STW - In Your House 4 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

In Your House 4: Great White North was a pay-per-view event on October 22, 1995 at the Winnipeg Arena in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. 10,339 were in attendance, with about 9,000 reported paid. The gate was $127,976 - the best for an In Your House show to date! The Observer said there was a huge local media push leading up to the event, which had to help. But it didn’t hurt that it was the first PPV event from Canada since Wrestlemania VI (The Ultimate Challenge). It is also the fourth In Your House pay-per-view this year.

Was there ever any concern about giving the same name to multiple pay-per-view events in the same year?

There’s disputed information about how many buys the event itself did. At the time, WWF sources told The Observer it did around a 0.8, or 200,000 buys - a number that would be almost as high as Summerslam (205,000 buys). But sources at Viewers Choice and at WCW both leaked that it did between 0.35 to 0.4. That is barely 100,000 viewers. That number is also in line with what In Your House V did - which we will talk about in an upcoming episode.

“If the WWF figures are accurate, then In Your House was a success (not in the ring, where it's pretty well universally acknowledged including internally as being a very bad show) financially and the In Your House series is comfortably holding its own. Using the other figures, as mentioned last week, the most recent show's performance was an outright disaster.”

Can you tell us what side was closer to the truth on this?

Meltzer’s analysis of the situation was this:

While WCW officials might celebrate WWF bombing on PPV and point to early indications of a good buy rate for Havoc, the most likely reason this would have happened is because of what many in the industry feared would result from the Monday Night wars. The average fan being given so much every week for free isn't going to pay for PPV shows that are often marginal. WCW's lone PPV show before this past weekend drew the lowest buy rate of any show Hogan had ever appeared on, and that show was only two weeks into the head-to-head fighting. Unless this show was a freak occurrence, WCW needs to look at this because it would have to signal what is likely to occur to them as well.

Either way, the WWF In Your House series has to be reevaluated. The idea that lowering price would bring a new audience, or for that matter just sustain the old audience for shortened and less-hyped shows, has now proven to be a fallacy. Not every idea is a winner and maybe it was worth investigating. But each In Your House PPV has seen the audience steadily decrease to record lows. WCW going to monthly shows, all full-priced and pushed as equal events, haven't seen its numbers decrease nearly as far, although WCW's two advantages are it didn't have as much of a distance to fall, and Hulk Hogan's name value means more to the casual audience than everyone else, maybe put together. It appears that at double the price (WCW charged $27.95 for Havoc), that WCW will have far more buys for its most recent show.

If this buy rate is nothing more than a freak occurrence and by December's In Your House, they'll be back into the 0.6 range, it's hard to figure what would have caused it. The show preceded Halloween Havoc, so it would have had whatever minor advantage that was in the October marketplace. It was the August and September shows that should have been hurt by a combination of people getting their bills from July (where WWF, WCW and UFC did shows within nine days) and the Tyson big money fight. The card was weak on paper, but no weaker than the previous show. The company appears to be more lacking in direction, but not to the point most casual fans are going to pick up on it. The only conclusion I can come up with is that what was feared would be the end result of the Monday wars is coming true, combined with WWF fans either figuring out by now that you don't get finishes or big angles on the cut-rate show, or that the guaranteed title change that didn't occur left people with a bad taste in their mouth that carried over. WWF had better hope the latter reason was the prime reason, because people will forget one bad finish in most cases, although we've already seen what happened to the NWA in 1988 when bad finishes become a regularity.

Do you think In Your House 3, with Diesel and Shawn’s win being overturned the next night on Raw, hurt the In Your House series and specifically, this event?

Today’s show is about a really cool event, in more than one way, but before we arrive at Winnipeg - let’s look at some of the news and notes happening on the road to In Your House 4.

We’re one month out from WCW’s first World War 3 pay per view and Meltzer would report there was a lot of concern that the Royal Rumble as a PPV gimmick is going to be hurt by WCW doing a 60 man Battle Royal less than two months earlier. Talk is that WWF is going to acknowledge other groups like SMW, USWA and WAR from Japan and bring in their top stars to create interpromotional like rivalries for that show.

Now, looking back, we know that the three-ring 60-man battle royal was a cluster fuck. But at the time, do you recall there being concern in the office?

