Happy Stinky Saturday Everyone!
We’re back with another Stinker Review, where I look at a show with a bad reputation and see if it’s deserved. This week our target is WWF WrestleMania XI, a show that is wildly regarded as one of the worst Mania events ever. It was a show that was built around Bam Bam Bigelow facing off with famous American Footballer Lawrence Taylor, which is at least a big celebrity match with freak show appeal, but the under card isn’t really close to being Mania-Worthy.
However, maybe WrestleMania XI has been unfairly maligned and it’s better than people give it credit for? Let’s give it a chance to defend itself before we decide whether it deserves to be labelled as a Stinker.
You can view the card by clicking the link below;
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1925&page=3
The event is emanating from Hartford, Connecticut on the 2nd of April 1995
Calling the action are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler
Kathy Huey performs America The Beautiful
Opening Match
Jacob & Eli Blu w/ Uncle Zeb Vs The Allied Powers (Lex Luger and British Bulldog)
This was a bit of a drop off for Luger, as he’d been part of the WWF Title picture a year before and now he’s in the opener scrapping with The Harris Brothers, who are managed by Dutch Mantel. Luger and Bulldog could have probably been a decent option to win the WWF Tag Titles, but it just never happened for whatever reason, even though they both looked the part and were a solid enough mid-level tag team who could believably take on anyone.
The Allied Powers get the babyface shine to start, with Bulldog getting to show off some impressive power by flinging the big Heels about with unerring ease. Luger is barely in there at the start actually, with his main contribution being a moment where he and Bulldog go for stereo powerslams and end up bonking the two Blu Twins into one another. Eventually though Bulldog takes a cheap shot from the Heels and gets worked over for a bit.
The Harris Brothers are two pretty generic big dudes from an in-ring perspective, but they’re solid enough as lower to mid-card Heels in the tag ranks, especially when in there with a talented team. There is a notable botch at one stage where Bulldog clotheslines down both Twins and could easily make the cover, but it’s not time for the hot tag yet so he has to stand around and wait for them to cut him off again, thus making everyone look dumb.
One of the Twins eventually misses an elbow off the second rope and its hot tag Luger, who does a decent comeback, his rubbish punches aside. Things break down following that, with Zeb distracting Luger so the Twins can do the old switcheroo. That doesn’t end up going anywhere though as Bulldog catches the switched Twin with a sunset flip for three.
WINNERS: THE ALLIED POWERS
RATING: *
Thoughts: This had decent energy from Bulldog, but it was also super sloppy and Luger didn’t seem entirely thrilled with his new position in the company. The Blu’s would end up in ECW by the time 96 came along as The Bruise Brothers. Luger would jump to WCW in the autumn of 1995, whilst Bulldog would go Heel in the summer for an ill-fated feud with Diesel that led to a terrible pay per view match in October
There are some hefty mullets in the crowd for 1995.
Razor Ramon and The 1-2-3 Kid cut a backstage promo where Kid says he’ll have Razor’s back tonight. Kid wasn’t renowned for his promo game at the time.
Match Two
WWF Intercontinental Title
Champ: Double J Jeff Jarrett w/ The Roadie Vs The Bad Guy Razor Ramon w/ The 1-2-3 Kid
Jarrett won the IC Title back at Royal Rumble 1995 due to Roadie giving Ramon a chop block at one stage. Ramon has thus brought The Kid with him tonight so that he has some backup in case Roadie tries any more shenanigans. They start this one hot, with Razor and Kid storming the ring in order to send the Heels packing before there’s even time for Razor’s pyro to go off.
Razor bumps Jarrett around for a bit following that, with Jarrett selling it well. These two normally had decent chemistry together as opponents, and they do a nice segment where both wrestlers are able to anticipate what the other is going for leading to some pretty slick counters. Jarrett is rescued from The Razor’s Edge by Roadie, but Kid prevents Jarrett from escaping and the match continues.
Jarrett does eventually get a period of offence after Razor misses an elbow drop, leading to some chinlockage on the part of the Champion. The crowd feels a bit muted here, either because they haven’t been mic’d up well or because they aren’t that enthused with this as a match, but the wrestling has been fine, even if it isn’t the best match the two have ever had together.
