horrorfan_1986

In Your House: Revenge of the Taker
April 20, 1997

The British Bulldog and Owen Hart vs The Legion of Doom - WWE Tag Team Titles
The Road Warriors had just returned back to the WWE earlier in the year. The buildup to the match saw the Godwins begin to turn heel and accidentally slop the Road Warriors when Owen and Bulldog ducked out of the way. The next week, Bulldog nailed Animal with the tag title to cost LOD a tag match against the Godwins. Animal and Owen starts it off with Animal showing his power. Not much happens until the partners are tagged in. Bulldog shows his power. Not a whole lot happens. Owen is knocked out of the ring and Bulldog takes a closeline from the front and behind. Hawk lifts Bulldog up for Animal to hit a middle rope body slam. Animal covers and picks up the victory and the tag titles. The Road Warriors celebrate until another ref comes out. It turns out that Owen was the legal man so the referee restarts the match. Owen hits a poor version of Hawk's Hangman Neckbreaker. Warriors take over again and send Bulldog to the outside. Doomsday Device to Owen. The ref isn't sure to count or not creating an awkward moment. He finally starts the count which Bret Hart runs out and breaks it up drawing the DQ finish. Ugh. Owen and Bulldog retains the titles in losing. I hate the legal man BS that ended the first fall. It wouldn't be so bad if they wouldn't miss the same call so many other times in matches. What's worse was that they redid the match only to have a dirty finish. It's just a bullshit call to make. The match was your typical LOD WWE match in that it was boring, but it had a good crowd reaction. The clusterfuck ending drops the rating some. 12 Minutes 1 3/4 Stars.

Rocky Maivia vs Savio Vega w/The Nation - IC Title Match
We're at the tail end of Rocky's title reign and his initial push. This came about from a Raw where Savio held the tights to get a non-title win over Rocky. After the match the Nation attacked Rocky some more. Not a whole lot happens in the match. Rocky has proved to have a nice arm drag that Ricky Steamboat could be proud of, but due to his inexperience, he does it far too much. Vega has a few good kicks. The real story of the match was Faarooq on commentary and challenging Ahmed Johnson to a match where if Ahmed defeats Crush, Savio Vega and then himself, the Nation would be taken out of the WWE. Savio throws Rocky on to Crush on the outside. With the referee distracted, Crush nails a heart punch to Maivia. Rocky isn't able to get back in the ring before the ten count. Vega picks up the count out win. Post-match sees Vega upset with Crush for costing him the title. Before a fight can break out, Faarooq breaks it up and the Nation attacks Rocky again. This brings out Ahmed Johnson with a 2x4. Hoooo. Ahmed clears the ring and accepts the challenge for the future match. Pure filler. The WWE seemed to have given up on Rocky after a lackluster Wrestlemania debut. The only question was when they'd take the belt off of him and who would get it. The match did have two purposes though. The challenge for Ahmed which would happen at the next PPV - In Your House: Cold Day in Hell. Second, it started the problems in the Nation that would lead to Faarooq changing things up and making it a all black faction. The match itself was pretty bad. Oddly enough, it was Vega who's fun moves made it watchable. Cheer up Rocky, your time to shine will come soon enough. 8 Minutes. 1 1/2 Stars.

Jesse James vs The Honky Tonk Man's new protege
The Road Dogg is still rolling with the country singer gimmick he started once Jarrett debuted in WCW. For weeks or months (Should tell you how much I enjoyed the storyline) Honky Tonk Man had been searching for a new man to take over the legacy that he created. A few weeks ago, HTM asked Jesse to be that man. James decided to smash Honky's guitar instead. Honky gets on the mic and introduces his new man - Rockabilly~! *Chirp* *Chirp* Billy Gunn debuts his new gimmick to a DEAD crowd. As the match begins, Honky tells Jim Ross why he chose Billy Gunn. Two weeks ago on Raw, Gunn punched Honky out. Honky for whatever reason thought that was enough proof that Gunn was his man. James hits a nice closeline from the apron to the outside to Rockabilly. Honky completes the moment with a long stare and finally yells "You're a goof!" at James. Well put. I can't tell you how quiet the crowd is. The only time they give any sort of reaction is when James does a 10 punch in the corner. This match is painful to watch. Rockabilly pulls James to the corner and looks to hit a suplex while on the bottom rope. Yeah, I have no idea what he was doing. James rolls Rockabilly up for the pinfall. After the match, Honky fails to hit James with the guitar. Typically, I would say any new gimmick deserves time before one dismisses it as a failure. However, I think it's safe to say that Gunn's new gimmick and his push came to a screeching halt once he failed to get ANY heat. A boring match and a crowd that could of been mistaken for a graveyard makes this one of the worst PPV matches of the year. Yay for segues. 7 Minutes. 1/2 Star.

