History of In Your House with KB

In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede
Date: July 6, 1997
Location: Saddledome, Calgary *dramatic pause* Alberta, Canada
Attendance: 12,151
Commentators: Jerry Lawler, Jim Ross

Well, KOTR has passed. Your highlights are Steve Austin and the returning Shawn Michaels have beaten Owen and the Bulldog for the tag belts. This happened on a Raw but I’m too lazy to go back and correct it. As for the PPV, HHH is your new King of the Ring, and Taker is pretty much fighting every big named heel on the roster. Austin’s war with the Hart Foundation has reached a boiling point and here is your blowoff to the biggest part of it.

Since Austin has no friends, he pretty much found four guys that hate the Harts just as much as he does: Goldust, who was feuding with Pillman (I think), Shamrock was feuding with no one in particular but would soon begin a feud with Smith, and the LOD was feuding with the former tag champions for all of two days.

Other than that, the only big match is Taker vs. Vader for the WWF Title. The issue with a ten man tag for your main event is simple: we’re looking at a four match card on a PPV. That’s a stretch even for these shows. This show is praised for its crowd involvement, with Bret himself saying it’s one of his all time favorites. I haven’t seen this show in almost 12 years so we’ll see how it holds up.

As a side note, this is the end of the traditional IYH formula. After this, IYH would be the subtitle, such as the next show which is Ground Zero: In Your House. It would also be the last two hour show, so these reviews will get longer.

Free For All: Blackjacks vs. Godwinns

The hog men are back to being heels after I don’t think they’ve been on TV at all, so that’s a bit weird. For some reason that I don’t know, Vince and Lawler are dressed as cowboys so they’re all in JR style hats. JR looks at them like he wants to shoot them. Lawler’s headset isn’t working.

We get some graphics showing the two big matches before the intros of the teams. Taker is rocking his usual sleeveless outfit but he has the title and a cowboy hat on. It’s actually somewhere between awesome and ridiculous looking. Not sure which actually. Anyway, let’s get to this bad match, which to be fair was free so you can’t really complain about it.

The Blackjacks are Barry Windham and Bradshaw, which is a decent pairing as you have two big guys from Texas that are completely opposite styles: Windham has talent and Bradshaw doesn’t. Great combination as pairings like this always work best when they’re opposites. Apparently the Godwinns are heels since the LOD botches their finisher and broke Henry’s neck. Vince says the crowd will be pro-Canadian.

Lawler’s headset is fixed as he saves the commentary by saying of course they will be. THEY’RE CANADIAN! Have to love Vince’s brilliant impact. Apparently all of the Hart Family will be there tonight. Oh yeah the match. The crowd is way hot for it, but it’s a free match to get the crowd excited so what can you expect from it? There’s nothing of note here but double teaming wins it for the Godwinns.

Rating: D. It was just a five minute tag match to get things going so it wasn’t supposed to light the world on fire. It was a way to get things going, which I guess it did. Nothing to really say here.

Very nice video package talking about how things are changing in the company and there’s no more black and white but rather shades of gray. Austin is the anti-hero now but he’s so over that the company doesn’t really care. Bret is going to be god incarnate in the ring tonight and it’s just going to be fun to watch.

Best sign of the night: Brett is King. They can’t spell their hometown legend’s name right. That cracks me up.

HHH vs. Mankind

This is a rematch from the KOTR finals. My favorite entrance music plays as HHH comes to the ring. I mean just damn that choir singing his praises is amazing. Recap video showing how different these two are. This has spawned Foley’s face turn. Sweet damn this crowd is hot as hell. Foley imitates HHH’s curtsey which is just freaking hysterical.

I’ve always loved that running elbow from the apron. Who else does that? Foley is just beating the hell out of HHH here and it’s fun to watch. Apparently he’s the prime minister of Parts Unknown. I guess the Warrior is the mayor? HHH gets a damn sunset flip. I mean really, WHERE IN THE HELL DID THESE MOVES GO?

Rock is throwing cross bodies, HHH is sunset flipping people, Austin is coming off the top, I mean what the hell? Match gets turned around when Chyna hip tosses Mankind into the stairs where he slams his leg. A chair shot makes his leg hurt even worse. After that we get HHH working over the knee for a long time but Mankind starts his comeback with a shoulder to the balls which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.

Chyna is really getting annoying here with all of the interfering. I don’t like the constant interfering as it makes her look more important than HHH. It’s just distracting and eventually gets stupid. Finally they brawl to the floor and eventually into the crowd for the double DQ.

Rating: B-. This was a fun, hard hitting match. Any time you can get two guys to just beat the living fuck out of each other with a bit of a past together, it’s almost always fun. These two had a great amount of chemistry and it would show later on when they were one on one for the world title in a few years. Great stuff here.

They keep brawling through the crowd which is almost always fun to see. HHH is going at it here and you can see the Cerebral Assassin coming out in him. He’s starting to get some definition as well so he’s really starting to transform into the Game.

We see a recap of Stampede Weekend. There was a parade and all kinds of stuff, and I think it was actually just for Bret and the Harts. That is absolutely insane to put it mildly. There was a tug of war and a big party which really looks like it would be fun. Bret was a big guest at a rally and there were thousands of people there for him. This seriously is insane.

Bret and the Harts are in the back. Austin interrupts but Bret calls off the dogs, saying he wants it five on five later on. The crowd is hot even seeing him let alone him being in front of the camera. That main event is going to be insane.

Taka Michinoku vs. The Great Sasuke

Fink with a cowboy hat is great. We cut to the crowd and Mankind and HHH are still hammering each other. HHH is busted open but it made him madder. This is a damn slugout. Now we get to the real match. A graphic says this is a light heavyweight match. Two things: do we really need a graphic to let us know that? We heard their weights and we can see they’re small and thin.

Also, isn’t light heavyweight an oxymoron? If you’re light, how can you be heavy? Why not just lightweight? Actually, why not you don’t have size so you’ll never be a world champion-weight? That’s the real weight class we’re seeing here as WWF tries to make their own cruiserweight division which bombed so badly that words cannot describe it. This starts out as a martial arts match which is ok I guess. Sasuke is the heel here I think.

These two are doing a bunch of random moves which are ok I guess but they have nothing on WCW. Taka however has one of my all time favorite moves as he gets a running start, jumps to the top rope, pauses while on it, and throws a huge dive. That always made me mark out. Sweet looking missile dropkick from Taka. See what I mean? It’s just random moves from all over the place. No psychology or anything involved, just random moves. Sasuke wins with a Tiger Suplex.

Rating: C-. This was wild but not particularly entertaining. This was the difference between WCW and WWF in this division: WCW built up guys over time. WWF’s division is like the women’s division now. There are no stories, very few promos, and the only matches you would ever get are contender’s matches and title matches. WCW had a whole division and not the champion against challenger of the month. It was a copy of WCW, minus the thought and the majority of the talent.

We go back to HHH and Mankind who are still fighting. They’re outside now and it’s still fun, but now we’re getting to the point of overkill. I like it so far but they don’t need to take it too far.

Recap of the Taker feud, which was supposed to be him vs. Ahmed, which is my memory and the stories I’ve heard are true, Ahmed was supposed to get the title here. However he legit got hurt and had to stay out of it. A big brawl explains this.

Vader and Bearer are in the back and a newly clean shaven and blonde Paul Bearer talks about what would become one of the best done stories of all time: Taker killing him family. Through this, we would hear of a man that would be revealed as Undertaker’s brother. His name was Kane. More on this in a few months.

WWF Title: Vader vs. Undertaker

Like I said this was thrown together due to Ahmed being hurt. Taker’s pop is of course epic, even in Canada. That shows how great he is, as Canada is notorious for booing the faces. Taker is the exception to the rule I suppose, as he is in so many other things. He comes to the ring with the I guess you’d say jacket over his ring gear. He takes it off and there it is: the WWF Title. That just looks perfect on him.

Taker starts off by punching the hell out of Vader. This is exactly what you would expect from these two: hard hitting brawling. Taker beats on him for the first 3 minutes or so but eventually Bearer gets involved and the Mastodon takes over. Vader at this time was just freaking awesome to watch but no one knew what to do with him. He wasn’t going to win the belt off a three day notice and after this he would just start flying down the card until he faded into Bolivia.

Part of this might have been due to the absolute worst nerve hold I have ever seen. Vader’s hands aren’t even clenched. It’s him with his hands on Taker’s neck and nothing more. It’s pathetic looking. There’s a serious lack of drama in this match as Taker never really seems to be in any real danger. Vader gets close of course but never puts anything big together.

He kicks Taker low right in front of the referee but there’s no DQ called. JR has no clue why there wasn’t and neither do I. I thought that was the finish actually. Anyway, Vader goes for the Bomb, Taker blocks it, hits two chokeslams and a tombstone to keep the belt.

Rating: C-. Like I said, there was no drama here. It really felt like this was a title match for the sake of having a title match, and that rarely if ever works. Now to be fair they had a week to build this up so Vader really was a last second replacement which likely takes a lot away from this. I just wanted more from this match though which pretty much sums up my feelings as a whole: I wanted more.

We get a recap of all of the stuff that the Harts have had for them this weekend. Allegedly many of the lines to just get Bret’s autograph were a mile long. Now I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it sounds amazing either way.

Video package on the history of this feud. Basic stuff here that I won’t bother going into except this: Mankind is shown fighting Bret. Why then would you put Goldust, a mid card guy, into the main event and not Mankind, a guy with main event experience? I just don’t get that.

Austin’s team is in the back. Each cuts a mini-promo and Shamrock’s is so bad. Austin says nothing and just leads them to the ring.

Austin’s Team vs. The Hart Foundation

Before the match some Canadian band sings O Canada and the crowd is on fire. Hart Family is shown at ringside. Goldust is out first to pretty much no reaction. Hearing that a team’s combined weight is over 1,300 pounds is just odd sounding. No Marlena tonight which is a good thing I think. Shamrock gets a pretty good pop. It’s not mind blowing but it’s good. Three hot women have signs that says the Harts suck. Well I’ll be damned.

LOD is very over as well. That’s another gimmick that just works no matter what. And now, the captain of the team: for a guy that is supposed to be the arch rival of the national hero, the guy is pretty damn popular. He got the biggest pop of the team and while there was booing, it was nothing compared to the cheers.

However, he just got outpopped by a mile by Brian Pillman. All five Harts get their own intro, and the fans are insane the whole time. They progressively get louder until they blow the roof off the place for Bret. His pop is one of if not the loudest I have ever heard. You all remember the sign that says if Cena wins we riot. In this case, that would be true.

The difference between Cena and Austin can be made clear right here though: Cena was visibly shaken at One Night Stand. Austin is thriving in this environment. The Harts come to the ring in unison, all wearing leather jackets. That’s a nice little touch that’s missing from so much today. Tag teams should dress alike. It just makes them look more unified to me.

There’s a great visual to start this as all ten men are in the ring but Bret and Austin are in the middle with their eyes locked on each other. All eight others just fade away and all you see are those two. That’s absolutely great. They start of course which makes me wonder if that should have been your main event: Bret vs. Austin. However, they’ve fought so many times and the crowd is so hot for his, I can’t really see how it would be better.

The ten man is the right decision. Bret actually wins the fist fight to start as the crowd is orgasming on every move. Austin comes back though, beats Bret into the corner, flips the crowd off and THEN whips Bret in. See what he did there? He got a little extra heat going, but it didn’t take any momentum away from the match. That’s a very nice touch.

Eventually Neidhart gets tagged in. I have come to the conclusion that he is nothing more than a fondly remembered Marty Jannetty. He never did a damn thing on his own. Actually, Marty did more than Anvil did. That’s saying something indeed. Shamrock’s belly to belly is just fucking sweet. I’m not liking the tags at the same time thing over and over. Let us see more than just the rivals. Owen apparently has a new haircut.

It’s so new he’s had it for three months now. Damn this crowd is intense. They’re screaming, yelling, cussing, shouting obscenities at people and will not calm down for one second. You might say they’re just-insane. Bulldog actually gets the delayed suplex on Hawk. That’s damn impressive.

However, he hits the powerslam and Hawk is up within about three seconds. It was one of the worst no sells I’ve ever seen. Goldust is put into a tree of woe in the Harts corner and gets one of the worst beatdowns I have ever seen. The crowd sees him get tied up and rises to their feet.

We finally get our first wild brawl of the night as all ten guys come in. During the fracas, (that’s your big word for the day people: fracas) Owen’s leg is destroyed by Austin. Three times being slammed into the post and a chair shot. He limps to the back with the help of officials so apparently it’s 5-4 now, even though this isn’t an elimination match. Ass shot of Pillman which is something I didn’t really want to see.

Bret retaliates by going after Austin’s knee, eventually using the figure four on the post, which when you think about it, doesn’t hurt much with the post. It would hurt, but not as bad as they would like it to. Austin goes to the back too as this is very one sided now. That’s a tactic I use when I write OCW multi-man matches. Ten guys are just too many to work with so I’ll shorten the amount of people in the match.

Vince calls the Harts a nationalistic faction. WELL DUH VINCE! Bulldog beats the living fuck out of Shamrock and the crowd is exploding to say the least. Once Goldust comes in, JR does a GREAT Dusty Rhodes impression but I’m not sure how many people would pick up on it. It’s so subtle that it’s hard to catch. Austin comes back out and it’s him vs. Bret again and Austin is beating the hell out of him.

According to Ross, Austin is being excellently executed. That’s a good little line. Austin calls spots to Bret but the beauty of Austin’s character is you could believe that he’s talking trash to him. Bret is in a sharpshooter as Owen comes back to the ring. Soon thereafter, the Hart brothers at ringside get involved by punching Austin and jumping the rail. Within a few seconds it’s a wild brawl and Owen rolls up Austin for the pin.

Post match, we have another wild brawl and for some reason security does nothing to the fans that jumped the railing and lets them get in the ring and celebrate. Austin of course runs back into the ring as the Harts are celebrating with a chair and gets his ass handed to him. Lawler’s hatred for Bret will simply never go away.

Of course, Austin is handcuffed instead of the other Harts and is taken away by security. The logic in WWF makes me shake my head at times. Stu gets into the ring afterwards and the crowd is gone completely. There’s almost thirty Harts and all of them come into the ring. Make that fifty. The Harts’ praises are sung as we go off the air.

Rating: A. This was a great ten man match for many reasons, but the one that is forgotten is the wrestling itself. I wasn’t bored once during this match and as someone that can’t stand tags to end a show, that’s saying a lot. It’s probably the best non-gimmick team match I’ve ever seen. I really liked it and the crowd carried this for the most part, which wasn’t actually needed.

Overall Rating: A. The obvious big flaw with the show is that it’s just four matches. However, the weakest by far is the light weight match, which was at least watchable. It’s far from bad, just not that great. The main event is of course the best on the card with a crowd as hot as I have ever seen. Great show, maybe not all time great, but certainly great and probably the best In Your House so far. At worst, it’s second to Mind Games only.
 
