WWF SuperStars: January 14, 1995

Bob Carpenter Center – Newark, DE

Announcers: Vince McMahon & Jerry “The King” Lawler

Vince recaps the action over the last four weeks in the tag-team championship tournament and promotes the two semifinal matches on tap this week on “WWF SuperStars” with the winners advancing onto the finals at the Royal Rumble in just 8 days time now. Also this week on the show, WWF Champion Diesel will have a special interview. Jerry “The King” Lawler joins Vince in the aisle to diss on The Headshrinkers chances of defeating Bam Bam Bigelow and Tatanka in the opening semifinal bout as those two make their ring entrance at the onset of SuperStars.

Tag-Team Championship Tournament Semifinal Match:

“The Beast From the East” Bam Bam Bigelow & “The Native American” Tatanka
(w/ “The Million-Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase)
-VS-
The Headshrinkers [Sione & Fatu]
(w/ “Captain” Lou Albano & Afa)

Result/Analysis: Bam Bam and Tatanka via pinfall (5:30 shown) when Bam Bam pins Sione with a roll-up. There was no way The Headshrinkers were going over in this match so there wasn’t much doubt coming in. Bam Bam and Tatanka had been hyped as the favorites to win the vacant tag-team titles so they were at least making the finals at the Royal Rumble. Captain Lou Albano brought nothing to the fold in his attempt to civilize The Headshrinkers as a babyface tag-team. Sionne had replaced Samu in the tag-team so version 2.0 never appealed too much. Sione was “The Barbarian” for years and his look hardly differed much from back then. Afa receives the biggest reaction from the crowd for his post-match Samoan Drop on Tatanka. That’s all you need to know. Bam Bam and Sione carry the action before the lame finish. Both the Heavenly Bodies and the brat pack duo (as Jim Cornette calls them) of The 1-2-3 Kid and Bob “Spark Plugg” Holly have insert promos during the match to plug their chances in the other semifinal match. The result there is self-explanatory given there would not be two heel teams squaring off for the belts at the pay-per-view. The underdog story of The Kid and Holly going all the way in the tournament sold itself like it would in any sport.

Rating: **

Meanwhile, “Big Daddy Cool” Diesel stays energized when he’s working out by snapping into a Slim Jim. Yeah, so the Slim Jim promo only ever worked for “Macho Man” Randy Savage who took that schtick with him to WCW. Add this bit as another Vince McMahon idea on getting Diesel over as a babyface.

Stephanie Wiand brings everyone up to speed on the feud between I.R.S. and The Undertaker from the WWF Live Events Center. Outside of unmasking The Druids, who’s really looking forward to the I.R.S. and ‘Taker match at the Royal Rumble? The only avenue to pursue creatively there is for a new adversary to play “mind games” with The Deadman. Now apparently, from reading through another review of this SuperStars taping, Wiand’s segment here was to announce the replacement of Bob Backlund with “Double J” Jeff Jarrett on The Holiday Wish Tour in WWF Championship matches against Diesel. The Backlund/Diesel main event wasn’t drawing at the box office so the powers that be swapped Backlund out for Jarrett since “Double J” had the necessary heel heat for crowds to have to cheer for Diesel. Desperation so early! The crowds at arenas on the tour were reluctantly backing Diesel as the babyface champion since he won the title from Backlund in November ‘94 at Madison Square Garden. Backlund and Shawn Michaels joined The Roadie in Jarrett’s corner for the remaining matches on the tour leading up to the Rumble.

Listen up WWF fans, it’s time for school with Man Mountain Rock 🎸. Maxx Payne, repackaged as an electric guitarist, is coming soon. The sh** gimmicks were coming fast and furious in 1995. Would ANY of them stick?

