wrestling / Video Reviews

411 Video Review: In Your House 2 (1995)

July 8, 2002 | Posted by Sydney Brown

What someone needs to do is take all the Shawn Micheals matches from the IYH PPVs and put them all together for one comp tape, so that suckers like me don’t have to track down every show to get one great match.

We’re looking at the second In Your House PPV, a show so uncreative, they couldn’t even bother to give it a name. Hell, I don’t think they even HAD names until mid-96.

As stated earlier, this has a seriously underrated Shawn Micheals/Jeff Jarrett match on it, and it’s the only reason I’m reviewing this. 1994-1996 was pretty much the doldrums for the WWF, and unless you were a Clique member or a Hart member, there was nothing much talentwise.

Our hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler. Vince is dressed in his “Stand Back” outfit. They’re boasting about the first ever PPV lumberjack match airing tonight. Wisely, they switch gears to the I-C match.

Match #1

The 1-2-3 Kid vs. The Roadie

X-Pac vs. Road Dogg, essentially. Funny how a gimmick change makes a match seem more meaningful. People trash Sean Waltman now, but before he injured his neck one time too many, he was one of the main reasons I watched wrestling. We’re in that phase right now. This is, I believe, the rematch from King of the Ring ‘95, the worst WWF PPV ever. Trash the shows now all you want, THAT was a completely inexcusable booking travesty. Roadie gets jumped in the aisle, and we’re underway. Kid throws him in the ring, but Roadie’s up immediately and he jumps Kid with kicks. He throws Kid in the ropes and blows a leapfrog by not getting high enough and gets tripped by Kid so that he falls on his face, but he makes up for it by acting like it was intentional and selling the landing. Kid hits three kicks to the corner and headscissors him to the floor. Roadie stands around awhile so Kid hits a flying kick to the floor. Back in, more kicks, and Kid manages to almost blow a splash in the corner, looked like he was going to do something else, then changed his mind in the air. He tries the spot again, and NOW we see what was supposed to happen as Roadie catches Kid and powerslams him. Camera cuts to Jeff Jarrett, and we see that Jarrett isn’t watching the match in the lockerroom, even though the TV is turned to it. To emphasize the point, Jarrett waves his hand at the TV as if “pffft, I don’t care about you.” Back to the ring, Kid’s on the floor and Roadie clotheslines him from the apron. He then does the classic crotchfirst into the post to 1-2-3 but goes one better by ramming his head into the post simultaneously. Crowd shot shows us that it is indeed 1995 as all the fans are giving “thumbs down” signs with their hands. Has anyone EVER done that in real life? Back in, The Kid gets dropped on his face and legdropped twice. Huge backdrop on Kid. Roadie dances for the crowd, and gets a sloppy two. Roadie with a chinlock. Now Jarrett’s talking to his backup singers. Roadie misses a kneedrop from the top as the lights dim, lest we see the empty seats behind the Roadie. Nasty spinkick from Kid gets two. Dropkick into the corner. He slams Roadie and goes to the top, and hits a frog splash for two. Roadie counters a hurricarana into a sit-down powerbomb for two. Roadie misses a blind charge, so the Kid back to the top, so Roadie crotches him, and then hits a piledriver from the SECOND ROPE! He slips a little but Kid gets planted anyways. Easy three count. Pretty damn good opener. ***.

Roadie, being a roadie, checks the sound system after the match.

Interview: Sid w/ Ted DiBiase. Before you bury the WWE for its recent product, just remember, Tatanka was once one of their top heels.

Hey, remember Barry Didinski, the guy whose only job was to shill WWF shirts?

