WWE: In Your House #1

WWE In Your House

Syracuse, NY - May 1995

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into the show, Diesel is the WWE World Champion, Jeff Jarrett is the Intercontinental Champion, and the WWE Tag Team Champions are Yokozuna and Owen Hart. 

COMMENTATORS: Vince McMahon and Dok Hendrix

The first ever In Your House kicks off with Bret Hart vs. Hakushi. This match has quite the reputation but I had not seen it in many years. Hakushi throws Hart off his game a bit at the very start with his acrobatics and we've now established that this is going to be a real clash of styles. That theme, intentional or not, comes up a couple times as the Hitman and the Kamikaze (as Vince refers to him multiple times), crash and collide in some not-so-picture-perfect ways (for example, Bret takes a flying shoulder block awkwardly in the early going). The fact that this match was obviously not highly choreographed and rehearsed is one reason why it is so good, though, Bret and Hakushi both dishing out their signature offense and taking some great bumps in and out of the ring. I love that once Bret starts hitting his patented finisher sequence the match seems like its heading home but, instead, Hakushi's manager throws a wrench in the plans and the match becomes even more wild and dangerous. Hakushi's springboard moonsault on the outside was tremendous and way ahead of its time in 95' (are those "ECW" chants that follow?) and Bret takes it perfectly onto the concrete floor. While I would've liked a finish that was built up to a little bit more, the 15 minutes of action they give us is hard to fault. Recommended viewing for sure. (4/5)

Backstage we go where "Sweet" Stan Lane and Sunny are doing something or other with computer. With Dok Hendrix (Michael Hayes) on commentary and Stan Lane around, the broadcast team makes me think of what the craft service area must've looked like at Clash of the Champions XI. Anyway, its back to the aisle where WWF correspondent Stephanie Wiand shows the audience all 340,000+ entries for the evening's In Your House contest. Moron that later...

Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett and The Roadie team up to take on Razor Ramon in a handicap match next. Razor's pre-match promo is pretty good and I'm hoping that giving this match a stipulation will make it more tolerable than their Royal Rumble match, which I found to be a bit dull until the last 3-4 minutes. After getting some good licks in early on, Razor falls prey to the numbers game and the heels get heat beating him down in the ring and cutting corners to do so. This the Roadie's first (televised?) match for the WWE and the future tag champion plays his role well, hitting some very basic offense (and not much of it looking too good) to show he's a half-threat, a cheap shot artist who is only "hanging" because Jarrett has put him in that position. Razor, meanwhile, plays the sympathetic babyface better in this match than I thought he did at the Rumble, not only selling for lengthy stretches but also taking a great bump over the top rope at one point. The match hits a bit of a lull when The Roadie comes in and applies a very poor headlock, but the finish comes soon after and the crowd heats up tremendously for it. After a very definitive finish (that practically buries the two), Jarrett and The Roadie get a bit of their heat back with a post-match beatdown. Aldo Montoya makes the save because this was the era when faces just helped faces even if there was nothing really linking them beforehand. Montoya's attempt fails, though, so a "mystery man" (Savio Vega) comes in from the crowd to even the sides. I like how "realistic" they handle Savio Vega's involvement, with not only referees showing up but Tony Garea and the guy that looks like a young Doc Brown and even some cops. This was an improvement from the Rumble match but still not anything I'd seek out if you haven't seen it before. (2.5/5)

A Games of Throne-ish promo plays hyping the next pay-per-view, King of the Ring. I'm not sure I'll review that one, but maybe. This is followed by a video promo all about the number one contender for Diesel's WWE World Championship, Sycho Sid. I'm not sure what Sid's "peak" was, but he was certainly made to look strong in the build for this match as he's hit his powerbomb finisher on just about every main event talent, including Bam Bam Bigelow.

Awesome Bret Hart "All Over" tee-shirt promo from Barry Didinski. I forgot all about this clown, who was inducted into the WrestleCrap Hall of Fame in 2014. For how silly this guy this, I'm awarding the show an extra point for having him on air. (+1)

Mabel squashes Adam Bomb next. Watching this match, one has to give some credit to Bomb (Bryan Clarke), who tries his best to give this match the movement that Mabel sure isn't going to add. While nothing he does looks great, he at least gives the effort to give the match some legit high spots, connecting with a rope-assisting flying clothesline from the outside and then going up top for a shoulder block. Mabel wins with a decisive bodyslam, but its Adam Bomb who is obviously trying to get the attention of Vince. While Clarke never really put together all the ingredients needed to be a major player in the WWE or WCW, he, like Van Hammer, almost should've achieved more just based on "look" alone. (1/5)

Razor Ramon introduces his buddy from the Caribbean, Savio Vega, and seems to make a veiled reference to Vega's TNT gimmick (or, more likely, his Kwang run) by noting that he didn't recognize him at first. Vega strikes out with his follow-up promo. 

