In Your House 12: It's Time

Legacy Review

In Your House 12: It's Time

December 15, 1996 from the West Palm Beach Auditorium in West Palm Beach, FL

 

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

 

Flash Funk def Leif Cassidy in 10:34- Cassidy (the future Al Snow) is flying solo after Marty Janetty left the WWF again after some disagreements over how their team was being booked. In a small irony considering who the champion is, Cassidy is using Sid's old Sid Justice entrance music from '92. Funk has a huge entrance with lots of pyro, the Funkettes, and a ton of dancing. He even gets Vince to dance, leading JR to become grumpy JR. "I'm here to call a damn match, not dance around!". When the entrance is finally done they play to the crowd a lot before hooking up. Funk clean breaks on the lockup and does some more dancing. They go to a mat wrestling sequence with Cassidy proving superior. Armwork escape tradeoff. They crank up the speed and Funk hits an armdrag. Funk leaps over in the corner, tries to springboard to the top but slips off, settles for a springboard crossbody off the second rope and almost goes clear over Cassidy's head. Lots of ugly there. Cassidy blocks a flying headscissors and Funk drops face first to the mat. A Cassidy belly to belly suplex sends Funk over the top rope to the floor! Somersault plancha! Cassidy goes up the ramp and gets a huge head of steam for a running clothesline, Great Muta style. Dropkick to the back of Funk's head back in for 2. Funk shows his flexibility by kicking out of a chinlock. He rolls out of a Cassidy powerbomb. Cassidy catches a leaping Funk and hits him with a sit out powerbomb. He comes off the top with a moonsault but Funk dodges it. A Funk rolling kick sends Cassidy to the floor, followed up by a huge dive from Funk. Moonsault for 2. They have a nice, long sequence of rollup tradeoffs all over the ring for near falls. Funk hits a step up enzuguri. Avalanche. Saito suplex. The 450 splash ends it. Very indyriffic spotfest where they hit their crazy dives and high spots, but it had some real sloppy moments as well and wasn't very cohesive. Funk seemed poised for a big new guy push but would stall out after this. Cassidy continued to mostly be a jobber but to my eyes came off looking much better in this match. **3/4

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Slammy Award Winning Owen Hart and "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith (c) (w/Clarence Mason) def (Fake) Razor Ramon and (Fake) Diesel in 10:45- There's a side story going of Bulldog being distracted and unfocused because that crazy bastard Steve Austin has been after him. Fake Diesel is Mayor Glenn Jacobs, AKA Kane. Fake Ramon is journeyman Rick Bognar, best known as Rick Titan from NWO Japan. The heel JR angle has mostly been scrapped, but he still roots for the imposters because he's the one that brought them in. JR also makes a comment about "none of these guys being 40 or 50 and they have all their real body parts", a dig at the (awful) Hulk Hogan/Roddy Piper Starrcade main event on the other side that same month. Diesel and Owen start cautiously. Diesel tosses Owen into the corner and hits his version of the trademark Nash back elbows. There's some fumbling around as two wrestlers from AAA, Cibernetico and Pierroth, come to ringside. WWF put together a short working alliance with AAA for the upcoming Royal Rumble in San Antonio and they're here to promote that. Don't think too many people in West Palm Beach know who they are though. The champs get distracted and we have a reset with Bulldog and Ramon. The AAA representatives leave without incident. Fake Ramon is a horrible seller. Now Austin is out to a huge reaction! Bulldog jumps out and attacks him! They brawl on the floor until WWF officials drag Austin away. The champs double team Ramon. Owen missile dropkick for 2. Diesel pulls the top rope down and Owen tumbles to the floor. Diesel posts his back and Owen goes in peril. The crowd starts getting behind him despite the champs' heel status because no one wanted anything to do with the imposters. Ramon hits a pumphandle fallaway slam. OK, that's a new one. Diesel hits a big boot to a huge "Diesel sucks" chant. Owen gets trapped in the heel corner. He hits an enzuguri on Diesel and tags. Bulldog runs through the power moves on Ramon. DONNYBROOK! Ramon hooks Bulldog up for the fake Razor's Edge. Owen runs in, gives him a spinning heel kick, and Bulldog cradles Ramon for the pin. After the bell Austin attacks Bulldog again. It was more angle than match to start with, was mostly dull, but that closing run was pretty hot. *3/4

