Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

In Your House


Yo-Yo's Roomie

Recommended Posts

In Your House: International Incident.

 

The BodyDonnas Vs The Smoking Gunns: None-title. Sunny pretends to collapse to give the Gunns the advantage, much to the disgust of Vince. The Donnas end up winning when Billy is too busy with Sunny to notice Bart getting pinned. Best part of this is Pillman on the superstar line with the Donnas afterwards: "they're complaining about all the double teaming by the Gunns, but they'd love to double team Sunny". Oh, Pillman.

 

Mankind Vs Henry Godwinn: This was supposed to be Jake, but I guess he was sick. Cue lots of Betty Ford jokes from the King. I know taking crazy bumps was what got Foley noticed, and made him a star, but did he really need to take a flat back bump off the apron to the exposed concrete floor in a nothing match against Henry Godwinn? Seems silly.

 

Steve Austin Vs Marc Mero: Not as good as their KOTR match, or the HHH/Mero match, but still decent. Mero was a good worker at this point.

 

The Undertaker Vs Goldust: This was a step-up from their last match, and both guys really seem to be laying in their shots. It's good to see Goldust going toe-to-toe with a guy like the Undertaker, and being presented as a real threat. Still, he was never going to win, and Mankind pops out from under the ring for the DQ.

 

Vader, Owen Hart and the British Bulldog Vs Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson and Sid: Shawn's team is listed as the People's Posse on wiki. I didn't catch them being called that on the show. The crowd is molten for this one, and even collapse a barricade when Shawn is coming down the aisle. Canadian fans would soon change their opinion on ol' HBK. Really good match, proving the mantra that you can't have a bad six-man tag. Everyone gets a chance to shine in this one, and all play their parts well. Cornette has promised to reimburse all the fans if his men lose, but is spared when Vader pins Shawn. The People's Posse clear house afterwards, as Vince fawns over Shawn's fighting spirit, giving very little credit to the victors.

 

Match of the night: Easily the main event, 3 1/2 stars.

Show rating: Nothing too offensive on the show, with the top three matches being varying degrees of good. I'd say about 3 1/4 stars for the show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Your House: Mind Games.

 

Savio Vega Vs Justin Hawk Bradshaw: Strap match which is basically a lesser version of Savio's strap match with Austin, down to the same finish. Reallt weird seeing JBL in this guise after years of seeing him as APA Bradshaw and then JBL.

 

Jose Lothario Vs Jim Cornette: Jose comes out to Sexy Boy, which is really no worse than Shawn coming out to it in the latter part of the 2000s. Thankfully this is very short.

 

Owen Hart and the British Bulldog Vs The Smoking Gunns: Owen and Davey have defiled a big poster of Sunny, and then they win the tag belts after a decent match. Sunny throws a temper tantrum and then fires the cowboys.

 

Mark Henry Vs Jerry Lawler: Here we are then, the debut of the World's Strongest Man, and he brings the charisma right off the bat, if nothing else. This is just a short match with Lawler working some shtick and then bumping around to make Henry look good. Henry deals with the New Rockers and Triple H for good measure afterwards.

 

The Undertaker Vs Goldust: The Final Curtain match, and I have enjoyed this trilogy. No great matches, but they do work pretty well together. Marlena is looking smoking here. She was always my number one. Taker wins this pretty convincingly to put an end to the feud.

 

Shawn Michaels Vs Mankind: This is probably the crowning achievement of Shawn's title run, if not his career. Really great, wild, physical match, with both men going above and beyond to make it memorable. Mankind in particular is taking some big shots, and Shawn brawls really well and brings the intensity. The only thing that really brings the match down is the finish, not just that it's a DQ, but also that Vader is late with his run-in, which looks kinda bad. The action continues after the bell, with Sid running in, and then Taker popping up out of the casket.

 

MOTN: Obviously the main event, which I'd put at about 4 1/2 stars.

Show rating: The main is the only must see match, although their are another couple of decent affairs. Maybe 3.5.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Your House: International Incident.

 

The BodyDonnas Vs The Smoking Gunns: None-title. Sunny pretends to collapse to give the Gunns the advantage, much to the disgust of Vince. The Donnas end up winning when Billy is too busy with Sunny to notice Bart getting pinned. Best part of this is Pillman on the superstar line with the Donnas afterwards: "they're complaining about all the double teaming by the Gunns, but they'd love to double team Sunny". Oh, Pillman.

