It Isn’t ALL Kevin Nash’s Fault
In 1995, the WWE was in the beginning stages of a down period once Hulk Hogan left the company in June of 1993. The New Generation lead by Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, while talented, couldn’t continue the successes “Hulkamania” reached like Vince McMahon hoped.
The New Generation rose to prominence in the fall of 1992. Off the heels of a mildly successful WrestleMania VIII, the company knew their love affair with Hulk was nearing its end. Although they gifted the Hulkster the coveted main event match on the card - a non title bout against Sid Justice; which ended in a disqualification. The climax of the match was the surprise appearance of former champion The Ultimate Warrior running in to save Hogan from the beat down he was receiving from Justice.
The choice to book this particular match in the main event raised a lot of eyebrows. Hogan wasn’t going over Justice, on the contrary, this was his foe’s coming out party as an unstoppable killing machine. Justice wouldn’t last long after WrestleMania. His final match for the company was during its tour of the United Kingdom where he scored a victory over The Undertaker, his third loss PPV since joining the company in 1990.
Hogan spent the majority of the match beaten up and overpowered. The sight of Hogan dominated physically shocked those in attendance. They waited with baited breath for his famed Babyface comebacks. When it came, Hogan missed the leg drop and Justice proceeded to beat him some more. Warrior making the save in the end communicated to the fans that he was back in the fold after a abruptly leaving the WWE after SummerSlam in 1991. Hogan was almost an afterthought. This match was his send off. Hogan was leaving wrestling to film movies.
Vince nearly broke down in tears when Hogan informed him this was likely his last WrestleMania. The timing couldn’t have been better on Hogan’s end. Hulkamania was running out of steam, a new fresh Babyface in Bret was making a run for his spot. Fast forward a year later, Hogan is not only back at WrestleMania, but leaves the champion. McMahon showed little confidence in his new guys and came running into the arms of his old flame.
If WrestleMania IX was defined by the complete injustice of Bret Hart, the ‘Mania after was defined by his redemption. Like the year prior, Hart main events the pay-per-view, against Yokozuna and wins! Prior to that, HBK and Razor Ramon brought Madison Square Garden off their feet during their iconic ladder match for the Intercontinental strap. This was the height of the New Generation.
Bret held the strap for 248 days, participating in two high profile feuds. One involving his brother Owen, who scored a victory over his older brother in the greatest ‘Mania opening match in history. The two outdid themselves at SummerSlam, Bret going over this time in a steel cage match. The second feud was returning legend and former champion Bob Backlund.
Backlund returned to the WWE after a ten-year hiatus. Before Hulk Hogan, Backlund was the standard bearer of the WWE. Holding the championship belt for over 2,000 days before losing to the Iron Sheik so he could lose it to the aforementioned Hogan three weeks later.
Born in Minnesota, Backlund was the perfect white meat, midwestern Babyface for the era of the late 1970’s to early 1980’s. His appearance screamed humble and “aw, shucks.”
Bret was the same style of Babyface. Absolutely no edge to his character, he was a hero. Plain and simple.
When the two clashed on a late July tapping of WWF Superstars, Backlund have “The Hitman” all he can handle, coming up short via roll-up pin after Backlund believed he secured the victory. Bret extends his hand to the aggrieved Backlund who lost his last wit, snapping and attacking the champion. Backlund placed his infamous “Chicken Wing” submission maneuver on Hart and tortured him for what felt like ages. When referees finally pried the mad man off the champion, he stared at his hands like he committed a murder. The all-American boy, born and raised in the Midwest, turned heel.
Backlund won the title from Hart at Survivor Series, ending his run as champion at 248 days. But it wouldn’t last long. On a House Show in Madison Square Garden three days after Survivor Series, Backlund was massacred by Shawn Michaels bodyguard Diesel and lost the title in ten seconds. On the next episode of Raw, Diesel was the champion and even though he originated and became famous as a heel, was being portrayed as a Babyface in the mold of Hogan. Sort of like the precursor to Roman Reigns.
Diesel (a.k.a Kevin Nash) took a strange journey to becoming world champion. At 35-years old, the WWE placed all their hopes on Diesel carrying them out of these dark times.
Nash began his wrestling career in 1990 for World Championship Wrestling as an orange-mohawked man named “Steel,” acting as one half of the tag team known as The Master Blasters. They began their WCW run on a undefeated streak, before running into the Steiner Brothers and losing in 52 seconds. Nash was repacked as “Oz” a clear ripoff of a character from the Wizard of Oz from the 1900 children’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Nash was managed by The Great Wizard (Kevin Sullivan). Ultimately, this gimmick fizzled out as well. All plans for Nash was scrapped when he refused to sign a $300 a night guarantee as the company was cutting costs. Nash remained in the company, repackaging him as “Vinnie Vegas.” A streetwise, Italian-American straight out of the movies.
Nash found himself in the WWE soon after, at the request of Michaels to act as his bodyguard. He took the name “Diesel” and made his debut at a House Show helping HBK defeat his former friend, now nemesis Marty Jannetty for the Intercontinental Title acting as the enforcer for the heel Michaels.
The relationship went both ways, Michaels would help Diesel win the Intercontinental Championship over fellow Kliqmate Razor Ramon after HBK took a hiatus following WrestleMania X to rehab an injured ankle.
In 1994, the WWE was in quite the bind. WCW plucked their talent from them (Hogan, Savage, Flair) and their homegrown talent was just as good (Sting, Barry Windham, Big Van Vader). Vince signed Lex Luger to a hefty sum of capital in ‘93. The former WCW failed to duplicate his success in the WWE, likely through no fault of his own. Since once he returned to WCW Luger proved to be more, if not more popular than in his first run.
