100 Worst WWE Matches Ever - 33 - Diesel vs. King Mabel
WWE Championship - Summerslam 1995
I find it easy to have sympathy for Kevin Nash when it comes to this run. He has a reputation as one of the worst drawing champions in WWE history, but how much can you fault him rather than the state of wrestling as a whole? Look at his WWE championship run, the situations he was put in, the fact that he was meant to portray a bland white meat babyface, and the rest of the 1995 WWE roster. Nash proved once he jumped to WCW that he was an effortlessly cool wrestler who became one of the most popular stars in the industry in the late 90s. I don’t think the blame of his mediocre WWE Championship run should be attributed to him. After all, it’s not his fault WWE barely knows how to book to people’s strengths. For a modern comparison, compare Diesel’s babyface push to Roman Reigns’ babyface push, and how both thrived when allowed to show personalities that fit their strengths.
Hell, just look at this show itself. His best friends have one of the best matches of the year right before this one, while he has to main event against one of WWE’s most notorious failed main event pushes.
That’s not to fully exonerate Nash because he was a mediocre-to-bad in-ring wrestler who went through varying degrees of motivation in his career. Put him in there with Michaels or Bret and you’ve got absolute magic - and not because he’s carried but because he’s motivated to meet their standards. Put him with Mabel and you get, well, this. In fairness to Diesel, he seems motivated in the early portions of the match. He’s moving around the ring quickly trying to bring energy to the match, although how much of that is relative to the glacial pace of Mabel is a fair question. After a while I think Diesel gives up on the match, and the match falls apart. It’s not a surprise, because all my criticisms of Mabel from the previous entry are apt here. Slow, plodding, awful offence that looked impactful except when he was actually hurting his opponent. I actually think this match is, from a technical stand point, a little better than the previous King of the Ring match. However the sheer fact that this match is happening and main eventing the second biggest show of the year pushes it ahead on the ranking.
The observant of you may notice that Mabel is now going by the moniker “King Mabel”, ending up with the same ill-fated king gimmick given to far far too many wrestlers over the years. Complete with the crown, the throne, and everything else that goes with it. Very few things in wrestling grate on my nerves quite like WWE’s king gimmicks. Maybe I’d enjoy it if the crown and sceptre didn’t look like a kid’s toy you’d find in the middle aisle of your local Aldi.
After 7 minutes of boring wrestling we get to the ending which is very confusing. The referee gets bumped and out comes Lex Luger, who Vince speculates whether he’s going after Diesel or Mabel. Diesel decides not to find out, as he immediately sends Luger out the ring. To make matters more confusing, once Luger gets to his feet he goes after Sir Mo on the outside. Luger’s interference is made even more baffling because it never went anywhere and he’d be on WCW Nitro in 2 weeks. Meanwhile, British Bulldog - who turned heel on Diesel prior to this show - is sat on his arse during this show, nowhere to be seen.
Mabel’s ill advised main event run comes to a screeching halt at the end of the match. Despite the fact that Nash specifically told Mabel not to do the spot, Mabel sits down heavily on Nash’s back. This would injure Diesel - and if you listen carefully you can hear Nash cussing him out. If Nash is to be believed, Vince was irate after the match and nearly fired Mabel there and then. Nash managed to calm Vince down, but as history tells us, one of the surest ways to getting yourself in the doghouse is to hurt the biggest star in the company. After he then broke the Undertaker’s face later in the year, that would pretty much be it for Mabel in WWE until his return in 1999.
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