Superstars 1-7-95 Review

Original Airdate: Saturday, January 7th, 1995
Bob Carpenter Center
Newark, Delaware

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Vince announces that Bart Gunn has a knee injury after his horse fell on him. Bob Holly and 1-2-3 Kid will be taking their place. His horse fell on him? 

WWF Tag Team Championship Tournament First Round Match
1-2-3 Kid & Bob Holly vs. Well Dunn

After a couple of leapfrogs, Kid hits a spin kick on Dunn and Holly hits a blind tag to get in two double dropkicks. Harvey Wippleman distracts the referee and it allows Dunn to pull down the top rope when Kid is running and fall to the floor. Well hits a reverse elbow from the top rope for a 2 count. We get a pre-recorded interview from Billy Gunn wishing 1-2-3 Kid and Bob Holly good luck. Holly gets the hot tag and hits the big dropkick on Dunn. He hits a weak looking double noggin knocker. Holly throws Well into the steps and then hits a sloppy top rope sunset flip for the victory. The action was mostly good here.

Match Rating: **

It's time for Live Event News with Stephanie Wiand to talk about exactly what Vince McMahon was talking about, which is the next round of the tournament. We get a Headshrinker interview with Captain Lou doing all the talking and lots of zoom ins and outs. We then go to Bam Bam Bigelow and Tatanka, with Ted DiBiase doing all the talking here. This time they walk side to side for an almost more annoying camera trick. 

Bob Backlund vs. Bob Knight

The Bob's explode. This is nothing and it just leads to him slapping on the Cross-Face Chickenwing. They then show him watching himself on the video board. I think this ship has sailed as a serious contender. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

It's time for the Royal Rumble Report. We get Bret Hart with a 5 o'clock shadow standing in front of some creepy thing hanging on his wall. Bret tells us he'll be back this Monday on Raw. Diesel gets the Royal Rumble background and he becomes increasingly cheesy by playing word association. We also get some new names for the Royal Rumble match with Crush, Mantaur, Jim Neidhart and Owen Hart. 

Mabel vs. Iron Mike Sharpe

Sharpe looks way too old to still be doing this. We still get lots of grunting though. Mabel hits the big splash in the corner and a leg drop for the finish. How are they going to get him over the top rope at the Royal Rumble?

Match Rating: 1/4*

It's time for the Heartbreak Hotel with King Kong Bundy. How are the going to get him over the top rope at the Royal Rumble? Shawn Michaels then reminds him that he's also in the Royal Rumble match. Did you know that there are no friends in the Royal Rumble? Bob Backlund comes to crash the party. He does his usual schtick and then British Bulldog is out to do some yelling. This was your usual interruption before a pay-per-view interview.

British Bulldog vs. Mike Khoury

I'm surprised Bulldog's pyro didn't set this building on fire. Bulldog does one of the longer vertical suplexes I can remember seeing him do. Shortly after, he hits the running powerslam and that's all. This was quick and to the point. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Mantaur vs. Walter Snow

Oh boy, this is the infamous debut of Mantaur with his horrible costume. Who in the world approved this? Oh yeah, Vince McMahon. I don't think you could have less charisma if you tried. I say that as a very uncharismatic person myself. He catches Snow for a powerslam and hits a running clothesline for the win. You couldn't have come up with a worse debut than this if you tried. This is right up there with Friar Ferguson.

Match Rating: 0 Stars

Back to Stephanie Wiand and she has an interview with 1-2-3 Kid and Bob Holly. Then we go to Jim Cornette and the Heavenly Bodies. Cornette makes fun of Holly's name, which is valid. Peacock is sure testing my patience here with 3 commercials in the last 5 minutes of this show. 

We go back to Vince and Lawler to recap the tag team match that we saw earlier. Next week, it's the Headshrinkers vs. Bam Bam and Tatanka. Plus, we'll also get the Heavenly Bodies vs. 1-2-3 Kid and Bob Holly. 

This was definitely a noteworthy show, as the 1-2-3 Kid and Bob Holly team up leads to a big WrestleMania storyline and of course the infamous debut of Mantaur. The rest was the usual filler. 

Overall Rating: 46%