WWE WrestleMania XI

WWE WrestleMania XI

April 2, 1995

Hartford Civic Center

Hartford, Connecticut

Right away you can see just by the venue how underwhelming this WrestleMania was going to be. Apparently Linda McMahon always wanted one WrestleMania show in WWE’s home base of Connecticut. I have no idea whether or not that is just a cover for something else. I will take Linda at her word despite the product itself being at one of its lowest points in history. The Royal Rumble overall was a really good show but the Rumble itself was very underwhelming and it really set the tone for what 1995 would be. That brings us to WrestleMania. Vince knew the rosters shortcomings better than anyone which is why this WrestleMania is loaded with celebrities to try and prop the show up as being a big deal.

Commentators: Vince McMahon and Jerry “The King” Lawler

Jacob and Eli Blu w/ Uncle Zebekiah vs. Allied Powers (Lex Luger and Davey Boy Smith)

Lex Luger goes from main eventing WrestleMania X to curtain jerker at WrestleMania XI. Easily one of the biggest falls from grace in WrestleMania history. The Blu Brothers are Ron and Don Harris in the first of a few different gimmicks over the next couple years. Luger and Bulldog were getting a little bit of a tag team push so this match is just a formality to put them over as a team. I feel that this was sort of a waste. You could’ve blown off Luger and Tatanka here, and taken advantage of Bulldogs sympathy from the Rumble and done something better with him. Match isn’t very good. ¾*

IC Championship

Jeff Jarrett (champion) w/ Roadie vs. Razor Ramon w/ 123 Kid

Coming off the Rumble, Razor began chasing Jarrett for his IC title. The feud was decent albeit rather heatless. Not sure the fans really ever bought Jeff Jarrett as being big time. I’ve always liked him, and thought he was a pretty good IC Champion, but I was really hoping Razor was going to win his title back here so the fact that it ended in a DQ win for Razor really left me disappointed. The match is ok but not nearly as good as their Rumble encounter. I would have preferred either Razor winning his title back, or Jarrett successfully defending it against someone else. I just don’t understand the logic of the booking here. I understand the theory of Razor chasing the title is more intriguing, but this is WrestleMania where baby faces are expected to go over, particularly considering the way he lost the title at the Royal Rumble. It’s a cheap DQ finish. Kid being with Razor served no purpose other than giving the cliques little buddy a WrestleMania payday I guess. He was injured at the time I believe so he couldn’t work a match. ** ¼

Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer vs. King Kong Bundy w/ “Million $ Man” Ted Dibiase

So when we left the Rumble, the Corporation had stolen the Undertakers urn, and King Kong Bundy was directly responsible for allowing that to take place. Undertaker is forced to continue to feud with slugs. The match is literally as good as Undertaker could have possibly made it. At one point the Undertaker and Paul Bearer get the urn back and the crowd goes crazy. The joy is short lived as Dibiase’s new henchman, Kama, comes out and steals the urn back for the Corporation and Undertaker fans everywhere puke as Takers’ next feud is set up. Undertaker comes back and wins the match but doesn’t get his urn back. Match is really only notable for the first mention that the Undertaker is undefeated at WrestleMania. Lawler points it out during the match. Undertaker continues to get misused and mistreated in 1995. ½*

WWE Tag Team Championship

Smoking Gunns (champions) (Billy and Bart Gunn) vs. Owen Hart and ????

As mentioned at the Royal Rumble, the winners of the tag team title tournament were set to job the titles to the Smoking Gunns the next night on RAW. The story in this match was that Owen Hart had a special mystery partner to help him win his first title. The story is well built as Owen cuts yet another brilliant promo before the match where he let the audience know exactly why he chose the guy he chose. He said that he chose his partner because he was the only man to beat Bret Hart for the WWE title (not true but the promo works) and that man was Yokozuna. Yoko hadn’t been seen since he was buried in the casket match by the Undertaker at the Survivor Series and he was still a really big name within the company so this really works. The match itself tells a good story as the Gunns clearly aren’t prepared for Yokozuna and that plays out in the match. I always thought this was a really good way to use Yokozuna. He was clearly getting bigger and his weight was clearly causing cardio problems, so putting him in a tag team with a guy like Owen was a good idea. The match itself is pretty good too, and Owen gets his first title. Match isn’t an all-time classic or anything, but anytime you got Owen Hart you’re going to get a solid effort. ** ½

I Quit Match w/ Rowdy Roddy Piper as Special Guest Referee

Bob Backlund vs. Bret “The Hitman” Hart

So even though the WrestleMania was pretty pedestrian up until this point, you’re probably thinking that this match could redeem it. After all they had a classic match at Survivor Series, and Bret Hart pretty much at his peak as a worker. Easy ***+ match right? Not so much. In classic 1995-fashion, the WWE managed to take a perfectly acceptable storyline, and a perfectly fine wrestling encounter on PPV and turn it to crap. I love Rowdy Roddy Piper, and Bret loves Roddy, but even he admits that the involvement of him in this match was pointless, and actually hurt the match a lot. Really though, how hard is it to book this match. The story speaks for itself, and then you say, go out there and put on a good match. Instead we got Piper sticking the microphone in the guy’s faces during simple moves like headlocks. What we’re left was an average match that could have been better served to be on RAW. The ending comes when Backlund gets the cross face chicken wing on Bret but Bret reverses it and Backlund screams some nonsense which Piper interpreted as giving up giving Bret the match. Just a bunch of nonsense and definitely one of the most disappointing WrestleMania matches ever. * ¼

