Wrestlemania 11: A Retrospective Look

Posted by Noelle Montes on Monday, May 6, 2024
Oh boy, here we go...sorry guys this is gonna be long and heavy on the rebooking... I truly believe Vince Russo, Len Goldman's trained monkeys and even Dixie Carter could probably have booked this better.

As I allueded to in my comments on 9... this was the nadir of the WWF when it really seriously looked like not only were they in trouble financially but just about bankrupt creatively too.

How could you tell, well things started looking and being done cheaper for a start. Expensive and aging talent was shipped out like Randy Savage, Jim Duggan, Rick Martel, Earthquake, The Steiners and replaced them with basically with the roster of Smokey Mountain Wrestling and USWA and cheaper and older names like Barbarian, Bob Backlund, King Kong Bundy and rookies like Chad Fortune, Alex Porteau, Eric Watts and PJ Walker.

The working agreements with USWA and SMW had almost given way to whole sale talent raids by then. What started with the Heavenly Bodies, Jarrett and Lawler was now Tony Anthony, Tracey Smothers, Louie Spicoli, Al Snow and later that year Glen Jacobs but WWE was doing it on the cheap, low money and the guys brought up had to still eke out their commitments on the indy scene yet devote everything else to being at Vince's beck and call. Add to that the dregs of WCW they signed like Johnny Gunn and Erik Watts and you have a pretty poor set of talent for Mania under of course... the gimmicks. I would want to try what Vince was smoking in 94-95 but feel it would be a bit "Jonathan Crane" and take you places you wouldn't want to go... we got a plumber, a floridian bumpkin, Deliverence bumpkins, a Hog-Farmer, a one man barbershop quartet, Chris Farley and Curt Cobain's love child and an apparently Portuguese man wearing a jockstrap on his face, as they obviously did in Portugal in 95... Oi... What did go well were guys like Hakushi who was perhaps the most criminally underused guy till Hassan and Waylon Mercy, sure Spivey was a spent force but the gimmick worked and is working today for Bray Wyatt... but don't get me started on how they took the excellent WCW character of Maxx Payne and destroyed it... ugh doesn't even cover it...

Of what they had kept in terms of established names, they had booked so badly in the year prior that it was coming back to haunt them come the Royal Rumble. A year earlier, Bam Bam was toiling in a mixed tag with Luna, Doink and a midget... a year later he's supposed to close the show after a year being in the shockingly bad DiBiase stable and mainly in a tag team with Tatanka. Lex Luger had been depushed so badly that he already was marking time till he could walk out. Davey Boy had not been handled right on his return, instead of being turned heel on Bret at Summerslam and basically taking on the feud from there they decided to use Kevin Nash, hot shotting him the title when he was barely even known. Scott Hall was perhaps the only real wrestler "in a groove" during late 94-early 95, but Jarrett was clearly a lightweight opponent for him now Shawn had supposedly moved on. Lower talent that could be challenging for the IC belt like Tatanka, IRS, Kid and even Sid were not being used properly and so devalued by that stage that their careers were all but destroyed.

Shawn, Diesel and Bret and Owen had all suffered badly in that last quarter of 94. Bret losing to Backlund was not only the wrong move and the wrong match but it railroaded him into a bad feud for the next 6 months. Simply reverse the roles of Owen Hart and Backlund at Survivor Series and what would have happened?

Owen would have been the most over heel they had, absolutely hated and with Backlund as a manager/partner... You can then keep Davey face and team him with Bret against the two into 1995, when Davey turns it is again a massive shocker but I know you've gone back and thought "did he say Diesel was suffering in late 94?" and yes I did.

Diesel as a character had barely emerged by the time he won the IC title but it seemed that Vince had found "his guy" and was going to rocket ship him in terms of push... then he has the tag titles as well and you think "Ok.." but it was all far too much too soon. The fans had no chance to even get used to him as a face when he crushed Backlund in 8 seconds. That the match wasn't on TV made it worse, any value gained by the shock value was negated by it not being a PPV match and not being Owen. Had Owen been the one to take that Jackknife as the most hated World Champion to that point at the Rumble... how much bigger would Diesel's "explosion" have been? How much more important would Shawn's win have been? and how much more into Diesel would the fans be? The answer a hell of a lot. Shawn had not really recovered from the high of the Ladder match and losing it... sure he had the tag titles with Diesel and their pairing was interesting but nothing else was really done with him other than him taking shine away from the guy you're thinking about making your big star... Shawn really was better served in that IC title hunt or working with Luger, Davey or Bret than being pushed to the World title match at that time... it was too soon, they had to change the event to make it work and it sucked more balls than a bingo machine...

The other side of the coin was of course Undertaker... after that shocking moment where he was gone for most of 94, missing X he comes back... to a feud with Brian Lee? and then IRS at the Rumble? The Deadman was wasted and could have been used against a lot of opponents other than who he was... add to thisThe Rumble was done poorly 1 minute an entrant was a joke and you have a VERY poor stage for Mania 11.

So let's look at the show (finally I know)

We have Davey Boy and Lex (ok, the team works but Davey PLEASE cut your hair) but the problems here started all the way back at the Rumble and the tournament when they weren't in there, they could have won it and made Bigelow at least LOOK like he could go against last years co headliner and headline a show...the angle still works even though as it happened LT mocked Bam Bam cos they lost to the underdogs...but that would have worked just as well if not better with Luger in particular who as a former NFL player could have even been used as LT's "corner man"/Trainer but assuming they stick with The Allied Powers... them defending their titles against Mystery opposition in Owen's partner works... Yoko is an old foe of Luger's and for Davey a new foe when Luger gets mad and turns on him after the 2nd year in a row losing to Yoko brings his frustration out.

