Survivor Series - USAir Arena, Landover Maryland, November 19th 1995

The show wastes no time with a big surprise - Mr. Perfect is back! Where has he been? Well I talked about this a bit back at Wrestlemania X but due to nagging injuries and the fact that he was being paid so much money by Lloyds of London Insurance for loss of earnings there was no convincing him to get back in the ring - who doesn’t want to get paid millions to not wrestle? Perfect is on commentary tonight with Vince McMahon and Jim Ross and I’ll talk a lot more about him on future shows.

The opening video package for this show is fantastic! It’s a nice change of pace from the recent shows and there’s a big pyro display in the arena too - this feels like the WWF’s production crew stepping it up a notch.

Four on Four Survivor Series Elimination match

The Bodydonnas (Skip w/Sunny, Rad Radford, Dr. Tom Prichard and the 1-2-3 Kid w/Ted Dibiase) vs. The Underdogs (Barry Horowitz, Marty Jannetty, Hakushi and Bob Holly)

This match wasn’t announced ahead of time but I’m glad to see most of these guys on the PPV. The babyface team enters to Marty Jannetty’s theme song because I guess he’s the biggest star on his team, but the heels enter to Skip’s and are led to the ring by Sunny who sings the praises of her entire team with a promo. I’d argue he’s not the biggest start he’s on his team. This is the first time we’ve seen Tom Prichard in a long time - Jimmy del Ray is gone because of his legal issues (terrible human being) and the newly turned heel 1-2-3 Kid comes out separately with Ted Dibiase. What a sell out! Vince and JR are disgusted by this kid’s actions.

Interesting the 1-2-3 Kid is a two time tag team champion with two different partners - both of whom are on the opposite team tonight in Marty and Holly.

Razor Ramon comes to the ring trying to get his hands on the 1-2-3 Kid but he’s restrained by an army of referees and officials and forced to go backstage. I liked that a lot, that’s a nice touch. Razor is of course very angry at the Kid because of his actions at the end of the previous Monday Night Raw where he turned on him and screwed him over in his match with Sycho Sid - EVERYBODIES got a price for the Million Dollar Man.

Marty and Prichard start things out and the former rocker is on fire, bouncing him around the ring and knocking all of his opponents off the apron. The fans pop big for Marty who, in fairness, is a very good wrestler. 

After a few minutes of back and forth with everyone tagging in to hit a move or two and then tag out (Hakushi gets a nice big cheer which I was happy to see, the 1-2-3 Kid gets a LOT of boos) the first elimination goes to Bob Holly who scores a crossbody on Tom Prichard off the top rope. Holly is eliminated seconds later by a roll up from Skip. Hakushi comes in and picks up the slack for his team and he and Skip have a nice back and forth - two great wrestlers.

Razor Ramon is shown backstage really animatedly enjoying this match but really he’s just rooting aggressively against the 1-2-3 Kid and hoping his former little buddy gets beaten up badly by Barry Horowitz of all people.

A well timed kick to Hakushi’s head from illegal man the 1-2-3 Kid allows Rad Radford to pin Hakushi and eliminate him next. I’ve seen very little of Rad Radford and can’t tell what his gimmick is beyond just a thick bruiser with long hair. He clobbers Horowitz with clotheslines and has an easy three count but at Skip’s encouragement keeps breaking his own pins to keep the assault on Horowitz going - Skip wants to be the man to pin him and even the odds for their previous feud. Mr. Perfect remarks that Horowitz has never won a match and sounds like he’s not watched a single WWF show during his absence - he doesn’t know who any of these people are apart from people like Razor Ramon or Marty who he worked with previously. All of Radford’s showboating backfires with Barry Horowitz catches him with a small package for the elimination. He and Skip go at it in the ring one on one and the Bodydonna has a really hard time with Barry. The 1-2-3 Kid tags in and jumps Horowitz from behind, beating him with a knee to the back and a quick leg drop to eliminate Horowitz. That leaves Marty two on one against the 1-2-3 Kid and Skip. After a back and forth Marty blows the roof off with a powerbomb on Skip from the top rope! That looked awesome and the fans and commentators exploded. Marty eliminates Skip leaving Marty and the Kid one on one - a match I’d really enjoy seeing! The Kid hits a leg drop off the top rope but Marty kicks out. He clearly has control of the match but misses a second big dive off the ropes which gives Jannetty a chance in this match. He builds momentum as the Kid’s Million Dollar stable mate Sycho Sid walks down to the ring for moral support. The fans start chanting for Razor. Dibiase distracts the referee and Sid grabs Marty and hangs him up on the top rope. That is somehow enough that the 1-2-3 Kid is able to cover Marty and win this match as the sole survivor. 