The Stampede parade happens every year KB, it wasnt just for Bret Hart. its a lot like Mardi Gras for New Orleans, or the New Years thingy in NY. Its just a huge yearly evetn in Calgary Alberta Canada, which includes a parade, the rodeo, and usually had a huge supercard staged by Stampede wrestling. Thats why everyone knows and loves the Hart's so much, becuase the whole family was a huge influence on the area for decades. Up there, it was a lot like Japan, in that it was seen as near a legit competition, and taken very very seriously. Hence how ceremonial the start of the Main Event was. Its also why JR, Vince and King had the cowboy stuff on, becuase the PPV was held during stampede weekend, actually IN the spot that the old Stampede territory supershow used to be.

I disagree with most of the ratings. Your a harsh fucker KB. a B fucking minus for Triple H and Mankind? that match was awesome. Brutality, build, nastiness, hot crowd. you cant ask for much more. The Light-Heavies were fine, CERTAINLY not a damn C-. I mean, what build or phsycology could you possibly hope for? "hey two random ass japanese little guys who are gonna go out and do a bunch of crazy shit to each other!!" basically the script for thast one. It was VERY entertaining.

Vader Vs Taker was far better than you give it credit for as well. Taker's entrance at the historic Saddledome in and of itself is worth a fucking B grade. Taker always does well with big monster heels, and you have one of the most talented of all time in there with him. That match was freaking badass, man.

The ten man tag is quite possibly the best match of all the times. Certainly the best of its kind, by a wide margin. Just absolutely amazing work from everyone involved, and if you can find me a crowd thats hotter for any match ever, id fucking LOVE to see it. Just utter brilliance. Sone Cold is so obscenely good in this match, its absurd.

Love it. the best INYH ever, possibly the best wrestling PPV ever, bar none.
 
For me, a B- is a good grade. It means I was entertained by it and there were good things going for it. My main issue with it was Chyna. She kept interferring and the spotlight was on her too much. Managers should interfere once at most in a match. After that it's pure overkill.

That's exactly my issue with the light weight match: it was just two random guys going out there and beating on each other with high flying moves. Why should I care about two guys that I know nothing at all about that are doing big spots that are being done better on another show one channel away?

The proiblem I have with the title match is simple: no drama at all. Vader was a glorified midcarder at the time and he had no hope at all of winning the belt that night. It would be like MVP facing Orton now. The match is fine, but it's hard for me to really put stock in a title match if I know the champion is going to retain. Now if it had been a regular non title match, the rating would probably be an A- or so.

I'd agree on the main event. For a match that on paper seems like it would be just a multiman main event, I was VERY impressed here. They did everything they could out there given what they had. The American team had me scratching my head but it worked very well with the feuds at the time. It was all about the Canadians as it should have been and it worked to say the lease.
 
I only looked at your grades Klunder, didn't agree with any of them. This is easily one of the top 10 wrestling shows of all time. There is nothing bad on this card. Undertaker vs. Vader & HHH vs. Mankind are both very good. The lightweight match is awesome. It was a try out match and it got Taka Michinoku a job with the company. As such he's the only WWE wrestler to be geiven a serious, lengthy, cruiserweight match at WrestleMania.

The main event is awesome. And Austin getting pinned over Goldust or a Road Warrior is a nice little touch which added to the match.
 
You crazy for calling Mind Games better. Mind Games was the definition of a one match show and that was the only good match on the show. The only good match on the show had a no dq finish.

Canadian Stampede on the other hand had two of the hottest mid card acts put on an insane hardcore brawl. You had freakin Taka vs. Great Sasuke in an amazing match that had the fans on their feet at the end. You had a good heavyweight WWE title match. And then you had a 10 man main event that got insane heat, a great storyline behind it,with a clean finish that set up a match for Summerslam. Mind Games don't even come close in matter of fact, Beware of Dog was a better ppv than Mind Games.
 
KB, you're not kidding about the entrance of the Hart Family. Check it out:

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This video ellicits so many emotions from me. For starters, it's amazing to realize what a singular talent the WWF had in Bret Hart in 1997. He never gave his character major overhauls the way Austin did going from Stunning Steve to The RIngmaster to Stone Cold, or Rocky Maivia to The Rock. Bret just made small tweaks along the way.

It saddens me to know that three of the five men are no longer living. Pillman (the David Lee Roth of Wrestling), Davey (awesome with the short hair), and Owen. Great people, amazing talents.

I also get so jacked about these entrances because the crowd didn't just pop because of the Canadian thing, but because they appreciated the men in the ring.

I am also disappointed by the fact that Bret would leave for WCW at the end of the year. The feuds had SO MUCH HEAT, and maybe, just maybe, had Bret stayed he would have talked Owen out of the rafter stunt in St. Louis.
 
wow how did i miss this show i have not seen these matches where can i find these matches at on DVD

Not any WWE-released DVDs. Atleast not the whole shows, you can find various random IYH matches scattered across all the different compilation and best-of releases. The only place you'll get DVDs of the full shows is through a wrestling DVD trader/seller. Try You Tube or DailyMotion.com

They're all worth checking out though, even the absolute worst. I'd rather have the worst IYH from '95 then half of the wrestling I see on television now.
 
KB, if you really don't know anything about Furnas & LaFon, I'd recommend looking them up. They were one of, if not, the biggest tag team in Japan for a long time. In 92, they had the match of the year in Japan, and earned 5 stars from the Wrestling Observer for that same match. They also arrived in ECW in late 96, and had a decent little feud with RVD and Sabu, and after this appearance at IYH, they went back to ECW, where they held the tag titles for a day, before losing them to Storm and Candido.

As far as Ahmed Johnson and Farrooq, I think it was because Ahmed Johnson wouldn't join the Nation. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure that's what it was...

EDIT: Also, why is your WrestleMania review stickied, and not this?
 
In Your House 17: Ground Zero
Date: September 7, 1997
Location: Louisville Gardens, Louisville, Kentucky
Attendance: 4,963
Commentators: Jerry Lawler, Jim Ross, Vince McMahon

Once again, we have a horrible job of marketing by WWF as I never heard about this show until it was on video. Anyway, we’re after Summerslam now. Austin was semi-feuding with the Harts still, but at Summerslam we had the possibly worst night for the company ever as Austin was piledriven by Owen, breaking his neck. That match got him the IC Title which he would have to vacate the next night.

The tag titles are vacant as well due to Austin’s injury. The problem was that Austin’s neck was bad, but he was on TV anyway. This kept the company afloat, while no one realized that he was really hurt badly. The feuds from Canadian Stampede have split up into single feuds which we’ll get to later. Bret won the WWF Title from Undertaker as Shawn was the guest referee.

He was swinging for Bret with a chair but he hit Taker, costing him the title and setting up the feud for the main event tonight. This is really just a filler show, but it’s the first of the three hour, traditional PPV format. Let’s get to this.

We get a recap of Shawn and Taker’s feud, which also was the groundwork for Shawn’s heel turn. In three weeks there was something that was coming which would change wrestling forever that I’ll cover later on.

Goldust vs. Brian Pillman

The story here, which was VERY controversial at the time, was that Goldust and Marlena’s daughter was actually Pillman’s, at least according to him. This led to Goldust taking off his paint and being Dustin Runnels which wasn’t what people wanted to see. This is the Indecent Proposal match. If Pillman loses, he leaves the company. If he wins, he gets Marlena for 30 days.

Pillman talks about leaving the company forever. That’s so chilling it’s hard to imagine. If you don’t get what I mean by that, I’ll explain at the end of this match. Goldust comes out in full outfit and is over here. Kentucky likes freaks I guess. The roof of the arena is white, which is just a weird thing to see. Lawler implies that Marlena has slept with everyone in the wrestling business. That would be Missy Hyatt I believe.

Goldust works over Pillman’s knee so we have an attempt at psychology. Of course this has no bearing on the ending of the match. Pillman gets beaten on for the majority of the match but in the end we get a ref bump, a loaded purse shot to Goldust, and Pillman wins. He drags Marlena away as she is quite upset. King retrieves the purse which has a brick in it.

Rating: B-. It was fine for an opening match and it had a story behind it so based on that, this was fine. Nothing great here but it was far from a bad match. The purse shot at the end was good for the finish but I would have liked to see Pillman sell the knee and leg work from earlier on.

Now as for what I was talking about it being chilling earlier, Pillman wouldn’t live to see the end of the thirty days. He died of a heart problem about four weeks later, on the night of the next In Your House. The following night, Vince McMahon ensured him place in hell as he had a live interview with Pillman’s ex wife who was in no condition to even think let alone be interviewed on national television. She was pregnant at the time, which Brian never knew when he died.

How do I transition from that? I don’t think there’s a good way to do it, so let’s just move on I suppose.

Scott Putski vs. Brian Christopher

For those of you that don’t know, Christopher is Jerry Lawler’s son. Putski is the son of Ivan Putski, who is another great example of the joke that is the WWE Hall of Fame. He was a onetime tag champion, he rarely won a match, and he’s in the Hall of Fame. You have to love that Vince McMahon logic. Lawler of course denies that he’s Christopher’s father which was a running joke for a long time.

This is another example of how bad the Light Heavyweight division was. There’s no reason to have this match and it’s really just thrown on the card after Lawler and Christopher beat up Putski on Raw. No thought to it other than that.

The problem with this match is simple: Putski mainly wrestles a power style despite being officially a light weight. He’s kind of like a Matt Hardy: Small size, mostly regular offense with the occasional high flying move thrown in. The end is abrupt as Putski legit hurts his knee and has to be counted out. His knee is clearly dislocated.

Rating: D. This was bad, mainly because it wasn’t a light weight match. It was two small guys wrestling. What’s the point of this? There isn’t one other than to try to compete with the cruiserweights in WCW. It just didn’t work, plain and simple. Putski never did anything in his career, and that’s being generous about it.

We see a recap of the Nation splitting into three gangs. Yes you read that right. Gangs, not factions. We have the New Nation, which is Farrooq, Kama, D’lo and Rocky. We have the Disciples of Apocalypse, which was a biker gang and Los Borecuas, which was a Puerto Rican street gang. This went on for almost a year, with no one at all getting what the point of it was. It’s known as the Gang Wars period, and it never panned out at all. I think this ended at Mania 15 but I’m not sure.

Savio Vega vs. Farrooq vs. Crush

This is for supremacy or something like that. It’s standard triple threat rules which was a new idea back then actually. Soon after this Crush would leave and Chainz, more commonly known as Brian Lee from ECW would take over. I always liked what I saw from him and it’s a shame he didn’t get to showcase himself more often. Savio’s white pants just look weird.

You could tell they really weren’t sure what they were doing with this format of a match and were kind of playing it by ear which makes this a fun match to see. Even the announcers are talking about how what Crush is doing makes no sense. Farrooq is on the floor so Crush puts on a chin lock. He must have trained Randy Orton. There’s really not much to this so far but it’s not bad.

Like I said the psychology isn’t there yet as this was such a new idea at the time. Savio botches a spinning neckbreaker fairly badly. Eventually he’s beaten down and the power guys go at it, which is what it should have been the whole time. They trade off picking on the third guy which makes sense. Savio wins by kicking Crush after Crush takes out Farrooq.

Rating: C. They were unsure with the concept but at least they were giving it a good effort. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad. For a first time thing this was well done I think. It’s kind of like the Bret/Shawn ladder match. They had no clue what they were doing and other matches would easily surpass it but this was fine.

El Torito vs. Max Mini

Oh fuck it’s small people wrestling. Why do people insist on these matches? They just flat out suck. They’re at a total combined weight of 184lbs. What in the hell is the point of this? Someone tell me that please. One of the guys weights 86lbs. My lord this is going to be a long match. While some of the moves are flashy, you could see Rey and Kidman do the exact same things in WCW.

The difference there is they were full sized. I just don’t get the appeal of something like this. Oh dear this match is getting time. We’re at 5 minutes already. It not that it’s bad, it just that it’s a waste of time. Seriously, why is this considered good? The fans are dead for it as no one knows who these people are and we don’t care. FINALLY this ends after nine full minutes plus. Holy fuck. The Max guy wins with a sunset flip.

Rating: D. What the hell were they thinking here? This match was just not interesting. It wasn’t bad, but the size was just annoying. I don’t want to see people that are praised for a move off the middle rope. That makes no sense and is just a waste of my time. What is the appeal here? Can someone explain that to me? If this was a three minute match I could see that, but this went almost ten minutes. Was there nothing else they could have put on the card at all?

We see a recap of Austin’s injury and the fallout from it. Commissioner Slaughter says that Austin can’t wrestle until he is healthy. Austin and Dude Love were the tag champions at the time (since Michaels had to forfeit the titles, Owen and Bulldog won a tournament to face Austin and a partner he picked for the vacant belts. Austin didn’t want a partner but Love volunteered and they won the belts). Love had debuted that night I think as Mankind was gone by this point. I always loved that music of his. Anyway, this is them giving up the belts.

Austin comes out to no glass shattering after Dude says he can’t defend them on his own despite wanting to. Austin calls out Vince which amuses me as that feud was on the horizon and would explode very soon. Stone Cold is at the top of his game here, talking all kinds of trash to Slaughter and making so much fun of him that it’s great. He even gets on JR, calling him a fat ass.

Vince is losing it on commentary which is just such great foreshadowing. JR says he hopes he gets better soon. You know what’s coming don’t you? Yep, there it is. Kick, wham stunner. Love holds back Austin until he leaves. The fans have lost their minds as this is Austin at his best. They’re all over Slaughter here as it was him that decided to strip the belt from Austin.

Doc is in the back with Owen and the Bulldog who are PISSED over what Austin did. They say he should be arrested for assault which is just incorrect. He should be arrested for battery. Vince calls Austin a jackass on commentary.

Tag Titles: Headbangers vs. LOD vs. Godwinns vs. Owen/Bulldog

This is elimination style which is a fun way to make the title match interesting. No one knew what to make of the Headbangers at the time. They were just weird to say the least. We get a mini advertisement about One Night Only which was a European PPV which had Bulldog vs. Shawn for the European Title. Hawk and Animal say they want the belts back and to beat up the Godwinns.

LOD’s pop is massive to say the least as they’re just legendary at this point. One of the rules in this is anyone can tag anyone which makes this even more fun. I’ve always liked things like this and tonight is no exception. It’s more or less just random combinations for the early going with nothing of real note. Eventually we get our big war going and it ends with LOD being disqualified for hitting the Godwinns with the slop bucket.

Of course this isn’t a popular move and I think it hurts having them being eliminated first. It sort of makes the match seem weaker as the big name tag team is eliminated first. Very soon thereafter the Godwinns are eliminated by the Headbangers. This match really isn’t as good as I expected it would be. The USA chant starts up which is as tried and true of a way to get support as there ever has been.

Lawler talks about how there are 600,000 people at Stu Hart’s house watching this match and to imagine the cheers. Vince of course wastes this great set up line by saying if you think that’s loud imagine the cheers at next month’s PPV! Vince just amazes me with his tunnel vision when it comes to business sometimes. They brawl for awhile but of course in the end Austin runs out and stuns the hell out of Owen for the ending and gives the Headbangers the titles.