McMahon wasn’t sure if Bret was the guy to turn the ship around. So after having him drop the belt to Bob Backlund at Survivor Series, Diesel would crush the champion at a House Show three days later. This coming after Diesel and Michaels ended their keyfabe friendship, with Big Sexy turning Babyface in the process.
Diesel would hold the belt for 358 days and his reign is wildly panned by just about every metric. His reign coinciding with WWE’s worst run of House Show and PPV revenue.
I’m no fan of Kevin Nash. I think we can blame him for a ton of stuff. However, i’m doubtful anyone could have righted the ship for WWE in this time. The business model of the company was far too ancient to generate a profit. WCW changed the game by having 10 PPVs are year, to the WWE’s five. Monday Night Raw was only an hour, Nitro was two.
Bret, Diesel, HBK, two of them were the greatest wrestlers of their era, perhaps ever. Diesel was intimidating as fuck and the closest WWE got to home growing their replacement Hulk Hogan. All considered flops as champions due to an antiquated business model.
Diesel and HBK’s respective title reigns saw them defanged once the belt was fitted around their waists. All the edge in their characters was drained in favor of a more family friendly persona. Everything that got Diesel over to the audience as a bad-ass suddenly vanished. Michaels suddenly was being accompanied to the ring by his real-life mentor Jose Lothario during every match.
When Michaels lost the belt to Sycho Sid at Survivor Series, held at Madison Square Garden that year, the heel did everything to generate a negative reaction from the New York crowd. He even attacked old man Lothario and received only palpable cheers for his assault. HBK in the ring certainly deserved praise. But the dirty secret about him is he’s always been a superior heel, versus him as a white meat Babyface. The good guy image never fit for the guy who does a stripping routine before every match and fancies himself a ladies man. It didn’t fit Diesel either.
The company acknowledged their past mistakes on the Raw after ‘Mania XIV. Teasing the audience they were going to make the same mistake with their new champion, Stone Cold Steve Austin. Even putting him in a suit and taking pictures with Vince McMahon in the ring. The corporatizing of the champion isn’t unheard of. But Austin proving to be the company’s most profitable champions, whilst going against the traditional grain makes me scratch my head as to why Vince desperately wants champions in the mold of Hogan, Cena and Reigns, when the model clearly is outdated and detrimental to the overall product.
The booking of WrestleMania XII was a testament to how desperate the WWE was in recapturing it’s glory. Even copying the steps it took to set up the original WrestleMania. The company was short on talent and sought big name celebrities to compensate. Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy accompany both the champion and the challenger, respectively, to the ring for their title match. Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor squares off versus Bam Bam Bigelow in the Main Event of ‘Mania. Not dissimilar from the first WrestleMania. Singer Cyndi Lauper played a role in the penultimate match. Muhammad Ali was the guest referee in the main event, and Mr. T wrestled in said main event.
Getting celebrities involved in wrestling to draw casual eyeballs is fine. WrestleMania XII would’ve been a bigger flop without them. But the booking of the card bugged me. Even though I wasn’t even born when it took place.
First off, Diesel rose up the ranks too soon. He was green on the stick, coming off as disingenuous when cutting a Babyface promo on the Raw after winning the title from Backlund. Maybe Nash was never meant to be the top guy in the first place, his title reign shouldn’t have been so disastrous regardless.
WWE blamed Bret for the bad numbers and assumed a new champion was needed. So the Hart-Backlund conflict took a backseat to Diesel vs Shawn. WWE wanted to groom HBK as the next top Babyface, so he became a tweener and won the Royal Rumble despite being the first entrant. The ‘95 Rumble was the shortest in the history of the PPV not even eclipsing forty-minutes. Perhaps more importantly, the only notable names HBK interacted with during the rumble was The British Bulldog and Lex Luger. The latter is gone too soon, the former hangs around for too long. Bulldog survives until the very end and he came in at number two. Receiving nothing for coming up short despite him and Michaels lasting the exact same length of time.
Owen Hart and Backlund were both ambushed by Bret before entering the ring, thus killing any interest fans could have had in this match.
In my opinion, the WWE should have done one of the following versus what actually happened.
1. Diesel wins the Royal Rumble
Diesel could smash Backlund at ‘Mania, turn Babyface at some point before or after the rumble devote crucial time to his push and perhaps avoid the issues WWE faced.
2. Buildup a Bret - HBK program
I mean why not? HBK isn’t even the champion so it’s not like you’re asking him to drop anything. Who is HBK to turn his nose up at a chance to main event WrestleMania?
3. Slot the blowoff match of the Bret-Backlund feud for the title
It does suck the blowoff to a surprisingly quality feud ended in a farce of a match. Slotted in the middle of the card, with Roddy Piper sticking a microphone in the face of either Bob or Bret every few seconds to snag a little bit of the already dimming spotlight. It was ugly and a damn shame. At least there was a story being told that made sense. Bret was the company’s face (or at least he’s supposed to be) why not main event this year’s ‘Mania?
4. Put the pieces in place for a Diesel vs HBK vs Bam Bam vs L.T main event title match
Ah, now we get crazy. Crazy with a capital K. Bam Bam vs L.T was surprisingly good, and the feud proceeding the match was excellently built.
People could debate who’d win in a lock up, Diesel or L.T? Will HBK super kick L.T? (I know HBK’s finisher at this time was the fisherman’s suplex) Will L.T win the championship? Is it jumping the shark? Yes. Would it have been good for business? Also, yes.
