Ryan's Dive into '95 - Part 21 (5/21 - 5/27)
WCW Slamboree is a show that happens, Shawn Michaels returns, a major title changes hands in Japan, I talk way too much about Tekno Team 2000, and MORE!
If you haven’t read it already, please check out my introductory article that explains what this series is all about. As a reminder, footage is sourced from the Goodhelmet 1995 Yearbook, unless otherwise stated.
How ya now?
We don’t have much in the way of full matches this week, but we still have plenty of content this week at The Dive. Aside from Slamboree ‘95, we get the usual assortment of promos and vignettes, a notable return for the WWF, a major title change in Japan, and a sizeable chunk of BONUS content featuring an infamous tag team making their first television appearance.
Well…
MAY 21st
WCW Slamboree - Are you ready for A LEGEND'S REUNION? Of note, this is the last WCW PPV to feature Gary Michael Cappetta as ring announcer as he was axed soon after due to budget cuts. He’ll still be on some pre-taped TV for a few weeks, but that was the end of an era. I’ve always enjoyed his ring announcing (and his backstage interviewing in early Ring of Honor). Cappetta was apparently making north of $100,000 per year, so they opted to turf him and go with the much less expensive David Penzer instead.
Tony Schiavone is out getting neck surgery, so we'll get the dulcet tones of Eric Bischoff on play-by-play instead.
We start with the ending of Harlem Heat (c) vs. The Nasty Boys for the WCW Tag Team Championship, as Jerry Sags, who had wrestled the match by himself at this point, catches Booker T with a piledriver.
Brian Knobbs hobbles to the ring wrapped up like 1998 DDP (having been assaulted by the Blue Bloods on Main Event before the show) and gets the HOT TAG! Knobbs has his way with the Heat, then catches Sensuous Sherri coming off the top and SLAMS her for a HUGE pop from the crowd. He then throws her limp body onto Stevie Ray. Sags nails his crappy elbow on Booker T and we have new tag champs!
The Blue Bloods come out for a post-match look at the new champs, then The Boys of Nasty cut their typical yell-y promo where they say “Nasty” a lot.
We then check in with Mean Gene, who is with Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Vader backstage. Arn addresses Alex Wright, his opponent for the night. He said that kids Wright's age call him “Mr. Anderson”.
Flair addresses Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, saying he's turning the BIG MAN LOOSE while he'll stand back and chill. Flair's not even gonna put on his wrestling gear! Vader directs threats towards the Monstermaniacs and declares that it is indeed Vader Time.
We then get the then-traditional WCW Hall of Fame ceremony. Before we head to the stage, Terry Funk gives a humble interview putting over many other hall of famers.
We join Gordon Solie at the entranceway as he hosts the induction ceremony. Inductees include:
Chief Wahoo McDaniel, who had defeated Dick Murdoch earlier in the evening in a match that was broadcast in black and white.
Terry Funk, who gives a delightful speech. He has got to be the most likeable guy in wrestling. Solie listed off some of his movie and TV credits but neglects to mention TBS staple ROADHOUSE!
Angelo Poffo, which was a controversial induction for reasons I'll get into later. He's also there purely for an angle later in the night.
Antonio Inoki. Gordon brings up his political career, the Muhammad Ali fight, and Collision in Korea.
Big John Studd, who recently passed away on March 20th. John's son, Robert, accepts the enshrinement on his behalf.
Dusty Rhodes, who gets far and away the biggest pop. He delivers another nice speech and brings out his daughter and a young Cody (who gets to hold
a rubber chickenhis dad’s trophy).
Also, we have a SURPRISE inductee! Dusty inducts Gordon Solie himself into the WCW Hall of Fame. It was heavily rumored that Solie was planned to be inducted, but was not happy about Angelo Poffo's induction as he only seemed to be there because of Randy Savage, thus Solie declined. However, Dave Meltzer reported that Solie was chiefly upset about having to induct Big John Studd because of a then-recent TV piece about steroid abuse and how it contributed to his death. Having to do the induction in his hometown was the final straw.
Either way, Gordon Solie quits WCW and wrestling as a whole after over five decades behind the mic. One of the absolute GOAT announcers, man.
We now join the main event, Ric Flair (who, contrary to the earlier promo, is in his gear) & Vader vs. Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage, in progress as Flair and Savage clothesline each other down. HOT TAG HOGAN!
He naturally no-sells Flair's offense and has his way with Flair and Vader, even bodyslamming the latter to a big pop. Big boot, but Arn Anderson trips Hogan up, resulting in a Vader splash.
