WWE SummerSlam 95'

WWE SummerSlam 95'

Pittsburgh, PA - August 1995

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into tonight's show, the WWE Champion was Diesel, the Intercontinental Champion was Shawn Michaels, the WWE Tag Team Champions were Yokozuna and Owen Hart, and the Women's Champion was Alundra Blayze.

SummerSlam 95' kicks off with a strong opener - The 1-2-3 Kid vs. Hakushi. Waltman had had a series of strong matches since joining the WWE in 93' and this is another one that deserves mention as Hakushi is equally game to dazzle the crowd. Highlights included an insane handspring dive onto the arena floor from Hakushi and a cool frog splash out of the Kid. I would've preferred a stronger finish rather than the counter-into-a-side slam that ends up giving Hakushi the win, but this was still an above average bout. (3/5)

Unfortunately, the show comes to a bit of a dead halt as Hunter Hearst Helmsley takes on Bob "Spark Plugg" Holly. The Bob Holly name never really added up to me as, if I remember correctly, he was originally just called "Sparky Plugg" (which would explain why there are two gs in Plugg), but then just went by his real name anyway. Regardless of all the name changes, he was just not over at all and the future Triple H wasn't over either. The crowd is dead for this because of that reason even though Helmsley and Holly try their best. There's just no chemistry between them and Helmsley, at this point in his career, wasn't a captivating in-ring performer and needed more interesting, more physical workers to pinball off of (as he'd eventually find in not only Foley but also Henry Godwinn in their underrated series). (1/5)

The Smoking Gunns took on The Blu Brothers in another stinker on this show. I'm guessing the idea here was to rebuild the Gunns after dropping the tag titles against Yoko and Owen at WrestleMania, but the Blu Brothers (Harris Twins) are boring workers and the Gunns weren't very entertaining either. The best thing that can be said about this dull match was that it only went 5 minutes or so but this really had no place being on a pay-per-view card, especially as the next couple bouts went quite long. (0.5/5)

The next match is one of the more memorable feuds from this era of WWE history - Barry Horowitz vs. Skip (with Sunny at his side). The build to this match was all about Barry Horowitz shocking the world by defeating Skip and then "going the distance" in a 10-minute time limit rematch. As Skip was never going to be a major heel, its not like losing to Horowitz was going to crush his credibility, though, at the same time, it never makes much sense to introduce a character just so he can lose to a jobber. Unfortunately, the WWE had also basically just run a similar storyline with the 1-2-3 Kid (who famously upset Razor Ramon on an episode of Raw) and was in desperate need of credible midcard heels who could actually get a reaction from the crowd - something Helmsley couldn't do yet - and Candido and Sunny could (plus, with Hakushi essentially turning babyface in this match and Jeff Jarrett leaving the company a month prior, the WWE's heel ranks were thinning rapidly). Horowitz is also just not that interesting of a worker while Skip and Sunny were a good act that could've been an interesting challenge for Michaels rather than just relegated to the lower midcard. Anyway, the match itself isn't too bad, but it goes a bit long to me. The crowd is into it, though, so I won't grade it too harshly. I'm not sure why this needed to go longer than 10 minutes when you don't even get a clean finish. (2.5/5)

The WWE Women's Championship is on the line next with Alundra Blayze defending the title against Bertha Faye. If the Barry Horowitz/Skip storyline is remembered as "feel good," this would be the exact opposite as Blayze puts over Bertha Faye, aka Rhonda Singh, aka the Monster Ripper, who was treated like a total joke rather than as the vicious monster she once was. Granted, Singh had let herself go by this time in her career and the WWE was never going to let her do the type of wrestling she had done in Puerto Rico and Japan, but if you're going to bring in someone who specializes in the viciousness that Singh was capable of, you really need to go all the way with it. Instead, Faye and Harvey Wippelman are a mean-spirited, unfunny comedy act and Blayze is essentially squashed in under 5 minutes. Another disappointing contest and its amazing that they got less time than the Gunns/Blu Brothers match or the Helmsley/Holly match, neither of which even had a storyline going into them as far as I could tell. (1/5)

