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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bret Hart carries Kevin Nash to his best match ever; then sets Steve Austin on the road to super-stardom..., 14 Jul 2009
Another double-bill of pay-per-view events in the WWE Tagged Classics series, this release features the promotion's annual Survivor Series shows from 1995 and 1996. Originally structured as a series of tag team matches fought under elimination rules, November's Survivor Series has always been one of the WWF/WWE's more popular events, though by the mid-1990s the traditional tag team matches had been relegated to undercard status, whilst singles contests featuring the top stars were promoted as the most important bouts on the show.
At the 1995 event, the main event match was Bret `Hitman' Hart's challenge to Kevin `Diesel' Nash's World Championship, which must surely be the best bout the charismatic, but limited and injury-prone Nash was ever involved in. A great `David vs. Goliath' contest, this saw the former champion Hart pushed as a plucky underdog, and as such, most fans were firmly in his corner throughout the bout. The match drew a line under the lengthy but creatively dire Nash title reign, and returned the belt to the far more deserving and talented Hart, although he would do little but keep the title warm until his showdown with Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania XII the following spring.
The show's other really good match was the bizarrely booked (for the period) `Wild Card' bout in which faces and heels teamed together and faced off against their friends and allies. The contest saw Michaels, Davey-Boy Smith, `Psycho' Sid Eudy, and green-as-a-leaf powerhouse Ahmed Johnson face Yokozuna, Owen Hart, Scott `Razor Ramon' Hall, and the wretched Dean Douglas. The smoothest action in this twenty-six minute bout came courtesy of Michaels, Smith, and Hart, whilst the fan-pleasing high point was Johnson's slamming of the massive sumo Yokozuna; Johnson seemed to hit the ground running in this match, and subsequently enjoyed several months of steadily increasing popularity, even if his ring and verbal skills never got past the absolute basics. He destroyed the ludicrous `Nature Boy' Buddy Landell at In Your House V, and then got embroiled in disputes with Jerry Lawler, Jeff Jarrett, and others. Unfortunately, shortly after he beat the wildly unpopular gay heel Goldust for the Intercontinental Title at King of the Ring in June 1996, he suffered a devastating injury when Bernie Casey look-alike Ron `Faarooq' Simmons attacked him at ringside during a televised match, and kicked him in the back so hard that he ruptured one of Johnson's kidneys. This incredibly stupid and reckless action put Johnson on the shelf for six months, and totally destroyed his momentum in the promotion; he was never really able to get out of the starting blocks thereafter.
The other matches on the show didn't really embarrass the promotion either. The opening `battle of the jobbers' pitting Marty Jannetty, Bob Holly, Hakushi, and over-pushed no-mark Barry Horowitz against Chris `Skip' Candido, Tom Pritchard, Rad Radford and Sean `X-Pac' Waltman was a fast-paced cracker, whilst the titular `big man' match pitting The Undertaker, Fatu, Henry Godwinn, and Savio Vega against Mabel, Jerry Lawler, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and Isaac Yankem (Glen `Kane' Jacobs playing a psychotic dentist) was aided by the fact that the entire babyface team was allowed to pummel the heels into the dirt. In fact, about the only disappointing match on the show featured the talented and underrated Bam Bam Bigelow having to put over the hated Goldust; overall, Survivor Series 1995 was an impressive show.
Generally weaker was the 1996 edition, which was sold purely on the attraction of seeing Bret Hart return to action after a six-month hiatus. This was also the event at which Hart faced his greatest ever on-screen nemesis, Stone Cold Steve Austin, for the very first time. Austin had been goading Hart into facing him for several weeks, and eventually, after Hart turned down a big-money offer to jump ship the rival WCW promotion, he came back to the WWF to answer Austin's challenge. At this point in the dispute, Hart was still the clear fan favourite, and it came as no surprise when he cleanly pinned Austin to end a technically excellent match (albeit, one nowhere near as violent and compelling as their submissions-only bloodbath at Wrestlemania XIII the following March).
Unfortunately, the other two big singles bouts couldn't compete with Austin vs. Hart; Shawn Michaels put his World Championship on the line against the clumsy and confused-looking `Psycho' Sid Eudy, and, after several months of title defences against worthy contenders like Davey-Boy Smith, Vader, and Mick `Mankind' Foley, he shockingly dumped the belt to this woefully undeserving challenger; not that crowd seemed to mind, as at the time the hardcore WWF faithful were, despite Michaels' awesome in-ring talent, losing patience with his `prancing pretty-boy' routine, and were glad to see a `real man' (even one as useless as Eudy) beat him for the belt. The show's big disappointment was the contest between Foley and The Undertaker, which was a match too far for their lengthy feud, and which couldn't compete with their three previous pay-per-view efforts. Exactly why they were booked to battle again here after their dispute had been concluded so decisively at the previous month's In Your House 11 show is a bit of a mystery; needless to say, they would go on to fight again at other WWF pay-per views over the next couple of years.
The tag team-flavoured undercard featured the usual parade of jobbers and journeymen in largely thrown-together situations. The only notable happenings were the in-ring debut of Rocky Maivia as a fresh-faced `blue chipper' good guy; a return to action for the faded legend Jimmy `Superfly' Snuka; and one of the very few pay-per-view appearances of Rick Bogner and Glen Jacobs playing the `fake Razor Ramon' and the `fake Diesel'. After Scott Hall and Kevin Nash departed for WCW some months before, Vince McMahon thought it would be a winner if he took different wrestlers who vaguely resembled his two former headliners, and dressed them up in the old `Bad Guy' and `Big Daddy Cool' costumes to try and pass them off as the same people; needless to say, the whole idea was a complete washout, and was quickly abandoned. Jacobs, of course, was to later find lasting fame as Kane, whilst Bogner, on the other hand, vanished into the ether.
Survivor Series 1996 wasn't a great card, and is really only notable for kicking off the memorable Bret Hart / Steve Austin feud, which remains one of the best in WWF history. That aside, the show isn't really worth your time.
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