IN YOUR HOUSE IV

October 22, 1995

Hunter Hearst Helmsley . . . takes on Fatu, four years before they’d meet again with the WWF Title at stake.

Yokozuna . . . dukes it out with King Mabel. Get it? Mabel’s a king and Yoko *dukes* it out with him!

Davey Boy Smith . . . will never be confused for anyone on the UWFI roster.

HUNTER HEARST HELMSLEY vs. FATU

It’s fun to watch HHH’s Ric Flair impression when he’s bumping like pinball or cowering away in fear, but he’s not that good in any other aspect. His only decent spot is a lariat, thanks to Fatu taking a big bump. It doesn’t help that Fatu wasn’t consistent as far his having the traditional Samoan hard head. He blew off the turnbuckle, but sold punches. He blew off the DDT but sold the piledriver. They also make sure to trot out the usual, goofy, pedigree reversal although it’s a nice touch that HHH waited for Fatu to wipe out on the splash before he went for it the second time and finished him off. This has its fun points, but this doesn’t look like the pair to have a great TV match for the WWF Title.

BART GUNN/BILLY GUNN © vs. RAZOR RAMON/1-2-3 KID (WWF Tag Team Titles)

This is fun, but more for the attitudes involved than the actual work. Both teams are supposed to be babyfaces, but they both add in several heel touches, Hall and Waltman more than the Gunns. The big one is when Kid pulls down the top rope and lets Bart wipe out, he’s a bit hesitant to fully take advantage, but Razor (not knowing what Kid did) goes right after him. Later on, when Bart tags out, Billy shows the same sort of aggression when he tries taking it to the challengers. There’s also the double KO spot between Kid and Billy, where Razor and Bart both try putting their partner on top behind the ref’s back. There’s also a few little moments, like Kid and Razor refusing to shake hands, and Billy mocking Kid’s karate pose after outwrestling him.

The finish makes sense for continuing the storyline of Kid’s heel turn, but really makes him look like a chump. Razor has the match won when he gives Billy the Razor’s Edge, but Kid begs for the tag and Razor obliges him, and Kid’s pin gets reversed into a cradle. The work itself isn’t anything special, the only one who really doesn’t show up is Bart, but he made up for that by selling huge when he took the spill to the floor.

GOLDUST vs. MARTY JANNETTY

Thanks to a few crazy bumps from Jannetty, namely from Dustin’s lariat and the bump into the post, this is decent. Dustin isn’t bad or anything, but he’s terribly dull here. He seems more concerned with getting over the Goldust character than he is with the actual match, which makes sense since it’s his debut. The only notable things from Dustin are his own crazy bump from a lariat (on the floor, no less) and the front suplex he uses to finish off Jannetty. The only real issues are their blown attempt at Jannetty floating over the back body drop because of Dustin collapsing and Dustin’s mediocre bump from the Rocker dropper. The lead-in to the finish was good, with Marty diving into a boot from Dustin and taking the full brunt of it, which perfectly led to the front suplex. Marty probably got in too much offense considering his position at the time, but at least he had offense to get in.

YOKOZUNA vs. KING MABEL

Two heels wrestling each other was uncommon in the U.S. at the time, and it was usually 100% angle related (such as Shawn vs. HHH for the European Title) so it’s remarkable that they do actually attempt to have a real match and make half decent contact with their strikes. But that’s about it for notability. There isn’t anything else surprising, lots of clubbing blows and usual big man spots (splash, elbow drop, avalanche, etc.) they brawl to the double count out, tease further dissension, and then they kiss and make up.

Wow. This is bad. The match itself isn’t much more than a boatload of punches and kicks, along with some of Razor’s usual spots. The only offense from Dean is a series of punches and stomps, a flying body press (which Razor rolls through for a near fall), and the back body drop counter to the Razor’s Edge. The rest is all Razor, which is even more puzzling since he’d already worked, so, if anything, it should be Douglas taking advantage of that and carrying the offense. The stupid finish doesn’t help, with Razor hitting a backdrop suplex and getting the pin by draping his arm over Douglas. I’m not one to condone a lot of Douglas’ whining, but I can see why this whole fiasco left a bad taste in his mouth.

Aside from yet another stupid finish, this actually wasn’t half bad. They actually attempt to tell a story, with Bulldog working over Nash’s leg. Bulldog’s choice of holds is rather poor and his application of them isn’t much better, nobody is going to mistake him for Yamazaki or Tamura, but he gets the point across. It helps that Nash sells about as much as he possibly can. Even when he goes on offense, he manages to keep the leg in mind. The best moments being when Nash escapes the powerslam and hits a big boot and then collapses. Later on he charges (more like hobbles) across the ring to drop down on Bulldog.

This is also the third match in a row with a stupid finish. In this case it’s Bret Hart (on commentary) attacking Bulldog when Davey slaps him, getting Diesel disqualified. Diesel takes exception and it turns into a brawl between them to lead into their title match the next month. Considering that Nash had just taken a post bump and was putting over his leg so well, it’d have been just as sensible to give Davey the win by count out (to give him claim to another title shot) and then do the business with Bret to set up the next month’s title match.

Conclusion: “In Your Outhouse” is more fitting for this show. There’s some fun stuff to see, but nothing gets better than just fun. Take a pass on this one.