“Double J” Jeff Jarrett (w/ The Roadie) -VS- Mike Moraldo

Result/Analysis: Jarrett via submission (2:18) with the figure-four leg lock. Ain’t he great? Jarrett’s sustained push continues on by the week as he’s racking up the wins on television and getting loads of mic 🎤 time. Double J is also matched up with Bret “The Hitman” Hart in the “Monday Night RAW” showcase match prior to the Royal Rumble. That holds stock. Jarrett thrived in these TV matches with enhancement talent. He both nailed his character with each appearance and he wasn’t sloppy in the ring. Above all else, that’s how you get over or in the case of being a heel, generate the necessary heat. In the beginning of 1995, the were few bright spots the WWF had. Double J was one.

Rating: *1/4

Vince introduces the WWF Champion “Big Daddy Cool” Diesel for a special interview. The crowd reaction is favorable , if truthfully a bit muted, but the cameramen certainly finds the most ardent of his supporters so … Vince asks Diesel if he considers himself to be a changed man since winning the WWF Title in a record-breaking :08 on that fateful night of November 26th at Madison Square Garden over Bob Backlund? Diesel admits he now smiles a little bit more but then again, he has a lot to smile about since becoming the champion. Diesel adds that he also talks more than he used to but that’s a luxury he can now afford, too, since getting rid of that motormouth Shawn Michaels. Circling back to Vince’s question, however, Diesel says he hasn’t changed and that’s he’s the same fierce competitor he’s always been. Diesel says he only knows one way to be and that’s straight ahead, pedal to the metal, running over people. And that is “Big Daddy Cool.” The change question is then flipped by Diesel onto his Royal Rumble opponent Bret Hart. Diesel wonders how Bret couldn’t change after Survivor Series and losing the WWF Championship in the way that he did by his own brother’s manipulation of their parents. Diesel paints Bret as changed man outwardly since his return with Bret sporting a “Grizzly Adams” beard. He reminds fans that when he a “youngin” watching the WWF at then 6’3” in height that Bret was no choir boy when he teamed with Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart as Bret would break every rule in the book. And rumor has it, Diesel adds, that Bret will do whatever it takes at the Rumble to win back the title. Diesel makes a promise he’s walking into the Rumble as the champion and walking out of the Rumble still the champion. He promises 1995 will be the year of Diesel. It’s clear the intent is to get Diesel more fanfare for the Rumble match with Bret while getting fans to question if the Bret they’re seeing now in his return is the same Bret as before. Even fans back then, many less in tune, weren’t so gullible as to fall for this. The WWF had to know Bret would get more fan support yet it’s Diesel as the new and fresh babyface that the company aimed to push. The two “good guys” dynamic going against each other wasn’t always a 50-50 split. Here, it’s more like 80-20 Bret with the WWF trying to shrink the gap in such a limited timeframe.

Speaking of Diesel, he’s on the cover of the latest “WWF Magazine.” Who didn’t go out to their local store or deli and buy the newest edition when it came out? Don’t lie and say you didn’t.

Duke “The Dumpster” Droese -VS- Chris Kanyon

Result/Analysis: Droese via pinfall (1:25) following the trash compactor. We hear in his insert promo that “The Dumpster” favors the style of match the Rumble is as he can throw out trash in every direction. Vince mentions the possibility that adores could win the Rumble and challenge the WWF Champion whomever that may be at WrestleMania. Lawler cracks a joke between a smart garbageman, and Bigfoot, and asks Vince what the difference is? The answer? Bigfoot has been sighted. Yeah, nothing to see here. The irony here is that Kanyon, enhancement talent he is, would have a longer wrestling career with more of an impact than Droese.

Rating: 1/2*

A Hakushi video package airs to highlight his non-customary and rather unorthodox move set since his WWF debut a few months earlier. Of all the recent additions to the roster, Hakushi was the one getting the most attention of the crowds at either TV tapings or live events. The problem? The cheers he was receiving despite working as a heel.

