Original Airdate: Saturday, January 14th, 1995
Bob Carpenter Center
Newark, Delaware
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WWF Tag Team Championship Tournament Semifinal Match
Bam Bam Bigelow & Tatanka vs. Headshrinkers
We get a brawl to start, but Bam Bam and Tatanka make the mistake of slamming them into the mat face-first and it backfires. Sionne hits the big clothesline on Bam Bam, but misses with the second rope headbutt. He catches Bam Bam and hits a powerslam for a 2 count. Vince talks to Jim Cornette and the Heavenly Bodies during the match. A distraction from Tatanka leads to Bam Bam hitting a clothesline on Fatu. After the commercial break, Tatanka is able to hit a top rope clothesline on Fatu for a 2 count. They now interview 1-2-3 Kid and Bob Holly and something about one lap at a time. When Sionne sends Bam Bam off the ropes, it knocked Fatu off the apron. Sionne hits a powerslam on Bam Bam and then Tatanka comes in to interfere and he disposes of him. Sionne goes up to the top rope and hits a headbutt. Outside, Tatanka attacks Afa while Bam Bam kicked out. Sionne checks in on the action out of the ring and Bam Bam is able to roll him up for the victory. Sionne attacks Bam Bam after the match and then goes after Tatanka. Afa hits him with some left hands and then a Samoan drop. Fatu and Sionne go up to the top rope, but Bam Bam is able to roll Tatanka out of the ring. This was a pretty standard big man Saturday morning match.
Match Rating: *3/4
We go to Stephanie Wiand for Live Event News. We get a recap of the IRS/Undertaker feud and I determine that it's time for a nap.
We now get a WWF Week In Music segment. It's Man Mountain Rock and he's coming soon.
Jeff Jarrett vs. Mike Moraldo
Vince and King are shocked that the guest ring announcer is actually pretty good. Jarrett dominates as one would expect. He hits a superplex and then slaps on the Figure Four for the easy victory.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Diesel is out with McMahon for an interview. Vince asks if Diesel has changed since beating Bob Backlund in 8 seconds. Diesel says he smiles more because he has a lot to smile about. He says that he also talks more since he got rid of the motor mouth Shawn Michaels. Then he goes back and says that he hasn't changed because he's the same intense individual that he was before. Diesel then says that Bret wrote the book on breaking rules. He says that 1995 will be the year of the Diesel. It sure will be.
Duke Droese vs. Chris Kanyon
Droese actually gets an interview talking about slinging trash all over the ring at the Royal Rumble. Kanyon gets in some right hands, but then runs into the turnbuckle and Droese hits a back suplex. Droese hits the Trash Compactor and that's all. No one cares.
Match Rating: 1/4*
We get a Hakushi video showing some of the impressive moves we have seen so far. Vince had already given up on him.
It's time for the Royal Rumble Report. We get an interview with Bob Backlund and it's his moral duty to destroy all the wrestlers in the Rumble. Owen Hart then tells Jim Neidhart and Backlund that there are no friends in the Rumble, so sorry. We get some new names in Well Dunn and Jacob and Eli Blue, the latter haven't even debuted and Todd doesn't know who they are. Order the show now!
WWF Tag Team Championship Tournament Semifinal Match
Heavenly Bodies vs. 1-2-3 Kid & Bob Holly
This is the most excited that I have been for a Superstars match in a long time. Jerry Lawler says that the Kid and Holly have as good of a chance as Dick Murdoch has in winning the Rumble. Vince says his chances are the same as anyone. Sure. It sounds like the Smoking Gunns are back, but they just weren't back in time for the tournament. We finally get to Kid and Del Ray, which is a '95 dream match. Kid knocks him out of the ring and then brings him back in the hard way before hitting him with a superkick. He hits a nice spin kick and Del Ray falls out of the ring again. Del Ray hits a superkick to the back of the head right into a DDT from Prichard as we go into the commercial break. When we come back, Kid is able to get a hot tag to Holly and he hits a powerslam on Prichard for a 2 count. Holly hits a big dropkick and Del Ray breaks up the pin again. All four men are in there now, which allows Cornette to roll Prichard over on the Holly pin attempt. Kid then pushes Holly over again and the ref sees it this time and they get the victory. The finish was fun, but for being "underdogs", they sure dominated a lot of the match. It definitely didn't live up to my excitement, but was still better than most TV matches during this time.
Match Rating: **1/2
Back to Stephanie Wiand to talk about the WWF Championship match. They continue to focus on the Owen Hart relationship and telegraph what's coming.
Back to the ring and Vince and Lawler are with Kid and Holly. Kid can't believe it. They did it!
Just having two feature matches automatically makes this better than most Superstars episodes. Both were solid and helped get us to where we need to be for the Royal Rumble. The Diesel interview was a little on the cringe side and the squashes were uninspired, but it's 1995, what did you expect?
Overall Rating: 52%
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