10 Bad WWE Pay-Per-Views One Tweak Away From Excellence

9. Royal Rumble 1995

Cm Punk Rvd
WWE

Why it's bad: The talent pool was shallow in 1995, with the company's annual battle royal highlighting the worst of the financial peril WWE found itself in during those lean years. A very good undercard was overshadowed by the short sharp shart of the "most fast-paced Royal Rumble in history"

One Tweak: Let the match go an hour, in spite of obvious limitations.

If anybody from the field had it in them to go 60 minutes (or thereabouts), it was eventual winner Shawn Michaels. The story with Davey Boy Smith and 'HBK' going end-to-end was tremendous, but there are several stars in the match that could have split the task to allow for a similar story told twice with his biggest rivals.

A card featuring high quality matches for all three titles wouldn't have been so forgotten had the Rumble also delivered as it so often did in the 1990s. In the modern era of shows going far too long, this tighter turnaround actually harmed the end result - desperately needed 30 more minutes.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett