WWF In Your House - Rage in the Cage (February 1996)

I remember seeing this one as a kid, and – even as an eleven year old super fan mark – being pretty bored with it. That does not bode well for a re-watch, over sixteen years later – but we’ll see.

From Louisville, KY your hosts are Vince McMahon, and Jerry Lawler. It would be truly careless of me to forget to mention Sunny, near naked in the opening of the show, warning viewers that the following program contains ‘graphic content.’ Oh, 1996-Sunny. The things you did to an eleven year old mind – and penis. She was so hot back then that, even as fucked up and broken down (she goes in a lot of directions…) as she is now, I’d still do her, given the chance. Which is to say, if I had a twenty, and happened to run into her. It’s like when you find porn you jerked off to in your youth time. Sure, you’ve found other porn (better porn!) since – but the erections you get with that porn have sentimental value – like sensory memory. Also, it’s stained with your cum.

WWF Survivor Series 1987

With the first Survivor Series, Vince McMahon made an effort to expand further into pay per view after the massive success of WrestleMania III, and also to fuck around with the competition, as the NWA was planning to its annual Starrcade supercard. McMahon, ever the ruthless business man, booked the first Survivor Series the same night as Starrcade, promising Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, and threatened any cable provider who offered Starrcade on their lineup the loss of future WWF business. The result was blockbuster numbers for the WWF, and a big disappointment for the NWA.

The concept of the show was that ‘teams of five would strive to survive,’ in five-on-five elimination matches – and that’s it. No focus on title matches, hot grudge matches, or anything else – while Starrcade was offering just that. And the WWF was still the hotter ticket, because guys like Hogan, Andre, and Randy Savage were just that big of draws at the time.

From Richfield, OH, your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura.

WWF In Your House - Great White North (October 1995)

I never actually saw this show as a kid, as the monthly pay per view war had not only taken its toll on the WWF and WCW – but on my parents’ wallets, and they refused to keep buying two monthly pay per views any longer – leaving me listening to this one at our kitchen TV like a radio broadcast, back when pay per view audio still used to come in with a scrambled picture. I feel that kids today miss out on that part of growing up with wrestling due to the digital age of pay per view.

From Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, your hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler.

WWF In Your House - Triple Header (September 1995)

What better way to follow up the 2^nd In Your House than with… the 3^rd In Your House. Actually, there are many better things, but you’ll take it, and you’ll like it – much like anyone who ordered this show back in 1995. 

From Saginaw, MI, your hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler.

WWF In Your House - The Lumberjacks (July 1995)

With the second In Your House, the WWF gave us the re-match exactly no one wanted to see: Diesel/Sid II. So, of course, they did what you always do when you have something no one wants to see – force it on the South! Unfortunately, they did not continue to give away free houses with purchase of the show. 

From Nashville, TN, your hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler.

WWF In Your House I (May 1995)

This is the very first In Your House, as the WWF, feeling increasing pressure from WCW’s growing pay per view lineup, decided to add monthly two hour pay per views to supplement their ‘Big Five’ three hour shows (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, King of the Ring, SummerSlam and Survivor Series), and compete head to head – and at a bargain price of only $14.95, which I can tell you went a long way in helping to convince your parents to order these things back in the day. 

To work with the ‘In Your House’ gimmick (which came from the idea that the WWF would be IN YOUR HOUSE!!), they promised to actually give away a house in Florida to a fan, live, on the pay per view.

From Syracuse, New York, your hosts are Vince McMahon and Dok Hendrix (Michael Hayes) playing a straight man WWF corporate shill, before those types of characters had any sorts of irony, or were Michael Cole. It also shows just how thin the talent pool was at this point, when Dok fucking Hendrix is co-hosting because Jerry Lawler has a match tonight. Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel. What, Alfred Hayes was too busy?

WWF One Night Only (September 1997)

I literally just fucking told you what this is in the headline. Are you fucking stupid? WWF! One Night Only! I’ll tell you more shit later, fuck. You’re getting to be a real dick, you know that?

From Birmingham, England, your hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, from an arena decked out with enough English regalia to make the Olympics blush.

WWF In Your House - Canadian Stampede (July 1997)

This is another one I never saw live as a kid, as I planned on ordering it, but July 4^th weekend family activities got into the way (which is more than a little ironic, considering this is the ultimate Canadian patriotism show), and I never got around to it. So, once again, we play ‘did Ben’s twelve year old self get fucked over in 1997?’ Of course, with this one, it has many times made peoples’ shortlist for ‘greatest pay per view of all time,’ so the likely answer is, ‘yes, little Ben did get fucked over – and good.’ And not even by the girl he had a crush on in Middle school. As 1997 Bret Hart would say, ‘this is bullshit!’

