WWF Wrestlemania X

WWF Wrestlemania X
Venue: New York City, New York
Date: 20/03/94
Attendance: 18,065
Commentators: Vince McMahon & Jerry Lawler

The World Wrestling Federation returned to Madison Square Garden to celebrate the 10th annual Wrestlemania and Vince McMahon pulled in the celebrities for the occasion. Little Richard (badly) mimed "America The Beautiful", Rhonda Shear (TV personality) and Jennie Garth (actress) were guest time keepers, while Donnie Wahlberg (singer, actor) and the biggest coup of all Burt Reynolds (actor) were guest ring announcers. There was also a Bill Clinton lookalike that fooled nobody. It had been decided that Royal Rumble co-winners Lex Luger and Bret Hart would both receive championship matches on the night. Luger would face Yokozuna first (decided by coin toss on Raw) and Hart would take on the winner later in the evening. Hart would also be in the opening match after finally agreeing to battle his brother Owen after the younger Hart went full heel at the Royal Rumble. There was also a certain Intercontinental Title Ladder Match on the card which you may have heard about. Jerry Lawler made his return to TV as colour commentator and did an excellent job.

Review

Owen Hart scored a big upset win over older brother Bret in a fantastic opening bout. Owen had to cut some of his more high flying manoeuvres out of his arsenal to suit his new heel stance but that did not detract from this technically superb contest. Owen was of course the aggressor as the younger hot-headed sibling but he didn't overdo the heel shortcuts. Bret was excellent in his role as babyface older brother and the match told a great story. Both men survived each other's version of the Sharpshooter. Bret attempted to perform a victory roll but Owen countered it for a shockingly clean three count. Lawler sold the significance of Owen's victory fantastically.


Bam Bam Bigelow and Luna Vachon defeated Doink and Dink in an acceptable mixed tag team match that was always going to feel flat after the Hart classic. It was what it was, a bit of fun. Bigelow scored a decisive win for his team when he pinned Doink following his top rope head butt.


After being built for around five months, Randy Savage and Crush finally collided in a "Falls Count Anywhere" grudge match. The rules were amended so that falls had to take place outside of the ring and the beaten wrestler would get one minute to return to the ring or lose the match. It was not a change for the better. Crush beat Savage in less than a minute after dropping him onto the guard rail in the aisle. Savage survived and pinned Crush after the big elbow off the top rope. He then had to roll Crush outside to pin him but Crush just made it back inside in time with the help of Mr Fuji. The finish came when Savage threw Crush into a few doors and attempted to hang him upside down after pinning him. Crush did not make it back and Savage was declared the winner of a fairly good brawl.

Women's Champion Alundra Blayze beat Leilani Kai in a short match which nobody really cared about. Kai's appearance was a nice nod to the original Wrestlemania but this did nothing for Blayze or the women's division.


Men on a Mission scored a weak count out win over tag team champions The Quebecers. The match wasn't very good but at the same time not as bad as expected.


Lex Luger was unsuccessful in his quest to become WWF Champion after he was screwed by guest referee Mr Perfect in his match with Yokozuna. Going nearly 15 minutes and filled with rest holds, the match was offensively boring. Towards the end Luger finally made his comeback by body slamming Yoko and KO-ing him with the formerly illegal elbow. He then nailed Jim Cornette and Mr Fuji before covering the champion but Perfect refused to count. Luger lightly shoved Perfect urging him to count but instead Perfect disqualified Luger. The crowd chanted "bulls**t" in response to the screwy finish. Apparently McMahon changed his mind about Luger very late in the day and effectively killed him as a top babyface. His feud with Perfect went nowhere as Curt Hennig would soon leave the company once again.


Harvey Whippleman made fun of Howard Finkel's new hairpiece and bullied him until "The Fink" shoved him down. Adam Bomb came out and grabbed Finkel but Earthquake made the save and squashed Bomb in about 30 seconds. Pointless. Who did this benefit?

