It's Sunday, November 19th, 1995. Pierce Brosnan proves a worthy James Bond as Goldeneye is the number one movie in America. Mariah Carey's fantasy is being exhaled away by Whitney Houston in the Billboard charts. And in the world of the WWF, it's time once again for that Thanksgiving tradition known as the Survivor Series. This time held on a Sunday instead of a Wednesday/Thursday. Held in the USAir Arena in Landover, Maryland to an attendance of 14,500 which is up from the 10,000 from last year. Interesting considering the company is ice cold at the moment. Alternatively, the event only garnered 128,000 buys on PPV. A steep drop from the 254k last year.
So, what's been going on since In Your House: The Great White North? Not really much as usual. Bret Hart is the number one contender and will challenge Diesel for the WWF title on this event. Meanwhile, waiting in the wings is the British Bulldog who is already due to challenge whoever wins the title match at In Your House 5. Bulldog will be involved at Survivor Series, teaming with Sid, Shawn Michaels and newcomer Ahmed Johnson in a Wildcard Survivor Series match against Yokozuna, Dean Douglas, Owen Hart, and the odd man out in this equation, Razor Ramon, who has recently been Benedict Arnold-ed by his former friend the 1-2-3 Kid. Also, after being injured by King Mabel last month, The Undertaker is due to return, leading his "Darkside" team of Henry Godwinn, Savio Vega and Fatu against the "Royals" of Mabel, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Isaac Yankem DDS and Jerry "The King" Lawler.
Well, look who's back? It's Mr. Perfect. Joining Vince McMahon and Jim Ross on the announce position this evening. If you recall, the last time we saw Perfect was involved in the company was the feud with Lex Luger that never culminated in 1994. Good to see him back.
Opening the event, it's he Underdogs (Marty Jannetty, Hakushi, Bob Holly and Barry Horowitz) against the Body Donnas (Skip, Tom Pritchard, Rad Radford and the Million Dollar Turncoat the 1-2-3 Kid). Razor heads out to ringside, but the referees keep him held back.
Starting the bout is Marty and Pritchard. Pritchard takes Marty to the corner, but he fights out. Kid grabs Marty, but Pritchard accidentally runs into him. Marty follows up with a back drop and an elbow, sending Pritchard to the outside. Tag to Radford as Sunny plays coach. Tag to Holly. Shoulder block by Holly folled by a hurricanrana. Radford hits a shoulder block and tries a hurricanrana of his own, but gets caught in a powerbomb. Slam and arm drag by Holly, who begins work on the arm of the grungy Rad Radford. Tag to Hakushi who continues the arm work. Radford reverses a whip and catches Hakushi in a nice spinebuster. Tag to the Kid who lands a frog splash, covering for two.
Tag to Skip who takes Hakushi to the top rope and goes for a back suplex, but Hakushi turns it into a cross body. Tag to Holly, who dodges Skip, eventually landing a back body drop and some stiff clotheslines. Loud chants of "Barry" as Pritchard is tagged in, landing a sitout powerbomb for a two count. He goes up top for a moonsault, but Holly dodges. Holly goes to the top and lands a flying cross body for the three. Pritchard is eliminated. Skip immediately rolls up Holly for three. Holly is eliminated. Spin kick and enziguri from Hakushi. He goes up for a corner splash, but Skip gets his knees up. Skip takes Hakushi back up to the top buckle and lands a frankensteiner off the top.
And then flops to the ground almost in a Flair-esque manner.
Tag to the Kid who beats down on Hakushi. Hakushi comes back with a throat thrust and some kicks, followed by the handspring elbow and a flying chop. He goes ot the top, landing a shoulder block. Cover only gets a two. Body slam by Hakushi followed by an attempted slingshot splash, as the Kid evades. Tag to Rad Radford as Kid hits a sneak kick to the back of the head. Cover by Radford who uses the tights for three. Hakushi is gone. Double elbow to the face by Radford and the Kid as Kid is brought back in. Suplex and a cover by Kid for two.
He lands some kicks in the corner and mockingly does some kung fu taunts. Barry gets a kick to the face and some elbows to the head. Kid fights back with some kicks of his own and tags in Radford. Gutwrench suplex by Radford, who covers, but picks Horowitz back up. Jawbreaker by Horowitz, but Radford comes back with a clothesline. Skip tells Radford not to cover him yet, but to hurt him, a reminder of their feud over the summer. Neck snap by Radford who continues to apply punishment ot Barry. Northern Lights suplex, but Radford breaks his cover again.
Radford decides to do some horrible push ups, allowing for Horowitz to get the cradle and the three, eliminating Radford. Down to two a piece for each team now as Skip is back in. Nose to nose with Barry, who lays some elbows to the Body Donna. Big hiptoss and back elbow followed by a high knee lift.Skip ducks a clothesline and tags Kid who lands a clothesline and leg drop. Cover by Kid gets the three, eliminating Barry. All that remains is Jannetty for the underdogs.
Marty avoids an attack in the corner from Skip, and follows with a snapmare. Skip gets a kick to the face of Marty and takes Jannetty to the corner. Skip cathes Marty, but Marty avoids, managing a sunset flip for a two count. Marty stops a back drop attempt and lands a Rocker Dropper. Marty heads up, but Sunny pulls the ropes. Skip goes for a back drop...
But Marty hits an amazing powerbomb off the top rope. Cover gets the three, but Kid is immediately on the attack with kicks. Leg drop off the top rope by Kid, who covers for two. He follows up with a dropkick in the corner. Both men exchange blows, but Kid is the dominant. He hits a slam and goes back up for a flipping senton, but Marty dodges. Marty lays fists into the kid in the corner and follows with a whip and a dropkick, covering for two.
Sid arrives at ringside as Marty becomes distracted. Marty lands a facebuster, but continues to focus on the sycho one. Rocker dropper from Marty, but he slowly covers as Kid gets his foot on the ropes. Kid grabs the ropes as Sid drops Marty on the ropes. Cover by the Kid gets the three and the win.
A hot opener for Survivor Series. Everyone looked good, put in a lot of strong spots. Though admittedly Holly looked pretty stupid for how easily he was beaten. Marty looked really good, easily the best he's been since coming back. And the Kid, high off his heel turn looked the best he's looked in at least a year in the ring. Definitely starting to give me X-Pac vibes. Even a bit of X-Pac heat already with how much the crowd hates him already. For a match with a majority of afterthought midcarders, this was much better than expected.
Speaking of that heat, Razor is so angered by Kid's win that he goes about smashing the television in the locker room. This plays into a Todd Pettengill interview with Razor's teammates in the wildcard match. Cornette says that Razor can beat a TV up just fine, but he needs to decide where his priorities lie. If he can't get along, they're gonna get it on. Owen and Douglas pretty much chime in with similar comments while Yokozuna just says nothing.
Up next, it's women's Survivor Series action. Bertha Faye and her team of Aja Kong, Tomoko Watanabe and Lioness Asuka taking on Alundra Blayze, Kyoko Inoue, Sakie Hasegawa and Chaparita Asari. Jim Ross calling it an athletically "oriented" contest feels a bit too on the nose there. Asari and Asuke start as Asuka hits a slick giant swing. Cover only gets a two. Asari escapes Asuka and tags blayze who takes down Asuka. Tag to Asari who lands a Sky Twister Press off the top, just barely making contact on Asuka. Tag back to Blayze, but Asuka getsa chop to the chest. Blayze ducks a clothesline to lands a German suplex for the three.
Watanabe is in next for her heel team. She misses a moonsault and rolls to the outside. Diving press by Blayze to the outside. She brings Watanabe back in and tags to Hasegawa, who lands some amazing five connected double arm suplexes. Perfect spoils the great ring work with some heeling. "What happened to the all-American lady? These women should be making their old man something to eat." Yech. Watanabe goes up top and lands an attack off the top rope. Tag to the big Aja Kong who lands some palm strikes. Spin kick by Hasegawa, who follows with a series of T-Bone suplexes. Hasegawa goes up, but gets caught by a kick to the midsection. Back suplex by Kong who covers fo the three.
Asari returns to the ring, but gets easily bodied by Kong, who lays her out. Splash off the middle buckle gets the three, and the second elmination on the face side. Blayze comes back in as she lands in an enziguri. Tag to Inoue who lands some clotheslines on Kong. Aja reverves a whip. Inoue goes for a sunset flip, but gets squashed by Kong, who covers for three, despite Inoue getting her arm up too late. Blayze is left with Bertha, Aja and Watanabe. The three heels go after Alundra who tries to fight them off. She grabs Watanabe and lands a snap suplex. Cover, but Watanabe barely gets her shoulder up.