Match #2

Men on a Mission vs. Razor Ramon & Savio Vega

Two great McMahon ideas in one. The 90’s update to Pedro Morales against a 500 lb guy with no talent and a partner who managed to have even LESS talent. Though it didn’t stop Vince from pushing him to the main event, thus sparing the Ron Simmons / Barbarian match as being christened “Worst Main Event on Paper of All Time.” Vince is a stubborn man. He figures it out when people cheer for someone, but can’t understand when no one reacts. Mabel got ZERO reaction at King of the Ring, he’s getting none now, but yet he got a push anyway. Could have been worse. Could have been Diesel / Mo. Razor comes out with taped ribs, but to shock everyone, he takes them off. Why, he’s just fine! Mo starts and gets used as a punching bag before being hit with a fallaway slam. Razor slaps Mo in the face and tags Savio. Savio tries a bodypress which Mo is supposed to reverse but he screws it up, so Savio starts punching away. Mo gets a quick knee and here comes Mabel. Mabel misses a corner splash, and Savio gets a pretty stiff savate kick to Mabel’s face. Mabel responds with a sideslam. He tosses Savio. Back in, Mabel shocks me by pulling off an enziguiri. Okay, alter “no talent” to “limited talent.” That was a little impressive. Mo in and they get a double clothesline. Mo suplexes Vega for two. Mo runs out of moves so back comes Mabel. Time for a nerve hold. Savio kicks his way out and idiotically tries to slam Mabel. Mabel gets two. He then sorta hits a Tazz-plex in the loosest definition. Mo in with a double elbow. Mabel drops a leg on Savio’s head, tags Mo in, who promptly misses a Mo’ sault. Savio tags Razor who flattens Mo. He hits a belly-to-back from the second rope and goes for the Razor’s Edge but Mo gets an eyerake and tags Mabel. Mabel goes to the top, so Razor throws him off. He gets two. Mo kicks Razor, and he falls. Mabel goes for a splash, but Razor moves out of the way. Razor tries to throw Mabel to the corner, but Mabel reverses, splashes him, and hits a belly-to-belly for the three. Yeah, job the only guy getting a pop. God Bless WCW for providing competition, or this kinda crap would still be happen……….. Never mind. *1/2. . And I take back that whole name-change thing leading to a more interesting match. I’m even less enthralled with a Scott Hall vs. Viscera match. Sounds like a future TNA opener.

Hey, call that WWF Superstar Line! Whatever happened to 900 numbers anyways? They were EVERYWHERE back in the day. If you called then, you could hear from the Roadie.

Todd Pettengill sets up the Jarrett performance. One thing McMahon seems to have learned when hiring talent: NEVER HIRE DJs.

Dox Hendrix interviews the faces’ lockerroom. Has DiBiase paid off somebody to turn on Diesel?

Oh, it’s concert time. Jeff Jarrett comes out to sing “With My Baby Tonight.” The weird thing is that it really isn’t THAT bad of a song. This comes from a guy that hates country music, and it certainly isn’t one of the all time greats, but I do admit, it got stuck in my head back in the day. Though granted, it’s no “For Everybody.”

Anyways, the back-up singers are horrid, and it’s pretty obvious that Jarrett’s doing a lip-synch job, though it’s not typical WWF “hit you over the head” obvious. McMahon feels the need to sell how good it is by screaming at the top of his lungs how good the song is DURING the song. Kind of a precursor to TRL. The fans boo Jarrett, because, well, it IS Jeff Jarrett after all. McMahon offers the song on cassette for purchase on RAW. No doubt it would have sold for about $10. For one song.

Todd Pettengill goes to the crowd to see what they think. Actual dialogue from that segment:

Todd: Sir, what did you think of the song?
Man #1: It was okay.
Todd: Sir, what about you?
Man #2: It STINKS!
Todd: They LOVE the song!

And keep in mind, Todd’s not being ironic. Albert Brooks once had a great bit about how DJs have some chemical imbalance in their brain that makes them turn all negative reactions into appearing positive. And Pettengill shows it. Everybody tells Todd how the song’s “okay”, and Pettengill reacts like Jeff’s the new Elvis.

