While the entire WWF product was struggling mightily in 1995, no spot on the card suffered more than the main event. WrestleMania 11 ended with Lawrence Taylor, blow-in football player, fighting midcard goon Bam Bam Bigelow. King of the Ring, a terrible overall show, finished the night with a snoozer of a tag match between Diesel, Bam Bam, Sid, and Tatanka, that did nothing for anyone involved. SummerSlam got the shortest end of the stick, as Diesel attempted to get a remotely passable show closer out of King effing Mabel, and failed miserably. The In Your House shows were doing slightly better; Diesel versus Sid wasn't the most workrate-focused partnership in the world, but their Lumberjack match in July was fun, and In Your House 3 had a doozy planned. Possibly as a response to the recent launch of WCW Nitro, Vince had put together the most consequential match he could book with his current roster. It would be Owen Hart and Yokozuna (the tag team champions) against Diesel and Shawn Michaels (the WWF and Intercontinental champions, respectively), with all the gold on the line. Coming out of the doldrums of SummerSlam (my review here), the WWF looked to charge headlong into Fall with one heck of a happening on the cards.
- In Your House 3 comes to you from the Saginaw Civic Center (now Dow Event Center) in Saginaw, Michigan, the home of several hockey teams and an annual convention of the Jehovah's Witnesses, so that's some serious range. Vince McMahon, Jerry "The King" Lawler, and Jim Ross are on the call, a trio that would call a number of shows over the next couple years, and began the long-running Lawler/Ross partnership.
- Our opening contest features the intriguing Waylon Mercy (Dan Spivey, a former tag partner of Sid and The Undertaker under the "Skyscrapers" name) taking on Savio Vega. Mercy's persona has remained relevant up into the modern era of the WWE, largely thanks to being the inspiration for the Bray Wyatt character, and it certainly had a lot of potential. Mercy mimes at being a classic southern gentleman, soft-spoken and respectful, but at the same time, you can see his violent nature bubbling underneath the façade. It's an extremely subtle gimmick, and an odd fit considering everything else on WWF programming at the time, but absolutely could've gone somewhere, had Spivey been in better physical condition. Unfortunately, Spivey's body was falling apart by this stage, and you can tell in this match, his movement is very awkward, and he can't properly bump. Vega tries to get whatever he can out of Mercy, but outside of a demented grin while applying a sleeper hold, and a cool Japanese-style brainbuster, Waylon has very little to offer. Vega wins convincingly with a spinning back heel kick, and Spivey retired from the ring a month later, in October.
- Henry O. Godwinn continues to have the most confounding push in the WWF, outside of Mabel, of course, as he's now turned face, and takes on Sycho Sid, who has quickly dropped down the card since failing in both of his WWF title challenges. I have absolutely no clue what Vince saw in Godwinn, and there's nothing in this match to make me change my mind on the guy. Admittedly, Godwinn isn't as limited as Sid, who puts the crowd to sleep with his weak strikes, dull rest holds, and abysmal selling. Sid does have a cool match finishing routine, as a trip from Ted DiBiase puts Godwinn in position to take a leg drop to the back of the head, before being laid to rest with a powerbomb. That all looked good, and the crowd popped for the legdrop to the back, which Sid delivered well. After the match, DiBiase steals the show after getting slop dumped on his head by Godwinn, thwarting the Million Dollar Corporation's attempt to do the same to Bam Bam Bigelow. DiBiase's selling of the slop was awesome, screaming vindictively after Godwinn, while also letting the crowd see the visible humiliation on his face. There's a reason he's revered as one of the best heels in the history of the business.
- I was really looking forward to the clash between the newly heel British Bulldog and Bam Bam Bigelow, two talented big men with impressive athleticism and a wide array of exciting offense. Unfortunately, it seems like Bulldog's mind is elsewhere, as he phones it in with a multitude of rest holds. Bigelow is at least still entertaining, keeping the pace high, attempting a few big dives, though his selling for Bulldog's leg work wasn't great. Bigelow's hope spots kept the live crowd in it, nailing Bulldog with an enziguri and planting his behind on Bulldog's chest to counter a sunset flip. Bigelow can't hit the moonsault, though, and Bulldog finishes this one off with a twisting powerslam, not nearly as impressive as his usual running variant. This was the biggest disappointment of the night for me, both men are capable of so much more.
- Shane Douglas has a lot of very legitimate reasons to hate Vince McMahon, and over these next two reviews, we'll see some of the awful booking he was given, but the first red flag in his WWF tenure was the awful Dean Douglas persona he was wrestling under. No wrestling crowd is going to take a berating teacher seriously, and while pairing him with Bob Backlund guarantees some heat for Douglas, there's nothing that can make up for stupid he looks in his silly gear, punctuated by that weird exclamation point he's got on the back of his singlet. Feuding with Razor Ramon would ultimately turn out very poorly for Douglas, but at least on this night, he was treated with some legitimacy, putting on a solid wrestling match with one of the WWF's hottest stars. Both men trade holds well, and quickly have the crowd hooked, as Ramon dominates with stiff right hands and a fallaway slam, which came after a sequence where Douglas impressively flipped over Ramon to escape a hammerlock. The limb work was good on both sides, Ramon focusing on the arm and Douglas on the back, ramming Ramon's back off the ringpost, slamming him on the floor, and even springing out of the corner to deliver a splash to the back, which was cool. Ramon's comeback was impressive, fighting out of a Camel Clutch to deliver an electric chair drop, before launching Douglas over his head while applying a Greco-Roman knucklelock, showing off Razor's power. After a ref bump, Douglas walks the Razor's Edge, and the 1-2-3 Kid runs in to count the fall for his buddy, which distracts Razor into thinking he actually won. Once he discovers the ref is still down, Ramon tosses The Kid out of the ring, and that distraction allows Douglas to roll Razor up, snatching a handful of tights to win it. I really liked the slow build towards a feud between Razor and The Kid, I've never seen that particular brand of distraction finish before and it perfectly played into the naivete of The Kid's character.