It was around this time that an infamous incident involving Shawn Michaels being beaten up pretty bad outside of a Syracuse club would take place. On Friday, October 13, Shawn Michaels (Michael Hickenbottom), Davey Boy Smith (David Smith) and 1-2-3 Kid (Sean Waltman) were at a club at night and on their way out. Different reports have indicated Michaels may have flirted with someone inside that he shouldn’t have. We know he was pretty drunk. In the police report, apparently largely derived from Waltman, the men who instigated the incident were yelling insults at the driver of the car, Donna Jones, and not at Michaels. The police report stated that Michaels was in the front seat, but was intoxicated and had passed out and was actually asleep when he was pulled out of the car and mercilessly pummeled and had no chance to defend himself. The police report stated Michaels suffered a laceration of the right eyelid and right cheek below the eye, two black eyes, swelling and blood coming from the ears and right eye.

Can you tell us the version of the story you’ve heard or believe?

It stated that there were three people in the back seat of the two-door car, Waltman, Smith, and a third person named Robert Jones, with Smith in the middle between the two which, because of his size and being in a two-door car, compounded the time before he was able to get out of the car and save Michaels. The police reported ten assailants, not nine, and said the fight was broken up when Donna Jones, who was apparently the girlfriend of a bouncer at the Club 37 in the Ponderosa Plaza in Syracuse where this was taking place in front of, ran into the club and two bouncers came out and the perpetrators escaped in two white Ford Broncos. One of the Broncos turned around and attempted to run over one of the bouncers. The police report stated nothing about the perpetrators being Marines or servicemen, although the entire group had short crew-cut haircuts similar to Smith.

Was there heat on Davey Boy for not protecting Shawn sooner? Or did people accept his excuse?

On some of the shows, especially taped earlier in the week, it was strongly implied that Michaels would be wrestling. In mid-week, Michaels' neuro-surgeon told him he would advise against him even taking the trip to Winnipeg, and strongly advised against wrestling.

But the next year at the Slammy’s, Bret Hart would make a comment about the “nine cheerleaders” who beat him up in Syracuse and challenged the authenticity of the incident as well.

Was there concern about the legitimacy of Shawn’s injuries considering all of the time’s he had avoided (and would avoid) losing championships?

Meltzer really wasn’t a fan of how the company handled it. Here’s what he said:

Certainly they could have gotten the word on the pre-game show, and probably on Mania for that matter, of the back-up plan should Michaels not be working and giving the true likelihood of that happening. The fact that the 1993 WCW hierarchy and the 1991 WWF hierarchy would have fraudulently hid both the Michaels and Undertaker injuries from the public shouldn't make one compliment an organization that tried to be more honest than the dishonest rules of American pro wrestling, but in the end, resorted to the traditional con game. The situation as far as credibility was doubly bad, because WWF was coming off a PPV show in which it had guaranteed a title change, and then did a screw-job finish and not delivered on a guarantee it attempted to hammer home (remember the statements about a title changing on a DQ or COR the week before the show).

Do you agree with Dave that it could have been handled better?

We will talk about Michaels appearance on the show in a short time. But while on this subject…

It was acknowledged on Nitro as well with one of Gene Okerlund's sleaziest 900 line come-ons to date (which did result in a record amount of business for any Monday in hotline history) saying how a WWF star came out on the short end of a fight with "a fan," which contrasted with the Raw version being Michaels being jumped by "ten thugs unprovoked" with no acknowledgement of Smith and Kid's involvement for obvious reasons. Michaels on Raw said he would be wrestling in Winnipeg and pretty much said that he wouldn't be nearly 100% for the match.

What did the company think about this? This almost HAD to be a factor in the Scheme Gene character during the Billionaire Ted skits, right?

It was actually the second "incident" of the week involving Michaels.

At the 10/5 afternoon charity show in Madison Square Garden, Michaels was allegedly confronted by The Blu Brothers in the dressing room. According to the story, Don Harris put a chair against the dressing room door to keep anyone from coming in and Ron Harris snatched Michaels by the throat and held against the wall or shoved him into the wall and Michaels had a scare thrown into him but wasn't roughed up or hurt to the point he missed any dates. The Blu Brothers final night with the promotion was the St. Johns show on 10/9 so no disciplinary action was taken. There are various reports as to the whys of this incident basically stemming from personal disagreements.