Todd Pettengill gives the latest Royal Rumble report as the annual January pay-per-view is now only eight days out. Pettengill first mentions the “Big Daddy Cool” Diesel versus “The Hitman” Bret Hart WWF Championship and says that match is the real “Super Bowl” that’s upcoming. He says Diesel/Hart is perhaps the greatest WWF Title match of all-time but wouldn’t we expect him to say so? Another classic battle at the PPV according to the Toddster will be the Intercontinental Championship match between champion, Razor Ramon and challenger, Jeff Jarrett. The Royal Rumble card also features the taxman I.R.S. against The Undertaker. Pettengill then explains the rules of the Royal Rumble match, which features one-minute intervals in this year’s event between entrants, and he mentions that the draw will be held on the “WWF Action Zone” on the morning of the PPV. Pamela Anderson of the hit TV series “Baywatch” will host the event and she’ll walk the winner of the Royal Rumble to the ring for the WWF Championship match at WrestleMania XI. The confirmed SuperStars signed on to compete in the Rumble are these men: “Made in the U.S.A.” Lex Luger, King Kong Bundy, Doink The Clown, Mr. Bob Backlund, Kwang, Adam Bomb, Duke “The Dumpster” Droese, The Bushwhackers (Luke and Butch), Dick Murdoch, Henry Godwinn, “The Portuguese Man O’ War” Aldo Montoya, “The British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith, Men On A Mission (Mo and Mabel), The 1-2-3 Kid, Bob “Spark Plugg” Holly, “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels, Crush, Mantaur, “The King of Hart’s” Owen Hart, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, Well Dunn (Timothy Well and Steven Dunn), and the new tag-team of Jacob and Eli Blu. The finals of the tag-team championship tournament will also take place at the PPV. Earlier on “WWF SuperStars” much to his surprise Pettengill admits, Bam Bam Bigelow and Tatanka advanced. Their opponents are determined in the second semifinal match that’s still to come.

Tag-Team Championship Tournament Semifinal Match:

The Heavenly Bodies [“The Doctor of Desire” Tom Prichard and “The Gigolo” Jimmy Del Ray]
(w/ James E. Cornette)
-VS-
The 1-2-3 Kid & Bob “Spark Plugg” Holly

Result/Analysis: The 1-2-3 Kid and Bob “Spark Plugg” Holly via pinfall (6:13 shown) when Holly pins Prichard in a cradle roll-up following a clothesline by The Kid. Cornette interjected himself into the match seconds earlier to reverse a Holly roll-up on Prichard to have Prichard the one trying to pin Holly. Lame. The Heavenly Bodies were never winning this match under anyone’s direction. Both semifinal tournament matches were decent just completely obvious in their end result. Holly was the “spark” for the “Brat Pack” duo as The Kid mostly took a beating from Prichard and Del Ray. Of note during the match was Vince and Lawler arguing about The Kid and Holly even being in the tournament with The Smoking Gunns have to withdraw beforehand. Vince says The Gunns have now returned to action following Bart’s injury from falling off a horse yet Lawler, claiming Bart was befallen by milking a cow at The Gunns’ ranch, insinuates Billy and Bart won’t be happy if their replacements go all the way in the tournament and actually win the tag-team titles. Vince is disagreeable to that but The King is foreshadowing future events. After the match, Vince congratulates The Kid and Holly on yet another upset victory and their securing a spot in the finals of the tag-team championship tournament at the Royal Rumble. Lawler offers no congratulations, however, telling The Kid and Holly their winning again has now cost him two Royal predictions. He doubles down to predict the Million-Dollar Team (of Bam Bam and Tatanka) will end their run and they’ll feel like small change then. Vince exults what a victory to The Kid and Holly as SuperStars wraps up.

Rating: **1/4

The Verdict: The entire focus this week was on the tag-team championship tournament with the two semifinal match-ups bridging the show. The finals are now set for the Royal Rumble but with word The Smoking Gunns have returned to action. Jeff Jarrett remains a focal point at each TV taping as his push continues. Perhaps of most importance though is the attempt to liken Diesel to the crowds and viewing audience while creating a doubt in people’s minds that it’s Bret Hart who’s the changed man, someone hyper-focused on revenge against his brother Owen rather than recapturing the coveted WWF Championship. Lawler cracked some good jokes as always and learned that Dick Murdoch is in fact still alive and entering the Royal Rumble. There’s just countless waste in the 30-man Rumble field but the roster has been gutted considerably over the preceding 12 months so what remained or with incoming talent is what we were getting.