Vince is in the ring and brings out Ahmed Johnson and his fanny pack for an interview. Johnson's recovered from his kidney injury and will return to face Faarooq at the Rumble. Johnson shouts his promo so loud and incoherently it's really hard to understand. The gist is he's pissed. The Nation of Domination interrupt, but are up in the crowd above the stage rather than going to the ring. This crowd isn't nearly big enough to bother with, see. Faarooq runs through his Malcolm X misquotes and calls Johnson an Uncle Tom. Johnson shouts some more back at him and end scene.

Video recap of the HHH/Mero IC title feud. Mero winning the title was all part of HHH's master plan, as he then used Mr. Perfect (straight called Curt Hennig in the package) to take it from Mero then sacked Perfect when he didn't need him anymore (explaining his departure to WCW). They're also starting to call him Triple H. All in all it's the first inklings of what would become the Cerebral Assassin character.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: "Wildman" Marc Mero (w/Sable) def Hunter Hearst Helmsley (c) by countout in 13:12- HHH is now coming out to Ode to Joy from Beethoven's 9th. He's also got the classic black strap back on the belt after it had gone white again during Mero's reign. Some feeling out mat wrestling to start. Mero hits a shoulderblock and goes full defensive end diva after getting a sack on Trips telling him he just tackled him with a lot of finger pointing. They mess up a hiptoss spot and have to do it again. HHH gets clotheslined 360 to the floor. Mero teases a dive then hits a double ax handle off the apron. HHH counters mounted punches by dropping Mero face first into the top turnbuckle. Mero backdrops out of a Pedigree attempt, sending HHH to the floor again. HHH hides behind Sable and gets a cheap shot. He gets a chair but Hebner takes it away. Mero gets a boot up when HHH comes off the second rope with a great Trips sell. Inverted atomic drop and flying clothesline from Mero. Trips flip! Mero with a running kneelift. Flying headscissors for 2. Top rope hurricanrana! He goes up top again but HHH pushes Hebner into the ropes and Mero falls off. Another Pedigree counter and HHH gets slingshot into the post. Mero slowly crawls over and covers but HHH had enough time to kick out. Mero moonsault for 2. Ref bump! HHH gets the belt. Mero cuts him off and hooks in the Gedo clutch but there's no ref. Another Trips flip sends him outside. Mero somersault plancha! Goldust comes to ringside. He and HHH have had some issues lately due to HHH hitting on Marlena. He hits both guys with the belt! Mero just gets in before the 10 count, getting the countout win. After the bell he hits the Wild Thing just because. Pretty solid match, crap ending. **1/2

 

