WWF In Your House #2
July 23, 1995
Nashville, TN
Municipal Auditorium

The current WWF Champs were as follows:
World Champion: Diesel (11/26/1994)
Intercontinental Champion: Jeff Jarrett (4/26/1995)
World Tag Team Champions: Owen Hart & Yokozuna (4/2/1995)
Women’s Champion: Alundra Blayze (4/3/1995)

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jerry Lawler.

• The 1-2-3 Kid vs. The Roadie
  

Kid’s here to get his revenge on Roadie after injuring his neck back in April. Roadie lands on his face during a leapfrog mix up. Kid takes over with a barrage of kicks in the corner. Headscissors out of the corner puts Roadie on the floor. The 1-2-3 Kid gets tired of Roadie’s stalling and slingshots himself to the floor for a kick into the Roadie. Back in, they mess up a spot where Roadie was supposed to catch the Kid charging into the corner for a powerslam and then repeat it. This time Roadie’s good for it. In the back, Jeff Jarrett’s not paying attention to Roadie’s match because he’s got to sing his hit song, “With My Baby Tonight.” I believe it topped the same music chart as “Hunka Hunka Hunka Honky Love”. You know what I’m talking about, the music chart that doesn’t exist? Back at ringside, Roadie floors the Kid with a clothesline off the apron. He brings the Kid around to the other side of the ring and splits his legs for a run into the ringpost. Ouch. Back in again, Roadie goes to work on the neck with a pair of sliding legdrops. Roadie starts to get cocky and poses for everybody. He misses a flying splash and eats a spinning heel kick. Delayed cover gets two. Running dropkick in the corner from the Kid connects. Frog splash by Kid gets 1-2-NO! Kid whips Roadie into the ropes, ducks the clothesline, and catches Kid trying a rana to put him down for a powerbomb. That gets two. Roadie misses a corner charge and runs into the post. Kid gets crotched up top and Roadie follows him up for a SUPER PILEDRIVER! That will put anybody away. (7:27) So much for Kid’s neck healing up. Roadie picks up possibly the biggest win of his career to that point. Definitely the best match so far in his career. **¾

On his way to the back, Roadie does a mic check with Jeff Jarrett’s band to make sure everything is kosher for his performance tonight.

• Men on a Mission vs. Razor Ramon & Savio Vega
  

After Mabel won the King of the Ring tournament a month earlier, he attacked an injured Razor Ramon to set up this match. Savio Vega and Razor Ramon are a pair of real amigos, mang. Razor wears an abdomen wrap to the ring, but he’s just kidding. He rips off the wrap and throws it at Mabel. Ramon gets an early Fallaway Slam on Mo to start and tags in Vega. Sir Mo stops Vega with a knee to the gut and backs him into the corner for a tag to King Mabel. Vega avoids a Nasty Boys double-team splash from Mabel. He fires back on Mabel, but runs into a Bossman Slam and gets tossed to the floor. Mo tosses him back in for some pounding from the big man. A couple hard whips into the corner sets up a nice big man enziguri on Vega for two. Tag to Mo follows a double-clothesline for two. Back to Mabel, and we get a nerve hold. Vega fights out and chops Mabel back for a slam attempt, but that can’t and won’t happen. Mabel falls on top for two. Release Northern Lights suplex from Mabel?! Mo tags in and knocks Razor off the apron to the floor for some double-teaming. Another tag to Mabel, MOM delivers a drop toehold/legdrop combo to Savio. You can guess who delivers the drop toehold. Mo’s back in and totally misses a moonsault. HOT TAG TO RAZOR! Back Superplex to Mo! Mabel’s enough of a distraction to stop a RAZORS EDGE attempt. Mo tags Mabel and slams Razor as Mabel goes to the top rope. Razor stops him at the top and slams him down. Cover, 1-2-NO! Razor starts coming off the ropes to knock down Mabel, but runs into a knee on the apron from Mo. That sets up a DDT by King Mabel so he can deliver a SPLASH, but Razor moves out of the way. Mo comes in and Vega wipes him out with a clothesline that takes them both to the floor. In the ring, Mabel reverses a corner whip on Razor and hits an Avalanche. Belly to Belly Suplex to Mabel! Cover, 1-2-3. (10:11) Well that was actually an unexpectedly fun match. Mabel gets a clean pinfall victory over Razor Ramon as he heads into SummerSlam to face the WWF champ. **½

Todd Pettingell bothers the Jeff Jarrett band with his “having WAY too much fun” antics.