The Undertaker vs. Kama in a Casket Match is next. The story coming into this match is that Kama had stolen the urn and melted it down into a gold chain that he wore around his neck and then, subsequently, attacked one of the Undertaker's fans (known as the Creatures of the Night). I'm not sure why this match goes close to 20 minutes, but the fact that it does makes this match very, very strange, almost like the Undertaker wanted to prove that he could put on a lengthier match with more back-and-forth action or wanted to (admirably) prove he could get Kama over as a legit monster. Unfortunately, Kama's booking prior to this really hurt that story from being told no matter how dominant he looks at times here. In the months before this match took place, instead of building up Kama with decisive victories over top talent, he was crushing jobbers but losing tag team matches and, at the King of the Ring, went to a time limit draw with Shawn Michaels when a victory would've been a tremendous boon. It also didn't help that, by this point, the Million Dollar Corporation no longer resembled anything close to a major threat (despite them basically dominating the top heel position for over a year, headlining both SummerSlam 94' and WrestleMania XI), giving this match a stale vibe despite it being surprisingly good. The crowd is very much into this, at least for most of it, and the Undertaker does bump and sell for his real-life buddy even if the finish itself is never really in question. There are some cool visual moments too, including a spot where both men end up in the casket and Kama escapes only to get dragged back in by the Deadman. The Undertaker also busts out a chokeslam and manages to get Kama up for the Tombstone, both impressive feats of strength. Still, this match could've used 2-3 less hope spot/cut-off moments as going 15+ minutes didn't play to either guy's strengths. (2.5/5)

If you didn't get enough of the Lawler/Bret Hart feud in 93', the WWE basically re-ran it in 1995 only with Lawler's evil dentist, Isaac Yankem DDS, in place of Lawler himself (or Doink depending on how you look at it). Like so much of what Bret and Taker had to endure, the failure of this match has a ton more do with the nauseating gimmicks and lame storyline than it does with what we actually get in the ring. Bret doesn't get a great match out of Yankem like he did with Nash - but its also hard to discount the effect of the lame evil dentist gimmick on the overall presentation. Bret works hard and while Glen Jacobs would have much greater success as Kane in the years that followed, its not like he's woefully terrible here. In fact, he's kinda just like Kane always is - a bit too bland for my liking. I'm not sure where Vince thought he could go with an evil dentist character but Yankem somehow made it another 9+ months with this act despite how paper thin and stupid it was. Lawler gets involved and the match eventually gets thrown out because Vince thought it was worth protecting Yankem even though Bret Hart was a multi-time former WWE Champion. Like the match that precedes it, this one goes a bit too long for me. (2.5/5)

If there's any match on this show that has a reputation for being worth checking out, it is definitely the next one up - Shawn Michaels defending against Razor Ramon for the Intercontinental Championship in a sequel to their WrestleMania X classic. There are many who believe this is the superior ladder match compared to their first, though the original will always have that distinction of being the company's "first" (even if it wasn't) kinda like how the second TLC match is technically better than the first with bigger spots and more twists and turns but the first is the one that gets name-checked more. The key difference in this match, aside from Michaels coming in as champion, is that while Ramon wasn't technically a heel, Vince was clearly positioning Michaels as the company's next top babyface, going ga-ga over him on commentary so much that even before Michaels was given that top spot one could predict a bit of a backlash (which reached its apex at the Survivor Series 96' show). Like he worked against Jarrett at the previous month's In Your House show, Michaels takes a huge and dangerous bump over the post and onto the floor, the kind of thing that you just did not see happening in the WWE or anywhere (and still don't see too often) and proceeds to pinball for Razor throughout. Unlike that match, though, it feels a bit more earned here because of the size difference. Speaking of Razor, his subtle heel work is brilliant here and, as other reviewers have noted, I like how there are multiple nods to the more famous spots from their first ladder match sprinkled throughout the match (including Shawn missing the big splash from the top of the ladder that he hit at Mania). Ramon works on Shawn's knee every chance he gets so the audience is naturally inclined to start rooting for Shawn even more as the underdog (even if his pre-match prancing and preening is remarkably too arrogant and cocky for a babyface in hindsight). A second ladder gets brought into the match, but they really don't do much with this new element, or at least nothing like what future wrestlers would do when multiple ladders started appearing. The first of two "botches" happens when Shawn delivers a poorly-executed superkick on Hall as he climbed the ladder. One would imagine this was supposed to be a big spot but ended up lacking the right "oomph" because, well, its probably damn near impossible to hit a great-looking Sweet Chin Music when you're trying to also balance on a ladder. Moments later, Razor ends up spilled on the outside and Shawn tries to retrieve the title but slips. Whoops. He climbs back up and gets the W around the 25-minute mark. Overall, a very, very good match, one of Hall's best performances, but not quite at the transcendent level that some fans claim it to be due to the predictable finish (which is telegraphed throughout the match by Vince's commentary and Razor working to get booed so that Michaels' victory is more crowd-pleasing). (4/5)

