A - Excellent
B – Good
C – Mediocre
D – Avoid
Release Date: 27th May 2013
Available From: www.wwedvd.co.uk
Price:
DVD £ 19.99
Blu-ray £ 22.99
Format Reviewed: DVD (3 Discs)
(Also Available on Blu-ray (2 Discs)
What It’s About:
In Your House was a vital step forward in pay-per view output for World Wrestling Entertainment in the mid 90’s, transforming their pay-per view landscape from four per year to one per month. It was also the beginning of the wrestling pay-per view calendar as we know it today. This is a collection of the supposed best matches spanning the four years In Your House existed.
Strengths:
Bret Hart vs Hakushi (In Your House 1, May 14th 1995) is both a hidden gem and one of the most underrated wrestling matches of the entire 90’s. The very first match of the inaugural In Your House event sees both men really up for the challenge of setting the pace and tone of the card, which the rest of the superstars failed to follow on the night. Hart and Hakushi are both technically brilliant and manage to string together a match which is both interesting and evokes that special In Your House feeling one got when watching as a child. The crowd are wired more than usual which adds to the encounter and Hakushi pulls of some ariel magic with aplomb, including a cracking asai moonsaults from the middle rope of the apron onto a waiting ‘Hit Man’ at ringside. The match boasts some great exchanges and builds to a sensible conclusion which embraces a spectacular double suplex over the top rope. I will add that had WWE had a competitive and interesting Cruiserweight or Light Heavyweight Division at the time then Hakushi could have become legendary. This may be the opening match of both the release and the first In Your House but it could just have easily have been the main event.
Jeff Jarrett vs Shawn Michaels (In Your House 2: The Lumberjacks, July 23rd 1995) for the WWE Intercontinental Championship is incredibly decent. The pair managed to take what they had previously done in the USWA (when WWE lent talent to the United States Wrestling Alliance) and trump it. The duo tell the story they set out to regale us with perfectly and more importantly, WWE could use this match as a starter point in how to make their current version of the Intercontinental Championship important again. The ending in which Road Dogg grabs the leg of Jeff Jarrett, mistakenly believing its Shawn Michaels even though he clearly looks at Jarrett before doing so, is dumb but it never detracts from the fast paced clash, lightening quick counters and swift reversals. Michaels sells an injury like no one else in WWE past, present or future which adds to the peril of the encounter and though Shawn Michaels looks as rough as a badgers arse and Jeff Jarrett is undisputedly one of the most undervalued wrestlers ever, this match is one of the In Your House top ten matches. On a side note, for all the years I sat through it, I never realised how catchy Jeff Jarrett’s WWE theme tune was until now.
Bret Hart vs The British Bulldog (In Your House 5: Seasons Beatings, December 17th 1995) for the WWE Championship is thrilling from bell to bell. The Bulldog cements his legend in this match as the greatest British wrestler to step into a ring. Everything he does is just superior to anyone else who could have been inserted against Hart and when it mattered most the Bulldog could be agile, it’s just perplexing as to why WWE never made him WWE Champion. Davey Boy and Bret never had a bad match and this bloody brawl carries on that tradition. You won’t find a better technical brawl on this release; both engaging and hard hitting I can’t describe this match any other way than brilliant. Hart bleeds like a pig with his throat slit which is never more evident than when you see the remnants of blood on the outside of the ring which are reminiscent of puddles and the stained canvas at the end of the match. It’s almost all blood. Anyone who saw Vince McMahon’s truly epic juice job at Survivor Series 2003 will appreciate how deep Bret cut himself here. Every counter, submission move and near fall is a wonder to behold and you won’t fail to cringe when Bulldog goes sailing into the corner only to come bouncing out, landing square on top of his head. Finally the match builds to a supreme crescendo. Before the match, Jim Cornette shows what a truly amazing promo guy he was back in the day and why his presence at ringside elevated anyone he decided to work with. I could rave about this match all day but if you’ve seen it then you’ll know how good it is and if you haven’t, then this is a necessity.
