The War on Pay-Per-View: WWF In Your House 4: The Great White North

Monday Night War PPV Scoreboard:
-WWF In Your House 3: Triple Header 7.0
-WCW Fall Brawl 1995 6.5

WWF In Your House 4: The Great White North
October 22, 1995
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

We get the Canadian national anthem to start the show.

Gorilla Monsoon announces that due to a concussion, Shawn Michaels will be out tonight. He will present the Intercontinental Championship to Dean Douglas, who will have to defend the belt against Razor Ramon.

Fatu vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley

Fatu’s gimmick is “wears an ugly jacket and dances.” Fatu takes it to Hunter early. Helmsley takes an HBK corner bump to the outside. Fatu slams him face-first onto the steel steps. Helmsley manages to slam Fatu’s face into the turnbuckle, but it has no affect on Fatu, who dances it off. Fatu gets his neck caught in the ropes, and Helmsley takes advantage. Helmsley grabs Fatu and hits a PILEDRIVER! Rather than going for the cover, Helmsley takes his jacket off and poses. Helmsley scores with a neckbreaker and covers for two. Helmsley nails Fatu with a knee to the gut and gets another nearfall. Helmsley slaps on a side headlock. Fatu tries to get up, but Helmsley drags him back down. Helmsley hits a diving clothesline off the ropes with minimal impact, but Fatu death sells it with a flip-bump. Helmsley covers for two, but then gets caught with a roll-up for two. Fatu back body drops his way free from a Pedigree predicament. Triple H gets up and scores with a DDT, but Fatu is a Samoan so it doesn’t matter. SUPERKICK BY FATU! Fatu strings together some offense and goes up to the second rope. Diving headbutt! One, two, no. CUTTER to Helmsley! Fatu goes up top- diving headbutt, but nobody is home! PEDIGREE! ONE, TWO, THREE!

Winner: Hunter Hearst Helmsley
I’m not the biggest Triple H fan, but it’s insane how much better he got as his career progressed. There is no way you could’ve seen this at the time and definitively said, “In a few years he will be one of the top four stars in the company.” His presence was pretty bad, and as a result, the control segment fell flat. They did some cool stuff at the end, but everything seemed a bit off. 0 for 1.

Jerry “The King” Lawler interviews Helmsley and puts him over after the match. Helmsley doesn’t even speak into the microphone so it’s hard to hear what he says. Henry O. Godwinn comes out with a slop bucket and chases him to the back.

Dok Hendrix is with The British Bulldog and Jim Cornette. Cornette says Bulldog will win the title like he deserves. Bulldog says he beat Diesel on Raw, and he’s going to beat him again.

WWF Tag Team Championship Match: The Smoking Gunns (c) vs. Razor Ramon and The 1-2-3 Kid

Basic stuff in the early goings. Razor was super over at this point. In a nasty spot, Bart Gunn was low-bridged by The Kid while running the ropes and he came down hard on the apron. Razor shoots Bart into the buckles and then stomps away on his back. Kid tags in and lights up Bart. The Kid hits a spinning wheel kick and a series of leg drops. Razor tags in and scores with a fall-away slam. Kid tags in, and Razor throws him into Bart via a fall away slam! Razor comes back in and whales on Bart before tagging back out. Bart gets dropped with a double back elbow. Bart stops short of a back body drop and sends Razor down to the mat. Bart crawls toward his corner, but the crowd is chanting for Razor. Billy gets the hot tag, and Kid tags in as well. Billy cleans house and hits a back elbow drop for two. Bart tags in and hits a series of three consecutive backbreakers on The 1-2-3 Kid. Bart covers for two, but Razor breaks it up. Billy tags in and the Gunns hits a suplex/leaping kick combo on The Kid! That only gets two. Billy goes for a corner splash, but Kid evades him. Both men are down. Bart runs in behind the official’s back and puts Billy on top of the Kid. The referee goes over to Bart, and Razor rolls The Kid on top of Billy! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! The crowd really bit on that nearfall. Both men tag out, and Razor cleans house. RAZOR’S EDGE TO BILLY GUNN! Kid is asking for the tag. Instead of covering, Razor obliges. Kid covers. ONE, TWO, GUNN COUNTERS WITH A CRUCIFIX- ONE, TWO, THREE!

