I've had a nice break away from my continuous journey through the wildlands of WWE pay-per-views, but after a month and half off, I'm eager to return today, where I begin to clean up all the shows I've skipped between 1995 and 2004. I have 30 different pay-per-views to cover before I catch back up to Judgment Day 2004, and the list mostly consists of In Your House shows, of which I've covered almost none. The concept was borne out of Vince McMahon's desire to keep pace with WCW, who had increased their pay-per-view schedule, who had increased to 8 per year in 1993, while the WWF were still only running their Big 5. Vince had experimented with adding more pay-per-views in the past (most notably This Tuesday in Texas), but the In Your House idea was the one that stuck. The name carried with it a special gimmick, as Vince decided that the only way anyone would tune in is if his company gave away a free house. Beyond the financial repercussions for the lucky winner of said property, it seemed like a half-baked idea on paper. Even if you do convince viewers to tune in to find out whether or not they had won the contest, that doesn't do anything for the long-term stability of the product. After all, anyone watching for the house giveaway doesn't care about WWF Champion Diesel, or Bret Hart's continued clash with Jerry "The King" Lawler. They're only interested in the house, and the WWF wouldn't have enough capital to keep giving away luxurious homes for much longer. This idea falls in the same wheelhouse as Vince's "Million Dollar Mania" in 2008, when he tried to increase Raw's viewership by giving away sums of his own cash. I do understand why Vince was desperate; WrestleMania 11 was a colossal flop, and there was no evidence that anyone on the roster was going to be able to turn around the WWF's slide. But it really says something about Vince McMahon was faced with a hurdle, he would rather turn to a cheap promotional trick, as opposed to completely re-vamping his product, which was badly in need of a fresh coat of paint, much like that house.
- In Your House 1 comes to you from the Onondaga County War Memorial (now the Upstate Medical University Arena) in Syracuse, New York, the home of many different hockey teams in the area, and also the site of one of the most infamous title changes in wrestling history, the episode of WCW Thunder where David Arquette won the WCW World Championship. Vince McMahon and Dok Hendrix (Michael Hayes) are on the call. I've expressed frustration about Hendrix/Hayes as a color commentator in the past, but he was inoffensive on this show, a bland heel with a dialed-back presence.
- Our opening contest is between Bret Hart and Hakushi (Jinsei Shinzaki), the first of two Bret matches on the night, a special treat for the start of this new series of pay-per-views. Hakushi has aligned with Jerry Lawler, who Bret is scheduled to face at some point later on, and is primarily here to be cannon fodder, putting together a competitive, entertaining match, but with an obvious result, as there was no way the show was opening with a Bret loss. The two work well enough together, but outside of Hakushi's impressive moonsault to the outside, there wasn't anything incredibly memorable to take away from this contest. Bret is generally at his best when he tells a focused story in the ring, and there wasn't much of a story to this, just a lot of Hakushi gaining the upper hand thanks to chicanery from his manager, Shinja (Akio Sato). I did love Hakushi doing a backflip after a Bret clothesline, and Bret brought back a cool spot from his battle against Mr. Perfect at King of the Ring 1993, where both men stay locked up during a suplex attempt and topple over the top rope to the floor. The finish was classic Bret, as he counters an attempted German suplex, scoring a victory roll to start his night off right. Bret appears to injure his knee exiting the ring, which gets Jerry foaming at the mouth to start their match immediately, but he bails when Todd Pettengill informs him that Bret is on his way backstage. We'll re-visit this later in the night.
- Razor Ramon has been tied up in a feud with Jeff Jarrett for a number of months now, beginning at the Royal Rumble, and now, four months later, they're still going at it. Ramon has bravely taken on the challenge of fighting both Jarrett and his lackey The Roadie (Road Dogg) in a handicap match, which is your standard "face fighting against the numbers game" type of fare. Roadie, in his first televised WWF match, fails to impress, with a limited moveset that almost entirely consists of punches, none of which look convincing. His only attempt at something exciting was a diving knee drop, which barely connects with Razor. Jarrett has to work most of the match for his team, and the exchanges between he and Ramon remain crisp, Jarrett's counter of a Razor's Edge with a backdrop to the floor looked good, and Jeff sold a discus punch by Razor brilliantly. Ramon bulldozes through the two heels, taking out Roadie with his reliably great avalanche back suplex, before countering the Figure Four, pushing Jarrett into Roadie, and finishing Jarrett off with the Razor's Edge. A massive fracas after the match leads to the debut of Savio Vega, emerging from the crowd to fight off Jarrett and Roadie. Vega, a kayfabe childhood friend of Ramon, was quickly positioned as a midcard face to watch over the next few years.