Do you know why this happened? Is Shawn just going off the rails here and pissing everyone off?

Shawn wasn’t the only one who suffered injuries during this time. The WWF had officially received word that The Undertaker (Mark Calloway) had suffered a broken orbital bone (the bone that holds the eye in the eye socket) several days earlier and would be out of action for at least one month, definitely missing the 10/22 PPV show in Winnipeg where his match with King Mabel was considered the semi-main event.

Undertaker suffered a broken orbital bone in a match on 10/7 in Providence, RI against Mabel (Nelson Frazier Jr.). Apparently this occurred when Mabel went to throw a clothesline but Undertaker wasn't close enough to him and his fist cracked Undertaker in the eye. Not realizing the severity of the injury, Undertaker worked his scheduled matches against Isaac Yankem the next three dates before the pain became unbearable and he went and had his face examined. WWF, which now has a policy of being honest with its customers about such matters (something that as a rule has been generally lacking in the American aspect of this business), had already completed its weekend syndicated shows so it wasn't until the Sunday morning Action Zone show where it could have been announced that Undertaker would miss the PPV. This isn't confirmed, but reports we've heard were that Undertaker underwent surgery on his face late in the week. The WWF created a storyline around the incident, claiming the injury was from the beating suffered at the hands of both Mabel and Yokozuna during a six-man tag that had aired on Raw on 10/9, and on the 10/16 Raw announced that Yokozuna would replace Undertaker as Mabel's opponent on the PPV show.

This would, of course, lead to the famous Undertaker with a face mask run. Was there heat on King Mabel for this injury - or others? Kevin Nash told Sean Oliver that Mabel was injuring a lot of people, including him at Summerslam.

WCW also officially informed Leon White (Big Van Vader) on 10/11 that they were firing him. The official reason for the firing was that his 90-day review window had passed and that since he was medically unable to wrestle because of a shoulder injury, they were cancelling the contract on that basis, so officially the incident with Paul Orndorff was never specified probably for legal reasons since Orndorff, according to reports, egged on rather than quelled a messy situation.

This puts White in an interesting position since virtually every major promotion in the world would probably express some interest in him. Word we get are that he will probably take a few months off to get his shoulder fixed and return to the ring in early 1996. As far as with what group, best speculation based on the fact he's a big money player, would be either New Japan, where he got his start as a big-time player and which had plans for him to work a key match at the next Tokyo Dome, or WWF, where he has never appeared and is desperately in need of a new monster heel to challenge for whomever will be champion after the next Wrestlemania.

Pretty accurate stuff from Meltzer, since we would get the debut of Vader at the next Royal Rumble and later that summer, he would feud with WWF Champion Shawn Michaels.

Did the company have any concern about bringing Vader in considering his reputation and big fight on the way out of WCW?

Let’s talk for a second about the Bill Watts run in the company.

At the 9/24 PPV event in Saginaw, MI, McMahon had announced at a team meeting that Watts would be in charge of the creative aspect of the Titan Sports business, saying he was stepping back to act more as a company executive and said that while he would oversee Watts, he wouldn't overrule him. It took only a few weeks before Watts, apparently taking those words seriously, was overruled and feeling he wouldn't have the authority he expected, quit the company after a week filled with rumors about the fraying relationship between the 56-year-old Watts and McMahon.