Shawn Michaels vs Diesel (In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies: April 28th 1996) in a No Holds Barred Match for the WWE Championship proves a perfect example of how to put a new Champion over when the crowd aren’t totally on his side. The match is hampered slightly by Jerry Lawler’s thoroughly dense comment of, “Is it over if Michaels gives up?” It’s almost like Lawler, who wrestled for decades still didn’t know the rules of the business which made him a star. That though is a minor gripe to an otherwise fine affray. As the new and defending champion, Shawn Michaels looks serious during the match and on his way to the ring, which is the correct way to portray a match as serious and there’s no sign of a smirk. HBK’s sell job on the sheer beat down he receives portrays Diesel as a monster who you want to run and hide from, whilst Michael’s comeback looks wholly inspirational and is timed to perfection. The Powerbomb through the announcers table will make you wince as a stray, bouncing television monitor comes down with a sizable thud on Michael’s crotch, though anyone will find it hard to pick faults with this fracas. Michaels begins to hear the boos less than one month into his first WWE Championship reign – it turns out that people don’t like a face character as much when he has the Championship – hey it’s all in the chase and Kevin Nash is on show as the great wrestler he was before WCW made him lazy and unresponsive. The ending which sees Diesel pulling Maurice Vachon’s false leg off was genuinely shocking at the time seeing as Nash did it on purpose and there was no shock in his face when the prosthetic came loose and was also an angle which WWE would rehash in 2003 when Roddy Piper did the same to one legged wrestler, Zach Gowen. On its own merit though, Shawn Michaels vs Diesel is a fine outing.
Shawn Michaels vs Mankind (In Your House 10: Mind Games, September 22nd 1996) for the WWE Championship is superlative and by far Michaels’ greatest WWE Championship defence during his first reign. The hardcore stunts mixed with the actual wrestling makes this a story which is perfectly told. Mick Foley and Shawn Michaels did so much for each others careers here that it has to rank in the top five matches of both of their careers – certainly, had Michaels failed to turn to the audience in his direction here then maybe his Championship reign would have been cut short. HBK is as diverse as ever adapting to Foley’s style of wrestling whilst sticking to his high flying offence and the willingness to sell for each other and put the other over only adds to the impact of each high spot and stunt. Mick Foley’s leg hammering into the steel steps is sickening to hear and leaves you in no doubt as to why Foley has so many knee problems in the present day and the fall from the turnbuckle through the table lying in wait on the outside of the ring is absolutely brilliant. The in ring side is crisp, whilst Mick Foley is thoroughly excellent in everything he does. The disqualification finish is a cop out as Mankind would not have been harmed from a pinfall defeat, thanks to the efforts put in here. The mat and ringside area is covered in glitter which sticks to both warriors skin and by the time the match is over, they both look like Edward Cullen from Twilight, when he steps out into the sun; although both men are better actors. Even if you’ve seen this match one, twice, three times even, then you won’t be bored or disappointed sitting through it again.
The Undertaker vs Mankind (In Your House 11: Buried Alive, October 20th 1996) in their Buried Alive Match starts slow but the whole match develops into a heated and tense encounter. The Undertaker pulls out some top notch ariel moves including a flying clothesline from the top rope to Foley in the aisle, which ends up being more a shoulder block as well as a diving clothesline from the audience to ringside, clearing the barrier. Obviously this was at a time when ‘Taker’s knees were in much better condition then they are now. The tussle does become infuriating when it goes from the grave at the top of the aisle to the ring several times, when it could just have easily been an all out brawl which traversed the arena backstage and been better in its execution had it done so, though both men do their very best to keep it engaging. The contest holds together well on the whole and the crowd pop big time when Undertaker’s hand comes shooting from the grave after he’s been buried by several wrestlers. Worth the watch.
