Original Airdate: Monday, January 16th, 1995
The Summit
Houston, Texas
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We get a William Shatner themed intro to hype up Bret Hart vs. Jeff Jarrett.
Heavenly Bodies vs. 1-2-3 Kid & Bob Holly
Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels are in front of the greenest of screens here tonight. I get to watch a rematch of the match I just finished watching. The Bodies attack Kid and Holly as they enter the ring. They hit a double elbow before Del Ray starts choking Kid. Del Ray follows up with "a little chin music" according to Shawn. The Bodies hit their suplex/leg drop on Holly. Del Ray hits a nice snap suplex. He goes for a crossbody off the second rope, but Holly rolls over and gets a 2 count. Out come Bam Bam Bigelow and Tatanka to take a look. Prichard hits a second rope knee drop and Holly kicks out. Holly ducks a double clothesline and leaps into their arms, causing them to collide. In comes 1-2-3 Kid with lots of kicks on both Bodies, but Prichard slows him down. They go for a double clothesline, but Holly runs in and spears Prichard, Kid hits a Perfect Plex and gets the victory. I liked this one better than Superstars and it was about half as long. Tatanka and Bam Bam aren't impressed.
Match Rating: **3/4
We go back to Bret Hart and William Shatner. Bret says that there is no rust in his blood. I'd sure hope not. Shatner says that he doesn't need anyone to watch his back and then calls Roadie, Road Kill.
Mantaur vs. Jason Arndt
Mantaur has no helmet this time and has instead traded it for Jim Cornette. Vince does reference the helmet for what it's worth. I know they were getting desperate here in 1995, but I'm not really sure what they saw in Mantaur. He hits a belly bop for the finish. Just terrible stuff.
Match Rating: 1/4*
It's time for the Royal Rumble Report and it's this Sunday. We get an interview from Undertaker and Paul Bearer and they say the same thing they always say. We also get a "live" Jeff Jarrett interview as he's headed to the ring and Todd predicts Bret Hart to win.
Jeff Jarrett vs. Bret Hart
This is actually a pretty big match by 1995 standards. Bret has Jarrett reeling early on, hitting a lot of his set up offense and then working on his arm. Jarrett ducks a clothesline, but Bret puts on the sleeper hold. Jarrett is able to counter out with a back suplex and follows it up with a dropkick into a commercial break. It doesn't take long for Bret to regain control and before you know it, he's hitting the second rope elbow drop. Bret ties Jarrett in the ropes, but Roadie helps him out before Bret can get there and misses with a leap. Jarrett goes for the Figure Four and locks it in. Bret is able to get to the bottom rope and then we get a roll up by Jarrett. Bret counters it and pulls off the victory. That match felt like it was going to have an extra 5 minutes or so. After the match, Shatner attacks Roadie and then throws him out of the ring. The match was solid, but I was expecting a little bit more.
Match Rating: **1/2
Ted DiBiase is with his group of bums for the King's Court. He runs down what's going to happen for each member of his group. That was a lot of nothing.
Mabel vs. Lee Toblin
Toblin decides that it would be a good idea to just run right at Mabel and it backfires. This all leads to Vince wondering how in the world is anyone going to get Mabel over the top rope? Shawn wisely says that he doesn't have to, even if his math is off on saying the other 29 guys will do it for him. Mabel hits his enzuigiri, but then Tobin hits Mabel with some left hands. Mabel doesn't like that and hits a clothesline. The leg drop finishes it. Whoomp there it is, indeed. We're only 5 short months away from King Mabel.
Match Rating: 1/4*
After the match, Mabel interviews with Shawn and Vince. He says he's the biggest and the baddest, so he will win the Rumble. Out comes King Kong Bundy to dispute that claim and Mabel challenges him to go right now. Mabel goes into the ring as we go to commercial break. When we come back, nothing happens and Vince just tells us that the Smoking Gunns will get a shot at whomever wins the Tag Team Championship match at Royal Rumble. That leads us to a Diesel highlight video to close out the show.
Like most of this era, there were some highs and some extreme lows. Mantaur should have never been on TV again after these tapings and the Million Dollar Corporation continues to be absolutely pointless. The two feature matches were both solid here though, so it's hard not to say this was at least pretty good TV.
Overall Rating: 50%
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