The World Tag Team Championships are on the line with The Smoking Gunns challenging Owen Hart and Yokozuna. Adam Bomb, Billy and Bart Gunn...the stupid names really jump out at ya', don't they? Anyway, I was not expecting this one to have a lot of heat or for the Gunns to be anything more than serviceable but these two teams clicked surprisingly well. Even in this gimmick, Billy Gunn showed he had some athleticism and skill and Bart Gunn is smoother than I remembered him too. Owen Hart does the heavy lifting for his team and is the consummate pro heel, cutting corners, playing to the crowd, and positioning himself perfectly for every babyface double team. Mr. Fuji antagonizes like a good heel manager should and Yokozuna, while the opposite of dynamic, knew how to make his basic offense look devastating (especially his match-closing leg drop to Bart Gunn on the outside). This one doesn't really hold a candle to the tag matches WCW was putting on in the late 80s or anything, when masterful teams like the Midnight Express and powerhouse duos like Doom and Steiners were really building heat up to a crescendo before delivering nail-biter finishes, but as far as establishing Hart and Yoko as something of an "all star team" of villains, this one really worked for me. (3/5)

Deisel cuts an interesting promo backstage - first he speaks rather candidly about losing his mother in December, which had to be true because I don't think even Vince would stoop so low to get his babyface project sympathy from the crowd. Then Diesel goes off on Sid and closes with a Beatles reference before wishing all the mothers out there a Happy Mother's Day for the 10th time.

Back to the ring we go and Jerry Lawler is already there with his "mother," a young, flirty brunette. Vince gets upset at Lawler claiming that the 30 year old model is his mother while Dok Hendrix makes some real groaners. Thankfully, Bret Hart shows up and that little knee issue he had leaving the ring after the opener? It was all just a ploy! I'm not sure why Lawler and Bret decided to throw that mini-storyline into this match and then not go all the way with it (and have Bret actually feign the injury during the match) but it comes off as weirdly desperate for a match that had plenty of heat already based on Bret's popularity and Lawler being despised in equal measure. Compared to some of the other Lawler matches I've watched over the past few years, this was a bit of a disappointment as it was almost entirely a comedy match. On the positive side, the bump that Earl Hebner takes into the ring ropes is one that I haven't seen too many times and could've (and should've) led to an awesome conclusion for the match. Unfortunately, the timing is all sorts of messed up as Hebner, who is hanging upside by his ankle, unties himself at least two minutes too early and has to pretend he doesn't see Hakushi's run in and multiple maneuvers from the top rope. Hebner isn't the only one at fault, though, as the entire layout of the last minute was just never going to work. Lawler gets the screwy win but Bret gets revenge during the post-match, which definitely seems like two steps forward, two steps back for Hakushi (who lost decisively, then got his heat back with the run-in, then was made to look inferior again during the post-match). Vince noted on commentary that this rivalry started at the 1993 King of the Ring and it really made me wonder why Vince was so relentless with keeping this program going. Sadly, not nearly as recommended as the opener. (1.5/5)

Main event time - Deisel defending the WWF World Championship against Sid. This one really reminded me of an early 90s Hulk Hogan match - babyface shine to start, long heat stretch of minor quality as Sid tried to wear down the champ with *yawn* 2 *yawn* camel clutches, the heel hits his game-ending finisher but then is too cocky to make the cover, the hero kicks out at 2-and-9-10ths and then "hulks up," but we don't get a real decisive conclusion because another heel runs out to clobber the good guy. This, of course, causes another babyface to run out of the locker room to make the save. I'd have to double-check, but I almost feel like this is the exact same sequence of events from Hogan/Sid at WrestleMania VIII. On one hand, that's not bad booking philosophy as Sid shouldn't have been suffering a clean loss with such a thin roster of main eventers, but at the same time, on a show with just 6 matches, this is the third one that ended with run-in shenanigans. I'm curious as to why they opted to have Bigelow make the save rather than Shawn Michaels (maybe ol' HBK was taking time off for nagging injury? Drug rehab? Well-earned mini-vay-cay?) because that would've been a much more climactic ending and, with Diesel's promo, its obvious that the wheels were already in motion to have Michaels return as a fan favorite. Circling back to the match, Diesel's Hogan impression is not nearly as good as what he brought to his match against Bret Hart at the Rumble, but the crowd is behind him and he sells well and isn't afraid to leave his feet when he needs to either, spilling out to the floor and taking the powerbomb too. On the other side of things, some people hate Sid's work, but I like the goofy, over-the-top facial expressions. I wouldn't call it "good wrestling," but this main event would be far worse without the cornball element. Not the worst match I've seen this month. (1.5/5)


With a Kwang score of 2.42-out-of-5, the first In Your House isn't a "must watch," but as the WWF's version of a Clash of the Champions, it works alright. The opening contest is excellent, but the rest of the show is mostly filler designed to build up to King of the Ring, which I'm not really in too much of a rush to get to. I'm not sure I would've been happy spending $20 on this - that money would be better spent on one of those wrap-around one-size-fits-all Bret Hart tee-shirts they sell during the show - but, at just over 90 minutes, this one probably offers a more palatable snapshot at what the WWE was doing in 95' than WrestleMania XI. With only one match being worth seeking out, I'm calling this a...

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver