WRESTLING 20 YEARS AGO PODCAST

Listen to our November 1995 WWF podcast, reviewing Survivor Series in full.

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After perhaps the nadir – In Your House 4 – Vince McMahon and the WWF headed into Survivor Series in November 1995 looking to turn a new leaf. After Diesel’s latest failure in the main event of that pay per view that lead Vince McMahon to mouth “horrible” at the end of the show, all roads pointed to Diesel running out of time as WWF champion. With Bret Hart as his opponent, it all seemed too perfect.

Elsewhere, Undertaker returned wearing a terrifying face mask to protect his face after Mabel broke his orbital bone, The 123 Kid (finally) turned heel on Razor Ramon – selling out to the Million Dollar Team, and WWF counter punched WCW’s links with Japan with a four on four women’s tag team match which featured six Japanese performers… “Over to you, Jim Ross, to call the action”.

Joining Ross and McMahon on commentary was Mr Perfect, making his return.
 

Marty Jannetty, Hakushi, Barry Horrowitz and Bob Holly vs Bodydonna Skip (w/ Sunny), Rad Radford, Dr Tom Pritchard and The 123 Kid (w/ Ted DiBiase)

In the couple of years we’ve done these Survivor Series show the first match has often been one of the better ones – largely because it pits guys against each other with little focus or storyline link, creating the most coherent of all of the tag matches. Not to say this was the best, but this match did quite well given the star power involved.

The match, from a crowd standpoint, was dominated by the freshly turned 123 Kid; who was drawing a great reaction so soon after his switch. Elsewhere, Barry Horowitz was garnering a lot of positivity coming out of his Summerslam showing against Skip. Later in the match, Jannetty pins Skip with a powerbomb, then after Sid comes out and rocks Jannetty off of the ropes, The 123 Kid pins Jannetty as the sole survivor for his team. Nice action.

 
Alundrya Blayze, Kyoko Inoue, Sakie Hasegawa and Chaparita Asari vs Bertha Faye, Aja Kong, Tomoko Watanabe and Lioness Asuka (w/ Harvey Whippleman)

With only two of the performers in this match having any history with the company, and with zero build to this match, it's hardly to be overly critical when this match was largely in place just to fill time. As a viewer, if you haven't been introduced to anyone long enough to even really gauge what team their on then there's trouble afoot.

They tried, the action was OK, no better. The pins were quick, but they did at least put things together in about the most coherent way possible. The "scoreline" got to three heels on the one babyface – Blayze. She picked off Wanatabe, then pinned Faye with a very brave German suplex. Her and Aja Kong go at it for a few minutes, before Kong runs her over, slaps her and picks up the clean win. Babyface champion looks vulnerable, sets up a singles match. Job done.

 
Bam Bam Bigelow vs Goldust

This is the first of a handful of segments with a Bill Clinton impersonator, his security go nuts taking the president down when they think he's been shot – it turns out it's just Bam Bam's pyro. That was the best these segments got too, later on he'd have an awkward exchange with Bob Backlund and an even more awkward exchange with "Clinton" pouring pop corn down Sunny's cleavage.

The match itself? It says something for the fall of Bam Bam Bigelow that he's now a midcard enhancement talent, six months removed from main eventing Wrestlemania. The kicker is Bam Bam really doesn't seem that motivated at this stage, and Goldust just isn't at the races. It probably is too early to be judging the Goldust character, but it did not get off to a good start. Goldust nails a running bulldog for the win.

 
The Royal Team (Jerry Lawler, Isaac Yankem, King Mabel and Hunter Hearst Helmsley) vs The Dark Side (Savio Vega, Fatu, Henry ‘O’ Godwinn and The Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer)

If every Survivor Series opens with a generic babyfaces vs generic heels match, it also includes on match that awkwardly themes two groups for no particular reason other to get them on the show. The Royal Team involving Lawler and Mabel (sure), Yankem (Lawler's dentist... ok) and Hunter Hearst Helmsley (posh = royal) I can live with. The Dark Side with Fatu, Savio Vega and Henry 'O'Godwinn... right.

