Until the network came along and completely destroyed their business model, WWE’s pay-per-view broadcasts were an integral part of their success.
Starting with WrestleMania and then expanding to include the Big Four/Five, the In Your House series and then the cavalcade of crazy concepts that followed, WWE’s monthly extravaganzas have been the setting for some of the most important moments in wrestling history, especially when it comes to main events.
Being last in line is not only a huge honor for the wrestlers involved, but it’s also a big decision for the company as to who deserves that privilege. A good main event can save an otherwise disappointing show and add a few extra zeros to the buy rate, which is why it’s so odd that WWE decided these matches are the most important.
The term “main event” is defined here as the final match on a pay-per-view card, although WWE likes to think that any match built up over two weeks counts as one. These matches weren’t all bad, far from it, but they almost certainly should have happened earlier in the evening.
As we all know, 1995 was a bad year for the WWE.
With Hulk Hogan gone and business declining, the company decided the best way to get more attention for its product was to fill it with celebrities. At the Royal Rumble that year, Bam Bam Bigelow got into a brawl with famous football player Lawrence Taylor, setting up a meeting between the two at WrestleMania XI.
LT and Bam Bam were the last to advance, relegating Royal Rumble winner Shawn Michaels to a lower spot on the card against WWE Champion Diesel.
While the first Mania featured a famous person as the main event, every subsequent show ended with a match between two full-time wrestlers, plus Mr. T took part in a tag team match – Taylor competed alone.
As if a football player in the Mania closer wasn’t strange enough, Bigelow himself was anything but a main eventer. He was in headlining matches, but not on a regular basis, so the decision to put him against Taylor caused a lot of head-scratching.
And to top it all off, LT won the fight and never fought anyone else again.