Dark Pegasus Video Review: In Your House VII – Good Friends, Better Enemies

IYH 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies by J.D. Dunn This is, of course, the final WWF PPV appearance for Scott Hall and Kevin Nash before they hopped over to WCW, which is a shame because Nash was on a roll as a heel. Of course, the defection changed the wrestling landscape as Nitro began to dominate Raw on a regular basis and wouldn’t be stopped until politics and played-out storylines got the better of WCW while the WWF was rejuvenated by Austin, the Rock, and more tits than you can shake a stick at. But this, along with Bash at the Beach ’96, is the turning point in the Monday Night Wars. April 28, 1996 Live from Omaha, Neb. Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler. Opening Match: The British Bulldog & Owen Hart (w/Jim Cornette & Clarence Mason) vs. Jake Roberts & Ahmed Johnson. Bulldog has two strikes against him: being afraid of Ahmed Johnson and being afraid of snakes. Sleazy attorney Clarence Mason presents a court order barring the snake from ringside. Jake rips it up and tosses the snake (anyone remember this one’s name? I’m thinking it was Revelations) on Corny. Corny passes out as only Cornette can. The ref makes Jake take the snake to the back before starting the match. Ahmed just manhandles Owen early because Bulldog refuses to get in (see, he and Ahmed were feuding over an arm-wrestling contest gone bad). Ahmed was HUGELY over here, but he had the same problem Sid Vicious did – he never really learned to work. Bulldog tags in after letting Owen cheapshot Ahmed. That’s some good cowardly heel. Ahmed gets caught in the bad-guy corner for a while before tagging Jake. Jake plays the face-in-peril role. He has trouble moving in there, so we get a lot of chinlocks to let him rest. Jake hits a chinbreaker to get out of a sleeper and tags out to Ahmed. Ahmed hits one sloppy spinebuster on the Bulldog and tags right back out. He’s a real master of strategy, that one. Bulldog grabs Cornette’s tennis racket, waits for the ref to get distracted, and nails Jake in the knee with the racket. That allows Bulldog to pick up the submission win with a kneebar at 13:47. Too long, considering how limited the babyfaces were. *1/2 Intercontinental Title: Goldust (w/Marlena & Bodyguard) vs. The Ultimate Warrior. Goldust injured his knee on the pre-show after he blew faerie dust in Warrior’s eyes. That means we get 5-6 minutes of Goldust stalling. I suppose, since this is an abortion of a match, and it was messed up just before the PPV, we could call this a late-term abortion. Warrior finally invites Goldust to sit in his director’s chair and then clotheslines him. Goldust walks out, saving his title by COR at 7:46. Yes, nearly eight minutes, and the only move was a clothesline. O In the back, an irate British Bulldog tries to get into Shawn Michaels’ dressing room, but he’s held back by Dave Hebner and Tony Garea. This would be the start of the “Shawn Michaels sexually harassed my wife, and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt” angle. The original angle had Diana attempting to seduce Shawn, and Shawn, like a good babyface, would turn her down because he respects marriage and all. Then, Diana would manipulate Bulldog into going after him. Vader (w/Jim Cornette) vs. Razor Ramon. This would be Scott Hall’s last PPV match in the WWF until 2002. Vader just absolutely MURDERS him early in the match. Razor makes a mini-comeback, but Vader backdrops out of the Razor’s Edge. Razor slugs his way back into the match and clotheslines Vader over the top. Corny interferes, allowing Vader to take over again. Vince tries various nicknames for Vader, I assume to make up for the loss of “Oooozing machismoooo” and “Big Dadd-ay Cooool.” The Vader Bomb (pump-splash) gets only two. Ramon comes back with a powerslam and a bulldog. Vader goes for another Vader Bomb, but Ramon counters to an Electric Chair Drop! Ramon calls for a Razor’s Edge, but Vader backdrops out of it and squats down on him for the win at 14:49. The match was a little too dependent on power moves, but it was really solid from a psychology and storyline standpoint. **1/2 Dok Hendrix announces that Vader will face Yokozuna on the next PPV. Vader broke Yoko’s leg on an episode of Raw, so that was kind of a no-brainer. WWF Tag Team