Main event time - Diesel defending the WWE Championship against Mabel. Coming after a match like Shawn/Razor, one has to consider that Vince was already planting the seeds for Diesel to get turned-on (not "turned on") by the fans as this match is just as boring as one would imagine. Kudos to Kevin Nash for working as hard as he could to give some excitement to this match by hitting a plancha early on, but Mabel's offense is weak and Diesel couldn't even get him up for what should've been a big bodyslam spot. Luger does a run-in and there's teasing of a Luger/Diesel issue, but Lex ends up helping Diesel and the match ends with a shoulder block. Bad in multiple ways. This would end up being Luger's last appearance in the WWE. I understand that Luger flopped in 94', but in 95', a heel turn could've made him relevant in a way tagging with Davey Boy clearly couldn't and wouldn't. In the end, Bulldog got that spot and while he was a better technician than Luger, he wasn't as big a name. (1/5)

With a Kwang Score of 2.0-out-of-5, SummerSlam 95' is only barely saved from being one of the worst WWE pay-per-views ever by a very strong ladder match and the magic of Bret Hart and The Undertaker, who take should-be guaranteed stinkers and make them quite watchable. Unfortunately, these matches also run at least 4-5 minutes longer than they should - as does the Horowitz/Skip match. Throughout the show, the crowd is undeniably hot, enough to explain why Vince was booking this style of show with ludicrous, one-dimensional characters that could only appeal to children. 

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver

WWE Survivor Series 94'

WWE Survivor Series 94'

San Antonio, TX - November 1994

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into this show, Bret Hart was the WWE Champion, the Intercontinental Champion was Razor Ramon, and Diesel and Shawn Michaels were the WWE World Tag Team Champions. Bull Nakano was the WWE Women's Champion, having defeated Alundra Blayze just a few days before at an event in Japan. 

Survivor Series 94' kicks off with The Bad Guys (Razor Ramon, The 1-2-3 Kid, The British Bulldog, and the Headshrinkers) taking on The Teamsters (Diesel, Shawn Michaels, Jeff Jarrett, Jim Neidhart and Owen Hart). This match could've and should've been great, but because its used primarily - maybe even exclusively - to build up Diesel as the next WWF Champion and further his storyline with Shawn Michaels (the two would split soon after this and face eachother at WrestleMania XI), most of the talent in this match, namely the 1-2-3 Kid, Owen Hart, Jarrett, and a very over Bulldog, are underutlized. There's also some really silly shenanigans going on with the Headshrinkers beyond the fact that The Barbarian had been renamed Sione (his actual name) and was being treated like an entirely new wrestler despite maybe being on TV regularly from roughly 1988 through 1992 and then, in WCW, was also prominently featured under this name. No, the Headshrinkers were having issues with their boots that caused them to not be able to perform to their best ability. After Diesel eliminates nearly the entire babyface side single-handedly, Razor Ramon is left to fend for himself but an errant superkick causes dissension among the heels that leads to them walking out on the match. This match could've furthered some other interesting storylines, but this is all about Diesel and Michaels and that's a bit of a shame considering how much heat the Owen/Bulldog segment got and that guys like The Kid and Jarrett arguably deserved to be highlighted at this point in their WWE runs. (1.5/5)

