Top 5 ‘Worst WrestleManias of All-Time’ #1 – WrestleMania XI

The Best and Worst of WrestleMania

The Worst WrestleMania Of All Time Is…

WrestleMania XI – Hartford, Connecticut, 1995

The opening video with a cheesy voice described the tradition of WrestleMania that highlighted mostly the years of celebrity guests, and focused on the list of celebrities on this year’s show. Yeah that’s sign of good things to come.

The show begins with sound problem as we have nothing but the classic music in the background. We hear in a faint voice Vince announce Special Olympian Kathy Ewing to sing America The Beautiful. She’s an opera singer who does an amazing job. It’s one of the better parts of the show.

Vince and The King barely get out a proper intro to the show.

The Allied Powers (Lex Luger& The British Bulldog) vs. Jacob and Eli Blu (with Uncle Zebikiah)

This may be the debut of Luger and Davey Boy as a team. Their music blend is very cool. The Blu brothers are Ron and Don Harris with long hair and this is their debut. At WrestleMania. Yeah, they aren’t hurting for talent. The Blues try to jump the Allies at the bell, but they are ready for it, whipping them into each other and hitting them with stereo powerslam and stereo clotheslines. Davey Boy hit his long vertical suplex on one of them. One Blu clubbed Davey from behind and they took over. Bulldog hit a clothesline on one, and they made an illegal switch, and the other hit a boot on Bulldog. One Blu missed a second rope elbow and Luger got the hot tag, leading to a powerslam and the big flying forearm, but the other Blu broke it up and switched him while Zeb had the ref. The other Blu went for a piledriver on Lex, but they made a blind tag and Bulldog came off the top with a sloppy sunset flip for the pin.

Winner: Luger& Bulldog via pinfall, 6:34

They had a lot more sound issues as they tried to throw to Nicholas Tuturo from NYPD Blue, the hottest show on TV at the time, as to where Pam Anderson was, but they couldn’t find her, but the audio wasn’t there.

The audio was then bad as they tried to talk to Razor and The Kid before the next match.

Jeff Jarrett (C) (with the Roadie) vs. Razor Ramon (with The Kid)

It was a brawl with all four men before the bell. Razor got to his pyro a little late. This match, well, it just doesn’t make any sense. You just know eventually either The Roadie or the Kid is going to cause a dq, and both interfere throughout the match. The match was also hampered by the ridiculous number of ringside photographers here. I’ll just go straight to the finish. Razor misses a second rope bulldog, and Jeff hit a shinbreaker into a Figure Four Leglock. Razor managed to fight and turn it over. Jarrett missed a big punch, and Razor crotched him and hit his second rope back suplex. Razor then went for the Edge, but Roadie clipped him from behind to cause the dq. Kid then came up and lit up both Double J’s with some of the best spinkicks ever. But Jeff caught him a gorilla press drop and applied the Figure Four. It became a huge schmozz that was better than the match.

Winner: Razor via DQ, 13:32

Vince then throws it to Nick in the back in the “green room.” We see a bunch of the Million Dollar Team present. Jenny McCarthy is also there. She is in her prime and looks beyond amazing. (She is still amazing, when she isn’t bringing back long banished diseases.) Shawn and Sid come over. Shawn says he doesn’t need to worry wear Pam is, because he knows where she is and she will be right where we need to be. Jenny is great here, laughing at dudes, smiling at Shawn, and covers her ears when Sid is yelling out his promo about Diesel’s nightmares. So bad it’s awesome!

The Undertaker vs. King Kong Bundy (with The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase)

DiBiase has the urn that IRS stole at the Royal Rumble. I literally almost fell asleep watching this match. Bundy was not the fast fat guy he was in the eighties. It’s slow and plodding and nothing interesting happens other than the fight for the urn. Taker takes it away from DiBiase and gives back to Paul Bearer, only for Kama (The Godfather) to come back and steal it. JR interviews him about on the ramp even and it he says he’s got melt it down into jewelry. Okay. Anyways, Taker eventually manages to slam Bundy and hit a flying clothesline for the win. This almost made me pine for the Giant Gonzales match.

