Monday, September 10, 2018

WWF In Your House 3: Triple Header (September 1995)



Changing gears from the 2003 misery... by going back to 1995 and spreading the misery there. We'll try and kill this in one week.

I want to go back to the third WWF In Your House event, since I already watched the first two events via WWE Network and I figure it'd make sense to continue from there. If nothing else, it'll be a short two hour show that'll probably suck, but I actually have a good feeling about this one. I'll be watching the Network version of the show, but I do have the show on VHS tape from Coliseum Video and I remember actually enjoying the show for the most part.

So let's give this a shot.



Savio Vega defeated Waylon Mercy in a decent little opener. Waylon Mercy is journeyman wrestler Dan Spivey, whose gimmick was based on Robert DeNiro's Cape Fear character... much in the same way Bray Wyatt's initial gimmick was based on that, except less creepy. Mercy never it made that far, however, as Spivey would eventually suffer a neck injury that would force him into retirement. Which is too bad because I liked what little I've seen of the Waylon Mercy character.

Sid defeated Henry O. Godwinn after Ted DiBiase trips the Hog and Sid hits a powerbomb. Then people run in and I don't care. It's two big guys beating the crap out of each as much two big guys beating the crap out of each other could do in a family-friendly environment... or something.

British Bulldog defeated Bam Bam Bigelow in a pretty fun power match featuring two big guys. This was shortly after Bulldog turned on Diesel (not sure if his former partner Lex Luger had already jumped ship back to WCW in time for Nitro - I could double check) and this was basically a pitstop before Bulldog's title shot against Diesel in a not so fun match. This, on the other hand, was the showcase of big guys and it was pretty good for what it was. No complaints; I liked this one a little more than the Sid/HOG match.

Dean (Shane) defeated Razor with a roll-up after Razor was distracted by 1-2-3-6-X-Kid-Pack and yeah, that was a lame finish to an otherwise pretty decent match. They'd make up for it the following month... oh boy, would they ever... meh.

Bret "Hitman" defeated Jean-Pierre Lafitte in a great little match between two really good Canadian wrestler guys. Lafitte is Quebec wrestler Carl Ouelette - former Tag-Team champion with Jacques Rougeau who switched gears to become a pirate gimmick who had stolen Bret Hart's jacket, because Bret apparently only had the one jacket. The only way this could've been stupider is if he had stolen Bret's sunglasses and now Bret has to get them back, despite practically giving a shitton of them over the years. The ridiculousness of the backstory aside, this was a great little match between two guys who were doing the best they could to get one up over the other and Bret ultimately emerging the victor. For my money, this was the best match on the show and I'm wondering if this made it to any of the DVD sets that were released over the years. (It's on the Bret Hart: Dungeon Collection DVD Set, so there you go.)

WWF Champion Diesel and IC Champion Shawn Michaels "defeated" Tag-Team Champions Yokozuna and substitute partner British Bulldog to win the tag titles when Shawn pinned Owen... see, it was announced early on that Owen couldn't make it due to injury, so instead they got Bulldog to fill in for his brother-in-law. Late in the match, however, Owen would do a run-in, but would get caught and pinned by Shawn... despite the fact that he wasn't an active participant in the match. The titles would be held up the following night and the winners didn't take all after all, but convoluted finish aside, I thought this was a pretty good match. Probably not as good as the Bret match, but still pretty fun regardless.

You know, they say 1995 is one of WWF's worst years business-wise and it's hard to argue that point. But in all honesty, you can't say the shows they were putting on that year were all complete garbage. I mean, sure you have your share of shit... but then you have shows like this, which last a couple hours, has some mildly amusing yet otherwise forgettable fluff topped off with a really good match that more than makes up for the whole thing.

In Your House 3 was a very easy show to watch and digest. Not a great show by any real stretch; just a pretty good one with perhaps one really worthwhile match in the Bret/Oulette encounter. And that's more than enough for me.

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