King of the Ring (1995): The Night Philadelphia Told the WWF Exactly What It Thought

Savio Vega begins what will become an exhausting night by trying to make a tournament match out of a Yokozuna performance that never finds much momentum.

The size difference gives the match an obvious structure. Savio has to move, survive and create small openings. Yokozuna can end those openings with one strike or one collision.

That should be enough for eight minutes. Instead, much of the match settles into slow control work. Yokozuna's nerve hold consumes time without creating tension, and Savio's comebacks feel less like escalating hope than scheduled interruptions.

The crowd responds when Savio finally strings offense together. Multiple clotheslines, the spinning kick and Yokozuna missing the leg drop create a brief stretch where the match has urgency. Then the finish avoids a pin.

Owen Hart attacks Razor Ramon at ringside, Savio becomes involved in the chaos, Yokozuna follows him outside and Savio sends the larger man into the post before beating the count. The result protects Yokozuna and advances Savio. It also means the first tournament match ends with the kind of technical escape that immediately lowers the stakes.

Bob Holly and The Roadie wrestle like two men who notice the card around them and decide they would prefer not to be blamed for it. Holly is quick, athletic and more adventurous than his later reputation sometimes suggests. He throws himself into headscissors, powerslams and quick pin attempts. The Roadie keeps pace and bumps hard enough to give the babyface offense a little extra weight. The match does not have a major story beyond advancement, which is almost refreshing on this show.

Roadie controls with simple heel offense, Holly creates increasingly credible nearfalls, and the seven-minute runtime keeps the match from sinking into the repetitive pacing that hurts several other tournament bouts.

The finish is messy. Holly comes off the ropes, Roadie gets a boot up and then collapses backward into a pin. Holly appears to react to the count at the final instant, creating the visual impression that he may have escaped before three. The referee counts it anyway. The awkward ending prevents the match from becoming a clean success, but the work before it is solid.

Shawn Michaels and Kama wrestle the best match on the show and then receive the finish most capable of making that accomplishment irritating. Michaels is already operating at a different speed from most of the tournament.

He bumps for Kama's power offense, creates movement whenever the match begins to flatten and turns basic attacks into sequences with direction. Kama is better here than his reputation from this period because Shawn gives him a simple job: hit hard, control stretches and be in the correct place when the comeback begins. The clock becomes the story late.

With only minutes remaining, Michaels accelerates. He strings together punches, aerial offense and quick pin attempts. The audience recognizes that the favorite is running out of time. That urgency is excellent.

Then time expires during a sunset-flip attempt. Both men are eliminated. The draw protects Kama and creates an automatic path forward for Mabel. It also removes the wrestler the Philadelphia crowd most clearly wants to see win the tournament.

The post-match superkick gets a reaction, but it cannot replace another Shawn match.

This match exists to move Mabel forward without asking the WWF to let him beat The Undertaker cleanly. That compromise is visible from the start.

Undertaker works around Mabel's size with familiar strikes and the rope-walk attack. Mabel answers with weight and simple power. The physical difference should create menace.

Instead, the match repeatedly slows down. Mabel's control work is heavy without being dramatic. The crowd remains attached to Undertaker, but the match gives him few ways to create momentum beyond his standard comeback. When Undertaker finally hits the chokeslam, the referee is unavailable.

Kama arrives, attacks Undertaker and gives Mabel the opening for the winning leg drop. The interference protects Undertaker in the record book and advances his feud with Kama.

It does nothing to make Mabel look like a tournament winner capable of carrying the rest of the night. The result is historically important and athletically poor.

By the semifinal, Savio Vega is wrestling his third match of the evening if the pre-pay-per-view qualifier is counted.

That matters. The underdog story depends on fatigue, but the card also depends on Savio repeatedly finding enough energy to keep the tournament moving. The Roadie tries to help by bumping aggressively and giving the match a little personality. The effort is easier to praise than the wrestling.

Roadie controls with straightforward heel attacks. Savio spends much of the match selling and waiting for the small comeback window. Jeff Jarrett provides the expected ringside interference threat. The finish at least has clean cause and effect.

Jarrett grabs Savio's foot. Roadie attacks. Savio turns the next exchange into a collision between Roadie and Jarrett, then rolls Roadie up to advance.

The six-minute runtime prevents the match from becoming actively bad. It never becomes especially good either.

Bret Hart and Jerry Lawler have been feuding for so long that the stipulation almost feels like a dare.

The loser has to kiss the winner's foot. Lawler has spent weeks making his foot disgusting. Bret has spent two years waiting for a definitive pay-per-view victory over him.

The match is better as payoff than as wrestling. Lawler controls with piledrivers, shortcuts and his usual ability to make the crowd want bad things to happen to him. Bret supplies the structure and the eventual comeback.

Hakushi and Shinja return, tying the match to the previous In Your House result. This time the interference backfires.

Bret takes over, hits the familiar sequence and forces Lawler to submit to the Sharpshooter. Then the real attraction begins. Lawler is forced to kiss Bret's foot and eventually his own.

It is ridiculous and completely appropriate to the feud. The wrestling is average. The humiliation is memorable.

The tournament final is where the audience stops negotiating. Savio Vega has worked repeatedly. Mabel has reached the final through a poor match with The Undertaker and a bye created by the Shawn Michaels-Kama draw.

The final needs to justify the structure. It does not.

Mabel controls slowly. Savio tries to generate movement. A bearhug drains time without producing drama. The crowd begins chanting for ECW, turning the most important match in the tournament into an advertisement for another promotion.

That is the lasting image. Savio makes a brief comeback and lands the spinning heel kick, but Mabel survives and wins with the splash. The coronation follows while debris comes from the crowd.

The WWF wants to present a new monster heel. Philadelphia treats the moment like a creative rejection.

The match itself is poor enough that the reaction never feels disconnected from what the fans are watching.

The WWF Champion closes one of the company's major annual pay-per-views without defending the WWF Championship. Diesel's injured elbow explains the choice. The match still has to work.

Sid and Tatanka target the injured arm early, which gives the first section logical direction. Bam Bam Bigelow becomes the more active babyface, and his athleticism provides the few stretches where the match gains speed. The heels answer with long periods of basic offense.

Kicks, punches and holds stretch the middle of the match beyond what the story can support. Diesel's hot tag briefly wakes the crowd, but even that sequence is undercut when he uses the injured arm and has to retreat. The ending is worse.

Diesel hits Tatanka with the Jackknife but pulls him up because he wants Sid. Sid simply leaves. Diesel then pins Tatanka with an elbow drop.

The champion wins, Sid remains protected and the feud continues. The pay-per-view ends with almost no sense of completion.