Razor eventually makes the comeback with some punches and a Blockbuster Slam, with Jarrett bumping around nicely for everything and Razor’s offence having a nice snap to it. Razor misses a bulldog from the second rope though, leading to Jarrett going after Razor’s knee which appeared to be injured in the fall.
The Figure Four follows, with Razor doing a good sell job for it and Roadie helping out his boss when the referee isn’t looking. Razor eventually manages to roll over to counter the hold and then follows up with a super back drop off the ropes before calling for The Edge. Roadie runs it at that point to save Jarrett though, leading to the lame DQ finish.
WINNER BY DQ: RAZOR RAMON (JARRETT RETAINS)
RATING: **3/4
Thoughts: This was an okay match but the horrible finish took the shine off it somewhat. At the time I think it was quite the surprise that Razor didn’t just win the belt back as Jarrett was still kind of a joke who only won matches thanks to his lackey and often did jobs in non-Title matches
A brawl breaks out following the match between the four wrestlers, leading to referees and agents running down to break it up. Jarrett would appear to have busted open his nose somehow during that. Jim Ross tries to get an interview with Jarrett in the aisle, but Jarrett just rants and walks off whilst Ross chides him.
Nick Turturro of NYPD Blue can’t find Pamela Anderson, so he’s just hanging out in the green room with the Heels and resident anti-vax grifter Jenny McCarthy. Shawn Michaels is bullish about Pam eventually showing up whilst Sid yells about fear. This was a pretty rubbish segment, through no fault of Nick.
Match Three
Guest Referee: Larry Young
The Walking Condominium King Kong Bundy w/ Million $ Man Ted Dibiase Vs The Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer
Bundy had returned to the WWF at the end of 94 as a member of Dibiase’s Heel Million $ Corporation faction and had played a part in the Heels stealing the urn from The Undertaker. Taker is looking to take back his property tonight, along with getting some revenge on Bundy for the part he played in the theft. The referee is some baseball dude that I don’t know because my baseball knowledge extends about as far as the Babe Ruth chocolate bars.
Undertaker was stuck in a period from about 92-95 where they booked him also exclusively against big freaks like Bundy, meaning he had to work the same match all the time and I bet he was thrilled when he could start working with the likes of Bret Hart and Mankind in 1996. Taker does manage to grab hold of the urn in the early stages and passes it to Bearer, which seems like a bit of an anti-climax. And indeed, as I type that, Kama Mustafa runs down to steal the urn back in order to keep that storyline going.
Meanwhile, Bundy and Taker are having a pretty lacklustre match inside the ring, although Bundy does actually take a couple of nice bumps for Taker at certain points. Bundy’s offence is generally pretty awful though, which is ironic because normally with big guys like him they can do impressive looking moves but things like selling and bumping are bad, but Bundy has kind of done the opposite here where his bumping and selling has been fine but his offence has looked like absolute cack.
Bundy uses the distraction of Kama stealing the urn to cut Taker off and work some heat, slowing things down with a terrible looking chin lock that rivals Stevie Ray’s substandard application of the move. Undertaker eventually no sells Bundy’s offence though and gets a slam followed by a big clothesline for the three count.
WINNER: THE UNDERTAKER
RATING: ½*
Thoughts: This was quite awful, with the wrestling being mostly terrible and the crowd not even really being that into it either
Bearer laments to Undertaker that the Heels got away with the urn. Kama would eventually melt it down into a necklace and sell the necklace to Mabel.
Nick Turturro is still looking for Pam Anderson and stops for a chat with Mongo McMichael and the other footballers in Lawrence Taylor’s All-Star Team. Each member of the team has a specific member of the Heel team to cut a promo on and they mostly do a good job. Bob Backlund is playing chess with Johnathon Taylor-Thomas from Home Improvement. Taylor-Thomas wins and then embarrasses Backlund by having answers to all of his questions.
Match Four
WWF Tag Team Titles
Champs: The Smoking Gunns (Billy and Bart) Vs The King of Harts Owen Hart and Yokozuna w/ Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji
Owen and regular partner Jim Neidhart had lost to The Gunns, so he demanded another match with a special mystery partner, which ends up being Yoko. The Gunns were a decent tag team and they work a nice babyface shine to start, with Owen mostly taking the bumps, although Yoko does get double dropkicked through the ropes to the floor at one stage, which is a pretty impressive bump for a guy his size to take.
