Finally breaking past the first 10 WrestleMania shows,
Crazy Bill takes a look back at WrestleMania 11.
WrestleMania XI will go down in history, to most, as one of the top 3 WORST WrestleMania events. I don’t recall watching the PPV since late 1995/early 1996 when it was out of VHS. Being only 12, I loved it. Jonathon Taylor Thomas, Jenny McCarthy(who is an anti-vaccine moron), Pamela Anderson, Nicholas Turturo, Lawrence Taylor and other football players. I loved Lex Luger, Bret hart, Owen Hart, Razor and Diesel. Then again, I was 12.
I look back today and can agree it’s not the worst, but it is bad. There were 7 matches. Only 3 of them were over 10 minutes. Bam Bam Bigelow and LT were the main event, which you can find footage of Bam Bam stating that Nash and HBK tried to pull strings backstage because THEY wanted to be the last match.
While the PPV wasn’t great based on the fact that it was a WrestleMania, some of the matches were pretty good. Well, almost all of them.
Lex Luger and The British Bulldog beat the Blu Brothers. It was the first, last and only WrestleMania the WWE decided to put The Blu Brothers duo in, not even as Skull and 8-Ball from the D.O.A. Of course, the fans didn’t care about the brothers and were pleased when Lex and Bulldog won the match.
Razor Ramon faced off against Jeff Jarrett for the IC Title in what would become Razor Ramon/Scott Hall’s last WrestleMania until WrestleMania 18. He was “suspended” before WrestleMania 12 and defected to WCW 6 weeks later. The match was solid though. I just don’t know why the 1-2-3 Kid came out dressed like Street Fighter slipped a roofie to the Karate Kid and they had a child.
Either way, it ended in a DQ and Jeff kept the title. This was also The Roadie/Road Dogg’s first WrestleMania appearance as he came out with Double J.
The Undertaker got another victory on the way to his streak as he beat King King Bundy. It would be his fourth straight WrestleMania victory. The premise of the feud was good, back when I was 12. King Kong worked for Money Inc. and they stole The Undertaker’s urn. Undertaker and Paul Bearer got the urn back during the match only for The Supreme Fighting Machine Kama to come out and steal it again. The match had moments of awkwardness and the best part of the match was happening outside of the ring, with the urn.
The Smoking Gunns gave Owen Hart a tag team title shot if Owen could find a partner. So Owen Hart found the biggest partner he could find, Yokozuna. This marked the return of the rotund two time former WWE champion and he didn’t fail to deliver. It’s well documented that Yokozuna was bigger than ever at that point, but he could still go. As I watched this the other day, I found the crowd reactions to be peculiar. Towards the end of the match, as Yokozuna climbed up for the Bansai Splash, you could hear a large chunk of the crowd starting to cheer for Yoko and Owen. As tag champions, Owen was the perfect compliment to Yokozuna in matches and any segments they had.
In the second “Special Referee” match of the night, Roddy Piper would oversee an I Quit Match between Bret Hart and Bob Backlund. I have to be honest, the match was good. It was just over 20 minutes, but the ending was lame. After some great storytelling, Backlund went for his signature Cross Face Chicken Wing only for Bret to reverse it and put Backlund in his own hold. Backlund make some noises and sounds that no one could ever make out what he was saying, and Rowdy Roddy Piper deemed it to be Backlund saying “I Quit”
The WWE Championship match saw Diesel vs Shawn Michaels. This was a really good match with a great story. Diesel, who was the champion, was also Shawn Michaels bodyguard when he arrived. He did very little, then suddenly, he did it all. Shawn was passed over by his own bodyguard. Crazy! Even crazier was that Shawn Michaels entered the Royal Rumble 1995 at the number one spot and then won, claiming his chance to finally upstage Diesel and capture his first WWE Heavyweight Championship. Diesel won it would almost be his last WrestleMania. Like Razor/Hall, Diesel had made a play to get more out of Vince and the WWE based on what WCW would offer. There’s a great chance Diesel was only given his WrestleMania 12 match because it was in fact against The Undertaker, and everyone was willing to pay to see”
Bam Bam Bigelow vs Lawrence Taylor was our main event. It would mark the third time in WrestleMania history that the WWE Championship was NOT the main event of WrestleMania. The match was the best it could be. The retired NY Giants NFL player vs one of the best big men in the game. You can be the best at anything you want, but it’s hard to make a non wrestler look good in just one match, first last and only. Bam Bam Bigelow did a lot of damage, but LT was designed to look invincible. It almost reminds me of a John Cena match. Boston crabs, multiple headbutts, DIVING headbutts, Moonsaults from a 360lbs man. LT kept getting up. He hit Bigelow with one forearm to the face from the second rope and Bam Bam couldn’t get back up. He was then kicked out of Money Inc. The loss actually killed all momentum and reputation that Bigelow had. He spent his last 6 months as a face and trying to get revenge on Money Inc before losing to Goldust at Suvivor Series 1995 and then leaving the WWE.
All in all, the matches weren’t horrible. Ok, some were, but the problem with this ‘Mania was all the outside stars as well as having three different matches that had special guest referees. It sure doesn’t feel like a WrestleMania when you go back and watch it. Maybe an In Your House PPV? Not quite the grandest stage of them all.