Post match the Kid jumps into Sid’s arms and they hug and celebrate his big victory - it seems like selling out to the Corporation is already benefiting him with a big PPV victory. This was a good match thanks to the fact that most of these guys, whatever their position on the roster, were awesome wrestlers. The 1-2-3 Kid is on the climb! Backstage Razor Ramon is shown throwing a major temper tantrum about the fact that the Kid won, smashing up the locker room and violently throwing the TV monitor against the wall while other babyfaces try to calm him down. 

Elsewhere, Todd Pettengill interviews 3/4s of one of the Wildcard teams tonight - Dean Douglas, Owen Hart and Yokozuna. Their manager Jim Cornette does all the talking. They didn’t want Razor Ramon as their partner tonight but he better stop worrying about the 1-2-3 Kid and focus on their match tonight. They don’t like each other and both teams are a mix of heels and faces BUT they do all want to win. Dean Douglas points out that the three of them are united and Razor needs to get his act together and join them. I wasn’t sure about the whole Wildcard thing when it was announced but it is interesting seeing all these rivals be forced to get along. 

Four on Four Survivor Series Elimination match

WWF Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze, Kyoko Inoue, Sakie Hasegawa and Chaparita Asari vs. Bertha Faye (with Harvey Wippleman), Aja Kong, Tomoko Watanabe and Lioness Asuka

Something tells me that Jim Ross will be going all of the talking in this match. I haven’t seen most of these women before but he immediately explains that there’s a couple of rivalries as several of these women have gone one on one on Superstars and on the Action Zone lately. This match is the last hurrah for the WWF’s women’s division in this era but I’ll talk more about that after the match. 

Given that this is the first time I’ve seen 6 of these 8 women I sadly don’t know who is who and am replying on someone else’s write up of the match to tell you what happened. In truth the behind the scenes of this match is more important. The action is kind of sloppy and with most of the women being Japanese there’s definitely a language barrier. 

Alundra gets the first elimination with a German suplex on Lioness Asuka. There is a really nice barrage of suplexes by Sakie Hasegawa which gets a big cheer from the crowd. Those were cool. Aja Kong tags in and she’s a bruiser, clobbering all of her opponents with strikes and clotheslines. Mr. Perfect fills in for Jerry Lawler on this match basically insulting the women’s appearance and saying they should be at home in the kitchen. 

With a brutal suplex, a splash off the middle rope and then a sit down splash, Aja Kong eliminates Sakie, Chaparita and Inoue in rapid succession. They’re clearly building up Aja as the next challenger for Alundra Blayze’s women’s Championship and she finds herself three on one against the heel trio. Alundra puts down Watanabe with a piledriver to eliminate her and then about a minute later after some miscommunication between Faye and Aja, scores with a German suplex to eliminate Bertha Faye leaving this as one on one. I’ve not had much to say about this match but the moves themselves are very impactful and impressive which is good. There sadly has been a lot of sloppiness and botches as the women struggle to lift each other for moves and seem out of position which I’ll say is down to the language barrier. Alundra and Aja Kong have a decent exchange with close falls after a missile dropkick and some roll ups but a spinning back first to Blayze’s face drops her and Aja Kong pins the WWF Women’s Champion to be the sole survivor and win the match. She eliminated all four women on the rival team. 

