Royal Rumble Match 1995

[4.0] "Meh, this Rumble like almost all of the New Generation Era doesn't move me, besides I can't say I recognize most of this roster, and then It wasn't very interesting besides the Heartbreak Kid gets the bigger prize that was Pamela Anderson. 4/10 [**1/2]"

[5.0] "A pretty short Rumble, but honestly, that worked in its favor. The lack of star power was obvious, and the lazy filler spots with silly gimmicks didn't help. Not the worst, but far from solid."

[3.0] "Easily one of the worst Rumble matches of all time. I don't watch the current product, but at least from of the years I am familiar with (1985-2012), this might very well BE the worst. First, you have almost no star power. Michaels was still an upper midcarder at this point in time. He was on a fast rise, but I think it'd still take him another 6 months-ish before people'd really see him as a top guy. Bulldog was also mostly seen as an upper midcarder. Luger had been shoved lower and lower down the card for the past year, so his star power was all but gone. His reaction was okay, but not near what I think they expected. Then, you have Owen and Backlund, who both last only seconds before they are eliminated. Everyone else is a lower midcarder, tag team performer, down to a jobber. So little star power and a lot of the small star power you had was misused. Then, entrants came down so fast, everything felt rushed and thrown together. One one hand, having this match be so fast might have helped because it gave you less time to take in how shitty the field was, but it just didn't allow for any kind of substance. No storylines are pushed or developed here besides Bret and Backlund/Owen. In fact, you'd THINK they were building for a Mabel/Bundy Wrestlemania match, but that didn't happen. Shawn is all there is to see here. he is constantly coming close to getting thrown out, which keeps all eyes on him. He adds the only semblance of drama and entertainment in this match. In fact, without the legendary finish, I think this Rumble might be considered worse than it already is. You could watch the last 3-5 minutes of this match and take away everything you need to. There is nothing to see in the other 40-45 minutes. This is a moment, not a match. Truly rather awful all around."

[8.0] "Mostly not very good and not much re-watch value but has to be one of my favorite rumbles because of the incredible finish, which was truly unbelievable to watch unfold in real time and launched Shawn Michaels into another stratosphere as a character who was capable of anything and demanded to be in the main event."

[2.0] "It gets points for an incredible finish with HBK and Bulldog, but the rest of this Rumble is wretched. It has a horrific roster, a one minute time interval that makes this thing move too quickly, and no real memorable spots outside of the finish. The fact that such a shit Rumble has such an iconic finish sure is something."

[4.0] "Meh, this Rumble like almost all of the New Generation Era doesn't move me, besides I can't say I recognize most of this roster, and then It wasn't very interesting besides the Heartbreak Kid gets the bigger prize that was Pamela Anderson. 4/10 [**1/2]"

[2.0] "Everything good about a Royal Rumble match was taken away from this. The names were so bad that me and my brother just started guessing how vince came up with these gimmicks. I don't know why bret crashed out but it was entertaining. The ending was good and that was it. If not for the ending and the winner this would've been an easy 0"

[5.0] "A stunningly weak field. The quicker intervals and rapid-fire eliminations in the early going really give this Rumble a unique feel that I kind of dug, but the second half of the match is pretty dreadful and the match falls off a cliff. Still, the first half was pretty good, and Shawn Michaels looks great all match."

[2.0] "So let me get this straight, WWE books a great Rumble this year and its gets rated down to hell, simply for its winner. But all this match has is a finish and it gets 5? I've seriously never felt more underwhelmed by a Rumble Match in my life. I didn't even pay for this show and I still want my money back."

[1.0] "This is easily the most boring and uninteresting rumble I've ever seen. So many random names in here with very little happening, which is especially bad when names like Owen Hart and Bob Backlund lasted a few seconds each. The only good part is the iconic moment at the end where only one foot of Shawn Michaels touched the floor, which gives this a one. I'm shocked that the reviews on this weren't as harsh because I really did not like this. At least they chose the best possible winner in Michaels I guess. Somehow the shortest Rumble ever felt like the longest to me"

[3.0] "Michaels was the right choice as the winner, but this was still a bad rumble match with very weak star power and they tried to have winner last from the number one position all the way to the end of the match for the first time by having the wrestlers competing come out once every 60 seconds instead of the traditional 90-120 and the whole match felt completely rushed."

[4.0] "This was a pretty poor rumble and thankfully participants entered every 1 min because the whole rumble was mainly mid carders or jobers with the exceptions of HBK, Lex Luger, British Bulldog and Owen Hart But HBK entering 1 and winning was memorable"

[5.0] "It was a wise move to shorten the interval between participants here, because this match is sorely lacking in star power. It does make the match feel very rushed, but this is preferable to building up the tension just for another deflating entrant like Jacob Blu or Timothy Well. Owen Hart is one of only stars in the match and he doesn't even get the chance to do anything (other than being attacked by Bret) before being unceremoniously dumped out of the ring. The Royal Rumble concept is inherently fun enough to carry the match, but it's probably not a great sign when my favourite part of the match was just getting to see Luger and Michaels wrestle each other for 30 seconds or so. Very mediocre, and largely uneventful."

