Originally reviewed – 2011
This is one of the In Your House events. You know, those pay-per-views the WWE used to toss up, almost like a pay-per-view version of Saturday Night’s Main Event or Clash of Champions, when they toyed with offering cheaper pay-per-views.
Before, of course, WWE realized they could charge full price and have pay-per-views every month (or more recently every couple of weeks) and assume the WWE sheep are going to shell out. Uh, Vince, for me, that’s what on-line recaps are for. I check in one or twice an hour and then read the final version on Monday morning.
Go back to four pay-per-views a year, make them each unique and create a build-up (instead of just tossing them together on the Smackdown prior) and maybe I’ll reconsider.
Anyways, In Your House: A Cold Day in Hell is from May 1997.
Weird to think the NWO had already been going on for a year, and yet the WWE was still starting their shows with Flash Funk vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley.
No, no…this isn’t DX’s Triple H, that was still a year away. This is the de-pushed Hunter, still paying for the Curtain Call before the departure of Hall and Nash to WCW. He does have Chyna in his corner. Not sure if that means things have turned around for him or not.
Flash Funk is the former 2 Cold Scorpio of ECW and WCW fame, who looks to be doing the PG version of the Godfather’s “Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy” gimmick.
Chyna certainly makes her presence known in the early goings, interfering on several occasions. However, Funk comes back and takes over on Hunter.
Unfortunately, he makes the grave mistake of “not hooking the leg.” He then goes up top for “The Funky Flash Splash” (They really expected that name to get over?) but Hunter catches him with a suplex that sends Funk into a 180 degree spin.
The future Game/Cerebral Assassin /King of Kings hits…wait for it…the Pedigree for the victory. After the match, Chyna picks up Funk and dumps him on the top rope.
The King and JR manage to work in references to Albert Belle, Killer Kowalski, Kathy Lee and Frank Gifford, Donald Trump and John F. Kennedy, Jr.
After the Funk-Helmsley match, Jim Ross talks to Ken Shamrock, who was attacked by Vader and Mankind earlier in the night. This was during Shamrock’s jump from UFC back to pro wrestling.
In case you didn’t know (and I didn’t until I picked up an old “Apter mag” from 1988 and noticed Shamrock listed in the Top 10 for South Atlantic Pro Wrestling), Shamrock got his start in pro wrestling (was once managed by Paul Jones, wrestled Chris “Tatanka” Chavis for the SAPW title and was friends with Dean Malenko) before going to UFC.
Mankind would actually wrestle in the next match, as he takes on Rocky Miavia. Todd Pettingill is standing by with “the Blue Chipper” Miavia. Pettingil shows some clips of Miavia debuting at the Survivor Series, and then winning the Intercontinental title. But as of this date, Rocky had lost the title to Owen Hart.
Miavia says he learned “a whole hell of a lot” on the way up and after losing the title. And here’s a match that would be even bigger a year or two later.
Jim Ross does a good job of talking up both Miaivia’s heritage and Mankind’s hardcore past. (This was in the waning days before the WWE finally gave up the 1980s-style booking and took a page out of Paul Heyman’s ECW playbook, letting Foley be Cactus Jack. rather than the PG version.)
You could definitely see that Miavia’s character needed a complete overhaul, which it, thankfully, got.
Finish was kinda interesting. Miavia came off the top rope with a flying bodypress that Mankind carried over, but rather than getting the pinfall, he slapped on the Mandible Claw.
Here’s a fun fact: The Mandible Claw was first used by Dr. Sam Sheppard, during his pro wrestling career. Sheppard was the former doctor who was accused of murdering his wife. His story was the basis for “the Fugitive.”
Ahmed Johnson would have to take on the Nation of Domination (Farooq, Crush and Savio Vega) in what I have to assume is a gauntlet match. They show clips of Johnson coming down to take out Crush, who was supposed to be taking on three jobbers in his own gauntlet match.
Before the bout, WWE President Gorilla Monsoon came down to clear the ringside of the Nation’s flunkies (Clarence Mason, PG-13 and hey, it’s D-Lo!) as well as Farooq and Vega, since it was Crush vs Ahmed to start things off.
Ahmed starts off fast, but Crush takes over. The idea here is, of course, that nobody sitting at home expects Crush to win, but the longer Crush can battle Ahmed, the more reasonable it is to think that perhaps Farooq (the real target of Ahmed Johnson’s rage) might win.
As expected ,Ahmed eventually finishes off Crush, and in comes a limping Savio. Ross says Vega claims he was injured last night in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
(Michael? Did you have another forklift accident at the Dunder Mifflin warehouse? Darryl told you it wasn’t a toy!)
Of course, Savio comes off with a spinning kick, then jumps playfully around to show the leg injury was a ruse. (I bet Creed put him up to that.)
Savio continues to work over Ahmed, as Ross talks about how WW— does pay-per-view the way no one else can do pay-per-view (was that a shot at WCW or ECW?) while Tennessee-bred Lawler calls the people in Richmond rednecks.
Vega continues to work over Johnson until Ahmed starts to make the comeback. As he does, Vega bails to the outside and then gets a chair. He gets disqualified but continues to hammer Ahmed.
Then it’s Farooq’s turn. However, the former Ron Simmons doesn’t get in too much offence before running into a spinbuster. Johnson gets the advantage and hits the Pearl River Plunge.