Rating: D+. This match is just fucking boring. I don’t get the appeal to something like this. The idea is cool, but it just goes to show you the shambles that the tag division was in around this time. There’s nothing at all of interest here and none of the teams grab you at all. The Outlaws are coming though to save the day soon.

After the Headbangers celebrate at the concession stand, we see JR bitching about getting stunned. Good for him.

Recap for the WWF Title match. Tonight, we have Bret defending against perhaps the most bland main event gimmick I have ever seen: The Patriot. He’s a guy that loves America but wears a mask. Of course then, they show him playing football at South Carolina. Why? You can see his face there so why wear the mask? He has this match because he pinned Hart.

There’s little point to watching this match as he’s about as likely to win the title as Shawn Stasiak was. He was bland and plain and no one cared at all. They show him in Japan where he is getting his ass handed to him by Misawa. What’s the point to showing his face in interviews and having him in the mask in the ring?

He’s in the back with Sunny and actually is built very well. He says he’s not afraid of Bret.

WWF Title: Bret Hart vs. The Patriot

You know, just by listening to Patriot’s music I’m already starting to dislike him. Asctually it makes me think he kind of sucks. I think I’ll chant that. YOU suck! You Suck! Damn, what kind of patriotic character has music that you chant you suck to? He won the match over Bret in Pittsburgh apparently. Damn that’s quite a coincidence. Bret gets a bigger pop than Patriot does which is amusing.

Patriot is left handed which is just a bit odd looking. Of course Patriot controls things early on and then gets slowed down to allow Bret to get things even. So far this is a pretty slow and bland match and pretty typical for any Bret match. That’s not to say it’s bad but it’s just not that interesting. Patriot just has no credibility at all at this point or ever. Lawler is great on commentary for some reason here, snapping off all kinds of stats and facts.

You can tell Patriot is bad as the fans are clearly cheering the heel here since they simply don’t care about the challenger at all, and why should they? Bulldog comes down to ringside for no apparent reason. Patriot is getting a few cheers but it’s not as big as what Bret gets.

After a mistake by Smith, Bret gets hit by Patriot’s finisher, the Uncle Slam. Yeah I know just go with it. Vader comes out and beats on Smith to take him out of the equation after Smith breaks up a pin which for no real reason doesn’t cause a DQ. From there it’s pretty bland to put it mildly.

For the most part it’s just Bret faking being close to losing the title until Patriot hits his finisher again and it still doesn’t work so he goes for Bret’s. Bret reverses and Patriot taps. What a “real American.” Post match Bret beats on him some more and takes the flag to break it and choke Patriot with it. Bret beats up a lot of the officials afterwards.

Rating: C-. There was no heat for Patriot to win at all. That’s what killed this match. Bret was fine and the match was fine but it was the Patriot vs. Bret Hart. That’s the problem in this match. Aside from that you get a long match that’s pretty back and forth which means it’s not terrible.

Recap of Taker vs. Shawn which is more or less one chair shot. Other than that it’s nothing but the recaps of their feuds over the past few months. I’ll say one thing for this feud: it got taker to actually do a sit down interview which is just weird as hell to see. We see the chair shot which gave Bret the title as show counts the one, two, three four. Yep it’s clearly a four count to get the belt off of Taker.

In the back we see Shawn who is apparently heel now. He says he’ll win.

Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker

They actually say this has PPV time remaining. What an odd thing to hear. Shawn’s pyro messes up which is funny to see his reaction to. Taker’s entrance is another classic one with the lightning, the thunder, the smoke and the silhouette of the Phenom as he stands at the entrance. He raises his arms really fast to turn on the lights now and they come on with an explosion.

I think I like that version better than the slow rise. Match starts off kind of odd as Shawn hides behind the ref forever until Taker just nails the ref. Shawn runs but Slaughter, the worst commissioner of all time orders him back into the ring where Taker throws the referee onto Shawn. Massive brawl ensues. Shawn is bumping like a crazy man here as each punch sends him at least 10 feet.

They brawl all over the place until finally Shawn gets his ass handed to him in the ring. Hebner comes out to be the referee and Shawn uses the distraction to chop block the Undertaker and we get a bell. What’s going on? They’re still fighting, and apparently, NINE MINUTES after the brawl started, that’s the start of the match? What the fuck??? Nine minutes and THEN the bell rings? Give me a break here people.

This is a damn hard hitting match that’s working very well so far. It’s rare to see Shawn as a hell but it’s more or less the exact same style. Now I’m not sure if that’s good or not but it’s pretty entertaining if I do say so myself, and I do say so myself. Shawn apparently has a back injury. Can you imagine Taker hurting Shawn’s back? I certainly can’t. We have another ref bump which I think makes three so far, which isn’t good for 8 minutes into the “match”.

Rick Rude, Shawn’s insurance policy, comes to the ring and gives Shawn brass knuckles. However, since we’re having a three for one referee special, the fourth is late counting the pin. HHH and Chyna are here, and all of a sudden I think I see a stable in the making. HHH is starting to get some muscles on him and he even throws in a crotch chop.

According to every source I can find, DX didn’t officially form until about two weeks after this at One Night Only, but they look pretty formed here to me. I know the name wouldn’t be for about another month and a half, but they look pretty united to me. Oh, another referee went down a little bit ago, so the fourth ref is slow getting to the count. Since he’s slow, Taker chokeslams him.

A FIFTH referee comes out and finally calls for the double DQ. Post match, Shawn hits SCM to tie Taker in the ropes. He breaks out as Shawn has a chair and beats on HHH and Shawn. As he’s about to kill them both, about fifteen guys from the locker room run out to stop him.

He throws them off and debuts the over the rope dive which has Lawler screaming like a girly man as he nearly kills Shawn dead with it. About ten more guys come out to finally separate them as Taker poses in the ring with the lights going out to thunderous cheers as we go off the air!

Rating: B. WOW. This was far less of a match and more of a fight. It was the prototype for what the Attitude Era main event would become. No one really knew what to expect from this match and I’m not sure if it was good or not. The ref bumping went WAY too far for my tastes as it was just getting ridiculous. However, with these two it was great as you know they’re going to put on a good match. There would be a rematch the following month inside the debuting Hell in a Cell, which is the far more famous of their wars.

Overall Rating: B-. While it was the first of its three hour formula, this IYH left me wanting more. With a double DQ for the finish to the main event and a pretty bland world title match, I felt like there was no payoff to the show. I got to the end and I was thinking I wanted a better way to close out the show. It felt like the way a Raw should end instead of a PPV. The rest of the show is just ok as well, but it’s slightly better than average. Not great but not awful, watch it if you’re intrigued but don’t go out of your way.
 
A show with the ''lost'' HBK vs. Undertaker match. It's good, but it's not worth remembering when you've got the brilliant Hell In A Cell, the repercussion of the Casket Match and the recent Mania match. It's ok, but I think it appears as though they're saving something for the next PPV.

Bret Hart might be the most naive headliner of all time. As a new champion he shouldn't have been facing somebody like The Patriot. He should have been aware that his time was nearly up. But I suppose that's easy to say in retrospect.

Scott Putski, we hardly knew thee.
 
I think you're on to something there about saving soemthing. Taker and Shawn really don't do much in that match. You never get a clean pin attempt off a finishing move as the referee is either out cold or very late getting the count. Next month we did get the mega what should have been blowoff to the feud which had everything in it. It's certainly the weakest of their matches, but that's not to say it's bad. They've had I believe three others: WM which is in the running for best match I can remember seeing, HIAC which blew away everything anyone had ever seen, and the match taht ended his career for a long time. That's saying a lot.

Amen on Bret. That sums it up perfectly. Why was the Patriot out there? Why not someone at least credible like Vader or someone like that? Of course Bret would have beaten him, but there owuld at least have been some drama and it would have seemed like Bret was in danger.
 
In Your House 18: Badd Blood
Date: October 5, 1997
Location: Kiel Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Attendance: 21,151
Commentators: Jerry Lawler, Jim Ross, Vince McMahon

This is a very bittersweet show, as it’s the day that Brian Pillman, who was scheduled to have a match on the show, passed away. There’s still no clear decision as to whether or not letting the show go on was the right call, but Vince decided “it’s what Brian would have wanted.” I’ve hated that term for a long time but that’s how it goes. Anyway, your main feud is still Shawn vs. Taker, this time in the Hell in a Cell.

The poster for this event is just freaking creepy, as Taker is standing in front of shadows holding…his own severed head. It really does a good job of being freaky as hell. Also tonight Owen and Farrooq are in a tournament final to determine the new IC Champion that Stone Cold had to forfeit due to his neck being screwed harder than Paris Hilton on a drinking binge.

The main event is also a #1 contenders match, with the winner going to Montreal to face Bret for the title. Yeah, nothing of note will happen at that show. Just a run of the mill title match. Let’s dig into this.

Very basic opening video which talks about the big feud. The theme music here would become that of Steve Blackman, before he became the Lethal Weapon. At least they were saving some money I suppose. Not a word about Pillman so far. There it is, as the Nation’s music is playing and they’re in the ring. Not a moment of silence, not a formal announcement, nothing at all. Seriously, at least show his picture. Now that I’m ticked off, let’s do this.

Nation of Domination vs. LOD

So we have NOD vs. LOD? That’s…..really nothing of note. It’s 3-2 and I think the ramp is the shortest of all time as I turned my head for about 4 seconds and the LOD was in the ring. The NOD here is Kama, D’Lo and Rocky. Shamrock is out with an injury which is making this a handicap match instead of a six man. After a brief intro we get a funny spot as D’lo tries to backdrop Hawk.

Hawk stops right in front of him and when Brown gets up he gets kicked in the face. I love it. Somewhere in between some of the PPVs, Ahmed joined the Nation and was kicked out about a week later. Rocky took his place. After the LOD beat on Rocky for awhile, Kama is tagged in. For those of you that don’t know, he’s more commonly known as the Godfather or Papa Shango. LOD’s offense is still just as basic as ever, but Hawk does break out an enzuguri.

Eventually Rock is back in and you can see the master in him starting to come out. His style is really starting to take form including the signature punch. The crowd has started the Rocky Sucks chants which would become a big part of his feud with Austin later on in the year. We get a beatdown on Animal who gets hit by the Low Down, which is I think my all time favorite splash.

It just looks sweet every time it’s thrown. For the second time in the match we get a double knockdown based on a double clothesline. That simply can’t be a good sign. The fact that the first one happened after four minutes isn’t a good sign either. Farrooq runs out to stop the beatdown on Rocky, leading to him hitting “a devastating maneuver” on Hawk to get the pin. It’s the Rock Bottom for those of you interested.

Rating: C-. It’s ok I guess and with Shamrock hurt it was all they could do on short notice, but who thought it would be a good idea to put the LOD in a nearly thirteen minute match against a rookie, a guy that was newly heel and Kama? At least put someone out there that can carry a match if need be. Their offense ran dry after about three minutes, but they were so over that it made up for it.

We go to the commentators to be told that this was when Pillman was supposed to face Dude Love. It’s quieter this time and far more serious. While it’s still not what I’d hope they would do, this is light years better than what they had earlier. They say they have another match instead of that one for us, and while I’m willing to bet it won’t be anything great, it has to be better than nothing. At least they were something close to respectful here. This does make up a bit for earlier.

Max Mini/Nova vs. Tarantula/Mosaic

This time, we’re lucky enough to get four of them. I suppose this is ok since they had only a few hours to get this together. The first team weighs a combined 169lbs. Awesome Kong’s ass weighs more than that. Holy shit Max Mini got a damn pop! What in the hell is going on??? Mini gets the Taz line as Lawler says he looks a lot bigger on the Lucky Charms box.

Upon watching another of these I really do have to say that it’s better on second viewing. Some of the stuff that they do really does work, but the match is light years better as it’s less than seven minutes long as opposed to the nearly 13 minute one from the previous show. The key to these things is to not have them run that long so the novelty doesn’t wear off. In this shorter format I was actually getting into this a bit.

Now it’s not something I want to watch on a regular basis, but it was far from awful like it was last time. This is much like a WCW cruiserweights match in that it’s based more on flash than on substance. That’s fine if they don’t rely on it too much. There’s not a lot that can be said here as it’s just fairly random spots all over the place with little if any flow to it. The crowd seems into it though so that’s a good sign. After a pretty basic speed based tag match, Max gets a roll up for the pin.

Rating: C+. What an improvement over last month’s match. I actually was liking this a bit and while it was shorter, it didn’t need the extra time. Everything was fairly random but it never seemed like they were just trying to kill time. I can’t stand matches like that where it’s just moves for the sake of filling in the allotted time. This was decent and while I don’t think I’d want to watch it on a regular basis, I didn’t hate this. Definitively not that bad.

Sunny comes out to one of the greatest theme songs of all time with I Know You Want Me. Of course she looks insane. She’s your ring announcer for the tag title match.

Tag Titles: Godwinns vs. Headbangers

The hog guys have a new uncle as Cletus comes with them to the ring. These guys as heels simply do not work. They don’t work now and they didn’t work when they first arrived. The Headbangers continue to be a very original gimmick to say the least. Cletus is the former TL Hopper, a wrestling plumber. That’s the brilliance of the writing in the early and mid 90s for the WWF.

Lawler and Vince’s arguments are the best part of this match so far. Lawler talks about how Vince hates southerners. Vince mentions that he was born in North Carolina which messes Lawler up to no end. The Headbangers really weren’t that bad in the ring actually. The gimmick is all that’s remembered about them though. Their gimmick was that they were alternative and punk music fans. They wear shirts of acts like Marylyn Manson, White Zombie etc.

At the time it was a cool idea and they were fairly successful. They wore skirts in the ring and had all kinds of paint and tattoos which actually was very unique looking. Ross has a great line about how in the world do mountain men like that learn to do clotheslines? That brings up some very amusing images in my mind of the Godwinns in the ring learning to wrestle in full blown kayfabe.

There’s a great series of segments in there somewhere. It’s an untapped area of wrestling. You see Shawn and Angle training. Why not see someone with an over the top gimmick learning to wrestle? There could be some decent comedy in there. Henry does a lifting wheelbarrow move that I really like but follows it up with a terrible one where he and Thrasher allegedly slam heads but it looks like they just run into each other.

The finish here is just flat out bad. I think it was a botch and if it does it helps a lot. Mosh’s finisher was a seated senton from the top, the same move that Rey uses from a springboard where he sits on the guy’s chest. Phineas was supposed to catch him in a powerbomb to finish the match. Instead he just kind of drops him onto his back to end it. It really looked bad. Post match they beat up the former champions.

Rating: C. This was passable I suppose, but seriously: punk rockers vs. evil rednecks? That just goes to show you how truly bad the tag division was at the time. Two days later the LOD would take the belts and hold them for about a month and a half. The New Age Outlaws would form and bring some life into the division for awhile, but the division wouldn’t right itself for about a year and a half though.