- Mabel is right on the cusp of his unfortunate push into the main event scene, and proves his dominance with a dominant win over Adam Bomb in just under two minutes. Bomb got a chance to show off his athleticism in this short match, diving off the apron and top rope, before his leaping crossbody gets caught into a front slam from Mabel to end it.
- The Smoking Gunns lost the WWF tag titles to Owen Hart and Yokozuna at WrestleMania, with Yoko emerging as a surprise partner of Owen, and that advantageous win from the heels put a rematch on the cards, with the Gunns now getting the chance to know their opponents heading in. While the 'Mania match was more of a showcase for what Owen and Yoko would bring as a team, this was allowed to be far more competitive, and it ended up being one of the highlights of the night. The pace is kept high all match, as Billy Gunn shows off his athletic prowess with a couple dropkicks, including one that adds impact onto a suplex from Bart Gunn, and Billy adds in a big leap into a sunset flip on Owen. Owen's neckbreaker on Billy was crunching, and Yoko, kept fresh by standing on the apron, pops the crowd by clattering off the ringpost on a missed splash. Billy's leap to deliver a tandem elevated neckbreaker with Bart got another pop, as did his right hand to Jim Cornette on the apron. The ferocious build towards the finish ends with Yoko nailing Bart with a big legdrop on the floor, allowing Owen to pick the bones and retain the gold. Everything about Owen and Yokozuna as a team works, as both have a significant amount of heat from the crowd, and their styles mesh well. This was far better than it had any right to be.
- Throughout the past hour, Jerry Lawler has been pushing to move up his match with Bret Hart, confronting WWF President Jack Tunney and attempting to enter the ring when the Smoking Gunns were getting ready to compete. It's all based on the belief that Bret is entering with a bum wheel, but right before Hart makes his way to the ring, he reveals that it was all a ruse, meant to lure Lawler into a false sense of security. Jerry gets beat all over the ring for most of this match, and he does a good job selling the intimidation of facing this fiery babyface. For whatever reason, there's an angle going on where Lawler has his "mother" stationed at ringside, as this pay-per-view does take place on Mother's Day, and Bret had dedicated the match to his mother, Helen. Jerry's "mother" is an attractive brunette that is clearly many years younger than him, and I'm really not sure what the gag is here, but she doesn't factor into the match at all. Both men trade piledrivers, which was fun, before Hakushi returns for revenge, delivering multiple diving headbutts to Bret, who is held down by Lawler, which allows Jerry to score the cheap win. This feud has lost whatever spark it had when they first started beefing in '93, and would steadily continue to sink in the months to come.
- Main event time, as top babyface and WWF Champion Diesel defends against (Sycho) Sid, in a battle of immobile big men who like to deliver powerbombs. Sid has been presented well as a psychotic monster, dismantling Shawn Michaels on the Raw after WrestleMania 11, and going on a streak of violence, cheap-shotting faces and sending everyone to their doom with vicious powerbombs. In theory, seeing these two clash could be an entertaining main event, but neither put their best foot forward in an absolute snoozefest to close out the night. Sid spends the bulking slowly clubbing away at Diesel's back, before working the Camel Clutch for what felt like an Ice Age. Sid delivers a terrible chokeslam, with Diesel getting very little air off the mat, and elects to showboat after planting the champion with a powerbomb, which Ted DiBiase, who has invested heavily in Sid as the future of the Million Dollar Corporation, seems like he should have taken offence to, this is actively hurting their chances of bringing the top gold home. That respite allows Diesel to recover and kick out, plus nail his Jackknife Powerbomb, but Tatanka runs in for the lamest of DQ finishes. Bam Bam Bigelow, who left DiBiase's side after being ridiculed for losing to Lawrence Taylor, makes the save for Diesel, setting up a tag match. This felt like it had a lot of potential, Sid is a cool character and the crowd was into him, but boy did they fail to deliver anything even remotely passable.
- Closing out the night is a bizarre vignette, where two blue aliens decide not to wipe out humanity, apparently because the WWF is just that damn good. It finishes with the tagline that the WWF is "saving the world", and my goodness, Vince's ego knows no bounds.
4/10
1995 Average: 3.67 (Up from 3.6)
Most of the night was fine without being spectacular, from the solid opener between Bret and Hakushi, through to his match with Lawler and the entertaining tag title clash. But what really drags this show down was the main event, and the house giveaway, which slows the action to a crawl every time they promote, and offers no entertainment value, especially in hindsight. There's nothing that comes highly recommended here, but it was an easy enough watch.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: I've already covered King of the Ring 1995, so I move ahead to the second In Your House, which features another Diesel/Sid match, this time involving lumberjacks, and a classic Intercontinental Championship bout between Jeff Jarrett and Shawn Michaels. See you soon.
- Henry
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