I was quite kind about this match but the reality is that it wasn’t very good or well received. A lot of the women were Japanese and shouted swear words while they wrestled which Vince didn’t like. One of the girls in this match also had her nose broken but I didn’t see when and where that occurred. The women’s division wasn’t given anywhere near enough TV time to actually connect with fans and with sloppy matches and the WWF running out of money (more on that later) the decision was made to let the contacts of all the female performs lapse with Alundra Blayze officially being stripped of the Women’s Championship by virtue of it no longer existing. I’ll have more to say about Alundra during the next Preview.

In a lame segment, Todd Pettengill goes out into the crowd and sits with a Bill Clinton impersonator. This show being in Washington DC meant that in the build up there was a lot of promotion for Bill Clinton being there. Vince can’t help himself from taking the opportunity to make his own political beliefs crystal clear openly mocking Clinton and his administration. Jim Ross is a lifelong Republican too of course so he joins in. I hate it when they get all political like this, it feels so tacky. 

Goldust vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Goldust takes such a long time with his entrance that his theme music actually repeats from the start again. The commentary trio don’t quite know what to make of Goldust, teasing Mr. Perfect saying that he winked at him and JR not knowing whether to even call Goldust a man. That all feels oddly homophobic which is pretty much par for the course with Goldust of course.

Bam Bam challenged Goldust to this match and the one thing they can agree on on commentary is that Goldust throws everyone off their game - is this an act? Is this the real him? It’s very effective mind games either way. He’s a big dude and throws big punches at Bam Bam before bailing out of the ring to pose and draw boos from the crowd. I’ve found both of Goldust’s matches so far to be very dull personally and that continues here as after some big clubbing punches, Goldust brings things to the mat and makes it very, very slow with a long, long chin lock. Bam Bam muscles Goldust up onto his shoulders and drops him to the mat to finally break that up. 

It doesn’t last long before Goldust goes RIGHT back to the chin lock. 

Bam Bam mounts a come back with some clotheslines but misses a corner charge and Goldust follows with a bulldog headlock. That gives him the victory out of nowhere. Maybe he doesn’t have a finisher yet? This was rubbish. It was also the final WWF appearance of Bam Bam Bigelow.

Bam Bam never quite recovered from losing to a football player at Wrestlemania and despite the face turn and attempt to make him a main eventer the fans just didn’t connect with the big man. He left the WWF and had a successful run in both ECW and WCW as well as in Japan which is where he headed right after this match. I can’t say I’ll miss him but he had his moments.

Todd Pettengill goes back up to see Bill Clinton again - Mr. Bob Backlund has also joined them and while Clinton tries to be friendly, Backlund is unimpressed and nasty to the “President of the United States”. I kind of hate this. 

Four on Four Survivor Series Elimination match

The Darkside (The Undertaker, Henry O. Godwin, Savio Vega and Fatu) vs. The Royals (King Mabel w/Sir Mo, Jerry Lawler, Isaac Yankem D.D.S and Hunter Hearst Helmsley)

There’s a little video recap of the issues between King Mabel and Undertaker going back to the King of the Ring in June

Jerry Lawler is in the ring first and gives a glowing royal introduction to Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Issac Yankem before Mabel gets his own entrance. The story of this match is the return of the Undertaker and what his face will look like having been crushed by Mabel last month. The babyface team enters first to Savio Vega’s theme song but of course the returning Deadman gets his own entrance. This PPV is the fifth anniversary of The Undertaker’s debut and he’s made lots of big dramatic returns at Survivor Series over the years. 

By this point in 1995 they’d really figured out The Undertaker’s character and aura and with the arena lights out, the thunder and lightening, the spooky music, the commentary team going silent and letting the fans go berserk I got goosebumps. The big reveal once The Undertaker is in the ring is that he’s now wearing a protective mask which looks awesome - he looks terrifying! Mabel recoils in terror in the face of The Undertaker - there are other feuds in this match like HHH feuding with both H.O.G and Fatu and Lawer and Issac Yankem D.D.S’s makeshift alliance but the focus is entirely on The Undertaker tonight and rightfully so. 

Fatu and Helmsley kick things off for their respective teams - they had the best match of the night at In Your House 4 so that suits me. Fatu beats him up and then tags in Henry Godwin. HHH recoils in fear and tags out to Jerry Lawler. Who in turn immediately tags out to Isaac Yankem. With the heels finally working over Godwin Mr. Perfect calls Helmsley “Triple H” for the very first time and says that’s what he prefers to be called. He hasn’t contributed much tonight but Perfect was also the first person to call Shawn Michaels “the Heartbreak Kid” too. 

A story emerges that while HHH, Lawler and Yankem are no match for the babyface team who bounce each of them around in order, a tag to King Mabel turns the tide and they work over Savio Vega in their corner for a long time.

Savio finally gets some separation and tags in The Undertaker for the first time - Lawler desperately tries to tag out but no one will accept and he’s drilled with a Tombstone. Jerry Lawler is the first man eliminated. Issac Yankem attacks quickly - I don’t need to mention the irony of these two men being in the ring together - but he’s quickly spiked with a Tombstone too and Isaac is eliminated seconds later. Triple H tries to leave rather than face the wrath of The Undertaker but is chased back to the ring by Henry Godwin and a big chokeslam from the apron all the way to the middle of the ring gives Undertaker his third victory in minutes. Helmsley is eliminated. King Mabel is now left four vs. one against the entire Darkside team and he puts Undertaker down with a belly to belly suplex and a leg drop. The Undertaker sits up and King Mabel gets out of the ring and runs away, losing by count out. The entire Darksider team survives in a clean sweep and Undertaker puts down Sir Mo with a big chokeslam after the match for good measure. We get a good look at Undertaker’s protective mask before the arena lights go back out too - a very strong showing for the Deadman and it sets the stage for his match with King Mabel down the line. This wasn’t a good match in the traditional sense but I did enjoy the focus on The Undertaker and the story within the match.

There’s some prerecorded comments from both Bret Hart and Diesel about tonight’s main event. They both mention having to defend the title against British Bulldog next month at In Your House but would rather focus on tonight - Bret repeats all of his comments from the build up “This is the truck stop, the previous matches were knock down drag outs, I am the best there is” and so on. Diesel says that he plans on throwing bombs and finishing Bret off as quickly as possible tonight. He also says that the WWF has been doing quite well “running in Diesel power” which is hilarious untrue - the company was in dire straits financially which I’ll talk about a little bit at the end of the show.

Elsewhere, Todd Pettengill talks to the heel half of Shawn Michaels’ wildcard team but they’re interrupted by Shawn Michaels himself who takes charge and tells them all to follow the leader and they’ll win no problem. Probably good advice.

Four on Four Survivor Series Elimination match

Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson, The British Bulldog (w/Jim Cornette) and Sycho Sid (w/Ted Dibiase) vs. Yokozuna (w/Mr. Fuji), Owen Hart, Dean Douglas and WWF Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon

Owen Hart is the only member of his team to not get his own entrance which is fine Bulldog gets his own too which makes sense as he has a WWF title match next month so needs to be a big deal. Sid’s theme song is awesome. Speaking of awesome songs, Ahmed Johnson’s is a banger too and of course there’s no debating how fantastic Shawn Michaels’ theme song is, was and always will be. He’s just a sexy boy, afterall. Mr. Perfect immediately heels out on Michaels and starts talking trash about him - they were very close friends in real life.

Owen Hart and Shawn Michaels start the match which is great news - they’re slated to go one on one tomorrow night on Raw too which I’m looking forward to. HBK takes it to the outside and gets a big pop when Jim Cornette tries to hit him with his tennis racket by blocking and spanking him with it instead. 

Michaels shows off against Owen and Douglas as they tag in and out and both have a hard time with main eventer in waiting Shawn Michaels. 

