This is the last Superstars before the King of the Ring tournament.
-Our hosts are Vince McMahon and “Handsome†Doc Hendrix. Doc is reliving his Freebird days by dancing to Michaels theme music in the announce booth. At least he didn’t put on the face paint.
-Clips from Monday Night Raw are shown of Mabel, the Undertaker, Kama, and Mabel in a massive stare down over the King of the Ring tournament.
–Opening Contest: “The Heartbreak Kid†Shawn Michaels vs. The Brooklyn Brawler:
As the match starts, “The Supreme Fighting Machine†Kama explains how he’ll destroy Michaels in the first round at the King of the Ring. Michaels and the Brawler feel each other out to start and the Brawler takes Michaels to some of the corner buckles and gets some shoulder thrusts in the corner. Brawler utilizes an eye rake that goes beyond the referees five count and burns Michaels face across the top rope. Surprisingly, the Brawler is getting a decent amount of offense here. Brawler hits a slam and climbs to the top rope but Michaels quickly recovers and tosses him off. Michaels hits a running swinging neckbreaker, whips Brawler hard into the buckles, and follows it up with a flying forearm. Michaels tosses the Brawler over the top rope and to the floor to a good pop and then relaxes in the corner. Michaels soon gets tired of that so he slides to the floor and hits the Brawler with Sweet Chin Music. Michaels then stays on the floor, counting the count out along with the referee, and rolls in at the last second for the win at 3:46. Started slow but once it got going it was a good squash.
-Waylon Mercy vignette. He’s in a park today and talking about cookouts.
–Men on a Mission vs. Jerry Flynn & Mike McReynold:
Mabel and Flynn start and Mabel runs over Flynn like a locomotive. Mabel slams Flynn but misses an elbow drop off the ropes which allows Flynn to lay into Mabel with his kickboxing skills. At least Flynn’s kicks look real compared to the weak strikes that other jobbers employ. However, Mabel cuts his rally short with a clothesline. Flynn rebounds to nail an enziguri after going under another clothesline, but Mabel comes back with an eye rake and a spinning heel kick. McReynold and Mo tussle after being tagged in, with McReynold working with arm and he and Flynn nail Mo with a double elbow off the ropes. Mo gets the advantage with another eye rake and tags in Mabel and he avalanches Flynn against the buckles. That should be the kiss of death of this jobber team. Mabel hits a belly-to-belly suplex and a running legdrop allows Mo to get the pin at 3:06. Not sure why the belly-to-belly didn’t finish things but this squash was better than I expected it to be.
-WWF Live Event News with Stephanie Wiand. Get your tickets to the King of the Ring 1995 because they are still on sale because it’s not that far from New York. Make sure to get there early so you can see Savio Vega vs. IRS in a qualifying match to replace Razor Ramon!
–The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Barry Horowitz:
The Undertaker quickly goes after Horowitz and chokes him in the corner after nailing him with some thrusts to the neck. Horowitz goes under an Undertaker clothesline but some European uppercuts are no sold. The Undertaker catches Horowitz in a chokeslam when he runs the ropes. Mabel cuts in off screen to hype their King of the Ring match. The Undertaker hits a Tombstone for the quick win at 1:27. Horowitz gets put in a body bag as Mabel comes down the aisle to tell the Undertaker that he’s going down at the King of the Ring and that he isn’t scared of the Undertaker. The Undertaker signals back with a throat slicing taunt. Why have Mabel cut in to hype the match during the squash when he’s just going to come to ringside to do it anyway?
-Mr. Bob Backlund cuts a promo against Man Mountain Rock because of his body, hair, tattoos, and music. He claims that he has to save the world and the youth of America from the deleterious effect that Man Mountain Rock represents.
-Call 1-900-TITAN-91 to get your own King of the Ring t-shirt. It’s only $18 along with shipping and handling. If you get the shirt you get a free Bob Backlund campaign button.
–Skip (w/Sunny) vs. John Crystal:
The guest ring announcer is a fat guy that does his best but Sunny runs over his announcing by criticizing fat people in the audience. Well we know why that guy was chosen to do this match. Crystal gets in a fist to start but Skip hits a quick powerbomb, a suplex, and then a legdrop off the second rope. Skip hits a double underhook suplex and slams Crystal before hitting an elbow drop off the ropes. A superduperplex finishes at 1:31. It’s too bad that Chris Candido got saddled with such a crappy gimmick because he had the tools to get over with something more serious.
-Clips are shown of what led to the Diesel/Bam Bam Bigelow-Sid/Tatanka match at the King of the Ring tournament.
–Mantaur (w/Jim Cornette) vs. Bam Bam Bigelow:
Of all of the heels Jim Cornette managed in the WWF I think it goes without saying that Mantaur was his worst acquisition. Bigelow gets a good reception, although it’s tough to tell with these shows whether the ovation is real or just piped in crowd noise. Mantaur attacks Bigelow from behind to get us started and whips him into the corner with authority and labels him with a running shoulder block. Mantaur beats on Bigelow a bit but misses a running elbow drop. Bigelow floors Mantaur with a dropkick and then slams him for two. That might have gotten a pin in WWF No Mercy for the N64. It would have at least gotten him a lot of “spirit.†Bigelow works the arm before using his head of steel as a weapon. Mantaur turns the tide with a jawbreaker and a body avalanche that gets two. Mantaur chokes Bigelow on the second rope and then jumps on his back off the ropes as Cornette yells at the camera. Mantaur applies a chinlock. Bigelow elbows out after his arm only falls twice and it’s back to the head of steel. Bigelow gestures that he is going to slam Mantaur as McMahon and Hendrix sound all surprised, ignoring that Bigelow just did that several minutes ago. Bigelow fails to slam him this time and Mantaur hits a suplex and an avalanche against the buckles. However, when Mantaur tries to avalanche Bigelow against the buckles in the opposite corner, Bigelow gets out of the way by Flair flipping (?!?!?!) and hits the flying headbutt to get the duke at 5:20. I liked the finish and this wasn’t bad for a big man match. *½
-Todd Pettengill gives us the weekly King of the Ring preview. Order it this Sunday on pay-per-view!
-The WWF blimp is on its way to the Special Olympics but is going to the King of the Ring first.
–Hunter Hearst-Helmsley vs. Mike Khoury:
Before he was a degenerate and the “king of kings†he was just a Greenwich snob. Helmsley backs Khoury into a corner and whines to the referee that Khoury is too disgusting to touch. They trade a hammerlock sequence that Helmsley hiptosses out of. Helmsley gets a slam, but Khoury gets a backslide for two. Helmsley hits a clothesline to retaliate for that as Hendrix already hypes him as the 1996 King of the Ring, something that would have panned out had it not been for the Madison Square Garden incident. Helmsley slingshots Khoury underneath the bottom rope and the Pedigree gets the win at 2:33.
-Jerry Lawler takes us on a tour of his torture chamber. The lighting for this segment is terrible and you can’t make out any of the devices Lawler is showing us. He describes the condition of his feet for his match against Bret Hart at the King of the Ring.
The Final Report: The top of this show was better than the bottom. It was primarily a King of the Ring hype show, but at least we got a show instead of a “special†edition of Superstars where they just recapped all of the feuds which is what they did prior to WrestleMania XI.
