[1994-08-29-WWF-Summerslam] Diesel vs Razor Ramon

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Gregor]

This was so much fun. There were a lot of pre-planned spots, many of which involved Michaels and Walter Payton on the outside, and these generally kept something interesting happening at every point in the match. I'd seen this maybe once before, and I'd always assumed that Payton was just kind of there to get some money, but that's not true. He's enthusiastic enough (he was generally known as a low-key guy during his career, so having him be as animated as Michaels would look fake to the Chicago crowd), and he gets his spots down right, which is a must because most of them are crucial parts of the match. He starts to crack up before Michaels clotheslines Razor at one point, but I'm not going to hold his having fun against him.

 

Diesel looked good throughout this. I feel like Bret Hart kind of underestimated him, because he could be okay carrying parts of a match. Maybe that was just because of all the other stuff going on here, though.

[Loss]

They clearly had the Diesel turn planned at this point, as Shawn leaps in front of him at the entrance and the finish is also used to justify Diesel's turn later in the year.

 

This is a fun, heated, really well laid out match. Even though they have booking help, Nash works hard and it's obvious he has improved quite a bit.

[Kevin Ridge]

Diesel and Shawn show off their newly won tag team titles. Diesel really has his working boots on in this match. Both him and Razor looked good and and a real fun, good match. Michaels was very entertaining on the outside though. He does his flying off the ropes to the guardrail bump again. Didn't have a whole lot of slow moments with him outside the ring. Payton is no where near as involved but does his job. Michaels hits Diesel by mistake with the superkick to get things going for the eventual turn.

[Johnny Sorrow]

I loved this match. It always baffled me that people thought the cage match on this show was the best of the night, when I thought it was obvious that this was.

[Exposer]

This was a fun match that was laid out very well. I honestly can't get into Nash still but the lay out was exceptional. He does seem to try harder though.

[soup23]

I couldn't get into this match much. The lay out was defintely done well which usually doesn't bother me but I am just tired of Shawn as a manager by this point. He takes the same crazy bump we have seen him take three times before. Walter did ok in his role but for being one of the all time NFL leading rushers he probably shouldn't be getting outchased by Michaels for 15 minutes.

[BackToBionic]

Seeing matches like this reminds me of how good Nash could be when he wanted to. Yes, he got lazy later in his career, but why wouldn't he? I think it's more important that when he was young and still in good shape and about to receive a big push, he tried really hard to do his best.

[PeteF3]

Another Pat Patterson special. Not that these guys didn't work hard, but lots of Pat touches are here. Plus some great callbacks to the previous title change and the turnbuckle pad. Payton is used pretty much perfectly--he's ineffective for a bit, but gets the big hometown pop for when he finally gets his hands on Shawn. These guys throw a few offensive wrinkles at us and there are some cool counter-moves going on. Throw in some pretty nuclear crowd heat and this may well take Match of the Night honors. The seeds of the Diesel/Shawn split are sown afterwards--with the long Razor feud pretty much blown off here, I think the time was right for that even if it led to some bad decisions. Hey, young Jarrett Payton!

[Superstar Sleeze]

WWF Intercontinental Champion Diesel vs Razor Ramon - WWF Summerslam 1994

I thought the title change in April on Superstars was better. That match has a lot more fire and energy. This match felt like the Shawn show and there was a wrestling match taking place in the backdrop. 
 

Razor opts for the Randy Savage babyface formula. Very quick shine punctuated by a discus punch and a great bump & sell by Diesel. This made me excited. After a short conference with Shawn and scaling the top rope, they had right to heat with a shot to the ribs. Razor skips registers and goes right to Ricky Morton selling like he has been in there 15-20 minutes. There’s levels to this. I will give them credit that at least most of Diesel’s offense was set up as cutoffs to Hall’s hope spots. Shawn did a lot of great work on the outside. Awesome leaping lariat on the outside to Razor. Nash has a great five moves of doom. HBK exposed the turnbuckle which is a callback to April. Nash works this stretch well and when the ref first blocks the use there is some distraction and Nash uses it but only gets two. Genius! They work through  some more Diesel offense before Hall shoved him in the exposed buckle. Great heat on that. Great heat on Hall’s Second Rope Steiner Bulldog that he used a shit ton as Razor. Diesel blocks the Super Back Suplex the usual prelude to the Razor’s Edge. That was a nice touch. They built really nice heat down the stretch. HBK gets into with Walter Payton and it is a Sweet Chin Music to Diesel as it is clear they already know what their WrestleMania main event will be. Hall just pins him after Sweet Chin Music. Basically Michaels won the IC title as the Kliq buddies continue to get the Sweet Chin Music over as a killer.

They went to heat way too soon. Shawn kept entertaining until they were able to build on heat on their own which came after the first hit into the exposed buckle. If watched JIP, I could see people really liking this. The whole thing it was alright but I preferred the Superstars match. ***