In Your House 4

Legacy Review

In Your House 4: Great White North

October 22, 1995 from the Winnipeg Arena in Winnipeg, Manitoba

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross

 

After a little Canadian national anthem the show opens with interim WWF president Gorilla Monsoon announcing that due to a severe concussion, Shawn Michaels is not medically cleared to wrestle tonight. This stemmed from an incident in Syracuse, NY a few days prior when Shawn mouthed off to, depending on the storyteller, a Marine or group of Marines and got taught a lesson physically. Shawn will hand the belt over inside the ring to Monsoon, who will then give it to Shawn's original opponent Dean Douglas. After that, Douglas will defend the title against Razor Ramon.

 

Hunter Hearst Helmsley def Fatu in 8:06- I had honestly completely forgotten about this "make a difference" hip hop motivational speaker gimmick for Fatu. They were recycling the old "heel sprays face with cologne/perfume" angle for this one, done previously with Adrian Adonis and Rick Martel. When HHH gets in he tries to spray Fatu again. Fatu grabs the bottle, throws it away, and gives HHH a big backdrop while he still has his riding jacket on. Trips flip in the corner! While he's on the floor he finally gets his jacket off. Classic HHH sell of a stair shot. Buckle shots on Fatu, as always, go nowhere. HHH uses Fatu's momentum and he gets twisted up and hung by the neck in the ropes. HHH piledriver. Swinging neckbreaker for 2. Long HHH chinlock. Huge HHH clothesline with a 360 Fatu sell. Fatu gets a desperation roll up for 2 and backdrops out of a Pedigree attempt. HHH DDT that Fatu no sells. He hits a superkick and goes into full comeback mode. Headbutt off the second rope for 2. Running cutter from Fatu! That should be a finisher. He goes up top and HHH dodges the headbutt. Pedigree and good night. And a pop from the crowd for the win. Welcome to bizzarro world, AKA Canada. After the match Henry Godwinn tries to slop HHH during a postmatch interview with Lawler. He hides behind Lawler and runs away. *3/4

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Smoking Gunns (c) def Razor Ramon and The 1-2-3 Kid in 12:46- Ramon and Kid are in matching colors, showing they are absolutely completely 100% on the same page after their recent issues. Both teams are faces but the crowd is about 90/10 for Ramon and Kid. Mostly Ramon. Ramon and Kid offer handshakes then pull back with some Slick Ric. Kid and Billy start. After some feeling out and a speed run Billy gets a hiptoss. Ramon and Bart do some back and forth, but I'm too distracted by some late arriving guy arguing with everyone in the front row about if they're in the right seats or not. Thankfully everyone gets where they're supposed to be. Kid pulls the top rope down on Bart and he tumbles to the floor. Bart goes cowboy in peril for a bit. Kid gets rapid fire kicks in the corner and a spinning heel kick. Ramon fallaway slam on Bart, then he fallaway slams Kid into Bart! Nice. Bart counters a Ramon backdrop. Midring collision. Tags. Billy cleans house. Slam and huge elbow drop on Kid for 2. Bart gives Kid a triple backbreaker and now he's in peril. The Gunns hit a nice suplex/dropkick double team. Kid dodges in the corner and Billy flies face first into the post. Behind the ref's back Bart pulls Billy onto Kid. Then when the ref's on the other side Ramon turns them over so Kid's covering! Billy just kicks out! The crowd thought that was 3. Kid tag. Ramon punches everyone. Razor's Edge on Billy! But no cover, because Kid wants in to do it himself. Ramon tags him in. Kid covers....and Billy crucifixes him and rolls him over for 3! Kid is furious with himself. He dropkicks Bart in the back! Kid takes the tag belts. Ramon comes back in, takes the belts from Kid, and gives them back to the Gunns. The slow burn heel turn for Kid continues. Good angle work and a good match to boot. ***1/4

 

Goldust def Marty Janetty in 11:15- This is Goldust's big debut after weeks of video promos. Dustin Rhodes was still getting comfortable with the character but it was obvious from the off that after a truckload of failed gimmicks over the past couple of years they had finally hit on something special here. Janetty was also just returning to the WWF. As soon as he pulls his wig off Goldust tries to jump but Janetty was ready for him. A clothesline sends Goldust 360 and out, then he 360 sells a Janetty clothesline on the floor. Goldust stalls getting back in. When he does we get a midring staredown. Standing switch and roll up by Goldust for 2. Janetty slips out of a slam and hits a flying headscissors. They trade leapfrog counters and it's Janetty's turn to 360 sell a clothesline. Slow Goldust offense follows for a bit. Janetty gets thrown to the floor. Janetty snap mares Goldust from the apron over the top rope and to the floor! Goldust whips Janetty and he leaps up and sells the hell out of a post shot. Suplex back in. Janetty flips over a Goldust backdrop attempt and pulls Goldust down, but Goldust didn't look like he was expecting that. Not sure what happened there. Another dodge and Janetty flies over the corner. Goldust DDT for 2. Janetty hits a fameasser. He goes up top, anticipates a dodge and lands on his feet, and elbows Goldust in the back for 2. Janetty goes up top again. This time Goldust gets a boot up. Goldust hits a front suplex and gets the pin. Way too long for what they were doing, but Janetty had his selling boots on. A quick squash would have been a better debut for Goldust, but it was still a good first step on getting the character over. Goldust would turn out to be one of the key players that transitioned WWF from the New Generation era to the Attitude Era. *1/4

We get footage from a recent Raw where Yokozuna and Mabel attacked the Undertaker and "crushed his face" despite none of the hits apparently going anywhere near his face. This is where faceguard Taker came from. As punishment Monsoon made a match between Yoko and Mabel tonight.