Hogan HULKS UP and beats the turd out of Flair. Arn goes up, but accidentally takes out Flair with an axehandle. Legdrop, and Hogan gets the three as Flair eats the pin in his first non-Inoki match since unretiring. Match was a mess at the end, and it didn't exactly drive PPV sales. Buys were way down compared to the last few offerings, likely due to the lack of stakes. Flair's return to the ring could have been a hook, but dude already jobbed to Hogan in a match he wasn't even in at Uncensored. Any intrigue was pretty much out the window at this point, and Flair’s drawing power was on the wane.
After the match, the bad guys attack the faces, prompting Angelo Poffo to come out and accost Flair and company. Flair beats the crap out of Poffo and applies the Figure Four.
Hogan's Heroes fight off the baddies, and Savage is naturally apoplectic at this turn of events.
As an aside, I have to mention Jimmy Hart here, whose mother had died just before the show, yet he went out there and did his thing. I don't know how anyone can do that, man. I’d be a quivering mass of grief.
Also of note, but not shown on the comp, a young Paul Wight was shown in the crowd, mainly to set up the future program with the Hulkster. Oh, we'll see how THAT pans out, believe me.
It tells you something about a show’s quality when we don’t get one full match on the Yearbook compilation. Also happening at Slamboree:
Kevin Sullivan defeated The Man With No Name (an amnesiac Ed Leslie, ironically a man of MANY names)
The Great Muta successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Paul Orndorff
Arn Anderson fended off Alex Wright to retain the WCW Television Championship
Meng and Road Warrior Hawk battled to a double-countout. This was set up after Meng defeated Brian Pillman in a US Title tournament match on Main Event. Hawk came out and brawled with Meng, and the match was made.
Sting bested Big Bubba Rogers via Scorpion Deathlock
MAY 22nd
WWF Monday Night RAW - We start with Bret “The Hitman” Hart coming out (decked in his trademark jacket and jorts) to get him some of Jerry “The King” Lawler. He is still a bit salty about losing to Lawler at In Your House, which is odd as Bret's never been one to hold a lengthy grudge over losing a wrestling match…
Bret wants Jerry's LOUSY STINKIN’ BUTT in the ring for ONE MORE MATCH. Any stipulation is on the table! Bret harasses Lawler until he is pulled away by officials. This will of course lead to the “Kiss My Foot” match for the King of the Ring PPV. Yay.
Next, we have a MR. BACKLUND FOR PRESIDENT campaign ad.
On Education: Backlund promises that everyone in America will have a job so they can afford a dictionary.
On Reading: Backlund wants to motivate the citizens of US and A to read at least one classic American novel per week. Better get to that before the Republicans ban or burn them all.
On Writing: Backlund pledges to abolish SPELL CHECK. Well, he lost my vote.
On Arithmetic: Backlund promises to get rid of calculators!
On Summer Vacations: Backlund cites a 100% Japanese literacy rate as reason to make children attend school 12 months out of the year. Y'know, Bob, if Persona games are something to go by, Japanese students still have summer vacation. It just lasts 40 days.
We now jump to the end of Shawn Michaels vs. King Kong Bundy in a King of the Ring qualifying match. This is Shawn's return match after Sid's attack on the RAW after WrestleMania XI, and his first match as a babyface since his days in The Rockers. After flying around a bit to unbalance the 444-pounder, Michaels hits the superkick for the pin.
Diesel and Bam Bam Bigelow come out to congratulate Michaels. Shawn and Diesel do the REALLY high five and embrace. The crowd loves that development. The Fed succeeded in immediately making Shawn look like a top-tier babyface.
MAY 23rd
ECW Hardcore TV - We catch up with Cactus Jack, who recounts games of whiffleball as a kid. He was on a home run hot streak until another kid caught a home run ball on the fence, sending young Jack spiraling into misery.
Fast-forward to his wrestling career, where he carved out his own path, one fraught with blood and tears. He recalls a veteran wrestler telling him early on that no one will care about him and his style, and that he'll be in a wheelchair by the time he's 30. Jack states that he has one week to go, then once he passes 30, he'll no longer be encumbered by this prediction. He's going to continue doing shit HIS WAY! BANG BANG! Another quality, intense promo here. Dude is having a hell of a year for character work.
MAY 26th
AJPW Super Power Series, Night 5 - We jump to the ending of Stan Hansen (c) vs. Mitsuharu Misawa for the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship. Hansen shoulderblocks the CRAP out of Misawa on the outside, sending him careening over the guardrail. Back in the ring, Hansen nails a big powerbomb.
Misawa backdrops out of another, but Hansen lands a NASTY back suplex for two. Another harsh powerbomb gets two, but Misawa comes back with a ganmengiri, a rolling elbow, and a frog splash for two. Hansen fights back with a lariat, but Misawa counters another one with a rolling pinning combination (kinda like a reverse crucifix) to get the three! Misawa wins his second Triple Crown Championship, ending Hansen’s final reign with the championship.
Hansen is NOT HAPPY, slapping Misawa, attacking ringside attendants, and threatening fans!
Misawa would hold onto that title for nearly a year before dropping it to Akira Taue in May 1996.
MAY 27th
WWF Superstars - Alright, who wants some BONUS content?!?
Anyone?
Well, too bad, because you're getting it anyway! One of the most infamous gimmicks from this era of the WWF made their televised debut on this very day, and we gotta celebrate. We're gonna party like it's 1999…
…or…
…should I say…
…2000?!?
TEKNO TEAM 2000 vs. Brooklyn Brawler and Barry Horowitz - Oh, man! Where do I start with these guys? Well, TT2K was a young tag team comprised of Travis (Chad Fortune, who had just been trained by the WCW Power Plant the year prior) and Troy (Fortune’s college teammate and nepotism beneficiary Erik Watts). Yes, this Erik Watts:
Y’know, as much stick as Erik gets for the alleged favoritism, I kinda feel for him. Could you imagine growing up with notorious hardass “Cowboy” Bill Watts as your DAD?
Also, Chad Fortune? That's his SHOOT NAME. That's actually a decent wrestling name, so I'm glad he stuck with it outside of this gimmick.
Tekno Team 2000 were positioned as an exciting tag team that exemplifies the NEW WWF GENERATION! The tag team of the FUTURE…er, well, five years into the future as WrestleCrap had already pointed out. That's not very far-flung, guys. You can tell they were futuristic because of the silver and maroon, and because they spelt it “Tekno Team”. Bad spelling is the WAVE OF THE FUTURE, a future Mr. Backlund is campaigning against! They do score cool points for their astounding application of alliteration, though.
Honestly, these guys look like an avant-garde Bill & Ted reboot.
After teaming together pre-WWF in 1994, they debuted at an MSG house show in March. This is their official television debut right here. Unlike most others from around this time, there weren't any pre-debut vignettes to build interest or anticipation. They did get a feature in WWF Magazine, though, and were positioned as pin-ups. I remember having that issue when I was younger, actually.
Their theme music is…interesting. It sounds like the background music for a bad Tempest 2000 rip-off. I…don't hate it?
The Fed even brought out a quality jobber team for them to showcase their wares with!
Interestingly enough, this won't be the last we'll see of Barry Horowitz in this series.
Troy starts off with the Brawler, who fares well for himself until he eats a fireman's carry and tags in Horowitz. He runs into a Japanese armdrag, then Travis checks in. They hit a DOUBLE leapfrog, and Travis hits a splash for two. Troy hits a BIG rounding crossbody off the ropes, but the Brawler breaks it up. More double-teams from the future dudes lead to their finish, a vertical suplex/rounding crossbody combo that gets the three. The screencap makes it look like Troy is going to fart on Horowitz’s balls, which would be even more devastating.
1/2* - It's a quick TV squash, but it really wasn’t terrible. A bit goofy with the double leapfrog, but this was fine. They showed good athleticism here.
I watched a few other matches they had and they were all not godawful, even if WWE's YouTube categorizes them under “Boring Tag Teams”.
They also said the same thing about Doug Furnas & Philip LaFon, so WWE's YouTube can eat a butt.
Looking back, TT2K were large, young, athletic, conventionally attractive guys with legitimate sports backgrounds, and one of them was second-generation. If they didn't have this dopey gimmick and presentation (and, to be fair, a dearth of charisma), I think they could have really developed into something. They may not have been tag champs or anything (though Erik Watts did claim in shoot interviews that they were set to dethrone Owen Hart & Yokozuna for the tag belts), but they could have been a solid undercard team, especially considering the scrubs that occupied the tag division at the time.
Tekno Team 2000 would get a few TV enhancement wins and appear as lumberjacks in the In Your House 2 main event, then would get shunted down to USWA for more seasoning. Unfortunately, they kept that same dumbass gimmick even during THAT run instead of workshopping something else. They'd pop back up in 1996 to lose some matches on TV to more established teams before their release shortly after.