We get a video package on what Austin has done throughout the time since his injury. This basically amounts to beating up announcers. Oddly enough, Slaughter takes the Stunner in a way that I like as much as any I’ve ever seen. He throws his body out like he’s getting an RKO so when Austin stuns him he just stops dead.

It looks really sweet actually. Vince is of course terrible as he rolls over Austin and convulses like he’s being electrocuted. Tomorrow Austin has to make a decision about what he’s going to do with his injury.

Owen says he’s sick of hearing about Austin and will sue him if he can. I didn’t think it was possible, but Michaels Cole somehow looks dumber than ever before with what I think is a fade haircut. WOW.

Legends Ceremony

I don’t know if this is to kill time because of Pillman but it’s nice to see. We get a ceremony honoring some of the great St. Louis area wrestlers over the years. The following are honored:

Gene Kiniski- Known as Canada’s Greatest Athlete, he held the NWA title for over three years, taking it from one Lou Thesz in Thesz’s home town of St. Louis. He also refereed the main event of the first Starrcade in the cage match with Race vs. Flair.

We’re even getting a video package of each guy. This is really something that’s impressing me. They’re even giving them plaques. This is awesome.

Jack Brisco- This guy gets a big pop. While his brother is more famous as one of the Stooges, this guy is far better in the ring. He held the NWA Title twice for a combined reign of over two years in his own right, beating Race and Baba to get it. Check out him and his brother against Youngblood and Steamboat at Starrcade 83 which was a great tag match.

Dory Funk Jr.- HOLY FUCK they’re breaking out some big guns for this. Held the NWA Title over four years and somehow is the brother of the wildest wrestler of all time in Terry Funk. His reign is the second longest in history after only Thesz’s epic one. He took the belt off of Kiniski.

Harley Race- Damn that guy got a POP. You can tell he’s a pure legend in his town and the reaction proves it. Seven time champion but more famous for being the guy that gave Ric Flair (who is mentioned in the video package) his main event rub in 1983. Race is without a doubt the main influence on HHH’s current style with the use of his knees and the King of Kings mantra.

Terry Funk- Race just got outpopped. Terry’s reaction is like a modern day main eventer and he had actually just lost the ECW World Title about two months before this, back when he was only middle aged at about 52 years old. You all know about Funk’s career so I won’t bother you with the details of it.

Lou Thesz- Go read a Gelgarin post. I couldn’t do this man justice.

Sam Muchnick- Imagine if Paul Heyman had made it work. Now take away the hardcore and you have Muchnick. Muchnick was a promoter for about 35 years and made St. Louis a Mecca of wrestling to say the least. The reason Race and all those other guys are legends of St. Louis are because of Sam. Go read about him. You’ll likely learn something.

This was VERY cool and got some time as it went on for ten minutes or so. There was no goofy storyline or run in to it, but rather just the men out there being honored. I really indeed an impressed with the WWF on this one. Very nicely done.

In the back Doc talks to Farrooq and asks about how Austin will influence the match which Farrooq says he doesn’t care about him.

The announcers say that Pillman may have died of a drug overdose. If I remember correctly that wasn’t the case. He had drugs in him but they were a normal amount of prescribed drugs. It turned out to have been heart disease.

IC Title: Owen Hart vs. Farrooq

You can see that Owen isn’t all there. He’s wearing an Owen 3:16 shirt which brings out Austin, who is supposed to present the belt to the winner of the match. This is the tournament final to determine the new champion due to Austin’s forfeiture. Austin steals Vince’s headset and is so on it’s hard to believe here. Vince tries to talk and Austin looks at him and just says shut up in that trademark voice.

He keeps stealing the headsets and giving them back so we have a rotating commentary team. Damn he left. Now I actually have to pay attention to the match. Austin steals the security guy’s walkie-talkie and is talking to someone. Ross gets his hat knocked off as this is one of the most entertaining things I’ve seen in a long time. He looks so casual about the whole thing that it’s hard to describe.

As far as the match goes, it’s a strength vs. speed matchup which is something that nearly always works well and considering the two guys you have in there should work very well indeed. Ross of course is ticked off about his hat so he takes the chance to do what he does best after commentating: whine about something. Seriously, someone get JR a bottle before he whines all night.

I love some of his stuff and even most of his stuff, but DAMN he needs to just get over himself sometimes. Austin takes a Spanish headset and starts doing Spanish commentary. One of the other commentators says a big long thing in Spanish and Austin says you can say that again with no clue what he just said. Tito Santana is one of the commentators and Austin says Tito is talking trash about him.

Tito backs off like a scared chicken which was rather funny. In what has to be the dumbest line Vince and JR have ever used, they say Austin is being disrespectful to the match by making sure the attention is on him.

Ok, let me make sure I have this straight. A man standing up at ringside and talking on the Spanish commentary, which we have never once heard is stealing the spotlight, but the people that are talking about him and have a fucking split screen camera shot to make sure we see Austin have nothing to do with stealing it? Sometimes the pure idiocy of the commentators makes me shake my head.

Damn they’re STILL talking about him going to the French commentators about how he’ll be in Montreal for the Survivor Series. After about six minutes we hear I think the second thing about the match itself, but remember, the commentators DID NOT disrespect them by not talking about them.

Neidhart runs out to distract the referee but Austin blasts Farrooq in the head with the belt to give Owen the belt. No one gets this but it would later be revealed that Austin wanted to take the title from Owen and no one else as he would continue to help him keep the title.

Rating: C. The match itself is just kind of a sideshow to Austin. He’s on fire here and would easily get an A if this was about the segment as a whole. The match is ok at best as there’s really no focus on it. The whole point was to get to the finish where Austin causes Owen to get the title.

We get a recap of the really bad Patriot/Vader vs. Hart Foundation mini feud. Seriously, this was just a filler and nothing more. Even Ross says that the only thing Vader and Patriot have in common is they’re Americans. That’s not a lot to go on. Apparently you can win by getting the flag or the traditional pin/submission so the gimmick in this match is completely stupid.

Boricuas vs. D.O.A.

Allegedly this is another fill in match due to Pillman. How long was this Dude Love match supposed to go on for anyway? This is a run of the mill 8 man match, but why would I want to watch this? No one has ever heard of any of the Boricuas other than Savio. So far it’s just standard punching and kicking as JR says DOA isn’t good for much more than boots, fists and clotheslines.

Other than that, you’re not missing much. And now I’m pissed off. JR and Vince ask about where Marlena is. If you remember correctly, she was with Pillman in storyline terms. That is just flat out wrong. The man passed away EARLIER IN THE DAY but we HAVE to hear about kayfabe right? That would be a tragedy if we gave it a break for one day. Seriously Vince, fuck you. That is absolutely pathetic, but not as pathetic as the next night when he interviewed Brian’s wife.

She agreed to it, but do you think she was thinking clearly at the time? I highly doubt it. Vince got a yes but he had no right to ask about that at all. It amazes me that wrestling can piss me off so much sometimes. After a break I’m back now. As for the match, the biggest thing here is Lawler says that there’s a new Attitude in the company as of late and they discuss the gang wars that were going on at the time. DOA wins with a tilt a whirl.

Rating: F. Commentary is a big part of a match, and that was disgusting to me. The match sucked too.

Bret and Bulldog are in the back as they insult America and say they’ll win tonight in the flag match.

After their intro the faces talk about how they’re going to destroy the Harts with Vader slipping in the word shit which is apparently panic inducing to the commentator assholes.

Flag Match: Hart Foundation vs. Vader/Patriot

Angle’s music does work for the Patriot. He was gone shortly after this so it wasn’t heard for about two years which makes it safe I guess. Vader as a face simply is an epic fail. We get a big brawl before the match actually starts which lasts about three or four minutes. Towards the end Patriot, being the real American that he is, hits Bulldog with a flag pole and lets the flag fall to the ground, which for those of you uneducated is a BIG negative.

Vader absolutely beats the living hell out of Bret with punches as I fail to comprehend how they screwed up with him. Seriously, look at him and look at what he can do in the ring and explain to me how you could screw Vader up. Dang Patriot botches a lot. He’s messed up such basic moves as a backdrop and a dropkick. That’s hard to do. At least when Jeff messes up stuff, he messes up big spots or high risk moves that are complicated.

Patriot is messing up bare basics of moves. There’s an angle where you can see the cage above the ring which is good as from a regular angle you can’t see it. The mystery surrounding the cage is such a nice touch. Bret gets the figure four on the pole but it’s clear that there’s no torque on the correct knee and it’s just pulling on his leg.

Eventually Bret gets the sharpshooter on him and Patriot uses the exact same counter that Bret was supposed to use on Shawn to put Bret in the hold (which he messes up also). Vince says this has been much more enjoyable than the people thought it would be. That amuses me very much. “We thought it would suck but it’s actually only sucking a little.” Great faith there Vince.

The problem I have with this match is that’s it’s really just a tag match. Adding the pins and submission rule is just a waste of a gimmick. Either make them go get the flags or don’t make them go get the flags, but damn it pick one. Damn it Patriot, if you can’t do these moves right then don’t try them. To be fair though, no one gets the figure four right for the most part aside from the mayor of Woo-Ville.

Vader goes for a moonsault but Smith moves. Instead of crashing, Vader adjusts in the air and nearly lands on his feet. For someone his size, that’s DAMN impressive. On the floor a few minutes later, Bret hits a solid shot with the bell right to Vader’s shoulder. Damn that would knock him out wouldn’t it? Bret slams Vader to no reaction from Vince or Ross but Lawler, his enemy, is surprised as I am.

The more I see of Bret the more impressed I am as he breaks out a DDT. Has anyone ever seen him use one of those before? It wasn’t great but it was good enough to get by on. Patriot REALLY needs to change the name of the Uncle Slam as a fan is thrown out of the ring. Bret uses the tights to get the pin and afterwards Patriot shows great American sportsmanship and beats up Bret for a bit. The flags aren’t even touched the whole match so the gimmick is completely wasted.

Rating: D. It was a decent tag match but a terrible flag match which is what I’m basing the rating on. The flags made no difference in the match at all and it was just pointless to have them up. Decent for a regular match though but if that’s what it was then this would be a B- or so.

The Cell is lowered just as we get a promo for Survivor Series: Gang Wars. What a great name for a show, Gang Wars.

In the back Shawn says that he’s great.

Recap of the feud and of Shawn’s turn. This could have been a minute or two shorter.

HIAC: Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels

Vince says it might be the last time Shawn steps into a WWF ring. No that would be in about 6 months (it was WWE when he came back). We get the lightning, the thunder, the smoke, and everything else that makes the Taker’s entrance sweet. The fans break out the lighters also to make this even sweeter than usual. It’s just cool to see all those little flames going up around the arena in praise of one man.

I jumped when he brought the lights back up with that explosion. This is just a great character to put it mildly. I’ve seen this match many times and I remember it being very good all around. Shawn is bumping like a madman as usual which is a lost art in the main event anymore. JR says Shawn’s feet hit the top of the cage. No they didn’t Jim. The basic idea here is Shawn is absolutely getting annihilated by Taker and it’s punishment for his actions in the past.

Some credit has to go to Shawn here as he’s just taking this beating but making Taker look great as it happens. It sounds easy but that makes things much better in a match. Ross points out that Shawn has beaten Diesel and Sid. He fails to mention they beat him first in both feuds. Shawn makes a comeback in a realistic way as he uses simple offense and a lot of the cage to fight back with the highlight of his offense being a piledriver onto the stairs which looked like it hurt like hell.

It was nicely done as Shawn’s offense looks like that of a person who was weakened and hurt. That’s a very nice touch to this match or any match for that matter. He slowly starts to pick up steam with his moves as they become more and more powerful until Taker starts his comeback. Shawn is thrown over the top rope and lands on a cameraman, who Shawn beats up.

As the announcers scream about how it’s legit, the cage door is conveniently opened. Shawn does the nip up which never gets old either. So far the cage usage has been limited which works fine. The star to the match should be the wrestlers and not the environment they’re in. Shawn hits SCM but Taker is sitting up within two seconds in a cool looking spot.

As the photographer is trying to get out, they break out and we get the famous visuals of this match, mainly of Shawn being rammed into the cage and the blood freely flowing. I didn’t remember there being two instances of him going face first. Shawn’s counter: a basic low blow. That makes sense here as he’s in big trouble and it’s the most basic move there could be in that situation.

Shawn then makes the mistake of climbing up the cage. The race is on as we go to the top of the cage. This was absolutely mind blowing at the time as neither the cage had ever been used before and no one had ever been that high off the ground in a wrestling match before. Taker then gorilla presses him up there which would have scared the living hell out of me.

The most famous shot of the match then happens when Shawn is climbing down and Taker steps on his hands to send him flying to the ground. The way it looks, Shawn might have missed the table completely which makes him getting up and finishing even more impressive. What amazes me more than anything is that compared to what Taker and Foley did, this somehow is nothing.

Shawn’s face is pretty much destroyed at this point as part of Becca’s soul dies. Shawn gets chokeslamed from the top which is an awesome sight with his legs just flying through the air limp and slamming into the map. Taker lands a great chair shot and signals for the tombstone. And then, it happens. The organ kicks on, and the arena is bathed in a red light.

A man in a red and black mask walks down the aisle with Paul Bearer and Vince says “That’s got to be Kane!”, and he was right. Kane rips the door to the cell off, gets in the ring for the staredown, does his trademark fire thing, and tombstones the Undertaker to hell. Shawn crawls over as he leaves and pins him to end the match. DX comes to get him and as Taker is trying to get up we go off the air.

Rating: A+. There is not a thing wrong with this match. It was intense, the buildup was great, the match itself was great, all kinds of violence, everything fit perfectly in the match, it furthered the major storyline of Paul Bearer vs. Taker and introduced Kane to set up the mega match at Wrestlemania 14. All in all, this is an absolute classic to put it mildly.

Overall Rating: C-. This card is remembered for one match and one match only, and there’s a very good reason for that: the rest of the card more or less sucks. Aside from the main event, everything was average or worse. The only thing worth seeing is the Legends Ceremony. Match wise, the flag match is ok at its very best. Other than that, watch the main event and move on. That one match literally carries this show.
 
Badd Blood was a nothing show save for the main event. Good job it's one if not the, greatest gimmick match of all time. As good as I hear HBK vs. Taker at this years Mania was, I don't think for a second it's as good as this. Although I'll have to judge that once I wastch this years match.

Why were there double D's in Bad?

This was also Vader's last worthy contribution to WWE.
 
Hart/Bulldog vs. Vader/Patriot was better than anything on Mind Games barring the main event but yet you give that show an A and this show a C?
 
So, it's personal opinion. Both have brilliant main events, and that's about it. The Flag Match is ok, nothing more. It certainly isn't as intresting as the ECW invasion at Mind Games.
 