Piledriver from Blayze gets the three on Watanabe. Bertha Faye is in and hits some strikes on Blayze. Aja collides into Bertha as Blayze lands a German suplex for the three. Aja and Alundra remain. Blayze goes up, but gets caught by Kong, who lands a superplex. Cover only gets a two. Blayze goes for a German, but Kong takes her to the corner. Blayze kicks her away and lands a messy hurricanrana, covering for two. Dropkick follows. Cover only gets a two count. She goes back up, but Kong takes her down. Kong goes back to the middle buckle, but Blayze catches her, only to be shoved down. Body shot by Kong followed by a second. Spinning back fist gets the three for Aja Kong, the sole survivor for the heel team.
An excellent match. We have only been introduced to two of the women in this match through the blog, that being Alundra and Bertha. For the other six Japanese women, this proved to be a solid exhibition for all of them. Particularly Hasegawa, Asari, Asuka and Kong. Honestly, for the first time since Bull Nakano's exit from the company in early 1995, the women's division finally feels like there's momentum again. We'll talk more about that in a few weeks.
Todd Pettengill is with "Mr. President" who says he's enjoying the show. On the topic of Bam Bam Bigelow, he watches him, Pebbles and Fred every Saturday. A long, lazy joke about Clinton being "out of touch". Vince is back in full CLinton hating form.
But it was worth it for this.
Speaking of Bam Bam, he's in action next against Goldust. Goldust's entrance at this point taking at least five minutes with the disrobing, the slow walk to the ring and more. Hell, it's so long that his theme song loops. After some more stalling, it's Goldust who begins with some strikes on Bigelow. He goes after Bigelow at the ropes. Bam Bam reverses a whip, but Goldust escapes the ring before being struck. He returns to the ring and slaps Bam Bam, only to be struck with a harder. Bam Bam returns with an enziguri that sends Goldust back outside.
Goldust pulls Bam Bam out and goes for a clothesline with Bam Bam on the ringpost, but Bam Bam evades, causing the bizarre one to hit the post. Goldust no-sells and clotheslines Bigelow on the outside. Bam Bam returns inside, and tries to fight Goldust out of the corner with headbutts but Goldust is quick with a knee lift. Cover gets a two. Front facelock by Goldust, but Bam Bam reaches the bottom rope. He throws Bam Bam back outside. I should be concentrating on this match.
But...
Ummmmm
Bam Bam recovers with a back suplex. He goes for the falling headbutt, but misses. Goldust tries to hold him down, covering for two. Weird covering situation with Goldust writhing around Bam Bam. Chinlock Goldust, but Bam Bam turns it into an electric chair drop. Both men are down, but Goldust recovers first. He peppers in some strikes, but Bam Bam comes back. However, Goldust is quick to bounce back with a clothesline and knee drop. Chinlock again by Goldust, but another back suplex is what his fate entails. Several clotheslines and a cover only gets two for Bam Bam. Hard whip to the buckle by Bam Bam. He tries to go for a splash, but misses as Goldust lands a bulldog for the three.
An okay match at best. Definitely built more as a showcase for Goldust's abilities than an even bout. A lot of good hot spots, but when it dragged, it really dragged hard. So far, Goldust's abilities have improved exponentially since his debut match with Jannetty at In Your House 4.
But it's time to say goodbye, and that goodbye pertains to one Bam Bam Bigelow. Bigelow would leave the WWF after Survivor Series with the main reason being the continued issues with the Kliq backstage. In an interview with Bigelow, he claimed that the Kliq's bullying was becoming so rampant that they had apparently almost driven Chris Candido (Skip) to suicide due to Shawn hitting on Sunny. And beyond just Candido (as well as Shane Douglas, who was also being destroyed by the Kliq backstage), there were multiple wrestlers that they drove out of the company in 1995, and sadly one of those was Bigelow, who was done with the company by the end of that year.
Bam Bam would become somewhat of a journeyman after leaving the WWF. He ended up in both WCW and ECW coincidentally eventually working with Candido and Douglas to form the Triple Threat in the latter. We'll get to his WCW runs in the future as well through Nitro Charged. After WCW was bought by McMahon, Bigelow continued work in the indies until his death on January 29th, 2007, due to a drug overdose.