Winner: Taker via pinfall, 6:36

They throw to Nick again, at Pam’s dressing room. He says his sources say that Pam and Shawn had an argument and she left the building. He then catches up with the All Pro team lead by Steve Mongo McMichael of all people. Each all call out a different member of the Corporation. Then he finds Jonathan Taylor Thomas, at his peak, playing chess with Bob Backlund, who is going nuts. Taylor beats him, then answers a bunch of trivia questions. Backlund gets pissed and leaves.

Owen Hart & Yokozuna (with Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji) vs. The Smoking Guns (Billy and Bart) (C) for the WWF Tag Team Titles.

Yoko is his mystery partner, having not been seen since his casket match with the Undertaker months earlier. He is bigger than ever. The Guns isolated Owen for much of the early part of the match. The Guns hit a sidewalk slam/standing flying legdrop combo on Owen, but Yoko had the ref. Owen made a blind tag and they hit a drop toe hold/MASSIVE legdrop. They worked over Billy until Yoko tried to hold Billy for Owen to hit a top rope dropkick on him, but Bill moved and both heel were down. Bart got the hot tag and cleaned house. He even managed to throw Yoko down by his hair. Bill tagged back in. The Guns went for their double team move, but Owen pulled down the top rope on Bart and Yoko hit a massive Belly to Belly suplex on Billy, then the Bonzai Drop. Bart came to break it up, but Yoko tossed him, and Owen tagged in and thought about the Sharpshooter, but then just awkwardly decided to pin Bill for the win. Whatever I guess. Lol.

Winner: Owen and Yoko via pinfall, 9:42

Owen jumping for joy here is hilarious.

They then show the Strident blimp. Lol.

Then Todd Pentingill then interviews Bam Bam Bieglow. They show up what sets up the match, when Bam Bam saw LT laughing him and shoved him at the Royal Rumble They got in another brawl at a pre-event workout. Bam Bam said that was an eye for eye and he had no problem. He said he would not be known as the man who lost to LT and said he would teach LT a lesson. He said Mr. Dibiase would take care of the All Pro Team and this was his world and LT was a flash in the pan.

Bret The Hitman Hart vs. Bob Backlund in an I Quit Match. Special Guest Referee: Rowdy Roddy Piper

Piper is wearing a kilt over jeans. Lol. Backlund has no music and old school bathrobe and I love it. The only bad Bret Hart match I ever saw. Piper is partly to blame for constantly shoving the mike in people’s faces and asking if they quit. It makes the match comedy. Bret dominates early, including a Figure Four Leglock. Backlund rakes Bret’s eyes while in a leg grapevines and works the arm. Bret makes his trademark comeback, but can’t get the Sharpshooter on. He fights the crossface chickenwing and gets his on and instead of saying I Quit, Backlund screams YES and Piper mercifully calls it.

Winner: Bret via pinfall,  9:34

Shawn Michaels (with Sid) vs. Diesel (C) WWF World Heavyweight Title

JTT is the guest timekeeper and Nick is the guest ring announcer. Instead of Pam, Shawn has Jenny on his arm, and she plays it all up. Diesel then comes out and he has Pam with her! Shawn sells it perfectly. I do love Diesel’s theme music and he does look like a badass here. Diesel backdrops Shawn over the top rope before the match ever starts. Pam comes in the ring and raises his hand as the pyro goes off. It looks awesome. Diesel had Shawn bumping all over the ring early, culminating by whipping Shawn hard over the top to the floor, hitting a photographer. Shawn picked the guy up and promptly threw him, quite literally, out of the way. They get back in the ring and Shawn is flying all over the place. Diesel hit a suplex and a high knee that sends Shawn flying out to the floor. Sid is also getting in Diesel’s face a lot. Shawn pokes the eyes and finally gets some offense in. Shawn clotheslines Diesel over top and hit an awesome planchua to the floor. Another photographer gets in the way. Diesel goes for his back elbow, but misses and hits the post. Shawn is pissed at the photogs, and he yells at one before he splashes him off the apron. Shawn is now working over Diesel’s back.