The Undertaker vs Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Vader vs Bret Hart (In Your House 13: Final Four, February 16th 1997) for the WWE Championship is unbelievably messy in parts considering the amount of talent in the ring – including wrestlers being dragged from the ring which looks amateur and awful – but is good as an entertainment spectacle. It doesn’t provide the thrilling action one would expect from all four men, whilst the impression which comes out of it is that all four agreed the match was a dumb choice of main event –when it could have been a tournament style contest in the vain of Vengeance 2001, which granted, hadn’t yet transpired but wouldn’t have taken a whole lot of though to conjure up – and couldn’t find the will to muster a true effort. Vader is hindered by a nasty hardway cut to his eye which pours of blood and whilst the whole things drags on and on and on with no real structure to it except ‘Get through it anyway you can’, many will find this eminently watchable.
The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Owen Hart, British Bulldog and Brian Pillman) vs Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ken Shamrock, Goldust and The Legion of Doom (In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede, July 6th 1997) was a super heated brawl which took place in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Despite Vince McMahon’s painful commentary which at one point sees him refer to Marlena as a ‘super corner woman’ instead of a manager or valet which is what they’re called in wrestling, the match is faultless. To witness the role reversal of so many wrestlers for one night only is fascinating and Stone Cold Steve Austin has to be commended for embracing the change and wrestling as a heel. The reaction the Hart Foundation receive on their way to the ring from their hometown crowd is almost deafening and you Wrestling God hasn’t heard an ovation for the British Bulldog like the one he gets here since SummerSlam 1992. That the Foundation enters to their own personal, retro entrance music instead of the collective Hart Foundation (Bret Hart) theme tune is a great touch and its sets the tone for the rest of the match. In the ring, all ten men rise to the occasion (even Goldust puts on a show) thanks to the time allocated to the ten man tag team match all ten get the chance to do something meaningful and if WWE allowed their current crop of undercard talent the exposure these ten were given to shine, we may see more headline stars emerging. The contest is faced paced, technically sound on every level and the gusto put forth by the attending audience is impressive and never relents throughout the close to forty minute time frame. More than anything else, the match goes a long way to advance the Austin vs Owen Hart feud which is rare for a main event match to advance a mid card feud but all credit to WWE for that. The Hart Family celebration at the conclusion is a treat to see, the ring is bombarded by Hart’s and Austin’s refusal to quit, attacking the Hart’s after the match is amusing. Though Austin being escorted up the aisle in handcuffs, after a wrestling match is ridiculous. Plenty of other people have attacked their opponents after a match and not been carted off in handcuffs, this is wrestling for crying out loud. Like other matches on this release, if you’ve seen this match one or more then its more than worth sitting through it again if not for anything else than its a master class in ring psychology and storytelling.
The Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels (Ground Zero: In Your House, September 7th 1997) seamlessly sets up the pairs Hell in a Cell triumph the next month at In Your House: Bad Blood, which isn’t on this release when it should be. Shawn Michaels takes a pure pasting at the hands of the Undertaker, portraying the cowardly champion to a tee and selling like a professional in the process. Whilst the fight – and that’s what it is, there’s very little wrestling involved – begins on the ramp and sees Michaels being thrown around the IYH set, it does utilise every referee bump, of which there are many, to full effect wringing every last drop of emotion out of the fans. Both men handle the brawl with proficiency and the dive by the Undertaker from the ring to the waiting crowd outside is nothing short of excellent. There is a heavy argument that WWE should have omitted this match and put the Hell in a Cell clash in its place. Even though the Cell clash has been documented on several other releases and some would say it doesn’t need to be seen again, on a release titled ‘The Best of In Your House’ it should have been included as its one of the best Hell in a Cell matches in history.
Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker vs Kane and Mankind (Fully Loaded: In Your House, July 26th 1998) for the WWE Tag Team Championships isn’t the greatest tag team match in history but it isn’t the worst. Mankind and Kane play a secondary role to the Undertaker and Austin’s feud which this match exists purely to set up, though it fails to stop the tandem from trying their best. The match suffers when Kane is in the ring; he was still super stiff at this point and picks up tremendously when he’s stationary on the apron, but then how many matches with Kane in can we say that about? Yes, most of them. The crowd pop big time for the Austin hot tag but you get the feeling this match should have been a fatal four way for the WWE Championship, to allow all four to air their grievances before SummerSlam – we all knew Kane and Mankind were headed for a split on the summer pay-per view. Jerry Lawler unhelpfully telegraphs the ending for us when he spouts that winning the Tag Team Championships would be disastrous for the Undertaker vs Austin build up for their SummerSlam 1998 clash. Of course WWE were going to give Austin and Taker the doubles straps to add to the escalating story and feud. The match won’t blow you away but it’ll rarely disappoint either. This is one of those rare matches which could have been left off of the release and wouldn’t have affected the quality of it but neither adds to the appeal by being included.
The Rock vs Mankind (St Valentines Day Massacre: In Your House, February 14th 1999) in a Last Man Standing Match for the WWE Championship is by far inferior to their stunning ‘I Quit’ Match the previous month at Royal Rumble 1999, yet remains watchable as it builds into a heated scrap with an unsatisfactory ending on which the crowd voice their opinion for all to hear. As the final match on the main release, you will have grown tired of yet another Mick Foley match, this is the forth in a row on the final disc and the sixth across the whole title, especially since WWE have only just released ‘For All Mankind: The Life and Career of Mick Foley’. WWE could have and should have excluded at least three Foley matches from this release in order to incorporate other less known bouts which were much better.
Todd Pettengill is the host of the release. It’s good to see Todd again as he was a huge part of your Wrestling God’s childhood growing up watching the business and he looks good. In fact he looks better than he did all those years ago. Pettengill is an adequate host who can effectively talk about the earlier matches, at least, with some initiative.
Weaknesses:
Dean Douglas vs Razor Ramon (In Your House 4: Great White North, October 22nd 1995) for the WWE Intercontinental Championship isn’t very good at all. After Shawn Michaels vacates the Intercontinental Championship due to an attack outside a bar in which he suffered injuries, the crowd weren’t in the mood to see anyone else compete for the gold. There are long periods throughout this where both Douglas and Razor are just going through the motions in order to either reach the next spot or the end of the match. The result is that neither do anything of note and it’s easy to see why Shane Douglas hates WWE so much for what they did to him. A star in ECW, Douglas could have been a headliner in WWE had Vince McMahon not wanted to make a spectacle of any ECW star who walked through door and hadn’t become so infatuated with cartoon characters who ultimately would allow WCW to walk in and take their ratings. To make matters worse, the conclusion of the match makes Vince McMahon look like a real moron; with Douglas’ foot clearly under the bottom rope when Razor makes the cover, McMahon refutes the claim that Douglas’ shoulders should never have been counted to the mat.
Henry Godwin vs Hunter Hearst Helmsley (In Your House 5: Seasons Beatings, December 17th 1995) in the ridiculous Hog Pen Match is uninteresting and a dumb concept. The match is dull and Henry Godwin was always a ridiculous idea for a character. Godwin existed solely to throw buckets of pig slop over opponents and get a reaction from the audience. The premise of the match, to throw your opponent into the Hog Pen which is full if pig shit doesn’t belong on a wrestling show and is the sort of thing which I would expect the old TNA to come up with. It’s sad, because Triple H was so much better than this even if he didn’t always show it. This match is a horrible piece of work which should never have been allowed past the vetting process. I can only imagine that it has been included to get Triple H on the release more than once.
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Hunter Hearst Helmsley (In Your House 11: Buried Alive, October 20th 1996) plays out purely by the numbers. For two men beginning to break out of the lower card and into the mid card this should have been a gripping encounter which gave Vince McMahon no doubt other than to elevate them both. That did not transpire. The action is sluggish and both seem uninterested in what they’re doing. The whole focus of the match is on Jim Ross’ fleeting heel turn on commentary and that his headphones don’t work. Laughably, Vince McMahon has the cheek to call the match ‘elite’ when what WWE should have done when this came up for review is press the button marked ‘delete’. By the time this match warms up, it’s way too late. The highlight and the biggest reaction is when Mr. Perfect makes his way to ringside to whisky away Hunter’s valet.
