By Nicholas Jason Lopez

Those of you who may remember this show best for the “World Premiere” of “Double J” Jeff Jarrett’s “Alone With My Baby Tonight” and surely enough, who could forget that lovely moment in history?

When it comes down to it, there was plenty of Double J on this show to go around. Pretty much dominated the show’s first half.

The best match on the show also involved Jarrett, so it’s a give-and-take situation. The rest of the night was characteristic of what was problematic with WWE in the mid-90’s. We’ll get into it below.

(Aired 7/23/95)

The Breakdown

– With it already being in the “City Of Music” Tennessee, it only made sense that the opening video highlighted the evening with a very 90’s country re-dub of “With My Baby Tonight” with lyrics fit to hype the matches. How clever, huh?

– The 1-2-3 Kid-Roadie match was all about Kid’s return after being taken out by Roadie week earlier. For that matter, the match never overstayed its welcome and had some nice back-and-forth action, keeping up the string of impressive opening matches. There was something spunky about the Kid that made you want to root for him. Maybe it was the lack of facial hair? Only thing that was annoying here was that Jarrett got more screen time backstage than the actual match did. Yeah, we get he didn’t care about his partner and had a big performance coming up, but damn. Don’t kill a dead whale a second time. That said, the Top Rope Piledriver finisher on Kid was done in convincing fashion to make fans wonder about his condition.

– The Million Dollar Corporation was such a mid-90’s stable, huh? Ted Dibiase provided a good mouthpiece for them as he talked a big game for what Diesel was in store, as we were all in Sid’s asylum, or something like that. They at least appeared to be on the same page and confident.

– Sure the event t-shirt sold out like crazy, since it had an overbearing image of Diesel and Sycho Sid on it.

– Remember back when being King Of The Ring was actually treated like a big deal? Pepperidge Farm does, but luckily so do we. The story of the King Mabel/Sir Mo-Razor Ramon/Savio Vega match had the heels getting all the momentum with experience getting the best of the rather new Razor/Vega duo. This started out slow, but picked up quickly when Razor came in with the hot tag and lifted Mabel off the top rope onto the canvas. Nevertheless, the heels won.

– Todd Pettengill was just having way too much fun on that stage with the other band members.

– Makes sense for all of Diesel’s lumberjacks shoot down rumors that Dibiase acquired one of their services for the match, right?

– As for Jarrett’s musical performance, the lip syncing struggle was so real. If he did that “Ha Ha Ha” laugh one more time, God help us…

– The Bam Bam Bigelow-Henry Godwinn match was so-so, as nobody saw anything but Bam Bam winning. It was a Godwinn, for pete’s sake.

– Shawn Michaels’ backstage promo had him address Jarrett and praise his “singing” skills and that he was determined to end that fairy tale run of his. Classic, confident good guy Shawn.

– The Intercontinental Championship match between Jarrett  and Michaels was the highlight of the night to that point and it wasn’t close. Jarrett and Michaels’ styles clashed well together as there were good displays of athletic prowess there. Jarrett’s cheap-handed ways with The Roadie outside as a factor and Michaels’ determination made for exciting action. Michaels won the IC Title here.

– Doc Hendrix’s description of Roadie-Jarrett’s backstage altercation was just whoa. He should just describe all backstage segments like that on the show.

– The WWE Tag Team Championship match between Yokozuna/Owen Hart-Allied Powers was a good match that got better as it went along. The Allied Powers seemed like the cheesiest tag name ever, but they had good chemistry. They almost came out on top, as they lifted Yokozuna, but Owen scrambled with everything for his partner to take advantage of things. Nothing was breaking this dominant Hart/Yokozuna duo.

– Diesel’s backstage promo had him set the stage for the match as he put over he fact that Sid had nowhere to go this time to run away and that it’d be finished once and for all. Classic promo

– The Lumberjack match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship between Diesel and Sid was average at best, but lived up to the hype in terms of Lumberjack interactions, as they had quite the presence on the match. Diesel retaining made sense for the time, but nothing about this screamed “classic.” Just your run-of-the-mill match to send fans home happy.

Results

– The Roadie def. The 1-2-3 Kid via pinfall

– King Mabel/Sir Mo def. Razor Ramon/Savio Vega via pinfall

– Bam Bam Bigelow def. Henry Godwinn via pinfall

– WWE Intercontinental Championship – Shawn Michaels def. Jeff Jarrett (Champion) (w/The Roadie) via pinfall; Michaels regains Championship 

– WWE Tag Team Championship – Yokozuna (w/Mr. Fuji)/Owen Hart (w/Jim Cornette) (Champions) def. The Allied Powers via pinfall to retain 

– WWE World Heavyweight Championship – Lumberjack Match – Diesel (w/Shawn Michaels) def. Sycho Sid to retain