In Your House 2

Legacy Review

In Your House 2: The Lumberjacks

July 23, 1995 from the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, TN

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler

The Roadie def The 1-2-3 Kid in 7:26- Roadie and Double J put Kid on the shelf a few months back, this is Kid's return revenge match. Kid runs up the aisle and attacks Roadie on his entrance. A good speed run ends in near disaster when Kid tries to roll under a leapfrog and clips Roadie in the leg, sending Roadie face first into the mat. Roadie sells well to cover for it. A Kid headscissors sends Roadie to the floor. Roadie stalls for a while so Kid leaps over plancha-like, but hits Roadie with a kick instead! Nice. Back in Kid hits an avalanche in the corner! He's the size of a wet noodle but they managed to make that look good. On another rope run sequence Roadie catches Kid and powerslams him. Cut to backstage, where Jeff Jarrett is prepping and showing no interest in how Roadie is doing. When we go back to live action Roadie's hitting Kid on the floor with a diving clothesline off the apron. He picks Kid up and crotches him on the post! I believe the technical term for that is a Greco Roman Split Legged Ram. Roadie hits Kid with a reverse backdrop and some rapid fire legdrops. Kid dodges a splash off the top and hits a spinning kick for 2. Dropkick on Roadie in the corner. Kid with a frog splash! Roadie kicks out! Roadie catches Kid and powerbombs him! Kid kicks out! He goes up top again but Roadie shakes the rope to crotch him again. Roadie joins him up top and hits an avalanche piledriver! In the word of Ron Simmons, DAMN! That's spectacular but freaking dangerous, and he almost slipped coming down too. Roadie gets an easy 3 count after that. Quality match. Ol' Road Dogg could really go back then, and while Kid had a bit of ring rust he still hit his high spots. On his way back Roadie goes back to his day job and does the mic check for Jarrett's band setup for later tonight. ***

 

Men on a Mission def Razor Ramon and Savio Vega in 10:09- This is fallout from the King of the Ring final where Mabel beat Vega, who replaced Ramon because of his hurt ribs. Ramon comes out with more padding on his ribs than Roman Reigns' old ring gear, but after intros he tears it off and throws it at Mabel! Guess he's OK then. Ramon and Mo start. Mo shoves, Ramon flicks the toothpick, Mo slaps. Ramon catches Mo and hits the fallaway slam. Mo tries to catch Vega but can't, and it looked like a legit drop. Vega dodges a Mabel avalanche and hits him with a superkick, but then runs into a Mabel slam. Vince says Vega "set a record" by wrestling four times in one night at KOTR. Um, Randy Savage might have something to say about that. Wrestlemania IV AND The Wrestling Classic. Oh, the pre-internet days. Vega takes some corner whips and does a Bret bump. Off the ricochet of that Mabel hits him with a ghetto blaster for 2. More fairly dull face in peril work follows. Vega tries to come back then does the most harebrained thing possible- tries to slam Mabel. It doesn't work. MOM hit a drop toe hold/legdrop combo. Ramon breaks the pin up. Mo goes up top and shockingly pulls off a moonsault. Vega dodges it and gets the hot tag. Ramon back superplexes Mo. He calls for the Razor's Edge but Mabel distracts. After a tag Mabel goes up top but gets slammed off. I criticize Mabel a lot, mostly because he had no business getting anything resembling a main event push, but he always had two or three good spots for a guy his size in him every night. Just don't ask for any more than that. Mabel hits a DDT but misses a big splash. The donnybrook sequence is super short as Vega cactus clotheslines Mo out! After some corner whip reversals Mabel avalanches Ramon, who immediately clutches his ribs. A uranage finishes it. Meh. The end sequence was pretty good. *3/4

Rumors fly that Ted DiBiase has bought off one of Diesel's lumberjacks. They all accuse each other of selling out.

Jeff Jarrett comes out to finally have the debut live performance of his new song "With My Baby Tonight" after weeks of teasing. That's one way to kill 10 minutes of PPV time. I'm not kidding, it's an entire song. Plus promo. The gag here is supposed to be that he's lip syncing and Roadie was the one actually singing (which you can hear if you listen carefully), but none of that comes out until much later.