In Your House 19: D-Generation X
Date: December 7, 1997
Location: Springfield Civic Center, Springfield, Massachusetts
Attendance: 6,358
Commentators: Jerry Lawler, Jim Ross

Well, last month was Montreal and the Screwjob. Now since I plan on doing a Survivor Series set of reviews, I’ll save my feeling on the incident for there, but all you need to know is that Shawn is champion and Vince is now starting down the road to being completely evil. Other things from that show include: Kane beat Mankind who is now full face, and Austin took the IC Title back from Owen Hart.

Other than that it was all SS matches that were just based around the current feuds. Tonight’s main event is Shawn defending against Ken Shamrock because…because…because they needed a face for Shawn to go over I guess. This show is famous for one match and other than that it’s here to serve as a bridge to the Rumble, so let’s get going.

We Want to Be Like WCW But We Just Suck Title: Taka Mickinoku vs. Brian Christopher

This was the final match in a tournament to win the “new” Light Heavyweight Championship. What’s not mentioned is that this particular title had existed since 1981. There was a Mexican promotion called the UWA that WWF had a working relationship with and WWF created the title for them as a gift I guess you would call it.

The title only changed hands twice on American soil prior to 1997, with those events being Lucha Libre events held in Los Angeles. UWA folded in 1995 and since the WCW Cruiserweight division wasn’t a big deal yet, WWF sent the belt to Japan where it was defended in NJPW.

Once the division got hot in WCW, WWF said they needed it back and ripped it out of the J-Crown, which was that 8 pack of titles Ultimo Dragon had. Therefore, in reality, whenever the J-Crown was defended on WCW television or PPV, a WWF Title was in fact on the line.

Anyway, this was the finals to determine the title that no one wanted to see in WWF. That’s the issue here: the “division” sucked. Why did it suck you ask? It sucked because there was no effort put into it. The fans didn’t care, the wrestlers weren’t as good, they weren’t given any legit TV time, and it was pretty much just like the Divas are now.

No one cared because it was just random as hell matches with a title match on PPV that would get no build or no attention. Anyway, the only decent wrestler in the division, Taka, is here in the finals despite losing clean just a few months ago to Sasuke who isn’t even in the tournament to begin with.

The final issue with this is that the people aren’t wrestling like cruiserweights. They’re wrestling like small heavyweights, using regular offense and little high flying. That’s why Taka was the biggest thing in the division, because he was the only one that wrestled like the traditional Cruiserweight style.

There’s not much to this match. For the most part Taka flies, Christopher does basic stuff, Taka hits a big move, and Christopher hits basic stuff to get the advantage back. The best part, which isn’t saying much, is Lawler talking about how Christopher isn’t his son.

It’s an ok match but it’s going a bit too long as we’re almost to ten minutes here and the best move was in the first two minutes or so, which was a moonsault from Taka that partially missed. Again you can see the basic flaws here. People didn’t want to see powerbombs and chinlocks here. They wanted high flying, springboards, flips and twisting moves. That is flashy and can make entertaining stuff, but this is just kind of there.

You can see the ineffectiveness of the division in the ending of this match. Christopher dominates about 85% of the match but he misses his finisher which was the top rope legdrop. Taka stands up, hits his Michinoku Driver and wins the title. That’s it. Patterson and Brisco give him the belt for no apparent reason as Japanese media take his picture.

Rating: D+. As I said, this was just a dull match. It was mainly ground work and then one big move for Taka to win the match with. That’s just not what was supposed to be the case with this division as it just wasn’t anything the fans wanted to see. They knew that WCW was better so why accept an imitation? They never did and that’s why the LH Title is really just a footnote in WWF history.

Doc is with the Jackal. Holy fuck did they miss the boat with this guy. He was almost this weird kind of prophet character, sort of what the Fallen Angel was supposed to be if TNA hadn’t fucked it all to hell.

Jackal was allegedly this guy that was power mad and wanted to take over the company through what was never actually referred to as brain washing but that was what it amounted to. Instead they put him with the Oddities and later the team that became known as the APA. For you ECW fans, he later became Cyrus, the network representative. This is for the Superstar line.

Los Boricuas vs. D.O.A.

Kane has beaten up Crush which served as a way for him to quietly leave the company. This feud just will not die, with the problem being no one cared about either team. No one could tell Savio’s team apart and literally 2/3 of the DOA are twins. Nothing was ever accomplished through this feud either as they just kept fighting. Chainz is the only one of the six in this match worth a damn.

According to Wikipedia, the three Boricuas are most famous for being part of the Boricuas. They also wrestled in Puerto Rico for awhile but nothing special otherwise. That simply can’t be a good sign. JR can’t tell Skull and 8-Ball apart, so he says it doesn’t matter, since by any other name they’re still bad. Yep, no argument there. Miguel hurts his knee during the match and has to get medical attention down on the floor.

Eventually Savio runs out to try to be the new third guy but the referee says no. Chainz gets the hot tag and hits a Death Valley Driver on one of the other team but Miguel runs back in, apparently not hurt, and leg drops Chainz to get the pin for the Boricuas. After the match the DOA hold their hands up despite losing.

Rating: D+. Not a good tag match in a boring feud. What kind of a grade are you expecting here? This was nothing but filler and it showed badly throughout the match. This feud just never went anywhere and it went on and on for no apparent reason. Literally, no one could tell the team members apart so why should we care? Just have Savio vs. Chainz like it should have been.

Actually, it shouldn’t have been at all. Also, what kind of a plan is that for a fake knee injury? “Now listen, you go in there and get your ass kicked for awhile. While you’re at position A, which is in the corner getting your head punches off, turn 45 degrees to position B, where you should be able to see me laying on the ground resting.

After taking 18 punches and a Death Valley Driver, I will move from position B to position C, where I will do one thing the whole match and then move you unconscious body into position D for the pin. Any questions?” See? That makes no sense.

We’re in the back with Butterbean. His voice is higher pitched than Lashley’s if you remember what that sounded like. Apparently he’s mad about Sable being treated badly. We go to Sable in the other room where we see a video package on this mini feud. Butterbean was in the audience one night when he was caught smiling at Sable.

This set Mero, now in a heel gimmick where he says he wants the spotlight that Sable is trying to steal and as a boxer/fighter, says don’t look at her. This went on for a few weeks until we get here. Now Butterbean would later fight Bart Gunn in a real boxing match at WM 15 and beat him within an inch of his life. This is scripted.

Butterbean vs. Marc Mero

This is a toughman match, which is just a boxing match. Sable comes out with Mero in a robe and barely there white shorts that look incredible on her. There are four 2 minute rounds here so at least this will be short. Mero was a Golden Gloves (amateur boxing) state champion so he at least knows how to box. In round one Mero is in the ropes and Butterbean nails him in the jaw, knocking him to the floor.

After the round, Mero hits him in the back of the head and we get a big melee from everyone else involved. The problem here is that yet again: PEOPLE WANT WRESTLING. We don’t want fighting or whatever, we would like a little wrestling though. Is that so much to ask for? These things are just wastes of time, at least when they’re not legit.

Now the Bart Gunn fight was at least entertaining with how fast he was out cold. That lasted I think about 45 seconds. This is just a waste of time. Mero, following the Marquis of Queensbury rules, hits a high knee to the back, chokes with tape, dropkicks him and thumbs him in the eye.

In the third round it gets even dumber as Butterbean stands there and gets hit while at the end landing a huge punch to knock Mero silly. He does it again to start the fourth round but gets low blowed. Mero runs with Butterbean chasing him to end this.

Rating: F. No boxing, MMA or tough man matches on a wrestling show. It’s really not that hard.

Dude Love says Austin will beat Rock.

The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust comes out with Luna, in I kid you not, pink and yellow bondage clothes, complete with Luna leading him on a leash. He reads a seductive version of Green Eggs and Ham as this was beyond out there. He claims to have written the book. Luna cuts him off and drags him away. I hope that by the time my kids have been born, the planet that these two were on has been discovered.

Cole is with the LOD, who are ticked about losing the tag titles a few weeks ago. They say they’re going to get the belts back.

Tag Titles: LOD vs. NAO

They’re not yet known as the Outlaws but it’s coming soon. They do however have the music and the intro but it’s not completely down yet. Road Dogg impresses me more and more every time I see him perform. He works had, he’s not bad in the ring and he’s got a good mouth on him. He walks to the ring talking about how he and Gunn are taking the fans on a tour of Jurassic Park that night, referring to his opponents this evening.

He doesn’t get to finish though as the LOD chase them off. The intro goes on for almost four minutes and Dogg doesn’t stop talking the whole time and he never stops being at least amusing if not funny. That’s hard to do no matter who you are. For about four months now JR has referred to the LOD as American Originals. Why keep referring to them as that if you’re never going to do anything with it?

Of course we start with a big brawl which ends up with the NAO getting half killed. When we finally get into a standard match, an odd realization sets in: Road Dogg is the best in ring worker in this match. Think about it: Gunn has never done anything of note that didn’t involve someone else carrying him and the LOD know about 5 moves between them.

Yes they were more successful and more exciting, but as far as solid in ring work goes, I’d take Roadie actually. Anyway, it’s a standard formula match with the heels beating down Hawk for the majority of the match until we get a big hullabaloo at the end of it.

The LOD of course comes back and beats the holy fuck out of Road Dogg before setting for the Doomsday Device when of all people Henry fucking Godwinn comes out and hits Animal with a slop bucket. Hawk and Henry brawl and Hawk hits everyone with the bucket for the DQ. Good grief, just have the LOD destroy the Godwinns already as this feud has been going on WAY too long and no one was interested in it at all.

Rating: C+. They didn’t know what they had with the Outlaws yet as they were without a doubt the best thing to happen to the tag division in years. The LOD was a thing of the past but they were still getting such huge pops you couldn’t just drop them. The logical thing would have been to drop the Godwinns feud, but of course Vince always loved the stupid gimmicks at the time so that’s what we got.

Promo for WWF the Music with various wrestles playing instruments that was a good idea I thought.

Recap of DX vs. Slaughter. Apparently DX is referring to themselves as the dirtiest players in the game and they coined the phrase. I don’t even need to make fun of that.

In the back, Cole is with HHH before the Boot Camp match. HHH has a gift bag for Slaughter which isn’t really funny. He says Slaughter’s time has passed. The arms are really kicking in on HHH as he’s morphing into the star that he was destined to be, and he hadn’t even fucked Stephanie once yet.

Boot Camp Match: HHH vs. Sgt. Slaughter

Pretty much it means a street fight. Damn that DX intro was bad ass. HHH is in a HHH t-shirt and jeans. Slaughter cuts a basic promo then comes out to Angle’s theme song which is again strange. We brawl to start of course which is the idea here. Slaughter gets a gutbuster as we’re just kind of filling time because this is getting 18 minutes.

They’re going in VERY slow motion here and it’s almost painful to watch. Slaughter hits a clothesline as with some kind of a belt or something. Sarge….I think tries to do his over the corner bump but it doesn’t work at all. HHH takes over and beats the hell out of the fat old man. He tries to get the ring bell from the time keeper so the Game drills him in the head with it in a NICE shot.

Chyna hands him a chain. This is just painfully boring mind you. Slaughter gets the chain and gets thrown to the floor. HHH goes up and crotch chops then dives into the boot of the former champion. Wow it’s weird to think that HHH had done more or less nothing at this point.

Suplex to HHH and we’re just painfully boring thus far. The weapon use has been almost as minimal as possible. Sarge goes up and it’s just like Ric Flair of course. Sleeper hold to show how this match is going. The referee slides in for the first time in a long time. Was he on the floor reading a Danielle Steele novel or something?

Cobra Clutch goes on and here’s Chyna to break it up. She shoves down the referee first which is stupid because, as Ross says, there are no disqualifications. The referee argues with Chyna and gets punched. She brings in a chair but Slaughter throws powder in her eyes. Boot shot from HHH to Sarge’s head which is no sold for the most part.

Cobra Clutch Part Deux occurs and down goes the Game. Chyna gets back up after two arm drops and low blows Slaughter. So we’ve had HHH going down and Chyna blowing Slaughter. Yeah that’s not funny. Pedigree on a chair ends it.

Rating: F. Yeah this got 18 minutes. Slaughter was almost immobile here and it was sad to watch. What did HHH do to earn this? Boring as hell match and flat out bad at times. This was the big blowoff? Really? This is the best they could come up with? At least there is some other good stuff coming later….I think.

Jarrett talks about how he’s going to destroy Taker tonight. Jarrett had redebuted recently and was now having to finally get in the ring with someone. He kept finding excuses to avoid having to wrestle but Slaughter said wrestle Taker or be fired. That brings us here.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Undertaker

Who would have thought that Jarrett would wind up with more world titles than Taker had? Such an odd fact, but Jarrett had 4 in WCW and 6 in TNA while Taker only has had 6 total and I can’t imagine him winning another 5 to trump Jarrett. Anyway, this is as expected, domination by Taker for the most part. All kinds of big moves and good bumping from Jarrett to make this a fun match.

Jarrett is looking like a space ranger or something in a one piece white jumpsuit kind of thing. In short, he looks like an idiot. Anyway, Taker of course beats the living hell out of him until Jarrett makes his comeback and stupidly works on the leg.

Why would anyone on the damn planet think they could make Taker give up? I mean really, he’s never once lost by submission in his whole career, so what makes you think your hold is going to do it? Of course, Taker fights back and is set to kill him, when the lights go out and the organ kicks on. You know what’s coming now, as Kane walks “straight from the main street of hell”, according to JR in a line that I like.

Kane chokeslams Jarrett to cost Taker the match and then dares the Undertaker to fight him which is the famous line from this match. Taker of course does nothing yet but his time would be coming. He beats up Jarrett after Kane leaves and Jarrett is all alone. He asks for the referee to announce that he is the winner, which he was.

Rating: B-. It was a fun match but probably not a good one. It was less than seven minutes long, or about 6 if you factor out the Kane part. All in all, it was designed just to get Jarrett on PPV and further Kane vs. Taker which is exactly what it did. Not bad, but it’s nothing magnificent.

Mark Henry is in the crowd with some kids or something.

We see a recap of the great Austin/Rock feud for the IC Title. The company knew what they had here and they made it one of the focal points of the show. The idea here is simple: Austin is the IC Champion but Rock stole the physical belt. Austin was going to war with the Nation because he didn’t like them telling him what he should do, as his character often hated.

Anyway, the real beauty of this feud was when it was just those two all alone. The absolute best part of this was when Austin was in the back and Rock was in the ring and Austin says something to the effect of when your beeper goes off and it says 316, you know your ass belongs to Stone Cold. The next week the Rock was in the ring and the beeper went off. You guessed it: 316. He turns around and the fight is on. These two were going to have a fucking war, and everyone knew it.

IC Title: Rock vs. Steve Austin

Just before the match, Rock is with the Nation and Doc and says he’s going to dominate tonight. Fink says it’s the IC Title match and the pop is huge. Even the people know this is going to be sweet. The whole Nation (Kama, Farrooq and D’lo) come out with Rock as the Rocky Sucks chant is almost drowning out the music. This match is sometimes called the Truck Match because Austin drives his truck right up to the ring.