Stone Cold Steve Austin, Cactus Jack, Chainsaw Charlie and Owen Hart vs Triple H, The New Age Outlaws and Savio Vega (No Way Out of Texas: In Your House, February 15th 1998) is a real mess. The match, featuring all its talent with the exception of Savio Vega had the potential to be one of the best In Your House matches ever. Sadly, the hype isn’t lived up to. The first ten minutes are sheer hardcore which the wrestlers stumble through blindly without a care before it gets back into the ring and concentrates on the wrestling side which once again is a shambles to behold. Chainsaw Charlie, aka Terry Funk, has hardly any mobility in his degenerating knees that he should have been kept out of this match and retired years earlier. Savio Vega adds nothing of value to the match. The New Age Outlaws and Mick Foley’s contributions are barely worth noting, except for a barbed wire stunt they may as well not have turned up. Only Triple H, Owen Hart and Steve Austin do anything resembling wrestling and their efforts to save the match are countered by everything else that goes on. The bout was said to have been unsanctioned by WWE, yet strangely contains a sanctioned WWE referee who tries to rule the match as a sanctioned tag team affair – work that one out; did no one think to ask who was giving the referee instructions had this been truly unsanctioned? Austin throwing a bin across the ring which hits Billy Gunn in the face is one of the only good looking things in the whole thing. Many people have said this match is one of the best; they’re either misguided or wrong because it’s a shambles.
Ken Shamrock vs Mankind (Judgment Day: In Your House, October 18th 1998) is a total bore. In fact it’s so uneventful that you can watch it on fast forward and not miss anything. Shamrock takes to using endless submission holds in what is billed as a No Holds Barred Match and this yet another Mick Foley bout on a release which follows swiftly on from his biography DVD and Blu-ray. The ending is more baffling than why this match was included, when Foley applies the Mandible Claw to himself in order to make himself pass out so as to not tap out to Shamrock’s ankle lock. When Howard Finkel announces the winner, for some reason he states that Ken Shamrock won because of the Mandible Claw (yes he actually says that). The announcement was done in order to allow Shamrock to snap. How many other matches have you ever heard announced the ending of naming the move which the wrestler won by. I’ve seldom heard “Your winner via the Rock Bottom; the Rock!” You could do worse than skipping this all together.
There is no indication as to how the matches were chosen as ‘The Best of’ meaning that the viewer is left with the impression that WWE have chosen the matches they believe should be on the release and not what the fans wanted to see. Also by doing this, WWE give the impression that they either don’t know what a good match is or have just included some of the additions to get certain wrestlers on the release. Had WWE put it to a vote on WWE.Com then the release may have had some authenticity as ‘The Best of’.
In a link between matches, Todd Pettengill says Diesel became WWE Champion shortly after his arrival in World Wrestling Entertainment. Now, either WWE’s definition of ‘shortly after’ is different to everyone else’s or they’re trying to rewrite history again. Diesel didn’t become WWE Champion for at least one year and two months after his WWE debut.
WWE could have included highlights or a highlight package of every In Your House event between each match and in the lead up to the match from a certain event, with dates and brief highlights of every match from every card. This would have given the whole release a better chronological order. Complied with Pettengill regaling us with stories of the more important events from the cards, it could have been a very detailed release.
There’s only back story provided to the most important matches on the release. The rest are thrown on without any explanation as to the feud or build-up. The casual wrestling fan may find themselves confused to the story either being told in the ring or what the commentators are talking about if they don’t already know the history which led up to whatever match it is they are watching. WWE should have gone to the effort of producing a short video package on each match and the lead up to it.
