King of the Ring - CoreStates Spectrum, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, June 25th 1995
This show, much like last year’s because of Art Donovan’s commentary performance, is infamous for a couple of reasons. The show taking place in Philly means the crowd hijacked the show more than once. This city was very much the spiritual home of ECW and prominent on the hard camera side are several of ECW’s more well known fans (the guy in the Hawaiian shirt, the guy with the long hair and beard, the guy in the cowboy hat etc). Spoilers but many consider this to be the worst WWF PPV of all time. I’ll do my best to find some positives!
The PPV kicks off an unexpected surprise - Razor Ramon’s rib injury has been deemed bad enough that he cannot compete in tonight’s King of the Ring tournament and so we need an eighth man to fill the slot. Razor is still here and accompanies Savio Vega to the ring for his match with IRS. This match was NOT on the PPV but was included on the home video release so it’s on my version of the show. It only goes about 6 minutes and a big spinning heel kick puts down IRS and gives Savio the victory, officially taking Razor’s place in the tournament.
Commentary tonight is handled by the same duo as In Your House - Vince McMahon and “handsome” Dok Hendrix. I do not care for Hendrix. He’s mostly excited about the Kiss my Feet match. Pervert.
King of the Ring Quarter Final match
Savio Vega (w/Razor Ramon) vs. WWF Tag Team Champion Yokozuna (w/Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette)
The big story here is that Savio’s qualifying match with IRS was just before the show went live so for HIM to win this tournament he now needs to win four matches back to back in less than 3 hours. That’s certainly a tall order, never mind that his first opponent is the 641lbs Yokozuna.
But that’s enough kayfabe; Razor’s ribs are fine, this is just a storyline to try and get newcomer Savio over and injected into the upper midcard as soon as possible. It’s honestly not bad.
Before he enters, Todd Pettengill interviews Savio and Razor and lays out everything I’ve just told you. Savio’s promo style is excitedly speaking Spanish rapidly as everyone struggles to understand him. He’s amped up. Dok actually got a laugh out of me, translating Savio’s Spanish as “I have no chance against Yokozuna, tell my mother I love her, this will be my last match”
This match is slow but has a clear story - the big powerful former two-time WWF Champion dominates Vega as he shows how plucky and tenacious and other words meaning “tough” he is as he refuses to quit, throwing chops and strikes at the big man while he can and rolling around the ring to avoid being crushed.
Yoko’s tag team partner Owen Hart comes down to the ring - wearing a tuxedo - and gets a cheap shot in on Razor’s ribs. That brings Savio out to defend his buddy. Yoko follows and after being reversed into the ringsteps, Savio gets back into the ring and Yoko doesn’t. He gets counted out and Savio Vega advances to the semi finals! Not a good match, but not a bad match either so I can’t complain.
Back in Jerry Lawler’s locker room, he shows off his disgusting his foot is. He’s not been washing it for about a month, making sure its as gross as possible for Bret Hart to kiss later. He talked relentlessly about his own feet and their stench on the past three episodes of Raw so I really didn’t need more of this on the PPV.
King of the Ring Quarter Final match
Bob Holly vs. The Roadie (w/WWF Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett)
Jeff Jarrett couldn’t advance because his opponent was The Undertaker, but his corner man The Roadie beat Doink the Clown which seems like a much easier match. Dok misspeaks and says that match happened on Raw (it didn’t) and Vince calls The Roadie “the rowdy” twice. Get it together lads.
I quite like Bob Holly. He’s surprisingly popular. In this gimmick I mean. In real life he’s not a very nice man. Dok calls this the dark horse match - both these guys are long shots to win the tournament but it’s certainly possible.
Both these performers had FAR more success during the Attitude era but then who didn’t? They move fast with Holly going for quick pin after quick pin until Roadie bails out of the ring to talk strategy with Double J.
Roadie slows things down and grinds Holly down on the mat with a sleeper but when he goes for a piledriver, he spends too long dancing and showing off so its counted and Bob builds his comeback, including a headscissors take down and his very nice dropkick. Roadie fights back and battles Holly onto the top rope for a superplex but Sparkplugg shoves him off. He jumps off, right into Roadie’s boot and he crawls into a lax cover. There’s confusion at the finish as the referee counts the three, but Holly pretty clearly kicked out. The bell rings and its over - the Roadie advances and Holly looks like such a loser, losing after jumping into a kick. Worse than the opener.
Todd Pettengill interviews the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels backstage who says that its not enough to be big - you’ve also got to be good. He beat King Kong Bundy to advance and he’ll beat Kama too.