Jeff Jarrett sings “With My Baby Tonight”. Not even sure if that’s really him, but all the same not a terrible performance. Call me old school, but heels shouldn’t be singing songs like that.

• Henry O. Godwinn vs. Bam Bam Bigelow
  

Godwinn cost Bigelow a match with Sid a few weeks earlier, so now it’s revenge time. Bigelow delivers a pair of back suplexes to cancel out Godwinn’s one back suplex. Godwinn telegraphs a DDT, but pulls the top rope down to cause Bigelow to fly out to the floor. Godwinn gives him a slam and throws him into the steps. Back in, Godwinn sidesteps a corner charge and clotheslines Bigelow down for two. Bigelow elbows out of a chinlock and hits a crossbody block for two. Godwinn pops up with another clothesline. He chokes Bigelow in the ropes and then takes a clothesline. Bigelow heads up for the FLYING HEADBUTT, but Godwinn moves. He tries a knee drop off the second rope and misses that too as Bigelow covers for the 1-2-3. (5:32) Apparently Godwinn injured himself off that flying knee drop to end this match prematurely. *

Meanwhile, Bob Backlund is politicking with some kids. He’s running for president, you know.

• WWF Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett (w/The Roadie) vs. Shawn Michaels
  

I definitely remember watching/listening to this match on scramblevision live and was one excited nine year-old. Roadie comes out before Jarrett’s introduction to give him back any heel heat he might have lost from his performance. During HBK’s prematch “stripping of the chaps”, Lawler reminds us that Nashville used to hate guys with long hair. Really? I would have thought mullets was Tennessee’s *thing*. To start, Michaels punches Jarrett from one side of the ring to the other. Shawn taunts Jarrett and then they lock up again where Jarrett fires off an armdrag. We see the Jarrett strut. Shawn whips Jarrett across the ring only for Jarrett to flip over him out of the corner and punch him out the floor. More strutting and taunting from Jarrett. Back in, Jarrett flips over HBK out of a hiptoss and takes a poke to the eyes. Shawn does the same thing, but sees a strike coming and fires back on Jarrett. Now HBK flips out of the corner and Cactus Clotheslines Jarrett to the floor. HBK skins-the-cat back in and mocks the Jarrett strut while Roadie checks on his champ. Jarrett begins to stall Memphis style and breaks several ten-counts at nine. HBK finally comes out and nails him from behind. Back in, Jarrett nails Shawn coming down on him from the top and hits the Bossman straddle. Jarrett whiffs on a dropkick and some apron interference from Roadie gets stopped with an eye poke. Jarrett charges at Shawn and gets thrown out on top of Roadie! HBK leaps down on them both and heads back into the ring for a baseball slide into Jarrett. He’s back in and begs off into the corner. Jarrett thinks he’s avoided a crossbody out of the corner, but Shawn’s still in the corner and nails Jarrett once he turns around with a sunset flip. Jarrett blocks the rollup and then backdrops Michaels over the top rope to the floor below. Holy crap. Jarrett follows him out and sends Shawn into the steel steps. Back in, Jarrett delivers a gourdbuster and applies an ab stretch. Roadie gives him a little leverage help until he gets caught and Shawn fights back with a hiptoss. HBK telegraphs a backdrop and receives a leaping DDT for his mistake. Cover, 1-2-NO! Roadie chokes Shawn in the ropes. He gets a little too involved though as Shawn pulls Roadie forward and moves out of the way to cause Jarrett to wipe out Roadie with a Bossman straddle. O’Connor roll from Shawn gets 1-2-NO! From there, Jarrett reverses a corner whip on Shawn to send him in for his crazy bump that lands him on the floor. I’m surprised he didn’t take some time off with a back injury after this match. Jarrett teases a dive off the top onto Shawn, but Hebner takes him back into the ring so Roadie can hit Shawn with a clothesline off the ropes. Back in the ring, Jarrett and Roadie celebrate a countout victory over Shawn Michaels. Before it even happens, of course. Shawn just makes it back in before the ten-count. Shawn rolls through a flying bodypress from Jarrett gets 1-2-NO! Jarrett somewhat botches a crucifix into a sunset flip, but recovers nicely. Shawn breaks that up with a right hand to set up a nearfall sequence. Jarrett connects with the dropkick after all for another two-count. Shawn runs the ropes, but right into a sleeper. He goes down to the mat, but fights up to his feet and counters with a back suplex. Both men are down! Michaels is the first one to start moving and crawls over to Jarrett for 1-2-NO! More rope running as HBK catches Jarrett with a Tito Santana forearm. KIP UP! Shawn connects with another flying forearm and hits a flying double sledge for 1-2-NO! Flying Elbow Drop is delivered. Cover 1-2-NO! Shawn slides underneath a boot in the corner and crotches Jarrett on the ringpost. Back in, HBK heads up top again, but Roadie shakes the ropes to crotch Shawn. Jarrett follows him up for a superplex! It’s time for the FIGURE-FOUR! Nope, Shawn counters with an inside cradle for 1-2-NO! Jarrett catches Shawn with a shinbreaker to set up another FIGURE-FOUR attempt, but Shawn kicks him off into the ref. Now everybody’s down! Jarrett comes off the top rope for another Flying Bodypress as Roadie wakes up Hebner for 1-2-NO! Now Jarrett gives Roadie the signal to trip up Shawn off the Irish whip. Roadie turns his back on the action and doesn’t see HBK reverse the whip on Jarrett. Roadie grabs Jarrett’s foot by accident! Jarrett yells something at Roadie and then turns around into SWEET CHIN MUSIC! Shawn wins the IC title for the third time. (20:02) Fantastic match, but of course Shawn made sure to make Shawn look better than his opponent. On the other hand, Jarrett did do a good job keeping up with Shawn Michaels’ pinball style wrestling though. ****¼

