What the World Was Watching: The Action Zone – May 14, 1995
By LScisco on 8th September 2017
–Footage is shown of an armored car carrying the In Your House entries to Syracuse, New York.
–Jim Ross and Todd Pettengill are doing commentary and they are concluding the tapings in Moline, Illinois.
–Opening Contest: Adam Bomb (10-2-1) pins The Black Phantom after a Neutron Bomb from the apron at 2:50:
Since this is the go home show for In Your House it was always humorous how some wrestlers that had matches scheduled for the pay-per-view were wrestling the day of the card. In a kayfabe sense that would be pretty risky, especially since Bomb is slated to face Mabel in a King of the Ring qualifier. Speaking of the pay-per-view, Ross and Pettengill take the time to repeat that In Your House is only $14.95 and that is cheaper than other family entertainment options. Bomb manhandles the Phantom with his usual power arsenal and finishes with the Neutron Bomb from the apron.
–A video package hypes the In Your House main event between Diesel and Sid.
–Ross and Pettengill hype the In Your House card.
–Call 1-900-737-4WWF to get a recap of In Your House.
–Jean-Pierre LaFitte (4-0) beats Butler Stevens with Le Cannonball at 2:35:
LaFitte is no longer wearing a glove on his hand, making me wonder if the company made him ditch that part of his attire because it was too much like the Undertaker. LaFitte wrestles with more fire than he has shown in other squashes, catching Stevens with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex when Stevens tries a dive off the ropes and hitting a guillotine leg drop before Cannonballing his way to victory.
–The Bodydonnas remind us that we are fat and they are coming to show the WWF what they are all about.
–Call 1-800-840-1991 to get your very own In Your House t-shirt. You can get a Bret Hart shirt too for $20!
–Ray Rougeau interviews WWF Champion Diesel, who puts over Sid’s physical attributes. He portrays himself as an inspirational figure that came from a rough background to be the WWF Champion and talks about Sid attacking his friends in recent weeks. Ted DiBiase and Sid show up in the aisle and Diesel offers his back to them but Sid chooses not to step into the ring. Diesel reiterates his pledge to be in Sid’s face at In Your House and screams that he will be facing a lunatic. This was a pretty poor promo by Diesel but it did improve once Sid came out.
–Bob Holly (4-5-1) pins Barry Horowitz after a dropkick at 1:41:
The announce team informs us that Holly will be in action tomorrow night on RAW against Mantaur in a King of the Ring qualifying match. There is not much here, with both men exchanging some token moves, and Holly scores the win with a dropkick, a finish that is straight out of the 1970s. Holly throws a good dropkick but the wrong camera angle was used for the finish to really put the move over.
–We get another recap of Bam Bam Bigelow getting fired/quitting the Million Dollar Corporation several weeks ago.
–More footage is shown of the armored car arriving in Syracuse with the In Your House entries.
–Footage of Hakushi attacking Bret Hart on Superstars on March 25 is shown.
–Hakushi (w/Shinja) (14-0) defeats Sonny Rogers after a springboard splash at 2:44:
Rogers tries to surprise Hakushi in the early going with a body press off the ropes but it gets him nowhere as Hakushi does his usual methodical beatdown and gets his fifteenth win of the year with a springboard splash.
–Old footage of Bob Backlund on college spring break, which technically ended weeks ago, is played.
–The Allied Powers (8-0) beat Men on a Mission (11-1) via disqualification when Mabel breaks up Luger’s Rebel Rack on Mo at 10:09 shown:
Based on how both teams have been running lately it is curious that this match is not billed as a number one contender’s match for the WWF tag team titles. The British Bulldog getting the crowd to try to chant “USA” is also high comedy. As has been the case of Men on a Mission’s recent bouts, this one is all about putting over Mabel as the Allied Powers struggle to put him down in the early going and he squashes the Bulldog with a Samoan Drop when the Bulldog tries a crucifix. The match does a good job following the usual tag formula, with Men on a Mission cheating to keep the Bulldog from tagging Luger, and Luger putting Mo in the Rebel Rack after all hell breaks loose. However, Mabel makes the save and that triggers a disqualification, seemingly because he had already used up his legally allowed “save” in the contest. Rating: **½
–After the bell, Men on a Mission destroy Luger, with Mabel splashing him. WWF officials then run out and prevent further damage.
