Sunday, October 22nd, 1995
Winnipeg Arena
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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Toni Wilson sings the Canadian national anthem. We then get a message from Gorilla Monsoon, who tells us that he is not letting Shawn Michaels wrestle tonight due to his concussion. He will forfeit the title in the ring to Dean Douglas. He will then have to wrestle Razor Ramon tonight for the title.
Fatu vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
Fatu goes after Helmsley right away and hits a big back body drop. Helmsley sends Fatu into the ropes and he gets his head stuck in the top two ropes. Helmsley follows up with a piledriver once he's released and Helmsley is finally able to get out of his attire. Fatu is definitely getting the benefit of being the opening match here. He does a nice sell on a Helmsley clothesline and kicks out at 2. Helmsley goes for the Pedigree and Fatu counters to a back body drop. Helmsley hits a DDT, but Fatu no sells it and hits a super kick. Fatu hits a backbreaker and then a headbutt off the second rope. A sloppy cover allows Helmsley to get his shoulder up. Gorilla would have been all over him for that one. He climbs up to the top rope and misses with the splash. Helmsley hits the Pedigree and that's all. That gets a pop from a vocal minority in the crowd. This was a solid opening match and probably Helmsley's best match to date.
Match Rating: **1/2
Jerry Lawler interviews Helmsley after the match and calls that the "most impressive match he's ever seen in his life". Sure, Jerry. Helmsley talks about how gross Fatu was and then we see Henry Godwinn sneaking from behind. They see him and Helmsley hides behind Lawler before bolting to the back.
Dok Hendrix is back with British Bulldog and Jim Cornette to talk about his first ever WWF Championship opportunity. They once again show the highlight of him pinning Diesel on Raw.
WWF Tag Team Championship Match
Smoking Gunns vs. 1-2-3 Kid & Razor Ramon
When you look back at the timeline, it really is kind of crazy that Razor was on a pay per view wrestling for two different titles, winning one of them and then he left the company in 7 months or so. Not that it's unheard of in the wrestling business, but they clearly were under the impression he would be here. The first big spot is when Bart is running the ropes, Kid pulls down the top rope and sends him flying to the floor. The referee was distracted by Billy there and the crowd loved it. Kid hits some kicks and tags in Razor to hit a fall away slam. They do a double team where Razor hits a fall away slam on Kid into Bart. Bart is finally able to get in some offense and then he and Razor collide as Dean Douglas is shown in the back watching and laughing. Billy finally gets tagged in and hits a huge back body drop. Kid really went flying there. The Gunns hit a vertical suplex/dropkick combination and Kid just barely kicks out. Billy misses a splash in the corner and hits his face on the ring post. With both men down, Bart distracts the ref again and Razor walks in and rolls Kid on top of Billy. The ref counts and Billy is able to get a shoulder up. Razor gets the hot tag and is able to take care of both Gunns. He sets up Billy for the Razor's Edge and hits it. The Kid wants the tag and Razor wastes a lot of time thinking about it. He tags him in and covers Billy, but Billy reverses the pin attempt and steals the victory. Kid is furious after the match and shoves Razor away when he goes to talk to him. Kid then dropkicks Bart from behind and hits a kick on Billy. Razor is able to calm him down.
Match Rating: ***1/4
We go to Dok Hendrix so that he can sell us Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels cardboard cutouts for only $25. Dok tries to sell it by saying "Who wouldn't want Bret Hart standing in your room watching you sleep?" Oh, I don't know, probably everyone.
Marty Jannetty vs. Goldust
I didn't realize that he didn't have the cinematic video look for his entrance at the debut. The chemistry is off a little at the start between the two performers here and Goldust looks for a timeout. Goldust slows things down and gives the announcers a lot of time to talk up his character. Marty is able to get Goldust outside of the ring, but Goldust throws him into the ring post. It kind of feels like this probably should have been over by now, given the hype for this character. Marty battles back and hits the Rocker Dropper. He goes up to the top, but Goldust moves and Marty lands on his feet. Marty eventually goes up top again and this time Goldust gets his foot up. He hits a face-first suplex and picks up his first victory. He seemed either a little nervous or rusty here, so it wasn't probably as clean of a match as he would have liked. It was as slow as I remembered though, which is a good thing.
