King of the Ring 1995

[Cookie14]

For those of you who don't know, and I can't blame you if you don't, King of The Ring in 1995 was won by Mabel.

King of The Ring winners always went on to recieve a big push after winning the crown. There were a lot of successes, Austin, HHH, Hart etc. There were also a few failures, Owen Hart (though if he'd lived loger, this may have been different) Billy Gunn.

However, the biggest failure as a King of The Ring winner was easily Mabel. He won the crown in 1996. He never recieved a main event push worthy of any note. In fact, he went on to acomplish absolutly nothing during the rest of his career with WWE. He was ok on the mic, but no way the best. The same for his in ring ability. But there have been worse than him, much worse in fact, to hold the title.

What set him apart from the rest?

Well, I've just been watching 'The Rise and Fall of ECW' on DVD, and I noticed something that I had never realised before......
Mabel won the KoTR in mid 1995, in PHILADELPHIA, the home of ECW!! Durin his match, you could hear fans chanting 'ECW, ECW, ECW'.

*edit* I got the wrong year, it was 1995, not 1996. My point however, remains the same.

Did this reaction prevent Mabel's main event run?

If so, then why?
If not, then what did?

 

[CobraVenom]

Did this reaction prevent Mabel's main event run?

Mabel being a no talent fat fuck prevented him from getting a main event run. Think King Kong Bundy here.

Mabel being beyond boring prevented him from having a main event run.

Mabel having no drawing power whatsoever prevented him from having a main event run.

I will always call Vince a genius. However, even geniuses fuck up from time to time.

 

[Kenny Powers]

Stone Cold won KOTR in 1996 and ushered in the Austin 3:16/ Attitude era. Mabel won in 1995. I remember watching the PPV from my uncle's house. I was so excited because it was the first live PPV event I ever watched on television. Bret Hart beat Jerry the King Lawler in a kiss my foot match. Mabel ended up beating The Undertaker and facing Savio Vega in the finals for some reason. With a tournament that had Undertaker and Shawn Michaels in it, I'm surprised Mable and Savio Vega were the wrestlers in the finals.

Mabel was awful. I didn't notice the ECW chants in the arena. No matter what they do with him, he was never over in anything he did. He was just a big man with no personality or charisma. I don't think it was the ECW crowd that ruined it for Mabel, it was his lack of ability.

 

[andy1983]

Well it was 1995 that mable won king of the ring but even back then i remeber people thinking HUH??? it just didnt make sense to push mable and that proved true in the end , i dont have anything againt the guy but he just was not a main eventer on the mike or in the ring , i can in a way understand them pushing him to face diesel has the monster heel that faced the babyface but not for the title and it was in a way wasted him becoming king of the ring but that was wwe in 1995 one of its worst years ever and with wcw breathing down its neck it just went to shit for a while but like a poster said king of the ring 1996 was much better and a legend was born that nite and the rest is history.

 

[Killer Kelbo]

Actually, I lived in Philly and was at KOTR in 1995. Mabel winning that tournament really did no go well with the crowd either. People were throwing trash at him. I watched him get hit in the head with garbage and everything else during the crowning ceremony. My memory is kinda fuzzy from back then, but I also remember seeing the "Kiss My Foot" match with Bret Hart and Jerry Lawler, now that was funny.

 

[WWFNWA78]

Mabel just wasn't accepted as a terrific heel. Somehow the WWF had to create a heel to counteract to Kevin Nash(Diesel), but it didn't work. Mabel if pushed properly i feel if he had better mic skills, ring skills and not having to be carried by his opponent, charisma, and had a better mean streak, i think he could have possibly gotten away with it, but his character and the way it was portrayed and how the fans bought it..just didn't work out..if he would have had the mic, ring skills and charisma...probably would have been a different story..maybe.

 

[mayankeagle]

Vince loved giants, and he felt they could be pushed as unbeatable unstoppable heels. There is no reason why guys like Giant Gonzales, King Kong Bundy, Mabel, Khali or Mark Henry were hired. They have never produced one great match (oh wait, Khali has, against Taker - the last man standing match, but that's because of Taker). However, the giant push really didn't make sense for such fat guys who can't move. The only good big guys were probably Taker, Kane, Diesel and Sid. His love for giants is also what made him underutilize Taker in the early to mid 90s, when he was left to carry guys like Gonzales, Bundy, Mabel, whereas he could've been delivering quality matches with guys like Bret Hart, the way he did with Michaels at Mania 25 and 26. What is lost is lost, but well, Taker will still go down as the biggest in legacy. Coming back to the topic of KoTR, the giant-pushing habit of Vince was what caused it, and I hope he has finally gotten over it because Khali is nowhere in the main-event picture now.

 

[MEGAFAN420]

The push for Mable basically ended at SummerSlam 1995. I remember when he faced Diesel the match was quick, and kind of boring, with Diesel retaining. The match was not well hyped either. Mable was still kind of fresh out of "Men On A Mission" and he still had that stigma attached to his character.

However, he came back as a successful mid-carder throughout the years. He was one of the Undertaker's minions as Viscera, returned again as Viscera "the +sized love machine", and later returned again as Big Daddy V (the man-boobs were kind of gross to have to see!) and went on the capture the now-defunct WWE/ECW title. I would say his singles career was better than other former-tag-team wrestlers such as Jennetti and Billy Gunn. He will be back again!

BTW, 2 other good matches from SS 1995 were the Ladder Match for the IC Title between Shawn and Razor and who could forget Bret Hart Vs. Issac Yankem D.D.S. (congrats on winning MITB last night and cashing in!...lol...)

 

[CyDeez]

Yeah him winning and then going nowhere, had zero to do with Philly, or ECW chants... Mabel just sucked ass overall LOL...

Ken Shamrock was also a HUGE waist of winning KOTR... He defeated The Rock in the finals in 98...

He didn't go on to really do too much... Expectations were high for Ken in WWF/E... He never really delivered at all... The Rock to me would have been a better choice to win that year...

Billy Gunn definetly was another let down!

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

ECW fans will chant that promotions name no matter what, but in the case of KOTR 1995, they were probably angry at the fact there was this little company with incredibly talented guys who werent getting any exposure, werent making any money and were stuck in tiny bingo halls, while this national wrestling giant was making tons of money and pushing fat useless wastes of space like Mabel

There is NO WAY IN HELL that Mabel was ever going to be a draw in pro wrestling. He was ok at best for a fat man, but as a big star, when there were guys like Bret Hart, HBK, Owen Hart, Austin coming through, and so many others I cant even think of right now, he would never have got over as a star. It was a stupid decision to make him KOTR.

He sucked