Yoko eventually catches Billy with a nasty leg drop though and that’s enough for the cut off and the Heel heat segment. Strangely they have Yoko stay in for quite a while in the heat, which would seem to defeat the purpose of teaming him up with a quicker and fitter opponent. You’d think Owen would do the lion’s share of the work and Yoko would come in for a big move or two before tagging out again, but instead Yoko stays in there and slows it down with rest holds.
Some Heel miscommunication allows Bart to get the hot tag and he runs wild on the Heels, with Owen continuing to take some great bumps. Bart actually manages to bump Yoko at one stage, which highlights how Yoko had fallen down on the pecking order at the time as he would have swatted someone like Bart aside with ease at the height of his push. Billy ends up getting tagged back in and that ends badly for him as he gets squished with the Bonzai Drop, which allows Owen to come in and pick the bones for three after deciding he can’t be bothered applying The Sharpshooter in a funny character moment
WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: OWEN HART & YOKOZUNA
RATING: *1/2
Thoughts: This wasn’t actively bad or anything but I didn’t think it was especially good either. They gave The Gunns some offence, mostly on Owen, but in the end they got beaten rather easily when all was said and done
Owen and Yoko do the big celebration following that, which does at least make the belts feel like they matter, which is always a good thing to do.
Bam Bam Bigelow is backstage with Todd Pettengill, where they recap Bammer’s feud with Lawrence Taylor. Bigelow cuts a solid promo here and promises DOOM for LT. Todd asked some good questions here as well in all fairness to him and it teed Bigelow up well for his answers.
Match Five
I Quit Bout
Special Referee: Rowdy Roddy Piper
Mr. Bob Backlund Vs Bret Hitman Hart
This one came about due to Backlund procuring the Cross-Face Chicken-Wing back at Survivor Series 1994 and defeating Bret for the WWF Title when Bret’s mum Helen threw in the towel. Bret hadn’t really gotten his revenge on Backlund yet, so this is his chance to pay Backlund back. Piper is the referee here following one of his many excursions to Hollywood.
This is an odd match, as both wrestlers get strong reactions for their entrances, but as soon as the match itself starts the fans sit on their hands and they never get them back. Bret’s entrance in particular is one of the best of the entire evening as he gets treated like a genuine superstar by the crowd. Piper has the microphone here and it eventually gets annoying with him constantly asking “WHADDA YA SAY?” on every submission attempt.
I think OSW Review put a compilation together of all the times Piper asks the question here and it really is obnoxious after a certain point. The actual wrestling here isn’t bad or anything, as it’s mostly just both wrestlers taking it in turns to work a body part with some strikes and holds. The match just has no heat and Piper is so overbearing that it makes it difficult to watch. I think it might have worked better if they’d structured this as more of a brawl, but maybe Backlund wasn’t really cut out for that kind of match?
One positive for the match is that the Chicken-Wing is over with the crowd following the Survivor Series bout between the two, so whenever Backlund teases it the crowd freaks out a bit. This is of course all builds to Bret getting some revenge by procuring the Chicken-Wing himself upon Backlund leading into the submission win. It’s a bit of a flat finish in the end though as Backlund doesn’t actually say “I Quit” and just murmurs “Errrr……yeah” when Piper asks him if he quits.
WINNER: BRET HART
RATING: **
Thoughts: A mechanically fine bout that the crowd really didn’t care about and Backlund was annoying as the guest referee as opposed to adding to the match. This was kind of a waste of Bret and they honestly might as well have moved the No DQ match that Bret had with Owen on Raw during the build-up to Mania onto WrestleMania XI itself as that was good match and they could have always done something else regarding the Tag Titles
Backlund goes on a wacky rant in the aisle with Jim Ross about how he saw a light or some such nonsense.
Nick Turturro is still looking for Pam Anderson and says that some celebrity changes have been made for the upcoming bout.
Diesel stumbles over a promo with Todd Pettengill in order to hype the match.
