The 1995 King of the Ring was the third annual King of the Ring professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) that featured the ninth King of the Ring tournament. It took place on June 25, 1995, at the CoreStates Spectrum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This pay-per-view is somewhat notorious among WWE fans as it is considered one of the worst ever pay-per-views produced by the company.
The main event was a tag team match in which WWF Champion Diesel and Bam Bam Bigelow faced Tatanka and Sycho Sid. Diesel won the match by pinning Tatanka. The main matches on the undercard were Bret Hart versus Jerry Lawler in a "Kiss My Foot" match and the King of the Ring final, which was won by Mabel, who defeated Savio Vega.
In a departure from regular protocol, the Savio Vega vs IRS match originally on Sunday Night Slam where the winner was added to the 8 man tournament, is included on the WWE Network feed of this show.
Production
Background
King of the Ring was a pay-per-view (PPV) event held annually in June by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) since 1993. The PPV featured the King of the Ring tournament, a single-elimination tournament that was established in 1985 and held annually until 1991, with the exception of 1990; these early tournaments were held as special non-televised house shows. The winner of the tournament was crowned "King of the Ring." Unlike the non-televised events, the PPV did not feature all of the tournament's matches. Instead, several of the qualifying matches preceded the event with the final few matches then taking place at the pay-per-view. There were also other matches that took place at the event as it was a traditional three-hour pay-per-view. Considered as one of the WWF's "Big Five" PPVs, along with the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, the company's five biggest shows of the year, the 1995 event was the third King of the Ring PPV and ninth tournament overall. It was held on June 25, 1995 at the CoreStates Spectrum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Storylines
The main storyline going into the pay-per-view was the King of the Ring tournament itself. The first qualifying match took place at In Your House 1 where Mabel squashed Adam Bomb in the first round. The next First Round match took place on the May 15 edition of Raw, where Bob Holly defeated Mantaur to proceed to the Quarter-Finals. Razor Ramon proceeded to the Quarter-Finals on the May 20 edition of Superstars of Wrestling defeating Jacob Blu. Shawn Michaels was the next wrestler through to the Quarter-Finals, as he defeated King Kong Bundy on the May 22 edition of Raw. The next First-Round match took place on Superstars of Wrestling on May 27, where Kama defeated Duke Droese via Pinfall. At the beginning of the May 29 edition of Raw, WWF Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett, along with The Roadie, cut a promo with Jarrett stating that he would defeat The Undertaker and advance to the Quarter-Finals of the King of the Ring tournament. Jarrett, however, was defeated by The Undertaker later in the night, with The Undertaker winning following a Tombstone Piledriver. Unlike Jarrett, The Roadie managed to advance to the Quarter-Finals, defeating Doink the Clown on the June 3 edition of Superstars of Wrestling because of a distraction from Jarrett at ringside. Owen Hart faced Davey Boy Smith on the June 5 edition of Raw (taped May 14, 1995 at In Your House 1) in the final First-Round match. The match, however, went to a fifteen-minute time-limit draw. Because of this, neither man proceeded to the next round, and a match between Yokozuna and Lex Luger took place on the June 12 edition of Raw. Yokozuna won the match via countout after performing a legdrop on the arena floor. Even though all of the places for the Quarter-Finals were now filled, Razor Ramon suffered a legitimate rib injury suffered at a House show on June 9 in a ladder match against Jeff Jarrett meaning he could no longer compete in the tournament. As a result, the final Quarter-Final place was decided moments before the pay-per-view aired.