What Made WWF So Bad In '95?

[Orange]

So, I know that, as far as the WWE goes, '95 is one of its most looked down upon periods ever. However, given as I wasn't watching in '95, for those that did - what exactly made it so bad?

For some reason, it fascinates me that it's looked down upon, because just a year later we'd get the start of the Attitude Era - it seems like such a wild 180.

[Mac]

Eh, it wasnt dramatically worse than the previous couple of years. The difference IMO is that their audience had grown up between 92-94 and it kinda came to a head in 1995. The program had just drifted along for a while and it grew tiresome. That, and the poorly booked IYH PPVs starting, an embarassingly bad KOTR 95 with almost no star power and a thin roster all around...

bad year

[thegame415]

It was too out of date. The company acted like it was 1985 as opposed to 1995.

[chazraps]

It was an out-of-touch product, the main event scene, while not necessarily weak, was the weakest it ever was and rife with injuries.

The roster just didn't really gel.

[flexkavana]

The product just wasn't that exciting. You had guys like Diesel and Mabel headlining the second biggest show of the year. It also felt like watching a live action cartoon at times with wrestlers like Mantaur and Duke Droese. Also, the Million Dollar Corporation was one of the most boring heel stables out there at this time. Even the Dungeon of Doom was better.

[siredger]

Too many cartooony gimmicks. I mean, seriously, The Goon? Dressed as a hockey player and boots made up like skates? Absolutely ridiculous.

[wildojinx]

Mar 18, 2013 23:35:58 GMT -5 siredger said:

Too many cartooony gimmicks. I mean, seriously, The Goon? Dressed as a hockey player and boots made up like skates? Absolutely ridiculous.

The thing is though, most of those gimmicks were nowhere near the main event scene, so you cant put all the blame on that (though it is a factor).

[OGBoardPoster2005]

A very outdated premise in booking. You had Diesel being written and booked look Hogan when he didn't even have 1/2 the fan following. The Million Dollar Corporation were the anatagonists for the most part in 1995 up until the rise of Camp Cornette but out of that stable you had Ted DiBiase, who could still work as a great heel but he had to back pack for Bam Bam Bigelow (who was jobbed out and turned face shortly after), I.R.S. (who wasn't cutting it as a Singles wrestler), Tatanka (who wasn't Main Event material), King Kong Bundy (who by 1995 was nowhere near the star power he was 10 years earlier), Kama (who was poor attempt at an MMA gimmick), Sycho Sid (who was fed to Diesel), and the 1-2-3 Kid (who was buried by Razor). Just a horrible stable.

You had Bret Hart floundering around in random feuds with Jerry Lawler and Carl Outlette before being given the belt back at SS. You had a weak midcard and a thinning roster that needed to bring in Jake Roberts, Dory Funk Jr., Takao Omori, Doug Gilbert, and the Headhunters for the Rumble the following year. It was just the wrong promotion for the era especially when you have ECW at its height at the time.

[SEAN CARLESS]

Watch King of the Ring '95. It'll answer all your questions. 3 hours built around Mabel and Savio Vega. Another 36 straight for Sir Mo's coronation speech.

[thecrusherwi]

I think it was many things. Its hard to explain. I agree with those who said out of date booking and bad gimmicks. I enjoy the hell out of 1995 (I liked it as a kid and recently revisited it extensively expecting to hate it and loved it), but it is certainly a step down in quality.

In a lot of ways they just didn't have the talent. I mean look at the Wrestlemania 8 roster compared to the rosters at Wrestlemania 9 and 10. There's no way to dress that up to make it look comparable, no matter what you do. And people talk about the gap between the main event and rest of the card now, in 1995 it was about as bad as I've ever seen. You basically had Diesel, Bret Hart, Yokozuna, and Undertaker. Then you had Razor, Shawn, Owen, Bulldog, and possibly Jarrett, who didn't look out of place challenging for the WWF title, but didn't actually make you believe they could win it either. And then you fell over a 100 foot cliff before you get to midcard guys like Savio Vega, 1-2-3 Kid, Mabel, Doink and the rest of the roster, most of which didn't even look like they had a prayer to give the IC champion of run for their money. Although, as bad as 1995 is in this regard, I still think it comes off a tad better than 1994, when you had the same dynamic except with Randy Savage commentating Raw every week. You were constantly wondering why Savage didn't take off the headset and go lay waste to all of these bums pretending to be big stars.

[Professor Chaos]

Kevin Nash

[chazraps]

Mar 18, 2013 23:35:58 GMT -5 siredger said:

Too many cartooony gimmicks. I mean, seriously, The Goon? Dressed as a hockey player and boots made up like skates? Absolutely ridiculous.

That was 1996.

[celticjobber]

Diesel and Mabel mostly.

[TGM]

They just couldn't capture the magic of the 80s no matter how hard they tried. And but did they try the same tired shit in 1995.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

1995: Great talent, horrendous booking. Seriously, it had a heck of a lot of talented guys stuck in dead end gimmicks, people as faces who the crowd didn't particularly like and it had the kliq there to put the brakes on the pushes of up and comers who looked like they would become a threat.

People say that the roster was thin, but the talent was there to put on far better events than we got, there was no excuse for the pushes of King Kong Bundy, Jerry Lawler and Mabel in 1995.

[DoubleDare]

Mar 19, 2013 0:29:41 GMT -5 SEAN CARLESS said:

Watch King of the Ring '95. It'll answer all your questions. 3 hours built around Mabel and Savio Vega. Another 36 straight for Sir Mo's coronation speech.

kotr 95 is the only ppv ive been to, i was 10 and my god did that speech feel like it took forever.

No rose colored goggles can make kotr 95 a good ppv lol.

[Steveweiser]

Kayfabe Commentaries did 1995, with Kevin Nash. Should check that out soon.

[johnnytightlips]

Mar 19, 2013 7:45:36 GMT -5 Steveweiser said:

Kayfabe Commentaries did 1995, with Kevin Nash. Should check that out soon.

I recommend getting it, somebody posted a good amount of clips of it on Youtube.

[Orange]

So, I just found the first Raw from '95, and the first thing that pops up is Jeff Jarrett in some goofy outfit with Road Dogg smiling behind him. They also appear to be playing in a high school gym, or a building of equal size.

I think I'm starting to see some of what's so bad about it.

But seriously, that arena is ridiculously small. Makes me wonder what would've happened to the company had the boom period not happened but a year later.

[carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army)]

1995 was the year that WCW really started to gain momentum: Nitro debuted, Luger defected, Hogan and Savage brought star power.

I think more than anything that was bad about WWF in 1995, there was just this pervasive sense among people who remember it that WCW was there things were at.