- Vince McMahon really seems to love his French-Canadiens, having first brought in the Rougeaus to play a role in the tag division during the mid-80's, as both faces and heels, before splitting off Jacques Rougeau as "The Mountie", then moving him into a team with Pierre Carl Ouellet as The Quebecers. That team, just like the Rougeaus, got in a few pay-per-view matches and even a trio of tag title wins, but now, no Rougeaus are left, and the future PCO was due for a gimmick change. Ouellet has become Jean-Pierre LaFitte, a tribute to French privateer and pirate Jean Lafitte, complete with an eyepatch over his right eye, which was legitimately blinded in his youth. It's a gimmick that was destined to stay mired in the midcard, but Ouellet got one chance to move up the card, an absolutely breath-taking match here at In Your House against, of all people, Bret Hart. Apparently after beating a dentist at SummerSlam, the next logical place to go for Bret was to fight a pirate, but hokey gimmicks aside, these two men can absolutely go, and put one of the best WWF pay-per-view matches of 1995. LaFitte/Ouellet is a madman, which anyone that has watched his work in Ring of Honor can attest to, and takes some nasty punishment in this match, including a wincing splat on the outside attempting to hit Bret with a diving cannonball senton. Ouellet also has some awesome agility, which he showcases by landing on his feet earlier in the match, after being backdropped to the outside by Bret, and while his offense isn't noteworthy, Bret is on the ball as the face in peril in this one. Bret takes two of his trademark sternum-first bumps into the turnbuckles, the second coming after a running bulldog is countered, and Bret collides with the turnbuckles at such a force that I was stunned the whole ring didn't collapse. Bret fits in another of his trademark bumps after that, leaping to collide with the top rope after Ouellet dodges, before hanging there to draw a pop. A collision between both men allows Bret to finish the match off in spectacular fashion, grape-vining the legs of the pirate, rolling over and standing up, straight into the Sharpshooter, which quickly forces a tap. As Bret celebrates yet another hard-fought win, we get a stellar exchange on commentary, as Lawler, Bret's mortal enemy, exasperatedly questions how Bret keeps doing it, to which Ross responds that he's the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be. What a way to put this man over; he's a fighter that never says die, and wins through resilience and intellect, not by being a dominant force with a silly comeback routine.
- Main event time, as Shawn Michaels and Diesel put their singles gold on the line against tag team champions Owen Hart and Yokozuna, or so we thought. Earlier in the night, Jim Cornette revealed that Owen wasn't in the building (the explanation was that his wife, Martha, had gone into labor), and WWF President Gorilla Monsoon pushed to go through with the match anyway, allowing Cornette to find a replacement. We got teases for both Sycho Sid (absolutely not) and King Mabel (eff off, Vince) as the substitute, but in the end, the British Bulldog was chosen to pull double duty, entering the scrum to close the show. This was a fine enough main event, significantly better than Diesel's previous WWF title defenses on pay-per-view, but that was a very low bar to clear. Shawn is the shining star of this one, wiping out Bulldog with a clothesline before skinning the cat (an homage to the famous Royal Rumble finish earlier this year), mocking Yokozuna's sumo pose, and leaping off Diesel's shoulders for a big splash. Shawn also marks the occasion with one of his signature ridiculous bumps, getting launched into the stratosphere for a Bulldog backdrop. The booking did a good job limiting the involvement of Diesel and Yokozuna, who don't drag the pacing down as much as they normally might, and only work against each other for the wild finishing stretch, as the two faces run through the heels. Bulldog and Yokozuna are whipped into each other, but return to take out the WWF Champion, as Diesel takes both a Samoan Drop and a running powerslam. Shawn's gorgeous elbow drop stops Bulldog from making the pin after the powerslam, and that's the cue for the heels' master plan to come to fruition. Owen Hart reveals his absence was all a ruse, as he runs it, leaps off the top rope, straight into a right hand from Diesel, and is pinned after the Jackknife. Well, that's a way to end it. I can't say I'm a fan of all the devious Owen shenanigans, as I was looking forward to seeing him actually wrestle, and the hoopla surrounding the finish immediately cast a large shadow over a potentially interesting title change. Sure enough, the WWF quickly went back on Diesel and Shawn winning the tag titles, awarding them back to Owen and Yokozuna, which makes this entire mess a waste of time. It was an entertaining match, but inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
6/10
1995 Average: 4.25 (Up from 4)
Once again, In Your House proved to be an above-average WWF pay-per-view, especially in '95, albeit one that starts with a rough first hour. Once you can get past that, the final three matches ranged from good to great, highlighted by Bret versus LaFitte. A better finish to the main event would've been appreciated, but it's not the end of the world.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: In Your House 4, an infamously bad night of action for the WWF, that featured a title match between Diesel and the British Bulldog, and the burial of Dean Douglas at the hands of the Kliq. See you soon.
- Henry
Comments