Original Airdate: Saturday, February 25th, 1995
West Palm Beach Auditorium
West Palm Beach, Florida
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2
Gorilla Monsoon is here with Vince McMahon this week. No complaints here, even if 1995 Gorilla is a lot different.
20 Man Battle Royal
Your competitors are British Bulldog, King Kong Bundy, 1-2-3 Kid, Mantaur, Duke Droese, Jerry Lawler, Adam Bomb, Headshrinkers, Kwang, Jacob Blu, Eli Blu, Mabel, Henry Godwinn, Bob Holly, Heavenly Bodies, Aldo Montoya, Mo and Shawn Michaels. For some reason Mabel is introduced, but not Mo. Also, Kwang got a televised entrance but not the Headshrinkers or Henry Godwinn. Shawn Michaels eliminates himself to protect himself headed into his WWF Championship match at WrestleMania. This episode was taped 2 days after he won the Royal Rumble and airing a month later. This is every meaningless battle royal you have ever seen. We come back from a commercial break and it's still a bunch of guys standing around. Droese is eliminated pretty early, which is a little surprising considering who is all still left in here. Mabel eliminates Godwinn in another surprise. I guess if I were booking this, I would have had Godwinn be one of the final people left. Mantaur eliminates Adam Bomb, which is something to put on your resume. This match is already at 1/3rd of the runtime of this episode. Bundy and Mantaur team up and eliminate Mabel after a lengthy struggle. Then Mantaur and Bulldog team up and eliminate Bundy as he is arguing with Mabel. Lots of Mantaur. Bob Holly gets eliminated and then Lawler does a Kofi Kingston and hops on one foot when he gets thrown over. Out comes Bret Hart and for whatever reason, Lawler hops around the ring instead of just into it. Bret attacks him and both feet hit and he is gone. For some reason Kwang is still in there, so Bulldog eliminates him. 1-2-3 Kid is tossed over and then Bulldog eliminates Mantuar. We're down to Bulldog and one of the Blu brothers. Bulldog has him up and about to be thrown over, but Michaels comes back out and hits Bulldog in the midsection to break it up. We stay with Michaels walking back to the locker room and we see Bulldog duck Blu and he goes flying over the top rope. Bulldog is the winner of this prestigious battle royal where you get nothing for winning. Leave it to Vince to call it prestigious 10 times. This was about as dull as you can get and if I'm booking it, I'd have Godwinn win it or at least be in the finals. I get that they had nothing for Bulldog, so this was their way of trying to prove he still mattered.
Match Rating: 3/4*
Next, we get more talk about Diesel being cool and hanging out with Cal Ripken Jr. We're only 5 weeks now from WrestleMania.
Ben Jordan vs. Jeff Jarrett
We get the original Miz to be ring announcer and that's Steve Mizerak. Apparently, he played pool. Talk about sucking up airtime, Jarrett is doing all sorts of stalling before and during the match. Jarrett's ringwork during this era has been very solid, but the gimmick is just so lame. The Roadie makes it work better than it has any right to, but Jarrett's mic work is terrible. Jarrett hits a superplex and then slaps on the Figure Four for the victory.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Man Mountain Rock vs. Bob Cook
Rock misses in the corner and then Cook punches his own hand a couple of times. Rock shoves him down with a shoulder block in his tie dye pajamas. He hits a face-first suplex for the victory and that's all. Rock continues to stink.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Owen says that he's coming up next and he's wondering why he can't get a title match with the Smoking Gunns.
We then go to John Turturro interrogating Paul Bearer in a dress about Yokozuna. The lights go out and when they come back on, Mr. Fuji has the dress on. What?
Owen Hart vs. Gary Scott
It's good to see Michael Scott's brother getting some TV time. So obviously Jim Neidhart is gone because Owen is teaming with Bob Backlund on Action Zone and then Owen still wants a partner for the titles. I can't wait for him to return as Who. Scott is a house of fire, but then Owen hits him with a belly to belly suplex. Owen slaps on the Sharpshooter and picks up the win.
Match Rating: 1/4*
They talk about Lawrence Taylor's announcement as Owen celebrates and we go off the air.
The battle royal took up about half of the show and while it was better than your typical squash match, it wasn't particularly interesting either. There have been many worse episodes than this one though, so it's about the usual score for me here.
Overall Rating: 38%
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