King of the Ring Quarter Final match
Kama (w/Ted Dibiase) vs. Shawn Michaels
For the past few weeks, two spooky looking fans with no facial expressions have been in the front row at every show, holding black wreaths. They’re Undertaker’s “creatures of the night” and super fans, so Kama smashes their black wreath on his walk to the ring. He’s still feuding with Undertaker and still has his big gold necklace made of the melted down, stolen urn.
Michaels dances to the ring wearing a blue baseball cap, the women in the crowd going nuts for him. Weirdly, his theme song plays from about half way through instead of the start. I wonder if they were toying with changing his music now that he’s a babyface? Terrible idea, it’s an awesome song.
This match has a similar story to the opener, but Michaels is a lot better than Savio so its automatically better. He gives Kama the run around, dipping in and out of the ring and taunting to get the fans on his side. After a distraction by Ted Dibiase on the outside, Kama hits him from behind and drives his spine into the ring post. Kama focuses his efforts on HBK’s back, which of course he missed 7 weeks of TV with because of Sid’s three powerbombs (kayface) so that’s a smart strategy. It also puts Shawn’s babyface turn to the test, seeing if the fans will rally behind him as he’s slowly worked over by the larger man (they do).
Michaels finally mounted his comeback with a springboard crossbody out of the corner and started to pour on the offence, picking up the pace as the announcer tells us there is only two minutes left of the time limit. It becomes a mad dash to pick up the victory, Michaels going for pin after pin with an axe handle off the top rope and roll ups, which Kama reverses.
HBK takes the big man up and over into a sunset flip but as the referee counts the three, the time limit expires. This match is a time limit draw and that means that the winner of the next match will get a bye directly to the finals.
After the match, Kama tries to jump Shawn but he puts him down with a superkick, right on the jaw. Dok excitedly calls it the Sweet Chin Music. Shawn gave it that name himself back around Wrestlemania but I’m happy to see it finally become commonly used. Shawn celebrates in the ring anyway - at least he didn’t lose.
Before the next match, Mr. Bob Backlund continues his campaign to be President of the United States with a lecture on the history of the US from the streets of Philly, telling the locals off for littering and showing off a Philly Cheesesteak, calling it disgusting and saying he’ll put a big carrot in it when he’s President. He’lll reign above us all like an Eagle. I very much enjoyed this.
King of the Ring Quarter Final match
Mabel (w/Mo) vs. The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer)
This is the main event of the quarter finals round, so it's fitting it goes on last. Undertaker advanced by beating Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett and Mabel beat Adam Bomb at the last PPV event. Dok has some good analysis before the match - Mabel can pick Undertaker up for his finishing slam, but Undertaker can’t pick up Mabel for a tombstone. This is for all intents and purposes a semi-final match now with them getting a bye to the final.
Before this match begins, Vince checks in with the Spanish and French language commentary teams and we can see that Yokozuna left his WWF Tag Team title belt sitting on the French commentary desk at the start of the show and it’s still there. That’s funny.
Men on a Mission are a lot less over since turning heel. I do wonder what the logic was there in hindsight. Mabel is a big, intimidating dude and Mo is wearing a black suit, black shirt and sunglasses to accompany his teammate to the ring so they certainly look like heels now.
This is a big man vs. big man match and God save it, I enjoyed it! Undertaker throws clothesline after clothesline, finally knocking the big(ger) man down, picking up the pace but a well timed slam from the 500lbs Mabel gets him into the match. He hammers Undertaker with slam after slam but the Deadman keeps kicking out. Undertaker actually falls out of the ring, getting his leg tangled in the ropes and leaving him helpless while Mabel stomps on him. I’m not sure if that was a planned spot or if they just covered it well. A really nice piledriver by Mabel gets a near fall and Undertaker shakes that off and starts to fight back. A reversed Irish whip in the corner gets the referee squashed and with him down, Undertaker hits a chokeslam (called as such by Dok Hendrix) and has the visual three count until Kama runs down to attack Undertaker. He lays him out and a leg drop from Mabel just as the referee revives puts Mabel into the finals! He quickly leaves with Mo in victory and as Kama is about to continue the attack on Undertaker, the Deadman sits up and Kama runs away scared. I actually quite liked this match.
I didn’t mention it during the Preview but in the weeks leading up to this event, Todd Pettengill had weekly updates on this year’s Hall of Fame ceremony which took place the night before the King of the Ring. There were a bunch of legends inducted including George “The Animal” Steel. Bill Murray (yes, THAT Bill Murray) sent in a pre-recorded video from the set of Larger than Life giving some love to George who he’d worked with previously. Bill was funny, challenging George to come out of retirement and fight him and the elephant in a tag team match.
