STW - In Your House 1 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

In Your House 1

In Your House 1 took place on May 14th, 1995 from the War Memorial, in Syracuse, New York. It drew 7,000, 3,500 paid for $51,748. It did a 0.83 buyrate, equivalent to approximately 332,000 buys for $1.26 million.

This was the first In Your House pay per view, and it was the first pay per view outside of the big four, which started in 1988; The Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and the Survivor Series.

The In Your House pay per view had a discounted price of $14.95, compared to the big four pay per views, which cost $29.95 at the time, except WrestleMania 11, which was raised to $34.95. At the end of 1995, the price was increased to $19.99.

It's been said that this was priced this way to make up for the lost revenue of Saturday Night's Main Event and declining VHS home video sales. Is any of that true?

Let's talk about the creation of In Your House. Where did the idea come from? Whose idea was it and how long was it discussed before it happened?

Who came up with the name “In Your House”?

It was kind of similar to WCW's Clash of the Champions, a big card outside of their big pay per view events. However, the Clash of the Champions was for free on TBS, while the WWF made In Your House a pay per view event.

In Your House ended up being a main stay for many years in the WWF, it even spawned off pay per views that first happened under the In Your House umbrella, before they broke off into their own pay per view events such as Backlash, Badd Blood, Judgement Day, No Way Out, Unforgiven and Fully Loaded

It was recently announced that In Your House will be brought back on NXT. What led to that decision?

Since the title of this pay per view was called In Your House, it seemed only fitting to give away an actual house on the pay per view.

Talk about how that idea came to be.

We'll get more into that once we get to the pay per view part of the show.

We're coming off of WrestleMania 11, where we saw Diesel retain the World Title by defeating Shawn Michaels, and Lawrence Taylor defeat Bam Bam Bigelow. As well as Owen Hart winning his first title in the WWF, as he and mystery partner Yokozuna defeated The Smoking Gunns, to win the World Tag Team titles.

Let's get to some company news heading into In Your House

May 1994 vs May 1995

Estimated average attendance 5/94 3,570*

Estimated average attendance 5/95 3,440 (-3.6%)

April 1995 3,530*

Estimated average gate 5/94 $57,520*

Estimated average gate 5/95 $43,250 (-24.8%)

April 1995 $27,500*

Percentage of house shows sold out 5/94 5.0*

Percentage of house shows sold out 5/95 16.7

April 1995 16.7*

Average cable television rating 5/94 2.0

Average cable television rating 5/95 2.3 (+15.0%)

April 1995 2.1

After WrestleMania, Monster Ripper came into the WWF and was given the name of Bertha Faye, to feud with Alundra Blayze for the Women's title. Talk about what led to her coming in.

Cool fact about her; She, Owen & Bret Hart all went to Ernest Manning High School in Calgary.

Meltzer reported - With the recent deaths of Eddie Gilbert and John Studd, both of whom can be linked in court testimony in both the Dr. George Zahorian and Vince McMahon steroid trials as being steroid customers of Zahorian, it opened the door to at least two networks considering doing stories on the subject.

In recent weeks, both "60 Minutes" and Sports Illustrated for its television segment on Wide World of Sports, considered doing pieces on the subject. SI appeared to have gotten the jump and "60 Minutes" appears to at least for the present has dropped it as a story idea.

Moving forward to 1995. The World Wrestling Federation has done a better job of cleaning its house when it comes to steroids than any sport where they were rampant in that I'm aware of. But the question is still there in regard to its policy of who it hires and pushes and the unique nature of what constitutes a positive on their tests to where it is still an issue but certainly not as major as years ago. But WCW has left itself open to media bombs 

Both WWF and WCW have testing. But everyone can see that with whatever flaws WWF has, its policies have been far more successful. McMahon and the company doomed themselves on the trust issue in 1991 and 1992 but it can't be denied they have a policy and a program and are making a real effort, but also haven't licked the problem to the extent where their program isn't open for questions. WCW has testing, but nobody anywhere believes its policy is "real," as in real effective. It may be too late to avoid whatever ramifications come from Ted and Hulk and steroids and ignoring deaths bunched into five minutes on a network sports show.

