In Your House 1

Legacy Review

In Your House 1

May 14, 1995 from the Onondaga Country War Memorial Arena in Syracuse, NY

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Dok Hendrix (AKA Michael Hayes)

The In Your House series was WWF's latest attempt to boost declining business, flooding the PPV market by putting on a discounted PPV ($15 for 2 hours instead of $30 in those days for 3 hours) every month one of the established big five PPVs, the original four plus King of the Ring, wasn't on. Obviously it got traction as monthly PPVs quickly became the model in wrestling, with WCW, who were already up to 8 full size PPVs a year in '94 anyway plus Clashes, quickly following suit. An added twist to this first In Your House was WWF was actually holding a contest to win a house in Orlando, FL, future home of NXT and the Performance Center (Orlando, not the house). There's a giant box of the entries set up on the entrance stage.

Bret "Hitman" Hart def Hakushi (w/Shinja) in 14:39- This is the first of two scheduled matches for Bret tonight. Hakushi is a young Jinsei Shinzaki, one of the founding members of Michinoku Pro Wrestling, a company he's the president of today. WWF had been looking for a new Japanese star and convinced Shinzaki to join the company after he worked WWF shows during a recent Japan tour. Shinja was also known to WWF audiences as Sato of the Orient Express. A Hakushi opening headlock leads to a speed run that Hakushi flips over Bret and cartwheels to end. Someone check on Jim Cornette, he probably had a coronary. Bret grabs the arm and Hakushi does the heel 101 hair pull. They get tangled up on a whip spot and Hakushi hits a flying tackle that I'm not sure was supposed to be a flying tackle. Bret slips out of a slam, rolls Hakushi up for 2, and hits an armdrag. They have another miscommunication on a rope run. Bret covers for it by hitting an elbow to the back of Hakushi's head. After some more armdrags Hakushi rolls out. We need an adjustment here. Hakushi reverses a corner whip and we have an early Bret Bump. Hakushi Vader bomb for 2. We go picture in picture showing Bret's opponent for later tonight, his old foe Jerry Lawler, enjoying the beating. Hakushi whips out what would soon be called the bronco buster, just without the extraneous junk in face bouncing. Bret tries another roll up but Hakushi momentums him to the floor. Shinja gets some shots in and the heels spend a couple of minutes working the ref to take turns choking Bret. Hakushi handspring elbow! Interesting him using that move, as he and Keiji Muto would have a long history as rivals and partners in Japan. A Bret comeback is killed with an eye rake. They trade tiltawhirls with Hakushi landing the slam (which might have been a missed backbreaker). Hakushi headbutt off the top rope. Bret kicks out! Hakushi goes for a springboard big splash. Bret dodges and goes into full comeback mode with the Five Moves of Doom. He starts to hook the Sharpshooter in. Shinja gets on the apron and distracts. Bret dodges a Hakushi ambush, hits an inverted atomic drop and diving clothesline that Hakushi 360 sells. Shinja trips Bret and Bret's had enough of this shit. Tope suicide on Shinja! As he gets back in Hakushi hits a dropkick for 2. Bret blocks a suplex, and suplexes Hakushi and himself over the top to the floor! The old Canadian Stampede spot. Hakushi hits a springboard moonsault off the second rope to the floor! Mind blowing spot for the time. Hakushi tries to suplex Bret off the apron back in but Bret slips out. They trade standing switches and German suplex attempts. Bret blocks a German, rolls Hakushi up, and gets the pin! As Bret's getting out of the ring he tweaks his ankle. Not good when you have another match later. This match got rave reviews at the time, but it hasn't aged too well. The first half is pretty rough with a couple of bad miscommunications and Hakushi working a lot of slow generic heel 101 offense. Once they got going down the stretch though, it got pretty damn good. ***1/4

Todd Pettingill is in the 900 number call center. Jerry Lawler runs in and demands his match with Bret start now. Pettingill says Bret's on his way to get on the hotline. Lawler makes up an excuse and bails.