[5.0] "This was a pretty mediocre rumble. HBK goes the limit by entering at one and lasting the whole match, but other than that nothing memorable is to be found here."

[5.0] "This was a fine Rumble. Nothing special overall. I do feel like this gets a bit too much hate. Im gonna get the obvious out of the way first. The Star power here is shit. This is easily the worst Rumble in terms of the roster. Its also got 60 second intervals which is just stupid, but at least we didnt have to watch an hour of this. That being said, there isnt anything here that I would call truly awful. When the ring gets cleared, it takes no time at all and its way too fast. The second half of the Rumble is also fine with there being only a couple eliminations before Crush comes out. The Gunns and Dunn are eliminated pretty much immediately. Then, the match comes to a screeching halt. Nothing happens for about 5 minutes, and I do mean nothing. Just a whole bunch of punching and laying around. Once Adam Bomb gets eliminated, it does pick up with the next couple guys getting dumped out at a nice pace. Side note: Henry Godwin performs one of the greatest feats of strength Ive seen in a Rumble. Murdoch has him up in a spinning firemans carry, but when he goes over to the ropes his momentum sends both guys over. However, while Murdoch goes to the floor, Godwin holds onto the middle (? ) rope and manages to keep him knees up to where he isnt touching the floor even when Murdoch bumps into them on his way down. I just thought that was cool. Anyways, the final four was alright. Luger getting knocked out was nicely done. I dont know why he kept breaking up elimination attempts though. The alliance between Crush and Michaels was solid. Lawler brought up a good point around here: if I were Shawn Michaels, Id be trying to form an alliance with Bulldog rather than Crush. I agree. Regardless, Crush turns on Shawn and immediately gets eliminated by Bulldog so it didnt even really matter. The final two sequence was nicely paced and quite good albeit shorter than remember. The moment where Shawns legs are swinging while hes trying to avoid elimination has become one of the most iconic pieces of imagery in all of Rumble history. Its arguably the greatest finish out of all the Rumbles. I just thought the whole sequence was great. It definitely added about a half star to the match on its own. Now onto the MVP race. Michaels is the clear front runner. At this point in time, hes the only person to be the iron man, have the most eliminations, and win the match itself. According to my rules, that guarantees an automatic MVP. Bulldog does give a great performance here that was even better than his performance in 1991. Thats all I have to say pretty much. Best elimination was Dick Murdoch. Overall, Id say the match is solid with some good moments sprinkled throughout. Other than the roster, nothing was awful. Watch if you havent. Id say the ending sequence is worth the whole watch. Im going with a strong 5 on this one. Final rating: **1/2"

[6.0] "It has some good moments and when the actual stars are in the ring it's pretty enjoyable to watch, but also there's so many nonames in here that you just don't care about most of the eliminations. The opposite side of it is that it's easier to put the stars over as they throw everyone out easily, but I'd prefer just a Royal Rumble filled with star power. Michaels is the MVP of the whole thing with his and Bulldog's rivalry throughout the whole bout being the best thing about the match."

[8.0] "There are a lot of things which make this a weaker Royal Rumble, a pretty embarrassing lack of star power, shorter gaps between entries and one of the few believable contenders, Owen, gets taken out on his way to the ring. But despite this, I enjoy it, partly for personal reasons, as it was the first PPV I saw, I remember borrowing the VHS from the library when I was a kid and absolutely loving it, but also Shawn Michaels and British Bulldog going from the start to the end was great, and Michaels desperately hanging onto the top rope at the end is iconic. And even a bad Royal Rumble is still very enjoyable in my book."

[6.0] "One of the weaker Rumbles, lack of star power is huge, with only 4 guys who were not lower mid-carders at best (Shawn, Owen, Luger & Bulldog). The decision to make intervals shorter actually doesnt hurt this one a lot cause there really is not many guys who anyone cared about. However this passes as a fine match beacause of great performances by Michaels & Bulldog and an iconic finish with Michaels only touching with one leg, eliminating Bulldog and winning from a #1 spot."

[3.0] "Worst rumble by that point, too fast, no stars, nothing going on and the ending was kinda stupid (but historic, so that's okay). Poor Owen (again), he should've had the Bulldog's place."

[3.0] "This one takes my spot as the worst Royal Rumble of all-time. It was basically just a match taking place around Shawn Michaels and the British Bulldog with a bunch of jobbers as fodder. The shorter break between entrants just caused the ring to become congested with nobodies, but it also got his crap over with sooner."

[1.0] "Damn Shawn Michaels had just the worst rumbles imaginable back in the 90s has he not? One of the most poorly organized rumbles with 1 minute wait times, I guess that was done to hide the fact that like most of the time with the WWF in the mid-90s they had no stars, so there's no time to craft meanable spots. Also, this match has known racists so even if this was exceptional I would still rank it extremely low just on my own moral principle."

