It's no secret that Vince McMahon failed to understand the appeal of Mick Foley prior to Mick signing with the WWF. Mick didn't have the look that Vince so badly coveted, his wrestling style was far more dangerous than Vince typically wanted in the product, and his promos were maniacal and unhinged, the exact opposite of the child-friendly approach that Vince had built feuds on in years prior. But as the WWF continued to push into an edgier era of wrestling, Jim Ross managed to wear his boss down, finally convincing Vince to take a chance on Foley, and despite the initial hesitation, Vince apparently had no qualms with making Foley a centerpiece of the roster. As the feral Mankind, Foley was thrown right into a high-profile feud with The Undertaker, producing multiple physical matches and riveting promos, escalating to a featured match at SummerSlam, as the two competed in the first Boiler Room Brawl, ending with the major swerve of Paul Bearer betraying his long-time associate to hitch his wagons to Mankind. Within months, Foley had earned enough trust from the boss to receive a main event world title match, as he was booked to challenge Shawn Michaels, with the theme of this In Your House show built around the Mankind character, which was heavily featured in the opening video package. It's a downright miracle that Foley had managed to reach this spot on the card, and he would ensure his future with the WWF by stealing the show in the main event.
- In Your House 10: Mind Games comes to you from the CoreStates (now Wells Fargo) Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the future host venue of WrestleMania 15, Unforgiven 2000, Royal Rumble 2004, and others, as WWE's Philly home site. Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Mr. Perfect are on the call, with the latter filling in for Jerry Lawler, who will be competing later in the night.
- Our opening contest is a Caribbean Strap match, as Savio Vega competes in another iteration of his specialty match against Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw, the future JBL. These two hard-hitting brawlers raise some welts with strap attacks, and Bradshaw breaks out the Clothesline from Hell, long before it had a name. They go for the same finish as Vega's match with Steve Austin at Beware of Dog, as Bradshaw drops down and pulls Vega forward, incidentally handing over the win. The finish didn't make much sense for that match, and it's not any better in this one, as I still fail to understand what the purpose of dropping down like that is supposed to achieve, it would surely only ever lead to this exact result. The Philly crowd didn't care about this match at all, as it was completely overshadowed by a ringside appearance by The Sandman and Tommy Dreamer, as the two ECW lads stopped by to cause a stir before being removed in something of a worked shoot. It's interesting to see the two promotions work together to craft this angle, and it would pay off in the entertaining one-night ECW invasion in early 1997, but it did nothing to help the two men in the ring.
- Jim Cornette, the untrained and unathletic manager, "wrestling" Jose Lothario, the 62-year-old man who had barely competed in the last decade, went about as well as could be expected, with Lothario quickly squashing Cornette after delivering a few strikes. A five-star classic if ever there was one.
- Brian Pillman and Owen Hart didn't do a whole lot to capture attention in their in-ring promo, but "Stone Cold" Steve Austin certainly did, as he joined the two heels to talk some trash about Bret Hart. Austin drops the famous "put the S in front of Hitman" line and is about a million times more charismatic than anyone else on the roster.
- Owen shows back up to wrestle, and he and the British Bulldog challenge the Smoking Gunns for the tag titles. This was, by a considerable distance, the best match on the night thus far, as Owen puts on a show, picking apart Bart Gunn with his technical expertise. I loved Owen's work on the leg, and he and Bart combine for a silky-smooth sequence, as Bart counters a spinning toe hold into a roll up, before getting clobbered by Owen's step-up enziguri. Billy turns the tide for the champions, attacking Bulldog on the outside, and they come close to retaining after Billy leaps off Bart's back for a corner splash, and connects with the Sidewinder, only for Clarence Mason, the legal associate of Camp Cornette, to make the save. The Gunns fall apart at the finish, as Bart is almost launched into Billy, who shoves his partner into a Bulldog powerslam, with Owen running in to drop Billy with a spinning back heel kick to secure victory and a title change. Sunny lights up the Gunns after the match, calling them "cowboy wannabes", which is tough but fair, and then fires them. It was nice to see the tag division move in a different direction, as Owen and Bulldog can certainly deliver a much higher quality of action than the Gunns.
