WWF In Your House: Revenge of the 'Taker (Version II)

 

Original Airdate: April 20, 1997

From Rochester, New York; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler

Opening WWF Tag Team Title Match: Davey Boy Smith and Owen Hart v The Legion of Doom: Owen starts with Animal, and gets pounded into the corner right away. Whip into the ropes allows Animal a jumping shoulderblock, so Owen kicks him low, and grabs a front-facelock to try and slow things down, but Animal quickly powers out. Clearly outmatched, Owen decides to bring powerhouse Davey in, but he quickly gets pulled into an LOD double team, and Hawk uses a fistdrop for two. The challengers unload in their corner, and Hawk uses his own jumping shoulderblock. Backdrop, but Bulldog blocks, and throws a clothesline. Bulldog with a hanging vertical suplex to turn the tide, and Owen capitalizes with a flying axehandle as he tags in. Thought for sure that would be Owen accidentally hitting Bulldog there, but I guess we're done with that storyline. Sharpshooter, but Hawk blocks, and passes to Animal to hit a powerslam for two. Animal works a chinlock, but Hart fights free, so Animal gives him a press-slam and a matslam. Deal with the chinlock next time, Owen. Bodyslam sets up a flying splash from Hawk for two, but Owen reverses a cross corner whip, and both guys collide for a double knockout. Owen recovers first with a leg-feed enzuigiri, and Smith is able to tag in to keep the hurt on Hawk. What's with Bulldog tonight? He tags in, does nothing but stomp for a few minutes, and then passes back to Owen to work a sleeper. Davey's usually a little more interesting than that as a worker. Anyway, the champs continue to cut the ring in half, but Hawk escapes a double team, and it's a tag to Animal - Roseanne Barr the door! Animal gives Bulldog a front-powerslam off the middle, and we have new champions at 6:53! But wait, here's another official, and apparently the LOD pinned the illegal man, so the match must continue. Um, okay. Kinda funny that neither Owen nor Davey even bothered mentioning that. See, that's why Jim Cornette made the big bucks. So the dust settles on Animal on Smith, despite Bulldog not being the legal man before. No matter, the champs double team to put Animal down, and they go back to work. Neckbreaker and a legdrop from Owen get two, so he uses a vertical suplex to set up a flying splash, but Animal rolls out of the way. Tag to Hawk, and Roseanne Barr that door again. The champs try double teaming, but Hawk just barrels through them, and it's Doomsday Device time on Owen, but Bret Hart runs in to break up the pin for the DQ at 10:10 (12:15 including the stoppage). Bret totally missed his cue there, forcing the referee to stop the count and wait, which looked terrible. The Legion of Doom have been pretty unimpressive since returning, but this was actually a pretty fun match for the most part, though the booking was terrible. ** ¼ (Original rating: ** ¾)

WWF Intercontinental Title Match: Rocky Maivia v Savio Vega: Faarooq joins us for guest commentary here. Rocky comes in slugging, and takes Savio down with a pair of armdrags to set up an armbar. Cross corner whip, but Savio reverses, and follows in with a spinheel kick in the corner. The crowd is just dead here. Savio responds by working a nervehold, but Maivia escapes, and throws a bodypress for two. Vega fights him off and goes back to the nervehold, until Rocky fights free, and uses a small package for two. Vega throws a big boot to cut him off, however, and it's back to the nervehold. Savio tries a suplex, but Maivia reverses to a bridging fisherman's, but the Nation is distracting the referee. That allows Savio to put him down again via spinkick, and it's nervehold again. Seriously? You're getting a title match on pay per view, and your response is to work like you're at a house show in 1988? Rocky escapes with a floatover DDT for two, and he finally starts making the comeback. Savio tries to cut him off with a rollup, but Maivia is out at two, and dodges a charge in the corner. The crowd is giving them nothing here, it's sad. Rocky with a side suplex and a belly-to-belly suplex for two, followed by a uranage for two. Backslide gets two, but a charge misses, and Rocky takes a spill to the outside, colliding with Crush. Crush responds by hitting him with the Heart Punch out there, and Maivia is counted out at 8:33. That was a ridiculously stupid finish, as both Crush and Vega just kind of stood around for the full ten count, neither even TRYING to get Rocky in. No wonder neither guy ever won a title. And, yeah, I know Crush technically held the tag title as part of Demolition, but he didn't actually win it. And, in fact, he took the losing fall when they lost them. Afterwards, the Faarooq leads the Nation in a beat down to make them feel better about being morons, but Ahmed Johnson runs out to make the save. As boring as the RAW match the previous week, though thankfully shorter. Though, at least that one had an actual finish. –¼* (Original rating: DUD)