Then came the match to determine the undisputed Intercontinental Champion in the first ever WWF ladder match on pay-per-view. There had been ladder matches before, even in the WWF but this one was a game changer. Featuring an incredible performance by Shawn Michaels who bumped like a man possessed, this match remains the ladder match that all others are judged by. Michaels claimed to be Intercontinental Champion despite being stripped of the title in September and still carried the belt when he returned from suspension. Meanwhile a new champion had been crowned in Razor Ramon who defeated Rick Martel to lift the vacant title so the two men were on a collision course the moment Michaels returned. The difference between this ladder match and the previous one in the WWF between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels in 1992 was the ladder was now being used as a weapon as well as a way of getting the title belt. Ramon and Michaels thought up many innovative ways to do this including baseball sliding the ladder, jumping off the ladder, performing moves off the ladder and just plain old beating your opponent with it. Watching this match when it first took place you knew you were watching something special. Ramon won the match after shoving Michaels off the ladder causing his leg to be tied up in the ropes meaning Ramon could retrieve the title belts to be confirmed as the undisputed champion. There was lots of talk of Michaels being WCW-bound at this time but although he took an extended break from in-ring action he remained with the WWF.

The main event was always going to feel a bit of an anticlimax after Ramon/Michaels but the introduction of Roddy Piper as guest referee helped as he came out to a great reception. You could argue that as entertaining as Piper was, he overshadowed the match itself. Yokozuna and Bret Hart had an okay title bout but it wasn't was good as the one they had in Las Vegas. However the finish was equally lame. Yokozuna inexplicably just fell backwards off the middle rope as he prepared to hit the Banzai Drop. Hart then pinned him for a complete fluke victory. That being said the crowd did pop huge for the three count. After the match wrestlers and celebrities filled the ring to celebrate with Bret. Owen Hart then appeared in the aisle to stare at his brother which was important because Owen now had a legitimate claim to be the number one contender.


Overall
Wrestlemania X is remembered as a great WWF show on the strength of two phenomenal matches. Without them the card is just average but that's how strong they were. The ladder match was the one that really pushed Shawn Michaels to the next level while at the same time casting the die for all future ladder matches. Owen Hart was also well and truly put on the map after his world class match with Bret. The brothers were set to collide for the title at Summerslam and would remain on opposite sides of the fence for the next three years. Wrestlemania X drew 390,000 buys for a Wrestlemania low buy rate of 1.68. Considering how business had been going this was still a satisfactory number.


Results
1 Owen Hart pinned Bret Hart (20:26) *****
2 Bam Bam Bigelow & Luna Vachon def Doink & Dink by pinfall (6:09) *1/2
3 Randy Savage def Crush in a "Falls Count Anywhere Match" (9:43) **1/2
4 Alundra Blayze (c) pinned Leilani Kai to retain the WWF Women's Title (3:23) *
5 Men On A Mission def The Quebecers (c) by count out. Quebecers retained the WWF Tag Team Title (7:45) *1/4
6 Yokozuna (c) def Lex Luger by disqualification to retain the WWF Heavyweight Title (14:40) 1/2
7 Earthquake pinned Adam Bomb (0:35) SQ
8 Razor Ramon (c) def Shawn Michaels in a "Ladder Match" to retain the WWF Intercontinental Title (18:47) *****
9 Bret Hart pinned Yokozuna (c) to win the WWF Heavyweight Title (10:36) **1/4


Rating
19/45 = 42.22%

WWF Royal Rumble 1994

WWF Royal Rumble 1994
Venue: Providence, Rhode Island
Date: 23/1/94
Attendance: 14,500
Commentators: Vince McMahon & Ted Dibiase


With the tenth annual Wrestlemania just around the corner, the WWF had already laid the foundations for grudge matches between Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels, and Randy Savage and Crush but it remained to be seen who would be squaring off in the main event for the WWF Heavyweight Title. That was to be determined at the Royal Rumble where Yokozuna would defend the championship against The Undertaker with the number one contender being decided in the Rumble match itself. With Bobby Heenan now in WCW and Jerry Lawler suspended, Ted Dibiase was placed in the slot of colour commentator alongside Vince McMahon. Sadly, he wasn't very good.