In the back, Dok Hendrix freaks out over an altercation between Jarrett and Roadie. Both guys would return to Memphis to wrestle for the USWA for a while.

• WWF World Tag Team Champions Owen Hart & Yokozuna (w/Jim Cornette & Mr. Fuji) vs. Lex Luger & Davey Boy Smith
  

Yoko and Luger start the match. Luger pounds on Yokozuna until he collapses down on Owen’s foot. Owen can’t BELIEVE how much that hurts. Cornette does all he can to keep his champions from striking one another while Fuji just stands there. Talk about a useless manager. Luger gets a hold of Owen before tagging in DBS. They do some awesome rolls and flips out of a wristlock. Yoko nails Davey Boy from the apron to give Owen the advantage. Yoko tags in for the extended nerve hold. Davey elbows out, but runs into a clothesline. Tag to Owen, he catches DBS with a spinning heel kick for two. It’s a wonder Vince didn’t make him stop doing that since it’s now Vega’s finisher. Enziguri kick gets another two for Owen. Owen does the Bobby Eaton corner bump to set up the HOT TAG TO LUGER! He beats Yoko into the corner and slams Owen off the top. Owen gets pressed onto Yokozuna to take him off his feet. Double-clothesline to Owen! Double-clothesline to Yoko! Cover by Luger gets 1-2-NO! Yoko misses an avalanche on DBS and backs up into a DOUBLE BACK SUPLEX! Luger covers him, but while the ref is busy getting Davey Boy Smith out of the ring, Owen lowers the boom on Luger as Yoko drops the leg on Luger for 1-2-3. (10:55) Good match with the highlight being the Owen/DBS stuff. The crowd was so into everything too, which made it real enjoyable. **½