King of the Ring Semi match
Savio Vega (w/Razor Ramon) vs. The Roadie (w/WWF Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett)
Before the match, Todd interviews Jeff Jarrett and The Roadie. Of note, Jeff calls him “Road dog”, which the Roadie then refers to himself about three more times.
There’s a little bit of story in this one beyond the obvious King of the Ring final spot being on the line - Razor and Jeff at ringside have been feuding since December 1994, and tomorrow night on Raw Double J is set to defend the Intercontinental title against Savio Vega.
The "Caribbean legend” sends Roadie running with big punches which causes him to bail outside so Jarrett can check if his lip is bleeding for him. He has bags of charisma but that’s hardly news when talking about the Road Dog. This is a back and forth match with no real story - Savio is, in theory, more tired of the two having wrestled an extra match so Roadie takes over with straight right hands and gets a near fall with a knee drop off the middle rope. As he slowly works over Vega, the fans start to randomly boo. Normally that’s a sign that a fan has started a fight in the crowd and been kicked out or something but here I think its some of the more vocal ECW fans in the crowd starting to gently turn on the show in general. They were used to a more edgy product and as much as I’ve tried to be positive, the standard of wrestling so far tonight has been…not great.
Savio mounts a comeback and sends Roadie off the ropes but Jeff tries to get involved, tripping Vega. He and Razor argue and Jeff gets up onto the apron but it backfires when Savio whips Roadie into his own man and capitalises with a roll up to win the match and advance to the King of the Ring final. Jarrett can’t believe it and he and Roadie seem to be blaming each other for the loss.
With him now into the finals, Savio Vega is interviewed by Carlos Cabrera from the Spanish commentary desk, so Dok Hendrix goes to translate. He makes a couple of borderline racist comments about stealing hubcaps and claims Savio is saying he can’t beat Mabel and might just give up.
Kiss My Foot match
Bret Hart vs. Jerry “The King” Lawler
Bret is beloved in Philly, and Jerry gets loud “Burger King” chants. The Hitman chases Jerry around the ring and is obviously significantly higher on the totem pole than part-time commentator Lawler but with a little cheap shot on the outside, Bret takes over and works on Bret’s ribs. He keeps things slow in the ring, running him into the turnbuckle head-first and then spikes him with a really nice piledriver. That’s his finisher and he’s hit it only minutes into the match. Honestly he probably has the match won, but he doesn’t go for a pin and sets up a second piledriver instead which he also hits. He hits a third and waits an ice age before going for a pin, so Bret kicks out. That probably deserved a bigger reaction from the crowd but they weren’t buying that near fall.
Lawler takes off his boot to expose his gross, full-of-holes sock and uses the boot as a weapon. Bret kicks out of that too.
The Hitman fights back and gets on a roll until Hakushi and Shinja come down to make the save. It backfires and Hakushi’s punch hits Lawler instead of Bret. The Hitman goes into his finishing routine and locks King in the Sharpshooter for the submission victory. He teases not releasing the hold and getting disqualified, like at Summerslam 1993 but does break the hold and finally in their fourth match together, Bret Hart finally beats Jerry Lawler.
He takes off his boot to make the King kiss his foot and Hakushi and Shinja run down a second time. It backfires again and his top rope dive knocks down Lawler. He’s sent packing and then Bret fulfils both his promises from Raw - he shoves his bare toes into Jerry’s mouth and then he folds him up and makes him kiss his own stinking, smelly unwashed foot too. A happy ending to the story but 1) its not really the end of this feud somehow, 2) it wasn’t a very good match and 3) Bret is way too good for comedy angles like this and should be feuding with the other main eventers.
I want to call out something fun for long-time fans - the two jesters opening the doors for all the competitors as they enter the arena? Why that’s teenage Matt and Jeff Hardy. They’ve worked on Raw a few times as jobbers too.
King of the Ring Final match
Savio Vega (w/Razor Ramon) vs. Mabel (w/Mo)
Is this the weirdest final in the history of this tournament? Yes, it probably is. Savio has had the biggest one-night push since Lex Lugar’s face turn in July of 1993 and coming into this match the 500lbs Mabel has only competed once while Savio has competed three times tonight. The odds are stacked against the newcomer.
Elephant in the room - the crowd has booed this PPV more than once tonight as the New Gen WWF product clashed with the tastes of the hardcore Philly fans but this match was the tipping point. Shawn, Bret and Undertaker were all on this show but they were in and out playing almost no part while we’ve had multiple appearances by people like The Roadie and Mo. Just not a very well structured PPV sadly.
