King Of The Ring 1995 Review

Sunday, June 25th, 1995
CoreStates Spectrum
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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We get an overhead shot of Philadelphia and then go to Stephanie Wiand. She lets us know that we are getting the bonus match of IRS vs. Savio Vega, which means that we are getting the Coliseum Video version of the show.

Bonus Match
King Of The Ring Qualifying Match
IRS vs. Savio Vega

For the 0 of you that care, this will not factor into the final grade. Even with this bonus match, the show is only 2 hours and 36 minutes. I will say that they do a nice job of presenting that if either of these two want to win it all, they will have to win 4 matches tonight. Savio then wisely is going for a quick victory. We get some decent action and then all of a sudden it kind of just ends with a kick. This was decent for what it was. 

Match Rating: *3/4

King Of The Ring Quarterfinal Match
Yokozuna vs. Savio Vega

Savio gets to do the 10 slams into the turnbuckle spot, which I didn't expect to see. This just feels very much like 1995. What kind of president makes a guy wrestle two matches in a row rather than have the other matches go first? I didn't mention it in the previous match, but Razor Ramon is in Savio's corner. This match is already longer than I anticipated. The crowd starts chanting "USA" for the guy who isn't born in the USA. Savio tries to give everything he can to knock Yoko down. He hits the spin kick and that does the trick. Out comes Owen Hart in a suit and he attacks Razor from behind. Razor goes after him and Yoko gets involved. It all leads to Savio winning by countout in a weak finish. 

Match Rating: 3/4*

We get a live interview with Jerry Lawler and more feet jokes. 

King Of The Ring Quarterfinal Match
Roadie vs. Bob Holly

It really is amazing that they had almost 17,000 people in attendance for this show. No wonder Philadelphia folks are so salty. They show Bob Holly beating Mantaur and that was 6 weeks ago. Can you imagine them doing a qualifying match 6 weeks before anything these days? Holly goes for a series of quick pin attempts right off the bat and the crowd already doesn't care. To their credit, it's not because the action isn't good. They battle up on the ropes and Holly is able to knock Roadie off. He leaps off the top rope and Roadie is able to get his foot up. That surprisingly is enough for the victory. I assumed that they'd at least have Jeff Jarrett hold a leg or something. This was a good enough TV style match with minimal heat. 

Match Rating: **

Todd Pettengill is with Shawn Michaels and they show highlights from him beating King Kong Bundy. Michaels is acting a little heelish, but also talks about some "chin music". I doubt this is the first time him saying it, but it's the first time I can remember it. 

King Of The Ring Quarterfinal Match
Kama vs. Shawn Michaels

This was really a transformational time for Michaels here. He lost significant weight since 1993, hardly wrestled in 1994 and is now a babyface learning his character. Kama on the other hand has shown nothing to make anyone interested in his character. It's mostly Michaels in the beginning and then Kama hits a kick to the ribs and clotheslines Michaels to the floor. Kama sets Shawn on the top rope and kicks him, with Shawn bouncing around for him. Shawn is on the floor again and this time Ted DiBiase takes a few cheap shots at him. They show a countdown timer and we are close to 2 minutes left. Michaels fires back with a clothesline and then hammers away with some right hands. Michaels hits the double ax handle off the top rope, but Kama kicks out at 2. Michaels hits a reverse crossbody off the second rope, but Kama rolls through and gets a nice nearfall. Michaels rolls Kama up in a small package and he kicks out at 2. Their timing is a little off on a sunset flip, but the ref recovers decently and the count stopped at 2 before time expires. This was another decent enough match, but again more of a TV match. I'm more surprised that Shawn agreed to this. Undertaker must have sat him down backstage. Kama tries to attack him, but then Michaels hits Sweet Chin Music and for some reason Dok Hendrix is upset he didn't win. 

Match Rating: **1/4

After hyping up the Mabel/Undertaker match, we go to Bob Backlund in Philadelphia. Vince likes this more than anyone.

