Would You Go To This Show? Volume 2

The date is June 30th, 1995. Mabel has just won the KOTR and the WWF is promoting this show around the Diesel/Sid feud that hasn’t really caught on with fans. Quite a few top names or good workers are missing from the show too. Let’s see how this impacts the decision of Bob, Matt and Brandon when it comes to attending the show or not.

Alright, we are back with the second installment of “Would You Go To This Show”. This time around we venture off to the World Wrestling Federation holding a show in Maryland shortly after the King of the Ring pay per view. I’ll follow my same format as the previous installment and look at the title matches and undercard separate. Let’s start with the undercard first this time.

• Skip defeating Doink the Clown
• The Smoking Gunns defeating Jacob & Eli Blu
• Sir Mo defearted the 1-2-3 Kid
• Bam-Bam Bigelow defeated Jean Pierre Lafitte
• Hunter Hearst Helmsley defeated Aldo Montoya
• Savio Vega defeating King Mabel by count-out

Alright, at first glance there isn’t a lot of interesting matches here. First off, Doink by 1995 was ridiculous and uninteresting. The character had lost a lot steam by early ’94 and was really just a jobber to the more important wrestlers at the time. Besides, Matt Bourne was the master of the gimmick. Chris Candido would probably put forth a good effort, but that just doesn’t hold my interest. The same goes for the Gunns/Blu Brothers Mania rematch. I can’t believe Kid had to do the JOB to freaking Sir Mo. I bet Kid made him look good, though. I do believe that Bigelow/Lafitte would be a good match, if Bigelow put forth the effort. I have watched a few 1995 house shows and Lafitte always seemed to be wanting to put on a show for the crowds. Hunter/Aldo would be a decent match even if it were to be “by the book” so to speak. Lastly, the KOTR finals rematch with Vega/Mabel is a nice addition to the show. I would have figured Mabel to get a clean win over Vega since he was going to be getting a World Championship match, but the protection of Vega is nicely done, too. The undercard just isn’t strong with ther ereally being only one match, Bigelow/Lafitte, that would really catch my interest. So, this isn’t looking too good. Let’s focus on the title matches,now.

• WWF Womens Champion Alundra Blayze defeated Bertha Faye
• WWF Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett defeated Adam Bomb
• WWF World Tag Team Champions Owen Hart & Yokozuna defeated Lex Luer & Davey Boy Smith
• WWF World Champion Diesel defeated Psycho Sid inside a steel cage

Yikes. Once again this isn’t a strong core of matches. I’ve never been a fan of women’s wrestling and really the only match at the time I would want to see is Blayze/Nakano. That would be a fun match to see in person. I don’t recall Adam Bomb being all that important on WWF television, so I would have a hard time finding the motivation to want to see him wrestle Jarrett. I’d imagine if Razor Ramon was healthy he would’ve been in this spot. The tag team title match is one of the matches I would want to watch and feel like it would be a good match. Luger isn’t the greatest in the ring but with the guys involved, I feel like he would be carried to a fun match. I’ve got faith in Owen Hart, folks. I’m a sucker for steel cage matches, but I can’t imagine Diesel/Sid being anything good. I’ve watched their matches in ’95 and their matches in WCW during ’99 – ’00. I don’t see myself leaving a happy customer.

Bob’s Verdict:
There is essentially two matches that I would want to watch on this show. Bigelow/Lafitte and the tag team title match. So, 2 matches out of 10. Why the hell would I even bother with this show? I don’t even think I would take a free ticket to the show. There isn’t any Ramon, Bret, Taker, Hakushi, or Shawn Michaels. A lot of draws for the company missing from this show. I would have skipped this show without a doubt.

That’s one big NO from Bob. Let’s go to Matt Peddycord from You can visit Matt’s website PDRWrestling, where I got my start, by clicking HERE!