- Jerry Lawler has been assigned the task of attempting to guide the green-as-can-be Mark Henry to something competent in Mark's first televised match, a definite challenge. Lawler is game, though, and the booking is smart, as Mark out-wrestles Lawler at every turn, escaping the early headlock that Lawler promised he wouldn't, and easily over-powering "The King" to show off his considerable strength. Lawler does everything in his power to get Henry over, taking a Gorilla Press Slam, getting tossed out of the ring and smacking his back on the railing, and perfectly selling incredible shock when Henry no-sells loaded punches. Henry gets the submission win with a backbreaker rack, before the trio of Marty Jannetty, Leif Cassidy (Al Snow, teaming with Marty in the atrocious "New Rockers" duo), and Hunter Hearst Helmsley run in, all getting manhandled by the powerlifter, with the fracas ending as Helmsley is tossed onto the other two on the outside. Henry was far from perfect even in a limited role, as his big slams weren't crisp and he didn't put much sting in his strikes, but it didn't matter, this was booked to make him shine and it mostly worked, the crowd was into him, and Lawler played his role perfectly.
- You can't imagine the fury I felt when I read this card and discovered that I would have to sit through yet another Undertaker/Goldust match, after the two had shown nothing of interest in their two previous meetings. The only positive here is this is the end of the feud, as the match was billed as the "Final Curtain", and after yet another slow-moving clunker between the pair, we finally get a definitive finish, as Undertaker launches Goldust off the top rope with a Chokeslam and lays him to rest with the Tombstone Piledriver. Undertaker's Buried Alive match with Mankind has already been announced for next month's In Your House, so this was the very definition of filler, occupying Undertaker's time before he can move on to the real threat.
- Main event time, as Mankind challenges Shawn Michaels for the WWF Championship in a sensational brawl to close out the night. These two take each other apart, as Shawn dismantles Mankind's knee a Dragon Screw legwhip, several submission holds, and even a kneebreaker, which Mr. Perfect marks out over on commentary, as that was one of his trademark moves. Mankind takes some brutal punishment in this one, taking multiple bumps off the steps, before his hand is victimized by Shawn's ruthless attack, including a couple chair shots, some biting, and stomps, as Shawn attempts to remove the Mandible Claw from Mankind's arsenal after the challenger had fought hard to apply it several times earlier in the match. Both men have no fear, launching themselves into sickening bumps, as Mankind crashes off the ringpost after Shawn dodges an attack on the apron, and Shawn hurls himself at Mankind to take a back body drop to the floor. Mankind comes so close to becoming WWF Champion, as a swinging neckbreaker on the floor leaves Shawn in serious danger, with the champion only barely able to kick out of the double arm DDT and the Stump-Puller Piledriver. After taking a while to warm up to the intense and dangerous nature of this match, the Philly fans are totally invested as Shawn makes his comeback, ending with an incredible spot as Shawn counters a top rope back suplex into a splash through the Spanish announce table, leaving both men sprawled. Table spots were a rarity in this era, and the crowd rightfully flipped out seeing it happen, a spectacle of a bump that raised the stakes even higher. Mankind fetches a chair and stands on the top rope, which is a set-up for another awesome counter by Michaels, who leaps off a positioned chair to deliver Sweet Chin Music to Mankind, crashing the chair into the challenger's face. By all rights, that should've gotten Shawn the win, but the booking opts out of a clean finish, as Vader stomps down to interfere, resulting in a DQ. Though that was a disappointing end to the actual match, the chaos that occurs after the bell was highly entertaining, as Sycho Sid brawls with Vader, before Mankind is stopped from putting Shawn in a casket, as Bearer opens the lid to reveal The Undertaker, a great swerve that got a monster pop. This was about as good of a 40 minutes of a WWE pay-per-view as you're likely to ever see, featuring one of the company's greatest main events, a dramatic battle that is some of the best work I've ever seen out of these two legends.
6/10
The WWF may have phoned in the first hour and a half, but when Mind Games reached it's final chapter, it quickly upped the ante in incredible fashion. The main event is essential viewing for all wrestling fans, as it did a wonderful job of accentuating the supposed weaknesses of it's two competitors, as Shawn proved he could brawl, while Foley proved he could wrestle. Excellent work all the way around.
- Henry
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