That being said we do have Undertaker looking shit scary wearing a phantom of the opera mask to cover his face. Surprised this never stuck because it created an awesome visual. The match was fine, they took a book out of the Diesel run at last year's show buy having no eliminations for ages then following it up with Undertaker absolutely running amok. He eliminates Lawler, Tombstones Yankem, hits a huge chokeslam on Helmsley then Mabel legs it (quickly too) and gets counted out. The Dark Side win 4-0.
 

Yokozuna, Owen Hart, Dean Douglas and Razor Ramon (w/ Mr Fuji) vs Sid, Bulldog, Shawn Michaels and Ahmed Johnson (w/Jim Cornette and Ted DiBiase).

So basically, Bill Watts created this idea for this wildcard match featuring faces and heels teaming against other faces and heels. Then Bill Watts left and nobody bothered a) to change it or b) to find out exactly what Watts had in mind. So we got this mis-mash of talent. The highlight was Cornette representing both sides (he had talent in both) and also pretending he didn't know he was doing so during pre match interviews.

The match got a lot of time, and built slowly with dissention teased on both sides. It wasn't great but equally it wasn't the worst dynamic to watch, as it created some interesting pairings with Shawn and Razor as babyfaces facing off. Razor gets eliminated after being distracted by the Kid, and Michaels' team win after Ahmed Johnson pins Yokozuna, leaving Johnson, Michaels and The British Bulldog (who will be main eventing In Your House 5) as the last men standing. All very logical, and at this stage they're doing a fine job with Johnson. 

 
Diesel vs Bret Hart for the WWF Championship (No Disqualification, no count out, no time limit)

They've done enough at this stage where if you still like both guys you're going to have picked sides (by the end the crowd was almost all Bret). The match starts with both guys turning to remove the turnbuckle pads – it was more symbolic than anything that would play a big part in the match, but it set the tone well.  They worked a slow, considered match, with Bret working a long portion on Diesel's leg, before he tied his ankle to the ringpost on the end of an electrical cable.

Diesel eventually manages to break free, before knocking Bret off of the apron and flying through the Spanish announcers table. Diesel drags Bret back into the ring, Bret cannot hold his own weight and collapses in position of the Jacknife. Diesel sets it again, Bret is playing possum and does a small package for a three count and we have a new champion. Diesel sits up and yells "MOTHER FUCKER" before hitting two jacknifes on Bret. It had taken him losing the title, but Diesel was about to find his 1994 mojo again.
 

Score Rating: 6.5/10
Go Back And Watch: Bret vs Diesel is a fine match, but there's an argument it's the worst of their triology. The 4 on 4 matches are nothing you need to go out of your way to see, but they're all fine for what they are, I'd skip the women's match and the Goldust one. Decent action, nothing great. By WWF 1995 standards a very good show. 

Suggested Reading:  

- ​Survivor Series 1994 Review

​- The Rise Of Diesel

Listen to our November 1995 WWF podcast, discussing Diesel's title run.

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There are many reasons why things didn't go well for Diesel at the top of the WWF in 1995. And sure, there were many things that stretched way beyond his remit as champion that caused things to head south as they did, but in wrestling (certainly in those days) things lead from the top down and Diesel, despite his impressive size, just couldn't deliver it. Today I will take a slightly self-indulgent look at how I might have booked it differently in the circumstances.

 
The Beginning: Diesel's title victory just a few days after Survivor Series 1994 was incredibly effective. Diesel defeated Bob Backlund at a Madison Square Garden house show in just eight seconds. To this day it remains the last non-televised WWE Title change (a record that will probably last forever). Backlund perhaps deserved more than the three day reign – not to mention the match length – but it was the perfect start for Big Daddy Cool.