Next up - Jerry "The King" Lawler and his team of wrestling little people vs. Doink and his team of little people in clown gear. This was supposed to be a comedy match but there was nothing funny about and, even in the 90s, when I would've been 10, I doubt I would've found much enjoyment in this sort of thing. A straight-up Jerry Lawler/Doink match would've been much, much better as both guys could actually work and then they could've utilized Doink's sidekick Dink in an interesting way. Instead, this was a "one note match" and that one note was sour. And it somehow went 16 minutes. I guess the little bit of Doink action keeps it from being a zero, but this was just not good. (0.5/5)

The WWE World Champion Bret Hart defends against Bob Backlund in a "Throw In The Towel" match next with British Bulldog serving as Bret's second and Owen Hart as Backlund's. This, like the Bret/Owen match from SummerSlam a few months prior, is a weird one to review and somewhat "notorious" in certain circles. Older fans tend to really dig this one, especially if they were old enough to understand the Backlund character and maybe even had seen him work in the late 70s and 80s. Fans like myself, who were just 10 years when this storyline happened, didn't have much knowledge of Backlund and mostly just felt like he was an old doofus. Then there's the issue that Backlund feels oddly "thrown in" to the ongoing Hart drama and the fact that this match ends up being almost the last chapter of their feud (though Bret and Owen would wrestle in a No Holds Barred match on RAW in March 95', one would think Bret would've wanted vengeance much sooner against Owen). Fans of technical wrestling, counters, and a grinding pace will enjoy this match, but at 30+ minutes and with a very, very, very long closing angle (it feels like Bret is locked in the chickenwing as Owen pleads for his parents to throw in the title for a good 10 minutes), its understandable why modern fans may not dig this nearly as much. If the SummerSlam cage match is a "must see once" type match, this is something slightly underneath it (and Dave Meltzer, in his original review, was even less glowing, giving this match just 2 stars). The live crowd is into this, no doubt, but that's mostly because of how over Bret is and how much Owen was hated. Ultimately, Backlund was a transitional champion anyway, which also rubbed me the wrong way as a kid. There are some excellent sequences in here, including the nasty bump Bulldog takes into the steps that incapacitates him, but I wouldn't consider this "Must See" even if that would be blasphemy to some longtime fans. (3.5/5)

The Million Dollar Team of Tatanka, King Kong Bundy, Bam Bam Bigelow, and The Heavenly Bodies took on Lex Luger, Mabel, Adam Bomb, and The Smoking Gunns next. Somewhere in here there was a good match to be had, but this was just tedious. Part of the problem is that they kicked things off with Luger and Tatanka, arguably the two guys that the fans wanted to see square off most, which caused the match to peak right out of the gate. Mabel got some shine here but was still a year away from his brief monster push, eliminating one of the Heavenly Bodies before getting counted out. Bigelow eliminated Adam Bomb, a guy whose gimmick I always thought was cool but was destined to lifetime midcarderdom (at least before his own brief monster push in WCW in 2000 or so?). Speaking of Bigelow, its unclear if he was already pencilled-in to main event WrestleMania but looking back, if he was, one would've thought Vince would've let him dominate this match even more. The heels went up 3-2 and then eventually 3-1 with Lex Luger as the sole survivor for his team. Its really hard to think of someone who fell off from being a SummerSlam and WrestleMania main eventer to a complete nobody more than Luger from 94' to 95'. Here, he doesn't even get the big hero victory that one might think he'd get, taking the L to Bundy. Maybe Bundy was the original choice to face Lawrence Taylor and Vince realized that match would be a disaster? Who knows. This wasn't good. (1/5)