Goodness gracious, they just threw like 80-90% of the roster at us on this show. The small number of guys not appearing here just off the top of my head would be: Bret Hart, Undertaker, and Shawn Michaels. Razor Ramon doesn’t appear either, but I think he was still injured. Who else? Hmm. Umm. Bob Backlund? Tatanka? Man Mountain Rock? If I’m having to pull out Man Mountain Rock, I can’t think of anyone else. Whatever it was that they were charging you to come out to the Baltimore Arena on this night, you got your money’s worth just from the sheer amount of WWF superstars appearing unless this was a real stinker with TEN WHOLE MATCHES. In that case, you might have wanted to shoot yourself. I mean, you could just walk out like if you were watching a bad movie. Shooting yourself seems a little drastic. What I’m here to ponder today here is would I have wanted to attend this show. Let’s take a look at this card match-by-match starting with the main event.

1)WWF World Champion Diesel vs. Sid inside a STEEL CAGE = Alright, you knew Diesel and Sid weren’t going to tear the house down. Individually, they needed a Bret Hart or a Shawn Michaels to have a good match. What I got to see on Raw after recently recapping the June 1995 Raws in the build to the ‘King of the Ring’ tag team main event of Diesel and Bam Bam Bigelow against Sid and Tatanka sucked, which is why the ‘Kiss My Foot’ match was pushed so heavily. Even though it’s a cage match and that’s supposed to peak my interest, I wouldn’t say that what was happening on TV at the time would have got me to come to the arena to see this match. There’s your first NO and a big one.

2)WWF Tag Team Champions Owen Hart & Yokozuna vs. Allied Powers = Now this wouldn’t be so bad. Plenty of talent to make even the formula tag match feel special. Put simply, this would get a YES from me.

3)Savio Vega defeated King Mabel via count-out = If I had just seen this on a PPV, I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to see how terrible this match would have been on a house show. If I had to guess, Savio hits Mabel with the Spinning Heel Kick and knocked him out of the ring for the ten count. Just a hunch. This is our second NO.

4) Hunter Hearst Helmsley defeated Aldo Montoya = Helmsley was just about two months into his Blue Blood character and was yet to be very interesting. This might be a little competitive, but doubtful if it would be very good. NO thank you.

5)WWF IC Champion Jeff Jarrett defeated Adam Bomb = Plain and simple, I’m an Adam Bomb mark. Don’t ask me why. If Jarrett is bumping all over the place for this man, I’m sold. So, YES.

6)Bam Bam Bigelow defeated Jean Pierre Lafitte = I’m intrigued. Bigelow is quite possibly the greatest big man ever in the business and Carl Oulette is fun to watch when he wants to be. I don’t know for sure whether it would be good or not, but I want to see it just from what is on paper. Another YES.

7) Sir Mo defeated the 1-2-3 Kid = Not interested in the Men on a Mission push. I don’t know where it came from or why it happened. Frankly, I don’t know anyone who does know the full story. No matter how good the 1-2-3 Kid is, I wouldn’t want to see him face Sir Mo. Put this down as a NO.

8) The Smoking Gunns defeated Jacob & Eli Blu = The Smoking Gunns were okay. What I remember most about them as a kid is I thought they had cool double-team finishers. There was just something missing about them. They never had that four-star match that I wanted to see out of them. This example certainly would not generate anything close to four stars and I doubt they could even deliver their big finishers to either of the Blu Brothers for me to see it live. This gets a NO from me.

9)WWF Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze defeated Bertha Faye = I never really dug Bertha Faye. I felt like with her size, she could have been more of a bully similar to your Aja or Awesome Kongs. Instead, she was more of a joke. No wonder Madusa threw the belt in the trash. It was meaningless. Another NO for this card.
10)Skip defeated Doink the Clown = If I thought there was even a glimmer of a chance to see Sunny, this match could possibly sway my opinion on whether or not to go. Terrible Doink or not. Plus, Candido is a very good wrestler. YES.