It didn't take us long, however, to reach probably the first fork in the road. You see, Diesel as a heel bodyguard alongside Shawn Michaels spoke very little – his actions usually did the bulk of the talking. But as a face, the traditional company directive required him to cut much longer, more happy going babyface promos. It didn't work, and while he got better at promos as the run (and his career) went on, it seriously devalued his run.
 

The Royal Rumble: Diesel never had a rematch with Bob Backlund. While the plan always asked for Diesel vs Bret Hart at the show anyway, Diesel had been facing Bob Backlund on house shows in December while Bret was away. The matches were so bad they took Backlund out of them and replaced him with Jeff Jarrett. In hindsight, while facing Backlund at The Rumble would've at least given Diesel a traditional heel to work with – if it's not fit for house shows then it definitely aint fit for pay per view.

Diesel vs Bret Hart was an unavoidable, if less than ideal scenario. Diesel needed a strong start as a babyface champion, and Bret was certainly capable of providing that in ring. But as we saw with Lex Luger a year prior – Bret had a strong ability to be a lighting rod for popularity. As it was they made the best of a bad situation, Bret worked the match as a heel and it ended with interference. Meanwhile, Shawn Michaels (as a heel – just) was winning the Royal Rumble.
 
So far, so good.

 
Wrestlemania: Shawn again was another tricky one. He was a heel, but he was making varying degrees of effort to try and work that role. A bit like Bret, he was a guy who could work rings around Diesel and, if he didn't fight it, could also draw popularity away from the new champion. That being said, given their history together, the match at Mania really had to happen. At this stage there wasn't really anyone else that could've filled the spot in a semi-main behind Bam Bam Bigelow and Lawrence Taylor.

READ MORE: Wrestlemania XI Review

What I would have done differently was the way the program was presented. They had over a year of Diesel and Shawn as a backstory, this should've been played on heavily. Tease stories of Diesel being held back in Shawn's shadow, have Shawn say (which he did, to a point) that without him Diesel would be a nobody. They needed to make this feud a personal one, they failed to do that sufficiently enough.

 
Into Your House: With Shawn becoming a babyface with an almost inevitable inertia, Diesel needed a new opponent for the first In Your House. Given how the land lay with their feud, Diesel shifting into a program with Shawn's bodyguard Sid made a lot of sense, particularly once Sid attacked Michaels after he blamed him for his loss at Wrestlemania XI. But while the transition made sense, the matches in the main events just didn't. Neither could carry a main event program on the mic, and their chemistry together wasn't good.

Where could you have gone instead? Shawn was turning, not that he was trying to stop that but even if he was someone of his size, his looks, his charisma and his wrestling ability wasn't going to stay heel for that long. Instead – go with Bam Bam Bigelow. Bigelow may have lost to Lawrence Taylor in the main event of Wrestlemania, but he was a hot act. Hell, as we saw on Raw in April – he and Diesel had decent chemistry.
 

Enter, The King: Of course, in the minutes that followed Bam Bam facing Diesel on Raw in April, they turned him face. Diesel vs Sid would end up spanning three pay per views due to Diesel being injured by Sid in their first encounter at In Your House. In the mean time, Vince was loading the gun for his next crusader – Mabel. And just like King Bret Hart in 1993, and King Owen Hart in 1994 – the winner of the King Of The Ring was going to get a title shot. It was worse than you can imagine.

King of the Ring was an absolute mess – I could write a 2,000 word piece rebooking the whole thing. Put it simply – King Mabel was a big mistake. Who could've won the tournament in his place? We're pushing into fantasy booker territory here, but any number of guys could've been chosen instead. Seems easy in hindsight, but Razor Ramon was crying out for a heel turn by this stage. A proper wild card? Shane Douglas?

READ MORE: King Mabel - WWF's Biggest Mistake In 1995?
 

Beginning Of The End: Come September the biggest concern wasn't necessarily what had come before but more what could be coming next. The British Bulldog had turned, which was a positive move but Bulldog and Diesel didn't feel like a great fit. Diesel was firstly required to team up with Shawn Michaels in the Main Event of In Your House 3 against Yokozuna and Owen Hart in a match with all titles on the line. If Diesel was pinned, he would lose his WWF Title.

This gimmick angle, in a weird way, felt a little before its time. This seems like the sort of angle that from 1998 onwards would be a great way for a shock title change. You can read about the schmoz that came from Diesel pinning Owen (who wasn't in the match), but could they have changed things up here? Yokozuna was a fun act but one that had been seriously downplayed in 1995 and wasn't in the shape to carry things. Owen, once he'd blown out his feud with Bret – wasn't seen as main event material, probably quite rightly so. The more logical move, in this match at least, would've been Owen pinning Shawn to win his Intercontinental Title.

As for October against Bulldog – this match, even with a low bar, was very dissapointing. Bulldog isn't great but he's no slouch, this match should've at least been a proper slug fest. Instead we got a load of action on the floor and a screwy ending when Diesel and Bret Hart (preposterously, only on commentary on a pay per view in Winnipeg) got into an altercation. The angle did a lot for Bret's impending title victory, and did an angle that setup Bulldog facing the title winner in December – but did very little for Diesel.
 
The End: Once it got to Survivor Series the writing was on the wall. In a weird way, once the ending was inevitable things actually got interesting again. Bret and Diesel, both as babyfaces but with a growing beef with one another, had a highly entertaining exchange on the Raw before the Pay Per View. Once Diesel had lost the title he quickly pivoted back to the Diesel character of old. Big Daddy Cool was cool again, it only took a year for them to work it out. 

Listen to our August 1995 WCW Podcast, Hulk Hogan enters a live edition of the Dungeon of Doom. 

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It's hard to place the Dungeon Of Doom in a timeline of WCW history. It's actually hard to place the Dungeon Of Doom full stop. An utterly bizarre combination of irrelevant or near-irrelevant wrestlers in a setting that was even more bizarre. It's difficult to work out what WCW set out to achieve when they first debuted the idea, and that became even less clear as the time and months came on.

We should, first, take a step back to the end of 1994. WCW had formed Kevin Sullivan, Avalanche and The Butcher formed together as "The Three Faces Of Fear" – a group that had aligned to try and take down Hulk Hogan. After a series of dismal matches – including perhaps the most undeserving main event in Starrcade history - the group imploded in on itself and Avalanche, Sullivan and Butcher (kinda, sorta) went their own different ways.

Hogan, having dispatched of The Butcher, turned his attentions to Vader in the opening third of 1995. But being no stranger to people attempting to "end Hulkamania" would not be feuding with Savage, Sting or even the returning Ric Flair – who Hogan "retired" prior to his feud with the Three Faces of Fear.

The genesis of the Dungeon Of Doom happened at Slamboree in May 1995. After a horrid match between Kevin Sullivan and "The Man With No Name" (The Butcher, who had suffered a personality crisis... I think), King Curtis Iaeuka came on the screen and started shouting some nonsense. Sullivan, acting like he was possessed, followed blindly high into the bleachers before disappearing, and we saw nothing of him for the rest of the show.

I may be overstating it saying that this was the last moment that really made sense, it's probable it never did. But WCW Saturday Night bought us the first of a series of regular TV segments that... well, I'll get to them. The first promo involves Sullivan being beckoned through a forest with the bellowing words of Iaueka ringing in his ears. Bizarre, given that most wrestlers seem to find their way to the Dungeon without even trying to be there, so quite why he needed to run there I've no idea. Again, best not to overanalyse this – just move and fire.

Into the Dungeon itself, like something out of The Crystal Maze. Iaeuka is sat on a throne, and talks Sullivan around into taking on the task of yes, you guessed it, attempting to take down Hulkamania. Sullivan doesn't even want to at first, but then gets magically repackaged as "The Taskmaster" - now wearing some black face paint and some Hogan colour inspired track pants.