That's my first change... I make it Yoko and Owen v The Allied Powers with Owen still getting the duke and the titles...

That leaves the Gunns without an opponent, so here's where you go with some kind of 4 way for contendership. Headshrinkers, Blu's, Gunns and Men On a Mission.
A mix of styles and of gimmicks... The next guys are getting fed to Owen and Yoko for me and no way would Mabel be winning KOTR so I'd have the MOM go over.

So Fatal fourway - Shrinkers v Blus v Gunns vs MOM is my other tag match for the night.

IC Title - As everyone has been so devalued in real life it was a poor match for Hall, who really should have been moving up out of this IC title picture by then. As I said earlier I had Bam Bam and Tatanka succeed so here's where I use Tatanka again and have him go over Razor with help from Shane Douglas who has just been signed. No Dean Douglas character, he is just ECW Shane Douglas... He and Razor will meet at Summerslam as Bam Bam will be out of the stable after Mania.

Shane will be the focal point and DiBiase's new Million $ Champion. Tatanka as the IC champion won't last as Bam Bam will win this at Summerslam but for now he is back where he belongs.

So change 3 - Razor loses the IC title to Tatanka with an assist from Shane Douglas

Already we've established some new feuds, freshened some stables and introduced a new talent and shaken up both the tag team and IC divisions... that's just in 3 matches so far so we're already making a far more memorable Mania.

Now comes what to do with Undertaker and frankly it's a difficult one. my first instinct was to keep things as is for one reason. This period basically defined Taker in that he got hurt against Mabel at Summerslam and from there how he was booked was drastically altered. It was no longer about monsters for him but solid, strong talent and this was the period that he started to change how he worked and he became the legend he is... till then he was not the worker we know. I'd start that early and I am going with a number one contender match. I thought about using Bret Hart for this, as it would be a strong faces match but I decided not yet cos I want to use Bret somewhere else.

Taker is going against Jeff Jarrett and Roadie in a handicap match. Jarrett is in no way worthy of a world title shot at this point, we KNOW Taker would be going over, but adding Roadie into that mix makes it at least a challenge. Jarrett and Taker would have known each other from their Memphis days prior to Taker's debut so could work a match. Roadie would of course take the brunt of the moves while Jarrett would hang back and try to pick his spots. When he took them he'd use the figure four and the kind of moves that Bret, Shawn, Austin and the like did over the next 2 years that Taker did so well meshing with. Taker tombstones both guys and double pins them for the win and he's going against whoever wins the main event.

Next up is Bret Hart and I am taking Backlund out of this as he never won the title in my world, Owen did. But as a manager Backlund has been intent on destroying Bret ever since as he hates that Bret gets all the kudos and respect as the best technical wrestler and he gets none despite holding the belt for so long. Bob's opponent that he has found who he knows will match Bret is Hakushi... admittedly this match happened 2 months later and was stellar, but in my world it happens at Mania 11 and shockingly Hakushi picks up a countout win after hitting the first Space Tiger Flying Drop in the WWF. I am going with countout cos I want this to continue to KOTR where they will face off again in the tournament.

This does leave a fair chunk of talent off the card and at this time there's the obligatory Mania battle Royale with: -

Luke, Butch, 1-2-3 Kid, Aldo Montoya, King Kong Bundy, Mantaur, Henry Godwinn, Skip, Doink, Kwang, Bob Holly, IRS, Jerry the King Lawler, Jean Pierre LaFitte, Hunter Hearst Helmsley (who makes his "debut"), Chris Benoit (he got a tryout around this time), Hawk & Power Warrior (LOD Gimmick - Animal accompanies them), Adam Bomb and the winner. Ron Simmons making his debut. My reasoning here is that Simmons was someone who should have come straight across to WWE as himself, bypassing ECW completely. I'd have treated him as a big "steal" from them and certainly a big deal - while not calling him the first Afro-American World Champ I would all but build him this way. He's an easy pick up at that time who would have gotten a pop from the crowd when he won and adds an extra face to the roster.. he has already been introduced to the fans as the "trainer" for LT... and while this does foreshadow Bigelow's loss later in the night a bit, it makes a lot of sense to me to use him to win here. He last throws out Jerry Lawler.

So that brings us to the Main Events....

Bam Bam and LT is right after the Battle Royale so Ron moves onto the announce table for the match. I eliminate Mongo and the other NFL guys bar Reggie White.
the match goes somewhat similar but Ron Simmons joins LT in his celebrations so the amateur and pro games are represented.

So we come at last to Shawn and Diesel... I'm not going to do much except change Shawn's attitude prior to the match... for the past few years he'd basically been a knob and now was the time to nip this Kliq thing in the bud... Shawn is doing the job and he's doing it clean. No Sid involvement as he is barred from ringside. It's made clear if Shawn doesn't perform, he doesn't get this chance again... so he does and helps make Diesel a stronger champion. Nash will be worried and towing the line cos he knows he has Taker next and the fans will quite happily see him drop to him... kills the Kliq and their bullshit dead and makes Summerslam a must see card.

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