Shawn hits his top rope elbow drop on the back for a two count. Diesel tries to fight back with a backdrop, but Shawn is right on top of him. Diesel goes for a Snake Eyes, but Shawn counters into a sleeper. Diesel’s arm went down twice but he broke out and made the comeback. Shawn’s pants came down a little bit just as he did in every match from 92-98. The ref tried to stop Sid, but he twisted his ankle. Meanwhile, Shawn hit the superkick on Diesel in the ring! Sid got him in the ring, but Diesel kicked out and the fans booed. Meanwhile, Sid exposed a turnbuckle. Diesel hit a back suplex to halt being thrown into it. Shawn got a two count again. Shawn went for a second rope bulldog, but Diesel caught him a sidewalk slam for a two count. Both are down but Diesel manages to catapult him but it’s from too far away and Shawn doesn’t even hit the right turnbuckle. Diesel then hits a few forearm and the big boot, Diesel then hit a lazy jackknife powerbomb for the win. This match had a ton of problem for a classic.

Winner: Diesel via pinfall, 20:35

Shawn and Sid cut promos. Sid is doing more talking for whatever. Shawn said he had proven he was the best and he would do it again.

Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

The Million Dollar Corp is Bundy, Tatanka, Nikolai Volkoff, Kama, IRS, and Ted Dibiase himself. The All Pro team is Ken Norton Jr, Chris Spielman, Rickey Jackson, Carl Banks, Steve McMichael, and the Captain, Reggie White. Some real heavyweights as far as players. They clearly love White. Kama got on the apron and Mongo dropped him. Spielman nearly killed himself to get to Tatanka. White dropped Bundy. Bam Bam went after Salt N Peppa during his entrance. The crowd was going nuts chanting for LT. SNP did a version of “What A Man” with LT inspired lyrics beforehand. Pat Patterson was the ref, there to help LT. The match began with LT slapping Bigelow across the face, hitting a high knee, and clothesline him over the top to the floor.

Bam Bam tried to come back in with charge, but LT avoided it and hit a great looking bulldog. Bam Bam took a powder and a huge schmozz almost broke out on the outside. Bigelow finally caught LT coming in and started working him over. Taylor tried to fire back in a way that actually was realistic then most actual workers. LT tried to lean on him, and Bam Bam bodyslammed him, but missed a headbutt. LT decked him with a forearm, but Bam Bam picked him and charged him into the corner. LT tried hard to back him up, but Bam Bam just ran through him. Bigelow used a Boston Crab, then switched to a half Crab, but LT got to the ropes. Bam Bam switched to a leglock, but LT got the ropes again. Bam Bam locked in a headlock, but LT hit a back suplex out of nowhere. BamBam recovers first and drops a series of headbutts and an elbow. Bam Bam then goes up and lands the moonsault, but hurts his knee in the process. He manages to roll for a two count. Bam Bam goes for backdrop, but LT hits a powerbomb. LT has been blown up from the get go. Bigelow caught LT with an enzugiri and dropped headbutts. Bam Bam hit a top rope headbutt for a two count. Bigelow seemed to be asking for instructions. But LT came from behind with a series of forearms and shoulder blocks, then a pair of flying forearms, then he climbed from the top and hit second rope flying forearm and gets the three count. He is too blown up to stand after it.

Winner: LT via pinfall, 11:42

Afterwards the team has to help LT up he’s so blown up. Dibiase is yelling at Bam Bam. And then pyro or video. The show goes off the air.

Why This Is The Worst WrestleMania Ever: This show was a mess. Bret Hart had a bad match. Undertaker had a bad match. This show was just a mess. This was probably the hardest year in modern WWE history, a year after the steroid trial and with WCW coming for them. Shawn and Diesel had a good match, but it was teamed with issues. LT did a fine job in the main event and Bam Bam worked his ass off. But this was just a big fat mess. The best thing about it-it was short. Less than two and a half hours….