There was no shortage of the vortex pulling powers of the Dungeon, and a group of familiar faces soon appeared. Avalanche was back, now without any semblance of subtlety shouting "SHARK ATTACK, SHARK ATTACK", holding his right arm in a shark fin pose with his left arm. He was now called "The Shark". Ed Leslie went from a man with no name to "The Zodiac"…... yeah, oh and Kamala is here. Iaeuka had given Taskmaster a group of warriors fit to take down Hulkamania.

Unsurprisingly, they didn't. They were at least able to beckon Hogan to the Dungeon, Hogan landed and said "where am I", which proved at least that he wasn't watching WCW Saturday Night. Hogan went over to a fountain of water, held out his hand before recoiling sharply in pain. "AH, it's not hot" - said Hogan. (I'm trying here, I really am).

But the Dungeon of Doom did at least bring us The Giant. Paul Wight was a 7ft 2inch wrestler bought in essentially to be Andre The Giant. Literally, he was bought in as the son of Andre. As WCW attempted to recreate the WWF roster of the mid-80s, they assembled Hogan and Savage, recreated Andre and, when The Ultimate Warrior couldn't be bought, created a crappy imitation of him called "The Renegade".

At least, though, the company attempted to make something of The Giant. The rest of the group were absolutely useless, often losing in three, four and five on one attacks against Hogan. Were they a good foil for Giant? Maybe, but it certainly harmed the credibility of the group that there was so much fodder. Hell, they could've built Giant with exactly the same momentum as they did without the Dungeon.

But build them they did. August bought along the Clash Of The Champions. Hogan, not wrestling on that show ($), but did wrestle in the pre-show against Kamala. After a predictably horrendous match out ran the rest of the Dungeon (minus the Giant). Hogan actually seemed to have the whole thing handled rather easily but Randy Savage still ran out to make the save.
This paled in comparison to what took place on the show itself. They advertised a live Dungeon of Doom segment, promising Hogan would once again be entering it. Again, if you approach this logically they seem to be implying that the Dungeon itself was in Daytona Beach, or that there was a portal backstage to help them get there.

But Hogan just walked in... (through the official entrance). He tells Taskmaster to bring all that he's got. Giant comes from behind and drives Hogan into the ground, followed by a comedically cartoonish attack from the rest of the Dungeon. More bizarrely still was Vader and Sting coming to Hogan's aid from behind the camera – the Dungeon had one entrance, until it didn't.

They wanted to align a story that Hogan and Vader were being bought together in an attempt to take down the Dungeon Of Doom. WCW's best booking answer was seemingly to pile all of their top talent onto the babyface side (Sting, Savage and Hogan were joined by Vader, Luger once Vader left and for a brief period in September – Flair) in an attempt seemingly to clear the path for the Giant.

The Dungeon did at least add Meng to its ranks. On one of the podcasts in the middle of 1994 I (somewhat preposterously) argued that such was the unstoppable push they were giving Meng that they could set him up as fodder for Hogan at Starrcade. As farfetched as this was it's hard to believe it could've been any worse than what they actually went with. Mid-1994 Meng was being used as an enforcer, a year later he was still being maintained but in matches that were far too long for him to ever draw effectively. He joined the Dungeon wearing a Giant mask and now weilding a spike. What had become of legitimately one of the toughest members of the roster?

In September we got to find out as Meng, with no real backstory at all, was added to the group. He would team with Zodiac, Shark and Kamala to face the team of Hogan, Sting, Savage and Vader. That was until Vader got suspended for getting into a fight backstage with Paul Orndorff. Vader, in more ways that one, was replaced by Lex Luger for the match.

