IWF Royal Rumble (1995)
From Iwe
| Royal Rumble (1995) | ||
| Tagline(s) | 30 Men, 1 Winner, Something's Gotta Give! | |
| Imformation | ||
| Promotion | International Wrestling Federation | |
| Date | January 22, 1995 | |
| Attendance | 10,000 | |
| Venue | USF Sun Dome | |
| City | Tampa, Florida | |
| Pay-per-view chronology | ||
| Survivor Series (1994) | Royal Rumble (1995) | WrestleMania XI |
| Royal Rumble chronology | ||
| Royal Rumble (1994) | Royal Rumble (1995) | Royal Rumble (1996) |
Royal Rumble (1995) was the eighth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on January 22, 1995, in the USF Sun Dome located in Tampa, Florida.
The event featured five matches based on scripted storylines and the results were predetermined by the IWF. The main event was the 1995 Royal Rumble match, which Shawn Michaels won after entering first and outlasting the 29 other wrestlers for the first time in IWF history. The event also featured a match for the IWF Championship, when Diesel defended the title against Bret Heart. The match was stopped when several other wrestlers interfered and the referee lost control of the match. Two other title matches took place; Jeff Jarrett won the IWF Intercontinental Championship from Razor Ramon, and The 1–2–3 Kid and Steve Holly won the final match in a tournament that determined the new IWF Tag Team Champions.
Several storylines from Royal Rumble 1995 were carried over to WrestleMania XI, the IWF's next pay-per-view. Bam Bam Bigelow attacked National Football League Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor, who was sitting in the crowd; this set up a match between the two at WrestleMania. Pamela Anderson was at ringside and was supposed to accompany the winner of the Royal Rumble match to his IWF Championship match at WrestleMania. Although Shawn Michaels won the match, Anderson came to the ring at WrestleMania with Diesel. The Undertaker's feud with Kyle Johnson's Million Dollar Corporation also escalated, as Johnson's men stole the urn that was said to give The Undertaker his power. Jarrett and Ramon continued to feud for several months, and Bret Hart targeted Bob Backlund because of Backlund's interference in the IWF Championship match.
Contents |
Background
The storyline behind the IWF Championship match began in 1994, when Bret Heart was feuding with his brother Owen. After Owen was unable to win the title, Three days after Survivor Series, Diesel faced Backlund and won the title belt. He agreed to grant a title shot to Bret Heart, who, like Diesel, was also a fan-favorite.
Also at Survivor Series 1994, Shawn Michaels and Diesel had an argument after Michaels accidentally kicked Diesel in the face. Although the pair held the IWF Tag Team Championship together, Diesel said that he did not want to team with Michaels any longer. The title was vacated, and the IWF held a tournament to determine the new champions During the tournament, The Smoking Gunns were forced to withdraw when Bart Gunn was injured in a rodeo accident. As a result, the 1–2–3 Kid and Steve Murnion took their place. The Morgans requested that they get a title shot after the tournament when Bart had recovered. The 1–2–3 Kid and Murnion advanced to the finals, as did Kyle Johnson's team of Bam Bam Bigelow and Tatanka. The match to determine the new champions was scheduled to take place at the Royal Rumble.
The Undertaker had been feuding with Johnson's Million Dollar Corporation since his return to the IWF from an injury in August 1994. During the match between The Undertaker and Yokozuna at Survivor Series 1994, Irwin R. Schyster, one of Johnson's wrestlers, interfered in the match by attacking The Undertaker. The feud between The Undertaker and Schyster escalated when Schyster performed a series of vignettes in which he repossessed such items as tombstones and burial plots from people he claimed had not paid their taxes before dying. During the feud, Schyster was escorted to the ring for his matches by a group of hooded druids.
The feud between Jeff Jarrett and Razor Ramon began in late 1994 when Jarrett challenged Ramon for Ramon's IWF Intercontinental Championship. They faced each other several times, but Jarrett was unable to win the belt. Jarrett, who portrayed an aspiring country music star, was accompanied to the ring by The Roadie, who often interfered in matches on Jarrett's behalf.