 

Bam Bam Bigelow def Henry O. Godwinn in 5:33- Godwinn back suplexes out of a headlock. Bigelow no sells it. Bigelow responds with a back suplex of his own. Two of them. A flying tackle sends Godwinn to the floor. Bigelow counters a backdrop with a DDT. Godwinn pulls the top rope down and Bigelow crashes to the floor. He slams Bigelow on the floor. Big Godwinn clothesline for 2. Bigelow ducks a clothesline and hits a crossbody for 2. Godwinn with a slam and elbow drop for 2. Scintillating offense from Godwinn here, I'm telling you. Bigelow hits a clothesline coming out of the corner. He goes up top for a splash but Godwinn dodges. Godwinn goes up to the second rope but Bigelow dodges the kneedrop. Godwinn clutches his knee and Bigelow cradles him for 3. 3/4*

Bob Backlund is in the audience campaigning. I don't think that kid he's poking in the chest is going to be eligible to vote until 2000. That Kurt Cobain shirt is wonderfully mid-'90s though.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels def Jeff Jarrett (c) (w/The Roadie) in 20:01- Jarrett plays a lot to his "hometown" crowd that are still none too pleased with him despite his singing performance earlier. Punch tradeoff that Shawn wins. Jarrett wants a time out. Shawn lounges in the corner in response. Jarrett hits an armdrag and celebrates. A counter sequence ends with a hard Jarrett punch that sends Shawn to the floor. Jarrett mocks him by lounging in the corner himself. After a couple of blocked hiptosses Shawn strings some moves together and clotheslines Jarrett 360 to the floor, almost goes over himself and skins the cat, and mocks Jarrett's strut. Jarrett teases walking out, then changes his mind during the count. He waits until 9 to roll in and right back out a few times. Shawn finally has enough and chases. He tries coming off the top but Jarrett catches him in the gut. Shawn dodges a dropkick and ducks a Roadie punch. He uses Jarrett's momentum to send him flying over the top and onto Roadie! Shawn crossbody off the top to the floor on both guys! Back in Shawn and Jarrett fake each other out on a springboard crossbody and counter. Shawn does a sunset flip instead and dodges Jarrett's counter. On a charge Jarrett backdrops Shawn over the corner and to the floor! Pretty holy shit spot for 1995. Back in Jarrett hits a reverse suplex for 2. Abdominal stretch with Roadie help. After Hebner catches them Jarrett counters a backdrop attempt with a leaping DDT for 2. Shawn dodges, Jarrett runs into Roadie, and Shawn rolls him up for 2. Shawn flip to the floor! Roadie hits him with a diving clothesline off the apron. Shawn just beats the count back in. Jarrett with a crossbody off the top, but Shawn rolls through it for 2. Jarrett gets a crucifix and they do a cradle tradeoff. Huge Jarrett dropkick for 2. Shawn hits the ropes and ducks a couple of Jarrett shots, but Jarrett ends up hooking a sleeper in. Shawn goes down, recovers and back suplexes out. Shawn flying clothesline and kip up! Flying forearm. Double ax handle off the top. Elbow off the top for 2. Jarrett tries to get a boot up in the corner. Shawn slides under him and crotches him with a perfect Greco Roman Split Legged Reverse Ram. He goes up top again. Roadie shakes the rope and Shawn falls down on the top turnbuckle. Jarrett goes up top and hits a superplex! He goes for the figure four. Shawn wraps up a small package for 2. Jarrett kneebreaker. He tries the figure four again. Shawn pushes out and Hebner goes down. Shawn gets up and is clearly punching up the superkick. Roadie runs in and clips his knee. Jarrett does another crossbody off the top, successfully this time. Shawn kicks out! Shawn reverses a whip, and Roadie with his back turned trips Jarrett when he thought it was Shawn! Superkick! Shawn wins! He joins Jarrett and Razor Ramon as the only 3 time winners of the IC title to date. Hell of a match. They got the time and they used it well. Lots of bells and whistles but they only added to the story and fit Jarrett's weasel heel character perfectly. Shawn was clearly ready for a world title run but as usual Vince was slow to pull the trigger on a smaller guy. ****

Diesel and Ramon are front and center in the locker room for Shawn's victory celebration. Meanwhile, Dok Hendrix tells us in a cool, calm, professional manner that Jarrett and Roadie have come to blows backstage. The plan was for them to split up and feud, but it was derailed by both guys leaving the company right after this show and heading back to the USWA. Jarrett would return for a short run in December before going to WCW after the '96 Rumble, while Road Dogg would come back later in '96 and give some lip service to the intended feud by claiming he was the "real Double J" and revealing the lip syncing.