Before the match starts the Nation jumps Austin but he fights them off, backdropping D’lo onto the hood of the truck and stunning him on the roof of the truck. After that the bell rings and the match officially starts. The crowd is on fire the whole match and rightfully so. Austin and Rock brawl a bit before Austin is sent to the floor. He fights them off when Kama hits Farrooq with a chair that he botches as you can see the edge hit Farrooq in the head.

Kama then gets thrown into the side, denting it badly. Then we finally get to Rock and Austin going at it in the ring. Austin has his vest on the whole match which is a nice little touch. Anway, this more or less starts off like the finish of a regular match between the two with Rock immediately going for and connecting with the elbow. They beat the fuck out of each other and Rock has knucks that miss.

Austin misses the stunner but as he’s going for Kama who is back on the apron he accidently stuns the referee. He gets it on Rock and another referee runs out for the pin. The crowd is never quiet for a second in this thing as it runs less than 6 minutes from bell to bell but the ramifications this match had are huge. It was on this night that Austin allegedly went into the stratosphere as the undisputed king of the company.

He destroyed one of the big stables and had the crowd on fire the whole time doing it. It was short because of his neck but no one noticed that as they wanted to see the hero beat up the villain. The next night, Austin was forced to vacate the title due to using the truck which he did with no argument.

The crowd went nuts with booing, but changed as fast as any crowd I’ve ever seen when Austin says to Vince that he can have the IC Title because Austin is going to focus on the world title. The walls of the building expanded a bit after that announcement due to the insane cheering that followed.

Rating: A-. The in ring stuff is very rushed but the reaction carries this one with ease. The fans knew what they wanted and the company gave it to them. Austin and Rock would go at it many times over the years but this was the one that started it all and it started with a bang. Not a great match from a technical standpoint, but DAMN.

Another promo for the Superstar Line.

We get a recap of the Shamrock/Michaels feud which could have been cut by about 2 minutes. It shows Michaels tapping to the ankle lock more than once without it being in a match. Well damn man, that’s irrefutable evidence if I’ve ever seen it.

Shamrock says that he’s more experienced in fighting in one of the worst promos I have ever seen. He was reading from a script and it was painfully, and I mean painfully obvious.

WWF Title: Ken Shamrock vs. Shawn Michaels

DX is in the back and Shawn calls JR a fat tub of goo which is just funny. He says he’s going to do what he does best: win. The intro is of course cool with the sweet music and jump cuts to videos in the theme. I loved that intro and always will. Shamrock of course beats the living hell out of Shawn to start things off. Shawn bails out to calm his head.

As he returns, in an unexpected twist, Shamrock beats the living hell out of Shawn. In a move that made me pause to reflect upon my time as a wrestling fan for not seeing it coming, Shawn bails out to calm his head. Finally, after all that, Shamrock beats the living hell out of Shawn, who bails out to calm his head. That’s seriously your first probably 7-8 minutes of this 17 and a half minute match. Why repeat it so much?

Shawn can’t hang in a fight with Shamrock. Once is enough, twice drives it home even further, but do we need to see it THREE FUCKING TIMES???? As we begin round four of Shamrock beating the living hell out of Shawn, Michaels gets a low blow and finally we get the champion in control. The majority of what’s left is Shawn using his standard yet still good stuff to wear down Shamrock.

That makes sense as Shamrock is still pretty inexperienced so why would he know the counters and reversals for simple moves? That’s not sarcasm for those of you wondering. That makes sense. In between this though, Shamrock fights back until Shawn capitalizes on a mistake here or there to take him down again. That’s the basic problem with this match: it’s entertaining but it is so ridiculously repetitive that you want to ram your head into a wall.

They do the same formulas over and over again and it’s just getting monotonous on so many levels. Shamrock wasn’t ready for a spot like this I don’t think, at least not a match this long and it was showing badly. He’s ok out there, but he’s just not clicking like a main eventer should. After Shawn just beats the holy fuck out of Shamrock, he sets for the superkick.

As makes perfect sense, Shamrock grabs it and puts him in the ankle lock, prompting HHH and Chyna to run in and cause the DQ. There’s your standard beatdown but then as Shawn is on the apron we get the big part of the segment as Owen Hart returns to jump him, sending him through the announce table where he jumps on him and beats the life out of him.

The crowd is losing it here as this was just fucking awesome. Now this is where the things screw up and things fall apart for Shawn’s career: he refused to feud with Owen. For one thing, that was the undisputed, absolute lock of a money match for the upcoming Rumble: Owen vs. Shawn for the title. You take Owen, who has legitimate heat with Michaels over Montreal and put him in the ring with Shawn and how is it not great?

Owen was someone that could go move for move with Shawn and put on a damn classic. However, according to various rumors, Shawn was afraid Owen would shoot on him and make him look bad or injure him severely so he refused the match. What we got instead was another Taker vs. Shawn match, where due to the stipulation, Shawn injured his back and was out for over four years.

The eventual plan was to feed Owen to HHH anyway which is what happened at Mania, so HBK and Owen would have been a one off match anyway, likely with HHH costing Owen the title which would lead to them feuding and facing off at Mania like they did for the European Title. In other words, had it not been for Shawn’s ego getting in the way AGAIN, he might never have gotten hurt and who knows what he would have wound up doing with his career?

I’m fairly certain he would have gotten the title back on more than one occasion. Can you imagine him in the Attitude Era full time? He wouldn’t have been a major player but he would have been a factor for sure. Damn shame indeed.

Rating: C. Like I said, it was ok, but it was repetitive. That’s easily what hurt this match was that it was the same sequence and formula over and over again and I for one got sick and bored of it. Shamrock wasn’t ready for this spot and that’s all there is to it. He was a fighter, not a wrestler and it caught up to him.

Overall Rating: D. This show sucks and it sucks bad. You have one match and it was the IC Title match that was less than six minutes long. Other than that, the first few matches were just bad, the others were ok, and the main event was about eight minutes too long and just boring. Overall, this show was another example of why you don’t need a PPV a month, plain and simple.

The Austin match is the absolute only thing really good about this show and I’m sure it’s on about 3 DVDs, so go find one of those and watch it instead. I guarantee you’ll have more fun reading the back of the box instead of watching this terrible show. As you guess, heavy recommendation to avoid.
 
Terrible show. Looking back I'm wondering what exactly makes 1997 my favorite year of wrestling.

This show was never going to be particularly intresting. Certainly not after what happened the month before. The Austin match is entertaining, as his often were. But that's the only highlight of the whole card. The rest is meh.
 
Oye.. I'm so lost in this thread, and I hate it. I want to recap every show I've missed, but that'd be like #2 on.. and this is #19. I think some day I'll possibly update with a huge post no one will likely read.. until then, a few choice words.

Light Heavyweight Division: It failed because of two reasons. First, going back to the Canadian Stampede p.p.v (which I just watched, mind you) of course your division is going to fail if you have the guy you intend on leading it.. lose his debut match on Pay per view, to another guy that never made another appearance for your Company. (to my knowledge)

Second, outside of Taka - who else did they truly have, that was considerably a Cruiserweight-isque type Wrestler? Scott Taylor (Scotty 2 Hotty) and Brian Christopher (Grand Master Sexay) were both average at best. Fuck, it amazes me Christopher even ever got as far as he did. I think it's based solely on his relationship with Lawler.

W.C.W had Cruiserweights flying all over the place. W.W.E had one guy that did high flying moves, and the rest of the division was just under weight.

D-X Pay per view: Ken Shamrock only got the shot because leading up to Survivor Series he defeated both Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. But anyone who assumed Shamrock could've won the title here was insane and out of their mind. Shamrock never had what it took to become a Heavyweight Champion - and further more, this was a Pay per view named after one half of the members that was currently the Heavyweight Champion. Why would they take the title off him, on his own show? (even though if memory serves, he did lose by DQ)

The big waste here is Triple H against Sgt. Slaughter. Why? I suppose nothing else could be done, but did Jeff Jarrett truly need to face the Undertaker? Triple H against Taker, with Kane prompting the finish and Trips winning via DQ that way would've been more rewarding. Instead, Triple H gets beat by a guy a lot older and way more out of shape than he is.. and he only barely wins, thanks in part to Chyna's help. Weak.. very weak.

As for the rest of the show - it's easily forgettable. Rock/Austin was okay, but compared to their Mania matches they'd later go on to have - no one truly remembers this match.

The Outlaws against the Legion of Doom should've been better, but for some reason it wasn't. And don't even get me started on Butterball, or Marc Mero. I was a huge "Wildman" Marc Mero fan.. then he returns with this stupid Golden Gloves Boxing gimmick.. and ugh..
 
Once again KB this thread is great. For a wrestling fan like myself who may not have seen the earlier stuff or certain PPVs, these threads are a real treat.

I liked the IYH series and sure there were bad ones and good ones, but as a whole it was a good concept. I've only seen some matches here and there, but it seems like they were the important ones anyway. I see people talking about how your ratings are low, and I do agree that they seem rather low, but who am I to argue your opinions on what you thought of the matches. Either way, great thread and a great read.
 
I agree wholeheartedly that The Jackal was a waste of time in WWE. What shows that the character worked though, was that it took almost no tweaking to make it a hit in ECW. This is the man that changed the entire landscape of ECW for it's last few years, and almost made it work. Only Cyrus could have turned Jerry Lynn a heel, and not lost fans.

As far as the Light Heavyweight Division...Yes, it started as a piece of trash. It would eventually get better, but it was never anything considered serious. It was around the time Gillberg won it, that people realized Vince was clueless. But, the Jeff Hardy v. Jerry Lynn matches for the title are worth watching. Wow, I really do push Lynn a lot, don't I?

I agree that Shamrock didn't deserve the title shot, but you said yourself that sometimes you need that sink or swim opportunity. If Shamrock was ever going to be big, it needed to be from the start. His best stuff in WWE was feuding with Blackman and Severn.
 
In Your House 20: No Way Out Of Texas
Date: February 15, 1998
Location: Springfield Civic Center, Compaq Center, Houston, Texas
Attendance: 16,110
Commentators: Jerry Lawler, Jim Ross

We’re a month away from Wrestlemania 14 and the showdown that is Austin and Michaels. At the Rumble last month, Austin of course dominated the Rumble by last eliminating the Rock to earn the right to face Michaels. Also on that card, Shawn had his back destroyed which is why he’s not in the main event of an eight man war tonight. The main event tonight is a hardcore eight man tag with DX minus Shawn Michaels vs. Austin, Owen, Cactus Jack and Terry Funk.

The Outlaws STILL aren’t officially in DX though. Anyway, the other famous part of that show was the very end with Taker being set on fire by Kane but disappearing somewhere in between. Kane and Bearer say he’s dead so they’ve been terrorizing the company, leading up to the return of the Deadman I believe the next night on Raw. Other than that it was a basic card with nothing of note happening. The Attitude Era is here so let’s see how things go coming into the biggest show of the year.

Good video package to start things off, talking about how all of the different people will need help to get out of Texas alive tonight. We go to the announcers after fireworks who say that no one can replace Shawn and it’s going to be a war in the main event. I know who the replacement is but I’ll save it for the end of this review. Let’s get inside the ring already.

Goldust/Marc Mero vs. Headbangers

Sable of course is still the center of attention with her feud with Luna starting to take off. This was really just a waste of time that accomplished nothing but getting Sable over as “the dominant diva”. She was ok on her very best day while Luna was one of the best female workers in the world at that time. Of course, all the credit went to Sable which always hurt Luna.

Anyway, Mero is here for some reason too. This was a good way to get her over, and it did the bonus thing of burying Mero at the same time. Goldust is of course dressed like a freak. The Headbangers continue to be over for some odd reason as they’re billed from New Jersey which kind of kills it a bit for them. Just a weird place to imagine them being from and please don’t demod me boss.

Sable is sent to the locker room by Mero so this match is officially boring. This match shows what was good about the Attitude Era: everything was at least partially developed. There was a point to this match and a story being told for Mero and Goldust with Sable and Luna. How many matches today do you see where it just feels like they’re just going with it, hoping they come up with a story somewhere along the lines?

Here you have two guys that are self-obsessed and are afraid their lady counterparts are going to steal the spotlight. It’s not much but they at least had a direction planned. Also, you see a tag team that has a common theme with the Bangers. Mero and Goldust weren’t a long term team but it was fine for a short amount of time. See what they did here? Instead of just random tag titles matches, we have tag teams doing other stuff.

Thrasher starts bleeding which is something that almost always makes a match better. It’s the back of his head too which makes it even better looking. We get a three count but they call it two because Thrasher can’t manage to kick out at two for some reason. The beatdown on Thrasher is going too long now as it’s just overkill now. If they cut about three minutes out of this segment this would be a good tag match.

It’s ok but nothing great at this point. Eventually Mosh gets beaten down thanks to Luna interfering. Sable comes out and Mero freaks of course. He tries to get rid of her and the Bangers switch to allow Thrasher to get a roll up for the pin. After the match there’s a near catfight and Sable shoves Mero down.

Rating: B-. This was an ok tag match. It didn’t have much of a point but that doesn’t mean it was a bad one to say the least. It’s not great but they at least entertained us a bit. Decent little story being told and Mero and Goldust being ok midcarders makes this one ok. The real stuff is about Sable of course but that’s post match for the most part.

Call the Superstar Line and run up your phone bill today!

Owen says he’ll beat up HHH in the main event.

Sunny is the guest ring announcer for the next match, coming out looking great of course in a pink outfit.

Light Heavyweight Title: Taka Michinoku vs. Pantera

Damn I was hoping it would be the band. I’m not a huge fan of theirs but I know it would be more interesting than this, as we have another random title match with guys we know nothing about. Brian Christopher comes to the ring to continue the worst title feud of the year. I’m quickly seeing why Christopher isn’t allowed to be on the mic that often. He’s very bad at what he’s trying to do here.

At least with Lawler he’s able to be funny with some of his lines. Christopher is just annoying. He even drops some racial slurs against Taka that are taking it too far. It’s painfully obvious that Lawler is carrying his son here and he has for his entire career. Some of Pantera’s offense is pretty good here, but once again the issue comes from it being about Lawler’s kid who no one wanted to see.

I really want to hurt Brian Christopher at this point as he truly is driving me crazy. I think I’ve finally figured out the problem with this division: the champion. He is booked to look pathetic in almost every one of his matches yet he’ll hit that powerslam move to win it. He held the title for almost a year. For a new belt, that’s completely too long.

If he’s supposed to be the best he should hold it for three months or so, have a heel take it from him and build to a rematch. Taka never lost and soon he would be fighting heavyweights. In this one for example Pantera looks awesome. Taka is getting his ass kicked and then he comes back for a short back and for sequence, hits a missile dropkick and the Driver to win it.

That is just lazy booking in my eyes. Instead of building a whole division they just tried to build one guy and it failed completely. Post match Christopher says he’s going to take care of Taka but Lawler stops him. Taka jumps on them both which would lead to a bad 2-1 feud.