This is Ahmed Johnson’s in ring debut on TV and he tags in and takes out both Douglas and Hart with jumping pump kicks before trying to bodyslam Yokozuna. He’s interrupted before we find out if he can do it again and the heels isolate and work over the newcomer who is getting a HUGE push, certainly in terms of presentation right out of the gate. Ahmed has a cool spot, slamming Douglas and then lifting his own parner Shawn Michaels and throwing him at Douglas for a crossbody. Douglas bails out of the ring and has an argument with team mate and rival Razor who slugs him with a big right hand - Douglas is rolled up and the first man eliminated by Shawn Michaels, thanks to his own partner Razor Ramon. There’s a tense stand off between brother-in-laws and teammates Owen Hart and Bulldog who lock up a bit but tag out to babyfaces Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon. The fans pop for seeing these two fan favourites wrestle again like they did back at Summerslam. They go back and forth with the bigger Razor winning the exchange but Michaels wriggles free of an attempted Razor’s Edge and the two run into each other with a double clothesline and then a double headbutt. They’re very evenly matched. Michaels tags out to Sycho Sid and there’s a bit of awkward booking as heel Yokozuna actually rescues babyface Ramon from fellow heel Sid. I do like the gimmick of this match with the mismatch but I don’t think its something that would work every year. A fun novelty to break out once in a while.

Sid puts down Razor with a big one-handed chokeslam and tags out to Michaels. He holds Razor in position and insists on a Sweet Chin Music but Razor moves and Sid gets kicked in the face instead! Michaels doesn’t seem very upset about having cost his own team mate the match as Razor gets into a cover. Bulldog clearly misses a cue and gets into the ring way too early, accidentally breaking up his own team’s pin. What an idiot. They just ignore that and count the three anyway. Razor eliminates Sid, thanks to Shawn Michaels. Sid puts down Michaels with a big powerbomb before he leaves like a sore loser. 

The heels work over Michaels for a bit but when Owen Hart misses a big diving headbutt, HBK tags out to Ahmed Johnson. He comes in with big swinging clubs to everyone - his offense looks pretty sloppy. He hits Owen Hart with a sit down powerbomb and that eliminates the King of Harts. Razor tees off on him with right hands and sets up for a diving bulldog off the middle rope but Ahmed is miles out of position and so Razor has to hop down off the ropes and just hit a normal bulldog. Razor actually hits the Razor’s Edge on Ahmed but Bulldog breaks up the cover and takes over - there was no tag and there seems to be some miscommunication. I think Bulldog missed his cue AGAIN. Ted Dibiase leads Sycho Sid and the 1-2-3 Kid down to the ring and the Million Dollar corp distracts Razor long enough for Bulldog to hit the powerslam and eliminate the Intercontinental Champion.

That leaves Yokozuna three on one against Michaels, Johnson and Bulldog. The 600lbs plus Yoko slams Michaels and drops an enormous leg across his head which should be an elimination but he wants to give him the Banzai drop too for good measure. HBK rolls out of the way and saves himself, tagging out to Ahmed Johnson. The big man slams Yokozuna AGAIN and covers but Bulldog breaks up his own partner’s pin! His loyalty is to his fellow Cornette managed heel it seems not his team. Michaels and Johnson knock him out of the ring and then HBK hits Sweet Chin Music. Johnson pins Yoko and eliminate him to end the match. Ahmed Johnson, Shawn Michaels and the British Bulldog survive. Hilariously even though he tried to stop it from happening, Cornette and Bulldog jump around and celebrate the victory anyway. He looked pretty clumsy in the ring but this was a big show of faith for Ahmed Johnson in his first match. 

In the final Bill Clinton segment of the show he now has Sunny sitting on his lap. He tells her to stop by the white house and they can go over some positions. That’s obviously playing up to Clinton’s reputation as a ladies man - he was either a handsome man who had an eye for the ladies or a sex offending rapist, depending on your point of view (He is the latter).