• WWF World Champion Diesel vs. Psycho Sid (w/Ted DiBiase) – Lumberjack Match
  

Diesel wants the lumberjack match to keep Sid from walking out on him. The heel lumberjacks are the Heavenly Bodies, Tatanka, Blu Brothers, Kama, King Kong Bundy, IRS, Men on a Mission, Henry O. Godwinn, Rad Radford, Skip, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Jean Pierre Lafitte and Mantaur. Diesel’s lumberjacks are Bam Bam Bigelow, Savio Vega, Razor Ramon, Bob Holly, Duke “The Dumpster” Droese, Man Mountain Rock, Tekno Team 2000, Fatu, Adam Bomb, and the Smokin’ Gunns. Shawn Michaels joins the lumberjacks after walking down the aisle with the champ. They make use of the lumberjack gimmick to start as both guys get dumped out only to be beat on. It causes a little chaos. Sid kicks Diesel in the ribs a bunch. After the heels take more liberties with Diesel, he makes his comeback on Sid by dropping a couple elbows on him. Out of nowhere, Diesel shows off his X-Division-like skills by diving out onto the heel lumberjacks. He beats on them for a bit and then he heads back into the ring to deliver the Bossman straddle and Snake Eyes. Diesel tries to come off the ropes and gets tripped up and pulled to the floor by Mabel. Mo gets shoved off into the ringpost, but Mabel SQUASHES Diesel into the ringpost. He rolls Diesel back in for more pounding from Sid as the babyface lumberjacks get the crowd going. Sid tries to shut them up with a POWERBOMB! He takes too long to cover though by high-fiving the Million Dollar Corporation and only gets a two-count. He tries for another Powerbomb, but Diesel backdrops him over. Sid goes out and starts attacking the babyface lumberjacks until Shawn Michaels hits him with a flying double-sledge. The Gunns put Sid back in the ring for a possible JACKKNIFE, but IRS, Godwinn, and Tatanka all run in on Diesel only to be quickly swatted away. Diesel realizes he needs a quick pin, so he nails Sid with a Big Boot for 1-2-3. (10:06) More like because he’s got a legitimately injured elbow, but it does make sense with the way the heels are jumping in on him. Diesel and his friends celebrate the win like he just won the WWF title. He grabs at Mabel a little bit to further their feud into SummerSlam and that does it from the PPV side of things. Even if the match was not much, the lumberjack gimmick made this watchable with all the crowd heat to give us probably the best match these two are capable of having. **

Coliseum Home Video Exclusive: Bret Hart vs. Jean Pierre Lafitte

Gorilla Monsoon and Stan Lane joins us on commentary. Jean Pierre Lafitte is the former Quebecer Pierre turned pirate. Not to mention he was undefeated at the time. Quick start as Lafitte misses a corner charge on Bret to take him into an armbar. Lafitte does a great job of selling such an elementary move. He makes those shriek sounds like Bret is literally breaking his arm. Lafitte counters into a hammerlock, but Bret runs him around the ring to send him flying out to the floor. That makes Lafitte take a powder up the aisleway. Bret flings Lafitte back in from the apron and goes back to the arm. Lafitte shoves Bret off into the ropes and catches him with a stungun to turn the tide. On the floor, Lafitte drops Bret throat-first across the guardrail. Back in, Lafitte whips Bret into the corner for the chest-first bump. That gets two. Lafitte hits a Guillotine Legdrop for 1-2-NO! Bret comes out of a chinlock, but then eats a back elbow. Back to the chinlock as Gorilla Monsoon brings up Ed “Strangler” Lewis. Bret gets into the ropes to break and Lafitte takes forever to let go of the hold. Bret tries a sunset flip and yanks Lafitte’s velvet pants to get him to fall down for two. Lafitte continues with the offense by delivering a Stinger Splash and a reverse neckbreaker for two. Leaping DDT by Lafitte gets two off a delayed cover. He heads up top for the CANNONBALL SPLASH, but Bret moves. Bret whips Jean Pierre in for his chest-first bump. Russian legsweep by Bret gets two. Small package gets two. Backbreaker sets up the flying vertical elbow drop, but Lafitte gets the boot up to block. They get into a waistlock exchange, but it’s Bret putting Jean Pierre in a forward roll that gets the 1-2-3. (13:25) It’s no Bret/Hakushi, but still a pretty good match. Too bad it wasn’t on the PPV. ***