Winners: The Smoking Gunns
This was a fun match with a cool dynamic. We’ve all seen the traditional face/heel tag formula twelve million times, so it was cool to see something different. It was kind of odd early on with Bart playing the face-in-peril on the less over team, but once The 1-2-3 Kid was in that roll, the match got better. Even though the finish was a bit obnoxious, the match was still solid. 1 for 2.

After the match, The 1-2-3 Kid is pissed, so he attacks The Smoking Gunns. Kid steals the belts, but Razor grabs them from him and gives them back to the champions.

Marty Janetty vs. Goldust

This is the debut of Goldust. Janetty starts off hot and dumps Goldust to the floor. Janetty MURDERS Goldust with a clothesline on the concrete floor. That was sick. Back inside, they start wrestling line none of that ever happened. Goldust hits some big punches on Janetty. Janetty gets a hurricanrana and takes over. Goldust hits a big clothesline of his own. For those keeping track, that’s the third clothesline flip-bump of the night. Goldust slows things down with a side headlock. Goldust hits a big back body drop and knocks Janetty to the floor. Goldust goes to the outside and slams Janetty’s face into the steps. Goldust goes inside and tries to pull Janetty into the ring, but JANETTY SNAPMARES HIM OVER THE TOP TO THE FLOOR! Goldust quickly regains control by countering a bulldog throwing Janetty violently into the steel post! Back inside, Goldust slaps on a chinlock. Janetty gets to his feet and fights out. He goes for a corner splash but misses. Goldust hits a DDT for two. Janetty comes off the ropes and hits a modified Fame-Asser. Janetty scores with an elbow to the back of Goldust’s neck for two. Janetty hits a series of clotheslines. He goes up top- he goes for a fist drop but EATS A BOOT TO THE JAW! Goldust hooks Janetty and hits a GORDBUSTER! ONE, TWO, THREE!

Winner: Goldust
This match wasn’t flawless. Goldust didn’t sell anything for longer than a few seconds. I get that he needed to look strong in his debut, but in a 10+ minute match, it hurt the flow. The floor spots at the end took things to another level. On top of that, the crowd was into it and Janetty had a lot of fire in him. If you can get past the selling, check this one out. 2 for 3.

King Mabel w/ Sir Mo vs. Yokozuna w/ Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji

I have a feeling that this match with either be awesome or a complete train wreck. The crowd gives Yokozuna a solid pop despite his alignment. Mabel slaps Yokozuna, and Yokozuna responds. They slug it out, and Yokozuna hits a clothesline that sends Mabel THROUGH THE ROPES AND OUT TO THE FLOOR! Mabel ducks a series of clotheslines and take out Yokozuna with a diving version of his own! Mabel sends Yokozuna out to the floor. Mabel charges Yoko (who isn’t looking for some reason) and hits a corner splash. Mabel shoots Yokozuna into the buckles and charges, but Yokozuna catches him with a clothesline. Yokozuna misses with a leg drop. Mabel tries for an elbow drop, but Yokozuna moves out of the way. Mabel “hits” a bulldog and Yokozuna goes out to the floor. Mabel gets pushed into the ring post. Mo shoved Cornette down, and Yoko fell on top of him! The referee calls for the bell for some reason.

Double Countout
YIKES. The execution was spotty, both guys looked slower than usual, and there was a non-finish. Not good. 2 for 4.

After the match, both men go nose-to-nose. Cornette and Mo shake hands. The two big men size each other up, but then hug to the chagrin of the crowd. They raise their arms up together.

Dok Hendrix brings Dean Douglas out to the ring. Shawn Michaels, who got his ass kicked by a bunch of people at a bar, is here with the Intercontinental Championship. Michaels goes to hand the belt to Monsoon, but Douglas snatches the belt away from Michaels and holds it up over his head. That was awesome. Michaels watches Douglas put the belt around his waist and heads to the back.

