For me it's King of the Ring '95. A huge wasted opprotunity for some of the top babyfaces in the company. The matches were crap, everything was just way out of order. Showed how the company desperately needed the Monday Night Wars to HAPPEN!
So here's the format they got for the PPV in the Tournament:
The Undertaker vs. Mabel.
Shawn Michaels vs. Kama.
Razor Ramon vs. Yokozuna.
Bob Holly vs. The Roadie.
Ok, so for the actual tourney you have, three immensly popular babyfaces during the era, Shawn riding a whole new wave of momentum in his career. And of course you got Bob Holly to roundout the babyface side....I'll let the crickets chirp for a few seconds....ok then, where were we. So we look at the Heels, Mabel (aka Black Barney), a lifetime tag team wrestler, who had appeal as a face, but nobody wanted to see him main event. Kama, who if not for 'Taker wouldn't have ANY Heel heat in the slightest. Yokozuna, once a top heel now a tag wrestler. The Roadie, basically a green lackey. So looking at the whole thing, it would be clear that a babyface would have to win. It's perfectly logical!
Also on the card, you had the culmination of the Bret Hart/Jerry Lawler feud, and a main event tag match pitting Diesel & Bam Bam Bigelow against Sid & Tatanka..the whole feud sucked between Sid & Diesel, and Tatanka? Main eventing? How can anyone be that dumb, that's like putting Drew McIntyre in a....oooohhhh....right.
Anyway, of course, bit of a problem a week leading up to the show. Razor gets hurt.....so what do they do! They have to fill the spot of course! So what would they do? Have a Battle Royal for the final spot? I mean, the roster was thin as it was, if they're going to put anyone interesting in the spot, that's what they should do! And not on the card? The British Bulldog, Lex Luger, Adam Bomb, Bob Backlund, Jeff Jarrett & Chris Candido/Skip (1-2-3 Kid was injured). But what do they do? They give it to Savio Vega! Yes, we all know who he is now, but back then people were like "heh?" He defeated I.R.S. during the countdown show. But oh well...it didn't matter anyway right? Clearly Shawn or 'Taker were winning the whole thing!
Well, the tourney gets underway, Savio beats Yokozuna by count-out, with Razor by his side, so all he's doing is playing off of Razor's reactions, but the Philly crowd didn't buy it. The match was terrible, with not one iota of anything remotley interesting. They already started playing up the whole "Rocky" storyline, being in Philly and all.
Next up came Bob Holly vs. The Roadie...just imagine how the Philly crowd took THAT one. Anyway, for what it was it could've been much worse, and it was about as good as it could get. That said however, it was merely generic and just went through the motions, despite an odd final sequence, where the Roadie won.
So then came Shawn Michaels vs. Kama...and of course the dreaded Catch-22 came into play. This match was not good at all, because it went to a 15-minute draw, and they didn't tell any kind of a story here, they were merely eating up time. Snorrrre! So now Shawn was out, and the crowd was starting to really turn on the show. What do I mean by Catch-22? As I said before, Shawn was really riding high as a red hot babyface, after being a heel in the upper echelon for 3 years, so there not just going to kill his momentum....but Kama needs to be protected to face The Undertaker in there blowoff which had been stretched out 4589343 months.
So with the Philly crowd pissed, they had one last hope...The Deadman! He was taking on Mabel...the Undertaker (not counting Rumbles) had only been beaten twice on PPV, and only once by pinfall and that was back in '91. So after having Mabel beat, Kama comes in, (you can actually hear the crowd GROANING at this point), and of course, cost him the match! WTF?
So by the end of the first round, nobody cared about the damn thing anymore!
So when we get to the 2nd round...we got Savio Vega vs. The Roadie...and Mabel getting a bye. Give credit to Vince trying to sell Savio as the plucky underdog. Only problem is, nobody cared.
The match was meh, and Savio won......
So we got Savio Vega vs. Mabel for the finals.....yes, a tournament with Shawn Michaels & The Undertaker in it, ended with finals of THESE two! A year later, Savio was in the same spot he was at this point...Mabel wasn't even WITH the company.