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: "The King of Harts" Owen Hart and Yokozuna (c) (w/Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette) def The Allied Powers in 10:54- I've been hard on him lately so no Yokozuna fat jokes this review. Promise. Old rivals Luger and Yoko start. Vince talks about Luger bodyslamming Yoko in '93. Yeah, he'd probably need a crane to do that now. OK, OK, no more. Seriously. I'll never top the "Thanos could use the Infinity Gauntlet to throw Yokozuna at Iron Man" line anyway. Yoko overpowers Luger. Luger responds with buckle shots. Punches stagger Yoko and he falls down in his corner. Right on Owen's foot! After he's done hobbling around Owen gets hot and gets in Yoko's face. Yoko punches Owen! Cornette jumps in to make peace and they handshake it off. Owen swaps in without a tag in the confusion. He slaps Luger then runs and hides. The faces work Owen's arm. Very nice extended Owen/Bulldog counter sequence. Bulldog backdrops Owen, who seems to be indecisive in midair if he wants to turn and back bump or splat face first. He compromises with a bit of a sideways twist. Nothing to criticize like it's a botch or anything, just amusing. Yoko hits Bulldog on a rope run from the apron to set off the face in peril sequence. After a bit of weardown Yoko locks on the Nerve Pinch of Don't Make Me Go Fast +1. They do the arm drops and Bulldog powers out, but runs into a Yoko clothesline. Owen spinning heel kick for 2. Bulldog sunset flip for 2. Owen enzuguri with a 360 Bulldog sell. Bulldog dodges a dive and Owen goes crotch first into the corner. Tags. Luger cleans house. He press slams Owen into Yoko. Donnybrook! Yoko avalanches an empty corner. The Powers double back suplex him! Luger covers, but Owen comes off the top behind the ref's back and hits Luger in the back of the head. Yoko legdrop, cover, LOL Yokozuna beats Luger again. The Allied Powers seemed destined for a tag title run when they got together but, much like Luger's attempts at the WWF title, this killed any credibility they had. This was Luger's last WWF PPV appearance. His contract expired right after Summerslam and he famously showed up unannounced on the debut episode of Nitro just a week after. Match wasn't as awful as it could have been thanks to Owen and Bulldog. This was a nice warmup for the great singles matches they'd have over the next few years. **

 

Lumberjack Match for the WWF Championship: Diesel (c) def Sycho Sid (w/Ted DiBiase) in 10:06- Sid jumps Diesel as he's getting in. Diesel jumps back. The face lumberjacks throw Sid back in a couple of times. After that Sid slides out on the other side and hides with the heel lumberjacks. It's nice they have clearly defined sides instead of pretending they're supposed to be impartial. Sid tosses Diesel out and the heels go to work on him. The face side comes over and we have the first big brawl. Diesel's rolled in and Sid covers him for 2. Slow Sid offense follows. The heel lumberjacks get some more shots in when Diesel gets on the edge of the ring. Eventually Diesel has enough and goes on offense. Diesel plancha onto the heel lumberjacks! OK, that was something. Snake eyes on Sid. Short clothesline. Mabel grabs Diesel's boot and drags him to the floor. He squashes Diesel against the ring post! Mabel slam and legdrop on Diesel. As he's rolling Diesel back in he even slaps him. After a little more punishment Sid covers for 2. Power bomb. Sid wastes time high fiving the lumberjacks, and when he finally covers Diesel kicks out. He goes for another but Diesel backdrops out. Sid gets out and goes after the face lumberjacks? They didn't do anything but OK then. Shawn gets up top and dives onto the crowd! The Million Dollar Corporation guys try to take Diesel out but all get tossed out for their trouble. Diesel nails Sid with a big boot and covers for an abrupt ending. After the bell Diesel and Mabel have words with each other. Yes, sadly, that's really happening. The lumberjacks turned what would have been another dull match into a decently fun one. The teasing of a face lumberjack being bought off by DiBiase was forgotten about as soon as the opening bell rang. **1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Anything would be an improvement on King of the Ring '95, but by '95 WWF standards this ain't too bad. Nothing really sucked, the main event was better than it should have been, and the IC title match is just on the cusp of the "all time great IC title matches" list.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+