King Of The Ring Quarterfinal Match
Mabel vs. Undertaker

They try to tell us that Mabel is going to win this thing, as he gets an interview down to the ring. Taker quickly takes Mabel down with a clothesline and hits Old School. Mabel gets his chance and hits a belly to belly suplex before putting on a chin lock. The action spills outside and Mabel throws Undertaker face first into the steps. Mo gets in a cheap shot, but is almost caught. Undertaker is able to get his boots up in the corner, but Mabel comes back with a piledriver. Mabel looks gassed already. They then collide in the middle of the ring. We get a referee bump spot and then Taker hits a leaping clothesline. Taker then hits a chokeslam and then knocks Mo off the apron. The ref is still down, but Taker covers him anyways. Out comes Kama and attacks Kama from behind. Mabel hits a leg drop and Mabel wins. I mean, how did they think this would get over? Mabel, Roadie and Savio Vega are your final 3. Undertaker then follows Kama down the aisle and to the back. 

Match Rating: 1/2*

They show a recap of the WWF Hall Of Fame ceremony. 

King Of The Ring Semifinal Match
Savio Vega vs. Roadie

They are obviously hyping up the fact that this is Savio's third match tonight. Todd Pettengill is with Roadie and Jeff Jarrett as Savio is entering and they cut a generic promo. The crowd is sitting on their hands for this one, as you would expect. Roadie and Savio Vega have had about a combined 10 matches in the WWF before this show, so why would anyone care? Plus, they already know Mabel is winning and not a single person wanted that to happen. Roadie misses with a second rope splash. Savio comes back with a big boot for a 2 count. Jarrett grabs the leg of Savio while he is running the ropes. Jarrett gets up on the apron and Roadie stops short of running into him. Savio pushes Roadie into him and rolls him up for the victory. Savio celebrates with Razor after the match. This was pretty meh. Savio cuts a promo in Spanish and Dok "translates" it. 

Match Rating: *

We get a Bret Hart backstage promo and this really is the worst version of Bret unfortunately. I am just a few days/weeks away from becoming a fan of wrestling and Bret was my favorite. This was easily his biggest down period as a character that I can recall. 

Lawler gets a quick interview on the way to the ring. 

Kiss My Foot Match
Jerry Lawler vs. Bret Hart

Bret goes right after Lawler with some right hands. Lawler is able to throw Bret into the steps and Dok reminds us that Bret hurt his shoulder "earlier today" on the Action Zone against Henry Godwin. Back in the ring, Lawler hits the piledriver in the middle of the ring. He doesn't cover him and instead plays to the crowd. He hits a second piledriver and gloats some more. He hits yet another piledriver and nonchalantly covers him, but Bret kicks out. Bret tries to battle back, but Lawler rakes his eyes and throws him out of the ring. The referee hits Bret with his boot, which I'm not sure why that would hurt any more than a kick. Bret kicks out of that too. Lawler takes off his boot again and tries to shove it in Bret's face. He blocks it and trips him up so that he can hit a headbutt to the midsection. Lawler once again jabs the boot into Bret's face. He hits the dreaded fist off the second rope and Bret again kicks out at 2. Bret battles back and out comes Hakushi and Shinja. Shinja distracts the referee and Lawler hold Bret. Bret ducks and Hakushi hits Lawler. He throws Lawler back in the ring and hits the side Russian leg sweep. Bret slaps on the Sharpshooter and gets the victory. He holds on after the bell and breaks the hold just in time to beat the referee's count. Between this and his match with Backlund, I would say they are probably the two weakest matches in his pay-per-view career for WWF. After the match, Bret gets up on the turnbuckle and takes off his boot. Lawler tries to crawl away, so Bret attacks him. Out come Hakushi and Shinja again and it once again leads to Hakushi hitting Lawler. Bret throws him out of the ring. Lawler then gets Bret's foot right in his face, with a little bit of toe getting into his mouth. Bret then takes Lawler's boot off and makes him kiss his own stinky foot. What a time to be alive. 

