Survivor Series (1995)

Survivor Series is an annual gimmick pay-per-view (PPV), produced every November by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) since 1987. In what has become the second longest running pay-per-view event in history (behind WWE's WrestleMania), it is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Royal Rumble,[1] and was considered one of the "Big Five" PPVs, along with King of the Ring.[2] The event is traditionally characterized by having Survivor Series matches, which are tag team elimination matches that typically pits teams of four or five wrestlers against each other. The 1995 event was the ninth event in the Survivor Series chronology and was scheduled to be held on November 19, 1995, at the USAir Arena in Landover, Maryland, and was the first Survivor Series to take place on a Sunday night. Each previous edition had taken place either on Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Eve.[3][4][5]

The professional wrestling matches at Survivor Series featured professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting promotion, WWF. Storylines between the characters played out on WWF's primary television program, Monday Night Raw.[6][7]

The main rivalry heading into the event was between Diesel and Bret Hart over the WWF World Heavyweight Championship which Diesel had held since he defeated Bob Backlund three days after Backlund's win over Hart at the previous year's Survivor Series. At In Your House 4, Hart served as the guest commentator during Diesel's title defense against British Bulldog, Hart's former ally who had recently turned on the fans and aligned himself with Bret's brother and nemesis Owen Hart. Bret interfered in the match by attacking Bulldog. As a result, Diesel was disqualified and thus retained the title. This angered Diesel and he argued with Hart, resulting in the two brawling with each other.[8] As a result of the circumstances, on October 30 edition of Raw, the WWF President Gorilla Monsoon signed a WWF World Heavyweight Championship match between Diesel and Hart to take place at Survivor Series.[9] Diesel and Hart had faced off for the title two times before. At the 1994 King of the Ring, Bret defended against Diesel and lost by disqualification when his cornerman Jim Neidhart interfered to break up a potential pin. Earlier in 1995 at the Royal Rumble, Diesel made the first pay-per-view defense of his title against Hart, but the match ended in a no contest after Shawn Michaels, Owen Hart, and Backlund all interfered. With those two matches both ending in disqualifications, Monsoon added a No Disqualification stipulation to this rematch.

Another predominant rivalry heading into the event was over the Wildcard Survivor Series elimination match, pitting Shawn Michaels, British Bulldog, Ahmed Johnson and Sycho Sid against Razor Ramon, Owen Hart, Yokozuna and Dean Douglas. On the October 23 edition of Raw, the WWF President Gorilla Monsoon made the match to make rivals team with each other and teammates compete against each other, forcing Bulldog to compete against his allies in Camp Cornette.[10] Ramon and Douglas had been feuding with each other since the September 11 edition of Raw when Douglas interfered in Ramon's match with British Bulldog.[11] At In Your House 3, Douglas defeated Ramon in a standard wrestling match.[12] On the September 25 edition of Raw, Douglas was made the #1 contender for Shawn Michaels' WWF Intercontinental Championship.[13] A week before their match at In Your House 4, Michaels had been attacked in a club in Syracuse, New York.[14] As a result, at In Your House 4, Michaels forfeited the title to Douglas. However, Douglas was forced to defend his newly won title against Ramon, who defeated Douglas for the title.[8] Michaels and Sid's rivalry dated back to the February 20 edition of Raw, when Michaels introduced Sid as his new bodyguard for his WWF World Heavyweight Championship title shot against Diesel at WrestleMania XI.[15] However, despite Sid's interference, Michaels was defeated by Diesel.[16] As a result, on April 3 edition of Raw, Michaels informed Sid that he was no longer needed. Sid became angry and he attacked Michaels by powerbombing him three times, putting Michaels out of action for six weeks.[17] This led to an Intercontinental Championship match between Michaels and Sid on September 11 edition of Raw, which Michaels retained by defeating Sid.[11] Ahmed Johnson, meanwhile, entered into the discussion shortly after his debut on the October 23, 1995 edition of Monday Night Raw when he became the second person after Lex Luger to bodyslam Yokozuna, thus starting a rivalry with him.

The rivalry between The Darkside (The Undertaker, Savio Vega, Fatu and Henry Godwinn) and The Royals (King Mabel, Jerry Lawler, Isaac Yankem and Hunter Hearst Helmsley) dated back to the annual King of the Ring tournament, when Mabel defeated Undertaker in the quarter-final round.[18] On September 25 edition of Raw, King Mabel interfered in Undertaker's match with British Bulldog, setting up a match between Undertaker and King Mabel at In Your House 4.[13] However, on the October 9 edition of Raw, King Mabel attacked Undertaker during a Six-man tag team match pitting Diesel, Shawn Michaels and Undertaker against Bulldog, Owen Hart and Yokozuna.[19] Due to the attack, Undertaker was sidelined and was replaced by Yokozuna as King Mabel's opponent.[14] On the November 6 edition of Raw, it was announced that Undertaker's The Darkside team would compete against King Mabel's The Royals team in a Survivor Series elimination match at Survivor Series.[20]

Goldust made his WWF debut at In Your House 4, defeating Marty Jannetty.[8] On the November 4 edition of Superstars, Bam Bam Bigelow interrupted an interview of Goldust, setting up a match between Bigelow and Goldust at Survivor Series.[21]

As the event commenced, the first match that aired was a four-on-four Survivor Series elimination match between the Underdogs (Marty Jannetty, Hakushi, Barry Horowitz and Bob Holly) and the Bodydonnas (Skip, Rad Radford, Dr. Tom Prichard and 1-2-3 Kid). Kid substituted for Jean-Pierre Lafitte on the Bodydonnas team and Holly substituted for Avatar on the Underdogs team. Underdogs scored the first elimination when Holly performed a flying crossbody on Prichard. Skip then eliminated Holly by pinning him with a roll-up. Kid performed a spinning heel kick on Hakushi, allowing Radford to pin him for the elimination. BodyDonnas suffered the next elimination when Horowitz pinned Radford with a small package. Kid performed a leg drop on Horowitz for the elimination. Jannetty then eliminated Skip by performing a Superbomb. Jannetty had dominated the match as he climbed the top rope to perform a high-flying move on Kid, but Kid's manager Ted DiBiase distracted the referee, allowing Kid's Million Dollar Corporation teammate Sycho Sid to interfere in the match and drop Jannetty to the ring. Kid then pinned Jannetty to win the match and become the sole survivor from Bodydonnas team.[3][4][5]

The second match was a four-on-four women's Survivor Series elimination match pitting the WWF Women's Champion Alundra Blayze, Kyoko Inoue, Sakie Hasegawa, and Chaparita Asari against Bertha Faye, Aja Kong, Tomoko Watanabe, and Lioness Asuka. Blayze made the first elimination when she pinned Asuka after performing a German suplex. Kong then dominated the match as she eliminated Hasegawa by performing a belly-to-back suplex, Asari by performing a diving splash and Inoue by performing a seated senton, which she called the Banzai Drop. Blayze then dominated the opposing team as she eliminated Watanabe by performing a Piledriver and then eliminated opposing leader Faye by performing a bridging German suplex. Kong then performed an Uraken Punch on Blayze to win the match and become the survivor from Bertha Faye's team.[3][4][5]

The next match was a singles match between Bam Bam Bigelow and Goldust. Goldust controlled most of the match against Bigelow while Bigelow performed poorly throughout the match and did not perform any high-impact moves that jeopardized his character during the match. Goldust eventually avoided a corner clothesline by Bigelow and performed a running bulldog to win the match.

The fourth match was a four-on-four Survivor Series elimination match pitting the Darkside (The Undertaker, Savio Vega, Fatu and Henry Godwinn) against the Royals (King Mabel, Jerry Lawler, Isaac Yankem and Hunter Hearst Helmsley). Undertaker controlled most of the match as he dominated Royals and made the first elimination by pinning Lawler after a Tombstone Piledriver. Undertaker eliminated Yankem next in the same way by performing a Tombstone Piledriver. Helmsley had to compete against Undertaker but he opted to escape the match. As he left the ring, he was chased to the ring by Godwinn, who came out to the ring with his slop bucket. As a result, Helmsley climbed the apron. Undertaker eliminated Helmsley by performing a chokeslam from apron to the other side of the ring. Mabel dominated Undertaker by performing a belly-to-belly suplex and a leg drop. However, Undertaker immediately sat up which scared Mabel and he escaped the ring and got counted out. As a result, the Darkside won the match with the entire team surviving.[3][4][5]

The final match on the undercard was a four-on-four Survivor Series elimination match pitting Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson, British Bulldog and Sycho Sid against Yokozuna, Owen Hart, the WWF Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon and Dean Douglas. The tension arose between the two teams as heroes and villains were randomly distributed in both teams and the match was dubbed as a "Wildcard" match. The heroes and villains fought their own teammates as Ramon attacked his own teammate Douglas, allowing Michaels to eliminate him by pinning him with a roll-up. Sid was next on Michaels' team to dominate Ramon and grabbed him for Michaels to perform a superkick, which Michaels called Sweet Chin Music. Michaels tried to hit the move but Ramon ducked and Sid was hit instead, allowing Ramon to pin Sid for the elimination. Sid retaliated by performing a powerbomb on Michaels. Johnson would then control the match as he eliminated Hart by performing a sitout double underhook powerbomb, which he called the Pearl River Plunge. Ramon battled for his team and performed a crucifix powerbomb on Johnson, which he called the Razor's Edge. However, Bulldog tagged Johnson which meant that Johnson could not be eliminated. Ramon was distracted by Sycho Sid, 1-2-3 Kid and Ted DiBiase, allowing Bulldog to perform a running powerslam for the elimination. Yokozuna battled the opposing team as he was the remaining member on his team. Johnson powerslammed Yokozuna and tried to pin him but Bulldog broke up the pin to save his ally. This caused Michaels and Johnson to attack Bulldog. Michaels then performed a Sweet Chin Music on Yokozuna and Johnson performed a diving splash on Yokozuna to win the match. Michaels, Johnson and Bulldog survived on their team.[3][4][5]

The main event was a No Disqualification match for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. Diesel defended the title against Bret Hart. As the match started, both wrestlers each untied a top turnbuckle. Hart focused on Diesel's knee and mainly attacked there. The action spilled to the outside where Diesel dominated Hart until the two returned to the ring, where Diesel tried to perform a jackknife powerbomb but Hart attacked Diesel's knee to get himself out of the move. Hart applied a figure four leglock on Diesel and then attempted to apply his submission maneuver Sharpshooter but Diesel attacked Hart's face and kicked him into the exposed corner. The match went back and forth with Hart repeatedly attacking Diesel's knee. The action spilled to the outside where both men attacked each other, with Diesel famously throwing Hart through the Spanish announcers table, until Diesel rolled Hart into the ring and tried to perform a jackknife powerbomb but Hart was almost knocked out and collapsed. Diesel tried to pick him up again for the jackknife powerbomb but Hart had been playing possum and hooked Diesel's leg and rolled him into a small package, getting the pin and winning the championship. An angry Diesel hit two jackknife powerbombs on Hart after the match.[22][3][4][5]

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