But at least it'll avoid the inevitable, and if anyone in the industry at this point hasn't realized they are inevitable, follow-ups, then they are doomed to their repercussions just from stupidity as opposed to a lack of caring. Use appears to be down from the heyday, but if WCW gets stung at the end of the month and then cries unfair, one last suggestion. Instead of crying and having it happen again, just clean it up and if it's an honest effort at cleaning it up, the odds problem will dissipate will greatly increase. They even have the chance to turn the story around if they come up with some real solutions and announce them by the 28th. 

Meltzer reported - Michael Hayes (Michael Seitz) debuted on Superstars as Doc Hendricks (Jimi Hendrix gimmick), with a haircut, shave and being much better dressed. Jerry Lawler moved to doing Raw. Jim Cornette was only a temporary co-host which was understood from the beginning because he didn't like having to commute to Connecticut on a weekly basis. 

With Lawler doing Raw, that means he has to tape every Monday morning in Connecticut and fly back for the Monday night shows in Memphis on the weeks Raw isn't done live. 

Not long after WrestleMania, we started seeing vignettes for newcomer, Hunter Hearst Helmsley. He ended up doing pretty well for himself in the WWF over the years. Talk about your memories of him coming in, and why did you guys decide to stick with a gimmick that was so similar to the one he did in WCW when he was Jean Paul Levesque? Usually WWF didn't do that.

During a tour of Germany during this time, there was a few errors in the program at the live events, Diesel was listed as being 7'4', and Sid was billed as "Psycho Kid. 

Speaking of “Kid”, Meltzer reported - The career of 22-year-old 1-2-3 Kid (Sean Waltman) is somewhat in jeopardy after suffering a broken neck at the 4/24 television tapings in Omaha.

The injury, acknowledged on WWF television programs this past weekend, was believed to be an aggravation of an injury suffered a few days earlier while on the European tour. Kid had suffered a brain concussion on 3/12 in Anaheim and tried to come back too soon and was shaken up again one week later during a show in Madison Square Garden. This left him well below 100 percent for a show one week later at Tokyo Sumo Hall.

The injury, a cracked seventh cervical vertebrae, is believed to have occurred when he was in a tag match with Razor Ramon against Jeff Jarrett and The Roadie (Brian James) in a dark match designed to get the four ready for their PPV match scheduled on 5/14 in Syracuse. In the match, Ramon did a spot where he did an over the head backwards bodyslam with Kid onto Roadie, and Kid landed wrong. Roadie wound up pinning Kid with a DDT. While this isn't confirmed, I believe this was the scheduled finish and not a finish change just to end the match immediately because of concern over the injury.

According to reports, the first doctor he saw told him that his wrestling career was over, but a second opinion was that he'd recover in due time. He was waiting for results of tests that will come back toward the latter part of this week which could determine just how serious the break was. 

The general belief at press time, which could change this week, is that he'll be out of action for two to three months and that most likely he would return to wrestling. In some ways the injury was similar to a famous injury suffered by Bruno Sammartino in a 1976 match with Stan Hansen. Sammartino, who was 40 at the time, returned about ten weeks later although the return was rushed because he, as WWWF champion, was needed to headline a Shea Stadium rematch.

On WWF television over the weekend, it was announced Ramon would wrestle both Jarrett & Roadie in a handicap match

Kid was first taken after the matches to an Omaha hospital before he was sent home to Minneapolis the next day.

Meltzer reported- According to TV trade journals, Fox is considering a one-hour WWF show for Sundays at 7 p.m. four times after NFL football next season. WWF is one of many things being considered according to the article but no deal is done. Also being considered supposedly is a worked karate show using wrestling gimmicks like personalities and interviews produced by former WWF execs Nelson Sweglar and Jim Troy of which 16 episodes have already been filmed in Long Beach. 