Rating: B-. This would be another case of splitting the grade three ways: the commentary sucked, Taka did like four moves and Pantera was great. His offense was very unique and looked crisp all around. Taka was booked WAY too strong and with Christopher on commentary it opened a big gaping door for him to interfere and then feud with Taka for the #1 contender spot before the rematch where Taka gets the belt back. That would have been decent booking though so that’s out.

Cactus Jack and Terry “Chainsaw Charlie” Funk are on laptops talking to fans. This just looks odd to say the least. They’re going to beat up DX in the main event.

Godwinns vs. Quebecers

Another tag match? The Quebecers are a gimmick as old as time that worked for the most part before but this was a different story. For some reason the Godwinns were never fired as Vince apparently loved these guys. This is heel vs. heel which rarely if ever works. I just don’t get what the appeal to these two were.

This is pure filler to say the least. The styles here are too similar and the double heel thing is just not working on any level. Also, absolutely no one cares about this match. Everything that the first match was, this is the opposite. The end is just out of nowhere as Henry hits a clothesline and wins it. What the hell was that? Post match of course the Godwinns hit them with the buckets.

Rating: D-. This was flat out bad. It was a total waste of time, no one wanted to see it, and it wasn’t any good. The ending came from nowhere and it didn’t work at all. Just a flat out terrible match and a complete waste of time. Was there nothing else here to put in this spot?

Doc is with the Outlaws, who say they don’t know who their partner will be.

Random as hell Attitude promo. It’s promoting the WWF product, on a WWF show, and on a PPV no less. Figure that one out for me.

Jeff Jarrett and Cornette are in the back. This was in the middle of a very strange choice for an angle where Vince co-promoted with the freaking NWA. The NWA North American title, their IC belt, was defended on WWF TV with feuds, angles, etc. It made no sense at all and no one got what Vince was trying to do here. The NWA at the time was in the ground at this point so this was like manna from Heaven for them.

North American Title: Jeff Jarrett vs. Bradshaw

Jarrett has Cornette, Barry Windham and the Rock N Roll Express with him but only Cornette is allowed to stay. They were still trying to figure out what in the hell to do with Bradshaw around this time but they were starting to get close. The APA was coming soon which turned out to be the answer all along for him. So far this is a standard match for both guys with Jarrett running things.

These are two guys that were bounced around this company for their entire careers in desperate search of a direction. Neither guy ever really found anything that would work well for them but they did alright for themselves I’d say. They really push Bradshaw’s football past which is a smart move. So my power went out as I was working on this review so the rest of what I had said about this match got deleted.

What I was going to say was that since Bradshaw is a virtual unknown, play up something about his past that will impress us. That’s something that is missing from WWE announcing today as Vince is paranoid about anyone thinking people had lives that weren’t associated with WWE. It’s not like WWE has anything to worry about from the NFL. To worry about them would imply WWE stood a chance against them in a ratings battle.

Anyway, this match has a nice rhythm to it for lack of a better term with the ending seeing Cornette come in and Jarrett using the racket for the DQ. Bradshaw fights off the NWA guys for awhile but eventually has to be saved by the LOD. It amazes me how many big named guys came out of the NWA. It was such a different style but it worked. Had they been willing to change with the times, who knows what they could have been.

Rating: B. Not sure why but I really liked this match. There was just a nice flow to it that made it fun which I think is mainly because it never takes itself too seriously. That’s something that is severely wrong with wrestling today. Both TNA and WWE think that every match has to be this big thing where every match is Wrestlemania or bigger.

That wasn’t the case here and the match benefits from it a lot. It was a fun little 9 minute match with Jarrett being good out there as always and Bradshaw doing far better than he would later on. When he was young and in shape he was actually decent. Cornette on the side makes this just work very well all around.

HHH says no one will be able to do what Shawn would have done out there. He says there’s going to be a handicap match tonight instead, which wouldn’t be the case.

The Nation is talking about their upcoming match. Rock and Farrooq argue over who the leader of the Nation is. Farrooq is definitely underrated on the mic. Rock is hilarious here as he plays to the camera while Farrooq isn’t looking, rolling his eyes at a lot of what he says. Great stuff from both guys.

DOA/Shamrock/Ahmed Johnson vs. NOD

This is a War of Attrition which is a fancy term for an elimination match. The Nation is Rocky, Farrooq, Kama, D’Lo and Mark Henry. The Nation was about to be taken over completely by Rocky for the war with DX that would elevate HHH into superstardom but it wasn’t quite there yet. Oh and Rocky is IC Champion having won a tournament for the vacant belt.

You know, Howard Finkel has to have the best job of all time. He does nothing but talk, he’s legendary for it and he gets to hold all of the belts. D’lo was apparently supposed to be the breakout star of the Nation. That’s just funny. I like the way Chainz drops running elbows. Instead of a big windup or jumping he more or less slides with them. It’s a different style that I really like.

Apparently Mark Henry is still a rookie despite being in his third year with the company. This has gone on too long already with no eliminations. More or less it’s a Survivor Series match, which means I’m looking for about 4 to come at once. The Brown praise is just humorous. Of course we get the big brawl which results in the two captains, Shamrock and Rock brawling. Shamrock gets the ankle and Rock taps so it’s…….over? WHAT THE HELL??? It’s one fall? My mind is blown by this.

WHY IN THE FUCK WOULD YOU CALL IT A WAR OF ATTRITION WHEN IT’S ONE FUCKING FALL??? That makes no sense!!! Attrition means survival. Why would you call it survival when you have it being one fall. If that’s the case aren’t all matches wars of attrition? I seriously do not get what goes on in Vince’s head half the time. Rock and Farrooq fight after the match. Funny moment as they go to do the salute but they have the wrong side of the ring and have to get in front of the cameras.

Rating: C+. While the rules make no sense at all when you factor in the name, this was a pretty decent little match. It did the job it was supposed to do which was mix about three feuds at once which is a good move that when pulled off right can do a lot of good for a show. It set up Shamrock vs. Rock at Mania which it was supposed to do, so this was a fun little success.

Austin, in a fucking collared Stone Cold shirt, for the business casual redneck, says that he doesn’t care who the other partner is.

We get a recap of Vader vs. Kane. Vader was nothing more than a jobber at this point and it was actually kind of sad. Kane beat him up on Raw a few weeks ago.

Vader vs. Kane

In the video that was aired we see Kane land a double chokeslam on two guys that would later be known as Matt and Jeff Hardy. Yeah other than that there isn’t much here. Let’s get to it. Both guys get big pops for some reason. Kane was popular I guess because of awesomeness in general or something.

BIG old pop for the lights going on and the organ coming up. It amazes me that he became this big of a star this fast. Also it’s 12 years later and he’s still coming to the ring with Paul Bearer. Something about that just feels right. Vader stares him down immediately and it’s on.

Vader was way over here, which makes me wonder why he was jobbing to guys like Goldust. Notice something about Kane here: he uses very basic offense and doesn’t look proficient at them. Kane had been wrestling as other characters for years so it wasn’t that he couldn’t properly execute them.

He intentionally looked young and inept to further his character. That’s a very nice touch that helps a lot. Was there a point to Vader wearing a mask? He hits the floor almost immediately and here we go. BIG Vader chant for a bit there. We’ve been in the ring all of 4 seconds so far.

Ah there we go as Kane hits the clothesline off the top. There’s no Taker at this point as Kane lit him on fire back at the Rumble so Vader is about as good as it’s going to get. All Kane here as he goes for the mask. Kane is basically the unstoppable monster here so Vader can’t really hurt him.

DDT by Kane as this is his longest match ever so far. Vader hits a “running” splash in the corner and here he comes. Here he comes as Kane is in some trouble. Also for those of you that were wondering if Vader had ever hit the moonsault (I think it was Norcal) here’s your moonsault that connected. The result? Kane is up in seconds.

Vader is getting all fired up here and we go to the floor again. He finds a fire extinguisher which is a very nice touch that made me laugh. Remember, Kane was allegedly horribly burned. Back in the ring and Vader hits a powerbomb. That’s no sold as well and Kane hits the chokeslam but Vader pops up. Tombstone ends him though. Post match Kane DRILLS him with a wrench and Vader does a stretcher job.

Rating: C+. This was a very good match for Kane. He was a monster but he needed in ring credibility. He had a match with Mankind at Survivor Series but other than that he did nothing but squash jobbers.

Putting him in the ring with a fairly recent main event guy and having him destroy him was a great way to give him credibility. That’s a great move to get him over with the fans as a monster to set up the showdown a month after this.


Recap of the teams that are going to be in the main event tonight. It’s another case of multiple feuds being put together in one big match, which is fine if it wasn’t the fourth tag match of the night.

DX/Mystery Partner vs. Austin/Cactus/Funk/Owen

Outlaws entrance is as great as ever as I start to love Dogg’s mic skills ever more each time I hear him. You can see HHH being groomed to take over DX now that Shawn is injured. He fits into this role so much better than Shawn does actually, as Shawn relied more on his in ring ability than his antics, which HHH was better at. Apparently Shawn hurt his back training. That’s fine for an excuse I guess.

The mystery partner is…….Savio Vega??? What in the hell??? Was TL Hopper not available? My goodness, at least pull Rock from the other match and throw him in there or something. At least he was a semi main event guy at the time. The crowd doesn’t boo here, they groan when they see him.

The Boricuas never once came close to being over at all, and Savio was the best they had, and even he wasn’t over at all. This just made a lot of people angry that he was the best they could get. Put a weak Rock out there instead. He’s far better than Vega. I just don’t get this. Have to love Attitude Era booking don’t you?

Austin of course gets the super pop. Sweet damn it’s scary how over he was as he had to be getting close to what Hogan was in the 80s. He couldn’t have come at a better time either as Starrcade 97 was less than two months old and the bad taste was still in WCW’s fans mouths. Austin was new and exciting and the fans ate it up.

As Harvey Dent said in The Dark Knight, “The night is darkest right before the dawn, and a new dawn is coming.” The promised land was within reach of the WWF at this point and they knew that if they could just make it to Mania, things would get very interesting very fast. I think WWF knew if they won the ratings war just once that they had a legitimate shot to win the whole thing. On this night, they were less than two months away from finally breaking their losing streak.

Wait, so there’s no rules but they want to try to have tags? Oh good that lasted all of four seconds as they figured out that they couldn’t be disqualified for not being on the ropes so everything is just a wild fight. There wasn’t a hardcore style yet but this was one of the things that started to establish it. So after about an 8 minute war, they go back to the aprons. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?

You can’t get disqualified, so why not have a big wild brawl? I swear the booking just makes my head hurt on occasion from this era, but the workers can overcome it most of the time. They’re blasting each other with chairs and trash cans but they have to avoid the deadly five count. They mention Mike Tyson which was such a huge thing at the time it’s not even funny. That more than anything but Austin probably pushed WWF over the top.

The match is pretty much nothing but brawling the entire time here as it’s just a wild fight. The fans want nothing but Austin in there. That’s saying a lot given the other talent that’s involved in this match. Cactus as expected gets the beating of the match as they nearly kill him with all kinds of weapons including tying him up with barb wire.

Finally though Gunn misses a chair shot and hits Road Dogg, allowing Cactus to bring in Austin. What do you expect to happen here? Of course Austin beats the living hell out of everyone, eventually hitting the stunner to beat Road Dogg. The celebration ends the show with Austin standing tall.

Rating: A-. The only thing missing from this match was the logic of the tagging in and out. If it’s not sanctioned or there’s no rules, why would the teams need to tag in and out? That just makes no sense. However, Austin completely stole the show here as he was either on the verge of or already the biggest star in the world.

The crowd ate him up and it worked to no end. The brawling here was amazing with one of the most violent matches I’ve seen out of this company in a long time. These guys nearly killed each other and it set up next month perfectly with the only thing missing being Shawn who I think has a valid excuse.

Overall Rating: B+. This was a great show actually. The biggest flaws are connected here: over half the cards are tag matches, and one of them was absolutely terrible. The main event makes up for it though as that match was absolutely kick ass all around.

Kane and Vader was solid and the whole show succeeded in its biggest job: building up the show for Mania. This was a very fun show while possibly not being good. That’s the Attitude Era in a nutshell: off the wall and insane while not incredibly deep. Good show and worth watching though.
 
Typical IYH so it seems. Terrible undercard, brilliant main event. Savio Vega was a disappointment at the time. But he's actually a lot better than Billy Gunn & the Road Dogg. Another forgotten match.

Other than that the show was poor. The Bradshaw/Double J match was probably one of the worst of that year and Vader & Kane was incredibly boring.

WWE should adopt a similar main event at each No Way Out. They sort of did it in 2007, but it was shit. Undertaker, John Cena, HBK, Triple H & Jeff Hardy vs. Edge, Big Show, Matt Hardy, Randy Orton & Vladimir Kozlov this year could have hyped WrestleMania a lot better than two Elimination Chamber matches ever would.
 
1998 was such an awesome year for ppvs for both WWE and WCW. Every ppv was interesting and memorable in their own way. No Way Out main event is a classic match.
 
In Your House 21: Unforgiven
Date: April 26, 1998
Location: Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina
Attendance: 21,427
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

Well, we’re in a very different place now than we were just two months ago. Number one, the losing streak has been broken as on April 13, as the WWF won the ratings in the Monday Night Wars. This could likely be attributed to Steve Austin winning the WWF Title from Shawn Michaels who is now gone as he tries to heal his back. In other developments, DX has finally turned into what we all knew it would one day become.

Their face turn is looming but it’s not quite there yet. Taker finally took out Kane but their feud is far from over and tonight we get the real main event with Kane and Taker in an Inferno Match. Austin also has his first token title defense against Dude Love to officially kick off what I thought was an underrated feud. Anyway, we’re in the home of Starrcade which to me is just poetic justice since WWF has turned things around, so let’s get to it.

Opening is all about Kane and Taker with no one else even being mentioned. They quote a lot of stuff from Dante which is a very good idea. They talk about Vince having some big scheme as a weird country kind of song plays.

NOD vs. Steve Blackman/Farrooq/Shamrock

Nation here is Rock, Brown and Henry. All of the titles have been redesigned also, which was long overdue but I’m still not sure if any but the world title really needed it. Blackman has been around since November, but we haven’t heard of him in six months. That’s not saying much for your early career. Shamrock wants the IC Title, and Farrooq was thrown out by the Rock.

It’s kind of sad that I’m watching Raw as I do this, but I know I’m not going to miss anything and I’ll be more entertained by this show which I’ve seen many times. Brown’s pushing and hyping is just funny. Farrooq is mad over here. He’s another case of someone that I just don’t get how Vince missed. He was good in the ring, he was over, and he had a good look. What was missing there?

Henry is still using the same moves he uses now. That’s just flat out pathetic. Blackman becomes your face in peril here as he just gets the hell beaten out of him the entire time. There’s nothing great here for the most part but it’s passing the time well enough. For six man matches unless you have huge talent in them, nothing great is going to happen.