Match #3

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Henry O. Godwinn

Bam Bam Bigelow could have been one of the biggest stars ever. He got a Lesnar-esque push back in 1987 as the next superstar, and things never really went his way. After bouncing around WCW, he ended up back in the WWF with pointless feuds with Doink and Tatanka. Then came the Lawrence Taylor incident. He was apparently promised a HUGE push if he jobbed to LT, but then once he did, the push was taken away, because after all, who wants to job to a guy that can’t even beat a football player? So after co-main eventing on the worst PPV in history the month before, Bigelow gets a nice mid-card slot against a guy nobody gives a crap about. Both men come out to zero pop. Actually Bam Bam’s pyro gets a pop. Godwinn starts with a belly to back which Bigelow no-sells, and responds with two of his own. A shoulderblock tackle sends Godwinn to the floor. Back in, Bam Bam hits a DDT. He charges Godwinn, who lowers he rope, so Bigelow falls to the floor. Bigelow gets sent to the steps. Back in, and Godwinn gets a clothesline for 2. Wideshot of a pretty small arena, I’d say 10,000 tops. Bigelow hits a desperate bodypress, but Godwinn hits a clothesline shortly after. An elbowdrop gets two. Godwinn misses a blindcharge and Bigelow starts hitting his headbutts. He blows a top rope headbutt and Godwinn goes to the second rope and misses a kneedrop, so Bigelow rolls him up for the three. Nothing match, that everybody KNEW was a nothing match, so the fact that it ended quickly helps. *.

Bob Backlund argues with a kid in a Lakers jersey, and considering it’s 1995, the kid had some balls to wear it. Though being a Lakers fan, I tend to get crap about it whether they’re winning OR losing. Nice bit of foreshadowing in that he’s wearing a #8 jersey, Kobe’s future number.

Interview: Shawn Micheals. Shawn’s sad that nobody visited him on his birthday, but that’s okay, he’ll give himself a present: the I-C belt.

Match #4

Shawn Micheals vs. Jeff Jarrett

The Roadie makes his fourth appearance in about forty-five minutes and cuts a promo saying that Jarrett’s not 100% because he’s spent from singing. Jarrett and Micheals have a competition to see who has the gayer outfit. Really tough call, but I think the leather hat tops Jarrett’s light-up sunglasses. Jarrett tosses the belt to Hebner, but HBK takes the belt and checks his reflection in it. They lock up and HBK punches Jarrett in the face who rolls into the ref whose busy with the Roadie. Jarrett backs off, so HBK sits on the turnbuckle waiting. Jarrett gets a quick takedown, and now HBK backs off a moment. HBK tosses Jarrett to the corner, Jarrett flips over Micheals, and punches him in the face, sending him to the floor. Jarrett taunts Micheals on the floor by sitting on the turnbuckle waiting for him. Micheals makes some rude comment to the cameraman as Jarrett says “I got him King!” Jarrett with a side-headlock, and can’t get the hiptoss, so he tries a Rocker-dropper only to get thumbed in the eye. Shawn tries his own Rocker-dropper which he slips on, so Jarrett swings and misses. Jarrett reverses a whip into the corner, HBK leaps over Jarrett and pops him. He hiptosses Jarrett, clotheslines him to the floor, and does a mock Jarrett strut to a huge reaction. McMahon suggests a Shawn Micheals concert. Jarrett decides to walk, so Hebner counts with Shawn counting along. Jarrett gets in at 9, and then bails again. He counts with Hebner as well, gets in at 9, then bails again. Micheals gets tired of waiting, and follows him out with a right to the face. Jarrett rolls in and Micheals goes to the top for a flying punch, but Jarrett’s ready and he clocks him in the stomach. Micheals straddles the second rope, so Jarrett drops his legs on him. Jarrett misses a dropkick, and the Roadie tries to cheapshot Micheals. Micheals thumbs Roadie in the eye, and then throws Jarrett over the top onto Roadie to the floor. He then hits a flying bodypress to the floor on both men. Shawn poses while Jarrett tries to collect himself. Jarrett begs off in the corner, but Micheals has none of it. He kicks Jarrett, sends him to the corner, Jarrett reverses, Micheals leaps to the second rope, fakes a bodypress, Jarrett ducks, turns around, ducks a SECOND bodypress only to have Micheals turn it into a sunset-flip, Jarrett counters with a fist to the face, but Micheals has moved out of the way, so Jarrett punches the canvas. While he shakes the pain off, Micheals charges Jarrett, but Jarrett backdrops Micheals OVER the steel post and Micheals takes a NASTY nine-foot drop to the concrete floor backfirst. The last seven lines was all one awesome little sequence. Jarrett follows him out, ramming his head into the steps. Back in, and Jarrett hits a face-first suplex. He goes to an abdominal stretch with requisite rope grab. The ref sees it, kicks it away, and HBK hiptosses him. He goes for a backdrop but Jarrett hits a flying DDT instead for 2. McMahon’s headset goes out to make the match even better as Jarrett chokes Micheals on the second rope. Roadie joins in as well. Micheals grabs Roadie, and Jarrett rams into Roadie again, Micheals gets a roll-up just in time for Vince to come back on with a “1-2-He got him! No, he didn’t.” Jarrett sends HBK into the corner, and he does the Flair flip way too hard and crashes to the floor. Both men are down. Jarrett distracts the ref, and the Roadie hits a clothesline from the apron. Jarrett waits for the count, but HBK gets in at 9. Jarrett goes to the top for a bodypress but Micheals reverses for two. Jarrett gets a crucifix into a sunset-flip but Micheals counters for two. Jarrett counters that for two, and then dropkicks HBK right in the face for 2. Jarrett gets a sleeper, but HBK counters with a belly-to-back. Both men are down. Micheals crawls over for 2. He punches Jarrett several times, runs into the ropes and in one motion, hits a flying clothesline on Jarrett and does a kip-up with a vengeance immediately after. Jarrett charges but gets knocked down. A flying forearm sends him down again before stomping on his face. He slams Jarrett and goes to the top and hits a flying elbowdrop for 2. The crowd is buzzing now. Jarrett gets thrown into the corner, he lifts his leg up, but Micheals slides to the floor, grabs his legs, trips him, and crotches him into the post. Jarrett calls for time-out as Micheals climbs to the top, but Roadie trips him and Micheals crotches himself on the turnbuckle. Jarrett hits a superplex, and goes for the figure-four but Micheals small-packages him for 2. Jarrett hits a quick kneebreaker to stop the momentum. He tries the figure-four again but Micheals shoves Jarrett into the ref. Micheals goes for the superkick, but Roadie clips him. Jarrett hits a massive bodypress as the ref recovers and counts 2 and 5/6. Jarrett throws Micheals into the ropes, but Micheals reverses and Roadie who’s not paying attention, trips Jarrett by mistake. Jarrett falls on his face, goes to scold Roadie, but when he turns around, he gets superkicked in the face for the 3. Micheals wins his 3rd I-C title. **** easy. Jeff Jarrett’s greatest match, and one of Micheals’ better performances.