Around this time, Dan Spivey returned to the WWF, this time he had jet black hair and was named Waylon Mercy. Talk about the creation of Waylon Mercy, and why was Dan picked to do it?

That takes us to In Your House

The first match was Bret Hart vs Hakushi. This was Bret's first match of the evening. Later in the show, he also had to wrestle Jerry Lawler.

We haven't talked much about Hakushi. What's your memories of him?

Leading up to In Your House, After Hart won the WWF Magazine"Award of the People" on the February 20th, 1995 episode of Raw, Jerry Lawler suggested that Japanese votes had been excluded and that Hart was a racist. Lawler convinced Hakushi that Hart was a racist, and on the March 25th episode of Superstars, Hakushi attacked Bret after he received a separate award from the Japanese media. 

On the April 23rd Wrestling Challenge, a match between Bret and Hakushi was set for In Your House. On the same day, on Action Zone, Bret teamed with Razor Ramon to take on IC Champion Jeff Jarrett and Hakushi. Bret and Ramon won the match, with Ramon pinning Jarrett

On the May 1st Raw, Bret offered to face Lawler at In Your House after his scheduled match with Hakushi. Bret dedicated his match with Lawler at In Your House to his mother, as the event was going to take place o Mother's Day. 

Bret Hart pinned Hakushi in 14:39. In his pre-match interview Hart said Hakushi was undefeated which indicated short-term memory lapse. The fans chanted "USA" at the beginning which made perfect sense with a Canadian babyface. Hakushi is one of the more talented wrestlers in the country but his talents are miscast in the heel role and he has no serious heat, even when matched with the most popular wrestler in the company. Shinja (Akio Sato) tried to make up for the fact Hakushi should be a face, but Shinja lacks charisma. Nevertheless, the work was damn good and this match easily stole the show. Hakushi controlled much of the early portion.

He used a Muta handspring elbow at 8:30. He also reversed a Hart backbreaker into one of his own and did a head-butt off the top rope for a near fall at 9:30. After missing a springboard splash, Hart made his comeback with his usual leg sweep, bulldog, backbreaker and forearm off the ropes series of moves. As he went for the sharpshooter, Shinja got on the apron and Hart distracted him. Hart came back with a flying clothesline and Hakushi took a spin bump for him. As Hart came off the ropes again, Shinja tripped him. Hart then tope'd Shinja. As Hart got back in, Hakushi hit him with a high dropkick for a near fall. 

Hart suplexed Hakushi over the top rope but both went over. As Hart tried to get back in, Shinja held his ankle. This gave Hakushi the opening to do an Asai-moonsault (quebrada). When Hart got back in the ring, Hakushi tried for a german suplex but Hart reversed it into a forward cradle for the pin. After the match as Hart jumped off the apron, he acted as if he had "injured" his knee which turned into a long term storyline for the show. ***3/4 

Backstage, Jerry Lawler wants to wrestle Bret Hart immediately as Todd Pettengil informs him that Hart injured himself leaving the ring 

The next match was Razor Ramon vs Jeff Jarrett & Roadie, in a handicap match

Ramon and Jarrett faced each other at WrestleMania 11, but Jarrett was DQ'ed. Jarrett faced Aldo Montoya on the April 8th Superstars, in a non-title match, where Jarrett accidentally pinned himself (he never lifted his shoulder off the ground after being slammed to the mat by Montoya). Jarrett was initially announced the winner, but Montoya was later declared the winner.