Rumors started in mid-week that Watts had left the company after a blow-up with McMahon, which were immediately denied within the WWF. Apparently earlier in the week, perhaps on Tuesday since that's the day the company does voice-overs for syndication, there was a blow-up involving Watts and other company employees, not involving McMahon who was busy doing television announcing voiceovers for syndication, over his office not being ready. The rumors quickly spread both in and out of wrestling that Watts was gone, or according to those close to the situation, that Watts had quit but was quickly talked out of it and others saying it was simply a disagreement not involving McMahon in any way. Either way, Watts was still working on Wednesday and Thursday, before officially quitting on Friday after a meeting with McMahon. Among the wrestlers the belief was the quitting was over the two having a disagreement over the future creative end of the company regarding Wrestlemania XII and after that show (the top angle in WWF is already booked up to Wrestlemania). Others, who would probably be more reliable and have a better read on the situation, claim it was simply a matter of power and authority and that booking, who would be on top, or the style of wrestling in the ring, had nothing to do with it. Watts wanted to make major changes within the company in regard to discipline of wrestlers, perhaps similar to when he was in WCW and became such a popular figure with the boys, instituting fines for being late to the buildings, wanting heels and babyfaces kept apart in public, and wanting the wrestlers to get more serious about their house show matches including banning playing cards in the dressing room before the matches because he felt the wrestlers could spend their time better being with their opponent and talking over their match. McMahon apparently felt the system was running fine as it was and that discipline was not a problem among the wrestlers. Watts, who thought he was going to have full authority over this aspect of the business and be the No. 2 person in the company, when he found out he wasn't, resigned immediately on October 13.

During a shoot interview with Sean Oliver, Kevin Nash told a story of how he told Watts that “Up here, I eat you on the food chain,” while putting him in his place backstage.

Any memories on what caused Watts to quit, specifically? Was there an incident, perhaps with Diesel, or a blow up with Vince?

Let’s get to our show!

IN YOUR HOUSE FINAL POLL RESULTS

Thumbs up 18 (05.4%)

Thumbs down 296 (89.4%)

In the middle 17 (05.1%)

A. In the pre-show dark match, Bob Holly (Robert Howard) pinned Rad Radford (Louis Mucciolo) in an average opener.

“Up and coming singing sensation Joni Wilson opens the show. She’s singing the Canadian national anthem. We looked her up and Joni now lives in Henderson, Tennessee where she still sings and also works as a real estate agent.

How did she get this gig?

Vince McMahon, JR, and Jerry Lawler are on commentary! King complains about having to be in Winnipeg, when there are places like Florida and California.. “Vince tells him, It IS the World Wrestling Federation.”

IN YOUR HOUSE SET QUESTION: Why is it at some of these events you wouldn’t have the video screen background behind the set?

Triple H vs. Rikishi is our first match! Only, this is about four years before they adopted those aliases. Helmsley tried to spray Fatu with a perfume bottle at the beginning of the match. Fatu gets in the early offense and delivers a baaaaaaaaack body drop. Throughout the match on commentary, Lawler is shredding Fatu for smelling bad. Among his best jokes:

“You said this Fatu was big and bad but smell isn’t everything.”

“Have you ever been In Your House at Fatu’s House? It’s the only house I’ve been in where the cockroaches have names.”

1. Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Paul Leveque) pinned Fatu (Solofa Fatu) in 8:06 with the Pedigree. Fatu worked much harder than usual and did a good job of carrying Helmsley, who they are clearly protecting and building for the future. Helmsley did his finisher after Fatu missed a splash off the top. **

How did you like this match? How about Helmsley getting the pop for the Pedigree?

Why did the Pedigree hurt Fatu? Is the face the only vulnerable part of a Samoan’s head, kayfabe?

After the match, while Helmsley was being interviewed doing a total Steve Regal knockoff, Henry Godwinn came out with the slop bucket. Helmsley hid behind Lawler, who was doing the interviewing. Godwinn then chased Helmsley away for an angle that basically went nowhere.

A few fan signs are confiscated during the opening segment. There’s an Ultimate Warrior sign that gets taken away from a front row fan by a suit.

There’s also sign that says Ya Fucker Hi Todd we see clearly in view for a second on the hard cam before the director cuts away.

2. Smoking Gunns (Monte Sopp & Mike Plotcheck) beat Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) & 1-2-3 Kid in 12:46 to retain the WWF tag titles. Billy Gunn had a new haircut to make him look like a tall Dean Douglas. Kid did a subtle heel move early pulling down the top rope so Bart took a bump backward over the top. Kid tagged in with a lot of quick kicks. The match was good, but not as good as one would expect given that Kid was involved and the crowd was subdued except when Ramon did the turning the pile around spot leading people to believe Kid was going to get the pin and win the title. The match was also clumsy in spots as Ramon got the hot tag and set up the finish. Ramon did the Razor's edge on Billy and stalled around while Kid begged for the tag so he could win the title. After more stalling, Ramon tagged Kid, who went for a cocky pin, but Billy ended up crucifixing him to the mat for the three count to keep the title. After the match, Kid did what was supposed to be a heel turn as he threw a tantrum, shoving Ramon, who walked out on him, and beating up both Gunns. However, the turn didn't work either live or on tape as the announcers didn't sell it as a turn and the crowd live booed the hell out of the Gunns when they were presented the belts and held them up after the match. The only real indication it was a turn was later in a 900 line segment where Kid was being rude to the caller. **3/4

According to a reader poll in the Observer, this was the best match on the card, which might be an indicator of how bad things are about to get. Did you like the match?