Review
The opener saw Tatanka defeat Bam Bam Bigelow in a fairly good bout. It was originally scheduled to be Ludvig Borga versus Tatanka after Borga broke the Native American's long unbeaten streak in November, however Borga was pulled due to injury and would soon leave the company.

"All you had to do was tag me!"

Next up The Quebecers retained the World Tag Team Title with a referee stoppage victory over Bret and Owen Hart. This was a really good, heated match and told a great story. Owen and Bret had recently made up after the Survivor Series incident and deciding they were stronger together they channelled their energy towards winning the tag belts. However, Bret would suffer a knee injury during the bout and despite having a golden opportunity to tag his brother he instead attempted to apply the Sharpshooter. This decision led to their defeat and Owen, quite rightly, was livid. He yelled at Bret before sweeping his injured leg and walking away. Owen then famously cocked up his promo on the big screen as Bret was being helped to the back.


Razor Ramon's Intercontinental Title defence over IRS was okay and furthered the growing feud between Ramon and Shawn Michaels. Michaels was claiming to still be IC Champion despite being stripped of the title for falling foul of the 30 day mandatory title defence rule (in reality he failed a drugs test) and still carried the original title belt around with him. After a ref bump in the match, Michaels ran in and clobbered Ramon with his title belt which led to Ramon being pinned. Then (in one of those incidents when they randomly decide the referee's decision is not final) another referee ran down to demand the match continue, which it did unbeknownst to IRS who got Razor Edge'd from behind and pinned. In the end it felt like the heel got screwed here.

"I'm about to die, but don't worry I'll be reborn in time for Summerslam"

Then came the "Casket Match" for the WWF Title between Yokozuna and The Undertaker. It was a really poor match that became and absolute joke by the end. When it looked like Undertaker was about to win the match, no less than nine other wrestlers came down to attack. The heels opened Undertaker's urn which allowed his 'power' to get away (there was green smoke escaping from the urn) and Taker became weaker and weaker until he was placed into the casket. If that wasn't stupid enough, as the heels pushed the casket back down the aisle smoke began to rise from underneath and the lights went out. The fallen Undertaker then appeared on the big screen 'live' from the casket which apparently had a microphone, a light and a camera in it. The coffin-cam somehow managed to zoom out so we could see the top edges of the casket despite the lid being on. Taker refused to rest in peace, died (or something) and then levitated to the heaven (or somewhere), not from the casket but from behind the big screen?! This was one of the stupidest and most embarrassing things I've ever seen in wrestling.


The Royal Rumble match was entertaining without being anything special. Diesel looked like a star for the first time as he tossed out several guys before being double crossed by Shawn Michaels, a subtle detail they saved for a later date. There was a nice continuation of the Randy Savage/Crush feud and a brief clash between Michaels and Marty Jannetty. Nobody came out at number 25 so McMahon and Dibiase concluded it must have been Bret Hart's slot. But no, Hart hobbled out at number 27 like a hero. The 25th slot should've been Bastion Booger, but he was sick. That was the best they could come up with?! Predictably the final two were Bret Hart and Lex Luger but they did nothing more than exchange a couple of punches then topple over the top rope together rather oddly. Couldn't they have done a clothesline spot or something? The referees argued over who had won until Jack Tunney came out and declared they were co-winners as opposed to just say, sending them back in to settle it. The question now was who would face Yokozuna at Wrestlemania; Bret Hart or Lex Luger?

Lex Luger and Bret Hart both claim victory in the Royal Rumble

Overall
Aside from the casket match debacle, Royal Rumble 1994 was a decent enough card. The Quebecers versus The Hart Brothers was the stand out match (and angle) but the other match-ups weren't bad either. The feuds between Ramon/Michaels, Savage/Crush and now Bret/Owen were furthered with the question remaining whether Bret Hart or Lex Luger would face Yokozuna at Wrestlemania. At the time it was expected that Luger would win the Rumble so the non-finish finish came as a bit of a surprise. Royal Rumble 1994 drew a worrying 0.9 buy rate which was around 200,000 buys. This was only slightly up from Survivor Series and a massive 100,000 down from Royal Rumble 1993.