Jesse James v Rockabilly: Rockabilly is Honky Tonk Man's hyped mystery protégé, a renamed (but still uninteresting) Billy Gunn. And what a huge disappointment that was at the time, especially since my friends and I thought it was going to be a returning Rick Rude. This is also just two weeks after Billy violently rejected Honky's offer to be his manager on live TV, which the announcers work overtime to try and rectify. Jesse clotheslines him over the top and dives off the apron with a clothesline, and this crowd is just DEAD. I mean, graveyards are more lively. James forces him back inside, so Rockabilly goes to the eyes to buy time, and hits a rocker dropper for two. Rockabilly with a neckbreaker for two, and it's chinlock time in Rochester. The crowd is still dead here, but somehow they're not turning on this horrible match, just sleeping through it. Rockabilly with a cross corner whip to set up a backelbow on the rebound, and another cross corner whip sets up a corner splash, but Jesse dodges. James makes the comeback, but misses a charge, and goes flying to the outside. That allows Rockabilly to try a suplex, but Jesse counters with a cradle at 6:44. And this bullshit somehow led to one of the hottest tag teams of the era. DUD (Original rating: ¼*)

WWF Title Match: Undertaker v Mankind: Mankind attacks as Undertaker steps into the ring, and the slugfest is on! Undertaker gets the better of it in the corner, and he uses a cross corner whip, but Mankind rebounds at him with more right hands. Clothesline sends both men tumbling over the top, but Undertaker lands on his feet, and sends Mankind hard into the guardrail a couple of times. Nasty bump there, both times. Undertaker chucks him into the front row next, causing Lawler to worry that this it 'no place to be' while these two brawl, with Vince clarifying that it's not a good idea to be anywhere in the arena. Considering the way this show has been going, he ain't wrong. Mankind takes another pair of nasty bumps into the rail before they go back inside, where the champ works the shoulder. Ropewalk forearm, but Mankind starts to pull back, so Undertaker just dives with a flying clothesline instead. Tombstone, but Paul Bearer is on the apron, and the distraction allows Mankind to slip free. He grabs the urn to bash Undertaker with for two, and a running kneesmash in the corner follows. Mankind chokes the champion down, and a swinging neckbreaker gets the challenger two. He works a nervehold, but Undertaker fights free, and Mankind takes a bump to the outside. Mankind eats steps out there, so he grabs a water pitcher off of an announce table, and straight up shatters it over Undertaker's skull. He cracks a chair over said skull next, then dives off the middle rope with an elbowdrop on the floor, and Undertaker is somehow not bleeding. He broke glass over his head, how is that not an automatic bladejob? Back in, Mankind uses a piledriver for two, and a second piledriver follows. Undertaker staggers around the ring, trying to walk it off, but Mankind stalks him with rights. Undertaker returns fire, and a criss cross ends in the champion hitting a jumping clothesline, allowing him to choke Mankind in the corner. Corner whip works, so Mankind pulls the referee in to help block the follow-up clothesline, and he slaps on the Mandible Claw! Undertaker looks done for, but there's no referee. Another official comes out, but Mankind takes him out with the Claw as well, and brings the ring steps into the ring. Well, no one ever accused him of being especially smart. Mankind lifts the steps over his head, but Undertaker kicks them back into his face, and it's nice to see the crowd engaged tonight. Undertaker grabs a chair and tees off, and he chucks Mankind over the top, with Undertaker ending up with his head caught in the ropes. Mankind frees himself and gets back to the apron, but Undertaker is there to greet him with the steps, and Mankind takes a flying leap through an announce table - head first! The visual of the bottom half of Mankind's body sticking out of the hole his head broke through the table is great. Undertaker pulls him out of the rubble and takes it back inside with a chokeslam for a dramatic two, and the Tombstone finishes at 17:25. Boy, these guys went out and just bumped like nuts to try and save this show. The match felt like it needed a bladejob to put it over the hump into a proper brawl, but it was really good stuff even without one. *** ¼ (Original rating: ***)