WWF Intercontinental Championship Match: Dean Douglas (c) vs. Razor Ramon

Razor beats Douglas from pillar to post to get things going. Razor works over the shoulder of Douglas for seemingly forever. Douglas gets the ropes to break free of a shoulder lock, and then explodes on Razor. Razor catches a cross body and disposes of Douglas with a fall away slam! Douglas mounts some offense from the apron, but Razor slams his face into the buckles and levels him with a right hand sending him down to the floor. Razor suplexes Douglas inside. Douglas rolls to the floor where Razor continues his assault with punches. Razor sets up for the Razor’s Edge, but Douglas gives him a back body drop out to the floor! Back inside, Dean Douglas comes off the top, but Ramon (sort of) plants him with a chokeslam. Ramon sits Douglas up top, but Douglas elbows him off. Douglas hits a turnaround cross body, but Razor rolls through for two. Both men spring up, and Douglas hits a dropkick. Douglas covers, but Razor gets his foot on the bottom rope at the last second. Ramon ducks a right and hits a side suplex. He covers by laying an arm over Douglas and gets three even though Douglas’ foot appeared to be under the bottom rope. There is confusion for some reason, but Razor is declared the winner.

Winner: Dean Douglas
This wasn’t just a step down from their previous pay-per-view match, it was an entire staircase down. Razor looked like a goober because he took barely any offense and wasn’t selling, but then was too exhausted to even make a proper cover at the end. The crowd wasn’t into Douglas at all. He tried to do the Mr. Perfect “get beat up the whole match” shtick, but he didn’t have the personality to pull it off. This was a stinker. 2 for 5.

Bret Hart comes out to the ringside area. Lawler tries to attack him, but ends up being chased to the back. Vince puts over that Bret will be challenging the winner for the title at Survivor Series.

WWF Championship Match: Diesel (c) vs. The British Bulldog w/ Jim Cornette

Diesel shoves Bulldog to the mat in their first exchange. Bulldog tries for a cross body, but he gets caught and slammed down. Another slam causes him to roll to the outside. Diesel hits a corner splash and wears down Bulldog in the corner. Diesel gets knocked to the outside, and while on the floor, he shoves Bret Hart. Bulldog takes the opportunity to chop block Diesel. Back inside, Bulldog continues to target the leg of Big Daddy Cool. Diesel goes to the outside to recover, and CORNETTE GIVES HIM AN ELBOW DROP TO THE KNEE, YEAH! Inside, Bulldog slaps on a Boston Crab. Bulldog hits a leg drop and covers for two. Bulldog goes back to focusing on the leg. Diesel mounts some brief offense before being taken down by the leg. Diesel tries to make a comeback, but his leg prevents him from doing back of anything before Bulldog takes back over and targets the leg. Diesel uses his healthy leg to kick his way free of a grapevine. Bulldog tries for a suplex, but Diesel reverses it and scores with one of his own. Bulldog ducks a punch and Diesel hits a back suplex. Bulldog regains his bearings first and slaps on a SHARPSHOOTER! Diesel powers his way out. Bulldog tries to pick up Diesel, but Diesel falls on top of him for two. Bulldog picks him up again and tries for the running powerslam, but Diesel slips out and nails a big boot! Cornette gets up on the apron, but Diesel throws him inside! Diesel grabs Cornette. Bulldog charges, but Diesel evades him and Cornette gets knocked to the floor! Diesel pummels the Bulldog and knocks him to the floor. He tries to ram Bulldog into the ring post, but Bulldog shoves him into the post instead! Bulldog slaps Bret Hart, and Hart attacks him for the DQ. WOW.

Winner by disqualification: The British Bulldog
YIKES. That is not how you want to end a pay-per-view main-event. The match was plodding with lots of leg work that didn’t engage the crowd. Diesel sold the injury itself well, but he kept his head down a lot, and the crowd never rallied behind him while he was on the defensive. The screwy finish made matters even worse, as I feel like I wasted my time sitting through a nothing match up until that point. 2 for 6.

Bret continues the assault. Diesel gets in the ring and pulls Bret off of Bulldog. The two fan favorites begin to brawl. Officials come out from the back to separate them. Members of the roster come out to pull Bret and Diesel off of each other. Vince hypes Survivor Series to close the show.

The 411: There were only two matches worth watching on this show, and both still had some bad holes in them due to a screwy finish in the tag team match and Goldust's inconsistent selling in his contest with Janetty. They were solid undercard matches, but not worth the price tag of a pay-per-view at that point in time. The main-event was a disaster with a barely-interested crowd and a disappointing conclusion. Avoid this show.

Final Score:  3.5   [ Bad ]