He Came In Like A Wrecking Ball

Bret Hart/British Bulldog VS Owen Hart/Bob Backlund - WWF Action Zone 2/26/1995

JJZ: As A kid I had Survior Series '94 on VHS and I must have watched Bret Hart VS Bob Blacklund 100 times. I loved that match. I loved the throw in the towel stipulation. This match is a build to their Mania match though. And I hated that match. But all four of these guys worked a fucking hell of a match here. They built to a hot tag that blew the goddamn roof of the place. Bret sold like a beast. Bret is one of my all time favorites and I'm always so happy when I get to see new to me matches of his. Davey Boy played his role perfectly. Great showing of power to start and came in like a wrecking ball on that hot tag. Hope you enjoy baby cakes. Owen and Backlund play some great heels. I always found myself getting so annoyed at Owen during his heel runs.

CJD: Todd Pettengill calling Davey Boy a role model and a True Hero given some of the allegations against him since is one I'm sure he'd like back. Man does he suck on commentary. What a shill. This was a fun house show main event style match. Good aggressive heat from the Owen and Backlund team. I thought for the talent in this one it was a little paint by numbers. But like you said it jumps out on paper as a match you want to see if you haven't. And there's something about Action Zone matches that pop me the same way I think SNME does for you. Plus you've given me countless possibilities for next week!

JJZ: I loved that Davey Boy was getting the shine. You never saw Bret getting owned liked that. Especially leading into a Mania match. It didn't hurt Bret at all but made the Bulldog look like a fucking beast. He is a brick shit house and this match made him look unstoppable.

CJD: That's a good point about Bret, it made the heels look really strong too. I had no problem with Davey Boy's role in the match, I just wish it was fleshed out more. He gets a reputation for being a lunkhead stiff which when motivated and not bursting at the gills with steroids I think was not the case at all. Like you pointed out last week, you can't have a career as storied and successful as his on physique alone. So I was a little disappointed this match did nothing to prove that reputation wrong even though he did his job well. I liked this match, I just didn't love it. I'll use a JJZ metaphor you dropped on one of my matches previously. I saw the names, I saw the auspicious Action Zone format, and I thought I was getting an Iron Chef meal. Instead I got Iron Chefs hosting an episode of Diners, Drive Ins & Dives. They kept it light and breezy and entertaining without putting too much thought into it. And I'll gladly take their take on a diner dash, especially when so many of these careers were cut short.

[editor's note - This match has been taken down since we originally shared it. We'll check back periodically to see if we can find a new link. We apologize for the inconvenience!]