WrestleMania XI

In the main event of WrestleMania XI WWF Champion Diesel defended the belt against accomplished wrestler Shawn Michaels. Diesel was quite good as champion during 1995 and he put on a good match against Shawn Michaels.

The undercard for this event was truly great. Razor Ramon and Jeff Jarrett had a good match (those two always had chemistry in the ring). The ever popular Undertaker did his usual burial, this time pinning the monstrous King Kong Bundy. And Tag Team champions The Smoking Gunns put on an entertaining match against Yokosuna and Owen Hart. Bret Hart elevated Bob Backlund to a decent match as well.

Lex Luger and Davey Boy Smith made an appearance too as The Allied Powers. They beat identical twins Jacob and Eli Blu. The Allied Powers had so much potential which the WWF never exploited.

There was the usual celebrities such as Salt N Peppa and the beautiful Pamela Anderson to make this a memorable event.

WrestleMania XI has gained a bit of reputation as being one of (if not the) worst WrestleManias in the history of the WWE. Considering the fallow period that the company was going through at the time--having their stars poached by the WCW and not yet countering with the Attitude Era--I can understand the sentiment. However, though nowhere near a success by any means, this event isn't quite as bad as its rep.

The trouble here isn't necessarily a lack of talent. Wrestlers like The Undertaker, Razor Ramon, Shawn Michaels, Diesel, and Bret Hart are all solid and put on pretty good shows. The trouble is that they are matched up wrong all over the card.

Some examples...

-Razor has to carry the dud Jeff Jarrett (never got much of a WWE pop), while Undertaker has similar duties with King Kong Bundy. -Owen Hart forming a tag team with Yokozuna? Give me a break. -Bret Hart is the leading member (and best performer) in the company at the time, yet he's embarrassingly paired with Bob Backlund mid-card. -Michaels & Diesel put on probably the best overall match of the night, but inexplicably the main event is Bam Bam Bigelow vs. the NFL's Lawrence Taylor?! There's no excuse for not swapping those final two matches in the order of the proceedings.

So, in the end, WrestleMania XI fails not because there isn't enough talent present, but more because that talent is mismatched and misplaced all over the card. I can't remember if things would get worse for the WWE before they got better, but at this point everything was just so uneven from event to event.

Outside of the WWF Chanpionship match & the Taylor/Bigelow match (Taylor was a natural.) This was a rather forgettable Wrestlemania.

This is one you only have to read on paper. Is there any match you think that sounds like a Wrestlemania event. The main event of Bam Bam v a footballer I feel would be very early on the card if in the first 9 Wrestlemanias , Is a better match than I expected lawrrence Taylor did well but the main event of wrestlemania? Worst Wrestlemania so far in the worst year for WWF.