This one took place during the thick of the very hot and innovative USA v Canada angle, as The Hart Foundation were heels in America, but faces everywhere else in the world – particularly Canada (where this show took place), and their main rivals (Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin), followed suit. It was incredibly innovative, as RAW would usually pinball between emanating from the States one week, and Canada the next – and the heat was off of the charts.

From Calgary, Alberta, Canada, your hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

WWF In Your House - A Cold Day in Hell (May 1997)

This is one I never saw live as a kid (despite being a hardcore WWF fan, I could not have cared less about an Undertaker/Austin program at the time – and no Bret and no Shawn equaled no buys from me), and while I have owned it on VHS for over ten years, this is the first time I have ever gotten around to watching it. 

From Richmond, VA your hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

WWF In Your House - Revenge of the 'Taker (April 1997)

Giving a rest to the Havoc series, as I don’t have copies of the ’91, ’95 or ’96 shows, and I don’t really want to pick things up with Halloween Havoc 1997.  Anyway, what do I look like, your little Halloween Havoc slave? You better watch it with that shit. I’ll have Reverend Jackson down here before you can say "doesn't use deodorant." Plus, he will come to your house, and should it be your birthday, he will insist on getting the flower part of your birthday cake, and should you resist, he will play his favorite card... you guessed it... the "birthday card."

So, yeah. Don't let it come to that, 'cause, your birthday could get ruined.

This is an interesting show from a personal standpoint, as it was the first and (to date) only pay per view I have ever attended. I was only twelve years old, but my friend and I were very quick to jump when tickets went on sale – snagging floor seats only a few rows back – which would have been all well and good, if we weren’t… twelve. As we quickly found out, we were so short, our view for 90% of the show became limited to the backs of other peoples’ heads, or any top rope moves. 

From Rochester, NY your hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

WCW Halloween Havoc 1994

Oh, what a difference a year makes. By the fall of 1994, WCW had signed Hulk Hogan, and was in the process of changing the entire direction of their product. The shows no longer looked like dimly lit indy hell (although, they were starting to come around to better production values by that point, anyway), and there are more than twice as many people in the arena than the year before. Or any previous Havoc, for that matter. On the way out were guys like Mick Foley and Steve Austin, while Hogan associates like the Honky Tonk Man, Brutus Beefcake, Jim Duggan, and almost anyone else who worked for the WWF in the late 80s started crowding the roster.

From Detroit, MI, your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Gene Okerlund, as the WWF influence already starts to show.

WCW Halloween Havoc 1993

The Halloween Havoc series continues, with 1993.

From New Orleans, LA (Louisiana, not the one where the celebrities are, dumbass. Well, unless they can pick up some publicity). Your hosts are Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura. Tony is dressed up as Jesse, which needs to be seen to be fully appreciated.

WCW Halloween Havoc 1992

Truck on towards actual Halloween with our Halloween Havoc series, coming up on the ’92 show. Unfortunately, I do not have a copy of the 1991 Havoc, however, but I will work to get a hold of one, and fill in that blank eventually.

From Philadelphia, PA your hosts are Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura.

NWA (WCW) Halloween Havoc 1990

Continuing our Halloween Havoc series with the ’90 show.

I always loved the ‘feel’ of this (and many) of the Havoc shows. While it doesn’t have the great, big, overblown sets like the WWE uses today, it has a lot of nice touches that the production teams today miss, such as an orange mat, black/orange ropes and turnbuckles, pumpkins, etc.

From Chicago, Illinois, your hosts are Jim Ross and Paul Heyman, with Tony Schiavone doing interview duties dressed as the Phantom of the Opera – which is somewhat ironic, considering Jim Ross is right there.

NWA (WCW) Halloween Havoc 1989

With Halloween right around the corner, I thought it would be fun to look back at WCW’s old Halloween offerings, starting with the first one, way back in 1989.

Live from Philadelphia, PA, your hosts are Jim Ross and Bob Caudle.

WWE DVD Review - Undertaker: The Streak

The Undertaker – The Streak. The WWE released this DVD set commemorating ‘Taker’s 20-0 WrestleMania streak this year (I believe they also released one a few years back when he was 15-0… look for another one in a few years when it’s time to cash in again!), and I thought it would be worth a look.

This DVD is currently available on Netflix Streaming, for those who want to play along at home.