Erik would kick around in places like WCW, ECW, TNA, AJPW, and the like, not exactly carving out a lasting legacy in any of those places. At the very least, he figured out how to throw a good dropkick since Starrcade ‘92. Chad Fortune would sign with WCW and not be very successful. Looking at his Cagematch profile, he doesn't have many wins to his name…
wait a minute…
…
*dramatic music*
Oh, shit! Yes, Travis from Tekno Team 2000 was the first guy to beat GOLDBERG, albeit in a dark match before Billiam started his famous winning streak. He’d also form a low-level tag team, the PIT CREW, with a pre-KISS Demon Dale Torborg. Very little of anything they did made TV.
After getting cut from WCW, Fortune would stick with motorsports and make a career out of driving monster trucks. That's pretty dope.
Alright, enough of this Tekno shit. Back to our regularly scheduled content!
USWA Championship Wrestling - We're walkin’ in Memphis this week as we get ready for Memphis Memories II by looking at clips of last year's convention. Fans wax nostalgic about Memphis legends and get autographs. Love the Mortal Kombat shirt this young fella is rocking.
Memphis Memories II will honor Jackie Fargo with a Memphis Wrestling Hall of Fame induction.
We then kick it to Jerry “The King” Lawler who comes out to see Lance Russell and Dave Brown. Lawler sets up some chairs near the commentation station, then brings out Wolfie D, Brian Christopher, Bill Dundee, and Jamie Dundee out for a hashing-out session.
As Lawler is outnumbered by the heel side of the roster, he tries to patch up the schism between all four and succeeds with PG-13. Everyone encourages Brian and Bill to do the same. Superstar offers his hand, and Too Sexy accepts.
The faces now present a united front to counteract the nefarious heels.
Smoky Mountain Wrestling - We go immediately from beloved babyface PG-13 to ratfuck heel PG-13 as we get a promo happening just after the Thugs match at Volunteer Slam. Randy Hales is with them and explains his snitchery that led to the Thugs having their USWA tag title win reversed.
The Gangstas come in and accost PG-13 as they take offense to PG-13's white-boy gangster presentation. The Thugs come in as well, and it's a three-way brawl!
We now see footage of Al Snow and Unabomb beating the crap out of Ricky Morton, who is hanging by his neck from a scaffold.
We cut to Snow bragging about his misdeeds backstage, saying he hung Morton like a piñata (then shouts out the Guerrero family, because casual racism). Snow promises to END the Rock n’ Roll Express. Unabomb stands there and does nothing, probably for the best.
We now cut to Ricky Morton backstage. Ricky tried to take Snow out in singles competition, but Unabomb keeps getting in the way. Morton pledges to go back to tag team wrasslin’ and challenges Snow and Unabomb to a tag match, no matter the stipulation.
We now get back to Volunteer Slam and “Bullet” Bob Armstrong getting fireball'd by Jim Cornette and Terry Funk, and the absolute fracas that ensued after. This ends with Cornette, Funk, Buddy Landel, and a then-unnamed Punisher standing tall.
We then an interview with the heels backstage. Cornette had cooked up a plan to get revenge not only on The Gangstas, but also on Bullet Bob for Jim Cornette having to kiss his feet late last year per a match stipulation. He then formally introduces The Punisher to the world.
We’ll get more details of Cornette's plot NEXT WEEK on Smoky Mountain Wrestling!
WCW Worldwide - No voyages aboard The Mothership tonight, but we do have some WCW Worldwide! “Mean” Gene Okerlund has Arn Anderson in the interview area.
Gene brings up the TV title defense at the upcoming Great American Bash PPV against Renegade (aww, crap). Anderson, bless his soul, cuts a solid promo, putting over Renegade's intensity and presence, but promises to do what is needed to keep his TV title.
Well, this week was lackluster to say the least when it came to the actual between-the-ropes stuff. I mean, the only full match was a bonus jobber squash. No wonder the Tekno Team 2000 bonus content had to carry the load. The terrible showing from Slamboree didn’t help.
There was still some fun to be had, though. The WCW Hall of Fame was nice, there was some significant moments like the Shawn Michaels return and the Misawa title win, and there were some decent promos and vignettes.
NEXT TIME: We're gonna have another light week in terms of full matches, but we'll have some continuation of a WCW main-event feud. We'll also get our first look at a rare GOOD gimmick to come out of mid-90s WWF, and the usual stuff.
Smell ya later!