Main event time - The Undertaker vs. Yokozuna in a Casket Match with special guest ringside enforcer Chuck Norris. Taker and Yoko's match at the Royal Rumble some 10 months earlier is widely regarded as a horrendous affair, but I gave it an "average" rating of 2.5-out-of-5 stars because I found it to be the "funnest 15 minutes on the show," wacky and silly and entertaining on a show that featured such hum-drum matches as Tatanka/Bigelow and Ramon/IRS. Unfortunately, Chuck Norris shows about as much emotion and interest in the proceedings as Robocop did at that one WCW pay-per-view. The Undertaker and Yokozuna had decent chemistry, but Yokozuna was no longer the monster heel he'd been a year earlier having now been beaten by Bret Hart. To be fair, the WWE kept Yoko strong in the months, rarely having him lose and usually by DQ or count-out, but the aura was mostly gone and never came back. The Deadman, meanwhile, was as popular as ever after taking several months off earlier in the year. Norris's eventual involvement is a real letdown but I'll give some credit to Yoko and Taker as they go much longer than they arguably had any reason to and attempted some big spots. This isn't a total disaster or anything but its not good and I'm not surprised it would be quite awhile before either guy was back to wrestling in the main event. (1.5/5)

With a Kwang Score of 1.6-out-of-5, Survivor Series 94' is difficult to recommend. The best match on the card is Backlund/Hart, but its also a divisive match, one that many fans and reviewers have called dull and boring and overly long in the past. Bret and Backlund's technical prowess - especially compared to the rest of the card - stands out as unique but doesn't quite measure up to "must see" level, preventing this show from really even being in High Risk Maneuver. 

FINAL RATING - DUDleyville

WWE WrestleMania XI

WWE WrestleMania XI

Hartford, CT - April 1995

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Diesel was the WWE Champion coming into the show, Jeff Jarrett was the Intercontinental Champion, and the Smoking Gunns were the WWE Tag Team Champions. Bull Nakano was the Women's Champion but did not appear on the show.

Some have called WrestleMania XI the worst Mania ever and a quick look at the card is really all you need to see to understand why. Of course, WrestleMania IX has a similar reputation but, while that show didn't feature a single "must see" match, there were some entertaining angles that played out on the show and some good performances out of Bret Hart, Mr. Perfect, and Doink (Matt Borne), as well as a Headshrinkers/Steiner Brothers that, if you squint, really does resemble the type of hard-hitting action these teams delivered in the NWA/WCW years prior. Of course, WrestleMania IX also features one of Hulk Hogan's most notorious and hated moments of spotlight-hogging and an abysmal Giant Gonzalez/Undertaker match. 

WrestleMania XI opens with Lex Luger and The British Bulldog taking on The Blu Brothers (aka the Harris Twins with long hair). The purpose of this match was to kickstart the show with a pair of beloved babyfaces wrestling a standard tag match against a pair of unlikable heels...but this just feels like a match you'd see on an average episode of Raw from around this time and is definitely a waste of star power. This match goes just under 7 minutes but feels longer because its tedious. The most notable moment of the match might be how little is made of Luger hitting one of the Blu Brothers with his flying forearm, which, a year or so prior, was treated like a gunshot finisher and was the basis of a major storyline. The fact that Luger doesn't get the pin either really makes it clear how little Vince saw in him at this point. How could anyone ever blame for Lex for leaving the company when he had gone from a SummerSlam and WrestleMania main eventer to jerking the curtain in a meaningless tag match? (1.5/5)

Next up - Jeff Jarrett vs. Razor Ramon for Jarrett's Intercontinental Championship. After years of watching wrestling and offering critiques of thousands of matches, I'm just gonna say it: Scott Hall's overness and ability was about 90% charisma and 10% in-ring talent. The guy was undeniably cool and, paired against the right opponent, could put on a good match...but paired against an average worker or even a slightly-above average worker like Jeff Jarrett, well, more often than not you get a dull, slow contest. This is that. People would likely call this "good for 95'," but look over at some of the matches WCW was offering around this time or ECW and this pales in comparison to what guys like Austin, Johnny B. Badd, Pillman, and Regal were doing around that same time (let alone what Flair and Savage were offering in the main event). Its not that they don't work hard, its more that nothing they do seems fresh or even truly heated. Is it possible that Ramon was sour that he wasn't going over for the belt? Is it that Jarrett's style never really did click in the WWE? Whatever the case, the result is the same: a forgettable, average match with glimmers of goodness that are almost immediately forgotten with the deflating finish. (2.5/5)