–Tune in next week to see Bob Holly face Sid!
The Last Word: The main event was better than expected, illustrating how Men on a Mission were doing very serviceable work in the tag ranks in 1995 as faces and heels. However, it was also clear that Mabel was somewhat limited in a singles role as he was best used sparingly in tags as the muscle. It is unclear from this show that he is going to be able to go toe-to-toe with Adam Bomb at In Your House as Bomb looked very impressive in his squash. That aside, the show did what it could to build the pay-per-view while also building up acts for the future such as Holly and LaFitte.
There were two additional matches that aired on Wrestling Challenge:
*Henry Godwinn (11-3) pinned Gary Scott
*Yokozuna & Owen Hart (WWF Tag Team Champions) (5-0) beat Kevin Krueger & Gary Anderson
The WWF had some notable house shows in the Northeast, notably the final WWF show at the Boston Garden (results courtesy of historyofwwe.com):
Providence, Rhode Island – The Providence Civic Center – May 12, 1995: Man Mountain Rock defeated Kwang…The Blu Brothers defeated the Bushwhackers…Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett beat Bob Holly…Razor Ramon beat the Roadie…Bret Hart defeated Jerry Lawler in a Kiss My Foot match…Bam Bam Bigelow beat Tatanka…The New Headshrinkers defeated the Heavenly Bodies…Diesel & the Undertaker beat Sid & Kama.
Boston, Massachusetts – The Boston Garden – May 13, 1995 (10,000; papered): The Bushwhackers (w/Tony Garea) beat the Heavenly Bodies at 7:32 with a small package…Hunter-Hearst Helmsley pinned Phil Apollo at 6:38…Man Mountain Rock beat Kwang via submission to the Whammy Bar at 1:39…The Roadie pinned Bob Holly (substituting on the card for the 1-2-3 Kid) after holding Holly’s tights for leverage…Bret Hart & the British Bulldog beat Hakushi & Jerry Lawler when Bret forced Lawler to submit to the Sharpshooter at 11:36…Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett beat Razor Ramon in a ladder match at 10:32. Ramon actually grabbed the title belt first but the referee was knocked out and the Roadie attacked Razor, handed the belt to Jarrett, and the referee recovered in time to see this and awarded the match to Jarrett…The Blu Brothers defeated the New Headshrinkers when Fatu was pinned after the Blu’s switched places at 11:15…The Undertaker pinned Kama at 13:25…Bam Bam Bigelow (w/Chief Jay Strongbow) pinned Tatanka with a sunset flip off the top rope at 10:09…WWF Champion Diesel pinned Sid with a powerbomb at 6:25. Gorilla Monsoon was the guest ring announcer for the match and Ted DiBiase was chased backstage by Nikolai Volkoff during the contest.
And here was some of the news concerning the company on the eve of In Your House (courtesy of The Wrestling Observer from May 22, 1995):
*Sarah, Duchess of York reportedly turned down an overture from the WWF to present the crown to the winner of this year’s King of the Ring tournament.
*The newest inductees for the WWF Hall of Fame will be the Grand Wizard, Antonio Rocca, the Fabulous Moolah, Ivan Puttski, George Steele, Pedro Morales, and Ernie Ladd. The ceremony will be in Philadelphia on June 24.
*Some of the fans at the Boston Garden show wanted Bruno Sammartino to attend but he is on the outs with the company and was not invited to participate.
*The WWF is feuding with Jacques Rougeau in a promotional war in Montreal, its second-biggest market. The company has hired Joanne Rougeau, Jacques sister, as its promoter in the area. Jacques is reportedly trying to work out a deal to promote shows with WCW. The Rougeau family has been divided by the promotional war as Jacques has buried the WWF in interviews, while Raymond Rougeau, who is employed by the company, is attacking his brother in the Canadian press.
Up Next: In Your House #1!