Bam Bam was here on the blog from almost the very start and we've chronicled him in a plethora of roles. From being on his own early on, aligning with his main squeeze Luna Vachon, his awesome match in the finals of King of the Ring 1993 with Bret Hart, his feud with Doink the Clown, being bought by Ted Dibiase and joining the Million Dollar Corporation, his feud with Lawrence Taylor, his babyface turn and finally his final match with Goldust here. A solid ring worker, an agile power man, and an iconic figure in terms of his fiery look. Bam Bam Bigelow: one of the true greats of WWF's New Generation.
"Mr. President" is with Bob Backlund. Backlund wants to find out what the president is doing here. "Mr. President" deflects his comments as we move on to our next match. Undertaker and his Darkside against Mabel and his Royals. This angle being stemmed from Mabel's defeat of the Undertaker back at King of the Ring and the injury to Taker's orbital bone a month ago. Joining Mabel is Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Isaac Yankem D.D.S and Jerry "the King" Lawler. Aiding Taker is Savio Vega, Henry O. Godwinn and "Make a Difference" Fatu. So, it's a chunk of the BSK working together.
Undertaker's face is now covered with a Phantom of the Opera-style mask due to said orbital bone injury. It's a very unique look, that's for certain. Considering the supernatural character of Undertaker, it does at least fit him. Starting action is Hunter and Fatu. Hunter bows, and Fatu mocks him before landing some clotheslines and a back body drop. Another clothesline follows.Hunter catches Fatu and goes for the pedigree, but after looking at Taker, doesn't go for it. He throws Fatu head first into the buckle, to which Fatu no-sells. A tag to Godwinn sends Hunter in retreat.
He tags in Lawler, who then decides to tag in Yankem. Clothesline by Yankem to Godwinn. Godwinn reverses a whip and lands a clothesline, a slam and an elbow.Yankem throws Godwinn into the corner and follows with a back suplex.Tag to Hunter who lands a right on the hog farmer. European uppercuts follows. He chokes Godwinn in the ropes as the crowd chants "Burger King" at Lawler. Irish whip and a high knee to the face from Hunter who covers for two. Godwinn grabs Hunter and press slams him in the ring.
Tag to Lawler and a tag to Vega. Savio gets a hip toss on the king and mockingly dances in front of King. Some more strikes by Vega who then tags in Fatu who lands multiple head strikes on the buckle on Lawler. Lawler reverses a whip allowing Yankem to get a knee to the back on Fatu. Tag to Yankem who hits a body slam and a leg drop.Tag to Mabel who goes for a spash in the corner, but Fatu escapes. Tag to Savio who lands some kicks, but gets caught in a sidewalk slam.He takes Savio to the corner, letting the heels get their licks in. Overhead suplex from Mabel out of the corner. Tag to Yankem again who tears at the mouth of Savio. Dropkick by the dentist who then tags to Hunter. Heels continue to work Savio in the corner as Hunter follows with a knee drop. Cover only gets a two count.
Hunter whips Savio into a waiting clothesline from Mabel. Tag to Lawler who sets Savio up for a piledriver, connecting. He slowly covers, but Savio kicks out. Yankem brought back in as he throws Savio around. Hunter is tagged in, but Savio tries his best to fight out. He catches Hunter in a urinage (very Rock Bottom looking). Tag to Lawler who catches Savio for a second piledriver, but Savio just no-sells it and tags in Taker. That was an odd spot. Nobody wants tagged in as Lawler gets caught in a double choke from the dead man. Lawler tries again for a tag, but nobody accepts it. Tombstone piledriver on Lawler as Taker makes the three. First elimination of the match. Taker then gets Yankem and lands a tombstone. Another pin, another elimination.
Hunter tries to leave, but Godwinn teases slopping him. Hunter gets chokeslammed over the ropes into the ring. Cover, and another elimination. Mabel immediately comes in and hits a belly to belly and a leg drop, going back to the move that put Taker on the injured list. Taker sits up this time as Mabel flops out of the ring in fear he runs up the ramp and gets counted out while Sir Mo gets chokeslammed. The Darkside dominates in a decent Survivor Series. Everyone looked decent, especially Undertaker who needed that boost of momentum for his comeback. Another match I expected little out of, but I thought it was fine.
