Leighty’s Retro Review: WWF In Your House #1: Premiere

Written: 8.5.26
-Source: Netflix
-Run Time: 1:40:18

Book Plug: If you enjoy these Retro Reviews, please consider buying a copy of my 1996 PPV Reviews book on Amazon!

-Last time WWF presented WrestleMania and the company is still running on Diesel Fuel.

-Announce Team: Vince McMahon and Dok Hendrix
-May 14, 1995
-Onondaga County War Memorial, Syracuse, NY
-Attendance: 7000
PPV Buys: 322,000

-WCW finally pushed enough with adding PPVs each year that Vince had to respond and we get In Your House. Vince made the price of these shows $14.95 since they were an hour shorter and weren’t viewed as important as The Big Five. It was a way to test the waters to see if there was a demand to pay for a PPV each month. All I remember from the hype of this show was the contest where they were giving away a house.

Hakushi (w/ Shinja) vs. Bret “Hitman” Hart

-Bret is pulling double duty as he has Jerry Lawler later in the show (yes they are feuding once again). Man, it’s weird seeing WWE in a a small building like this. This is also the building where David Arquette became WCW World Champion. Vince claiming the marks on Hakushi were always weird to me as you could see the wearing off as he wrestled. I mean, I guess temporary tattoos are a thing. Feeling out process to start and Bret ends up with a roll-up for two. He gets arm control and then runs Hakushi down with a shoulder tackle. Hip toss and then an arm drag and another, so Hakushi bails to the floor. Back in the ring, Bret continues to control the early part of the match. He sends Hakushi into the corner. He goes for another whip, but Hakushi reverses and Bret takes his sternum first bump into the corner. Hakushi hits a Vader Bomb for two and hooks a nerve hold. Ugh! Hakushi with a thrust to the throat. He goes for a slam, but Bret slides out. He goes to run Hakushi into the ropes for a roll-up, but Hakushi ducks and Bret goes through the ropes to the floor. Shinja lays in the boots as the crowd boos. Nice! Back in, Hakushi sends Bret into the corner and then chokes as Shinja has the ref. Very deliberate offense by Hakushi as she throws more thrust and chops. The crowd is staying with them. Hand spring elbow in the corner. Bret starts to fight back, but Hakushi goes to the eyes. He catches Bret with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Hakushi up top and connects with a flying head-butt, but Bret is out at two. Springboard Splash misses. Bret is to his feet and starts pounding away with right hands. Punch to the gut followed by a Side Russian Leg Sweep gets two. Corner bulldog gets two! Backrbeaker followed by the elbow drop from the middle ropes. Sharpshooter, but Shinja distracts Bret. Hakushi goes to attack from behind, but Bret catches him and hits a clothesline that turns Hakushi inside out. Bret wraps Hakushi in the ropes and starts poisoning away. He goes back got a clothesline, but Shinja grans the ankle. Bret beats the poor defenseless manager. Hakushi takes over back in the ring as he gets a two count. He goes for a suplex, but Bret blocks and hits a suplex that takes both men over the top. Sweet bump! Shinja grabs Bret by the foot and as he goes after him, Hakushi comes off the ropes with a Asai Moonsault. They have the crowd biting on a count-out win, but Bret makes it back in time. They trade standing switches and Bret ends up countering a hold into a Victory Roll for the pin at 14:41.

Winner: Bret Hart via pin at 6:11
-This was a solid match, but not the show stealing hidden classic like I always assumed. ***1/4

-Bret tweaks his knee getting out of the ring, Uh oh!

-Todd is backstage at the WWF Hotline Center and Lawler wants the match with Bret to start right now. Todd notes that Bret is coming to talk since he is a winner and Lawler gets a “page.”

-Stephanie Wiand is at the In Hour House set and sets the stage for the contest drawing later in the show. We see the tank filled with all the entries and whoever wins, gets a house in Orlando.