We head backstage next for a continuation of the "Where's Pamela Anderson?" story that runs through the whole evening. At the time, Anderson was the super duper popular star of Baywatch and had not yet had her sex tape stolen and distributed. Jenny McCarthy is also there but is basically playing second fiddle to Anderson, which was maybe a recurring theme of her career in the 90s? Jonathan Taylor Thomas is also there, Nick Turturro is serving as a backstage interview...really, this whole scene is about as dated as any WrestleMania ever and that includes the one where Snooki wrestled.

Back in the ring, The Undertaker takes on King Kong Bundy. The storyline going into this match is just a continuation of the Deadman's feud with the Million Dollar Man, who had stolen the urn. As expected, this match is a plodding, boring affair and doesn't last long. It would be a few more years before the Undertaker would start getting paired up with guys like Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart and Mick Foley who could actually work good 10+ minute matches with him. During the match, Undertaker regains the urn and then unwisely gives to Paul Bearer (who gets it stolen from him by Kama, who gets on the mic and says he's going to melt it down into a chain, which is what he'd do to build up his own forgettable, meaningless match with Undertaker at SummerSlam if I'm not mistaken). Undertaker doesn't hit the Tombstone because Bundy was too big so he wins with a clothesline in under 7 minutes. The Undertaker has had quite a few duds in his WrestleMania career but this is rightfully considered maybe the worst of them all. (0.5/5)

The next match was built up around Owen Hart having a "mystery tag team partner." I'm not sure if there was hype that it would be Jim Neidhart or somebody else, but in hindsight, it makes 100% sense that Yokozuna would end up getting that spot as he was clearly on his way down the card and definitely not in peak physical shape but still credible enough to be used prominently in a limited role. Plus, with Owen and Cornette as mouthpieces, Yoko would be and was really protected. Their opponents are the WWF World Tag Team Champions, the Smoking Gunns, who would somewhat surprisingly hang on in the company as a team for years and years to come, all the way into 1996. Granted, that may not seem like a long time, but considering they debuted in 93' and how one-dimensional the gimmick was, its impressive they made it 3+ years (while teams like the Road Warriors and Nasty Boys would rarely stick around in one company for that long). Anyway, not much to say about this match beyond that it's all about building up Yokozuna as a monster who, with Owen and Cornette at his side, is now basically unstoppable in the tag division. Owen is obviously the most impressive in-ring worker in this match and looks like he's having fun in there with Yoko as his partner. In the time since Owen's tragic death, there's always been lots of talk about how he "deserved better" or should have been a World Champion due to his talent, but part of his talent was that he was also irreplaceable as the glue that could hold together just about any match and be slotted in to make others look good. Here he has clearly been positioned to do the heavy lifting and while that may not have come with the glamour (or paycheck) of being a serious top singles heel, its important to recognize how integral he was on this roster in the mid-90s and, aside from his brother and Shawn Michaels, might have been a company MVP. A passable match but nothing to go out of your way to see. (1.5/5)

Speaking of Bret Hart, it's time for his match against Bob Backlund, an "I Quit" Match no less. Supposedly this was the first of its kind in the WWE, though there have been multiple "I Quit" matches in the NWA before this and most of them were far more brutal and violent than this one - which is more like a submission match. In his book, Bret called this one of the worst matches of his career and considering he's an expert on he subject, he's probably right. That being said, I'd ease up on myself if I were him. Was this as good as their match at Survivor Series? No...but compared to some of the "action" that the WWE was putting on at this time, this was still decent. Roddy Piper is annoying and unnecessary as the referee (I'm not sure what role Piper could've and should've played on this show because he doesn't fit in anywhere, but this wasn't it), but the actual layout of the match and some of the sequences are good if a bit pedestrian. The match doesn't overstay its welcome either, which would've made it way worse. (2.5/5)

