The WrestleMania 11 Lawrence Taylor Vs Bam Bam Bigelow Feud Gets Too Much Hate
The mid-1990s were a rough time for WWE. Despite real highlights like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels breaking out as all time great in-ring performers, the company struggled to get its footing in between the Golden Era when Hulkamania ran wild and finding their way to The Attitude Era. WrestleMania 11 called these issues into sharp relief. The Lex Luger experiment had failed and though Diesel was in place as the new top babyface, the company demonstrated its less than complete confidence in favoring a celebrity match for the main event spot. New York Giants legend Lawrence Taylor faced off against all-time great super heavyweight Bam Bam Bigelow in a spot typically reserved for the biggest wrestling match of the year. The outcomes were better than fans tend to give them credit for now.
Celebrity Wrestling Matches Tend To Get A Bad Rap
Hardcore wrestling fans tend to look down on celebrity bookings. They’re seen as attention grabs that demonstrate desperation on the part of a wrestling promotion and that might take a featured spot, not to mention a big payday, from a full-time talent. It’s easy enough to look at Lawrence Taylor’s few months with WWE through this lens. His entire career consisted of one match, and he wasn’t a regular who went on the road with the company for house shows.
The fact that LT’s personal record in the decades to follow includes being arrested for sexual misconduct makes onlookers, understandably, all the less eager to celebrate his legacy in hindsight. These issues offer ample reason for WWE not to celebrate his stint with the company or for his name to ever surface in Hall of Fame discussions, even as a celebrity.
The Lawrence Taylor Vs. Bam Bam Bigelow Story Was Well Paced
The story of Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow kicked into gear at the 1995 Royal Rumble PPV. At that show, Bam Bam Bigelow and Tatanka from Ted Dibiase’s Million Dollar Corporation faction lost a match to The 1-2-3 Kid and Bob Holly for the vacant WWE Tag Team Championship. The Beast from the East got heckled by the crowd after a humiliating pin fall by the much smaller Kid, culminating in him coming upon Taylor and his entourage, laughing at him from ringside. The two got into a shoving match that set the stage for a WrestleMania showdown.
Related: Bam Bam Bigelow Is The Best Big Man To Never Win The WWE Championship
Bigelow losing at the Rumble may seem like a backwards way of setting him up for a WrestleMania main event spot, but the booking was actually pretty shrewd in establishing he some vulnerability. LT would play the underdog for Bigelow both having much more ring experience and outweighing him, but his less than sterling win-loss record meant it wasn’t totally out of left field for a non-wrestler to hang with or ultimately defeat him. In the meantime, WWE told the story of Taylor training with Diesel to give Big Daddy Cool the celebrity rub--even when his world title match with Shawn Michaels got bumped from the main event spot--and offer a reason why the football star might advance quickly as a wrestler.
Lawrence Taylor And Bam Bam Bigelow Delivered In The WrestleMania Main Event Spot
The biggest argument on behalf of Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow being an underrated storyline was that, in the main event of WrestleMania 11 they worked the highest profile match of Bigelow’s career, and had arguably the brightest spotlight of all time for a celebrity one-on-one performance. The result? They delivered.
Bigelow gave a career-defining performance, playing the monster heel well, but also selling brilliantly for LT and helping walk him through the match. Taylor held up his end with a gritty and athletic performance, easily placing him among the one-time WWE celebrity performers who could've had an extended career. Add in Pat Patterson as the guest referee to direct traffic, and the glitz and glamour of The Million Dollar Corporation backing Bigelow while a cast of NFL stars accompanied Taylor to the ring, and the factors added to feel like a bona fide WrestleMania main event.
The choices Lawrence Taylor made in his personal life have justifiably weakened his legacy, and Bam Bam Bigelow’s 1995 comes with the asterisk that The Kliq purportedly sabotaged his big push coming out of WrestleMania. Just the same, the feud between LT and The Beast from the East is better than fans tend to remember, anchored by well-paced storytelling over the course of several months and both principal players delivering when the lights were on brightest.
