In Your House 5

Legacy Review

In Your House 5: Season's Beatings

December 17, 1995 from the Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, PA

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler

Hart family drama is back! Amusingly, Season's Beatings was also the subtitle for Clash of the Champions IV in 1988. I'm assuming no one told Vince that.

WWF Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon and Marty Janetty def The 1-2-3 Kid and Sycho Sid (w/Ted DiBiase) in 12:22- I guess doing a straight up Kid/Ramon grudge match made too much sense. Goldust is in the crowd watching. Janetty and Kid start. Kid jumps out quick. Janetty hits an enzuguri. After a speed run Kid flips out of a hiptoss but eats a Janetty clothesline. Hebner's been doing his super duper ultra quick count early. I hated that during this period. Kid keeps fighting away from the face corner to get away from Ramon. Janetty atomic drops Kid and tags Ramon in with his back turned. Kid tries to run away. Ramon gives him the toothpick flick and a slap. Kid gets a blind tag and Ramon runs into a Sid clothesline. Once Ramon gets worn down a bit Kid comes back in. Kid chops in the corner piss Ramon off but Sid quickly beats him down again. Ramon/Sid double clothesline. Tags. Janetty powerslam for 2. He kills time with a chinlock while Todd Pettingill interviews Goldust. Goldie sounds a little too admiring of Ramon in a very personal and detailed way and asks Pettingill to deliver a gold envelope to him. Kid hits a spinning heel kick. Janetty tries coming off the top but Sid catches and powerslams him, then he runs into a Sid big boot. After a bit more face in peril work Janetty dodges and Kid crashes into the corner. Hot tag. Kid is whipped into Sid and takes a fallaway slam. Sid backdrops out of a Razor's Edge attempt and Ramon dodges the follow up legdrop. Ramon hits the bulldog off the top rope and that's enough to pin Sid. After the bell Sid saves Kid from taking the Razor's Edge. That was a wrestling match that happened. *3/4

We get an uber Lillian Botch from the not Howard Finkel ring announcer. First he says the following contest is "skeddled" for one fall, then introduces Buddy Landel, who no one knew was going to be here tonight. Lawler's music hits and he comes in for the interview segment he was supposed to do, introducing the returning Jeff Jarrett after about five months away. Lawler presents Jarrett with a gold record for "Ain't I Great?". Jarrett says a new tour and album are coming, and he's also the first wrestler to declare for the 1996 Royal Rumble. Afterward he joins commentary. Then Dean Douglas, Ahmed Johnson's scheduled opponent, comes out. He says due to a back injury the doctors won't let him wrestle and Landel (in the one and only WWF PPV appearance of his long career) is his replacement. Douglas' back injury would be the final catalyst for his WWF departure and return to ECW.

 

Ahmed Johnson def "Nature Boy" Buddy Landel (w/Dean Douglas) in :45- Douglas distracts Johnson by slapping him. Landel hits him from behind with kicks and chops, all no sold. Johnson lifts Landel up in the corner by the throat. Spinebuster, Pearl River Plunge, good night. NR

After the match Lawler calls Johnson down for an interview. He and Jarrett run him down, then Jarrett hits him in the head with his gold record, which doesn't break. After a couple of chairshots to the head Johnson hulks up and chases Jarrett off. Time killing. We go to the back and Pettingill delivers the gold envelope to Ramon. He reads the note, crumples it up and storms off.

 

Arkansas Hog Pen Match: Hunter Hearst Helmsley def Henry Godwinn in 8:58- Hillbilly Jim is the special guest ref. The rules are the only way to win is to dump your opponent into the hog pen. Godwin chases HHH with a slop bucket but some poor ringside attendant gets it instead. I didn't catch the face but research says it's a young Tony Chimel. HHH gets tied in the ropes and Godwinn gives him a face full of slop. That enrages HHH and he beats Godwinn down in the corner. Swinging neckbreaker. Harley Race high knee. They go outside and HHH is run into the stairs (with a poor camera angle that shows his head was nowhere close to hitting). They work toward the pen. Godwinn gets whipped into the gate. HHH hooks up the Pedigree. Godwinn tries to backdrop him into the pen but HHH lands on top of the fence. He hits an elbow drop off the top of the fence. Back to the ring. Why? Lawler runs through a whole bunch of Jeff Foxworthy lines and ruins pretty much all of them. Godwinn hits a wheelbarrow slam. Trips flip in the corner. Slugfest as they work back to the pen again. HHH blocks the slop drop but gets whipped into the gate. Slop drop! HHH's back is busted open, likely from the gate. Godwinn charges and HHH backdrops him into the pen to win! After the bell Godwinn dumps HHH in with the pigs to get his heat back while HHH sells it like crazy. Vince McMahon humor, but all in all not the worst gimmick match. **