Quick interview with Bret who says tonight is a big battle. He is worried about his match with Diesel, but he compares himself to Wayne Gretzky and says he's still the best. He promises the truck stops here. Interview with Diesel follows with him saying that Bret stuck his nose in his business, and now he has to go through Bret to get back at Bulldog. He says that Survivor Series is an ironic title, since he doesn't think Bret will survive.
Quick interview with one half of the wild card teams. Dibiase and Cornette worry about if Sid or Bulldog will turn on each other. Shawn however is extremely confident with his partner Ahmed Johnson on his side. This leads us to our next match and final Survivor Series match of the night. A Wild Card match. Owen Hart, Yokozuna, Dean Douglas and Razor Ramon vs Shawn Michaels, Sid, British Bulldog and Ahmed Johnson. This being Shawn's first match since the Syracuse incident back in October.
Owen and Shawn start things off. Some back and forth early on with Shawn being dominant. Owen throws Shawn over the ropes, but he skins the cat and catches Owen in a headscissors over the ropes. Cornette goes for an attack with the Racket, but Shawn stops him and lands a strike of his own. Owen regains control and tags in Dean Douglas. Stalling suplex from the teacher. He lays in strikes in the corner. Shawn reverses a whip and gets some hard whips into the buckle of his own, following with a flying forearm. He goes up top and lands an ax handle. Cover gets a two.
Dean lands a body slam and goes for a splash out of the corner. Shawn goes up, lands a moonsault and covers, only for Owen to break the count. Tag to Ahmed who back drops Owen and lands some kicks to both Douglas and Owen. He tries to slam Yoko, but the heels beat him down. Dean rakes at the face of Ahmed, as Owen comes in next. He distracts the ref as the heels (and even Razor) attack Ahmed in the corner. Double clothesline from Douglas and Owen. Cover by Dean only gets a two as Ahmed kicks out powerfully. Power slam by Ahmed who covers, but the referee is delayed. Ahmed throws Shawn on Dean, who covers for two. He goes for the sweet chin music, but Dean escapes. Distracted by Razor, Shawn goes for a roll up on Dean, but Dean kicks out. Cheap shot by Razor helps Shawn roll up Dean Douglas for three.
Next in are Owen and Bulldog. Bulldog whips Owen and hits a big monkey flip. Owen reverses a whip an gets a leg lariat. Cover, but Bulldog with a massive kick out. Tag back to Shawn and a tag to Razor. The two men who faced off in two ladder matches face to face in the ring at the moment. After some stalling, we gets some offense from both men. Shawn throws Razor over the top rope, but Razor comes right back with a clothesline of his own. Collision from Shawn who kips up. Back drop by Shawn is turned into a Razor's Edge. Cover, but Ahmed makes the save. Both men get up. Shawn whips Razor, but gets caught with a knee lift. Another collision knocks both men down.
Tag to Sid who lays in some ax handles to the back of Razor. He pounds down on Razor in the corner and follows with a choke. Big hiptoss and some stomps follow. Yoko enters the ring and goes to attack Sid, but it's ineffective. Razor comes back with some rights. Both men collide into each other with clotheslines. Sid goes to the top buckle, but Razor catches him and throws him off. Cover, but Sid kicks out at two. Sid ducks a clothesline and lands a chokeslam. He calls for a powerbomb, but tags Shawn in instead. He holds Razor for Shawn to hit the superkick, but Shawn hits Sid instead. Cover by Razor, but Bullldog goes for a leg drop, completely missing Razor and hitting Sid. Razor just covers again and gets the three.
Sid attacks Shawn and hits a powerbomb while Bulldog goes after Razor. Both Razor and Shawn are motionless until Razor makes the slow cover, but Shawn still kicks out at two. Tag to Owen who hits a backbreaker and lays boots in to HBK. He folows with a back body drop. Tag to the massive Yokozuna who works Shawn in the corner. He throws Shawn into the buckle, complete with patented Shawn corner bump. Nerve hold by Yoko. Shawn escapes, but gets laid out with an elbow to the face.
