Kayfabe! Timeline The History of WWE 1994 As Told By Sean Waltman

KAYFABE!
TIMELINE: THE HISTORY OF WWE 1994 AS TOLD BY SEAN WALTMAN

Like I’ve praised them for so many times before, Kayfabe Commentaries went out and got the best person available for this timeline release (the only person I would say is a better candidate is Bret Hart, and I’m not sure if he’s even legally allowed to work with KC). Sean Waltman was right in the thick of things for the whole year, and this was before the WWF locker room became a line in the sand between the Kliq and everyone else, and Sean was also very good friends with Bret Hart. So, Sean is able to give a lot of accounts from his time spent with Bret that we’d probably not get from someone like Jeff Jarrett, Bryan Clarke, Jacques Rougeau, etc. Because Sean is so heavily featured, he’s involved in a lot of the major happenings that year, so we get lots of first hand accounts of things. Which is infinitely better than the subject being WrestleMania, and the person being interviewed not even being on the card and basically going off track about something totally different.

Fittingly enough, Timeline ’94 starts with the first RAW of the year with Sean and Marty Jannetty upsetting the Quebecers for the WWF Tag Titles. Sean informs us that it actually Jerry Jarrett’s idea, although he doesn’t know who’s idea it was to only run with them as champions for a week or so. Two of the big happenings that year were Vince proving how out of touch he was by giving bigger pushes to older acts of his who hadn’t been seen in years (Bob Backlund, King Kong Bundy, and Nikolai Volkoff), and, of course the trial. Regarding the older guys coming back, Sean liked Bob and Nikolai personally, but they weren’t the type to have great matches with the current roster. It even turns into a running gag where Sean will say “He was a nice guy, BUT . . . .” Sean did have a lot of respect for Bob though, especially after they worked all over the horn and Bob went up to Vince in MSG and told him that he wanted to return the favor and put over the Kid. Bundy didn’t understand that he wasn’t a big star like he was in ’86, and refused to lose to Bret’s sharpshooter, and got Visine in his water bottle as payback. Earthquake made a brief comeback, but left after he was asked to put over Yokozuna. The trial was a big deal, obviously, but Vince never let on being worried in the least to the boys. Sean even asks if Vince commented something along the lines of “You might be working for Jerry Jarrett for a few years.” But no, Vince never let on anything. It all climaxed with the acquittal, and TV guide running a piece on the WWF with steroid-related comments, and Linda McMahon writing them a letter in response to inform them that five of the six counts were dismissed and they were acquitted of the sixth without calling a single witness.

Like I said before, from being such good friends, Sean has plenty of Bret stories. Bret’s famous RAW match with Sean came about after him and Owen tore down the house for four minutes at King of the Ring that year, and Bret was so impressed he said that he wanted to work with Sean. There’s a longstanding rumor that Lex was supposed to get the title at ‘Mania, but got passed over for Bret. Sean says that there is some truth to it. The office wanted Lex to take the title, but the fans were 100% pushing for Bret for months prior to ‘Mania, and even Lex acknowledged it. Bret’s Summerslam match with Owen wound up going way longer than they were supposed to. Bret and Owen more or less went into business for themselves and decided “Screw it, we’re going as long as we need to go.” This led to Undertaker vs. Underfaker being even worse than it might have been. Bret also wasn’t fond of Davey being brought back either, but it was for business reasons, rather than him having a problem with Davey himself. Bret used to get seriously pissed at Lawler when he’d make the old age jokes about Stu and Helen, to the point that at Summerslam when he put on the Sharpshooter, he locked it in as tight as he could, and when they did the Kiss My Foot match, he tried to make Lawler choke on his feet.

Finally, there are quite a few fascinating tidbits included that a lot of people would be surprised at. September 1994 was the beginning of the end for wrestling in syndication, with a lot of stations deciding to either cancel it altogether or moving it to late night time slots. Most people assume that the birth of the Monday Night Wars was the end of wrestling in syndication, and while it certainly helped kill it off, the process was already starting. Personally, WWF Superstars was on in my local area until the Fall of ’96, when the WWF moved it to the USA Network. When Diesel got the nod for the IC title, there wasn’t any sort of jealousy from Shawn or Hall, they were elated for him, and wanted to help him out as much as they could. There’s some hilarious talk about the short lived character of Knuckle Ball Schwartz, and how Vince would say he was a great Backstop, and Lawler would ask if he was a pitcher or a catcher. Sean tells a funny story about his trainer, Boris Malenko, and how he helped him get one up on Jay Strongbow (not the most popular person in this timeline series) by telling Sean his real name, so when Sean saw him he said “Hi Luke!” There’s some talk of the short lived Tag Team of David Sierra and Ricky Santana, managed by Bill Alphonso, but Sean won’t give any details as to why they left. Which seems to give Sean Oliver, and KC, a goal to find out what the story was (sounds like they need to get in touch with Fonzie).

The 411: This is the best edition of the WWE Timeline series since Jim Cornette's 1997 edition. It's both interesting and entertaining, which I always find is the perfect combination these sorts of interviews.
Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]