 

Handicap Match: Razor Ramon def WWF Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett and The Roadie in 12:36- This was originally going to be a tag match before the 1-2-3 Kid suffered the first of his many career neck injuries. Ramon, being the badass, said he'd fight both guys anyway. Roadie, AKA Road Dogg, is making his official WWF wrestling debut here after managing Jarrett since his signing. Of course he already had plenty of experience in WCW and other companies, not to mention his pedigree as part of the Armstrong wrestling family, but don't let the facts get in the way of the angle. The heels try to corner Ramon and the ref makes one start and one get out. Roadie distracts and Jarrett ambushes Ramon. Ramon comes back with his punchy offense. Jarrett gets clotheslined 360 and out. Ramon follows and gets hit from behind by Roadie. Back in, Jarrett hits an enzuguri. Ramon catches Jarrett leaping and hits the fallaway slam. Roadie breaks the pin up. Tag and Roadie's in for the first time. He clotheslines Ramon and hits some elbow drops. Jarrett gets a sunset flip and they trade near falls. Ramon blocks a suplex and gets a small package for 2. Ramon catches Jarrett off the second rope and hits an atomic drop. He cinches up for the Razor's Edge, but he's close to the ropes so we know what's coming: Jarrett backdrops him to the floor. Ramon grabs his knee after the landing. Roadie gets up on the second rope and dives off to clothesline Ramon on the floor! Nice. Jarrett hits a crossbody off the top but Ramon rolls through it and gets a 2 count. Jarrett counters a backdrop with a swinging neckbreaker. Midring collision. Ramon ducks a punch, hits a back suplex and both guys are down again. Jarrett tags out. Roadie hits a kneedrop off the second rope for 2. Ramon comes back and whips the heels into each other. He hits Roadie with the back superplex. Jarrett clips his knee from behind. He goes for the figure four, but Ramon pushes out and Jarrett collides with Roadie, knocking him off the apron. Razor's Edge and good night. After the bell the heels go after Ramon's knee again. Aldo Montoya, who had a match with Jarrett on Raw that had a disputed finish, runs in for the save. Another guy runs in to take the heels out, and commentary has no idea who he is. You can question the result, especially as Jarrett was a reigning champion and Roadie was there to eat the pin, but the match was perfectly acceptable, and a good in-ring debut for Road Dogg. **1/2

We get an ad for the upcoming King of the Ring. It's so amusing to see WWF in this period getting a grip on the advertising style of the 1990s, my teenage years. Lawler is arguing with Jack Tunney in the back, wanting his match with Bret now. Tunney tells him it'll happen when it's supposed to happen.

 

King of the Ring Qualifying Match: Mabel (w/Mo) def Adam Bomb in 1:54- Men on a Mission had just turned heel and dumped their manager Oscar. It was inevitable Mabel would get a singles push at some point, as he was a big guy and you know Vince loves his beef. Bomb actually has a little mushroom cloud pyro. Mo takes a swing at Bomb and Mabel takes the opening. Avalanche. Bomb dodges a second one. A flying tackle to Mabel's back sends him to the floor. Bomb with a plancha! And a slingshot clothesline back in! Bomb's getting his shit in. Clothesline off the top rope. Mabel reverses a corner whip and hits a spinning heel kick. He catches a leaping Bomb, powerslams him, and we're done here. Not completely horrible for the time they got and who was in there. Mabel is the first entrant in the '95 King of the Ring tournament. Sure, he's a huge guy, but there's no way Vince would push him all the way to winning the tournament, especially with business in the toilet and several other potentially good winners on the roster, right?......Right? 1/2*

Ramon is backstage with the mystery man and introduces him as his longtime buddy, one of the greatest wrestlers in the Caribbean, Savio Vega. Ramon says "I don't recognize you, you look a little different", which is a pretty good inside gag to the fact Vega had been with WWF over two years, working under a mask as Kwang. Lawler's made his way to ringside and agitates officials during intros for the next match, while Bret's in the locker room with ice on his knee.

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: "The King of Harts" Owen Hart and Yokozuna (c) (w/Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji) def The Smoking Gunns in 5:44- This is a rematch from Wrestlemania, with the Gunns supposedly having an advantage because now they know Yokozuna's coming. I don't want to sound mean, but Yoko's blown up so big I think he's attracting a couple of small moons into his gravitational pull. Yoko and Billy start. Billy bounces off the big guy and hits some dropkicks. Bart press slams Owen. The Gunns hit a dropkick/suplex double team. Owen gets an enzuguri with a 360 Billy sell. Hayes gets a Stridex plug in. Gotta pay the bills. Yoko pounds away on Billy and locks in the Nerve Pinch of Nerve Pinchiness +/-0. Owen neckbreaker for 2. Billy gets a huge sunset flip for 2. An Owen spinning heel kick sends Billy to the floor. Billy dodges Yoko and Yoko runs into the post. Bart works Owen over. Bret Bump! A back suplex follows. Owen dodges a crossbody and Bart flies to the floor. Yoko kills him with a legdrop on the floor, rolls him back in, and Owen gets the pin. Bleh. It was OK when Owen was in there. The Gunns were a pretty underrated team. They got stuck in an era with a completely moribund tag division. It'd be interesting to see them in an era and company that took tag wrestling more seriously. *1/4