Not one to miss an opportunity, Barry Didinski comes out to hawk a Shawn Micheals shirt as Razor Ramon and Diesel are the first to congratulate Shawn.

Then, in what would become commonplace, Jarrett, rather than help his future angle with Roadie develop, decides to go home right then and there. Jarrett ditches the WWF and the angle, leaving Dox Hendrix to furiously ad-lib about what was GOING to happen which was Roadie fighting with and then knocking out Jarrett. Apparently, Jarrett was already pissed about having to job to HBK, and didn’t like his future of losing to the Roadie (who was developing a following even then) and being exposed as a fraud, since Roadie was the one who sang the song. All this despite the fact that the entire PPV at that point was completely revolving around Jarrett. So he left the WWF high and dry before coming back in December, and then ditching them again two months later. Yeah, I couldn’t imagine why McMahon didn’t want to hire Jarrett back, considering he did it a THIRD time in 1999.

Match #5

Yokozuna / Owen Hart vs. Lex Luger / Davey Boy Smith

Depressing thought as only Lex Luger is still alive of these four. I don’t know, I thought the pairing of Smith and Luger was a good idea. It got Luger away from sucking up the singles division, and Smith was OBVIOUSLY a better tag wrestler, but The Allied Powers just never caught on. This, I believe was their last major match together. Smith would turn on Luger at a house show a few weeks later, and Luger would be off to WCW. Yoko starts with Luger and Yoko pushes Luger away. Yoko takes control with headbutts and chops and get a slam, but misses an elbowdrop. Luger rams Yoko’s head into the buckle 10 times and hits a huge right. Yoko staggers and then falls in the corner, right on Owen’s foot who falls down the stairs and limps around. Owen runs in and shoves Yoko, and Yoko shoves Owen down. Cornette tries to regain control and they make up. Owen gets a phantom tag and slaps Lex in the face and then runs away before Luger can respond. Luger gets an armbar and the Bulldog comes in. Owen gets a wristlock but Bulldog does a huge backdrop and Owen screws up the landing and splats on his shoulder. Bulldog catapults Owen into the corner and clotheslines him for 2. Headlock on Owen, Owen Irish whips the Bulldog and Luger’s talking to the crowd and almost falls off the ring apron because he’s not paying attention to the match. Yoko plants a fist in Bulldog’s head to stop the momentum. Yoko tags in and stomps on Bulldog. He plants a nerve hold. Owen back in and he gets a spin kick for 2. Bulldog gets a sunset flip for 2. Owen hits the enziguiri for 2. Owen tosses Bulldog in the corner and crotches himself on the second rope. Yoko gets the tag, but Bulldog waits so long to tag Luger that Yoko has to basically wait for him to make it. Luger in and he destroys both of them. Luger and Bulldog double-clothesline Yoko for 2. All four men in and a double belly to back on Yoko. Owen hits a double axehandle on Lex and Yoko drops a leg for the three. Okay match when Bulldog and Owen were in there.

Shawn Micheals is on the Superstar line.

Match #6

Diesel vs. Sid

We look back at the history of Sid / Diesel as Sid constantly backs down from Diesel. Yeah, that’s how you build a heel. Make him afraid of the face. That always works. The lumberjacks come out and amongst the loser heels like Mantaur and Rad Radford is one Hunter Hearst Helmsley and my God is he tiny here. Apparently they can’t get enough guys because Erik Watts and Chad Fortune are used to help fill out the group. Sitting at ringside are the “Creatures of the Night” to help end the rumor that they are Shane and Stephanie. Vince christens Diesel and Shawn Micheals “two dudes with attitude.” It’s funny how Vince refused to use the WarGames or Starrcade names during the InVasion angle, but had no problem borrowing one of the worst names in NWA history to give heir two top stars. Sid and Diesel enter the ring, and Sid jumps Diesel. Diesel knocks Sid out of the ring, and the faces push him back in. He goes back out and the faces push him in again. Diesel slams Sid who now leaves on the heel side, and the heels let him stay out there. Yeah, real ingenious booking there. Diesel falls out of the ring and the heels attack him, so all the faces make the save. Shawn does a top rope plancha on everybody and a wild brawl occurs. Meanwhile Sid just stands in the ring. Diesel gets pushed back in for 2. Sid kicks Diesel in the face. He kicks him in the stomach and clotheslines him. He drapes him over the second rope and the heels attack. Big boot sends Diesel down. Diesel back up and clotheslines Sid. He drops two elbows on Sid and shocks me by pullling off a plancha on the heels to the floor. Back in, and Diesel hits the old “snake eyes” on Sid. Mabel trips Sid and pulls him out. He splashes Diesel against the ring post and drops a leg on Diesel. Before you say the WWE is dead, just remember, MABEL once main-evented a PPV. Back in and Sid dominates with kicks. He then goes to a chinlock. Sid hits a lame powerbomb and takes about thirty seconds to cover Diesel for 2. He tries a second one but Diesel backdrops Sid. So Sid does the smart thing. He jumps Erik Watts since his dad’s not around. Shawn Micheals hits a flying axehandle to the floor to break it up. Sid gets thrown in, and Diesel goes for the powerbomb, but IRS, Godwinn, and Tatanka run in. Diesel promptly kills them all, hits a boot to Sid and pins him. Job your top heel to a boot to the face? You know, there was a reason Diesel was a terrible draw. There were just horrid heels, and he crushed all of them because, well, when the heels suck, you’d BETTER crush them. The only good matches he had as champ were against HBK and Bret (who is surprisingly absent from the whole show.) Really bad main event. 1/2*.

End of show.

2 good matches out of 6. The opener was good, and the I-C match ruled it, but the rest of the show was typical mid-90’s WWF. Big slugs doing a bunch of nothing pulling off a good move once per match. There was about to be a major restructuring with guys like Austin, Vader, and Goldust coming in. And that’s what helped the WWF then. There WAS talent to raid from the other organizations. These days what you see is gonna be what you get. The only talent left that hasn’t come in now are Goldberg and Scott Steiner, two guys I’d rather NOT see come in, thank you very much.

Anyways, try to find the Jarrett/Micheals match. Other than that, there’s no need to watch this show.

Thumb slightly down, take a pass, C.

-Sydney Brown

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