Anyway, Bret Hart, alas, the glorious hero of the company, was coming out to finally avenge two years of misery at the hands of Jerry "The King" Lawler in a Kiss My Foot match. The hatred these two had for one another always made there matches seem epic. But this was anything but....it was good to see Bret make Lawler submit in a televised match, and keep the win...but it just felt like something you'd see on "RAW' on any given week back then. The crowd woke up a bit...but even a tiny piece of crap, can float for awhile before being flushed for good.
Anyway, then came the finals. Savio Vega vs. Mabel. During a boring match which contained one of the worst bearhugs I've ever seen. The fans started chanting E-C-W, E-C-W (and at least history is made here, because this is the first incident where Vince's curiosity of the beloved indie outfit, came into play). So mercifuly, after close to 9 minutes, Mabel wins it...hooray!.
So the Philly fans thank Mabel and the WWF by pelting him with a bit of garbage....no this isn't the kind of rich money garbage that the nWo would draw with. The kind of garbage as if to say..."You are what the fans throw at you" kind of garbage.
Anyway, this was all a feeble attempt to build up a new heel for Diesel, who at this point was a lost cause anyway. I don't understand why they did this with unknown, uncharismatic Savio. My assumption is, Razor was supposed to go to the finals, and Mabel was supposed to beat him there, which would make perfect sense, that was Mabel beats two top babyfaces to win the thing. But how's this supposed to make Mabel look credible? He needed someone elses help to beat The Undertaker, and yes, I understand heels cheat, but let us remember, 'Taker had Mabel BEAT! If it was during a regular sequence, say Taker ducks a corner charge, but before he can capitalize, Kama hits the ring apron, 'Taker nails him, but it allows Mabel to recover, and get the win. Semi-Clean win over 'Taker...still a big thing back then. So Vince builds this monster heel up, who had no hand in beating The Undertaker, gets a bye, and beats a guy who's been around a month (under that charachter, I'm aware he was Kwang).
If Mabel REALLY was to be built up properly....here's what should've happened.....the Mabel/'Taker match goes BEFORE Kama/Shawn.....they do the ending I talked about with the distraction. Then during Shawn/Kama....'Taker comes down and distracts Kama, allowing Shawn to get the kick and the win. Works well enough....Shawn puts up a fight against Mabel, but ultimately loses. Then Mabel can be plucky Savio....simple, that's how you buildup a new heel...have him beat two of your top faces, then squash the underdog, and voila (imagine how well it would've worked with Razor in that concept, beatign 'Taker, Shawn & Razor?? Beating the other top faces (sans Bret), and now he's ready for the champ.
And if they wanted to go with the Cinderella story thing, why not use someone else? For example, just mere weeks after this show, Barry Horowitz's shocking win occured. It was clearly in the cards, as the tapings took place shortly after this show. So, why not build anticipation for the show. Have Horowitz beat Skip on the countdown show, and the crowd's shock will definitely be present. Horowitz is familiar with Philly fans, they know he's a guy who's been jobbing for years, and I believe they'd get behind him. Have him beat Yokozuna via count out, and Barry beating Yoko by count-out would be much more different than Savio, because Savio's a mid-carder at least winning matches, Barry never wins, and all of the sudden he goes from upsetting a pushed mid-carder, to beating a guy who should've squashed him like a grape. Beats the Roadie, and I believe by then, even the Philly crowd would be into him, but of course comes up short against Mabel, but looks great because of his valiant effort. I'm not guaranteeing it would work...but who knows.
Anyway, I digress, back to the show...yes we're not done yet...we still had the Tag Team Main Event between Diesel & Bam Bam Bigelow taking on Sid & Tatanka. Yes, after all that crap, the crowd doesen't even get a title match on a PPV crowd. Anyawy, after an eternity of kicking and punching, Sid backs away from Diesel, after killing Tatanka, setting up a rematch at the next In Your House PPV because one horrendous match between the two of them isn't enough. Anyway, yes the faces win, the crowd cheers and hoorays (sort of), and go home counting down the days until the next ECW show.
WWF was clearly a shambles at this point....Mabel got his main event, in a horrid match against Diesel as Summerslam '95, and the show tanked heavily in the PPV buys department (setting a record low at the time). But never fear....Uncle Eric was here....and the war began!