[5.0] "This was definitely the weakest Rumble so far. There were maybe 3-4 guys who had any chance of winning this, and the rest of the match was filled with jobbers like Aldo Montoya, Mantaur, the Bushwhackers and Duke "the Dumpster" Droese. Shawn Michaels and the British Bulldog had some really nice runs, but even the finish was lackluster due to camerawork that was so terrible that it completely missed Shawn's near-elimination. **1/2"

[1.0] "Oh My God This Rumble Sucks. Without Michaels and Bulldog this would be nothing. Just those two beating up jobbers for 35 mins. Complete garbage"

[5.0] "Not good but it goes by quickly, because this is the 60 second rumble. Everyone who comes out are like guys from the shitty tag teams in the wwf. Sean is the star throughout, as he is for every rumble he's in. Davey Boy is in for a while too, and he's got some good stuff. The commentary is wack but old fashioned enough to be fun if you're nostalgic about early 90s wwf. Also Bret comes in and out of the match a few times which is fun. The lineup for this rumble is pretty funny, including Dick Murdoch, King Kong Bundy, Kwang (Savio Vega it turns out), Doink, Jimmy del Ray, Bob Backlund, Krush, Justin Credible, Mantar, a Godwinn, Meng and Barbarian, and both fucking Bushwhackers. The whole lineup is like that, it's like Shawn, Bulldog, Luger, Owen Hart, and the rest is proof for this being the worst year for the wwf ever. So many washed up guys and halves of shitty tag teams. Silly fun to have on while you play football manager or euro truck simulator on a saturday morning while your wife asks you for help with crossword clues."

[5.0] "A pretty weak Rumble with not much to get excited about outside of HBK going the distance. Cannot stand McMahon and Lawler on commentary."

[3.0] "Besides the marathon performances of Bulldog and Michaels, there's not much to like about this match. Easily the worst field of competitors of any Rumble."

[5.0] "Let's start with a something positive: Shawn Michaels' performance was incredible and the "one feet didn't touch the floor" moment is now iconic. That said, the Rumble isn't good. It was full of people no one knew, and the in-ring action is very weak. Plus, the entrances every 30 seconds aren't good for the match's pace. If Shawn Michaels'performance didn't count I'd give this Rumble a 4/10"

[8.0] "The weakest field of any Rumble to this day, with some very odd booking choices to boot (there were 5 main event interloopers in the match, & a non-participant got rid of 2 before they even really got going in the match). That said, with that booking & the other 25 entrants we were working with, 1 minute intervals kept things fast paced & exciting, and the ending is still referenced in callbacks to this day."

[4.0] "I waited every year for the Rumble when I was a kid and this rush job pissed me off so bad back in the day! The half assed eliminations and the booking because of the weak roster never really sold me on Shawn Michaels as some awesome iron man guy. The match was just under 40 minutes and even at 15 I suspected that Shawn and Bulldog were going coast to coast. Owen, Backlund and Luger were the only other legitimate contenders and Bret more or less took Owen and Backlund out of the running."

[6.0] "There was a distinct lack of star power in this one and shows how little WWF had at the time. Judging by the pop the crowd thought Timothy Well was someone different, Bulldog and Michaels worked hard to make this but only so much they can do. They sensibly cut down to 60 second intervals but that also hurt the flow, Bret running out to get his revenge on Owen and Backlund was great though."

[4.0] "And now we find out why the rest of the matches went so long - they've had to shorten the main event by giving 1 minute gaps between entry times due to the lack of competent entrants - as the third one comes in Vince on commentary struggles to recognise him! There's a reason they never did the fast entries again, which is that it simply doesn't work. This match is notable only for being the first where the number one entrant won the match."

[3.0] "Michaels and Bulldog had their working boots on to try to make it a respectable Rumble. The lack of star power may have been worse than ever in this match, so that was clearly an issue."

[3.0] "Admittedly produced a brilliant finish but with only Michaels and Smith being on show, it was, unfortunately, quite a dud. Everyone else merely felt like filler with only Luger mixing things up."

[6.0] "The 30 minute match length didn't really work and they went back to 45-60 after this. The main problem with this is that the WWF's roster in 1995 wasn't especially strong in star power, which means the pool of possible winners is pretty small and it makes for a bit of a dull match as only really a handful of guys could conceivably win. Shawn Michaels, and Dick Murdoch of all people, are the stand out performers"

[4.0] "Pretty bad Rumble to be honest, the big problem here was the extreme lack of star power, due to the absolute lack of depth of the roster at this point. There were only 5 guys in this match worth anything: HBK, Bulldog, Backlund, Luger and Owen. That simply isn't enough to carry this, though I won't call it a total waste of time due to it being the Rumble, which always delivers to some degree."

[9.0] "I do love almost every Rumble and once again I make no exception here, '95 was not a good year for the WWF but they still have a great Rumble here and I had a great time with it."