British Bulldog vs Diesel (In Your House 4: Great White North); Diesel vs Owen Hart (In Your House 5); Owen Hart vs Shawn Michaels (In Your House 6: Rage in the Cage); Diesel vs Bret Hart: Cage Match (In Your House 6: Rage in the Cage); Vader vs Razor Ramon (In Your House: Good Friends, Better Enemies); Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Savio Vega: Caribbean Strap Match (In Your House 8: Beware of Dog); Goldust vs Marc Mero (In Your House 11: Buried Alive); Stone Cold Steve Austin vs The Undertaker (In Your House 15: A Cold Day in Hell); The Great Sasuke vs Taka Michinoku (In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede); Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker: Hell in a Cell (Bad Blood: In Your House); The Rock vs Stone Cold Steve Austin (D-Generation X: In Your House); Vader, Owen Hart and British Bulldog vs Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson and Psycho Sid (In Your House 9: International Incident); Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Dude Love (Unforgiven: In Your House); Stone Cold Steve Austin vs The Rock (Backlash: In Your House) are all left out despite them all being superior to some of the additions on the release.
Blu-ray Exclusive Extras:
Todd Pettengill Outtakes
In Your House Sweepstakes Winner
In Your House: Revenge of the ‘Taker – 20th April 1997
Number 1 Contenders Match
Bret Hart vs Stone Cold Steve Austin
In Your House: D-Generation X – 7th December 1997
Match to Crown the First WWE Light Heavyweight Champion
Taka Michinoku vs Brian Christopher
In Your House: D-Generation X – 7th December 1997
WWE Championship Match
Shawn Michaels vs Ken Shamrock
In Your House: Fully Loaded – 26th July 1998
D-Lo Brown vs X-Pac
Conclusion:
Once again WWE have produced yet another release entitled ‘The Best of’, when it’s clear that some of the content on it is far from the top tier of what occurred. With matches added to the line up purely to get wrestlers such as Triple H on the release, it ignoring other matches which were twice as good. By doing this, WWE has made sure this release once again isn’t the ‘Best of In Your House’. That’s not to say it’s a bad release because it isn’t, even though it once again focuses too much on the headline names when it could have highlighted some of the mid and lower card talent who had some cracking matches at In Your House events.
In reality, there is no reason for this to exist. It doesn’t come on any huge anniversary or include anything that anyone who owns every In Your House event on DVD from WWE’s previous distributor Silvervision, which your Wrestling God does, doesn’t already have in their collection. When you strip away the packaging and the matches this is a gratuitous ploy to make more money from WWE. Had the company waited two more years until the 20th Anniversary of In Your House it could have produced an in depth documentary on the event which changed WWE’s pay-per view landscape forever, complete with interviews from those who competed on the shows and what a special feeling it gave you every month – which this release fails to convey and included the making of the In Your House video game which was inspired by the event of the same name. If you’re going to produce a release like this then you might as well go the whole hog.
Mick Foley pops up regularly on this release with six of the matches featuring the man of many faces and the final disc (DVD Disc 3 / Blu-ray Disc 2) of the release featuring four of Foley’s matches in a row. In fact there are only two matches on the final disc which don’t feature Foley. This is an oversight by WWE seeing that Mick has just had his own release. Most of his matches here are of no consequence and could have been omitted without affecting the quality of the release in favour of other lost gems.
The second disc (Blu-ray disc 1, beginning with the 10 Man Tag Team Match at Canadian Stampede) is by far the standout of the whole thing boasting some of the best action across the whole release. Disc 1 (Blu-ray disc 1 – the first hour and a half ) contains some really great footage, notably Bret Hart vs The British Bulldog whilst disc 3 (Blu-ray disc 2) is almost a waste of time with the exception of the first two matches on said disc.
It’s disappointing, because this could have been a must have release had it featured some of the matches which have been left out and a documentary charting the rise of WWE’s pay-per view output. As it is, we’re left with a half-hearted effort which does present some must see footage but ultimately if you own all the events in the first place there is literally no reason to purchase this box set. Maybe next time, WWE need to reconsider their titles and when thinking of labelling something ‘The Best of’ will first look at what they have decided to include and then what they have left out, and change their minds.
Rating: B
Next Time in Review Corner: WrestleMania 29 DVD and Blu-ray
Onwards and upwards...