Armageddon Rules Match: The Undertaker def The Executioner (w/Paul Bearer) in 11:32- The Executioner is Terry Gordy in a mask on the last legs of his career. Word is the mask was a joint decision between Gordy and Vince to protect his legacy in case he wasn't able to go like he used to. Spoiler: he wasn't. Armageddon Rules is basically a Texas Death Match, after a pin you have a 10 count to get up or it's over. Taker's robe is off and we're on! All Taker to start. Executioner goes upside down in the corner and into the tree of woe. Taker is moving around quick, all the old zombie Taker gimmick shackles are off. Gordy is moving....less quickly. Some token Executioner offense is cut off. Taker gets clotheslined 360 outside, lands on his feet, and drags Executioner out. A Bearer urn shot is no sold, but it lets Executioner hit Taker from behind. Taker gets bounced around all the available objects ringside. He counters with a short clothesline and pulls the ringside mat up. Mankind dives in! The heels take advantage of the no DQ rule to double team at will. They all brawl up the entrance aisle. Mankind goes through the house set! Taker throws him through the front door back out! Taker and Executioner go behind what's left of the set to brawl a bit, moving the set. It might have supposed to collapse, I'm not sure. It does after this match is over. They get back to the ring with Taker still being double teamed. Security runs in with mace and gang up on Mankind. Taker and Executioner go up the aisle again, to the back, and all the way out of the arena where the cameras lose them for a bit. Security puts Mankind in a straitjacket. There's a quick camera cut outside just to see Executioner roll down and go into the body of water by the arena. Hell of a time for a swim. In December. Taker comes back in and beats up defenseless Mankind a bit. Executioner also comes back in, dripping wet so I guess he really did go in the water outside, it wasn't a pretape. Taker hits a couple more moves, plants him with the tombstone, and it's over with very little drama. The rules were pointless the way the match was worked. Why not just do straight up no DQ? Gordy would cut his losses and leave WWF soon after this. Getting Foley in to do his usual crazed bumping saved this match from being in DUD or even the dreaded MINUS FIVE STARS territory. 3/4*

We get a very Angry Bret Hart promo with some words for Sid, but he's mainly sick of Shawn Michaels. Shawn's music hitting for Shawn to join commentary really sets him off. It's definitely a preview for '97 heel Bret. As of right now the plan was for Bret to get his win back from Shawn at Wrestlemania 13 for the title. That would change in a couple of months when Shawn misplaced a certain facial expression.

 

WWF Championship: Sycho Sid (c) def Bret "Hitman" Hart in 17:04- During Sid's entrance Shawn calls him "the WWF's most expensive piece of luggage" because everyone has to carry him. Wow. He veers between straight match analysis and little shooty gems like that the whole match. I'm no expert, but his eyes certainly look like he was partaking in some recreational drugs before going out there too. Angry Bret jumps Sid from behind as he's taking the belt off. Bret takes a hard buckle shot and Sid clothesline. Running kick. Bret stays aggressive and borderline heel with punches and eye rakes. Sid dumps Bret outside and pulls the floor mat up. Bret runs Sid's back into the post. Back in the ring he goes to work on the back with laser focus for the next few minutes. Bret also continues to heel it up, taking the top turnbuckle pad off. He goes to run Sid into it but Sid blocks it. While he is Bret gives him more shots to the back and does some more back work. He tries going up top but Sid slams him off. Big boot. Powerslam for 2. Bret dodges a legdrop and tries to hook in the Sharpshooter. Sid fights it off, sending Bret to the floor again. Austin comes back out and clips Bret's knee! Bulldog and Owen come out again, not to save Bret because they're on opposite sides still, but to resume the fight with Austin. They all leave. Bret gets back in and walks the knee off. Sid lets him because he has no idea what happened. They badly mess up a spot where Bret was supposed to get run into the exposed buckle so they break all the normal rules and do the exact same spot over again. It's very obvious. Sid choke slam. Bret kicks out! Bret dodges and hits Sid with a Cactus clothesline! Bret takes Shawn's chair, which Shawn lets him do. Sid hits Bret from behind while he does. Sid pushes Shawn! That's enough for Shawn. He drops his headset and gets on the apron. Sid reverses a whip and Bret is run into Shawn! Powerbomb! That gets the win for Sid. Afterward Bret attacks Shawn on the floor. Well, that was certainly a busy match. Taken as a stand alone match it wasn't much, but there's a lot of interesting character and story things going on here to close out the year, none of which involve the current champion. **1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- As became pretty typical for WWF, it's a wheel spinning December PPV biding time until the Royal Rumble with nothing special happening outside all the character angles being set up. As 1996 comes to a close the doldrums of mid-'90s WWF are firmly in the rear view mirror, and although it wouldn't show in the ratings or on the balance sheets until well into 1998, all the pieces were in place for a full on creative renaissance in 1997 that would kick off the Attitude Era in full force and be, in my opinion, one of the greatest years in the promotion's history.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-