FINAL SCORE: YES = 4, NO = 6.
Sorry fellas, I would be sitting at home instead of going to the Baltimore Arena for this one. The bad outweighs the good a little too much. The main event alone is enough to keep me away. The more I think about it, I bet managers (like Sunny) didn’t have to work house shows. Maybe I would change my mind if Art Donovan was brought in to be the special guest ring announcer. He would finally get to know who is who, where they’re from, and how much each guy weighs. That would be enough entertainment for me and all of us, I believe.

That’s two NO’s for this show thus far. Will we get a shutout for this show? Let’s go to Brandon “Spec Sun” Lyles for his thoughts on this WWF house show.

Hello peeps and peepets, and welcome to another edition of Would You Go To This Show! Up next is a house show from the WWE…. the year…. 1995. Now, I know what you’re thinking, and I don’t disagree totally. WWE was not in great shape financially and creatively during this year. The Hogan era seemed like light years ago and guys like Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Diesel, Razor Ramon and Owen Hart were leading a brand new era in the WWE, which was coined “The New Generation.” As the company was struggling to persuade fans to invest their time, energy and money into this brand new era, house show attendance figures were not as stellar as years past. I never attended a WWE house show from that year, but I have friends that did and they have told me that most of the matches were very enjoyable and longer than what I would see on a WWE RAW and Superstars taping. As a 10 year old back then, it was really more about the characters and storylines than the quality of most of the matches, but a good house show should give you a little bit of everything well. Ok, enough with the back-story about the year 1995 in the WWE, let’s get to this house show!

On June 30, 1995, the city of Baltimore, Maryland hosted a WWE house show, in which 4,500 fans attended live despite only 3,500 that paid to be there actually. This is not strange to me given that I have always heard about promotions giving away free tickets as a way to make their product more appealing visually to spectators, advertisers and business partners. This was more prevalent for house shows back then. However, as technology grew and wrestling programs emerged on primetime television worldwide during the 1990s, wrestling companies such as WWE and WCW were more than willing to hand out free tickets to fans to attend the live televised shows given that there was a chance of several empty seats in the arenas prior to the shows going on air. The attendance at this house show in Baltimore seems quite low for a WWE event, but then again, this is 1995 and numbers were not stellar across the board. The following matches were booked on the card:

• Skip def. Doink The Clown
• Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze def. Bertha Faye
• The Smoking Gunns def. Jacob and Eli Blu
• Sir Mo def. The 1-2-3 Kid
• Bam Bam Bigelow def. Jean Pierre Lafitte
• Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett def. Adam Bomb
• Hunter Hearst Helmsley def. Aldo Montoya
• Savio Vega def. King Mabel via count-out
• Tag Team Champions Owen Hart & Yokozuna def. Lex Luger & Davey Boy Smith
• World Wrestling Federation Champion Diesel def. Psycho Sid in a Steel Cage Match

After looking at that card, my first thought is wow! There are many matches… ten to be exact! Now, I’m not a fan of the big blue cage, but the fact that a house show gets a cage match is rare even for today. It just doesn’t happen that much anymore. Diesel and Sid feud began after WrestleMania XI when Sid turned on Shawn Michaels. Diesel wanted revenge for his friend, and thus, the feud ignited and lasted through the early part of the summer until King Mable emerged as Diesel’s next adversary. I don’t think this cage match had a lot of fast-paced action that I typically like in cage matches, but I would have been intrigued with the match just because of the rarity of the gimmick at house shows. Diesel and Sid did not have a good feud. Both guys just didn’t click in the ring and the promos did not provide many, if any, mark-out moments for fans, but if you like big men wrestling in a cage at a house show, it’s worth buying a ticket to see that and this decent undercard.

Speaking of the undercard, here’s my opinions regarding the matches. Skip and Doink The Clown appears to be a combination of filler, comedy and intent to push a new guy. Skip, aka Chris Candido, was coming into the WWE as a “Body Donna” with his fitness instructor/valet Sunny. Obviously, the point of this match was to kick off the festivities with a light match to make the crowd smile and introduce a new character to them that might have a significant future with the company.

