[1995-04-02-WWF-Wrestlemania XI] Razor Ramon vs Jeff Jarrett

[cactus]

This was a fun title defence built around Jarrett and Roadie always trying to cheat, with it always blowing up in their faces. The 1-2-3 Kid is in Razor's corner and he stops the heels from trying to leave. I've said it many times before, but Ramon is such an underrated puncher. Jarrett works over Razor's leg, who sells it well. Ramon has this one won, but the Roadie runs in and causes a disqualification to save his client from losing his title. 1-2-3 Kid lands some nice looking spin kicks to save the day and the faces celebrate, despite Razor didn't win the championship. Everyone was good in this, even if the finish did stink. 
★★¾

[Superstar Sleeze]

WWF Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett vs Razor Ramon - WWF WrestleMania XI

Besides his title loss to Shawn Michaels at IYH 2, the biggest match of Jarrett's first run with IC belt. I was on Cagematch looking at his challengers and it is pretty lame slate. The Bob Backlund (heel vs heel match) looks interesting, but Aldo Montoya, the weird two match series with Bob Holly where the belt is held up, the house show title switch with Razor, which gets Jarrett up to being a 3-time champion in short order, finally a match against Savio Vega leaves a lot to be desired. It is not surprising that besides Jarett's matches with Razor and Shawn, this period of his career is not discussed and pretty much forgotten. 

As for the match, I watched the Shawn/Diesel match from WrestleMania XI first and I have to say this felt like the midcard version of the match. Right down to a similar beginning. Diesel hits a back body drop on Michaels so he can pose with Pamela Anderson. Razor sends Jarrett packing with some hard rights so he can pose with 1-2-3 Kid. I think Big Daddy Cool one that one Razor. I needed to do some stuff for work, but it has only been 30 minutes since I watched this match, but a lot of it seems to have evaporated. I remember when I watched it. It didnt feel sticky. It was good, uptempo work, but there was no strong hook that made you say ok thats the story of the match. It was just a lot of really, really fucking good Razor Ramon punches with some fun Jarrett bumping & stooging. Also you could tell Kid was pumped to be at this WrestleMania. He was not WrestleMania X and didnt have a match on this show, but he was stoked to be out there tonight. 

Like Shawn in the Diesel match, I thought Jarrett gave Razor a lot of different looks early only to end up eating the Knuckle Sandwich. He used the Roadie way more effectively than Shawn used Sid. I thought Jarrett played the cat and mouse game well and only to get stopped by a hard Razor Right. Roadie yanking Jarrett down from the Razor's Edge was a good spot. The climax of the shine was really good with the Roadie eating the turnbuckle and The Bad Guy sending Double J over the top to the floor to crash down on the Roadie. I thought the transition to heat was weak. All of sudden Jarrett was landing dropkicks and hit his straddle. Jarrett suffers from lack of offense so we get the chinlocks and the sleeper here I dont think it built to as well as Shawn's sleeper in the Main Event. I might be screwing up the order here but I think whats first is there's the weird exchange of three double knockouts to level the playing field: a suplex where they both hit the back of their heads, a double noggin knocker and a double punch. The crowd boos this. It is very rare that a crowd will boo a match so that was interesting and I was eye rolling myself so glad the crowd agreed. Then I think Razor mounts a comeback with the Sack of Shit, but tweaks his knee on the Bulldog. Now it was a bum knee at the Royal Rumble (Roadie chop blocked him) that cost him the IC Title. So this was expected and a good play off that match. Jarrett gets the Figure-4 which helps add so much needed drama to this match. I have noticed that WWF has a tendency to not let the heels do their finishes in their match which can hurt the drama of the match. I also believe in protecting finishes, but I think there is a way to do both. Razor counters it. I think it is pretty much into the finish. The usual prelude to the Razor's Edge, the super Back Suplex. Razor's Edge and Roadie chop blocks the knee blatantly in front of the ref. Wicked lame finish. Kid BLASTS Jarrett with a Spinning Heel Kick pretty sure thats where Jarrett got the bloody nose and then smokes Roadie too. Great kicks from the Kid. Who is super jazzed to be there. Jarrett and Roadie beat him up. I wish Kid got the Savio spot and this spun off into a Jarrett/Kid program in May and June as that would have been great. 

Typical WWF Jarrett match starts out promising and loses steam. Loved the Shine, but after that it was hit and miss. Still good. *** 1/4