Titles: The Bodydonnas (w/Sunny) vs. The Godwinns (w/Hillbilly Jim). The Godwinns are hogfarmers in their spare time, so they bring a pair of pigs and Geech, their smellhound, with them. The Bodydonnas are Skip (the late Chris Candido) and Zip (future WWF agent Tom Prichard). Lawler screws up his “Sunny is a whore” joke of the day. Actually, this is kind of an important angle in WWF history, because Sunny was the first to use her sexuality on a regular basis to get wins for her guys. Now, it’s all about the T&A, but Sunny was a pioneer. The storyline here is that Sunny has been flashing Phinneas and costing him wins, but he’s still in love with her. Hey, the pig can only take you so far. *Ahem* The Godwinns dominate until Zip pulls down the ropes, spilling Phinneas to the floor. Phinneas plays the hogfather-in-peril for a while before he get “all riled up” and tags out. Henry hits the Slop Drop (reverse DDT), but Phinneas is distracted by an autographed picture of Sunny, so he’s unable to make the save when the Donnas do the switcheroo trick. Zip gets the win with a sloppy small package at 7:17. 3/4* Marc Mero is irate because Hunter Hearst Helmsley interfered in his match with the 1-2-3 Kid earlier in the night. Damn, I kind of wanted to see that match, but it’s not included on the tape. The video package that leads up to the main event is a great example of something they don’t do anymore. Through Todd Pettingill’s voiceover, they manage to 1) bury Diesel, 2) beg Bret to come back, and 3) put over the character of Shawn Michaels. I’m not sure why they got rid of the voiceover in favor of segments of patched-together commentary because the voiceover allows you to put all the pieces together in a way that may not have been obvious while the angle was unfolding. In his promo, Diesel plays with the smart marks in the audience by promising something big for Vince. Recycled from my “From the Vault” review… Shawn Michaels (w/Jose Lothario) vs. Diesel. This is during Nash’s best period. He was semi-shooting on everyone and calling out Vince McMahon at every turn. This was sort of a clash for Shawn’s soul as Diesel claimed Shawn changed. The story of the match is that Shawn pretty has to stick and move but he keeps getting overpowered at every turn. Shawn takes Hugo Savinovich’s boot and clobbers Big Daddy Cool with it. Nash keeps talking trash to Vince in a sort of worked-shoot angle between them. Diesel was kind of Stone Cold before Stone Cold only Vince was playing the face in the feud. Nash takes off Hebner’s belt and chokes him out with it! Then he lays in some brutal shots on Michaels’ back. Diesel swings a chair which ricochets off the top rope and back into his face. Shawn grabs the chair but gets blowed low. Diesel Jackknifes Shawn through the table in a pretty big spot for the time. He gets back in the ring and puts on the belt. Vince is screaming at Shawn to “let it be over,” but Shawn crawls and scrapes his way over to the ring and grabs a fire extinguisher. Diesel gets blinded by it and now Michaels can lay in some stiff right hands. Flying forearm! Kip-up! Crowd is rockin’. Micheaels counters a Jackknife attempt and hits the Savage Elbow off the top. He’s warming up the band!!! SWEET CHIN MU— No! Diesel blocks it and nearly rips Shawn’s friggin’ head off with a clothesline. The great thing about that spot is it certainly FELT like the end of the match. Diesel heads out and RIPS OFF MAD DOG VACHON’S LEG!!!! He would probably get huge face heat for that these days but this was a different time. Shawn lowblows Diesel before he can us it and then Shawn clubs him with it himself. Sweet Chin Music finishes moments later. Shawn stands in the ring taunting Hogan and Hall and defiantly challenging all comers. This is the standard for all big man vs. little man matches. I can’t think of any that surpass it. ****1/2

The 411: Unless you're a WWF vs. WCW history buff, the only reason to pick this up is the main event, and that's available on Shawn's DVD. Vince would go on to make a number of bad decisions, staggering through the rest of 1996 like a punchdrunk boxer before sticking a rocket up Austin's ass and shooting him to the moon in 1997. As per the 1996 rule, though, anything in involving Shawn Michaels is recommended, and everything else is a pass. Not recommended.

Final Score:  6.0   [ Average ]