This is a slow, plodding match which Mabel makes even slower with a long bearhub. Razor bangs the mat to work up the crowd and get them behind Savio.
As Mabel locks in a sleeper and the two men lay on the match for roughly 4 minutes of this 8 minute match, the crowd started chanting for ECW. Fortunately the guys seem to have heard it and pick up the pace and actually get the crowd back into it; they pop for Savio hitting the spinning heel kick he used as his finisher but Mabel kicks out. He catches Vega with a big slam - Savio kicks out! Mabel follows up with a splash and that is enough to get the victory. Mabel is the 1995 King of the Ring.
After the match Razor and Mo get in the ring and have a little disagreement which turns physical. To be fair, that looked like Razor’s fault as he refused to leave the ring and let the new King celebrate. Mo and Mabel beat him up two on one and make his rib injury much worse with a pair of splashes, one off the middle rope in the corner. The 1-2-3 Kid has seen enough and he runs down too - he must be healed up from his neck injury - and knocks down Mo with a spinning heel kick but runs into a brick wall named Mabel who squashes him too. He’s about to splash him off the middle rope as well but the ring finally fills with referees to stop the assault. The new King has left three bodies in his wake.
Todd Pettengill is on hand to officiate the coronation but Mo tells him to beat it and does the honors for his tag team partner. He reads from the scroll so incredibly slowly that Vince and Dok start making fun of him for it. It legit takes him about 5 minutes to say 20 words.
Before the main event, Stephanie Wyand interviews Ted Dibiase, Tatanka and Sid about their strategy. Normally they wouldn’t share but it’s obvious - they’re going to focus on Big Daddy Cool’s surgically repaired elbow that Sid himself injured.
WWF Champion Diesel and Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Sid and Tatanka (w/Ted Dibiase)
I’ve hinted at this but I’m now ready to out myself - I love Sycho Sid. His theme song is awesome too. He’s a terrible wrestler but that’s not always what makes a wrestler great. He seems genuinely unhinged. I’m sure he was a lovely guy really (though I can’t sign my name to that, I hope he was). In their own pre-match promo, Bam Bam throws some Steiner maths at us. Diesel’s elbow isn’t 100% but they’re both 110% confident, which means that together they are 220%. Alright then. Bam Bam has new theme music to go along with his fancy ring jacket and pyro.
The babyfaces rush the ring and attack Tatanka and Sid right away, sending them scurrying to the outside with a barrage of forearms and punches. Diesel has a brace on his elbow but isn’t selling it at all. It was legit surgery rather than a storyline injury so I’m sure everyone will be careful with it.
When the match breaks down, Diesel is legal and Sid gets a shot in to his elbow to take control. He wraps Diesel’s injured arm around the ropes and wails on it with punches which I’m sure was perfectly safe but looked quite brutal. He continues to just hammer on the elbow with knees and punches while Dok and Vince somberly talk about this match being the end of Diesel’s career.
Bam Bam tags in and for the first time I noticed he’s swapped his ring gear’s blue flames for yellow and orange ones. That’s good - I commented in the Preview that his new ring jacket clashed with his old gear. It looks better. He’s distracted by Tatanka so Sid can jump him from behind and then he hits a really impressive looking chokeslam to Bam Bam from the top rope. The Million Dollar Corporation isolates Bam Bam and works him over for a while with quick tags in and out.
Bam Bam finally makes a comeback with a cannonball like dive into Tatanka’s tummy and makes the tag to Diesel. He hammers Tatanka and after a running big boot, hits the Jackknife. He has Tatanka beat but he breaks his own pin, gesturing that he wants Sid to tag in so he can get his hands on him. Sid hops down off the apron and takes a walk, leaving the match so Diesel just drops a big elbow drop on Tatanka and pins him to end the match with a victory for himself and Bam Bam Bigelow. We get a quick victory celebration where Bam Bam checks on Diesel’s arm and we’re out. What a dull match with a weird finish.
It would be hard to call this a good PPV. It would honestly be hard to call this an average PPV. There was no good wrestling on it and finding positives was a bit of a struggle. I did enjoy Shawn Michaels’ performance, and Undertaker vs. Mabel was a good big man vs. big man match in my opinion. When Yokozuna vs. Savio Vega was one of the stronger matches then we’re in trouble. The Bret/Lawler stuff was just a big storyline really rather than a match so it’s no wonder the crowd turned on this show towards the end. Historically this is the show that got ECW on Vince McMahon’s radar so in that sense, it's important. That still doesn’t make it any good.
