Thursday, September 13, 2018

WWF Survivor Series 1995


So this is it? This is the end of the Diesel line... and all I can say is... well, shit. I don't know. I wasn't around when this took place. I was too busy watching Power Rangers and shit.

This is one of the few WWF shows that I had on VHS, thanks to a shop that sold old VHS tapes ages ago. Actually, that shop had a bunch of WWF (and some WCW) tapes from before the Attitude stuff and I'd pick up a couple every once in a while... much to the consternation of the guy running the cash. I swear, every time I stop at the cash with one or two of said tapes, he'd make a snide remark or something.

And I'm like, "Yeah, dude. I buy wrestling tapes from your store. I was probably the only guy buying said tapes from your store while your overpriced collector's sets were sitting in the display collecting dust." It puzzles me that the guy running the shop would have a disdain for something yet continue to carry it.

After a while, I had enough of the idiotic attitude that I stopped going. Turns out I lucked at the flea market where a guy had a bunch of old wrestling tapes that I not only got for cheaper, but the guy was so willing to part with them that I got a pretty sweet deal out of it. As for the other shop, it went out of business and in its place today is a dollar store.

But I digress... back to Survivor Series 95.


One thing I will knock out of the way; every once in a while, you have a Bill Clinton impersonator getting the spotlight, since we're in Washington and all that stuff. They did a similar thing at a much later PPV with an Obama impersonator. I don't get WWE's obsession with presidental impersonators in Washington; as good a job as they might do, all they do is detract from the sports-entertainment portion of the sports-entertainment show. This might...

Jobber Elimination Match: The team of 1-2-3 Kid (accompanied by Sid and Ted DiBiase), Dr. Tom Prichard, Rad Radford and Skip (with Sunny) defeated the team of Barry Horowitz, Bob Holly, Hakushi and Marty Jannetty. The only thing of note was Razor Ramon trashing the backstage area when Kid was the sole survivor of the match. Other than that, this was a thing that happened to fill time and did nothing for me.

Womens Elimination Match: Aja Kong, Bertha Faye, Lioness Asuka and Tomoko Watanabe (with Harvey Wippleman) defeated Alundra Blayze, Chaparita Asari, Kyoko Inoue and Sakie Hasegawa. Full disclosure: I'm copying and pasting the results of the SurSer matches off Wikipedia because I have no clue who any of the Joshi are in this match. The only ladies I remotely recognize are Madusa, Rhonda Singh, and Aja Kong... and Lioness Asuka isn't the same as modern-day Asuka... other than the fact that both are geeks at this point, but I digress. The match was fine, the ladies got their time to shine, and served as something of a nice little epilogue to the WWF's women division before Madusa showed up on Nitro to trash the belt... One wonders if she was really forced into doing the deed or if she saw into the future filled with bra-and-panty matches, interchangeable models, & being put in feuds with overweight television writes and decided "Fuck it. I'm cutting the cord before this shit goes crazy."

Goldust defeated Bam Bam Bigelow in a short, plodding match. Bigelow would be gone from WWF shortly thereafter.

Darkside vs Royals Elimination Match: The Team of Undertaker and three other guys who don't matter defeated the team of Jerry Lawler, He Of The Three Hs, Mabel and future Mayor of Knox County, Tenessee ISAAC YANKEM DDS. No, seriously, the three guys did their stuff and then Taker came in and gave everyone tombstones before Mabel plodded away as fast as he could. This was also Taker's first match since being face broken by Mabel some time prior and he was wearing this rubbish-looking mask. Eh, you know what? This was fun. I can't complain.

Wild-Card Elimination Match: Ahmed Johnson, The British Bulldog, Shawn Michaels and Sycho Sid (with Ted DiBiase) defeated Dean Douglas, Owen Hart, Razor Ramon and Yokozuna (with Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji). The idea behind this match was that both teams comprised of both faces and heels, determined by random draw or something.

Bret Hart defeated WWF Champion Diesel with a roll-up to win the title and end the Diesel experiment once and for all. This match is perhaps best known for featuring one of the first table spots when Bret crashes through the announce table at ring side, but setting that piece of business - as well as the Diesel train being derailed - aside, this

This was a fan-fucking-tastic sports-entertainment pay-per-view event and one of the best Survivor Series cards I've had the pleasure of sitting through... and it happened during a time where WWF was doing really shit business. Survivor Series cards, especially the older ones, usually hold little appeal for me since it's a bunch of elimination matches featuring guys I'm not familiar with and that's usually not the ideal situation to jump those matches into, but there were more names here I was familiar with than usual, the matches themselves were fun and exciting, and it was helped with the commentary, which wasn't too bad for the most part.

All in all, a pretty good show that still holds up. Definitely one worth watching on the Network.

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