However, they can be done well like this one. Eventually it becomes a brawl after Farrooq and Rock are made legal. Farrooq gets the clean pin after the Dominator. After he says that’s just the beginning, and Cole, at ringside, says let’s go back to ringside. Amazing.

Rating: B-. Not bad at all here, but it leaves me scratching my head. Farrooq and Rock could have been a very solid feud. It’s not like Simmons had no experience with singles titles as a former WCW World Champion. He was more than capable of working an IC Title feud. It does kind of make you wonder about Vince’s feelings towards African American wrestlers.

Austin comes out to a mega pop. He just looks right with that title. He’s apparently upset over Vince telling a timekeeper to ring the bell when he shouldn’t have. Austin says do it again and he’ll be out of a career. This was a cheap way to get out there and get the crowd going and there’s not a thing wrong with that.

Recap of Owen/HHH. Chyna will be in a mini cage tonight above the ring.

European Title: Owen Hart vs. HHH

I was wrong. The face turn has already hit. Sign in the crowd: Playboy needs Chyna. At the time, I couldn’t have agreed more. Damn I wanted to see her naked. We get the crotch chops and the fireworks to go with them which is always a cool thing to see. Slaughter continues to be the most inept commissioner of all time. The mini cage is actually a good idea I think.

It’s unique and offers a chance to make this more interesting. The cage is also hanging above the ring to add a bit more to it. We start with Owen just beating the fuck out of HHH which I think ensures what the end of this match is going to be. Eventually they get down to a regular match and then we get to the real story of the match; Chyna’s attempt at an escape.

She starts by trying to just bend the bars, but moves up to pulling a file or a saw or something out of her shoe. That’s so stupid it’s great. HHH gets a chinlock on Owen and I hear a voice say “Owen, back me into the corner, then back up and I’ll move.” Just after that, Owen knocks HHH into the corner, hits some shoulders and backs up, and on a running charge, HHH moves!

I mean you could hear it loud and cleanly. It was so bad that Ross tried to cover it up as talking trash. Easily the worst I’ve ever heard. The match is pretty good but this feud is starting to get stale as they’ve been going at it for several months now with Owen never winning once. Owen takes over for the most part as we get completely ridiculous with Chyna bending the bars of her cage to get out.

She hangs from the cage by one arm which looks pretty funny for some reason. Owen hits his spin kick and then the Sharpshooter as Chyna’s cage is lowered to the ground which stuns the announcers for some reason. Apparently Road Dogg got it lowered.

Owen hits a pedigree, and does it better than HHH usually does, but with the referee distracted X-Pac hits him with a fire extinguisher for the pin. Post match Owen says enough is enough and it’s time for a change, which would lead to him somehow joining the Nation.

Rating: C-. This match just never felt like it got going. The first 4-5 minutes are mostly focused on Chyna trying to get out and it hurts the match a bit as it takes the focus off two guys that would have put on a good match. With Owen losing so much I would have liked to see him get the win here but that wouldn’t have been the right decision. This got him away from HHH and DX which he desperately needed.

Tonight’s show is a Coliseum record. That is just flat out too priceless to believe and is the ultimate slap in WCW’s face.

Cornette is out for an NWA tag title match that wasn’t listed on the card. Cornette is in North Carolina and you can tell he couldn’t be happier. Of course he’s a heel and it’s on. This man is an absolute god on the mic and that’s all there is to it.

NWA Tag Titles: New Midnight Express vs. Rock N Roll Express

The new Midnights are Bombastic Bob (Holly) and Bodacious Bart (Gunn). The RNRE come out to the Rockers’ old theme. Ross is a fan of the Eagles, which scores him points in my eyes. Now for those of you old school tag team fans, this is a great match. For modern day WWF fans, this is terribly boring stuff. I like it because it’s just basic tag team wrestling that is almost always going to work one way or another.

In the middle though, Cornette gets angry at Tim White the referee and challenges him to a fight. Cornette trying to box is flat out hysterical. I had to rewind it and look at it again just for the comedy value. White of course scares him half to death and the RNRE throw him out. Then we get down to basic wrestling as you can see how desperate the NWA is for advertising as Gibson’s tights don’t say RNRE or Gibson or something like that.

They say NWA. The NWA has sunk so low they have to advertise on their worker’s tights. That simply is not a good sign. Anyway, we get the brawl at the end and Cornette interferes which leads to a bulldog for the Midnights who pick up the win. Crowd was completely dead for this.

Rating: C. Hard one to grade here as the wrestling is fine but given the time and the crowd, this was pretty weak. While Greensboro was a Mecca of the NWA, these people are a different era and a different audience. They don’t want to see old guys having a solid match. They want to see the WWF style, which as you know is the polar opposite of what they had here. Good match for wrestling fans, torture for Sports Entertainment fans.

Luna says she’s going to rip off all of Sable’s clothes getting the biggest pop of her career.

Evening Gown Match: Luna vs. Sable

This is allegedly the final match in this feud which was just flat out bad the entire time. Sable simply wasn’t good in the ring but based on her looks she was getting huge pops all the time. King wants to chant for Luna so Sable is wearing less, which makes sense. We get the “you won’t see much wrestling in this.” Code meaning: it’s going to suck but it’s t & A so shut your damn mouth.

King sounds like he’s about 12 which is always funny. Sable’s bottom gets ripped off which sends the King into a frenzy. Sable lands some great punches that catch Luna square in the shoulder. Mero comes out and as Sable is yelling at her Luna strips her to win. Sable Bomb after the match and Luna gets stripped as well. They go under the ring and Sable comes out with Luna’s clothes, meaning King nearly loses it again. Goldust helps to get Luna covered and out.

Rating: F. Yeah this was terrible. It was all about Sable as always, which makes me laugh when people question her ego. Without the dress on, Sable looks a lot less attractive. Really not something I want to see.

Vince and the Stooges are here. We hear the first mention of the Conspiracy Theory, which would dominate WWF television over the summer in a storyline that I absolutely loved. Vince says he won’t screw Austin out of the title and leaves. This was rather pointless.

Sable is on the Superstar Line as 12 year old boys nationwide do something they’ll get in trouble for later on as they pick up their phone.

NAO vs. LOD 2000

Road Dogg brings out “Dean Smith” to coach them for one more win. It’s a blowup doll. Is anyone surprised here? This is the Sunny/Animal in Shorts period for LOD and it just did not work at all. Sunny looked great though so that’s about all there was going for it.

Hawk looks a little bit shaky. Sweet damn Sunny was amazing looking. Hawk and Billy start us off. Ok make that Animal. Lot of arm work to start which is the tried and true method I suppose. Gunn dances on the apron so Hawk throws Road Dogg’s head into Gunn’s balls. Well that’s different.

Yeah Hawk is starting to botch some stuff. I think that’s foreshadowing what’s coming. Back to Animal now vs. Gunn now. Animal is the only guy in this match really capable of decent in ring stuff at this point which is very scary when you think about it.

Doomsday (called Devastation by JR) Device is broken up by Gunn. The Outlaws hammer away on the knee as we wait on the hot tag to Hawk. That’s probably better as he wouldn’t sell anyway. When I say they work on the knee and Animal in general I mean it’s the vast majority of the match.

Roadie throws out a little crotch chop for no apparent reason other than that’s what he does. Gunn does that little British pompous ass wave and walks into a leg drag by Animal to send both guys down. Semi-hot tag (read as no one seems to care) to Hawk and he hits a splash on Roadie.

Billy slides in and hits him in the back of the head with the belt but only gets two. Belt to the head of Road Dogg and Hawk hits a German suplex on Roadie for the pin and the titles. And screw that of course as it’s a DQ. I can’t quite read why. It’s a little too dusty. Doomsday Device for the referee afterwards.

Rating: D+. The LOD just didn’t have it at this point and were really just there for nostalgia. The Outlaws were great on the mic but in the ring was a completely different story. They were ok but nothing more. LOD’s bad storyline was coming and it makes me almost sad just thinking about it.

Jeff Jarrett Sings…..Again

He’s with Sawyer Brown again but this is more of a duet and it’s not nearly as entertaining this time around. He’s also got Tennessee Lee as a manager now who is more commonly known as Colonel Robert Parker in WCW. After the song Steve Blackman comes out but gets beaten up.

Recap of Kane and Taker, with Lawler amusing me by holding marshmallows on sticks before the Inferno match starts.

Inferno Match: Undertaker vs. Kane

The intros are great, the ring looks cool, and while this should be an awesome thing to see, I have the fucking So Hot song stuck in my head now. It ruined Wrestlemania and now it’s ruining Unforgiven. I think Kid Rock is a wrestling hating demon summoned by Dana White to bring an end to wrestling forever. He just hates it for some reason and wants to kill it.

Evil and a horrid man he is. Anyway, the lighting of the ring is awesome. The flames go up every time someone either jumps or lands in the ring which is another great looking thing. In case I didn’t mention it, the winner is the first person to set the other on fire. Sometimes the flames get about the ropes, which just looks amazing to say the least. Lawler gets in a great line with, “Hey Paul, hell hath no pizza so you don’t want to go there.”

That’s actually an awesome line. Chair gets introduced. Lawler is on fire here and I just realized how bad that line was. The spots start to get bigger as the fire goes up higher and higher. They’re repeating the same formula they had for the previous match at Mania which means this is working well. Kane dominates most of the match but eventually Taker starts coming back.

Ross once again takes the reins with his lines about taker. Using lines like, “Through hellfire and brimstone, the Undertaker is coming back!” and “The Undertaker will walk through hell to fight his brother.” That’s a lesson in how to commentate on a big time match. Lines like that and the way he delivers them make this match even better than it already is.

Those kinds of things can take a match from good to great and from great to classic as they did in the Austin/Hart submission match. Double big boot spot that looked damn sweet. Taker’s fast hitting of the ropes almost puts him in the fire every time with how hard he hits them. He goes for his jumping, flipping clothesline spot but Kane just ducks, which I’ve never seen anyone do.

Kane gets thrown to the floor and Bearer tells the guy controlling the flames to keep turning them up higher and higher so Taker can’t get out. As this is happening, Kane heads to the back to leave but Vader jumps him, knocking him back to the ring. Taker gets a running start and does the Taker Dive over the ropes.

That move when he did it right was perhaps the coolest spot ever, bar none. Think about it. Can you imagine Nash doing that, or Kane or Sid? They’re about Taker’s size. Have any of them ever done a spot like that? I don’t think so. Anyway, Bearer gets a chair to use on Taker which of course does nothing at all. Taker gets the chair and just kills Kane with two of the sickest shots I’ve seen in a long time.

The fans are going crazy as Taker has become the Deadman right before their eyes. This was when the feud got incredible as Kane dominated him most of the time but in the end Taker went to the farthest lengths he could to become the true Lord of Darkness and beat Kane. That’s what he did here and it is just awesome to see. Taker goes after Bearer and beats him up with some of the band’s instruments before going back to Kane.

Kane has the chair and pulls it back but Taker kicks him in the face, sending his arm into the fire to end this with Kane running to the back with his arm on fire. To make this even cooler, Taker gets back in and takes the knee as he usually does, but the lights turn purple and blue while the flames go as high as they can in a great visual. The flames keep going up and down with Taker in the ring as we get ready for the other match which is an afterthought now.

Rating: A. This fucking rocked and it fucking rocked hard. The visual was tremendously cool looking with Taker and Kane just beating the hell out of each other. Taker is a character that is just cool no matter what he’s doing and this was no exception.

When he’s been beaten down and is on the verge of losing, he brings out his best as he did here. Everything he did here was great and it was just awesome. If you’ve never seen this before, go watch it. I know almost every spot in it and it still had me marking out.

Recap of the whole Austin/Dude Love feud which has gone on about two weeks but was still cool and here’s why: no one really believed Dude Love could win, but it wasn’t Dude Love out there. It was Mick Foley dressed as a hippie. That’s what made this gimmick work so well was they didn’t try to make it seem like a different character like they would with Isaac Yankem and Kane.

They acknowledged that it was the exact same guy and that he was crazy. That’s something that really speaks to Foley’s credit that he could pull this off as well as he did. I don’t think anyone believed Foley would take the title, but he offered a solid challenge for Austin.

Vince was the part here that made things work though as with him pulling the strings and less than six months after Montreal, anything was possible. That’s why the Austin/Vince saga worked as well as it did: you never knew what was coming next.

WWF Title: Dude Love vs. Steve Austin

Austin of course gets the mega pop which is impressive after what the fans just saw. As expected this is a wild fight as you have two of the best brawlers of all time out there on PPV during the wildest period in WWF history. What more could you ask for with such a hot crowd? Ross mentions that some wrestling executive said Austin would never do anything in just black tights and black boots.

Damn, once they got ahead they made sure to rub it in WCW and especially Bischoff’s face. Vince comes down to imply that he’s going to pull another screwjob which makes Austin just beat on Love harder than he was. Vince of course gets up and starts yelling at Austin which results in him being chased to the back but Love saves him.

This doesn’t really get boring as it’s mainly just brawling and more brawling, but when you have two guys as good as these two are it’s all good. Eventually the referee gets taken out and of course he’s out forever. Mandible Claw and Austin is in trouble as Vince is celebrating on the floor. They go out to the floor because Foley lets go of the hold. Eventually Vince starts helping Love out by handing him a chair, but Austin fights out of it.

Austin gets a hold if it though and nearly caves Vince’s head in with it. They go back in and it’s a stunner but no referee so Austin counts it himself. Somehow this is enough for his music to play and Fink to announce him as the winner. Vince is still out cold as they’re of course making this about Vince again.

After he’s down for a ridiculous amount of time, the Stooges come out and Brisco makes Fink say Austin is disqualified for hitting a WWF official. Vince gets stretchered out as apparently Austin has received an infraction for sassing a mod. We go off the air with Ross speculating about whether Austin was aiming for Vince or Dude.

Rating: B+. It was a wild brawl and it did everything it was supposed to: it made Austin look dominant, it furthered the major storyline of Austin vs. Vince, and it set up the far better rematch the next month at Over the Edge. Either way, this was a solid match that was really just a big brawl but like I’ve said already, when you have brawlers of this caliber, that works very well.

Overall Rating: B. This show starts off ok, gets bad and then ends red hot. If there was one thing the company did well at this time it was big time feuds. Taker and Kane is as good of a gimmick match as you’ll see in a long time. Taker just shines in matches like these and this is one of his best ever. Austin of course steals the show as he was so popular it was amazing. Mainly watch it for the two last matches, but some of the other stuff is good for passing some time as well, making it recommended.
 
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1998 was such an awesome year for ppvs for both WWE

I pretty much don't agree with that at all. WWE had an awful year in 1998 when it came to actual match quality. Sure there were a couple of good main events towards the beginning of the year, No Way Out & Unforgiven prove that, but the undercards are awful. Towards the end of the year, after the 15th Undertaker vs. Austin match, they start to get really poor.

This was a one match show. Austin vs. Dude Love is really good. If I'm being positive about the rest of the card I can only say that the Inferno match was at least intresting.
 

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