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Fixing the WWF in 1995

8K views 27 replies 20 participants last post by  Mr. Kennedy 
#1 · (Edited)
So for this week's podcast we are returning to our booking committee format for a discussion re-booking the WWF from January 1995, in order to try and make something more out of what was the nadir of company history in the eyes of many, and we're looking to get some feedback on what you think needed to be done to make this company succeed during a period where popularity fell, and house show and PPV numbers sank to all time lows.

On the premise that you can do whatever you want with the talent there and the talent incoming (but can't do anything outside the boundaries of what was possible in reality), how do you realign everything in 1995 to save the year from the depths it sunk to?

As always, we'll be reading the best feedback/ideas on the show and crediting you accordingly. So what would you have done?

EDIT - The show discussing Fixing The WWF in 1995 and taking your feedback, is now online and available to listen to at the following link: http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/web/6yfk8e/SCGRadio64-FixingTheWWFin1995.mp3
 
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#4 ·
First off, as a weekly listener to your show, I can tell you I'll be looking forward to hearing what your crew has to say about this one.


I would say the biggest issue that the WWF had in 1995 was that they did with Diesel what they're currently trying to do with Roman Reigns; That's not only forcing him down the fans throats whether they like it or not, but making him a sympathetic babyface while they do it, even though he has no business being one. What got Diesel over in the first place was that he was an ass kicker that was cool and cocky, plain and simple. After he won the belt they had him smiling at the crowd, kissing babies, walking old ladies across the street and all that other bullshit. They should have kept his character the same. Don't fix it if it's not broken and stray from what brought you to the dance in the first place. Personally I would have kept him as the heel champion at least for a couple of months before his babyface run and instead of having one practically year-long reign I would have had him trade the title with Razor Ramon at least once.

Scott Hall was OVER back then and the WWF never capitalized on it. Now, a lot of that was due to his preference of nose candy and booze but that didn't stop Vince from giving HBK multiple title reigns and it shouldn't have stopped Razor Ramon from getting a title run at least once. Personally, I think him as a babyface chasing the world title from heel Diesel that year would have made for decent ratings and a good story.

Looking back, I guess I would have had Razor go over in the '95 Royal Rumble and then take the title from Diesel at WrestleMania. They didn't really do anything with HBK winning that year anyway as he went to Mania and just did the job anyways so I would have him win the next year instead in '96 like he ended up doing and have everything unfold just like it did.
 
#5 ·
Scott Hall was OVER back then and the WWF never capitalized on it. Now, a lot of that was due to his preference of nose candy and booze but that didn't stop Vince from giving HBK multiple title reigns and it shouldn't have stopped Razor Ramon from getting a title run at least once. Personally, I think him as a babyface chasing the world title from heel Diesel that year would have made for decent ratings and a good story.
Oh yeah, Razor vs. Diesel would've been sick, especially if Vince let them show a bit more "attitude".

Looking back, I fucking hated how Razor just got stuck with the IC Title. It was like he was getting stalked by it. I think he should've just left it alone after dropping it to Diesel in 94. God, let 123 Kid chase Jarrett instead of dragging Razor along.

Teaming him up with Lawrence Taylor at WM 11 would've been a nice opportunity to give Razor some extra exposure. After that, I'd push him towards the WWF Title and give him the belt for a couple of months before dropping it to Bret at the 96 Rumble. Maybe Diesel-Razor at WM 12, if Big Daddy Cool costs him the title.
 
#3 · (Edited)
The Wrestlemania card could've been a LOT different for starters:

Main Event: HBK w/ Sid and Jenny McCarthy vs. Diesel (c) w/ Pamela Anderson
Leave this the way it is but put it in the main event.

The Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer vs. Bam Bam Bigelow (w/ Million Dollar Corporation) - Laurence Taylor the ringside enforcer
I cannot BELIEVE how they missed this one out. Taker was feuding heavily with the MDC at the time and Bam Bam was pretty much their head talent. LT and BBB would have their shoving encounter at Royal Rumble but rather than hotshot LT and Bam Bam in the main event (a TERRIBLE move) then have The Undertaker continue his feud with MDC. Taker would win but Bam Bam would put up much more of a fight than King Kong Bundy.