Tag to Owen as the heels land a double headbutt. He follows with a snap suplex. Owen goes to the top and goes for a flying headbutt, but Shawn escapes. Tag to Ahmed who lays strikes on all three of his opponents. Owen tries a back drop, but gets caught in a Pearl River Plunge for the three. Owen is eliminated. Razor is in. He gets a boot in the corner and goes to the second rope, but Ahmed wobbles too far away so he lands a bulldog instead. He attacks Shawn and Bulldog, but gets caught in a spinebuster from Ahmed. Ahmed goes to the buckle to taunt, but gets hit with a Razor's Edge. Bulldog breaks he hold and starts beating down on Razor as he apparently got the tag.
While Razor hits a fallaway slam, Kid, Sid and Dibiase return to ringside. Cover by Razor, but Bulldog kicks out at two. Kid tries to trip Razor, but Razor just punches him. However, he gets caught in the power slam for the three. Razor is out. Yokozuna remains. He brawls with Shawn in the corner, but Shawn gets the better, until Yoko lands a hard right. Big slam by Yoko who follows with a leg drop. He brings Shawn to the corner for the Banzai Drop, but Shawn escapes the big man's descent. Tag to Ahmed who finally slams Yoko. Cover, but Bulldog breaks the cover. Shawn and Ahmed confront Bulldog and knock him down, clotheslining him. Superkick from Shawn and a splash by Ahmed gets the three and the win, eliminating Yokozuna.
Long match. Good match, but definitely dragged in a lot of areas. Everybody got a chance to look good (except for Dean Douglas really), the wild card idea came in to play eventually as we saw the heels eventually get involved with the faces. The right three men were victorious with Shawn's comeback story being a focus, Ahmed needing to look strong in his PPV debut, and Bulldog being the next in line for a championship match. But yeah, the near 30 minute time limit did drag this one in the end.
Sunny is on the lap of "Mr. President" who proceeds to pour popcorn down her cleavage. He promises a "position" for Sunny, who says she's make a perfect "under secretary". This feels like the first time since her debut that Sunny is becoming the company's sex symbol. Something that will definitely continue to escalate over the next couple of years. Also, ha ha, Gennifer Flowers reference with Clinton.
Main event time up next. Bret Hart challenges Diesel for the WWF Title in a No-Disqualification match. After their prior encounters being marred by interferences, this match must have a definitive winner. Diesel imediately pulls off a turnbuckle pad. Bret does the same (Bret having a bit more trouble). Bret takes Diesel to the corner, but Diesel breakes out with some clubbing shots to the back. Knees to the midsection from Diesel who then throws Bret back into a non-exposed corner. He keeps slamming Bret into the corner until Bret makes his exit. Diesel follows him up to the entrance way and hits an ax handle to the back followed by a slam head-first into the guardrail.
Diesel smacks Bret face-first into the apron then throws him back in. Bret rolls back out as Diesel immediately catches him and chokes him with his boot, using the guardrail as leverage. We're definitely seeing a more aggressive, almost heelish take on Big Daddy Cool so far. Bret tries to fight back, but Diesel lays in several stiff elbows, sending Bret right back outside. He throws Bret hard into the steps, then rams him back-first into the post. Diesel grabs a steel chair and hits Bret across the back. Vince and Ross bring up how Bret did the same to Diesel back at the Royal Rumble. A great use of continuity from the prior match. Back in the ring, Diesel throws Bret into the corner and hits a clothesline. He calls for a Jackknife, but Bret grabs his leg and keeps his weight down. He bites Diesel and twists the arm, laying in strikes.
Bret jumps behind Diesel and starts choking him and raking his eye. His focus changes to weakening the legs. Hopefully not for 90% of the match like Bulldog last month. He locks in a figure four leg lock. Ross brings up how Bret's attempts at the Rumble had little effect. Diesel grabs the ropes, but there's no disqualification, despite Hebner telling Bret to break the hold. Bret breaks it and goes back to damaging the knee. Bret goes for the sharpshooter, but Diesel drops him with some thumbs to the eye. Bret tries again, but Diesel kicks Bret into the exposed buckle, smacking the back of his head. Diesel clubs at Bret's head, but Bret escapes, grabs Diesel's leg and smashes it over the steel post.
He then grabs a cable and wraps it around the post. He ties the cord over Diesel's leg. Similar to Bret wrapping his wrist tape and trapping Diesel back at the Royal Rumble, but more innovative. Diesel stomps at Bret as both men are already worn down. Bret hits an elbow off the second rope to the trapped Diesel. Bret grabs the chair, but Diesel fights him away with some boots. Bret recovers and hits him in the back with a chair, then follows by smashing the chair over the weakened leg three times. He then follows with elbow drops to the head and a a sidewalk slam.