 

Mankind Vs Henry Godwinn: This was supposed to be Jake, but I guess he was sick. Cue lots of Betty Ford jokes from the King. I know taking crazy bumps was what got Foley noticed, and made him a star, but did he really need to take a flat back bump off the apron to the exposed concrete floor in a nothing match against Henry Godwinn? Seems silly.

 

Steve Austin Vs Marc Mero: Not as good as their KOTR match, or the HHH/Mero match, but still decent. Mero was a good worker at this point.

 

The Undertaker Vs Goldust: This was a step-up from their last match, and both guys really seem to be laying in their shots. It's good to see Goldust going toe-to-toe with a guy like the Undertaker, and being presented as a real threat. Still, he was never going to win, and Mankind pops out from under the ring for the DQ.

 

Vader, Owen Hart and the British Bulldog Vs Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson and Sid: Shawn's team is listed as the People's Posse on wiki. I didn't catch them being called that on the show. The crowd is molten for this one, and even collapse a barricade when Shawn is coming down the aisle. Canadian fans would soon change their opinion on ol' HBK. Really good match, proving the mantra that you can't have a bad six-man tag. Everyone gets a chance to shine in this one, and all play their parts well. Cornette has promised to reimburse all the fans if his men lose, but is spared when Vader pins Shawn. The People's Posse clear house afterwards, as Vince fawns over Shawn's fighting spirit, giving very little credit to the victors.

 

Match of the night: Easily the main event, 3 1/2 stars.

Show rating: Nothing too offensive on the show, with the top three matches being varying degrees of good. I'd say about 3 1/4 stars for the show.

I was at that show and 10-years-old at the time. I remember digging the hell out of Undertaker's entrance, the match was pretty good to boot and the Austin/Mero match was a lot of fun. Mankind scared the shit out of me, but I was oddly a fan of his. I knew he was creepy but I also enjoyed watching him, if that makes sense. The mandible claw is the best/worst finisher. I haven't watched the show on tape or in any other fashion since being there and am interested to see just how hot the crowd was for the main event. I remember being a little disappointed at the time because the show didn't have a title match or at least a 1 v 1 featuring HBK but it was cool to see him, Sid (whom I loved as a kid and still do - Survivor Series '96 rules!), and Vader live.

 

Speaking to that, Vancouver tends to get screwed with live shows. I mean, it's nice that we get them to begin with, but a random six-man tag, that god awful Rock Bottom show (fuck, that sucked), and a Raw in the early-to-mid noughties ending with lame Kane delivering a piledriver to Shane-O-Mac. Wow. <_< And those UFC cards.

 

Edit: Put the event on the Network and holy crap, is it just me or does Prichard as Zip look kind of like a bleach blonde 'n less bloated Matt Hardy?

 

Double Edit: Pillman was the man. Totally forgotten in the WWE narrative of the Attitude Era other than being "that guy whose house Austin invaded."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reading threads like this and having access to The Network makes Network viewing more enjoyable to me. The 'Shawn Michaels dancing on top of the house' thing got me to load up IYH6 just to hear Vince's reaction. Vince, in my book, is right next to J.R. as the best commentator WWE has ever had. Bobby is second and King (post 2001) is 3rd.

 

Enjoying the reviews mate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks. I'm enjoying watching them, and going through this period in particular. It's mostly only looked at or thought about in terms of "Shawn's career year", but I'm enjoying looking at other stuff, like how Goldust works his character, Mero continuing his WCW form, and the emergence of Triple H. It's funny how much more direction the shows seem to have than current shows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Double Edit: Pillman was the man. Totally forgotten in the WWE narrative of the Attitude Era other than being "that guy whose house Austin invaded."

 

 Yeah, Pillman is a huge 'what could have been?' for me, and there's always a hint of sadness in watching him perform from this era (I mean, more than just that he's dead). His character work was so good, and he was always entertaining as hell, even though he was physically shot. He added so much to the Hart Foundation, and I think he would have been massive in the Attitude Era had he lived.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've always thought the International Incident main event tag match should go in the "really underrated match" pile. It's almost completely forgotten, but it was a pretty damn good match.

