Burning Hammer Tape Review #10
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WWF: Royal Rumble 1995
January 22, 1995
--Taped from Tampa, FL
--Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jerry Lawler
--WWF Intercontinental Championship Match: Jeff Jarrett (W/Roadie) V. Razor Ramon. Roadie is Road Dogg before he meant anything, and Ramon is Scott Hall back when he actually meant something. Ramon controls early on with a Fallaway Slam & a Chokeslam. Jarrett slows the match down with lots of stalling. Ramon hits a nice middle-rope Neckbreaker Drop for 2. Jarrett gets a count-out win at 11:46 after Ramon injures his knee tumbling to the outside & receives a Kneeclip from Roadie. Jarrett doesn't want to win the match that way though, so he entices Ramon back into the ring where they restart the match. Jarrett spends the rest of the match working over Ramon's knee in various fashions, including a Figure Four Leglock, but Ramon fights out of it. Ramon goes for a Razor's Edge but his knee gives way underneath him, and Jarrett gets the pin and the title at 20:55 with a Small Package. **3/4 Hidden between all the stalling & showmanship there was a nice little match.
--Irwin R. Schyster (W/Ted DiBiase) V. Undertaker (W/Paul Bearer). IRS also had a long wrestling career in the NWA, Japan, and earlier in the WWF under his real name of Mike Rotunda. He also had a brief stint in WCW as VK Wallstreet & Michael Wallstreet. Lots, and I mean lots, of stalling to start. DiBiase calls the druids down to ringside, and I've heard reports that Ron Harris & Tom Prichard were the two underneath the cloaks for this match, but I'm not entirely sure. Taker gets the pin at 12:22 with a Chokeslam. 1/2* Boring, tedious match with little to no action, but lots of stalling. Post-match King Kong Bundy takes out Taker so that IRS can steal the urn and continue this scintillating feud.
--WWF Heavyweight Championship Match: Bret Hart V. Diesel. Most everybody knows that Diesel currently wrestles under his real name of Kevin Nash, but he also had forgettable stints earlier in his career in WCW as Oz & Vinnie Vegas. Bret goes right to work on Diesel's knee, working it over in an attempt to negate Diesel's height advantage. Bret even busts out a Figure Four Leglock, but Diesel manages to get to the ropes. Bret knocks Diesel to the outside and follows him out with a Tope Suicida. Canadian Backbreaker by Diesel, but Bret reverses out into a Sleeper, but Diesel reverses out of that with a Snapmare in a great sequence. Bret uses his wrist tape to tie Diesel's legs to the ringpost so that Diesel is stuck in the ring and can't defend himself, and lays a beating on Diesel, which draws the ire of the crowd. Bret tries another Tope Suicida to the outside, but Diesel catches him & rams him backfirst into the ringpost. Powerbomb by Diesel, but an interfering Shawn Michaels breaks up the count at 2. No disqualification however, the ref says the match must continue. Once everything settles down Bret goes back to work on Diesel's knee with another Figure Four Leglock, but in a nice bit of psychology Diesel hammers away at the injured ribs of Bret that he had previously been working on to escape. Diesel follows up on that with a Gutwrench Suplex to further weaken Bret's rib area. Bret wraps Diesel's leg around the ringpost and wacks it with a chair, which draws a chorus of boos from the crowd. Sharpshooter by Bret, but Owen Hart interferes to break it up before he can get the submission. Once again, no disqualification, as the ref says the match must continue. Both men slug it out for awhile and fight to the outside. Bret rolls back into the ring and noticing that Diesel isn't paying attention he plays possum and waits for Diesel to come back into the ring where he uses a Small Package to get a 2 count in an awesome sequence. Match is declared a draw at 27:20 when Michaels, Owen, Bob Backlund, Jeff Jarrett, & Roadie all come down and attack both men. ****1/4 Aw man, what a shitty ending for such a great match. Diesel was on top of his game here, selling the injured knee like a champ, and making every one of his power moves count when he was able to hit them. Bret was just as good, if not better, controlling the pace and tempo of the match, and doing everything in his power to try and negate the height and strength advantage of Diesel. The match told a great story as well, you had the young lion of a champion being taken to his limits by someone who is a better wrestler than him, but still finding a way to stay on top throughout the match. Then you had the former champion doing whatever it takes, including breaking the rules, to get his belt back.
--WWF Tag Team Championship Tournament, Final Round Match: Bam Bam Bigelow, Tatanka (W/Ted DiBiase) V. Bob Holly, 1-2-3 Kid. Holly was smack dab in the middle of the super awesome ÒSpark PlugÓ gimmick, where he was a race car driver who had the heart necessary to win in life and in wrestling, and people wonder why Holly ended up being such a bitter asshole. The Kid was known as Lightning Kid before making his debut in the WWF, and would later wrestle under various aliases including Syxx, X-Pac, Syxx-Pac, and his real name of Sean Waltman. This is a classic David versus Goliath match-up if there ever was one. Bigelow & Tatanka use brawling & power wrestling to try and take out the underdogs, while Holly & Kid use every speed wrestling move you could think of to try and keep the much bigger and stronger Bigelow & Tatanka off their feet for the 3 seconds that are necessary for them to win. Holly takes an absolute shitkicking, he's stuck in the ring for close to seven minutes while Bigelow & Tatanka take turns beating the tar out of him. Tatanka & Holly collide on duel Crossbodies, which allows Holly to finally make the tag to Kid, who comes into the ring and cleans house on Bigelow & Tatanka until Bigelow Press Slams him over the top-rope and to the floor outside. Bigelow goes for a Moonsault Press, but Tatanka goes to run the ropes at the same time causing Bigelow to fall off the top-rope and straight back on his head knocking him out cold, and allowing Kid to cover him with a Lateral Press for the pin and the titles at 15:47 *** Good match, but for the full underdog effect it could have stood to have around five minutes shaved off the middle of the match. Post-match Bigelow gets upset with the crowd for laughing at him and manages to make his way to where American football star Lawrence Taylor is sitting. He takes exception to Taylor laughing at him and shoves him down to set up their eventual WrestleMania XI match, and also in a sense by shoving him and causing that match Bigelow effectively managed to kill any possibility of him ever being taken as a serious threat in the wrestling world again.