Bret goes up with the chair, but Diesel knocks him into the ropes, then tosses him halfway accross the ring. He finally unties himself from the mic cord, but Bret takes him back into the corner, however Diesel chokes him down. Sidewalk slam by a wobbly Diesel, who covers for two. Diesel throws Bret sternum-first into DIesel's exposed turnbuckle. Diesel sets Bret on the ropes and limps around, dropping his weight over the back of the hitman. He picks up Bret and hits snake eyes, oddly in a non-exposed corner. He goes for it again in an exposed corner, but Bret escapes and slams Diesel's head into the exposed steel.
Bret lays in some more shots, clotheslining Diesel. Cover, but only gets a two count. Bret goes up to the second buckle and hits a bulldog. Cover only gets a two. Russian leg sweep from Bret who rolls over into a cover, but still only a two count. Bret clotheslines Diesel again, sending him to the outside. Bret planchas over the rope, only for Diesel to evade and for Bret to crash and burn. He tries to get back in the ring...
But Diesel knocks Bret off the apron and crashing through the Spanish announcer's table (this feels like the first time that happened). As Bret is down and announcer Hugo Savinovich can barely get up, Diesel pounds down on Bret. He brings Bret back into the ring and slowly makes his way back. He calls again for the jackknife, but Bret collapses. Diesel grabs him, but Bret turns it into a roll up for the three. We have a new WWF Champion.
Unfortunately for Bret, he has no time to celebrate as Diesel shoves the referee away and nails Bret with a powerbomb. Referees come to Bret's aid, but Diesel punches them all down. He hits a second jackknife and grabs the belt that he lost and throws it at Bret. Diesel walks off, satisfied with the damage he's done.
I loved this match. After two excellent encounters with Bret and Diesel in the past, we get their best encounter. It wasn't about technical finesse or pure mat wrestling. It was hard hitting, it was gritty, it was about two men wanting to beat the hell out of each other, to prove who is deserving of the belt. I liked that Bret and Diesel worked more of a heelish style, with Diesel actually turning heel. The role that he honestly should have been in his year-long title reign, since it showed more personality for the big man. And Bret is finally champ again, which I'm happy about, even if he doesn't get a chance to celebrate his third reign immediately.
I really liked Survivor Series. This seems to be a continuing trend so far with the blog that even if most of the year's pay per views fail to impress, I at least leave Survivor Series in a positive light. This is very much the case with 1995, which might be my favorite of this era at this point. A better than expected opener with a lot of the afterthought midcard, a hard hitting women's Survivor Series match, a fun to watch Darkside vs Royals match with Taker looking dominant after his injury, and the match of the night by far, a brutal bout between Bret Hart and Diesel that sees a new champion after a year-long reign. Stumbling points, I felt Goldust/Bam Bam was average and the Wildcard match dragged. Also the "Mr. President" stuff was just as stupid as they were back at Wrestlemania X. In the end, Survivor Series gets an A, earning it possible contention as show of the year when we reach the 1995 RAWtrospective after we plow through December and our next stop: WWF In Your House 5.
And thus we reach the end of this chapter in the TOTNG blog. It's been an interesting year, hasn't it? Diesel's title reign has had its ups and downs, from solid matches with Bret and Shawn, to awful encounters with Bulldog, Mabel and Sid? But after watching through his year long reign, can I actually say he was a bad champion, or one of the worst ever? The answer is a definitive no. I think he did fine, and even for Kevin Nash, actually tried his best when he wanted to. Yes, he was champion through a time of low ticket sales and bad ratings, but honestly, even if Bret or Shawn had the belts, I doubt it would have changed much. I do wish we had saw more of the aggressive Diesel we saw in his match with Bret during this show, and less of a Plain Jane babyface. Also, honestly, it feels like his reign and his importance to the company was already being overshadowed by Shawn Michaels, a man who seems to be groomed to become champion. And if you know Wrestlemania 12, you know how that story goes. As for the story of the Days of Diesel, we close the book and focus on our next chapter for Taste of the New Generation. A chapter about a champion on his third reign and the unstoppable momentum of a man who is ready to fulfill a boyhood dream. Join us next time for the start of the next chapter: Boyhood Dreams.