 

Jerry "The King" Lawler def Bret "Hitman" Hart in 5:01- Lawler is in the ring with his "mother" (the show's on Mothers' Day so it's been a bit of a theme the whole night), some mid-'20s actress they got to be on the show. There's no point to it but she gets attention the entire match. Vince actually says "Gorilla Position" on TV. Bret's there and he shows the whole hurt knee thing was RUSE, everything's perfectly fine. He mock limps during his entrance and Lawler runs away. Bret cranks up the beat down, giving Lawler rail and stair shots. Lawler tries to hide behind Hebner. Bret tries a backdrop but Lawler counters it into a piledriver. Bret completely no sells it. Bulldog. Bret hits a piledriver of his own. Lawler eye rakes and slams Bret. He tries to come off the top rope but Bret's waiting for him. Bret headbutt to the gut and ground & pound on Lawler. Shinja comes out. He and Lawler coordinate and Henber falls out of the ring, dangling upside down with a foot caught in the ropes. Hakushi comes out and nails Bret off the top rope. A second time. A third time, after Hebner got untangled and back in so he has to pretend he didn't see it. Lawler does a victory roll and gets the pin. Not good at all. Their Summerslam '93 match was a nice old school blood feud throwback. This was crap. And sadly it would continue. 3/4*

It's time to give away a house! Todd Pettingill and Stephanie Wiand are at the giant box of entries. They so should have had a wrestler jump out of the box with the winner in his mouth or something. Were the Bushwhackers still on the roster? Knowing Vince at the time it probably would have been Shark Man or something, with the fin sticking up out of the entries. Unfortunately, Pettingill and Wiand play this whole thing like a couple of children's TV presenters on a sugar high and crack at the same time and it's utterly insufferable. They run to the "garage" and get a couple of rakes to rake the entries with. This is the worst episode of Blue Peter I've ever seen. It's a damn good thing (or maybe a bad thing?) this show isn't in a smarky city, the crowd is staying politely silent through all this nonsense. They pull the winner and Pettingill tries to call them. Wrong number. Of course. You'd think Vince would have learned something from this for Million Dollar Mania. They finally get the winner on the phone and the dad thinks it's a prank. Pettingill and Wiand stare into the camera like a couple of psychos.

Same energy.

WWF Championship: Diesel (c) def Sycho Sid (w/Ted DiBiase) by DQ in 11:31- Sid turned on Shawn Michaels right after Wrestlemania, turning Shawn face and putting him on the shelf for a bit. Afterward Sid took Bam Bam Bigelow's spot as the top dog in the Million Dollar Corporation, while Bigelow was booted for losing to Lawrence Taylor and turned face. Sid stares down commentary during Diesel's entrance. Big man big match stare down. Diesel hits forearms, a corner clothesline and the corner elbows. Sid barely sells and rolls out. Diesel does a double ax handle off the apron to Sid's back. Sid channels El Gigante with his punch selling. DiBiase distracts and Sid plants a knee in Diesel's back, sending him to the floor. He starts working Diesel's back, scooping him up and ramming him into the post. Sid gets a huge head of steam running all the way across the floor and.....gently nudges Diesel in the head with his foot. When he's supposed to be working the back. Sid's career in a nutshell. Sound and fury signifying nothing. Back in he continues the slow beatdown and puts Diesel in a camel clutch. After a bit Diesel tries to power out but Sid drops on top of him. Huge Sid legdrop for 2. Back to the camel clutch. They do the arm drops. Diesel powers out again, this time dodging Sid's counter and he ass splats on the mat. Sid recovers and hits a choke slam. Sid powerbomb! He plays to the crowd and takes forever to cover. When he finally does Diesel kicks out. Diesel starts no selling buckle shots and dodges a Sid corner charge. Snake eyes. Big boot. Jackknife. Tatanka runs in for the cheap DQ and initiates Heel Beatdown Mode 1B. Bam Bam Bigelow runs in to chase them off and the faces stand tall to close the show. Can you say Hogan Formula Match? They hit practically every single step. There's few things in wrestling more guaranteed to disappoint than a Sid main event. 1/2*

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: An inauspicious start to the new PPV series, but it's 1995 WWF so you can't expect much. Michael Hayes was a breath of fresh air on commentary at least.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+