11/9/2023 0 Comments Wwe roster 1995Replacing that title bout was the Smoking Gunns' match with Eli and Jacob Blu. Since Davey Boy Smith turned heel at the previous Raw tapings, one would assume that his turn would have come in the SummerSlam match that wasn't. Originally, Owen and Yoko were set to face off with The Allied Powers at the event, only for the match to be scrapped. The Tag Team Titles Were Sacrificed In Favor Of Morale WWE Sponsored LinksĬonspicuous by their absence at SummerSlam 1995 were Tag Team Champions Owen Hart and Yokozuna, whose sole appearance came at the end of the night in order to promote the main event of the following month's In Your House. In all, the 1995 version made about $1.5M less in revenue than its predecessor. It didn't work: SummerSlam 1995 only did 205,000 buys, down almost a full third from the 300,000 that the 1994 show brought in. WWE also resorted to cutting the cost of SummerSlam down from $27.50 to $24.95, hoping the minimal price reduction would be enticing to fans not as keen in 1995 to order one of the company's pay-per-views. The WWE roster had been trimmed to around 45 active performers, and note has already been made of the cost-cutting measures undertaken when it came to their marathon TV taping sessions. Fan interest was waning, as live event attendances had drastically plummeted from even a few years earlier. It was mentioned earlier that by this time, WWE's business was deep in the toilet. WWE Lowered The Pay-Per-View Price Sponsored Links WWE Sponsored Links By moving all pay-per-views to Sundays, this made the schedule of the day more conveniently symmetrical. One good reason for doing so had to do with the TV taping schedule, which would see WWE tape four weeks worth of Raw the night after a pay-per-view, and four weeks of Superstars taped the next night. Things changed in 1995, when each of the pay-per-views were moved to a more static Sunday schedule, including SummerSlam. SummerSlam was also a special case, as each of the first seven editions took place on Monday nights, filling in for Raw or Prime Time Wrestling when they were pre-empted for US Open tennis coverage. Some Royal Rumbles would be held on Saturday nights in the early nineties. Survivor Series started out on Thanksgiving night before moving to Thanksgiving Eve in 1991. The WWE pay-per-view calendar used to feature a little more variety when it came to show days. Sure, the night had its share of clunkiness (looking at you, main event), but no matter, SummerSlam 1995 was an oasis in the barren desert that was the decaying mid-nineties WWE, and was a refreshing change of pace. Art is subjective, but there are many who hold the Pittsburgh version on the same level as its New York predecessor. Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon were tasked with trying to outclass their landmark WrestleMania X Ladder Match for the Intercontinental title, and to their credit, they may well have equalled its greatness. Most of the credit for SummerSlam 1995's raves goes to Razor/Shawn II: Ladder Boogaloo, and deservedly so. Granted, WWE didn't exactly regain its former powerhouse status overnight on account of the show's excellence (nor would such reclamation take place for years), but it was nice to see a great WWE show for a change. SummerSlam 1995 was one of those shows, an astonishing artistic achievement in otherwise very troubled times for WWE. We've seen it happen before: WWE finds itself in creatively stagnant times, or quite possibly even in the midst of general tumult, and yet they still manage to pull a great show out of their ass.
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