Match Rating: *1/2

King Of The Ring Finals
Mabel vs. Savio Vega

Well, if you didn't think Savio got a great reaction the other 3 matches, let me tell you, this time was no better. They show the Rocky statue outside the arena and compare Savio to Rocky. This is the type of role that maybe a guy like Tito Santana or a guy like that where the crowd was always invested in but never won the big one could pull off. Savio is just some guy that came out of nowhere a few weeks ago. Savio gets off to the hot start and clotheslines Mabel over the top rope. He's then able to slam Mabel into the steps. Mabel is able to just toss Savio into the steps. Lots of steps today. Mabel slows it down to a crawl and it's time for this one to just end. Vince hears the crowd chanting and says "Listen to this" and it's an "E-C-W" chant. Not only is Vince a horrible human, he's also a moron. Savio rolls up Mabel, but only gets a 2. He hits the spin kick, which is very similar to the one that Kwang would hit. Once again, Mabel kicks out. Mabel catches Savio and hits a slam, but Savio gets his shoulder up. Mabel hits a splash and this time that's it. All hail, King Mabel. Mo gets in Razor's face after the match, so Razor hits him with a right hand. The numbers game catches up and they go after Razor's injured ribs. Mabel hits him with a second rope elbow drop. Out comes 1-2-3 Kid and he attacks them both. Again, the two on one catches up. They try for the same thing, but this time a group of referees stop him. This was all awful.

Match Rating: 1/4*

We get the coronation ceremony and I'm sure this will go over well with the live crowd. There is some trash thrown at the stage, with a cup hitting Mabel in the head. Mo takes forever to read the scroll, as the trash continues to be thrown. As Mabel is finally crowned, they show Savio Vega being restrained by referees. Then they show 1-2-3 Kid and Razor Ramon as well. Apparently the referees in 1995 were pretty tough. 

We then go back to Jerry Lawler in the back using mouth wash, gagging on toothpaste and barfing. 

We go to Stephanie Wiand with Sid, Tatanka and Ted DiBiase. They tell us tonight that they're actually going to tell us their plan and it's to attack Diesel's injured elbow. 

Todd Pettengill is with Diesel and Bam Bam Bigelow, who are still in street clothes while Sid and Tatanka are on their way to the ring. So obviously live.

Sid & Tatanka vs. Bam Bam Bigelow & Diesel

They quickly go after Diesel's elbow with Sid slamming it into the ring post. Diesel does tag in Bam Bam and he hits a second rope splash. DiBiase had the referee distracted as if the match was going to end 2 minutes into it. Tatanka and Sid are able to slow down Bam Bam's momentum and I still can't believe that they thought this was a main event of a pay-per-view. Diesel is in for a little bit and hurts his elbow again on an elbow drop and tags Bam Bam back in. Diesel does get another crack at it and hits Tatanka with a big boot. I will give the Philly crowd some credit here, even after this dumpster fire of a show, they are still very much into Diesel. Diesel hits the Jackknife on Tatanka, but then pulls him up in the middle of the pin. He says that he wants Sid. Sid then heads to the back and he too is pelted with some garbage. Diesel hits an elbow on Tatanka and pins him for the victory. What a terrible ending to a show. The match wasn't good, but it certainly wasn't terrible or anything. There just wasn't much interesting about it and it certainly was not something that should have been the main event of a big show. Diesel and Bam Bam celebrate to some fireworks and we're all done.

Match Rating: *1/2

There's no way that you can tell me that when they were putting this show together that they didn't realize it was going to suck. I mean Roadie, Savio Vega and Mabel? Come on. The only thing nice I can say about this show is that it moved along at a decent pace compared to like a December To Dismember, which felt like it dragged. Other than that, this is an absolute turd of a show. 

Overall Rating: 16%