[1995-01-22-WWF-Royal Rumble] Jeff Jarrett vs Razor Ramon

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I have always had a soft spot for this match. Jeff Jarrett wins the Intercontinental title. Before the restart, this is good, but really typical -- it's about as high-end WWF style as you can get for the time period. What I mean by that is that neither guy is a "great" worker, but they are both capable of having a good match, and it's a style that played to the in-ring strengths each guy had. Lots of rope running, lots of crowd-pleasing spots, and the timing is sharp. Not much in the way of big offense.

 

Jarrett wins by countout after Razor injures his knee on the arena floor, but insists on a restart to which Razor agrees. Here is where the match gets really good, as Jarrett gets all Flair and goes about decimating Razor's knee. There was great heat for the figure four, and in a big surprise, he won clean with an inside cradle. For the era, and considering his opponent was a guy with pull, this is a pretty fair, strong attempt to put over Jarrett winning the title as a big deal. He beat Razor twice in the same match and got the clean pinfall in the end.

 

At times, it feels like a house show match, but I wouldn't call that a bad thing, as Jarrett is good with stalling and heel schtick and he gets time to do plenty of both. This is a solid match -- better than you'd think and worth seeing.

[El-P]

I haven't seen this in ages, but I used to like the entire Razor vs Jarrett feud quite a bit. They had a good chemistry, the three of them (Road Dog on the outside brought his share to the matches). I enjoy their WM match too. I've awlays been a fan of Jarrett 95-98.

[Strummer]

Brian Armstrong was a great second in this time frame.

 

Hall always seemed willing to put other people over

[Tim Evans]

I didn't care for this too much. Always hated the "heel talks babyface champion into restarting the match" gimmick. I thought it made Razor look real stupid. I did like the Roadie in this though.

[PeteF3]

Pretty good match that got better as it went along. Stalling was a staple of WWF PPV openers at the time, so it was to be expected here. And Jarrett pointing to his head will never not be entertaining. There isn't much advanced offense for the first part of this but both guys take some pretty hellacious bumps to the floor. The second half gets better and the moves get bigger, and we get a very cool near-fall involving Razor's back superplex that gets reversed and reversed again, Jumbo/Misawa-style. Jarrett wins clean, which seems to blindside the crowd who I don't think gave Jarrett much of a chance going into this. Basic match, but a psychologically sound one. And basics matter.

[Superstar Sleeze]

WWF Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon vs Jeff Jarrett - WWF Royal Rumble 1995

I thought this was good again, but it could have been great. I thought all the spots were fine, but this could have used an editor to arrange them all in a different order to make them better. I have always had a soft spot for Jarrett, what can I say I am a sucker for blonds, but I really havent watched much of his work so this match jumped out to me. 

I really enjoyed the red hot start, which until the end was my favorite of the match. Double J bumped and fed for Hall so well. Hall had a great working punch, Sack of shit and the Chokeslam. I didnt know he was doing the Chokeslam before The Giant feud. I thought that was added to his arsenal when he was mocking Giant. I popped for that. Double J powdered. They reset. I felt like they lost a lot of steam. Jarrett gets a simple armdrag. He does the Fargo Strut. This happens three times of course with him mussing up the hair of Hall. Razor just walloped him again and sent him hard over the ropes. I just wanted more out of the climax. I loved the set up. Heel celebrating very miniscule victories only to be shown up is great. Climax was not there. Razor did get his receipt with mussing up Jarrett's golden lock. Jarrett went to the dropkick well three times in a row with a mistimed crossbody for the climax. It felt too babyface-ish. There was a lot of 90s slow down holds. Refuse to call them rest holds. Jarrett has a lot of babyface offense. Finally he works some feet on the ropes. Hall is thinking Second Rope Bulldog but Jarrett turns around so it is a Baba style clothesline. Hall goes really hard over the top rope and Roadie chop blocks. Countout finish. Double J with some pretty second-rate trash talk says Razor is not a chico but a chicken. Razor of course has to defend his machismo and restarts the match. This salvaged the match for me. This is just classic pro wrestling. Before the injury angle, they were kind of lost in terms of structure, the knee injury gave them something to focus on. Jarrett's knee work was great, the figure-4 worked well and Razor's attempts to comeback rule. The babyface's knee giving out on the finish leading to the loss is always over with me. With the Razor's Edge it was perfect. That finish was ice cold. Double J is definitely not over. Was he the first really pushed wrestler that was clearly not over that still went with anyways? Enjoyed the beginning, they lost me, but the angle/finish at the end salvaged it.  *** 

[Calvin]

These two have a good chemistry, and this is just a structurally sound, well worked match. I could do without the momentum-killing false finish where Jarrett goads Hall into a restart after the match ends on a count-out, but they managed to salvage it.

***