Federation Fridays #4: In Your House 2 (July 23, 1995)
The In Your House concept was one of the best ideas WWF had in the mid-nineties, and I know it came about because WCW expanding the number of pay-per-views they were doing. These were shorter events and at a cheaper price point than the big annual. I think they were like $15 when they started, which wasn’t bad. Tight cards that didn’t try to cram fifteen matches into four hours. I didn’t catch the first one live, but In Your House 2 on July 23, 1995 in Nashville I did, and everything I liked about the concept was on full display that night.
This is really a three-match card, even back then, after watching live that’s what I thought. Three of the six matches exist at a level worth talking about in any depth. The rest ranged from fine to forgettable, and that’s okay. Not every match on every card is going to be a classic, and on a tight two-hour show, the filler doesn’t overstay its welcome.
The opener was The Roadie against The 1-2-3 Kid, and it was fine for what it was. Decent match with a legitimately dangerous finish. The Roadie hit a piledriver off the top rope that should probably not have been attempted, and the fact that Kid walked away from it in one piece is a miracle because it looked nasty. What makes this match more interesting in hindsight is what happened the next day or maybe same night, when both Jarrett and The Roadie legit quit WWF. Whatever was going on behind the scenes that night, nobody in the building knew it yet.
Men on a Mission against Razor Ramon and Savio Vega was what it was. Mabel and Mo were big and dominant, Razor and Savio were working as the sympathetic underdogs with Razor still beat up from the King of the Ring attack, and Men on a Mission got the win. It was a serviceable tag match. I won’t pretend it was more than that.
This is also the event where Jeff Jarrett performed his debut single “With My Baby Tonight” in a live concert. At the time it was presented as Double J showing off his music career alongside his wrestling career. What came out later was that The Roadie was actually the one singing on the track, which is why the whole thing fell apart so quickly after both men quit the next day. In hindsight it’s one of the more entertaining pieces of backstage chaos from that era, but watching it live as a kid you just thought Jarrett was out there living his gimmick.
Bam Bam Bigelow against Henry O. Godwinn barely made it to five minutes, and what you probably don’t know if you only watched it is that the finish was rushed because Godwinn legitimately hurt himself on a missed knee drop from the second rope. Bigelow rolled him up and they got out of there fast. Both men were capable of better and this never got the chance to be anything. No harm done given how short it was, but it was also the definition of a card filler match.
Then Shawn Michaels and Jeff Jarrett, and the whole show shifts.
Twenty minutes of some of the best WWF television that year. Jarrett was the Intercontinental Champion coming in, having won the title from Razor Ramon back in January at Royal Rumble, and Shawn was the new babyface challenger. The Roadie was at ringside doing everything he could to keep the belt on Double J. What followed was a match full of near falls, interference spots that actually built rather than cheapened the drama, and Michaels selling and fighting back like a man who absolutely needed to win this thing. The finish came when The Roadie accidentally tripped Jarrett on his way back up, and Shawn hit the Sweet Chin Music before Jarrett could recover. Relatively clean finish and a new champion, which as a big HBK fan I was ecstatic about. The crowd in Nashville erupted.
That is the match you go back and watch from this show. Whatever else you take away from this column, that’s the one.
Owen Hart and Yokozuna defending the tag titles against the Allied Powers was a fun match, and I always enjoyed that pairing. Owen and Yokozuna were such a strange team on paper, a five-hundred-pound sumo-style monster and a technically gifted small man who barely reached his partner’s chest. And it worked. Jim Cornette managing both of them made all the sense in the world, and of course, Mr. Fuji as well. The finish came off some smart heel work, Owen catching Luger distracted from the top rope while the referee was sorting out Bulldog, and Yokozuna followed it up with a leg drop to retain. Good match. Solid tag title defense.
The main event was Diesel against Sycho Sid in a Lumberjack match for the WWF Championship, and I want to push back a little on the reputation lumberjack matches have now, because this one was done right. The ring was surrounded. Heels on two sides, faces on two sides, and when guys got thrown out or brawled to the floor, both sides actually got involved. Shawn Michaels was one of Diesel’s lumberjacks, and you felt his presence throughout. Diesel doing a suicide dive over the top rope onto Sid’s lumberjacks was a genuine holy cow moment for a nine-year-old watching at home. It wasn’t a technical masterpiece; nobody was expecting one from these two, but it was big and physical and fun, and it told the story it needed to tell. Diesel retained and celebrated with his guys, which was exactly the right ending that finally closed the door on the Diesel/Sid feud that had dominated WWF since the night after WrestleMania XI.
Modern lumberjack matches usually have the lumberjacks standing there looking at their shoes while guys climb back in the ring at a leisurely pace. That’s not what this was. This was chaos managed just enough to have a finish, and it absolutely worked.
The In Your House format delivered again. Tight card, nothing ran too long, and you got your money’s worth. For fifteen dollars or whatever it cost at the time, that was a good night of wrestling. I loved the early In Your House events, and I’m pretty sure we’ll be revisiting more of them over the coming months.
Agree, disagree, or think I got it completely wrong? Let me know in the comments below.