 

I'm not big on star ratings because they're so subjective, but about 3 1/2 - 4 stars is what I would give it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agreed. I watched the event in its entirety yesterday and was pleased with how well it came off and aged. I still think Vader in the WWF was really poorly handled. He was acting like a slightly bigger, bully heel instead of the beast he was in WCW even after Hogan arrived and ruined everything. Shawn was really on a roll at this time - his peak IMO, Davey and Owen were such a slick team, Vader had good heat (SHOULDA BEEN BETTA!), Sid was hugely over (though they fucked up the hot tag for him, sticking to script rather than pulling the trigger when the crowd was going banana for him on the apron), and Ahmed was a brick shithouse whom I'm unsure if he knew wrestling was worked. Really fun match with all guys getting their shit in and building up the Vader/HBK Summerslam match very well. Just lots of good mini-segments within the match but it flowed as a whole really well too. Just about as good of a match as they could've had.

 

The event as a whole was really, really fucking fun to watch for the first time since being in attendance. I totally didn't remember seeing Backlund in the crowd. I do remember Austin being over like rover for a going nowhere midcard heel. Everything seemed to click outside of the tag opener because the Boddydonnas were an awful face team and Chris Candido was pretty awful. I've watched a few of his matches in the past few months and been really disappointed with what I've seen. No aura of a wrestler, just a guy thinking about what sweet move he's going to do next. Not much in the way of psychology either (that match he had with Lance at Heat Wave '98 was the fucking pits, throwing out huge moves like top rope powerbombs like they were bodyslams). But, hey, at least Pillman made it worthwhile somehow. Fuck, that guy was da best. Such a presence and he had that real aura of "what the hell is he going to do now?!" every time he was on TV. It'd be neat if they recognized early hints of the Attitude Era with things like Pillman, Diesel pulling off an effective tweener act in late '95/early '96 years before Austin doing it, Goldust making backward folk feel uncomfortable, Bret losing a gasket in the leadup to his heel turn AND his heel turn - but fuck that guy, pal. It wasn't just this switch they flicked when they were losing to WCW in late '97. I just watched that December '97 Raw where Vince does his famous Attitude speech, Owen drops a bunch of swears on TV (gasp!), and Austin throws the IC belt off the bridge. Shit had slowly moved towards that point long before Vince's heel turn.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Your House: Buried Alive.

 

'Stone Cold' Steve Austin Vs Hunter Hearst Helmsley: I remember having my mind a little bit blown by this at the time, because both these guys were baddies and baddies don't fight each other. I guess Savio was meant to be Austin's opponent but he was injured so Hunter stepped in. It made for a cool experience, although heel/heel matches always tend to fall somewhat short. The highlight of this was actually Mr Perfect coming out to steal Hunter's woman, and getting a soda thrown in his face by Austin for his troubles. Perfect was so cool and over here that it's a pity his feud with Triple H was just a ruse, and not the set-up for an actual babyface comeback. Austin won it.

 

JR was in the middle of his heel shtick at this point, and his headset was cutting off all through the match. He eventually cuts a heel promo in the ring and leaves, which means we get Perfect on colour for the rest of the show. Interesting how more and more at this point they were making Vince a character on the show, and not a very sympathetic one either. Here JR shoots about how Vince fired him twice. Makes me think that Vince had designs on being a heel a while before it actually happened.

 

Owen Hart and the British Bulldog Vs The Smoking Gunns: Bart wants to win back the tag titles, Billy wants to win back Sunny. They end up with neither.

 

'Wildman' Marc Mero Vs Goldust: Goldust is a stand-in for Faarooq in this IC title match. Pretty good match with Mero going over.

 

Sycho Sid Vs Vader: The Masters of the Powerbomb explode. Shawn is on commentary for this, as the winner faces him for the title at Survivor Series. A bit disappointing that we don't get a powerbomb from either guy, as that is pretty heavily implied in the build-up to the match. Still, this is alright. Shawn congratulates Sid on his win.

 

The Undertaker Vs Mankind: The first ever Buried Alive match. Pretty decent brawl around the ringside area and up to the gravesite. Foley takes a crazy bump via chokeslam from the mound of dirt to the floor. Eventually Mankind is chokeslammed into the grave and buried, giving Undertaker the win. That's when the real fun begins. Out comes the Executioner, hitting Taker with a shovel. He digs Mankind out, and then the two of them start to bury Taker. They are then joined by a rogue's gallery, including Goldust, Bradshaw, and Triple H, getting some early burying practice in. This goes on for a really long time, while Vince moans about how terrible it is. The heels leave and the show ends with the Undertaker's hand emerging from the dirt. All very hokey.