Jarrett and Montoya faced each other again two weeks later, on the April 22nd Superstars. During the match, Razor came to ringside and chased The Roadie backstage. Despite this, Jarrett won making Montoya submit to the figure four. The next day on Wrestling Challenge, Ramon and the 1–2–3 Kid were scheduled to square off against Jarrett and The Roadie at In Your House. After the 1–2–3 Kid broke his neck, the match was changed into a handicap match

Savio Vega was new in the WWF at this time. After graduating from high school, he went to Miami, FL in 1986 to try out for the WWF. The WWF liked what they saw, but sent Rivera back to Puerto Rico to get some experience in the World Wrestling Council (WWC). While there, hewrestled under the name TNT and won many titles. In early 1994, Rivera was brought back to the WWF as Kwang, a role he would hold until mid 1995 and he was turned into Savio Vega

Razor Ramon beat Jeff Jarrett & Roadie in a handicap match in 12:40. At the beginning of the match they did a telephone live interview with 1-2-3 Kid at home. Ramon controlled the early moments including clotheslining Jarrett over the top. Finally Roadie hit Ramon from behind to give Jarrett the advantage. Ramon and Jarrett traded moves until Roadie tagged in. 

The two mainly worked on Ramon for a few minutes. Ramon made a comeback and hit Jarrett in position for the Razor's edge, but Jarrett reversed it and sent Ramon over the top.

Roadie came off the middle rope to the floor with a clothesline. Back in the ring Jarrett came off the top with a flying crossbody but Ramon rolled with it for a near fall. Jarrett used a dropkick and then a neckbreaker for near falls. Roadie used a kneedrop off the middle rope for a near fall. Ramon made a comeback and hit the backward superplex on Roadie and went for the Razor's edge but Jarrett clipped the knee. Jarrett went for the figure four, Ramon kicked him off into Roadie, then pinned Jarrett after a Razor's edge. 

After the match Ramon had Roadie up for the edge but Jarrett clipped him again and put on the figure four. 

Aldo Montoya made an attempted save but he was quickly disposed of. Jarrett went back with the figure four on Ramon until someone who they tried to indicate was a fan did a run-in and cleaned house. They even brought the police out to give the indication this "wasn't part of the show." However later in an interview Ramon called the guy Savio "Vinnie" Vega (Juan "TNT" Rivera of Puerto Rico aka Kwang without the mask) with the idea that Ramon knew the guy. ** 

Backstage, Jerry Lawler is yelling at Jack Tunney, demanding to have his match occur next, but Tunney won’t allow it to happen

The next match was the first qualifying match that we saw for the 1995 King of the Ring Tournament, Mabel vs Adam Bomb.

On the March 12th Action Zone, Men on a Mission lost a tag title match to the Smoking Gunns. After the match, Men on a Mission attacked the Gunns. Then, on the March 26th Wrestling Challenge, Men on a Mission defeated Ken Raper & Gary Sabaugh in a squash match. After the match, MOM apologized for their attack on the Gunns and invited them to shake their hands. 

The Gunns came out, but, Men on a Mission once again attacked the Gunns and then beat up their manager, Oscar, officially turning them heels. We wouldn't see Oscar again after this.

Mabel pinned Adam Bomb with a powerslam in 1:53 in a King of the Ring qualifier. They did a nice gimmick where it looked like an atom bomb when off Bomb came to the ring. Bomb did a plancha. Not good, but at least it was over fast. 3/4* 

This is Adam Bomb’s last PPV match. His final record is 0-6. He was 0-2 at the Royal Rumble, 0-1 at WrestleMania, 0-2 at Survivor Series and 0-1 at other PPV events. He'd leave the WWF in August.

Backstage, Razor Ramon introduces Savio Vega, from the Caribbean. He was in attendance and couldn’t stand watching Jeff Jarrett and Roadie attack his friend. Razor says they wrestled in the past.

The next match was a rematch from WrestleMania 11 for the tag team titles, champions Owen Hart & Yokozuna defending against former champions, The Smoking Gunns

On the April 23rd Action Zone, when the Blu Brothers faced the New Headshinkers, Hart and Yokozuna interfered in the contest, attacking the New Headshrinkers, causing a DQ. The Smoking Gunns ran to the ring, attacking Hart and Yokozuna. 