The Allied Powers vs. The Smoking Gunns (c)
Face vs. face tag team championship action. Could make for some interesting dynamics and could even pave the way for the Bulldog heel turn which they did a couple of months later.

Bret Hart vs. Bob Backlund vs. Owen Hart - Three Way Submission Match
Bret needed revenge for Backlund taking the title from him and from Owen after what happened at Royal Rumble 95. Would be a thrilling encounter and put a closure to two feuds at once.

Razor Ramon w/ 1-2-3 Kid vs. Jeff Jarrett w/ The Roadie (c)
One of the few matches they booked right. Kid is back out following the opening match of the card to be in Razor's corner.

Bob Holly vs. Mystery Opponent - Yokozuna
This is before Holly turned into an uber-jobber as he was coming off the back of a tag title reigh. Strictly undercard but a good way to bring back Yoko over solid talent.

Six Man Tag Match: Kama, IRS and Tatanka vs. Adam Bomb, 1-2-3 Kid and Marty Jannetty
Opening match of the show. Fast paced with the heels going over.

---

Again, not a DRASTIC improvement, but all the big matches make for a better show overall.
 
#7 ·
it might sound silly but actually push diesel. they made him champ but he was never the guy. the royal rumble match vs bret hart had a fuck finish, he didnt main event mania when he should have, he wasnt even on the midway video game haha. the big badass character got watered down and pussyfied and they did the same thing to shawn year later.
 
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#8 ·
They needed to balance things out because post Wrestlemania 11, they had way too many faces who were seen as top guys (Diesel, Shawn, Bret, Undertaker, Razor, Luger) and not enough top heels. Even Bam Bam Bigelow who headlined Wrestlemania as a heel was turned face shortly thereafter. Heels generally don't stay on top too long anyway and we already seen Yokozuna and Owen Hart go for the title in the last year. In fairness WWE recognized the issue and tried with Hakushi, Sid, Mabel, Isaac Yankem and Jean Pierre Lafitte. I think if any of those 6 top faces I mentioned above would've turned heel, they might of done marginally better.

I say marginally because they were still in full blown cartoon mode and that style wasn't going to work regardless of storylines or the talent of the wrestler.
 
#9 ·
I think they pulled the plug too soon on Bret's title reign. I'd do Bret vs. Michaels at the Rumble and have Diesel break off from him there. Diesel vs Michaels stays the same it's just not for the belt. Luger could of turned at some point in 94 with Dibiase and he could win the RR and challenge Bret. I'd have him win the belt too although maybe I'd wait until the 1st IYH for that. A real Million Dollar stable would go along ways in 95 because that was the big heel group yet it did nothing of note. They feuded with Razor, Shawn, Diesel, Taker and it was all one big yawn. I'd redo that group with Luger, Owen and Sid. Diesel could win the belt from Luger at Summerslam after getting a hefty push of winning KITR.
 
#14 ·
I wouldn't change a thing. I can understand the hate it gets from the current era fans but if you grew up watching the entire New Generation like I did then it probably has a special place in your heart. The rise of Shawn Michaels, Two Dudes With Attitude, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, British Bulldog, Undertaker, debut of Mankind, Smoking Gunns, Yokozuna, Adam Bomb, Issac Yankem, Razor Ramon, 1-2-3 Kid, Sid, Million Dollar Corporation (Tatanka/IRS/King Kong Bundy/Kama Mustafa), Bam Bam Bigelow, Vader, Duke 'The Dumpster' Drosoe, Rad Radford, Aldo Montoya, Man Mountain Rock, Hakushi, Ahmed Johnson, debut of HHH, Marc Mero, Flash Funk, return of Jake Roberts, Mabel, Jean-Pierre Lafiette, Lex Luger, Dean Douglas, Bodydonnas, Barry Horowitz, Headshrinkers, Bob Holly, Jeff Jarrett, Savio Vega, the Roadie, etc. Ooooooooooooooooh shit.

:banderas :banderas :banderas
 
#15 · (Edited)
Yep. People shit on 1995 because of the cartoony gimmicks and storylines. But look at some of the guys on the roster back then: HBK, Taker, Bret, Razor, Diesel, Mankind, Owen, Vader, Bulldog, Kid. etc. Austin and HHH debuted with different gimmicks and were midcarders. There is more charisma and starpower right there than there is on today's roster. Also, all of those guys were in their prime those years. From a talent standpoint, they had it in 1995. It was just the cartoon gimmicks and stupid storylines. But the talent was there in spades.
 
#24 · (Edited)
Very easy to fix, even with the same roster. ECW was already proving the future direction of wrestling by December of 1994. All that the WWF would need to do is gradually adopt the same elements. Here's a few examples of gimmick alterations:

Diesel - No more smiling Diesel...we go immediately to the tweener version that we saw briefly in 1996.

Lex Luger - A full blown turn at the Royal Rumble (after eliminating half the roster) against Bret Hart to kick things off, and a return to 1989 "Total Package" arrogance and heeldom. Luger faces Diesel at WrestleMania and loses when Hart interferes on Diesel's behalf.

Shawn Michaels - Becomes more obnoxious and ultimately morphs into 1997 HBK. The wrestler who would will take the belt from Diesel at Survivor Series and aligns with Dibiase at that event.

Davey Boy Smith - Remains a top singles wrestler. He still had enough juice and was fresh enough after his return to credibly be in the upper tier.

The Blu Brothers - Not hillbillies...but with their long hair they come in as a metal tag-team.

HHH - Keep the gimmick, but make it more modern. Nobody in 1995 dressed like Hunter. Associate him with fellow blue-blood Ted Dibiase.

Hakushi - Allied with Ted Dibiase, looses the campier aspects of the gimmick, and is pushed like Great Muta. Upsets Razor Ramon at WrestleMania XI.

Undertaker - Personality takes a sinister turn but he remains a babyface, feuding with various members of the Million Dollar Corporation and finally ends Hakushi's undefeated streak at The Survivor Series and gains the Intercontinental title. Seeds a laid for a 1996 WrestleMania match between him and HBK.

Bret Hart - This one is the most controversial. Upset with the direction that his career has taken and the fracturing of the relationship with his brother, he enters a tailspin and emerges as something close to the grunge character that the WWF wanted Louie Spicolli to be and ECW's Raven actually became. Post SummerSlam 1995 Bret Hart just does not care anymore.
 
#10 ·
I should add, we'll be recording this as if we are starting on January 1st, so there is an element of inheriting a difficult situation going in.
 
#12 ·
Here is the number one thing:
95-97 Vince, Prichard and Jim Cornette was booking/writing and while Prichard has been behind a lot of good booking in his career, as far as I know, Cornette's booking has always been awful.

They needed to get rid of their cartoon heroes / gimmick heavy - mindset and they needed to get rid of that talentless Cornette who was trying to book an 80s type of wrestling show.
 
#19 ·
What was the idea with Hakushi in WWF ? Does someone know what were the plans for him ? He doesn't seem to have such a great career in the company.
He was an exciting new talent with a unique look who could really do some great stuff but according to Bret, he had a passive attitude, which lead to all the locker room politicians burying him. It's sad that two of the company's best new additions in 1995 (Hakushi, Skip) pretty much got buried before the year ended.

I actually enjoyed 1995. Probably more for nostalgia reasons than anything else but I didn't hate the product and was a huge Diesel mark. I can see why most hated it though as it was pretty poorly booked from a wrestling standpoint.

Did anyone actually read the Titan Sinking book? One curious piece of info was that they had brought in Bill Watts as a booker during the latter part of the year with the idea being that Vince was going to back away from the creative a little to focus on the business. Watts' big storyline contribution ended up being the night on RAW when all the top babyfaces got laid out by the heels. I still recall it to this day as it was quite an effective note to play, though it did result in the real life facial injury suffered by Undertaker. This angle ended up being the straw that broke the camel's back in the Watts/Vince business relationship as Vince changed it to happen at a point in the show that would allow for the crowd to go home happy. Watts' own philosophy was that it should have ended on a sour note so the audience would be invested in the babyfaces finally getting their payback down the road but Vince believed in "sending the audience home happy." Watts reportedly told McMahon that he couldn't work with Vince editing him so heavily and with it being Vince's company, it didn't make sense for him to give that level of control to Watts so he agreed to resign with no hard feelings.

