WWF Superstars (October 20, 1996)

 

Original Airdate: October 20, 1996 (taped September 24)

From State College, Pennsylvania; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Mr. Perfect

Hunter Hearst Helmsley v Julio Sanchez: Dok Hendrix split screens in from the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis Indiana, where preparations are underway for tonight’s In Your House. And before the match, Perfect calls Helmsley out from the commentary booth, and he does commentary on the house mic to mess with his head, ahead of their meeting tomorrow on RAW. HHH sets up for the pedigree, but Perfect comes down to try and steal his valet, and Julio attacks as Helmsley deals with it. That allows Perfect to steal her away, as HHH fights Sanchez off, and finishes with the pedigree at 4:13. This was really long, but the angle was solid. ¼*

A look at Jesse James, the ‘real’ Double J. I don’t hate this angle, but without Jeff Jarrett there to feud with, it’s kind of pointless

Over in Indianapolis, Dok gives us a look at the graveyard set for the Buried Alive match tonight

Goldust v Alex Porteau: They announce that Bret Hart will appear on RAW tomorrow to talk about his future. Meanwhile, ‘Razor Ramon’ watches on a monitor, and Stalker shows up at the entrance to observe from the curtain. Gee guys, don’t get all your top gimmicks out there all at once! Give us some time to catch our breaths! Goldust with the Curtain Call at 2:50. DUD

Mankind is in the cemetery, laughing it up. As one does

Over in Indianapolis, Dok does some hype. It’s crazy how unfinished the arena is. Outside of the cemetery set, there is nothing done here. No ring, no entrance set, not even the floor seating. For a show that is mere hours away, that is unusual for the WWF in this era

Vader v John Crystal: The only thing of note here is Vader finishing with the flying moonsault at 2:05, though he overshot it, and it didn’t look as impressive as it might. DUD

Kevin Kelly is in Indianapolis with Sycho Sid, who is ready to powerbomb Vader on his way to top contendership. And then go play softball, by the looks of him

Jake Roberts v Marty Gardner: Jake looks old and battered here, even more so than usual. But still good enough to put Gardner away with the DDT at 2:24. DUD

Out in Indianapolis, Hendrix catches up with Vince McMahon, and Ross tries to question him as to why Jim isn’t doing commentary for In Your House, but McMahon brushes it off. Uh… Ross did do commentary for the show, so I have no idea what this was all about

Sultan v Barry Horowitz: Speaking of commentators, Bob Backlund sits in here. And that’s about all he does - sit - because he sounds like he’s on another planet. Whose stash did he get into? Sultan with the camel clutch at 3:22, in another overlong squash today. DUD

Over in Indianapolis, Kelly catches up with WWF Intercontinental Champion Marc Mero, and I see we’re settling on that white leather version of the title belt again. What was their obsession with that version over the years? It was so much better on the classic black. I think, other than maybe Jeff Jarrett, no one ever looked better carrying the white version

Dok catches up with Clarence Mason over in Indianapolis, with Mason promising to get Crush out of trouble for beating up a fan last week. I find it amazing that they don’t have a ring set up yet, but that stupid indoor blimp of theirs is already flying around

Bob Holly v 'Razor Ramon': Posturing to start, dominated by Ramon, as Ross rants about all kinds of shit. Perfect notes that he’s excited to have Ross finally call one of his matches when he meets HHH tomorrow, which is pretty ridiculous, considering Ross called dozens of them back in 1993. Razor with a chinlock and a fallaway slam, but Bob blocks a side suplex, and goes on the comeback trail. Well, maybe not ‘comeback.’ That implies that he’d been there before, but this has been a complete squash for Ramon thus far. Bob with a dropkick for two, and a rana gets two. To the top, but Razor knocks him off, and delivers the side superplex on this go around, as Perfect gets in a funny joke about Verne Gagne. Well, if he’s going to make those kinds of jokes, no better time than a Razor Ramon match. Razor with the crucifix powerbomb at 6:55. This was pretty terrible. DUD

Undertaker is ready to shove his ‘purple fist’ up Mankind’s… well, holes. Various holes, let’s not assume

Back in Indianapolis, the power dies, as ‘thunder’ rumbles. Let’s hope somebody can reign in all that ‘power of the Undertaker’ before we need to do another makeup show on Tuesday. Luckily Shawn isn’t booked for tonight, at least

BUExperience: This was mostly focused on hard selling In Your House, which is great, but it still managed to come off as a very flat show. This whole period is one of the weakest, and it’s really hard to get into anything going on.