Was this a 1-2-3 Kid heel turn? Or just the beginning of it? (He officiated a match on the Raw before Survivor Series in November between Razor and Sid and helped Sid win with a fast count, presumably making his turn official…)

Smoking Guns Question: Were those gimmick jeans? Where did you get them?

Up next is a little bit of history. It’s the in-ring debut of Goldust!

3. Goldust (Dustin Runnels) pinned Marty Jannetty in 11:15 with a face-first suplex. Goldust was given an elaborate ring entrance with stars from the lights, the lights turned down and glitter. However, once he took off his wig, he looked like a banana with black ears. The two were trying and Jannetty took nice bumps, but they didn't work well together and missed a lot of spots. More importantly, the crowd didn't react to the gimmick. When it was over, it came off as much ado about nothing. *½

Jerry Lawler is on fire on commentary tonight. Vince says Goldust is “androgenius.” And Lawler asks him to repeat that word, which no one knows the meaning of. King says “Well McMahon, you have a point.”

You hear JR start to laugh before he even gets to the punchline.

“If you put a hat on your head, you might cover it up.”

JR loses it.

It’s hard to imagine anyone except the King getting by with that! Did Vince just have that level of friendship or respect for him?

On Raw, when Gorilla Monsoon announced the Mabel vs. Yokozuna match, he said it was the first time ever that these two would wrestle which obviously is not the case as they worked a program between the two of them last year.

4. Yokozuna (Rodney Anoia) went to a double count out with King Mabel (Nelson Frazier) in 5:12. Mabel was said to have weighed a legit 580 for this match, and if that's the case, Yoko must be pushing 700. Horrible match with a horrible finish and a strong candidate for worst match of the year. -**

It was also voted the worst match of the PPV by the readers of the Observer. What did you think?

Are super bouts between big men all about the build and not at all about the actual match?

Next out is Shawn Michaels, who has been on a monster babyface run that began after his face turn following Wrestlemania 11. He won the IC belt from Jeff Jarrett at the second In Your House. But he will lose it tonight without ever wrestling a match.

Michaels appeared totally out of character with noticeable marks around the face, particularly under the eyes and around the upper lip, at the 10/22 Winnipeg PPV show walking slowly to the ring to hand the IC title to Douglas and walking away looking incredibly sad. As weird irony would have it, Michaels appeared in character on a show that aired the next morning, taped before this incident, of the Danny Bonaduce talk show talking about being a "chick magnet."

5. Ramon pinned Dean Douglas (Troy Martin) to win the IC title in 11:01. Before the match, Michaels slowly walked to the ring with the cameras focusing on his battered and sad eyes, slowly gave up the title, and slowly walked back. Those few minutes were a production masterpiece. Both the crowd and match were dead early coming off the downer and the two basically did nothing for the first 8:00. It appeared they were pacing for a 25+ match. Ramon didn't even try and facially made that obvious. The last 2:00 were very good with some nice moves and near falls before a flat finish where Ramon used a back suplex and both fell down. Ramon had his arm draped on Douglas and the ref counted three. The ring announcer did the tease saying the winner and IC champ, Razor Ramon. Douglas' leg was under the ropes to give him his out. Real bad. *

First, what did you think about the match?

There was a lot of second guessing of the booking that went into the decision based on precedent (champions often miss shows due to plane connections, injuries, and whatever and have never been stripped in the past) and that they almost needlessly changed existing plans. Obviously the plan ten days ago before all this happened wasn't for Ramon to be IC champion coming out of this show. Michaels was expected to be back in the ring in plenty of time for the WWF's next major house show, 11/10 at the Nassau Coliseum, so except for one major show and one match on Raw, his injuries wouldn't have required altering any plans.