--30-Man Royal Rumble Match: Due to time constraints the wresters are coming out at one minute intervals in this Rumble instead of the usual two minute intervals from previous Rumbles. Luckily, this would be the only time that Vince would use the one minute intervals concept. Shawn Michaels is the lucky person to draw #1, and British Bulldog is #2 to start things off. Eli Blu is #3, and I believe this would be Don Harris. Duke Droese is #4. Jimmy Del Ray of the Heavenly Bodies is #5. Seone , otherwise known as the Barbarian, is #6. Bulldog Clotheslines Del Ray to eliminate him. Tom Prichard, the other member of the Heavenly Bodies, is #7. Doink the Clown III, who I believe was Ray Liceselli under the make-up at this time, is #8. Kwang, Savio Vega under a mask, is #9. Rick Martel is #10, and is totally out of place in this match due to him being recognized with early 90's WWF, and not having gotten any push of any kind since around 1993. Owen Hart is #11, but Bret Hart attacks him before he can make it to the ring. These one minute intervals make it really hard to keep track of the action, and the action itself doesn't have enough time to go anywhere because of the fastness of the intervals. Timothy Well, of Well Dunn, is #12, as Bulldog eliminates Owen. Michaels eliminates Droese while Bulldog eliminates Well. Rapid fire eliminations are going down with Seone eliminating Martel, Michaels eliminating Prichard, & Kwang eliminating Doink. Luke Williams, of Bushwacker fame, is #13 while Kwang & Eli eliminate each other. Michaels eliminates Luke after a brief seven or so seconds in the ring, leaving Bulldog & Michaels all alone. Doesn't really have the desired effect of them having a staredown and all the usual stuff that happens when two people are left after mass eliminations because Jacob Blue, who I believe is Ron Harris, comes out at #14 before they can get into any of that. Michaels takes care of Jacob by eliminating him. King Kong Bundy is #15. Mo, from Men On A Mission, is #16, and Bundy tosses him out to eliminate him in a record setting time of one second. Mabel is #17, and of course he goes right after Bundy so we can have the breathtaking battle of the obese. Butch Miller, from the Bushwackers, is #18, while Mabel eliminates Bundy, and then Michaels eliminates Butch. Lex Luger is #19, and he immediately eliminates Mabel, and that was a cool visual. Mantaur, who I know next to nothing about, is #20. Aldo Montoya, he who wears a jockstrap on his head, and he who is also Justin Credible's worst nightmare, is #21. Henry Godwinn is #22. Billy Gunn is #23, and nothing is happening in the ring. Bart Gunn is #24. Bob Backlund is #25, and Bret comes out and attacks Backlund before he can enter the ring. Steven Dunn, of Well Dunn, is #26. Luger eliminates Backlund, and Bret and Backlund fight all the way to the back. Dick Murdoch is #27, and is greeted with total apathy from the crowd. Adam Bomb is #28. Fatu, as in Rikishi, is #29. Luger eliminates Mantaur, and Crush comes out at #30 to round out our contestants. Bart & Billy fight by the ropes, so Crush sneaks up from behind and eliminates both of them. Aldo "Fuckin" Montoya eliminates Dunn. You have to be pretty low on the totem pole for the Portuguese jockstrap to eliminate you. Crush eliminates Bomb, and Michaels eliminates Montoya. Crush eliminates Fatu. Murdoch uses an Airplane Spin on Godwinn, but he's so disoriented by the effects that he stumbles over the top to eliminate himself. We get a weird moment where all five guys stop and rest in the corners. That's usually reserved for the last four wrestlers left, and Luger eliminates Godwinn to get it down to four.
The final four are Michaels, Bulldog, Luger, & Crush. Luger is the first one eliminated when Crush tosses him over the top. Crush & Michaels team up on Bulldog, but Crush turns on Michaels, and then Michaels ducks out of the way of a Bulldog Clothesline which eliminates Crush. That leaves the two who started the match, Bulldog & Michaels, as the last two in the match. Bulldog Clotheslines Michaels over the top-rope, and thinks he's won the match, but Michaels hangs on, and only one of his feet touch the floor before he's able to get back in the ring. Michaels sneaks up from behind and eliminates a celebrating Bulldog at 38:44 to win the match. ***1/4 Good match despite the idiotic one minute intervals, and everyone involved made the best they could out of the match, given the restraints put on it by the intervals.
--Final Flash: Not a great show, but a good tag title match, and a good Rumble match plus an awesome Bret/Diesel match make this worth checking out.
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