Semi-Main
WWF Title
Champ: Big Daddy Cool Diesel w/ Pamela Anderson Vs The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels w/ Sid and Jenny McCarthy
Diesel had defeated Backlund in just 8 seconds a mere few days after Backlund had won the belt from Bret. Meanwhile, his former partner Michaels went on to win the Royal Rumble, setting up a match between them here. Sid has been brought in as insurance for Shawn, with the idea being that Diesel used to be his bodyguard but has now strode out on his own. Sadly for Diesel, they immediately neutered his cool character the moment he went babyface and then Michaels showed him up in their Mania feud, thus leading to the fans seeing Michaels as the bigger star of the two.
Shawn was supposed to win Pam Anderson as his manager for this match after winning the Royal Rumble, but Pam has decided to manage Diesel instead due to Shawn being a jerk, meaning that Shawn has hired McCarthy as a replacement instead. Despite them supposedly representing rival wrestlers, McCarthy and Anderson sit next to each other during the match and chat like friends, which kind of kills the immersion a bit. You get the sense that Shawn found all of this Pam Anderson stuff to just be a distraction that he was happy to get out of the way so he could work his match.
Diesel gets the big shine to start, with Shawn of course taking a load of big bumps for it all, even taking out a cameraman at one stage. Well, there are a lot of them at ringside so that was always going to be a possibility. Shawn really is the star of this match, as the bout almost seems designed to make him look good at points, something Kevin Nash even accepts today when he’s interviewed. It didn’t help that they neutered the cool Diesel character as badly as they did, but Diesel is almost the guest star on the Shawn Michaels show here in what should really be his first Mania Main Event.
Another cameraman gets in the way at one stage, which almost ruins a spot where Diesel has to go into the ring post, although they mostly cover for it. That leads to Shawn working some heat for a bit, even getting a splash off the apron onto Diesel at one stage. Diesel does sell the heat well, which has always been something Kevin Nash has been good at actually and he probably doesn’t get enough credit for it, possibly because sometimes he couldn’t be bothered to do it properly and those are the occasions that people remember.
We do get some Diesel chants at one stage when Shawn locks in a sleeper hold and Diesel fights out of it, leading to Diesel making a comeback with some clotheslines in the corner and the Snake Eyes. Shawn bumps and feeds for that well and Diesel looks decent on offence, although he’s a bit ungainly at certain points. Really a 7 foot dude with bad legs running wild is rarely going to look all that graceful in all honesty, but Diesel tried his best there and Shawn was where he needed he be in order to make it work as much as possible at least.
Shawn catches Diesel with the Sweet Chin Music not-too-soon-after that flurry from Diesel, but the ref had previously turned his ankle and is slow to make the cover, thus suggesting that Shawn would be the Champion now were it not for that. Considering that Shawn would have essentially beaten Diesel close to clean in that scenario, it doesn’t help with the perception that Shawn is the bigger star of the two.
Sid undoes the top turnbuckle pad on one of the turnbuckles whilst the referee is looking in order to set up Shawn getting catapulted into it when Diesel thwarts his evil scheme, but Shawn doesn’t make it to the top turnbuckle and ends up landing on the second one instead. However, that was supposed to be the finish, so Diesel just Powerbombs Shawn anyway, which does at least mean that he gets a cleaner win. The fact he originally wasn’t supposed to win that clean, after already doing a clean visual pin for Shawn, is pretty ridiculous considering that he’s supposed to be the next Hogan-level top babyface.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: DIESEL
RATING: ***
Thoughts: This was a good match and an impressive performance from Shawn, but he essentially screwed his best mate over in the process as he came out of this looking like the far bigger star of the two and Diesel was fighting a losing battle as Champion from that point onwards. The finishing Powerbomb looked pretty bad and they botched the catapult into the turnbuckle spot as well, so it kind of fell apart in the closing stages. I know quite a few people really enjoy this match, but it’s always topped out at just “good” for me. Their 1996 match a year later is much better in my opinion, mainly because they invert the Face/Heel dynamic and the match works much better as a result
Diesel celebrates with the celebrities in the ring as they try and give him as much of a rub as possible, but after that performance from Shawn he was essentially the #2 babyface in the promotion and arguably #3 once they started heating Bret Hart up again.
Shawn Michaels yells to Todd backstage that he had Diesel pinned, whilst Sid complains that the referee was down. You’d think this would be setting up a rematch between Diesel and Shawn with two referees or something but they ended up turning Shawn babyface for a feud with Sid.