 

MOTN: Nothing really stood out on this show. I guess Taker/Mankind was just about the best thing going, at around 2 3/4 stars.

Show rating: Again, nothing in-ring to write home about, but nothing was bad either, making this a pretty easy watch. 2 3/4.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Your House: It's Time.

 

Flash Funk Vs Leif Cassidy: Oh man, Vince is dancing with Flash and the Funkettes before the match. That's amazing. Flash loves to have fun, we're told. JR is disgusted by Vince here. These two try to work a workrate-style match, but they don't really pull it together. A couple of pretty noticeable botches from Funk's end, and they just don't gel. It does get good for the finishing stretch, which sees Funk hit a nice moonsault, and then the 450 splash for the win.

 

Owen Hart and the British Bulldog Vs Razor Ramon and Diesel: Man, this fake Razor and Diesel shit made them look so low-rent. I've no clue why Vince thought that was a good idea on any level. It just draws attention to the fact that the real deal are working elsewhere. Plus, while Kane was able to convince somewhat as Diesel, Rick Bogner was a really shit Razor. Austin comes out in this one to attack Bulldog, but the champs still manage to retain, much to JR's chagrin.

 

'Wildman' Marc Mero Vs Hunter Hearst Helmsley: Rematch for the IC title after the Perfect plan had earned the belt for Hunter. Another decent match from these two. Goldust comes out, as apparently Hunter had said something upsetting to Marlena earlier on. He tries to hit Hunter with the belt, but gets Mero instead. He finds his intended target on the second time of asking though, and Mero beats the count for the count-out win. Mero was really well-protected throughout the first part of his run. This is obviously the start of Goldust's face turn.

 

The Undertaker Vs The Executioner: This is an Armageddon Rules match, which is basically just a last man standing, only you had to pin your opponent before the ten count started. This is an ugly match, but I suppose you can't really hold that against Terry Gordy at this point. Mankind comes out to make it a handicap match, but Taker fights them both off, and then a bunch of security come out and put Mankind in a straight jacket. Taker and Gordy fight outside the arena, Gordy takes a bump into some water, they come back inside, one tombstone and that's all she wrote. Mankind still wants to fight Taker even with a straightjacket on.

 

Psycho Sid Vs Bret Hart: Shawn comes out to commentate on this looking rough as balls, and immediately starts shooting, calling Sid the most expensive piece of luggage in the WWF, because guys like him (Shawn) have to carry him. He also harps on continually about Bret's personality, sarcastically calling him a role model several times, and goes on and on about how he's living his life his way, open and honest. The match itself is pretty good. Bret controls the match by working on Sid's back, but I'd say he could have used some more varied offence. Shawn inevitably gets involved, climbing onto the apron, getting run into by Bret, which leads to a powerbomb win for Sid. When Shawn wasn't taking shots at Bret and putting himself over (being Shawn, in other words), he actually did a good job making the world title scene seem intriguing and exciting.

 

MOTN: Another modest night of action, with the main event taking the honours at about 3 stars.

Show rating: Weak show, with a couple of outright bad matches. 2 1/4.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Your House: Final Four.

 

Into 1997 we go, my favourite year in company history, so let's see how these shows hold up.

 

Marc Mero Vs Leif Cassidy: Cassidy was getting some opportunities to work good matches, which surprises me. Sable's look and presentation has changed quite a bit since she debuted. At first she was portrayed as a 'classy lady', kind of a Miss Elizabeth-type. It's becoming more about the sex appeal at this point though. She's wearing sunglasses here, inspiring this gem from Lawler: "I never hit a woman with glasses. I always use my fists". That's nice. Leif works the leg, but that doesn't stop Mero from hitting the Wild Thing and getting the win. Fair match.

 

Faarooq, Crush and Savio Vega Vs Goldust, Flash Funk and Bart Gunn: Quite the eclectic babyface team there. This is pretty short with the Nation going over.

 

Rocky Maivia Vs Hunter Hearst Helmsley: Rocky is the IC champ, a massive fluke according to the King. Helmsley dominates the match, but it's pretty dull stuff. Interesting seeing these two work each other so early on though. Goldust and Marlena come out, causing the distraction which allows Maivia to retain. Hunter wants to fight Goldust, who is ready to oblige before 'some woman' grabs hold of and chokes Marlena from the crowd. That's Chyna's debut, of course. Chyna is taken away by security, and JR says she should be prosecuted against.

 

Owen Hart and the British Bulldog Vs Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon: Owen and Davey are in the midst of a dissention in the ranks story here, and actually come to blows in the middle of the match. That livens things up a bit actually, as it had been pretty dull up to that point. LaFon doesn't made too compelling a face in peril. Things get more exciting when it turns into more of a bomb-throwing contest, and we end up with a DQ win for the challenges when Owen hits LaFon with his Slammy just as Bulldog is about to deliver the powerslam. This pisses Davey off to the extent that he breaks the Slammy.

 

We get a video of Shawn's lost my smile promo, with JR gushing about what a classy stand-up guy Shawn is. Ha.

 

Bret Hart Vs Steve Austin Vs Vader Vs The Undertaker: This is a fantastic match, just a totally wild out-of-control brawl. All play their part, but I think Vader is the MVP of the match. He gets busted open early on, but still totally kicks ass in this. This is probably his best WWF performance. Austin is the first to be eliminated, but then comes back to try to get more of Bret, only to end up distracting Taker for Bret to win.

 

MOTN: The main event by far. 4 1/4 stars.

Show rating: It's pretty much a one match show, but nothing else really drags it down too much. I'd say 3 1/2.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Your House 2.

 

Never seen this one before. It has the deal with Jeff Jarrett performing With My Baby Tonight, and I'm really loving the goofiness of this. I feel like they'd never do something like this nowadays, and I think that's a shame.

 

The Roadie Vs The 123 Kid: Good little opener. Kid was obviously a really good worker. I wonder if Dogg could have been a pretty big deal as a singles star. Even here he has charisma up the wazoo, he could talk, and, while he gets a bad rap for it, was pretty functional in the ring. I guess you could never see him having a flat out great match, but far worse have been pushed. This had a bit of a crazy finish for the time period, with Roadie hitting a piledriver off the second rope.

 

 

 

I am watching this right now, actually, and I really enjoyed this as well. I loved that they started just throwing bombs in the last three or four minutes before the second-rope piledriver.

 

The best part, though, was that after getting the pin, the Roadie does an awesome victory dance and then walks over to the stage and calmly does a mic check like he hadn't just got finished kicking the shit out of the Kid. I immediately started cheering for him after that; not only was that dance charming as fuck, but also he showed himself to be highly competent as both a wrestler and a roadie. I tend to root for competence, which also probably explains why I tended to root for an inordinate amount of heels when watching WWE as a kid. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1997 is my favourite year of wrestling (at least in a North American context) of the post-territory era. Lots of breakout moments with the likes of Austin, Bret at his best, Vince pushing the envelope, and some really fantastic matches. I think the final 4 match was my favourite for a long while as a li'l kid because of the chaos, neat match concept, and having 4 of my favourites in the same match. A wild brawl being Vader's best match in this run makes sense and I do remember him being a standout in this match and the match vs. 'Taker in Calgary in what was one of the WWF's best PPVs ever.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

In Your House 2.

 

Never seen this one before. It has the deal with Jeff Jarrett performing With My Baby Tonight, and I'm really loving the goofiness of this. I feel like they'd never do something like this nowadays, and I think that's a shame.

 

The Roadie Vs The 123 Kid: Good little opener. Kid was obviously a really good worker. I wonder if Dogg could have been a pretty big deal as a singles star. Even here he has charisma up the wazoo, he could talk, and, while he gets a bad rap for it, was pretty functional in the ring. I guess you could never see him having a flat out great match, but far worse have been pushed. This had a bit of a crazy finish for the time period, with Roadie hitting a piledriver off the second rope.

 

 

 

 

 

The best part, though, was that after getting the pin, the Roadie does an awesome victory dance and then walks over to the stage and calmly does a mic check like he hadn't just got finished kicking the shit out of the Kid.

 

 

Yeah, that was pretty badass. He was flat-out great in that role actually, as he's also entertaining as fuck at ringside during Jarrett's matches.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just watched the second rope piledriver. Can you imagine how many heads would roll if somebody pulled that today? The execution was a little awkward in that Roadie had to kind of land on his feet to break the fall then fall backwards but still... WHUTAMANEUVER, PAL.