Main Event: #1 Contender's Match: Bret Hart v Steve Austin: Bret is working with a bad knee after injuring it on the international tour, though they don't acknowledge it. President Gorilla Monsoon shows up before the bell to send Owen and Bulldog back to... the back. Slugfest right away, won by Austin. He whips Bret into the ropes for a backelbow (nicely executed by the Hitman), and a vertical suplex sets up a stomp to the groin. Ropechoke leaves Bret bailing for the outside, and Steve dives off the apron after him with an axehandle, then whips him into the steps out there. Bret staggers into the aisle after all of that, so Steve gives him a taste of the rail out there, and chucks him into the crowd. Austin dives off the rail with an axehandle before taking the action back into the ring, where he uses a 2^nd rope pointed elbowdrop for two. Hart wisely bails, but Steve is on his tail, so Bret grabs a chair. He hits Austin with a dropkick that bumps the referee so the Hitman can go to work with the weapon, targeting the knee of Stone Cold. Hart goes to work on the part, using the ring post figure four to wear him down. It's kind of telling that no one has lifted that spot in the 20+ years since Bret debuted it. More on the leg for a while, until Steve goes low to buy time, and he uses a pointed elbowdrop to set up a blatant choke on the Hitman. For all his complaining about poor refereeing over the years, Monsoon is doing nothing about it, despite being right at ringside, and having authority. Another 2^nd rope pointed elbowdrop, but Bret dodges him this time, and puts the boots to the knee. Vertical suplex leads to a figure four, but Steve manages a reversal, so Bret grabs the ropes. Steve getting into the referee's face over it like a heel was so unique at the time, kudos to them for not immediately neutering the character after the face turn, as they usually did. Hell, if WCW wasn't dominating them, they probably would have. Imagine if WCW wasn't a threat, they drop the ball on Austin, and the promotion just kind of rolls along at the same popularity level they had in the early 90s. No Attitude Era, no death of WCW, no Wall Street. Back to the outside, they do another quickie brawl in the crowd, and Steve dives off the apron with a clothesline on the floor. Back in, Hart takes his front-first cross corner whip bump, and Steve capitalizes with mounted punches for two. So weird watching him do that spot to a silence, but this crowd sucks. Steve tries a piledriver, but his leg gives out, and he collapses. That allows Hart to go back to work on the knee, but Austin pulls out a hotshot in the corner for two to shake him off. Stunner, but Bret dives into the ropes to block, and uses a mulekick to shake Stone Cold off. Bret with a vertical superplex, and it's Sharpshooter time, but Steve whacks him with his knee brace to block. Austin applies his own Sharpshooter, but here come Owen and Bulldog for the DQ at 21:09. Okay, so this was really disappointing. Definitely the weakest of the trilogy, with Bret still hammering out the kinks of working as a top level heel, and dealing with an injury on top of it. Not to mention that, despite having a super hot angle behind it, the match felt really flat, with a dead crowd and little intensity. * ¾ (Original rating: ***)

BUExperience: Yeah, so this show is pretty bad, with terrible finishes up and down, a dead crowd, and nothing especially notable. And that’s bad enough on its own, and then you remember that you could be watching one of the better Hart/Austin or Undertaker/Mankind matches out there, and it crosses over into ‘waste of time.’

DUD