The Undertaker vs Mankind w/Paul Bearer - WWE World Title Match
While the Mankind/Taker feud ended late 1996, it's one of those feuds that can pop back up at anytime. However, this is really a continuation of the Taker/Paul Bearer feud. After winning the WWE title at Wrestlemania, The Undertaker was asked to come back under the wings of Paul Bearer. Proving not to be the best at forgiveness, Taker declined. So Bearer brought Mankind back into the feud and Mankind threw a fireball into Taker's face on Raw. This is Taker's first appearance since then. Taker has a large bandage on his eye/forehead. A lot of brawling in the beginning. Well, to be fair, it's all brawling. The referee allows anything to go as long as no one interferes. Mankind smashes a pitcher of water over the head of Taker. Mankind gets his head caught in the ropes (Same thing that resulted in him losing his ear in Germany). Taker pulls him out and Mankind's mask is removed. First time in his WWE run I believe. The ref takes a bump which leads to more brawling. Bearer throws in a chair, but Mankind has a better idea. Mankind looks to hit Taker with the stairs, but Taker dropkicks them into him. Wow. Maybe not the most graceful dropkick, but I can't recall Taker doing it before this point. Mankind takes a huge bump from the apron throw the commentating table head first. Chokeslam gets Taker a 2. Tombstone finishes Foley off to retain the title. After the match. Taker stalls time by going after Bearer. Foley attempts to light some flash paper, but can't seem to get a spark from the lighter. They repeatedly try to get Foley to accidentally light the flame in Bearer's face, but it doesn't work. Taker says 'Fuck it' and knocks Foley down. Taker lights the flash paper in Bearer's face. It looks like Taker burned his fingers or hand some. I had my doubts about the match due to how inconsistent these two were in their matches the previous year. However, it turned out to be a pretty fun match especially once the ref goes down. The table spot was just insane and I'd take it any day over the HIAC spots. The post-match events were just horrible, but what can you do when the lighter wont light? Luckily, the match was over so if you just stop the match after the bell, it's great. Great start for Taker's title reign. The burn would lead to Paul Bearer changing his look and begin hinting at Taker's brother. It's a long storyline that was started back at Summerslam, but fuck it's getting good. 17 Minutes. 3 1/4 Stars.

Bret Hart vs Steve Austin
Ah. The forgotten match. In the time since their historic Wrestlemania match, Hart reunited with The British Bulldog and Owen Hart. Earlier in the night, Owen and Bulldog attacked Steve Austin. Gorilla Monsoon stops Bulldog and Owen from coming down to ringside. Monsoon takes a seat by the time keeper to have a nice view of the match. A brawl to begin just like their 'Mania match. Bret begins working over Austin's knee. Figure Four around the post hurts Austin some more. Damn, that move was awesome back in the day. Hart removes the knee brace that Austin had just started to wear. More knee work. For the second straight match, the ref allows anything to happen as long as no one interferes. Hart uses a chair on Austin's knee. A Figure Four in the middle of the ring doesn't last long as Austin turns it over. Bret superplexes Austin. It looks as if Austin's good knee hit his knee brace that is still in the ring. The commentators puts over that Austin landed on the brace fully. Eh, from the camera view, I couldn't tell how much of Austin fell on it. So I'll go with their story. Bret goes for the Sharpshooter, but Austin nails him with the knee brace. Austin reverses it into a Sharpshooter of his own. Owen and Bulldog hit the ring, but Austin is able to take them out before they draw the DQ. Austin goes back to the Sharpshooter, but that allows Bulldog to nail Austin with a steel chair drawing that DQ. The referees are able to pull Owen and Bulldog away. Bret goes to hit Austin with his knee brace, but Austin hits Bret's knee with the chair that Bulldog brought in. Oh...Karma /Earl. Austin continues the assault until Bulldog pulls Bret out. It's their worst of their PPV series. However, that's not a bad thing. I loved the story of Bret going after Austin's knee. It proved to be pretty ironic. Although having three dirty finishes in one 5 match PPV is overkill, this finish actually made sense. Fantastic storyline that was only made even better the next night on Raw. For my money, the next night on Raw was the most exciting edition of Raw in history. If Bret or Austin gets another DVD and this match gets added (Provided it isn't on DVD already) I can see the match garnering a lot more attention. For many years, I didn't hear many people talk about their Survivor Series match. Then it gets put on Austin's DVD and now most people rank it among both man's best. All this match needs is some attention and it can comes out of the shadows of their superior Wrestlemania match. Still, it's the best match of the show. This would mark the 4th straight PPV where these two steals the show. 21 Minutes. 3 3/4 Stars.

Overall
Well, it's an In Your House. Back in the day that meant you wouldn't see all of the major stars and there would only be about this many matches. Personally, I would of just skipped the first hour and check this out just for the last two matches. I believe at the time, these PPV's cost only 20 bucks while the big 5 cost 10 extra. To be honest, buying this would of probably been a better deal then buying Wrestlemania 13. Sure you're missing a MOTYC, but you are seeing two good matches compared to one great one. Save yourself ten dollars. Looking over at WCW's April PPV, Spring Stampede, that would of been the better PPV to spend money on to see Dragon vs Mysterio Jr, Malenko vs Benoit and Savage vs Page. Anyways, disappointing PPV to some degree, but things are starting to heat up for an exciting summer.

Best Match: Steve Austin vs Bret Hart
Worst Match: Rockabilly vs Jesse James

Grade: C

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iamthedestroyer

Good read, thanks for the review. Although I've seen a ton of footage and am fairly well versed in 90's wrestling, it is always interesting reading about it as I only began watching in 2000. I don't know how well the IYH concept was responded to back in the day, but I think it would be a perfect fit for this era of WWE. What I'm alluding to is a brand specific PPV every 6 weeks, with them overlapping to the point where there would be a 20 dollar PPV every three weeks. (minus ECW, they can feature on every PPV) Throw in the big four as Tri Brand Events.

It seems as if WWF's midcard was horrible in that time period. Although this review makes me fairly interested in tracking down some of the lesser talked about Hart/Austin bouts.

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horrorfan_1986

The midcard was decent. Sure they had some poor wrestlers like Rocky Maivia, Crush and others, but they did have Triple H, Owen Hart, Goldust and Mankind. You'd soon be able to add Ken Shamrock, the returning Vader, The Rock (What a new gimmick will do for you) and Brian Pillman.

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King Steventon

Word on the main event. Really slept on match of the fued that delivered. I think the Bret/Austin match was the highlight of the WWF in the 90's, in all their matches they did an excellent job of putting across the HATE.

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