 

I know Benoit used to break out the top rope tombstone and powerbomb in Japan, but didn't he do the top rope tombstone in WCW at one point?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re:Fake Razor and Diesel; this was WWFs attempt to show that they still woukd make use of the characters after Nash and Hall left, so as to support their lawsuit against WCW using Nash and Hall in similar characters to what they were in WWF.

 

Okay, that at least makes sense, I guess. It still made them look extremely 2nd rate though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re:Fake Razor and Diesel; this was WWFs attempt to show that they still woukd make use of the characters after Nash and Hall left, so as to support their lawsuit against WCW using Nash and Hall in similar characters to what they were in WWF.

Okay, that at least makes sense, I guess. It still made them look extremely 2nd rate though.

I remember hearing a rumor back around 1999-2000 that there was a plan to bring in Steve Corino as the replacement 1-2-3 Kid along with the fake Razor & Diesel.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

i loved heel JR and the replacement Diesel and Razor. 

i can't find who said it, but i agree that Kane was a fairly convincing Diesel and Razor II didn't even try.  i would've liked to see the angle end somehow. maybe the replacements throw down the gimmicks and come out under their own real name or something? i dunno. they just disappeared after a few months and JR was back to his normal self again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Your House: Revenge of the Taker.

 

Owen Hart and the British Bulldog Vs The Legion of Doom: Strange booking on this one. LOD dominate, and pin Bulldog after a top rope powerslam. However, there's a Dusty finish, as another ref points out that Owen was the legal man. The match is ordered to continue, LOD hit the Doomsday Device on Owen, but Bret runs in for the dq. So you get two fuck finishes for the price of one.

 

Pillman and Sunny are manning the Superstar line, and are getting very close to one another in the process. Pillman continues to be awesome.

 

Savio Vega Vs Rocky Maivia: IC title on the line. Starts out dull but warms into a decent match, with Rocky really looking quite good in there. The highlight though is Faarooq on commentary, just telling it like it is (he and Ahmed Johnson are in a marriage, and the only vow is 'til death do us part). Lawler is embarrassing ("Ahmed Johnson is hooked on ebonics"). Crush gives Rocky a heart punch on the outside, giving Savio the countout win, but not the title. That causes a shoving match between the two, which Faarooq has to settle. The Nation make up by beating down Rocky some more, before Ahmed makes the save, wearing what appear to be pyjamas, and wielding a 2x4. Ahmed accepts Faarooq's challenge for a gauntlet match ("I'll beat the illegal immigrant, the convict, and then your black ass") I'm finding Ahmed quite entertaining.

 

Mero and Sable are interviewed in the back. Sable was named Miss Slammy. She's the worst woman in the company, in my opinion. Owen and Davey attack Austin in the gents.

 

Jesse James Vs Rockabilly: Oh God, Rockabilly. I remember this all too well. Billy fucking sucks here, but James is pretty good. Still, looking at wiki I'm amazed this only went 6 mins as it felt like twice that.

 

The Undertaker Vs Mankind: This is another fun brawl between these two, although they were really going to this well a bit too often. The match is at its best when Foley is killing himself for our amusement, and it seems like in every match he has a new highlight reel bump. Here it's the head-first bump into the announce table, which is a great visual. Taker retains the belt with a tombstone, and then attacks Paul Bearer. What was clearly supposed to happen here was Mankind throwing a fireball at Taker, but Taker pushing Bearer into the way. However, they tried this twice, and neither time Foley could get the fire started. This led to Taker having to keep punching and kicking Bearer until he himself could throw the fireball. That could have gone better.

 

Bret Hart Vs 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin: This was moved to the last match to give Austin more time to recover. Vince: "We're getting an update from the back- Paul Bearer is writhing in pain". Thanks, Vince. This is I guess the forgotten match between these two, but it really is tremendous, and has a different dynamic with Bret working out and out heel here. If anything, this feels even more out of control than the Mania match. Bret goes after Austin's leg with gusto, using chair shots and the ringpost figure four. He goes for the sharpshooter but Austin hits him with his kneebrace, and slaps on the hold himself. Owen and Bulldog come out, and Bulldog hits Austin with a chair for the dq. Austin continues to go to town on Bret's leg after the bell, and Bret is helped out by the Foundation.

 

MOTN: I'd have Bret/Austin at 4 stars, and Taker/Mankind at around 3 1/2.

Showing rating: The top two matches both deliver, making this a solid 3 1/2 star show.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Your House 2.

