WWF Superstars (March 4, 1995)

 

Original Airdate: March 4, 1995 (taped January 24)

From West Palm Beach, Florida; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler

1-2-3 Kid v Bob Cook: It’s kind of crazy that this dinky little building later hosted a pay per view for them. The mid-90s was not a great period for them, sure, but damn do I love it anyway. Kid with a spinheel kick into an Oklahoma roll at 1:59. DUD

Live Event News is interrupted by Undertaker making the lights flicker

WrestleMania Moment: Reba McEntire singing the national anthem at WrestleMania VIII. Kind of a weird thing to highlight, but they were going all in on the celebrity aspect for XI, so I guess it makes sense

Kama v Chris Nelson: We get a fan doing the ring announcing for this one. These two seem to be engaged in a contest for oddest hairdo. And they’re kind of like puzzle pieces - if you take the two stripes on Kama’s temples and put them on Nelson’s, they’d each end up with fairly normal hairstyles. Kama with an STF at 1:24. DUD

Henry Godwinn v Leroy Howard: Howard is another jobber from this era that didn’t have a bad look, but never got a shot. Maybe a lot of them were just really bad and didn’t deserve a shot, but given how thin the roster was, I’m often surprised they didn’t at least try with some of them. Godwinn with an inverted DDT at 2:19. DUD

Shawn Michaels hosts the Heartbreak Hotel (taped elsewhere, not part of the West Palm tapings), with guest Sycho Sid. It’s kind of odd that they’re giving Shawn the WrestleMania main event, but already very clearly pivoting to Sid as the real program for Diesel

Men on a Mission v Dennis Knight and Black Phantom: And then we have this case, where Knight was already a known commodity, and had teamed with Godwinn in WCW, but he’s thrown on TV as an enhancement guy. And it wouldn’t be until a year later before they brought him in as Godwinn’s tag partner! MOM with a combo at 2:35. DUD

WrestleMania Moment: the wrestlers v football players battle royal at WrestleMania 2. I’ve seen that match a million times, and I still confused Dan Spivey for Hulk Hogan for a quick second here

Todd Pettengill is in the studio for the WrestleMania XI Report. Only the two top matches are announced at this point, but lots of celebrities are already being promoted 

King Kong Bundy v Butch Long: It kind of sucks that the Corporation was such an ineffective heel stable, because it sort of left the WrestleMania main event dead in the water. They were fighting from underneath before they even got into the ring with that one. Bundy with an avalanche at 1:20. Long took a nice bump out of the ring here. ¼*

Meanwhile, Nicholas Turturro beats up a cross dressing Mr. Fuji. What could you possibly add to that?

Lex Luger v Sonny Pruitt: Lex has a fan as his flag bearer here. Vince is incredibly disgusted by Pruitt’s body hair, going on and on about it. Of all people, Vince really has no place calling anyone ‘disgusting.’ Luger with the torture rack at 2:01. Lex was firmly in cruise control here. DUD

Live Event News is some hype for Fan Festival. Mantaur will be there in person! And you can meet him! Don’t all cheer at once

Mantaur v Bill Weaver: Letting us see Mantaur in action is not exactly going to help those Fan Fest sales. It’s like they were actively trying to lose money, or something. Mantaur with a slam at 1:53. ¼*

We close with McMahon having the camera man show us Lawler’s banged up and bloody toe, as a result of Bret Hart stomping his foot in the battle royal last week. Ohhhhh. So I guess that was the catalyst for the whole Kiss My Foot match thing? I didn’t realize it had actual layers to it

BUExperience: A really dull episode this week, with no feature match, not a lot of star power, and no developments.