Vince promises "people you would never expect" at the Rumble. We'll keep an eye on that. Recap of Diesel's tweener turn. This is also during the tremendously done angle where Owen Hart hit Shawn Michaels with an enzuguri on Raw, then a couple of minutes later Shawn collapsed in the middle of the ring and medics spent a long time working on him. It all looked like a legit scary injury but was 100% worked. Diesel challenged Owen to a match tonight to get revenge for his best friend, who commentary still says it's up in the air whether he'll ever wrestle again.

 

"The King of Harts" Owen Hart (w/Jim Cornette) def Diesel by DQ in 4:34- Owen is cautious. Diesel says eff your caution, shoves him into the corner by the throat and hits the Nash corner elbows. Side suplex. The pyro smoke is awful after Diesel's big pyro. Owen tries mounted punches. Diesel shoves him off. Owen flies across the ring and lands on the back of his head. A clothesline sends Owen 360 and out. Diesel follows and throws him right back in. Owen ducks a boot and hits a spinning heel kick. He starts working the same leg Bret did at Survivor Series. Enzuguri! Diesel kicks out! They didn't play that as well as they could have after the Shawn angle. Owen starts hooking in a figure four. Diesel pushes out with his good leg and Owen goes all the way into the post shoulder first. Snake eyes. Big boot. Jackknife! Diesel shouted "For Shawn!" as he hit it. He covers Owen with one foot.....then lifts up at 2! He cinches up another jackknife. Ref Tim White tries to stop him because Owen is defenseless and Diesel shoves him away. The bell rings as Diesel is DQ'd. Second jackknife! Diesel leaves Owen laying. Good match for the short time with great character work for this new version of Diesel. **1/4

Pointless should be on Raw time killing talking segment with Ted DiBiase, Savio Vega and Santa Claus....until DiBiase's money CAUSES SANTA TO TURN HEEL! DIBIASE BOUGHT SANTA! Wonder if he got the Ice Cream Bunny too. I'd give him back. While attacking Vega Santa's hat and beard come off and we can see it's future ECW star Balls Mahoney.

 

Casket Match: The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) def King Mabel (w/Sir Mo) in 6:11- Jeff Hardy is one of Mabel's throne carriers. Taker is still Facemask Taker. Mo has the remains of Taker's urn that were melted down into a necklace like three feuds ago. Back and forth punchy/kicky/chokey start. Mabel hits a rock bottom. Zombie situp. Clothesline. Zombie situp. After a slam Taker dodges a splash off the second rope. Mo distracts and Mabel hits a belly to belly suplex. Legdrop. Taker tries to sit up but can't. Big splash. Mo drags Taker out and carries him into the casket (one more appearance for the old XXXXXL Yokozuna casket). He drops Taker in, but walks away without closing the lid. He and Mabel celebrate. Idiots. When Mabel finally gets around to going for the lid Taker blocks it. A Taker diving clothesline takes Mabel down. Choke slam! A running knee in the back sends Mabel into the casket. Mo distracts again and gets choke slammed too. Taker rolls him into the casket, retrieves the urn necklace, and closes the lid on both to win. Unlike previous casket matches they kept it short, plotted it tight, and it was so much better as a result. Not good, but much better than it could have been. *

That last match was a very definitive end to a long and, match quality wise, often painful to watch chapter of Undertaker's career, years spent having to work with one immobile giant slug after another. Look at the list of guys he'd had major matches with the last few years: Kamala, Giant Gonzales, Yokozuna, King Kong Bundy, Kama, Mabel. Not a lot you can do with that. He'd open up '96 feuding with Bret Hart and Diesel before changing the course of not one but two careers with his legendary feud with Mick Foley's Mankind.