The Headshrinkers posed with Hart and Yokozuna's tag team belts and celebrated with the Smoking Gunns. The following night on Raw, the Smoking Gunns were awarded a rematch for the Tag Team titles at the In Your House. 

Owen Hart & Yokozuna beat Smoking Gunns to retain the WWF tag titles in 5:44. Fast-paced but way too short. Yokozuna ran into the ringpost knocking him out on the floor. They did a few double-team moves for near falls on Hart until Bart missed a tackle and went to the floor. Yokozuna legdropped him on the floor and threw him in where Owen pinned him. Somewhere in there Billy punched Jim Cornette. **

Before the next match Diesel did an interview talking about it being his first Mother's Day without a mother, mentioning (legit story) that she passed away in late December.

Jerry Lawler pinned Bret Hart in 5:09. Lawler had said on TV he was bringing his mother to ringside but instead showed up with a hot looking model young enough to be his granddaughter. Okay, daughter. During the entire show Lawler had demanded his match be put on because he "thought" Hart had the injured knee. Before the match started Hart revealed the knee injury was a ruse and Lawler freaked out seeing Hart walk perfectly. Hart treated Lawler like a manager as far as an opponent in that he didn't even sell his piledriver. 

Shinja came to ringside. The ref got his foot tangled in the ropes hanging upside down so Hakushi did a run-in and came off the top rope three times on Hart before the recovered ref counted the fall. After the match Lawler held Hart and Hakushi charged toward him but Hart ducked and Hakushi decked Lawler. Bret then ran off Hakushi, Hart and got a few blows in on Shinja. *1/2

Before the main event, Todd Pettengill and Stephanie Wiand did the gimmick where they gave away a $150,000 house in Orlando to a guy in Henderson, NV who was actually watching the broadcast. Actually it was his son in sixth grade that won. This segment, the only thing not staged on the show, was probably the best part of the entire show (well, except the opener). Just a note from someone with experience in house giveaways (not me, people I know). 

In the vast majority of cases where houses are given away, the new owner winds up selling the given away house within six months usually because of the tax bill.

Years later, WWE would follow up with Pompacilli to find out what happened to the house. The house was sold six months after the event. The family had just moved from New York to Nevada, so they didnt want to move again so quickly. The sale of the house, which was over $175,000, created a college fund for Matt. 

The next match was the main event for the World Title, Champion Diesel defending against Sid.

At WrestleMania 11, Diesel defeated Shawn Michaels to retain the World Title. The following night, Michaels stated that for a potential rematch, he would give Sid the night off, causing Sid to attacks Michaels by powerbombing him three times. Diesel eventually came out to help Michaels. 

When was it officially decided to turn Michaels face?

A match between Diesel and Bam Bam Bigelow for the title was scheduled. Over the weekend of April 16, a match between Sid and Diesel was scheduled for In Your House, in which Sid could potentially face Diesel for the WWF Championship, depending on whether he retained or lost his title against Bigelow.

On the April 24th Raw, Sid stated he was unhappy about this stipulation, as it meant that if Bigelow won, Sid would not get a shot at the title. Diesel retained the title when the Corporation turned on Bigelow, with Tatanka tripping Bigelow as he ran off the ropes. Diesel hit Bigelow with a big boot and then the jackknife for the win. After the match, Bigelow was insulted by Ted DiBiase and attacked by the Corporation. Diesel, who had gone back to the locker room, came to help Bigelow.

In Sid's match with Razor Ramon on the May 1st Raw, Diesel came to the ring ready to fight Sid, who, along with the Corporation's manager DiBiase, left the arena. 

The following week on Raw, DiBiase revealed that he and Sid had been working together for a while, admitting that it was him who told Shawn Michaels to get a bodyguard.