Match Rating: *1/2
King Mabel vs. Yokozuna
Both big men start throwing right hands and Yoko then knocks Mabel out of the ring. That may be about the most action we'll get in this one. Back in the ring, Mabel hits a leaping clothesline and we get another break. After a little bit of action in the ring, we get some outside the ring. The big finale is Yokozuna falling on top of Jim Cornette. We then hear the bell ring and both men are counted out. The crowd isn't fond of that finish. I can't blame them there. Both men get back in the ring and go face to face, while Mo and Cornette try to calm them down. They then hug it out and give a high five. This match was not Gorilla's best decision.
Match Rating: 1/2*
It's time for the big forfeit. Dok Hendrix and Gorilla Monsoon are in the ring, as Shawn Michaels reluctantly hands the title over to Dean Douglas after a long pause.
Intercontinental Championship Match
Dean Douglas vs. Razor Ramon
Razor enters and starts hitting the right hands. He hits the fall away slam and then clotheslines him over the top. It just seems like Razor has no interest in letting Dean get offense ever. Razor steals Jerry Lawler's water and dumps it on Dean's head. He goes for the Razor's Edge, but Dean dumps him over the top rope and to the floor. Dean goes off the top rope, but Razor catches him and hits him with his variation of the chokeslam. He sets Dean on the top rope, but Dean knocks him away. He hits a reverse crossbody, but Razor rolls through and gets 2. Dean immediately hits him with a dropkick, but Razor gets his foot on the bottom rope. Razor ducks a right hand and hits a back suplex. He puts his arm on top of Dean and the ref counts and rings for the bell. The announcers are confused and the official declares Razor the new Intercontinental Champion. Dean says that his leg was outside the ring. We see the replay and his leg did leave the ring. What a dumb finish. These two just did not kliq, I mean click.
Match Rating: *3/4
Bret Hart is the guest announcer for the main event. Lawler tries to run away, but Bret gets in a few shots. He then chases him away. That was kind of lame. Dok then tries to sell us the hideous Shawn/Diesel shirt and then Diesel tells him that he's feeling funky.
WWF Championship Match
British Bulldog vs. Diesel
It's all Diesel in the early going, which is no surprise. Bulldog is able to dropkick Diesel over the top. When Diesel lands, he is a little off balance, so Bret helps hold him up and from falling onto the announce table. Diesel doesn't like it, so he shoves Bret. That distraction allows for Bulldog to chop block Diesel. I have to say, I am really liking the story of both of these guys never losing to Bret leading into Survivor Series. They are basically the only two on the roster who can say that. Diesel goes outside again and that allows Jim Cornette to drop an elbow on Diesel's knee. I have to say that it's really interesting that this show has a TV-14 rating, but modern day WWE does not. This is nothing compared to that. Cornette gets a bunch more cheap shots in. This may be the most active I can remember seeing Cornette. Unfortunately, that means it's work on the knee time. The Canadian crowd is probably around 50% in favor of Bulldog here. Bulldog goes for the vertical suplex but Diesel blocks it and hits one of his own. Bulldog is able to go back to the knees and then puts on the Sharpshooter. Bret is ripping on him for the poor variation. Classic Bret. Bulldog gets him up for the running powerslam, but Diesel shoves his way off and hits him with a big boot. Cornette gets in the ring and the distraction doesn't work, as Bulldog runs into Cornette. Diesel then limps his way to leap on the back of Bulldog. They're on the outside in front of the announce table and Bulldog shoves Diesel into the ring post. Bulldog then slaps the headset off Bret and Bret goes after Bulldog, which causes the referee to call for disqualification. Given where they were going with these three guys, that makes sense, but it is still a terrible finish for a pay-per-view main event. Especially since the last match had a funky finish and the Yokozuna/Mabel match had no finish either. They announce Bulldog as the winner, so now Bret and Diesel go at it. Officials have to come in to attempt to break it up. Henry Godwinn and the Smoking Gunns come out to help. Diesel breaks free again and we have another brawl. Now Bam Bam Bigelow, Savio Vega, Fatu and others are out and we leave in the middle of the brawl for a fun ending. This match was actually better than I remembered, it's just really the finish that made you go "meh".
Match Rating: **
The actual ring action and storylines for this show actually were pretty fun. The finishes and booking were a little weak. This was a good example of a show not needing to exist in pay per view form. They could have done this stuff on Raw and built to Survivor Series like they did in years prior. For what it was (a throwaway show), it was mildly entertaining overall and I'm sure I liked it better than just about everyone on the planet.
Overall Rating: 48%
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