Handicap Match: Jeff Jarrett and The Roadie vs. Razor Ramon

-Razor’s prematch promo features him mentioning playing with “the big boys.” HE WAS TELLING US ALL ALONG WHERE HE WAS GOING! Dok notes this is the first handicap match on WWF PPV. That can’t be right? Demolition had a match against Fuji and The Powers of Pain at Mania V. Well, Dok ended up clarifying first time for a 2 on 1 handicap match. Razor is working his all gold look. JJ is sporting a black and white pattern. Roadie distracts from the apron and JJ takes control. Razor reverses a whip and delivers a right hand to the face. Another one followed by a discus punch. JJ bails to the floor and Razor fires up the crowd. Back in JJ with right hands and sends Razor head first into the buckle. The crowd is small enough and quiet enough I can hear a few guys going “oooh” after each time someone makes contact. It gets kind of annoying. JJ stalls on the floor long enough for Roadie to attack from behind. JJ sends Razor corner to corner and then gets an enzugiri. Body press is blocked as Razor hits the SOS Slam. Roadie makes the save and gets the tag. He slams Razor down by the back of his head and then drops a series of elbows. JJ back in and tries a sunset flip but Razor punches him in the face. JJ eventually gets a pin for two. Small package by Razor but JJ is up first and delivers a clothesline, Roadie back in and gets into a punching contest with Razor and that’s dumb. JJ in to make the save, but ends up taking an Atomic Drop. Razor’s Edge, but Razor is so close to the ropes, you know where this is going. JJ with a backdrop that sends Razor to the floor. Roadie off the ropes with a clothesline and Vince is delaying this one as being finished! Razor beats the ten count, so Razor comes off the rope with a cross-body. Razor rolls through for a two count. Dropkick by Jarrett gets another two count. Razor sets too early on a backdrop and JJ hits a swinging neckbreaker. He goes to drop his weight on Razo’s back, but Razor falls away and JJ goes balls first against the ropes. We get a double down as they cracked heads. Both men start to stir and Razor gets a belly-to-back suplex and both men are down again. JJ falls to make the tag and Roadie drops a knee from the middle ropes for two. Roadie hooks a reverse chinlock and we don’t really need that in this one. Razor rallies as he breaks the hold, but gets send face first into the canvas. Tag back to JJ but Razor greets him with a right hand and another discuss punch. JJ and Roadie get sent into each other. Razor brings Roadie off the ropes with a belly-to-back suplex. JJ attacks from behind and goes for The Figure Four, but Razor kicks him away and he crashes into his son. Razor’s Edge connects for the pin at 12;36.

Winner: Razor Ramon via pin at 12:36
-This was kind of dull but the fans love Razor. **

-Roadie and JJ beat on Razor after the match, but Savio Vega makes his debut. They treat it like he is a fan and gets escorted from the ring.

-Jerry Lawler is arguing with Jack Tunney backstage as he wants the match to happen now.

-Video package on Sid!

King of The Ring Qualifier: Mabel (w/ Mo) vs. Adam Bomb

-Mabel is now a heel and there is no more rapping to the ring. Oscar is also gone as Mo is basically Mabel’s manager. Vince notes there must be a victor in the match. They then taped Bulldog vs Owen in a King of The Ring qualifier later after the PPV ends and they went to a double count-out. Mabel attacks before the bell, but misses a charge in the corner. Shoulder tackle sends Mabel to the floor. Bomb with a sling shot plancha! LUCHA BOMB! Sling shot clothesline back in the ring gets one. Bomb up top and hits a flying clothesline for another one count. Mabel reverses a whip to the corner and delivers a spinning heel kick. Bomb ducks a clothesline, but gets caught trying a cross-body. World’s Strongest Slam finishes at 1:53.

Winner: Mabel via pin at 1:53
-So it begins! Bomb was kind of on fire in this one and looked like a bigger deal, but we were on the slow march to making Mabel into a Main Event act. * for LUCHA BOMB!

WWF Tag Championship: Yokozuna (c) and Owen Hart (c) (w/ Fuji and Jim Cornette) vs. The Smoking Guns

-The Guns get their return match after losing at WrestleMania XI. There the Guns didn’t know Yoko was Owen’s partner, so they had a bit of a gripe. Yoko starts with Billy which is kind of weird as usually it makes more sense to start with Owen and build to the Yoko MDK tag. It doesn’t matter as Yoko is only in for a few seconds before tagging to Owen. Press Slam from Bart and tag back to Billy. Bart with a vertical suplex while Bart jumps up with a drop-kick at the same time. Bart spends too much time looking at Fuji and Owen takes over. He tags Yoko, who easily knocks Billy on his ass. Nerve hold! Lovely! Tag back to Owen and he gets a neckbreaker for two. Bill with a sunset flip for two, but Owen comes back with a spinning heel kick. That sends him to the floor and Yoko goes for a splash but Billy avoids. Back in Owen misses a dropkick in the corner and Bart gets the tag. He runs wild with clotheslines and a slam. Belly-to-back suplex, but he celebrates instead of making a cover which annoys Dock. Side Winder but they wait too long to cover. Bart ends up on the floor and Yoko drops a leg on him. He’s toast! Yoko rolls him into the ring and Yoko gets the pin at 5:45.

Winners and Still WWF Tag Team Champions: Yokozuna and Owen Hart via pin at 5:45
-Weird match as it didn’t really follow the tag formula and just kind of happened. The leg drop on the floor from Yoko was a killer move to end this one. *1/2

-Todd is with Diesel and mentions today is Mother’s Day and this is his first without his mom, who passed just before Christmas. That’s awful!

