5 worst wrestling matches of 1995

These five matches almost completely destroyed the reputations of the wrestlers involved...

1995 is widely regarded as one of the worst years in WWE history. Business was down for that company, many of its most heavily-pushed stars weren’t drawing as much as anticipated, and Vince was facing stiff competition from WCW. Even worse for him, ECW, AJPW and NJPW were all doing tremendous business, and were all proving to be successful alternatives to Vince’s product at the time.

The main reason for this was because Vince McMahon was pushing the wrong people into top positions. Despite having great wrestlers in Shawn Michaels and both Bret and Owen Hart, McMahon decided to push some of the lesser wrestlers into his top spots. One of those wrestlers was a man named Mabel, who was such a disappointing wrestler that he appears in three of the five matches we have on this list.

All of these matches were downright terrible, and served as prime reasons why WWE was so bad from both a critical and commercial standpoint in 1995.

#5. Hulk Hogan vs. Vader - WCW Uncensored 1995

Two legends like these in the ring together SHOULD be a recipe for greatness...but it was actually a disaster

There are two reasons why this match appears on this list. First, there were all kinds of shenanigans surrounding this match’s structure and creative direction. For some unknown reason, both Ric Flair and a masked man (later revealed to be Randy Savage), interfered, which caused the actual match finish to get completely screwed up.

Secondly, Hulk Hogan’s politicking was on full display in this match. Hogan completely no-sold Vader’s biggest moves, including his signature Powerbomb, which had been built up for years as a devastating maneuver. Meanwhile, earlier in the show, Flair (himself a WCW icon) was selling wildly for a character named The Renegade, which was as blatant a rip-off of the Ultimate Warrior as one could get.

So not only do you have a match that leads to one of the biggest super-heavyweight monsters ever ending up looking weak, but Hogan also won the match despite interference from Flair. Vader felt like a complete afterthought after this dumpster fire of a match, which must’ve been the opposite of what was intended when it was first booked.