That takes us to the match

Diesel retained the WWF title beating Sid via DQ in 11:29. Clumsy predictable match. Sid got his advantage with a knee-dive after Ted DiBiase distracted Diesel. The match had the most heat going in because it was the only match on the show with a good television build-up, but the two guys couldn't work together at all. Sid used a choke slam and a power bomb for near falls. Diesel came back with a foot to the face which missed by a foot, and hit the jackknife. Tatanka interfered for the DQ. Sid tried a second power bomb but Diesel backdropped him over. Bam Bam Bigelow made the save. 3/4*

There were four dark matches at the live show. Before the PPV show opened, Jean Pierre Lafite (Karl Pierre Oulette) pinned Bob Holly (Robert Howard), and then after the main event, Bigelow pinned Tatanka, Undertaker pinned Kama and Davey Boy Smith drew Owen Hart over 15:00.

Diesel and Sid would end up having a rematch at In Your House 2, in a lumberjack match, which Diesel would also win

• Thumbs up 64 (44.8%)
• Thumbs down 55 (38.5%)
• In the middle 24 (16.8%)

BEST MATCH POLL

• Bret Hart vs. Hakushi 94
• Razor Ramon vs. Jeff Jarrett & Roadie 13

WORST MATCH POLL

• Diesel vs. Sid 57
• Mabel vs. Adam Bomb 54

The next night on Raw

Soundbites aired from I.R.S. and Bam Bam Bigelow previewing the TV main event. Bigelow said he was going to do what every American would like to do - beat up the tax man.

Vince and Jerry Lawler opened the program. Lawler bragged about beating Bret Hart the night before on ppv

Owen Hart & Yokozuna beat Nick Barbery & Bill Weaver. McMahon continued to talk about how unbelievable it was that Lawler beat Bret the night before, never mentioning the circumstances of the loss. McMahon also said Yokozuna is over 600 lbs. Now.

Still photos then aired revealing how Lawler beat Bret only after Hakushi's help... Man Mountain Rock beat Iron Mike Sharpe after playing his guitar before the match.

After a clip aired of the house giveaway phone call from the night before, McMahon said that the winner was 11 years old and in 6th grade and his favorite wrestler is Shawn Michaels. McMahon revealed that Shawn Michaels would return on next week's Raw against King Kong Bundy 

More still shots aired of IYH, including Ramon vs. Jarrett & Roadie and the debut of Savio Vega... McMahon then interviewed Vega about the previous night. After ranting in Spanish for a minute, he talked in English, then went back to raving in Spanish..

Barry the Pitchman then hawked some IYH and Bret Hart t-shirts available via an 800 line.

Bob Holly pinned Mantaur. In the end Holly scored a near fall after a top rope dropkick. He went for a top rope bodyblock right away as a follow-up and scored the pin. He thus advances to the King of the Ring tournament.

Vince interviewed Bob Backlund in mid-ring where he made his "big announcement." He said his announcement would have a "deleterious effect" on the fans. He then recited many important dates in American history. He then began to recite his history. Backlund then began to choke-up and struggle to make his statement. Backlund then announced he is contemplating running for the presidency of the U.S. A marching band then came out dressed in red, white, and blue playing political music with "Backlund for President" signs.

After discussing Bob's announcement, McMahon narrated still shots of the Diesel-Sid match. McMahon stressed that Diesel kicked out of Sid's powerbomb... Jim Ross interviewed Ted DiBiase and I.R.S. regarding the Bigelow match. DiBiase said if Bigelow survives his match against I.R.S., he should team with Diesel against Sid & Tatanka 

Before the main event, Bigelow introduced the man "I'd be proud to team with, Diesel." Diesel chased DiBiase back to the locker room. I.R.S. attacked Bigelow from behind, but Bigelow soon took over offense. Bigelow would eventually win the match by pin. 

A Shawn Michaels video aired to his "I'm A Sexy Boy" song. After the video, King Kong Bundy said Michaels may be returning, but it won't be for long 

Where would you rank IYH 1 out of all of the IYH ppvs?