I've written before about my general disdain for the War Games match and this one was no different. The Dungeon of Doom just weren't over, or credible. It seemed like Hogan eventually decided "Ah, now's the time to end the match" - so he locked in a submission on Zodiac who gave up.

Again though, in amongst this sea of darkness was the unforgiving yet seemingly quite effective push of The Giant. In the pre show on WCW Main Event, Hogan was hanging out with some fans sat on his bike. Then, seemingly out of nowhere emerged a monster truck all decked out in Dungeon of Doom regalia, driven by the Giant. Hogan, Okerlund and the fans scarpered as the truck ran over the motorbike more than once.

At the end of the War Games match, Giant emerged and attacked Hogan, violently "snapping his neck", this attempt at murder put Hogan off of TV for a whole two weeks – he was still producing video packages where he was "doing lifts" (well, lifts of the title belt) using his broken neck.

Then, randomly, Hogan started coming out dressed entirely in black. Depending on what you want to track, Hogan's heel tendancies either showed themselves during his first night in the company (he was booed), his first few matches (back rakes, eye pokes, steel chairs – heel 101) or at the time where he decided his "bad side" was coming. When Kevin Sullivan came out of the crowd at a Nitro dressed as an old woman and started attacking him, before sheering off his mustache, it certainly created a different vibe. Giant snapped Hogan's neck again for good luck (presumably), the Immortality of Hulkamania was definitely on show.

Then came Halloween Havoc, possibly the high point of everything, let alone simply The Dungeon of Doom. The monster truck angle at Fall Brawl was "paid off" here, with a monster truck sumo match pitting The Giant's Dungeon of Doom truck against the Hulkamania truck (complete with roided arms), this was before the two would face each other for the WCW World Heavyweight Title.

The sumo monster truck match, if you want to call it that, was largely a disappointment. With the trucks welded together and driving against each other it didn’t make much of spectacle, even if Hogan’s truck did Hulk up at one stage. It was the quintessential Hogan match, he eventually “won” after his truck drove Giant’s truck out of the circle.

Then things got weird.

Giant and Hogan exited their trucks, entering into a shouting match and a getting into a struggle by the edge of the building. Giant and Hogan ended up on the ledge of the building, before Hogan went to bat Giant away, Giant lost his balance and fell off the building. Five stories up, and kinda sorta surrounded by the Detroit River (Cobo Hall was actually surrounded by a car park, but the river ran close enough where WCW could’ve got away with it if they wanted it).

Hogan walked out for the main event, ready to explain that Giant had died, presumably. Then Giant walked out... unharmed.  He wasn't even wet. In the 15 minutes since his purported fall to either a car park or the Detroit River, he... well, I dunno. Giant wrestling his second ever match held his own, the match wasn't a classic, nor was it even good, but it held its own. Eventually Jimmy Hart interferes, turns on Hogan (causing Giant to win by DQ... somehow) and we end the show with Hogan getting dry humped by the Yeti and Giant, Luger coming out and turning on Randy Savage – the whole thing was a schmoz.

It's hard to really have an opinion on the Dungeon of Doom. Time has turned a horrendous angle into something oddly nostaglic, something so bad that it has become good. But if you want to apply this from 1995 it's very little more than a gravy train for Hogan's friends to get some main event time during a run where they were clearly being outshadowed by the next generation.

The booking of The Giant since his early appearances in the early part of the summer was actually very strong, but let's not confuse the issue too much – The Giant got good in spite of his connection with the Dungeon of Doom, not because of it. If they were trying to recreate Hogan vs Andre it's quite tricky to work out why they didn't do just that, hell, bring Bobby Heenan out from behind the announcers table and remake the feud.

The group would continue in WCW for a while yet, but once the feud had broken with Hogan (which it didn’t, fully, until early 1996), the group became far less relevant. Mercifully the Dungeon segments rarely made it to Monday Nitro, and as that show pivoted and became more important so did the influence of the group on WCW storylines. Nostalgic? Maybe. Utterly horrible? Yes.