WWF In Your House #5
December 17, 1995
Hershey, PA
Hershey Park Arena

The current WWF Champs were as follows:
World Champion: Bret Hart (11/19/1995)
Intercontinental Champion: Razor Ramon (10/22/1995)
World Tag Team Champions: The Smokin’ Gunns (9/25/1995)
Women’s Champion: Alundra Blayze (10/23/1995)

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jerry Lawler.

Since the TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS the Smokin’ Gunns aren’t wrestling on the PPV, they’re hanging out with Santa Claus – or should I say, Xanta Klaus?

• Razor Ramon & Marty Jannetty vs. 1-2-3 Kid & Psycho Sid (w/Ted DiBiase)
  

Vince takes us back to Survivor Series where Sid & Kid cost Razor and Jannetty in their matches. Razor and Jannetty wear some matching leather jackets to show how tight they are. Meanwhile, Goldust is watching from the stands. Jannetty points and stares over at Razor to excite the crowd like he’s going to let Razor start the match, but instead Kid knows he don’t want none and starts kicking Jannetty. He comes back with an enziguri and reaches out to Razor, but Kid backs away to his corner. Kid does his flip out of the hiptoss and gets nailed with a clothesline. Can Jannetty reach Razor? Nope. Kid gets away again. Jannetty quickly delivers an atomic drop and tags Razor while Kid is writhing in pain. Razor stands in between Kid and Sid. Kid tries to leave, but Jannetty throws him back in the ring. Razor slaps Kid and hits an atomic drop, but Sid gets a blind tag. Sid resorts to pounding and choking, which I know sounds gross. With Razor beat down, Kid tags in for a jumping back kick. Back to Sid. Double-KO sets up a HOT TAG TO JANNETTY! He delivers a Diamond Dust on Kid for 1-2-NO! They slow the pace down while Todd Pettingell gets a word with Goldust. He’s OBSESSED with Razor Ramon! Goldust hands Todd an envelope to give to Ramon. In the ring, Jannetty temporarily fights out of the heel corner until he’s caught in mid-air by Sid for a powerslam. Cover, 1-2-NO! Sid and Kid draw Razor in a few times to score some double-team spots. More standard face-in-peril stuff happens. Kid misses a second running dropkick in the corner which leads to a HOT TAG TO RAZOR! Fallaway Slam on Kid puts him on the floor, but then Sid runs Razor over with a clothesline. Sid runs into a boot in the corner and takes the flying bulldog for 1-2-3. (12:23) Huh? That’s it? That’s your finish? Sid saves the Kid from certain doom by a RAZOR’S EDGE. This feud ain’t over, brothers. Not much to the match though. **

Jerry Lawler hops in the ring to present his big surprise. It’s Jeff Jarrett! Ain’t he great? Now that he’s back from his “world tour”, Lawler is here to give him his “gold” record. Well technically, Memphis is like a whole other world. Jarrett lets all his fans know that he will be in the 1996 Royal Rumble match. That actually doesn’t happen and we’ll find out why later. After the presentation, Lawler and Jarrett head over to the announce table to join Vince for the next match.

• Ahmed Johnson vs. “Nature Boy” Buddy Landell
  

It was supposed to Ahmed taking on Dean Douglas, but he’s got a back injury so he brings out Landell to be his replacement. This is the end of the Dean Douglas character in the WWF since nobody there seemed to like him, so he wisely returned to ECW. Landell’s chops won’t work here. Johnson hits the Spinebuster and the PEARL RIVER PLUNGE for the win. Thanks for coming, Buddy. (0:43) Ahmed was pretty awesome. ½*

After the match, Lawler gets a quick word with Ahmed. Actually, it’s more like Lawler and Jarrett just wanted to insult Ahmed. Bad idea. Ahmed starts threatening them both as Jarrett rears back and BLASTS Ahmed in the back of the head with his “gold” record. Ahmed gets beat on by Jarrett until he doesn’t feel feelings anymore and chases Jarrett to the back with a steel chair.

Meanwhile, Razor Ramon reads Goldust’s note to himself and he is how you say, disgusted.