Alundra Blayze and Bertha Faye were beginning a lengthy program at the time, and it would not surprise me if the company was testing to see if this would work by showcasing this at house shows. I am rather indifferent to their feud. The matches were not good, but the promos were decent. When Harvey Wippleman emerged as Faye’s boyfriend, the promos got much better. If I pondered about attending this show, I would not have based that on this match. It seems like filler, but I doubt that I would have noticed that the company had plans on making this storyline an integral part of their summer storylines. As a belt fan, I would have taken a picture of that Women’s Championship!
Both tag team matches seem like they would have been fun to see. The Smoking Gunns were a good tag team with fantastic chemistry together and with their opponent, which has gotten overlooked as the years have passed. Jacob and Eli Blu were a believable big man team, but they did not showcase any charisma nor did they cut promos. The wrestling is what would have captivated me here. Also, Owen and Yoko as tag team champions was a joy to watch back then. They were a solid small and big man combination that complimented each other well. Add Jim Cornette as their manager and you have the mouthpiece as well. They are another team that gets lost in the shuffle of great tag teams from the past. Luger and Bulldog should have been World Wrestling Federation Tag Team Champions, but I never understood why that did not transpire. Speaking of such, it is amazing that Luger never won a championship there period. That match would have been stellar given every participant involved.

Sir Mo defeating 1-2-3 Kid seems like a joke at first glance, but the company was in the stages of pushing Mable. Therefore, it makes ideal sense. Still though, I would have been jeering, but that’s the correct reaction. Bam Bam Bigelow was awesome. I never made the time to see him work live, and I wouldn’t want to you have the same feeling. If you had the chance to go to the show, I would convince you to go just because of him. You will never see another worker like Bam Bam Bigelow. I did not see much of Jean Pierre Lafitte (of the Quebecers) as a singles wrestler. Therefore, I can’t speculate much about how good he was in the ring in that role, but hey, he’s working with Bam Bam, and that’s a good thing.

Jeff Jarrett was a solid Intercontinental Champion, but there was nothing that really stood out about his run. That defining moment has always been lacking in Jeff’s career, and his run with the IC title was no different. Adam Bomb was never really a serious contender for the belt nor was he an interesting character in the company. I never bought into the gimmick, and quite frankly, I don’t think he was a good opponent for Jarrett. Instead of Adam Bomb, I think Bam Bam would have been a better choice. He was one of the most popular babyfaces in the company at the time after he disassociated himself from The Million Dollar Corporation after WrestleMania XI. Jeff needed that top face as champion, and who better than arguably the top mid-card babyface at the moment besides Razor Ramon than Bam Bam? That seems like a better option.

As for the other two matches, it seems as if the WWE was trying to push two more new characters to the fans: Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Savio Vega. Helmsley defeating Montoya was a given and Vega getting a count-out win against King Mable appears to be a cleaver attempt by the company to get Vega established while not booking Mable into a disadvantage position.

Overall, this seems like a decent card. It’s thorough in terms of the number of matches and it has wrestlers and managers in it that I want to see wrestle live. As mentioned in the previous edition of Would You Go To This Show, it doesn’t matter how many matches are on the card. It’s the quality of matches, the participants within them and the atmosphere that really convinces me to attend the shows. House shows are awesome, and you get to see so much more than you ever would on television where things are micromanaged considerably. The content at house shows should draw out positive emotion from the spectators and make them have a since of fulfillment. I think this show has the elements to do that despite some of the disagreements I have with the booking of the card. Thanks for reading and please provide feedback. Until next time, peace out peeps and keep reading the recaps!

So, it is officially two No’s and one YES. At least the WWF would be able to get one paying customer out of this group. Who else would attend and who else wouldn’t attend? Get in on the fun and leave a comment stating your reasons!

Thanks for reading!