With regards to rebooking, I tend to stay out of such things but the one thing that might have helped the Diesel train run smoother would have been more top heels who could work. It's been brought up by numerous people how unbalanced the roster became, post-Mania. I'd have let the Sid thing play out but probably would have pushed for a heel Luger over Mabel to chase the title in the summer.
 
#22 ·
No WWF was bad in 95. Yeah those stars they d was great but didn't appear on television every week, they were basically special attractions. You basically got low carders vs. jobbers for maton the sho, with bad stors and feudwih weak champions too. It was bad in the WWF on all phases back in 1995, and the cartoon stuff didn't help it.
 
#23 ·
They should have never changed the formula that they had in 1988. People lost interest, because he went to far with things that were just stupid and corny. Believe it or not, but the Undertaker actually made a lot of people stop watching wrestling when he first came out. Nobody wants to admit that now, but a lot of people I know of back then thought that it was the stupidest thing ever, and they just laughed at it and lost all interest at that point. WWF became a joke to people whom used to watch it every single weekend.
 
#25 ·
Like most people already said, the roster was great. I was able to seperate the guys that were in the upper, mid, and lower card. Only problem really were the storylines and who got to feud with each other. Obviously as a child at that time i looked at WWF as sport like boxing, but stuff like Mabel winning the KOTR and Diesel holding the title was dumb.

The cartoony/campy style was kind of dumb and seemed to much for children (i was 10 at the time but i was looking for some bad ass wrestling) so the booking suffered, likeBret Hart feuding witht Lawler seemed like it dragged on forever and Razor Ramon not getting title shots didnt make sense.

The way i see it, fixing it required good booking and pitting the top stars against each other throughout the year while keeping the titles credible and relevant with the right people holding them.
 
#26 ·
A big problem with the company once Shawn turned face was that the top 5 guys in the company were all faces. Bret, Shawn, Taker, Razor, Diesel. While that's a really impressive big 5, the lack of major stars as heels hurt the main event. Insert the "Mabel problem." They tried but no one was buying that. Literally.

"Camp Cornette" was a solid idea and very entertaining group, but they were never quite treated as legit heel main eventers (acknowledging that Yoko had fallen from that role).

Sid could have been that guy had the "Million Dollar Corporation" been booked better. I mean, it was a random pairing of a psycho and millionaire, plus some mid carders. Diesel vs. Sid wasn't that interesting as a Title feud, especially when Tatanka and Bigelow were involved.

Here's what I would have done:

- Lex Luger turns heel, joining DiBiase's "Million Dollar Corporation" at Summerslam 1994, eventually winning the WWF Title at Survivor Series 1994.

- DiBiase surrounds Luger with IRS, Jeff Jarrett and eventually Psycho Sid, forming tge "Million Dollar Corporation"; Luger is pushed as the top heel.

- Royal Rumble 1995: Bret Hart wins the Rumble; Luger retains the WWF Title over the Undertaker; Jeff Jarrett defeats Razor Ramon for the IC Title.

- Wrestlemania 11: Bret Hart defeats Lex Luger for the WWF Title; Diesel defeats Shawn Michaels; Owen Hart and Yokozuna defeat the Smoking Gunns for the Tag Titles; Razor Ramon defeats Jeff Jarrett for the IC Title.

- The night after Mania 11, Psycho Sid returns and helps Luger beat down Bret Hart, with Diesel making the save.

Maybe... going back and forth, but I don't want the title swapping too much while trying to establish Sid and Luger as dominant heels, keeping Bret as the top face, and inserting Diesel into the Title picture. Possible Razor heel turn?
 
#28 · (Edited)
I want to thank everybody for the contributions, we got to read many of them on the show, which is now available at the following link:

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/web/6yfk8e/SCGRadio64-FixingTheWWFin1995.mp3

Join us as we attempt to Fix the WWF in 1995! Starting on January 1st, the panel goes through all the pitfalls that faced the company in arguably its worst ever year, and attempt to rebook the company for greater success, planning all the major shows and feuds. We talk about a struggle to find a champion, the lack of hot heels, bad gimmicks and worse decisions. A really fun show this week, check it out and let us know what you think!
 
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