 

King Mabel (w/Sir Mo) and Yokozuna (w/Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji) double countout in 5:12-

Vince just couldn't resist. Obviously both guys are heels. I know this will shock you, but they aren't exactly in a hurry to get going. Midring slaps turn into a slugfest. A Yoko clothesline sends Mabel to the floor. More stalling. There's a whip reversal that looks like it's being done underwater it's so slow. Mabel hits a diving clothesline and knocks Yoko to the floor. Mabel avalanche. He goes for another one. Yoko comes out of the corner with a clothesline to a decent sized pop. Mabel dodges a legdrop. Yoko dodges an elbow drop. Mabel bulldogs Yoko and Yoko does absolutely NOTHING. I mean just stood there hunched over sucking in oxygen from half of Manitoba. Then he tumbles down to the floor again for no reason. Good lord. While they're on the floor Mabel gets posted, and Yoko's had enough so he falls on top of Cornette. Both guys get counted out. After the match they stare down again but eventually hug it out. As awful as you'd expect. DUD

Next up is an ad for Survivor Series. Undertaker's return vs Mabel and Bret Hart challenging for the WWF title are already booked. JR and Vince also tease traditional Survivor Series matches with a twist: teams that will consist of faces and heels on the same side. Almost a Lethal Lottery. After that, Monsoon is in the ring for the IC title forfeiture. Douglas comes out first, then Shawn. Shawn takes forever but finally hands the belt over without a word. Douglas snatches it out of his hands before Monsoon can take it. Word came out after that Shawn really wasn't hurt that badly, he just used the bar fight as an excuse because he didn't want to drop the title to Douglas, as was the plan. Almost as if he'd lost his smile.... And if that wasn't proof enough the Kliq was running things behind the scenes, wait until this next match.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Razor Ramon def Dean Douglas (c) in 11:01- Once again Ramon charges and we're right into it with an all Ramon start. Lots and lots of arm work from Ramon the first half of the match. Douglas punches out of a corner break and finally gets a little offense. Ramon says "screw that", catches a running Douglas and gives him the fallaway slam. A clothesline sends Douglas over and to the floor. Ramon suplexes him back in. They go back outside. Ramon grabs a water bottle and pours it on Douglas. Douglas backdrops out of the Razor's Edge. He comes off the top rope but Ramon catches and chokeslams him. Douglas back elbows out of the back superplex. He stays on the top rope and hits a crossbody. Ramon rolls through it for 2. Ramon hits a back suplex and they pretty obviously position themselves on the edge of the ring. Ramon drapes an arm over Douglas and the ref counts 3 despite the fact Douglas' leg is completely out of the ring. Ramon becomes the first ever four time IC champ, and Douglas the shortest ever. There were zero fucks given from either side in this match. This political screwjob was the first of the dominoes to fall leading to Douglas' acrimonious departure from the company in early '96 and return to ECW. *

Bret Hart joins commentary for the next match as, mentioned previously, he'll be facing the winner at Survivor Series. Thankfully he runs Lawler off.

 

WWF Championship: "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith (w/Jim Cornette) def Diesel (c) by DQ in 18:14- Diesel wins the initial lockups and Bulldog runs into an elbow. Diesel catches and slams Bulldog. Bulldog rolls out to regroup. He tries to pull Diesel down in the corner, but Diesel pulls with his legs and posts Bulldog. Back in, Diesel hits corner clotheslines and vintage Nash corner elbows. After a roll up block Bulldog dropkicks Diesel to the floor. Bret stops Diesel from running into the commentary table. Diesel thanks him by pushing his face. As they jaw Bulldog comes in and clips Diesel's knee. After that the majority of the match is Bulldog working Diesel's "leg area" (specifying the knee is too generous) in a very bland and uninteresting way. There's a hilarious bit where Cornette drops an elbow on Diesel's leg when he's laying on the floor. Diesel tries to come back by blocking a suplex and hitting his own, then hitting a back suplex, but Bulldog gets back on the leg. Bulldog puts the Sharpshooter on. Bret: "He should learn how to put it on right". Still better than the Rock's. Diesel powers out. Bulldog cinches up the powerslam. Diesel pushes Bulldog into the ropes and hits a big boot. Cornette gets flipped in and Bulldog accidentally takes him out. They go to the floor again and Diesel gets posted. Bulldog swings at Bret. Bret has enough, charges into the ring and pummels Bulldog. That gives Bulldog the win by DQ. What a shit finish. After the match Bret and Diesel get in each other's face and go into epic brawl mode. The usual gaggle of officials and eventually a good chunk of the face locker room come out to break them up but they're still going at it as the show ends. After the show went off the air Vince reportedly dropped his headset berated them from the commentary table for how awful the match was. Nash said years after that was the first sign to him that his time in WWF was coming to an end. *1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Yet another horrible '95 WWF show in a whole ocean of them. The tag title match is fine but not worth the time to dig up. The main reason to watch this show would be if you were taking a graduate course in Kliq Politics.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+