I need a palette cleanser after WCW/NJPW Collision in Korea. August 27, 1995 was the eighth anniversary of WWE’s summer spectacular SummerSlam! On Into the Vault, we’ve been going through the 1995 PPVs for WCW and WWE. I have to say, it has been looking good for WWE. With the In Your House events still dragging and the company running Diesel against other big men, this is no good for the main event scene.
Good thing we have Bret, Shawn, Razor, and Double J to keep the match quality up. Hold on, this just in: I forgot the Undertaker. Oof. The Undertaker too, I suppose. Oh, something else just in: “Jarrett will be in USWA for a while.” Well, just burn the rest of 1995 for WWE PPVs. The guy was one of the heroes of 1995 for the company and he’s not at a big four PPV?
Let’s see how things turn out with WWE SummerSlam 1995!
Low-Tier
Triple H took on Bob Holly in the second bout of SummerSlam 1995 in an alright match. It wasn’t bad. That’s the best I can say about it. At this point, neither of them were anything special but 1995 Bob Holly less so. The match would’ve made for a solid match on RAW near the start but this was a B-show main event in any part of the early 90s.
Following that match was tag team action between the Smoking Gunns and the Blu Brothers. What I loved about the Blu Brothers/Harris Brothers at this time is that they looked like the illegitimate twins of Bruiser Brody. Beyond that, they were mediocre at best. Another B-show main event.
Bertha Faye taking the Women’s title from Alundra Blayze really had nothing going on. Or rather, stuff happened but this was kept to under five minutes. That’s what WWE would’ve given the women when Sable started wrestling. Blayze and Faye were both capable of longer, more involved matches in 1995. Of course, women’s wrestling in WWE was on the downswing anyway.
Once again, Diesel shows up at a venue with the WWE World title and WWE tells him to get blood from a stone again. As always, the blood is a good or exciting match and the stone this time is King Mabel.
Mid-Tier
Skip (Chris Candido) of The Bodydonnas lost to Barry Horowitz in a match that got more time than matches with established superstars. That said, I actually enjoy it. Candido was a good wrestler at the time whose worst effort was decent but when he was giving a 100-percent you’d better put him in the ring with someone really good.
Those conditions weren’t met here but this match wasn’t bad. Normally, this match would be placed to cool things down following some exciting action but again, the conditions weren’t met.
The Undertaker took on Kama the Supreme Fighting Machine in a casket match which had its moments. Re-watching TV from that year, one of the somewhat interesting storylines was Undertaker-Kama. It’s just that it didn’t materialize into an interesting PPV match up.
The match itself had the trappings of a decent-at-best contest and if you followed WWE in 1995, the match might be intriguing. I will say that it ran five or six minutes too long.
Exotic-Tier
1-2-3 Kid vs. Hakushi was probably the most perfect match on the card. It was in the right spot, had a great, fast pace, there was a good amount of action in it—for a match meant to open the show on a high note, it’s the one match with no flaws. It does its job and actually gives us a good, enjoyable match. It’s actually a sleeper since it’s the opening bout and generally, that’s a 50/50 match.
If WWE wanted to strike up the Light Heavyweight division earlier, this would’ve been the match to do it with.
Going back to needing less time, get a load of Bret vs. Isaac Yankem. It was solid at its core and with the pace of the action and Jerry Lawler on the outside, this would’ve been a Mid-Tier match. I’m not a big fan of DQs but this one continued the story so that works. If we need more Bret Hart-Jerry Lawler is another story.
The Intercontinental title match between champion HBK and Razor Ramon was a rematch of their WrestleMania X showdown. Yes, they brought out the ladder and while this doesn’t capture the magic of the first ladder match, the SummerSlam 1995 ladder match was one of the bright points on the show. Luckily, it had the right players in it.
WWE SummerSlam 1995 Verdict: 6/10
You know what? WWE finally did it in 1995. They finally pulled out a decent PPV. I actually enjoyed WWE SummerSlam 1995. Again, the company’s TV in 1995 wasn’t bad. It actually built up to the PPVs which dropped the ball time after time but they delivered a respectable show with one of their big fours.
It only took eight months and Royal Rumble 1995, WrestleMania XI, and King of the Ring 1995 failing for the company to get it right. I will say that WWE’s events improved as the year went on and that injection of Smoky Mountain Wrestling talent is helping a bit.
WWE In Your House 2 Score: 5/10
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