So, was the thought process to give the fans a babyface championship win to make up for Shawn not being able to wrestle?

Why not vacate the belt and have the winner of the match be the new champion instead of making Douglas the champion, then making him lose it instantly?

Do you think this hurt Shane Douglas?

It’s main event time. Bulldog has recently turned heel during a tag match on Raw by attacking his partner, Diesel. Bulldog then cut off his dreadlocks and went with a crew cut.

Why did Bulldog go with short hair? Was that a decision from the office?

6. Diesel (Kevin Nash) retained the WWF title beating Davey Boy Smith in 18:14. Virtually the entire match was Smith working on Diesel's left knee. Diesel sold the knee well so it was a logical match and would have been a good match if the crowd was educated to submissions, which they aren't, if they had done five good minutes at the end, which they didn't, and it had a strong finish, which it had anything but. So it came off as a boring match. Early in the match, Diesel took a bump outside the ring and crashed into Bret Hart, who was doing commentary, and shoved Hart hard. During the match Smith used a sharpshooter but Diesel powered out, to tell the story he may be able to survive Hart's finisher. Later in the match, Diesel made his comeback starting by pushing Smith off as he went for the powerslam and kicked him in the face. Jim Cornette, who interfered more than any heel manager in a WWF title match in years, wound up crashing in Smith's way and got hit with a forearm. Smith ended up posting Diesel outside the ring and slapped Hart at ringside. Hart jumped into the ring and went wild on Smith for a DQ on Diesel for outside interference. Diesel then attacked Hart for costing him the match to build-up their singles match on the 11/19 PPV show and they went off the air with the pull-apart brawl. *

Did you agree that this was a one-star match?

That’s the end of the PPV. Give us your thoughts on the show overall.

There’s an interesting story in the Observer about the end of the show:

Just as the cameras faded to black signifying the end of the In Your House PPV show on 10/22 in Winnipeg, a disgusted Vince McMahon threw down his glasses and his headset and said the words, "horrible" as he started to walk to the back with Jim Ross while a pull-apart brawl with Bret Hart and Diesel was still going on in the ring. Seconds later, as the brawl ended, Diesel, the person McMahon had planned to build his company around one year earlier, was being booed out of the building, yet another in the long line of failed experiments in his quest to find a new Hulk Hogan. The virtually unanimous crowd reaction to Diesel after yet another unimpressive main event match seems to make it only logical that Bret Hart is destined to have a career similar to the man who his being compared with results in outbursts--Ric Flair. Like Flair, Hart is the man picked to pick up the pieces time-after-time when experiments of creating new world champions that will be the next big thing in wrestling end up with declining box office figures.

Did this seal the deal on Diesel’s WWF title run?

For McMahon, the crowd reaction was the crowning jewel of a two week period that he'd most likely love to take back. It was a two-week period that saw injuries to two of his key performers, the quitting of his top assistant, his babyface singles and tag champions being heavily booed after post-matches that weren't designed to elicit such responses, poor house show business at every stop, the debut of a character being groomed for the top echelon falling flat, and among the worst matches and worst overall PPV shows in company history.

Although the poll would indicate otherwise, as this was the worst poll reaction to a WWF show in history, I'd say it was very bad but not overtly offensive or horrible. Based on the reaction and not just the percentage, but the vehemence of the negative complaints after the show, it was one of the worst reactions to any show in a long time.

Was the period leading up to this a bad one for the WWF?

The PPV may have ended but the show was still underway for those in attendance. Here’s what the crowd got to see:

B. In a surprise, Godwinn (Mark Canterberry) pinned Sid (Sid Eudy) in a quick but terrible match.

C. Lawler did a 5:00 monologue insulting Winnipeg and in particular the Winnipeg Blue Bombers football team which got far more heat than anything else on the show. Lawler and Skip (who was scheduled to face Hakushi in a dark match that never took place) were in Isaac Yankem (Glen Jacobs)'s corner, while Hart had Brett McNeill and Miles Gorrel of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers CFL team in his corner. Naturally the heat built around the guys on the outside who ended up tussling around. Hart won with the sharpshooter in the hottest match on the card.