The WWE Champion Diesel defends the title against Shawn Michaels next. This match had a months-long build based on Diesel and Shawn's partnership over much of 94' and then Michaels getting jealous of the big man once he became champion in November/December of that year. Michaels had taken on Sid as his new bodyguard and their on-again/off-again relationship would come to a head years later at Survivor Series 96'. While this isn't as good as the match they'd have roughly a year later at In Your House: Good Friends, Better Enemies, it is still the clear match of the night by a wide margin and an excellent showcase match for Michaels, who bumps like a pinball for Diesel throughout the contest. It has been written and said by Bret and others that Shawn "goes into business for himself" a little here by trying to upstage Nash and make the match all about himself but its hard to blame or shame Michaels for what was clearly his biggest opportunity to put himself into the main event. While Michaels had fought for the WWE Championship before - at Survivor Series 92' - he had spent the next few years in the Intercontinental Title scene while guys like Bob Backlund, Jerry Lawler, and Yokozuna, who Shawn rightfully believed he could outwork at that time, were booked at a level above him. Here, Michaels does everything he can to make this the Match of the Night and he succeeds to the point that, by the end, even some of the crowd is clearly behind him (though I wonder if that's also because there are just some outwardly "heel" fans that can heard throughout the show, including in the main event). I wouldn't call this a "must see" match, but its pretty close. (3.5/5)

Main event time - Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow in a match that resembles a lumberjack bout due to the involvement of various NFL stars and Ted Dibiase's Million Dollar Corporation. Pat Patterson is the referee, which makes total sense considering LT's lack of experience. Speaking of LT, he starts the match by clotheslining Bigelow out of the ring and follows it up with a decent bulldog and then a series of stiff forearms and a hiptoss. After the two sides nearly come to blows on the outside, Bigelow takes control in the ring. LT is a surprisingly decent seller, though this match comes to a grinding halt once Bigelow applies a boston crab and then a leglock. I'm guessing they felt like having a main event run under 10 minutes would've been disappointing, but in this era, you couldn't stretch things with table spots and multiple run-ins like they would today. LT eventually hits a big back suplex but Bigelow cuts him off again with a double axehandle and then some headbutts and a leg drop. Bigelow goes to the top rope and lands his signature twisting splash but lands incorrectly on his knee, preventing him from making the cover. Back up to their feet they go and LT hits a miserable looking half-piledriver-type-move for 2. Bigelow hits a spinning heel kick and is essentially burying his own offense here as he can't put away LT despite connecting with some of his best offense, including a headbutt off the top rope. After hitting the headbutt, Bigelow gets 2 and there's an audible boo from the kickout as I'm guessing there were at least a few fans who thought this main event was an embarassment. LT hits a series of big forearms and finishes Bigelow off with one from the second rope to get the W. This match started out alright but then devolved and made Bigelow look too weak by the end. Considering the legal trouble that Taylor would find himself in over the next few years (even up to the morning that I'm writing this review as LT was just nabbed for not registering as a sex offender), this main event has not aged well. (1.5/5)

There have been worse WWE pay-per-views over the years, but is there any worse WrestleMania? I'm not sure there is (though the first two Manias aren't exactly full of great matches). With a low Kwang Score of 1.92-out-of-5, WrestleMania XI is the lowest rated WrestleMania I've reviewed and while WrestleMania XX scored a lousy 1.96, at least that show offered a strong main event, a "train wreck" moments in the Brock Lesnar/Goldberg match, and felt star-studded with Foley, The Rock, Jericho, and Flair all around, plus a good atmosphere in Madison Square Garden. The WWE's roster at this point was paper thin, this show taking place in Hartford makes it feel lesser than any other Mania I can recall, and while Shawn/Diesel is a strong title match, nothing else on this card is remotely "must see." 

FINAL RATING - DUDleyville