 

WWF Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart (c) def "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith (w/Diana Smith and Jim Cornette) in 21:09- Bulldog is supposed to have the big advantage here because he beat Bret at Summerslam '92 in Wembley Stadium. Unlike last time Diana Smith is firmly in Bulldog's corner. Bulldog has the obvious power advantage in the lockups. Bret wrestles him down to the mat. They trade some arm work. Bret crossbody for 2. Bulldog's kickout sends him to the floor. Bret slides under Bulldog's legs coming back in and hits an inverted atomic drop. Bulldog knee to Bret's gut. He ties Bret in the tree of woe and stomps away. He accidentally legit hits Hebner. Bulldog spends the next few minutes working chinlocks as the intensity is slowly ratcheted up. Bret tries a crucifix but Bulldog slams him down. Vince gets a note saying the Undertaker will face the winner of this match at the Rumble. Cornette gets a racket shot in and plays super casual after. Bret bump! Bulldog covers and Bret gets a foot on the rope. He pulls Bret's hair to keep him in a headlock. After a speed run Bret gets a monkey flip. Bulldog on Bulldog for 2. Bulldog goes for a backdrop but Bret turns it into a piledriver for 2! Bret sets up a superplex. Bulldog lifts Bret up and drops him down on the top rope! Bret falls to the floor. Stair shot. Bulldog posts Bret's back, and when Bret falls we can see there's huge pools of blood on the floor. He bladed like a son of a bitch after that stair shot. I mean he's gushing. The ECW fans that drove over from Philly get excited and do a small "He's hardcore!" chant. Bulldog piledriver for 2. Vintage Bulldog delayed suplex. Vince says to keep the cameras wide because of the blood. Chicken. Press slam for 2. Headbutt off the top rope to Bret's back, hi Dynamite Kid. Bret kicks out again! Bulldog hooks up a bow and arrow. Bret twists out and starts hooking in the Sharpshooter! Bulldog powers out before it's locked in. Midring collision and Bret slides all the way to the guardrail. There's blood everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. All the white on Bulldog's tights is red now. He tries to suplex Bret off the apron. Bret slips out and hits a bridged German suplex for 2! Double clothesline. Bret backdrops Bulldog to the floor! Plancha! He tries to jump off the ropes but Bulldog catches him and powerslams him on the floor! Bulldog pulls some of the pads up and sets Bret up for a suplex. Bret blocks it and drops Bulldog crotch first on the guardrail! Back in Bret hits a backbreaker for 2. He whips Bulldog into the corner and Bulldog flips over upside down into the buckles. He landed pretty rough on that one. Bret sets him up on the top rope again. Superplex! Bret's slow to cover and Bulldog kicks out! Bret argues with Hebner and Bulldog rolls him up, but Bret rolls through it for a 2 count. They do....something. Bret swung a punch but Bulldog sold it like it was supposed to be some kind of throw. Not sure what that was supposed to be. Bret hits European uppercuts in the corner. Bulldog reverses a corner whip but Bret gets a boot up. He cradles Bulldog. Bulldog kicks out just a hair too late and it's a 3 count! Phenomenal match, in lots of ways even better than Wembley Stadium. It lacked that match's special atmosphere, of course. The blood added a lot, yet another thing Bret was at the forefront of as Vince would soon get more comfortable with it for the Attitude Era. The last minute or so was a bit rough, and when you're dealing with ratings this high that's enough to bump it down just a small peg. ****1/2

 

Pettingill is in the back with Taker. Diesel interrupts, furious that he should be number one contender. He and Taker face off while dollar signs roll through Vince's eyes.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: The slow recovery continues. Most of the show is nothing special, but none of it is super horrible and the main event is must watch. 1996 would turn out to be a solid foundational year as most of the main pieces were put in place for the legendary run that was the Attitude Era.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+