No Disqualification match for the WWF Championship

Diesel © vs. Bret Hart

There was a good commercial for this match on Raw, a great promo and a great opening video tonight. Here’s the video package for tonight’s main event which has plenty of footage from the promo segment on Raw which I enjoyed so much

Before the match Vince gets a little analysis from both Perfect and Ross, breaking down the fairly obvious story of a big, slow power wrestler vs. a smaller, more technically gifted wrestler. The two men play some mind games immediately, removing two of the turnbuckle covers to remind us all that this is no disqualification and there must be a winner.

Diesel hammers Bret in the corner with big body blows and the Hitman has to get out of the ring and get a breather. This being a no count out match, Diesel follows Bret out and drops him across the ring barrier which got a big reaction from the crowd - hardcore matches or street fights were not a common thing in the New Generation WWF so spots like that took fans by surprise, as does Diesel sending Bret hard into the ring steps. The crowd boo Big Daddy Cool but there’s still plenty of (mostly female) fans cheering for him too. He gets more boos when he blasts Bret across the back with a steel chair (it has a big padded seat) and Vince and Jim Ross get all over that reminding us that Bret used a chair on Diesel’s legs back at the Royal Rumble. 

Diesel slowly works over Bret mostly focused on his back but when he tries for a Jackknife, Bret blocks it by grabbing the leg and then bites his way free. That’s another throwback to their previous matches as Bret amps up the aggression and does underhanded things he normally wouldn’t - the Hitman desperately wants to be WWF Champion for the third time. He takes Diesel down and turns his focus onto the champions legs and works them over to soften him up for the Sharpshooter.

Bret locks in a long figure four - Diesel reaches the ropes but with it being no DQ, he doesn’t have to break the hold and keeps it on to do more damage.

He eventually releases and tries to lock it back in but Diesel kicks Bret off and sends im crashing into one of the exposed turnbuckles from earlier. The Hitman has more dirty tricks up his sleeve and as they battle in the corner he grabs a camera cable and ties it tight around Diesel’s leg trapping him in the corner and clobbering him with an axe handle off the ropes. Bret gets a steel chair and blasts Diesel across the back and then drives the edge of the chair into his leg a couple of times. He tries to climb the ropes with the chair - we’ll never know what he had in mind because Diesel stops him and launches him off the top rope with a big gorilla press. They’re finally able to get out of that same corner when Diesel unties the knot that Bret put around his ankle. 

Bret tries to get back on top but Big Daddy Cool sends him into the exposed metal buckle and the pace starts to pick up as Bret fights through the pain in his back and Diesel tries to ignore the pain in his leg. They trade big blows and near falls with a big clothesline from Diesel and a Russian leg sweep from Bret. 

Mr. Perfect spends a lot of the match running down Bret and talking about how great he is; made me think he might be involved in the finish but he was likely trying to set up a match between himself and Bret down the line (which never happened).

Bret clotheslines Diesel out of the ring and dives out after him but misses and splats on the floor giving Diesel his biggest chance at victory in a while. 

They fight around the ring and as Bret climbs up onto the apron Diesel charges him and Bret goes flying backwards off the apron crashing through the Spanish announce desk! That gets a big reaction from the crowd who rush forward to the barriers and get a closer look - that is the first announce table spot in WWF history folks and it got the shocked dramatic reaction it deserved. 

Bret slowly climbs out of the wreckage and Diesel throws up his arms in disbelief that Bret is still moving. He rolls the Hitman into the ring and closes in like he smells blood in the water. Bret can’t even stand as Diesel pulls his limp body into position for a finishing Jackknife but Bret was playing opossum and out of no where he catches Diesel in a small package! That gets the three count and Bret Hart wins the title in an awesome match - easily the best of Nash’s career.

Diesel is furious and shoves the referee down before hammering Bret with a massive Jackkife powerbomb. The ring starts to fill with referees but Diesel lays them all out with punches too before giving Bret a second Jackknife. He snatches the WWF title belt from the referee and throws it onto Bret’s body as the fans rain boos down on Diesel. Bret Hart is the new WWF Champion and Diesel is a pissed off sore loser about it - Vince points out the boos too which would confirm to me that this is a heel turn for Big Daddy Cool.