-Jerry Lawler is in the ring with his “mom.” Who seems to be younger than Lawler and she wants to challenge Helen to a fight. Lawler then makes jokes at Helen’s expense. Uncle Jerry asks for a kiss on the cheek.

-Todd is with Bret, who says his leg is fine as he was gold bricking.

Bret “Hitman” Hart vs. Jerry “The King” Lawler

-Lawler is a bit worried once he sees Bret is moving rather well on the leg. Bret starts beating on Lawler in the corner and then out on the floor. King tries to hide behind a ref and that doesn’t work. Bret drops a leg and gets a backdrop. He chokes Lawler on the ropes and goes for another backdrop, but Lawler counters with a piledriver. Bret is up as he no sells. Are we in Jacksonville? I kid! Bret with his own and Lawler doesn’t have the power to no sell. Lawler goes to the eyes and gets a slam. He heads up top, but takes too long and Bret delivers a right hand to the gut on the way down. They keep cutting back to Lawler’s mom, and I’m not complaining. Shinja is out, but the ref gets him. Lawler is sent into the ropes and the ref gets bumped and ends up tied upside down. Hakushi is here and comes off the top onto Bret. Hakushi off the top again and this time with a flying head-butt. Another one and somehow the ref misses it even though he was sent back into the ring. Lawler gets a roll-up for the pin at 5:02 and his mom is happy.

Winner: Jerry “The King” Lawler via pin at 5:02
-One of the weaker Bret WWF PPV matches. Probably one of the shortest of his WWF career as well. This feud would continue. *

-Sid cuts a promo about time running out on Diesel.

-Stephanie and Todd throw to video of the house in Orlando that’s being even away. Todd and Stephanie use rakes to mix up the letters. They had over 300,000 entries. Stephanie picks a winner and they bring in lawyers to make sure everything is official. They call the winner and get a wrong number. Todd is just rolling with this as it’s live pal. Matt gets the win though his dad answers the phone. Matt, 11 years old, is screaming like crazy in the background. The story is the kid is from Henderson, NV and they weren’t moving to Florida so after doing some promotional work with WWF, they sold the house and the kid got over $150,000 to use for college. Not bad! Unless it was someone who already lived in Florida, I assume everyone would have sold the house.

WWF Championship: Diesel (c) vs. Sid (w/ Ted Dibiase)

-This is a result of Sid attacking Shawn at the Mania after RAW. Shawn was kind of a dick and blamed Sid for costing him the match against Diesel, so Sid destroyed him. Diesel controls early as he beats on Sid until he rolls to the floor to regroup. Diesel follows and drops a double ax off the apron. Back in Diesel gets a leaping clothesline as that is twice Diesel has left his feet. It only gets one though. Both men end up on the floor and Diesel with forearms before sending Sid back into the ring. Diesel chant from the crowd. Ted gets on the apron to distract Diesel and I assume he is telling him there is big money to make down south in about a year. Sid with a knee to the back and Diesel goes spilling over the top to the floor. Look at Diesel being a bump machine! Sid drops Diesel on the apron and then runs him back first into the post. Running boot to the head from Sid. It wasn’t an Orton punt, but it was in the neighborhood. It’s early, but I am into this match. Back in the ring Sid throws clubbing blows to the back. Double ax to the back of the head. Diesel fights back with elbows but runs into a Sid elbow in the corner. Sid with a running clothesline out of the corner. Sid is red gear looks weird. I got used to the black tights. More clubbing blows from Sid to the back. Sid hooks a camel clutch and we get a small, Sid chant from the crowd. He always has some fans in the crowd. The Diesel chants respond as the camel clutch continues. The one good thing about the smaller arena, is the crowd sounds louder. Diesel starts to fight back, but Sid drops his weight on Diesel’s back and then hits a leg drop for two. Another Diesel chant! Back to the camel clutch sadly. Diesel’s arm drops twice, but not a third time. He avoids Sid trying to jump on his back, but can’t avoid a choke slam. That gets a big reaction from the Sid fans in the crowd. Powerbomb hits and look at the Sid fans jumping up and down. Sid takes too long to cover and Diesel is out at two. Diesel avoids a charge in the corner and hits Snake Eyes. Big Boot and Jackknife, but Tatanka hits the ring for the DQ at 11:29.

Winner and Still WWF Champion: Diesel via pin at 11:29
-The match was fine and I enjoyed the opening five or so minutes before the camel clutch kind of took the life out of it. The non finish was crap, but set up the next PPV. This match is better than you think and would have been even better with a finish. *1/2

-Thanks for reading!

5.0

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

The show has history going for it since it's the first In Your House. Outside of that there's not much to this one other than Bret/Hakushi having a pretty swank match. It's an easy watch with the show clocking it just under two hours. Not a good show, but one worth watching just to see how Vince responded to WCW stuffing the calendar with PPVs.