Never seen this one before. It has the deal with Jeff Jarrett performing With My Baby Tonight, and I'm really loving the goofiness of this. I feel like they'd never do something like this nowadays, and I think that's a shame.

The Roadie Vs The 123 Kid: Good little opener. Kid was obviously a really good worker. I wonder if Dogg could have been a pretty big deal as a singles star. Even here he has charisma up the wazoo, he could talk, and, while he gets a bad rap for it, was pretty functional in the ring. I guess you could never see him having a flat out great match, but far worse have been pushed. This had a bit of a crazy finish for the time period, with Roadie hitting a piledriver off the second rope.

The best part, though, was that after getting the pin, the Roadie does an awesome victory dance and then walks over to the stage and calmly does a mic check like he hadn't just got finished kicking the shit out of the Kid.

Yeah, that was pretty badass. He was flat-out great in that role actually, as he's also entertaining as fuck at ringside during Jarrett's matches.

To that end, I reccomend the match where Jarrett beat Razor for the IC belt (RR 95). Roadie's taunting of Razor every time Jarrett works the injured leg cracks me up every time.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Your House: A Cold Day in Hell.

 

Hunter Hearst Helmsley Vs Flash Funk: If anything this was a showcase for Chyna, and they really got over what a threat she is at ringside with a couple of interference spots, and then after the match she picks Funk up and crotches him on the top rope. The match itself isn't that good. Hunter is transitioning into a more methodical style, which does make him seem like more of a threat, so was probably good career-wise, but he's at his most fun when he's bumping around and playing the bitch. Funk didn't really impress in this either.

 

Mankind Vs Rocky Maivia: Another future main event, after we got Hunter/Rocky a couple of shows ago. The highlights here were a Rock Bottom (before it was a Rock Bottom) on the entrance ramp, and Mankind reversing a high cross body into the mandible claw for the win. The mandible claw scared the shit out of me when I was younger. It just struck me as such a terrifying move, even though I knew wrestling wasn't 'real' by this point. The thought of another man forcing his fingers into your mouth, and not being able to breathe is horrifying. Mankind's victory music is so great- such a great concept to have two different themes. This era of Mankind is my favourite Foley character ever.

 

Ahmed Johnson Vs Crush: This is part one of the gauntlet match, and the rest of the Nation are sent up the ramp. It seems like Ahmed and Crush are going at it for ages, but it was probably only 5 minutes or so. Crush, for some reason, wants the Nation to run interference even while he's in charge of the match. This stupidity costs him.

 

Ahmed Johnson Vs Savio Vega: Savio has an injured ankle, but we soon find this is a ruse. He's the worker of the Nation, but can't pull much out of Ahmed. He eventually gets himself intentionally disqualified with a chair attack.

 

Ahmed Johnson Vs Faarooq: Faarooq looks confident despite having his arm in a sling. Also a ruse. Ahmed gets a hope spot or two, and even hits the Pearl River Plunge but can't capitalise. Faarooq hits the Dominator to win, as the Nation celebrate. That was pretty rough going.

 

Ken Shamrock Vs Vader: This is billed as a No Holds Barred match, but is played up as more of a shoot-style bout, with no pinfalls, just submission or knockout. It's basically a dumbed down UWF match, with a couple of hard shots from Vader, and bits of nice mat work from Shammy. Interesting to see this style of match in a WWF ring.

 

'Stone Cold' Steve Austin Vs The Undertaker: It's weird to hear Austin's music without the insta-pop for the glass shattering. It's like mild applause for the glass shattering, and then more of an ovation when he actually appears. The Hart Foundation come out, having bought front row seats from a scalper, and the heat for them is awesome. Pillman is swinging around one of Bret's crutches like a lunatic. This match is pretty good. They brawl around the ring a bit, and then do some dueling legwork. It's definitely made better by the antics of the Harts though. Owen gets dragged out of the crowd by Austin and bumped around a bit, then Taker gets some shots in. Austin gets a visual pin on Taker, but he doesn't feel quite ready to be world champion at this point. I prefer this to their Attitude Era matches.

 

MOTN: Austin/Taker, 3.5 stars. I might put Shamrock/Vader at 3.

Show rating: Not great really, but interesting to look back on in hindsight with the early Rock/Mankind and Austin/Taker matches, the shoot-style match, and the match that really established Chyna. 3 stars.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...