrid. Diesel vs. Mabel is in Undertaker vs. Undertaker territory you know.
Historically? PPV debut of HHH and Kane, even though both wouldn’t really be the same guy when they got over?
I have a hard time giving this less than a C with the Ladder Match, even with Mabel vs. Diesel’s bad match. There was enough good stuff scattered around to keep it.
Jeez, why not just use the already over talent you had already Vince. How is Owen Hart not on this show?
What was the point of the Bulldog being at the arena anyway?
Final Grade: C