• Henry O. Godwinn vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley – Hogpen Match – Special Ref: Hillbilly Jim

This is the first time we’ve seen Hillbilly Jim on PPV since the ’80s. Am I right? Anyways, there’s a big hog pen over by the entry way and the only way to win is to toss your opponent into the hog pen. Godwinn chases H to the floor with his slop bucket. Hunter sidesteps the toss – causing people in the front row to get slopped. In the ring, Godwinn takes over with a backdrop and ties Helmsley in the ropes to make him eat some slop. Hmm, looks like guacamole. H breaks loose and levels Godwinn with a clothesline. H follows up with a swinging neckbreaker and a knee drop. Harley Race high knee connects as they go to the floor. Godwinn elbows Hunter back and drives his head into the steps. They head over to the hog pen where Hunter takes a backdrop on the top of the fence. He jumps off for an elbow drop on Godwinn. Back to the ring, Godwinn runs into a boot in the corner and they both collapse. Godwinn counters a monkey flip into a wheelbarrow face slam. Hunter takes the Ray Stevens corner bump and then the Harley Race corner bump puts him on the floor. They brawl back over to the hog pen where Godwinn hits the SLOP DROP. With H up against the hog pen, Godwinn charges and gets flipped into the hog pen to give Hunter the win. (9:37) Well, the wrestling wasn’t so bad and the gimmick never got in the way of the match, so it’s much better than you might expect. It’s also hilarious to think what Triple H in such a match. I bet he wouldn’t even want to comment on this match now. Afterwards, Godwinn brings Hunter into the hog pen anyway with a press slam where the Blue Blood gets good and dirty. **½

• Diesel vs. Owen Hart (w/Jim Cornette)
  

Diesel turned heel at Survivor Series, but the next night on Raw his best buddy Shawn Michaels collapsed in the ring. Since then, Owen has been taking credit for taking Shawn Michaels out of wrestling, so Diesel is here to avenge his friend to temporarily cool down the heel turn. Diesel corners Owen to start for a beat down and then hits a Side Slam. Owen fires back, but Diesel shoves him away and clotheslines Owen to the floor. Back in, Owen comes back with a Spinning Heel Kick and a missile dropkick. With Diesel down, Owen uses Bret’s game plan and goes after Diesel’s leg. Once Diesel gets to his feet, Owen puts him back to the mat with an enziguri. Diesel kicks Owen away during a spinning toe hold to send him shoulder-first into the corner. Snake Eyes connects, followed by the Bossman straddle. Big Boot leads into the JACKKNIFE. Diesel places his foot on Owen’s chest for 1-2-NO! He takes his foot off Owen and wants another JACKKNIFE, but not before shoving the referee down. That gets him DQ’ed. (4:36) He delivers the JACKKNIFE anyway and makes the universal “I want the belt” sign before celebrating with the crowd. They really gave Owen no chance here. **

Ted DiBiase is now in the ring as Santa Claus and Savio Vega make their way around ringside tossing out t-shirts to the crowd. DiBiase questions Savio by asking him if he believes in Santa Claus. He believes in the magic of Santa Claus, which gives DiBiase a good laugh. That’s when Santa Claus attacks Savio from behind by whacking him with his sack filled with t-shirts! WHAT THE FUDGE! Santa Claus has sold out to Ted DiBiase! Vega tries to attack DiBiase and Santa in the aisleway, but Vince’s goons stand in his way. Psst – Santa Claus is actually Balls Mahoney!

• The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs. King Mabel (w/Sir Mo) – Casket Match
  

You knew it would come to this. King Mabel crushed UT’s face with all his fatness to cause him to wear a weird mask, so now Mabel must pay. Mabel draws Taker around the ring and back in so he can get in the first shots, but Taker comes right back with chokes in the corner. Mabel reverses a cross corner whip for a Sidewalk Slam, but Taker sits up. Mabel slams Taker for a splash off the second rope, but Taker sits up and avoids all that. Taker hits some clotheslines, but Mabel one-ups him with a belly-to-belly suplex. Oh, now Taker doesn’t sit up. He legdrops and SPLASHES Taker. After three minutes of work, he thinks he’s done as Mo grabs Taker and puts him in the casket. Instead of quickly shutting the casket lid, Mabel kills some time by putting on his crown. When he goes over to close the lid, Taker gets his arm up and climbs out of the casket. Mabel begs off as Taker unloads with clotheslines. The Jumping Lariat puts Mabel on his back side. Chokeslam to Mabel! The Pennsylvania crowd starts chanting “911”. UT boots Mabel into the casket and goes to shut the lid, but Mo attacks him. That has no effect. Chokeslam to Mo! He gets rolled into the casket along with Mabel. Before UT shuts the lid, he takes the gold necklace made out of the urn from around Mo’s neck and then shuts the lid to win the match. (6:12) Taker poses with the gold chain and hands it over to Paul Bearer so he can do the universal “I want the belt” sign. Except for a few awkward moments with Mo (and Vince’s commentary didn’t help matters), this wasn’t so bad since they kept it real short. Mabel and Mo would hang around until after the Royal Rumble, but that was it until Mabel returned as Viscera in 1999. Well, except for that one time on Raw is War when he came through the crowd and splashed Ken Shamrock in ’98. Did that ever end up going anywhere? Anyways, the Undertaker has FINALLY come to an end of an unbelievable streak of wrestling people who are either extremely obese and/or untalented. From here on out, he gets matches with wrestlers like Bret Hart, Diesel, Mankind, Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, and the list goes on. Well, except for a few wrestlers he faces who shall remain nameless, there’s some great matches ahead for everyone’s favorite dead man. *½

