10 Things Everybody Gets Wrong About WWE In 1995
Wish I Knew You In The '90s
Vince McMahon's cease-and-desist threat against Bullet Club and The Young Bucks became the talk of the wrestling world last week. In attempting to censor the co-opted 'Too Sweet' hand gesture, McMahon dusted off some hitherto unused chutzpah to engage in the closest thing to a Monday Night War he's had in years.
The whole thing rapidly descended into farce when the canny Jackson brothers had t-shirts knocked up to mock the entire charade and auctioned tights emblazoned with the argued-over hand signal for charity. In wrestling alone, the two-finger pose had been around for two decades, and even Kliq originator X-Pac admitted on a WWE-sanctioned documentary that it was lifted from a shared favourite musical act.
The first time the hand sign aired on WWE television was 1995, but typical of the timeframe, it wasn't really meant to, and certainly didn't sell t-shirts by the bucketload as it would for the New World Order 12 months later (and The Elite twenty years after that).
Because 1995 was the year of nearly-but-not-quite. Steve Austin wasn't yet a million dollar man, though he was saddled with one. The future 'Rattlesnake' spent much of his maiden promo pointing at the palm of his hand, rather than directing eyes to a solitary middle finger.
WWE was still to experience tumultuous change before the promised land of global supremacy re-emerged. But everything quietly slotted together in a year most still choose to neglect.
10. The Golden Age Of Wrestling Attire
Finn Bálor recently debuted a grey variant of his traditional ring gear for yet another instalment of his deathly dull feud with Bray Wyatt, and its very possible that the low profile palette adjustment wasn't by accident.
Wrestlers notoriously save their new garb for WrestleMania in the modern age. With the 'Show Of Shows' ordinarily finding a home for virtually every major main roster member, superstars presumably consider the cost of new threads a sound financial investment as they etch themselves in wrestling immortality. This is despite the fact that the wrestling industry on the whole is largely in rude financial health and now more than ever, talent could probably flex their financial and fashionable muscles more often than they do.
Credit then to 1995's neon noblemen. Poverty-stricken in comparison to the parade of millionaires that pillaged the business in the 1980s and nowhere near sharing the wealth amassed by anybody that so much as farted near the Attitude Era, WWE's New Generation cornerstones never failed to add sparkle, shine and style to their business' darkest day. Balance sheets may have been soaked with red ink, but it didn't stop the performers infusing an at-times grim scene with swathes of colour.