Results
1 Tatanka pinned Bam Bam Bigelow (8:12) **1/4
2 The Quebecers (c) def Bret Hart & Owen Hart by stoppage to retain the WWF Tag Team Title (16:48) ***1/2
3 Razor Ramon (c) pinned Irwin R Schyster to retain the WWF Intercontinental Title (11:30) **1/4
4 Yokozuna (c) def The Undertaker in a "Casket Match" to retain the WWF Heavyweight Title (14:20) 1/2
5 Bret Hart & Lex Luger won the Royal Rumble match (55:08) **3/4


Rating
11.25/25 = 45%

WWF Summerslam 1993

WWF Summerslam 1993
Venue: Auburn Hills, Michigan
Date: 30/8/93
Attendance: 18,500
Commentators: Vince McMahon & Bobby Heenan

As Hulk Hogan was to leave the WWF following the July/August European Tour, Vince McMahon decided simply to make a new Hulk Hogan in time for a big main event at Summerslam in Auburn Hills, Michigan. A big angle was set up on 4th July 1993 aboard the U.S.S. Intrepid in New York City where Mr Fuji and Yokozuna had challenged all comers to attempt to body slam the massive 550lbs plus WWF Champion. Failure to do so would of course, "embarrass America on it's most famous holiday" as put by Jim Ross. A host of NFL, NHL and NBA stars joined the likes of the Steiner Brothers, Randy Savage and Crush in an attempt to win the "Body Slam Challenge" but all failed. Just as it looked like defeat for the USA, a helicopter landed on the ship prompting big "Hogan" chants. To the surprise of most it would be heel Lex Luger who made his way towards the ring shoving Bobby Heenan aside in phase one of the quick fire face turn. Luger then cut a babyface, pro-America promo on the evil foreigners (Rodney Anoa'i was actually a Samoan from San Francisco)  and then tossed Fuji out of the ring. After a brief stare down Luger clocked Yoko with his steel plated forearm and, with Yoko's assistance, body slammed him to bring the house (or aircraft carrier) down! Babyface turn complete, the WWF set up a huge promotional tour where Luger would travel around the country in his "Lex Express" Greyhound bus in what was called a "Call To Action" campaign. The WWF really pulled out all of the stops to get Luger over as the new American hero and after a gruelling six weeks on the road, the stage was set for the big showdown at Summerslam.


Review
In a run-of-the-mill opening contest, newly turned babyface Razor Ramon defeated Ted Dibiase with the Razor's Edge. This would be Dibiase's final match in the WWF and he would retire from the ring later in the year following a short spell in AJPW.

The Steiner Brothers successfully defended the World Tag Team Title in arguably the best match of their WWF run against The Heavenly Bodies (Jimmy Del Ray & Tom Pritchard). Naturally the Detroit crowd were hot for the Steiners and there was some great tag team wrestling in this one.


The much anticipated clash between Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels and Mr Perfect did not deliver to the level that most expected. By his own admission Michaels was carrying excess weight around this time while Perfect was never quite the same after his back injury. The match was good from a technical standpoint but after the heated build up including a wild brawl in the street in New York City it did not resemble a grudge match at all. The cheap finish did not help as Diesel (Michaels' bodyguard Kevin Nash) cost Perfect the title and caused him to be counted out. During a backstage post match brawl designed to start a feud between Perfect and Diesel, Michaels dropped and shattered the Intercontinental Title belt and had to foot the bill for it to be replaced.

After a shock win over Razor Ramon and later Ted Dibiase, The 1-2-3 Kid was brought crashing back down to earth with a clean loss to IRS. The match itself wasn't bad but according to Sean Waltman the loss was in order to keep his ego in check.