WWE Championship

Diesel (champion) w/ Pamela Anderson vs. Shawn Michaels w/ Sid and Jenny McCarthy

This is where they decided to load up with celebrities. At the Royal Rumble Pamela Anderson was told to be the escort of the Rumble winner to WrestleMania. Instead she came out with Diesel, while McCarthy came out with Shawn. Home Improvement star Jonathan Taylor Thomas served as the special guest timekeeper while NYPD Blue star Nicholas Turturro served as the special guest ring announcer. Everyone but Ms. Anderson seemed to be excited to be there. The inclusion of the celebrities did help this WrestleMania and it was a good thing because if there was ever a WrestleMania that needed the supplement of celebs it was this one. It was also in need of a match that could save it from being the worst of all time, and fortunately it was this one. This is easily one of if not the most underrated match in WrestleMania history as far as I’m concerned. Jerry Lawler says that Shawn told him to expect “The performance of a lifetime.” Shawn definitely delivered on the biggest stage of his career, and against a tough opponent to carry in Diesel. After Michaels won the Royal Rumble, in storyline, he felt he needed a bodyguard because he was a marked man and had pissed everyone off. His bodyguard was the returning Sid. So with the addition of Sid, Diesel was really viewed as a major underdog going into this match. The match is outstanding with Shawn pulling out all stops to make this an epic encounter. Diesel did a really nice job selling his ribs. I also like that Sid didn’t really come into play too much, though if the idea was to keep Shawn heel, then he probably should have been involved a little more. I don’t know when WWE decided they were just going to turn Shawn face. He was already starting to get face pops, but clearly Vince wasn’t ready to pull the trigger on a Shawn Michaels title run. Because Shawn was wrestling this match as if he was turning it sort of undercut Diesels baby face heat, and the sympathy heat at the end. Shawn hit Diesel with sweet chin music and had him dead to rights, but Sid had previously injured the official. The time lapse allowed Diesel to kick out at 2, and ultimately make the comeback and jackknife Shawn for the win. Diesel does the baby face celebration with all of the celebrities in a really nice moment in his career. The next night Sid would turn on Shawn completing the face turn and Shawn would be saved by Diesel. It almost seems as if Vince really didn’t know what he wanted to do with the main event scene. He had Diesel as champion, but the fans were firmly behind Shawn and that would be more evident as his face turn evolved. He also had Bret and Undertaker in the midcard. When you factor in Bulldog, Razor, and even to a lesser extent, Lex Luger, all of his biggest baby faces were also his biggest stars. That left him with no viable heel which means that Diesel’s title reign was doomed to fail. This match however is wonderful and like I said probably the most underrated WrestleMania match ever. **** ½

Main Event

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Lawrence Taylor

Yes that’s right. The WWE Championship is not being defended in the last match. This of course was set up at the Royal Rumble when Taylor was teasing Bam Bam Bigelow for getting beat by the Kid and Bob Holly. I really don’t have a problem with this at all. WWE needed something big for this event. Lawrence Taylor generated some mainstream media attention and he proved to be a very good wrestler considering the circumstances. I mean this is a pretty good match, and probably the best “celebrity” match you’ll ever see. It’s once again supplemented by celebrities, or in this case other football players, backing up Taylor. This was Lawrence Taylor’s “All pro team”. It consisted of Ken Norton Jr., Chris Spielman, Rickey Jackson, Carl Banks, Reggie White, and future WCW Monday Nitro commentator and Pro Wrestler, Steve McMichael. Bam Bam was backed up by Dibiase’s corporation of Dibiase himself, Nikolai Volkoff, King Kong Bundy, Tatanka, IRS, and Kama. Also singing for Taylor is Salt n Pepa. Neither the Corporation nor the All Pro team get involved other than a couple skirmishes before the match starts. The match like I said is pretty good and considering its 1995 and the roster was this thin, I feel it is a suitable main event. Bigelow does not get enough credit for his performance in carrying Lawrence here. Bigelow does the job, as Taylor hits a flying forearm and gets the pinfall. Dibiase and the Corporation leave Bigelow, setting up his face turn as well. Grading this on a celebrity scale, this is Flair-Steamboat. ** ½

Final Analysis: Things just get worse after this. Add Bam Bam Bigelow as another potential heel that could’ve served as a good foil for Diesel. The big heels after this are Sid, Jeff Jarrett, Yokozuna, and Owen Hart. Yoko and Owen were set anchor the tag team ranks, and Jarrett was the IC Champion. That leaves Sid, who isn’t a bad heel, but after Diesel vanquishes him, who else are you left with? The roster is just a big f’ng mess at this point with seemingly zero direction or logic to anything that Vince is doing at this point. As a stand-alone WrestleMania, comparing it against other WrestleMania’s it is certainly on the bottom third. Shawn-Diesel is an unheralded classic and LT-Bigelow has its worth. I like the Owen-Yokozuna stuff, but it’s hardly historic. The WrestleMania isn’t completely unwatchable but I wouldn’t shed any tears if you haven’t seen it.