SummerSlam '95: The End of an Era

The nadir of the WWF's mid-90s decline?
Photo Credit: WWE.com

SummerSlam '95 is generally forgotten in the grand scheme of things, and for good reason. There really wasn't a whole lot special about the card to the casual observer looking back at it. It was headlined by one of the worst looking main events in history with one of the worst sub-main matches. Its only saving grace just on first glance was a rematch 16 months later of one of the most famous and highly-regarded wrestling matches in history. Of course, in order, I'm talking about Diesel/Mabel, Undertaker/Kama and Shawn Michaels/Razor Ramon. When I popped it in as part of my Black Friday veg-fest, I really wasn't expecting a whole lot and was pleasantly surprised. However, I couldn't help but noticing a lot of funniness with the main event and how it was the dying gasp for an era in the WWF that was epitomized by overly-caricatured wrestlers in gaudy-even-by-wrestling-standards clothing usually in gimmicks that suggested wrestling was a second job.

That main event featuring Diesel defending his WWF Championship against King Mabel was funny for a few reasons. One, it featured for the second time out of three years a challenger who wasn't nearly as over as what dictated for the second biggest PPV of the year. Mabel could go down as one of the three worst Kings of the Ring ever whose only assets were a scary mug and girth on the level of Yokozuna. Two, the other challenger who was about as over as a fart in church, Lex Luger, was pre-eminently involved in the main event angle just by association of his tag partner turning on him and then turning on Diesel a few weeks before the event. Three, none of the three people who factored heavily into that match were anywhere near the same position there a year later. Mabel, in all his purple parachuted-pant glory, was quickly de-pushed after an errant hip press legit injured Diesel's back. Luger was out of the company a week later, showing up on the first ever Monday Nitro and kicking off the Monday Night Wars in earnest. Diesel was gone within six months, signing a WCW contract and kicking off maybe the biggest angle in wrestling history under his real name, Kevin Nash.

I'm not sure if the WWF realized it at the time or not, but that PPV was a crossroads for them. They were tasked with a choice; did they continue down the path, saddling guys like Shane Douglas with a teacher gimmick or Chris Candido with a meathead gym rat gimmick, or did they give guys more natural characters and let them be themselves (even if it was after a few tries)? It took them about six months to a year, but they got on the right path. Yes, they had to take a short term hit, as WCW was using all their old megastars, as well as guys they'd either built themselves or inherited from JCP and, within a year, would have a killer angle that would blow the WWF out of the water. However, they made the right choice and rebuilt, distancing themselves from trash gimmicks such as Sparky Plugg and the Bodydonnas and into grittier, better-realized characters such as The Nation of Domination, Goldust and eventually, Stone Cold Steve Austin.

The next year, the main event featured the athletic babyface who grew out of his early-90s-tastic character into the role of a charismatic fan favorite, Shawn Michaels, against a heel monster who played well in both WCW and Japan, Vader. After that it was the Attitude Era, and they were back on top like they were accustomed to being. They did so thanks to flipping the script and changing the way they did things rather than intensifying what had worked for them in the past but was showing signs of decaying.

This is the biggest lesson that both WWE and TNA can learn from the mid-'90s, TNA moreso since the WWE does have a healthy market share and is still turning profits that would make many other wrestling companies green with envy. You have to have balls enough to flip the script in a way that accentuates the positives of the product. Focusing in on authority figures, battling over control of a company, emphasizing hardcore to the point of nausea... these are things that may have worked before, but now, they're passe. Basically, TNA continues to travel along a path where there are crossroads at every turn. Will they eventually take the right path, or will they refuse to grow a set of balls, fire Bischoff, Hogan and Russo and do something that might pay off for them in a year or two? I guess we just have to wait and see.

Too bad Dixie Carter and her parents don't have the patience that Vince McMahon and his staff did in 1995. Pity too. Wrestling's better when there's competition.

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