The Hidden Good in Summerslam 1995

It's August and that can only mean one thing: it's Summerslam season. On the WWE calendar, it's one of the biggest nights of the year: second only to Wrestlemania among the WWE brass, but could be as low as third or fourth depending on who you ask (behind the Royal Rumble PPV and the night after Wrestlemania, which has quickly shot up the charts in recent years). In recent years, Summerslam has gone from a one-night deal into a weekend festival, much in the way Wrestlemania went from one-day event thing to weekend festival to week-long extravaganza.

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There's an old saying: it's always darkest before the dawn. In this case, Summerslam 1995 would be about 4am in a 24-hour day. In January. The WWF (and mainstream wrestling in general) was in an awful place: WCW was still parading around Hulk Hogan and his cronies and the awful Dungeon of Doom, while its biggest rival, the WWF, was sputtering with Diesel as its champion, his buddies known as 'The Clique' virtually controlling all the prime spots on the card, and a five-hundred pound untalented Mabel as its King of the Ring and #1 contender. Luckily, mainstream wrestling would be served with a shot of java a week and a day later withe debut of Nitro.

Even though this PPV is considered among the worst in wrestling history, there are a couple of good things in here that may be worth your time (links in bold: definitely watch. Links not in bold: watch at your own risk.)

• The show opens with a thriller between Hakushi and the 1-2-3 Kid. A lot of high-flying offense, something that you didn't see a lot of in mainstream wrestling in the States around this time.
• Triple H makes his PPV debut against the not-quite-yet-hardcore-but-still-racecar-drivin' Bob Holly. Not much to see here other than for body comparison's sake between then and now.
• In another filler match, the Smoking Gunns, seemingly all but removed from the tag team title picture, defeat the Blu Twins (aka The Harris Brothers). 
• Barry Horowitz beat Skip on an episode of Wrestling Challenge (Barry's first win, Skip's first loss--also worth a look if ya wanna see how hot Tammy Lynn Sytch aka Sunny was in 1995) and parlayed that (and a second win a month later by going to a ten-minute draw) into a featured bout on PPV. And surprise, surprise, Horowitz versus Skip was decent fare for about eleven minutes. Chris Candido's (aka Skip) cockiness gets the better of him--again as well as a distraction by Hakushi, leading to Horowitz going 3-for-3. Unfortunately for Barry, this was the high point of the journeyman's career. 
• In a match that no one cared for, Bertha Faye (best known as Monster Ripper in All Japan Pro Wrestling) defeated Alundra Blayze (best known as Madusa) to win the WWF Womens Championship. Alundra would win it back a few weeks later, then take off to WCW and dump it in the trash on an episode of Nitro.
• What do you get when you combined an unmotivated Undertaker with an unspectacular Kama Mustafa (formerly Papa Shango, sick man, soon to be known as Kama and later The Godfather)? This piece of garbage casket match. At least the crowd was engaged.
• The interminable on-again, off-again feud with Bret Hart and Jerry Lawler (started in 1993, but was essentially put on pause during Bret's run as WWF Champion) got what every interminable feud could use: an evil dentist. Glen Jacobs, best known as EVIL WELDER KANE, made his WWF in-ring debut as Isaac Yankem, DDS. Pretty good match tainted by a pretty awful ending. 
• Here's a little "Did You Know"? The originally intended match for the Intercontinental Championship was Shawn Michaels vs. Sid. Realizing people were looking for a reason to not buy this show, the WWF pulled Sid from the show and replaced him with Razor Ramon. Oh, and made it a ladder match. And just like the original sixteen months earlier, this match was a classic, and in the minds of many, the match of 1995 in the WWF. (Side nugget: Michaels did face Sid two weeks later on RAW. Spoiler alert: HBK beats the big guy with three superkicks.)
• The WWF Championship match between Diesel and King Mabel was indeed as bad as you expected. If you've never seen it, it's probably worse than you expect. And yes, that is WWF Champion Diesel dropping an audible N-bomb about eight and a half minutes in. Couple side nuggets: this match is the final television appearance of Lex Luger in the WWF (he would leave for WCW a week later, and it was on that night McMahon found out he left), and Mabel nearly got fired. In fact, Vince had the paperwork drawn up. Nash nixed it.

Summary: the good matches were really good (ladder match, Hart-Yankem, Hakushi-Kid). But the bad matches were REALLY, REALLY, REALLY bad and they dragged this PPV down. And for this show to end on that downer, I wouldn't have blamed you if you decided to quit being a wrestling fan. But there is good in this show that is worth a look. I mean, the ladder match alone should be worth your attention.