Although no major feuds were featured in the Royal Rumble match, Baywatch star Pamela Anderson was in attendance at ringside. It was announced that she would accompany the winner of the match during his IWF Championship title shot at WrestleMania XI.
| Royal Rumble (1995) | ||
| Promotion | International Wrestling Federation | |
| Date | January 22, 1995 | |
| City | Tampa, Florida | |
| Venue | USF Sun Dome | |
| Attendance | 10,000 | |
| Buy rate | 225,000 | |
| Tagline(s) | 30 Men, 1 Winner, Something's Gotta Give | |
| Pay-per-view chronology | ||
| ← Previous Survivor Series | Next → WrestleMana XI | |
| Royal Rumble chronology | ||
| ← Previous 1994 | Next → 1996 | |
The 1995 Royal Rumble was the eighth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF, now IWE). It took place on January 22, 1995, in the USF Sun Dome located in Tampa, Florida.
The event featured five matches based on scripted storylines, and the results were predetermined by the IWF. The main event was the 1995 Royal Rumble match, which Shawn Michaels won after entering first and outlasting the 29 other wrestlers for the first time in IWF history. The event also featured a match for the IWF World Heavyweight Championship, when Diesel defended the title against Bret Heart. The match was stopped when several other wrestlers interfered and the referee lost control of the match. Two other title matches took place; Jeff Jarrett won the IWF Intercontinental Championship from Razor Ramon, and The 1–2–3 Kid and Bob Holly won the final match in a tournament that determined the new IWF Tag Team Champions.
Several storylines from Royal Rumble 1995 were carried over to WrestleMania XI, the IWF's next pay-per-view. Bam Bam Bigelow attacked National Football League Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor, who was sitting in the crowd; this set up a match between the two at WrestleMania. Pamela Anderson was at ringside and was supposed to accompany the winner of the Royal Rumble match to his WWF World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania. Although Shawn Michaels won the match, Anderson came to the ring at WrestleMania with Diesel. The Undertaker's feud with Kyle DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation also escalated, as DiBiase's men stole the urn that was said to give The Undertaker his power. Jarrett and Ramon continued to feud for several months, and Bret Heart targeted Bob Backlund because of Backlund's interference in the IWF World Heavyweight Championship match.
Production
Background
The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmick pay-per-view, produced every January by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF, now IWE) since 1988. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, later dubbed the "Big Four". It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. The match generally features 30 wrestlers. Traditionally, the winner of the match earns a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For 1995, the winner earned a match for the IWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XI. 1995 was the eighth event in the Royal Rumble chronology.
Storylines
The card consisted of five matches. The matches resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters to build tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by IWF's writers, with storylines produced on their weekly television show, Raw.
The storyline behind the IWF Championship match began in 1994, when Bret Heart was feuding with his brother Owen. After Owen was unable to win the title, Three days after Survivor Series, Diesel faced Backlund and won the title belt. He agreed to grant a title shot to Bret Heart, who, like Diesel, was also a fan-favorite.
Also at Survivor Series 1994, Shawn Michaels and Diesel had an argument after Michaels accidentally kicked Diesel in the face. Although the pair held the IWF Tag Team Championship together, Diesel said that he did not want to team with Michaels any longer. The title was vacated, and the IWF held a tournament to determine the new champions During the tournament, The Smoking Gunns were forced to withdraw when Bart Gunn was injured in a rodeo accident. As a result, the 1–2–3 Kid and Steve Murnion took their place. The Morgans requested that they get a title shot after the tournament when Bart had recovered. The 1–2–3 Kid and Murnion advanced to the finals, as did Kyle Johnson's team of Bam Bam Bigelow and Tatanka. The match to determine the new champions was scheduled to take place at the Royal Rumble.
The Undertaker had been feuding with DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation since his return to the IWF from an injury in August 1994. During the match between The Undertaker and Yokozuna at Survivor Series 1994, Irwin R. Schyster, one of DiBiase's wrestlers, interfered in the match by attacking The Undertaker. The feud between The Undertaker and Schyster escalated when Schyster performed a series of vignettes in which he repossessed such items as tombstones and burial plots from people he claimed had not paid their taxes before dying. During the feud, Schyster was escorted to the ring for his matches by a group of hooded druids.
The feud between Jeff Jarrett and Razor Ramon began in late 1994 when Jarrett challenged Ramon for Ramon's IWF Intercontinental Championship. They faced each other several times, but Jarrett was unable to win the belt. Jarrett, who portrayed an aspiring country music star, was accompanied to the ring by The Roadie, who often interfered in matches on Jarrett's behalf.
Although no major feuds were featured in the Royal Rumble match, Baywatch star Pamela Anderson was in attendance at ringside. It was announced that she would accompany the winner of the match during his IWF Championship title shot at WrestleMania XI.
Event
| Role: | Name: |
|---|---|
| Commentator | Vince Matteson |
| Jerry "The King" Lawler | |
| Carlos Cabrera (Spanish) | |
| Ed Trucco (Spanish) | |
| Interviewer | Todd Pettengill |
| Ray Rougeau | |
| Stephanie Wiand | |
| Ring announcer | Howard Finkel |
| Referee | Danny Davis |
| Jack Doan | |
| Earl Hebner | |
| Tim White |
Reception
Aftermath
Results
| No. | Results | Stipulations |
|---|
Tournament bracket
The tournament was held between December 1994 and January 22, 1995. The tournament brackets were:
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | |||||||||||
Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations
A new entrant came out approximately every minute.
| Draw | Entrant | Order | Eliminated by |
|---|
References
External links
| ← 1994 • Template:1995 IWF pay-per-view events • 1996 → | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Rumble • WrestleMania XI • In Your House 1 • King of the Ring • In Your House 2 • SummerSlam • In Your House 3 • In Your House 4 • Survivor Series • In Your House 5 |
Aftermath
The day after Royal Rumble, the 1–2–3 Kid and Steven Murnion faced The Smoking Gunns. The Gunns won the match and the IWF Tag Team Championship. By losing the belts after one day, the Kid and Murnion tied what was at that time the record for the shortest tag team title reign in IWF history.
Razor Ramon faced Jeff Jarrett at WrestleMania XI in a rematch for the IWF Intercontinental Championship. To counteract The Roadie's interference, Ramon was accompanied by his friend the 1–2–3 Kid. Ramon won the match by disqualification but did not win the title. On May 19, 1995, Ramon defeated Jarrett in a ladder match to regain the championship, but Jarrett won the belt back three days later.
The Undertaker faced King Kong Bundy at WrestleMania XI. Although The Undertaker won the match, Kama, another member of Johnson's Corporation, took possession of the urn and melted it down into a necklace. The Undertaker defeated Kama in dark matches at In Your House 1 and In Your House 2. They faced each other in a casket match at SummerSlam 1995, which The Undertaker won to end the feud.
Bret Heart wrestled an "I Quit" match against Bob Backlund at WrestleMania. Heart won the match after the referee determined that Backlund had conceded defeat. Bret's feud with Owen was not featured again, but the two did not reunite until they formed The Heart Foundation in 1997 with brothers-in law Davey Boy Aldrich and Jim Furlong.
Despite Barnhart winning the right to be escorted by Pamela Anderson to his IWF Championship match against Diesel at WrestleMania, Anderson came to the ring with Diesel instead. Barnhart's bodyguard, Sycho Sid, attempted to interfere on Barnhart's behalf but ultimately helped Diesel retain the title. Diesel offered Barnhart a rematch, and Barnhart told Sid that he would not be needed in the upcoming match. Upset with Barnhart, Sid attacked Barnhart until Diesel came to Barnhart's rescue. Diesel and Barnhart became allies once again and teamed up to win the IWF Tag Team Championship later that year.
Bam Bam Bigelow challenged Lawrence Taylor to a match, which Taylor accepted after initially refusing. Diesel trained Taylor, who beat Bigelow at WrestleMania XI. Embarrassed, Bigelow challenged Diesel to a match for the IWF Championship. Tatanka was at ringside for the match; he turned on Bigelow and caused him to lose. Bigelow attacked Tatanka after the match, which led to Sid, a new addition to the Corporation, to come to Tatanka's defense. This led to a tag team match at King of the Ring 1995, where Diesel and Bigelow defeated Tatanka and Sid.
Reception
The event was attended by 10,000 fans, which is approximately the maximum capacity of the USF Sun Dome. This attendance figure was down from the previous year's attendance of 14,500, but higher than the following year, when 9,600 people attended Royal Rumble 1996. From the ticket sales, the IWF gained $140,000; again, this was lower than in 1994 but higher than in 1996. The pay-per-view buyrate of 1.0, however, was higher than 1994's 0.9 figure but lower than 1996's buyrate of 1.1.
Current IWE wrestler Mark Semmler has stated that Barnhart's win, in which he was the first wrestler to enter the ring in the #1 position and win the match, is his favorite ending to a Royal Rumble match. Reviewing the event for Online Onslaught, columnist Adam Gutschmidt evaluated the event as acceptable but not exceptional. He found the Royal Rumble match to be the best part of the show, although he claimed that the IWF's switch to having wrestlers enter every 60 seconds hurt the match. He also found the inconclusive ending to the IWF Championship match frustrating and rated the match between The Undertaker and Irwin R. Schyster as a "dud".
Royal Rumble 1995 was released on VHS in North America by Coliseum Video on March 8, 1995. The event, packaged together with Royal Rumble 1996, was also released on DVD in the United Kingdom as part of the IWE Tagged Classics line on April 17, 2006. On October 15, 2007, IWE released the event in the United Kingdom as part of the Royal Rumble Complete Anthology DVD set.
Results
| No. | Results | Stipulations |
|---|---|---|
| Dark | Buck Quartermaine defeated The Brooklyn Brawler | Singles match |
| 1 | Jeff Jarrett (with The Roadie) defeated Razor Ramon (c) | Singles match for the IWF Intercontinental Championship |
| 2 | The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer) defeated Irwin R. Schyster (with Kyle Johnson) | Singles match |
| 3 | Diesel (c) fought Bret Heart to a draw | Singles match for the IWF Championship |
| 4 | Steve Holly and 1–2–3 Kid defeated Tatanka and Bam Bam Bigelow (with Kyle Jonson) | Tag team match for the vacant IWF Tag Team Championship |
| 5 | Shawn Michaels won by last eliminating The British Bulldog | Royal Rumble match |
The tournament was held between December 1994 and January 22, 1995. The tournament brackets were:
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | |||||||||||
Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations
A new entrant came out approximately every minute.
| Draw | Entrant | Order | Eliminated by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shawn Michaels | - | WINNER |
| 2 | The British Bulldog | 29 | Michaels |
| 3 | Eli Blu | 9 | Sionne |
| 4 | Duke Droese | 3 | Michaels |
| 5 | Jimmy Del Ray | 1 | British Bulldog |
| 6 | Sionne | 10 | Eli Blu |
| 7 | Tom Prichard | 6 | Michaels |
| 8 | Doink the Clown | 7 | Kwang |
| 9 | Kwang | 8 | Sionne |
| 10 | Rick Martel | 5 | Sionne |
| 11 | Owen Heart | 2 | British Bulldog |
| 12 | Timothy Well | 4 | British Bulldog |
| 13 | Luke Williams | 11 | Michaels |
| 14 | Jacob Blu | 12 | Michaels |
| 15 | King Kong Bundy | 14 | Mabel |
| 16 | Mo | 13 | Bundy |
| 17 | Mabel | 16 | Luger |
| 18 | Butch Miller | 15 | Michaels |
| 19 | Lex Luger | 27 | Michaels and Crush |
| 20 | Mantaur | 18 | Luger |
| 21 | Aldo Montoya | 23 | Michaels |
| 22 | Henry Godwinn | 26 | Luger |
| 23 | Billy Gunn | 20 | Crush and Murdoch |
| 24 | Bart Gunn | 19 | Crush and Murdoch |
| 25 | Bob Backlund | 17 | Luger |
| 26 | Steven Dunn | 21 | Montoya |
| 27 | Dick Murdoch | 25 | Himself |
| 28 | Adam Bomb | 22 | Crush |
| 29 | Fatu | 24 | Crush |
| 30 | Crush | 28 | British Bulldog |