It looked like we would be getting screwed out the battle to determine the real "King" of the WWF as Jerry Lawler appeared on crutches after being involved in a "ten car pile up". Instead Bret Hart would have to face Doink with Lawler watching from ringside. Hart had a decent battle with Doink until Lawler (genuinely) levelled him with a crutch when he had Doink locked in the Sharpshooter. After proving his injury to be phony, Lawler was forced to face Hart by Jack Tunney in a stiff and very heated brawl that unlike the Intercontinental Title bout, did feel like a grudge match. Hart won the match with the Sharpshooter but refused to release it afterwards and the decision was reversed. It was a bit ridiculous as there were at least ten people in the ring and they couldn't pull Hart off of Lawler. Overall though this was a really good angle where Hart got his revenge but Lawler remained a "King".

Newcomer Ludvig Borga (Tony Halme) crushed Marty Jannetty in a five minute squash. They clearly had big plans for Borga although he was extremely limited and didn't look particularly good here.


The Undertaker defeated Giant Gonzales in an awful "Rest in Peace" match which basically meant no disqualification or count outs. A top rope clothesline was all it took to beat this monstrous giant in the end. Paul Bearer made his return mid-match to reclaim the urn from Harvey Whippleman. Gonzales choke slammed Whippleman after the match to apparently turn face but nobody seemed that bothered.


Tatanka and The Smoking Gunns beat Bam Bam Bigelow and The Headshrinkers in an entertaining six man tag team bout. The match was good fun and was won by Tatanka pinning Samu with a roll up.

After a monster push and promotional campaign to get Lex Luger over as the new American hero babyface he was unable to unseat Yokozuna as WWF Champion winning only by count out. The wind was really taken out of Luger's sails right from the start as this meant he had already failed in the eyes of the fans. Imagine if Hulk Hogan could've only managed a count out win over the Iron Sheik back in 1984. If they were really serious about going all the way with Luger he had to go over here. As it was it was still a shockingly decent match, about the best they could've had really but despite acting like Luger had secured a huge victory at the end it all fell a bit flat. Randy Savage, the Steiner Brothers and Tatanka celebrated with Luger in the ring as balloons fell from the ceiling but Luger was not the champion so there was nothing really to celebrate. The music video at the end of the show featuring clips from the "Lex Express" tour was however, excellent. The plan was to make Yokozuna versus Luger the big money match at Wrestlemania X, except Luger lost so much steam as a babyface in the coming months that Bret Hart was put back into the world title mix come January.


Overall
Summerslam 1993 was a decent show, as long as you look past the non-finishes in the three big matches. The highlight of the show was the whole Bret Hart/Jerry Lawler saga which was heated and very entertaining. The involvement of Owen and Bruce Hart helped also, not least because Bruce was wound up by being dowsed in water by Doink without knowing it was coming. That was hilarious. Shawn Michaels versus Mr Perfect was good but at the same time disappointing, and the main event surpassed all expectations, until the finish. Summerslam 1993 drew a 1.3 buy rate, approximately 250,000 buys, which was a touch disappointing considering the amount of hype for Lex Luger's big night.


Results
1 Razor Ramon pinned Ted Dibiase (7:32) **1/4
2 The Steiner Brothers (c) def The Heavenly Bodies by pinfall to retain the WWF Tag Team Title (9:28) ***1/2
3 Shawn Michaels (c) def Mr Perfect by count out to retain the WWF Intercontinental Title (11:20) ***
4 Irwin R Schyster pinned The 1-2-3 Kid (5:44) **1/2
5 Bret Hart def Doink by disqualification (9:05) **1/2
6 Jerry Lawler def Bret Hart by disqualification (6:32) ***
7 Ludvig Borga def Marty Jannetty by submission (5:15) 3/4
8 The Undertaker pinned Giant Gonzales (8:04) DUD
9 The Smoking Gunns & Tatanka def The Headshrinkers & Bam Bam Bigelow by pinfall (11:15) ***
10 Lex Luger def Yokozuna (c) by count out. Yokozuna retained the WWF Heavyweight Title (17:58) **3/4


Rating
23.25/50 = 46.5%