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Worst in the World: Sable vs Tori-WrestleMania XV

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Despite being an relatively untrained model, Sable held the Women's Championship for 176 days, and hardly defended it. This is made worse by the fact that WWE had just reinstated the Women's Championship two months earlier, so putting the belt on a terrible wrestler for such a long time devalued the title right from the start, and it took years for the belt to be taken seriously. During her title reign, she defended the belt at WrestleMania XV against Tori. Tori, while having some experience as a wrestler, hadn't wrestled regularly since 1993 at the time, and had only had one previous match in WWE. So this is basically the blind leading the blind.
For starters, what is Tori wearing?
It's like...a skin tight cat suit, but it's loose on her. And it has fake abs on it. That's so bizarre. We get the obligatory "look how hot Sable is" commentary before the match actually starts. Tori gets in the ring and Sable immediately grabs her and runs her to the other side. Sable kicks her a few times before throwing her to the outside. They stall before Tori pulls Sable out of the ring and throws her "head" into the ring apron. I put quotes around head because this actually leads to one of the biggest problems with Sable:
Sable will not, under any circumstances, take a bump. YOU ARE A WRESTLER! YOU NEED TO TAKE BUMPS! See her holding out her hands to stop her head from hitting apron, but still selling it like she hit her head, completely ruining the illusion. God dammit, Sable.
Tori throws Sable "head first" into the barricade and apron a few more times before Sable reverses an Irish whip into her own, whipping Tori into the barricade. Sable (surprisingly) goes for a cross body off the apron, but Tori's out of position and Sable flies skims her on the way down. Basically, Sable will only bump on accidents. Michael Cole says that Sable has turned into "an incredible in ring wrestler". This is another problem with Sable, the commentators NEVER shut up about her. Every second they're like "Oh, Sable's so beautiful, and she's so talented." It's not even just Jerry Lawler, Cole is doing it too. The commentators aren't supposed to be praising the heels all the time. All that does it get Sable over at the expense of whoever she's fighting.
Sable gets Tori back in the ring and kicks her a bit, but Tori takes control, mounts her, and hits some punches that don't even come close to Sable's face. Tori hits a sunset flip (which Sable stumbles and lightly falls back for instead of bumping) for a two, and the two trade pin falls. Most notably, Tori almost gets pinned trying to lift up for a backslide, slips when trying to do the backslide, gets back up and does it slowly for a two. Cole calls this "tremendous action".
Tori misses a cross body and hits the ref, and Sable goes for the Sable Bomb. Out of nowhere comes Nicole Bass. Tori counters the Sable Bomb by landing on her ass and goes for her own, but gets stopped by Bass. Cole and Lawler are shocked by Bass showing up, despite how she had been shown on camera AND Cole even acknowledged Bass being there before she got in the ring. I'm assuming she either went to early for her cue, the production team f*cked up by showing her too early, or Cole f*cked up by bringing up the fact that she was at ringside. Bass hits a gorilla press slam on Tori, allowing Sable to hit the Sable Bomb for the win.

The Verdict

It's a mess. Sable just flat out will not take a bump (on purpose), and Tori botched a lot of moves here. The state of the women's division in the WWF was rough for a long time, and this is a prime example of that.

Rankings (Best to Worst)

  1.  Too Much vs Al Snow & Head-King of the Ring 1998
  2. Vampiro vs Sting-Great American Bash 2000
  3. Konnan vs One Man Gang-SuperBrawl VI
  4. Ultimate Warrior vs Hercules-WrestleMania IV
  5. The Chamber of Horrors-Halloween Havoc 1991
  6. Nikita Koloff vs Bobby Eaton-Bunkhouse Stampede
  7. Total Divas vs Other Divas-Survivor Series 2013
  8. The Oddities vs Kaientai-SummerSlam 1998
  9. Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice-WrestleMania VIII
  10. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Hog Wild
  11. Jake Roberts vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania V
  12. Al Snow vs Big Boss Man-Unforgiven 1999
  13. Christy Hemme vs Big Fat Oily Guy-Against All Odds 2007
  14. Vampiro vs Oklahoma-Starrcade 1999
  15. Junkyard Dog vs Moondog Spot-Wrestling Classic
  16. Hiroshi Wajima vs Tom Magee-All Japan Pro Wrestling 1988
  17. Kevin Sullivan vs Dave Sullivan-SuperBrawl V
  18. Steve McMichael vs Brian Adams-Road Wild 1998
  19. Scott Steiner vs Sid Vicious vs Jeff Jarrett vs Road Warrior Animal-Sin
  20.  Sable vs Tori-WrestleMania XV
  21. Greg Valentine vs George Steele-Heroes of Wrestling
  22. Hollywood Hogan vs The Warrior-Halloween Havoc 1998
  23. The Royal Family vs Clowns R' Us-Survivor Series 1994
  24. Sting vs Jeff Hardy-Victory Road 2011
  25. Ultimate Warrior vs Andre the Giant-Saturday Night's Main Event (11/25/1989)
  26. The Doomsday Cage Match-Uncensored 1996 
  27. Kaitlyn vs Maxine-NXT (10/19/10)
  28. James Storm vs Chris Harris-Lockdown 2007
  29. John Laurinaitis vs John Cena-Over the Limit 2012
What's going to be Worst in the World #30...
 
Oh...I was kind of hoping it was going to be something a little more special then...Sid vs some dude I've never heard of.
Thanks for reading. Be sure to share if you enjoyed.
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