• WWF World Champion Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith (w/Jim Cornette & Diana Smith)
  

Davey Boy Smith makes this match a little more interesting by bringing up his victory over Bret at SummerSlam 1992 to screw with Bret’s head. And with Jim Cornette there to help Davey Boy along with the screwing (pun not intended), this looks to be ALL bad for Bret. What’s even more awesome about this match is that Davey Boy is supposedly wearing the exact same tights he wore at Wembley Stadium in ’92. Diana Smith doesn’t stand with Cornette – she sits at ringside to give concerned looks every now and then much like at SummerSlam. Early on, Bret controls Davey Boy with an armbar. DBS tries to flip out every once and a while, but he goes right back into the hold. Cornette has a Santa Claus tennis racket cover! Davey Boy catches Bret with a kitchen sink and hangs him up in the tree of woe for a mudhole stomping. Hebner gets knocked back by DBS, but he helps Hebner to his feet to avoid any DQ. DBS works a chinlock for a bit. Bret fights out, but then he’s whipped in the corner for his chest-first bump. Back to the chinlock. Bret comes out of that again and launches Davey Boy with a monkey flip. Inverted atomic drop follows a running bulldog by Bret for two. Piledriver scores another nearfall for the Hitman. Russian legsweep sets up the vertical flying elbow drop. Davey Boy stops a superplex and drops Bret on the top rope to send him to the floor. Bret eats the stairs and as a result, the blood begins to flow from his forehead. Davey Boy rams Bret’s back into the ringpost and takes him back inside for more punishment. Piledriver gets two. Hourglass suplex by Bulldog gets another two. Press slam doesn’t even put Bret away. DBS connects with a flying headbutt to Bret’s lower back. Apparently he pulled something in his leg when he came off the ropes because he has to limp over to cover Bret for 1-2-NO! Bret escapes a bow-and-arrow and attempts the SHARPSHOOTER, but DBS turns out of it. Davey Boy knocks Bret out to the floor and then beats him on the apron. Bret counters a suplex back in and hits a bridging German suplex for 1-2-NO! Bret backdrops Davey Boy out to the floor. If his leg wasn’t hurting before, it is now. Bret follows him out with a pescado and unloads. He springs back off the ropes onto Davey Boy, who catches him in mid-air and gives Bret a RUNNING POWERSLAM ON THE FLOOR! Davey Boy pulls back the ringside mats and looks for a suplex, but Bret counters and drops Davey Boy crotch-first on the guardrail. Nice little bit of retribution for what Davey Boy did to Bret’s crotch earlier. Back in the ring, Bret hits a backbreaker for two. Superplex connects, but only earns Bret another nearfall. Bret rolls through Davey’s O’Connor roll attempt for 1-2-NO! Davey Boy runs into a boot in the corner, setting him up for la magistral cradle that gets 1-2-3! Bret retains. (21:12) Another great story from these two that was much more of a ‘blood and guts’ style match than their first classic. ****¼

Before we go off the air, Todd Pettingell gets a word with the Undertaker as he plans to square off with Bret Hart for the WWF title at the Royal Rumble. Paul Bearer is so happy Taker is finally getting his shot at the gold. In comes Diesel, who thinks Taker shouldn’t get a title shot just because he beat Mabel. Diesel puts his hands on Bearer, which is a no-no. Even with Taker all up in Diesel’s face, he still doesn’t shut his mouth.

Final Thoughts: Pretty entertaining show that felt like a two-hour edition of Monday Night Raw. With only one great match and yet nothing outlandishly bad (except for maybe the Xanta Klaus stuff), I’ll go with a thumbs up for In Your House 5.