Main Event
Lawrence Taylor w/ His All-Star Team Vs Bam Bam Bigelow w/ The Million $ Corporation
WrestleMania XI is known as one of the weakest Mania events, with the WWF being obsessed with cramming it with as many celebrities as they could in a desperate attempt to appear relevant. None of that is clearer than in their choice for the Main Event, as famous American Footballer Lawrence Taylor stepped into the ring to fight Bigelow as a result of Bigelow shoving him down at the Royal Rumble. The WWF hyped this for all they were worth, but it mostly led to scorn for Taylor in the press and the event underperformed on pay per view.
The big question going into the bout would be whether the veteran Bigelow would be able to get something good out of Taylor. Taylor was athletic of course due to his real sports background, but would that mean he could hang in a WrestleMania Main Event? In storyline they said that WWF Champ Diesel had been helping Taylor with his training to give an excuse for why Bigelow wouldn’t just cream the rookie in seconds. Pat Patterson is doing the refereeing here, just in case Taylor gets lost or forgets something.
Taylor actually starts the match hot by getting some nice forearm smashes on Bigelow before clotheslining him to the floor, which gets a surprised reaction from the crowd, who were probably just expecting a weird spectacle rather than an actual wrestling match. Taylor actually gets a nice bulldog headlock back inside the ring for two and then throws some more forearms. They’ve clearly found a handful of things that Taylor can do well and they’ve worked on them so that they look good. It’s very clever and suggests that Taylor could be a decent wrestler with further coaching.
It looks like the two factions will brawl outside, but Bigelow uses the chance to cut Taylor off and get some heat on him. They keep it simple for the most part, with Bigelow doing mostly stomps, clubs and chokes to make sure that Taylor doesn’t have to take any particularly difficult bumps. Taylor actually sells quite well, which is something that is often difficult for rookie wrestlers, and the crowd gets behind him whilst Bigelow works him over.
Taylor manages to get a big back suplex out of nowhere, but Bigelow gets back up first and continues to work him over. Bigelow gets a big moonsault and that would appear to be all, but he sells that is knee is hurt upon landing, which delays him in making the cover and allows Taylor to kick out. Taylor tries to go for a Jack-knife Powerbomb, but he can’t quite get it and it ends up being more of a gut wrench suplex, which gets the celebrity a two count. Bigelow selling the knee was smart, as it basically showed that he had it won but his knee prevented him from getting the three count.
Bigelow heads up again and manages to get the diving head butt, but Taylor kicks out again on his own merit this time, which leads to Bigelow becoming disheartened. This allows Taylor to fight back with some more excellent forearm smashes before heading up to the second rope for one of them, which is enough for the pin.
WINNER: LAWRENCE TAYLOR
RATING: **1/2
As a match this was basically just “fine”, but that was already way better than you would expect it to be due to Taylor’s lack of experience, so on the “celebrity match” sliding scale it’s one of the very best matches of its kind. They kept it super simple and, outside of the powerbomb botch, Taylor managed to do everything that they needed him to do. Bigelow held it all together well and Patterson did a good job as referee to make sure that Taylor always knew what was going on. It may not have been much of a commercial success, but Lawrence Taylor Vs Bam Bam Bigelow was certainly a critical one!
Taylor is selling big following that and I think he might have been really hurt, so they quickly cut away and we don’t get much of a celebration.
Is It Really A Stinker?
Absolutely!
The Main Event is great by celebrity match standards and the Diesel/Shawn match is good, but the rest of the card is either underwhelming or outright bad. Outside of the Main Event and all the press at ringside, this show never really “feels” like a WrestleMania. It’s just an April pay per view that the WWF happened to hold with a series of so-so matches and a great performance from Bigelow in the Main Event.
Considering the roster the WWF had to hand at the time, they really should have been capable of putting on a better WrestleMania XI than this, with so much of the card feeling thrown together and unspectacular. If they’d added Alundra Blayze Vs Bull Nakano and switched Bret’s opponent to Owen then they might have had enough good matches on the card to take it out of Stinkerville. However, as things stand, WrestleMania XI is not just a Stinker but it’s also a contender for worst Mania event ever.
Final Rating – Stinker