However, Ahmed can’t follow up and only gets a two-count. Farooq gets a chopblock to hobble Johnston, before hitting the Dominator to get the victory. Farooq gets the victory (and so the Nation doesn’t have to disband) but because of what Crush and Vega did, Johnson still looks strong, just not strong enough to beat three guys.
We switch over to footage of Ken Shamrock getting into a confrontation with Vader on Raw. I had to laugh at Shamrock’s response to Lawler getting on his case about having to face Vader. (“Shut up!”) Then, they show more clips of Shamrock getting attacked by Vader and Mankind earlier on.
Ironically, part of Vader’s entrance video shows a bloodied Vader. The crowd actually has some pro-Vader signs for this No Holds Barred match.
In a bit of inaccuracy on the WWE’s part, the slide on the screen mentions there will be a “standing 8 count” which Ross says actually doesn’t apply. (Someone probably got fired or at least yelled at by Vince over that.)
In the early goings, this has to be the most boring “No Holds Barred” match of all time, as it’s more a UFC-style match with neither man really committing to anything.
However, once Vader leaves the ring and returns, this picks up as Vader starts pounding away, and Shamrock gets an overhead suplex.
Overall, good booking by WWE. With Shamrock coming in as “The World’s Most Dangerous Man”, you knew he was going over here. However, as the match wore on, Vader really put a pounding on Shamrock, as much to say “You thought UFC was tough, well you’re in our world now.” I
n the end, however, Shamrock gets an anklelock on Vader, who taps out. Todd Pettingill is, or rather was, with Stone Cold Steve Austin, who said he didn’t care about the Hart Foundation showing up.
As Austin headed to the ring, they show him giving the Undertaker one of the worst-sold Stunners of all time. The Undertaker makes his entrance. Did I mention this is for the WWE Championship?
However, before the match can get underway, the Hart Foundation arrives. Uhm…if the Harts paid a scalper for their tickets, why do they get to come down the aisle to take their seats. I’ve gone to box office for every single wrestling ticket I’ve ever purchased and I never got to “walk the aisle.”
Man, the Hart Foundation’s mortality rate is not really great, as 80% of the guys (Owen, Pillman, Neidhart and the Bulldog) have passed. Oops, sorry! Ross says that Pillman is not a member of the Hart Foundation. So, that rate falls to 75%.
With all due respect to the phenom that is the Undertaker, this match is really more about Austin and the Hart Foundation. Austin has most of the offence, and there’s plenty of coverage of the Hart Foundation (and Pillman) sitting ringside.
The Undertaker does get some shots in, and as that occurs, I wonder “Was Taker face or heel here?” He wasn’t getting booed unmercifully against Austin, who was the hottest thing in the industry at that point. Even before Austin really hit his stride, I was a fan. I liked him and Pillman as the Hollywood Blondes and in 1996, saw the day when this guy would really take off with Austin 3:16, etc.
Anyways, I think the Undertaker might have been a face, and even his match-up vs. Austin doesn’t help, since WWE was getting to the point where they’d match heel vs. heel from time to time. And obviously, weren’t totally adverse (even if they didn’t do it very often) about doing face vs. face.
The Undertaker does eventually take over on Austin but Stone Cold rolls to the outside and upon his return, hits the Stone Cold Stunner. But before he can go for the pin, the bell begins ringing. Turns out, Pillman became an impromptu Guest Timekeeper.
You know, the sad part is, we’ll never know just how great Pillman could have been as a heel in the WWE. He had the mic skills and this “Loose Cannon” gimmick down pat. He just was too injured to follow it up in the ring.
After the referee shoos Pillman away, he restarts the match. Austin goes on the attack, but the Undertaker soon reverses things and finishes it off Austin with the tombstone.
The Hart Foundation hits the ring but surprisingly attacks the Undertaker more than Austin. Austin goes after Bret and then grabs one of his crutches and hits the ring. The two faces clear the ring, but afterwards, Austin gives Taker the stunner. After Austin heads to the back, the Undertaker stalks to the back, title in hand. Not sure if Taker is supposed to be stalking after Austin to retaliate for the stunner, or if he’s legitimately p!ssed off that Austin basically stole all his heat and made him, the WWF Champion look weak to end the show. I’m thinking it might be the latter. Interesting note:
As the show goes off the air, Jim Ross passes along that Vince McMahon wishes a Happy Mother’s Day in heaven to “Rose Anderson” who passed away the night before. Not sure who she is and a Google search doesn’t help much.
Overall, an interesting show from a historical perspective, as we see the future Triple H and the Rock, plus Mankind who would go on to bigger and better things. Not sure what the tag team scene was like, but there was a lot more to it at that point than there is today. (Just checked the Net and LOD were supposed to defend the belts on this ppv.)
Sadly, definitely a sign of things to come for Austin, who seems to think giving the stunner to anyone he shares the ring with is the only way to end a segment. Really? They couldn’t have had Austin and the Undertaker clear the ring of the Hart Foundation and then kinda glare at each other. They could have even had Undertaker leave the ring first if they wanted to give Austin a bit of a push by having his image be the last you saw as the pay-per-view faded out. That way, at least your World Champion didn’t look weak against a guy who was leaving the World title picture for the next year, so he could feud with the Harts and later the Rock.
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