Coliseum Home Video Exclusive: The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Kama (w/Ted DiBiase) – Casket Match

The creepy Creatures of the Night in the front row are here! Oh man, there’s 20 minutes left on this tape. UT dominates to start until Kama uses his supreme fighting skills and kicks Taker in the gut for a suplex. Taker sits up a bunch, so Kama stomps a big mudhole in him. Kama slams UT and motions of the casket lid to open. He puts Taker in, but he kicks Kama back before he can shut the lid and comes back on Kama with Old Skool. UT throws Kama out on top of the casket, which freaks him out more than it hurts him. Kama snaps Taker’s neck on the top rope and levels him with an axe kick. Kama kicks Taker out to ringside, but UT fires back and smashes the casket lid into Kama’s face a whole bunch. Taker gets distracted by DiBiase and then he’s whipped knees first into the steps. Back in, Kama grabs a half crab. He whips Taker into the corner a couple times and applies a bearhug. Taker fades away, but wakes up and delivers a back suplex. Kama eat a boot out of the corner, but catches UT telegraphing a backdrop and drills him with a Piledriver. He rolls Taker into the casket, but then he pops up and grabs Kama by the throat to pull him into the casket. Taker starts wailing away on Kama. He doesn’t close the lid on him though. Kama rolls back in the ring and takes a Stinger Splash. Double KO ensues. Kama looks to shoulder toss UT into the casket, but he slips away and gives Kama a Chokeslam. Taker rolls Kama into the casket and shuts the lid to win the match. (14:49) I understand it’s a casket match and it takes time to beat somebody to the point they will let a guy shut a casket lid on them, but this was just too long for what they could do. ¾*

Final Thoughts: While it’s looked upon as a one-match show, everybody seemed to work real hard to make up for that King of the Ring debacle. I remember someone saying Vince make a comment on Monday Night Raw that he heard the angry internet people concerning their hatred for the KOTR and wanted to make things up for it with this show, but they’re still pushing Mabel for a run with Diesel so who knows what that really meant. The crowd was hot for the majority of the show, which made it all the more easy to get into. I’ll go with a mild thumbs up for In Your House II.

And for a special bonus match!

• Bret Hart vs. Hakushi (w/Shinja) – (Monday Night Raw – 7/24/95)
  

Since neither man saw PPV time the night before, they get this opportunity to shine. Shinja distracts Bret after he gives a kid his shades. That brings Bret to the floor so Hakushi can attack from behind. He sends Bret into the ringpost a couple times and drops him on the guardrail. Into the ring, Hakushi’s pump splash hits knees. An inverted atomic drop sets up a clothesline Bret continues to keep Hakushi grounded until he reverses a corner whip to send Bret sliding back first into the ringpost. Commercial break! Hakushi whips Bret across for a Handspring Elbow. Lawler makes a Stridex joke directed at the 1-2-3 Kid just as Hakushi gives Bret a bronco buster. Bret comes back with a Russian legsweep, but Hakushi mule kicks him back down. Hakushi flips out of a backbreaker attempt and nails Bret with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for 1-2-NO! Hard whip into the corner for Bret. Hakushi drags Bret over for a Flying Headbutt to the back! Cover, 1-2-NO! Nerve hold is applied. Bret elbows out, but gets tossed out to the floor. Another commercial break. Just as we come back, Hakushi delivers America’s first ever televised SPACE FLYING TIGER DROP! Incredible! Bret regroups and gives Hakushi and Shinja a double noggin knocker. Bret gives them both a pump splash off the apron to knock them out. Back in, Bret hits the backbreaker and the flying vertical elbow drop gets two. Shinja gets nailed off the apron. Bulldog to Hakushi gets another two-count. Small package gets a third two-count. Hakushi surprises Bret with a back suplex, but misses a second Flying Headbutt. Bret hits a top-rope superplex and applies the SHARPSHOOTER for the submission. (9:22) Excellent TV match. Bret beats up Shinja afterwards and gives him a Piledriver. ***½