D. Owen Hart & Yokozuna beat Savio Vega (Juan Rivera) & Bam Bam Bigelow (Scott Bigelow) in the final when Yokozuna pinned Vega after squashing him.

BEST MATCH POLL

• Smoking Gunns vs. Kid & Ramon 197
• Razor Ramon vs. Dean Douglas 21
• *Bret Hart vs. Isaac Yankem 14

WORST MATCH POLL

• King Mabel vs. Yokozuna 211
• Goldust vs. Marty Janetty 20
• Diesel vs. Davey Boy Smith 9

QUESTIONS

Matthew Dawkins has a question about someone we don’t talk much about here….

Someone who was released by the WWF shortly ahead of this PPV was interviewer Stephanie Wiand. What can Bruce tell us about this late '94, early '95 member of the crew? Any fun stories? #AskBruce

Joe asks…

#AskBruce what happened to the person that won the house?

Taylor has a good question…

#AskBruce I know you probably won't know, but why was this event and IYH 5 combined on one Coliseum Home Video?

Dave asks...

Jim Cornette has stated he went up to Vince after the main event and apologized for how bad the match was....can Bruce describe how that sounded?  #AskBruce

Stuart asks…

How good was Savio Vega? #AskBruce

Ray asks…

#AskBruce Was Shane Douglas just hoping to get the hell out WWF after this event?

Instagram: A Wrestling Historian asks…

What was the point of putting the Intercontinental Championship on Shane Douglas just to have him lose it minutes later? #AskBruce

Adam wants to know…

Why does Bruce think Davey Boy was so over in the U.K. but never achieved that level of success in America? #askbruce

Troy asks…

Were there any considerations of putting the IC belt on anyone other than Razor? He seemed to be a solid choice, but he'd already had a match that night, so was there anyone else discussed? Was there any chance Douglas kept it longer than one night?

Jason asks…

Why no @BretHart on a PPV in Canada? #askbruce

Bros, Bumps n Beers asks…

How did Bruce sleep at night after putting on such a disgraceful PPV in such an amazing wrestling town like Winnipeg? @PrichardShow

Mark in Dryden has a question similar to Jerry Lawler’s at the open of the show…

How or why was Winnipeg chosen for the PPV? WWE has only done a few TV's there. Insight, please? #AskBruce

FoxPumpkin asks…

Did the contents of Henry Godwinn's slop bucket stink?  I saw it got on the ring apron and was wondering if the talent were smelling it all night #askbruce

Jaden asks…

What was Vince's first impressions after the debut match of Goldust? Also, why was Marty Jannetty the right guy to do the job for Goldust in his first outing? #STW #AskBruce

Chris asks…

#AskBruce we’re there any other names for the monthly PPV’s thrown around before settling for In Your House?

Stevehateswrestling asks…

#askbruce as proven with Mabel v yoko here, big men do not mix well, but nevertheless what would you say is the greatest big man v big man match?  I can only think of taker v Vader at Canadian stampede, what say you?

Cujo asks….

#AskBruce Was the "foot under the rope" finish to the Razor-Dean match a botch?

Dick Byrne has an interesting question…

Mabel/Yoko was clearly a battle of the behemoths.

Of all the giants and “big men” who Bruce has encountered over the years who was the most legitimately awe-inspiring?

Andre is an obvious one but I always thought Giant Gonzalez looked 50ft tall.

CristobalTheUninspired has a good question…

#STW #AskBruce Has there ever been a weight limit on the rings WWE throughout any of matches through its history? Reinforced beams when there are superheavyweights like Yokozuna and Mabel. Or for the Royal Rumble/Battle Royales?

Derek Fer Real has a...question….

Hey Bruce, who had the worse smelling ass: Yokozuna or Mabel? #AskBruce

Luke asks…

What was Vince's reaction to the show as soon as Bruce saw him backstage afterwards?

Anthony asks...Had Shawn Michaels been cleared to wrestle, was the plan for him to beat Dean Douglas? Also, when was the plan put in motion to use the after effects of the Syracuse attack to build him up towards winning the Royal Rumble 3 months later? #AskBruce

Lindsey asks…

#AskBruce What’s the rumor and innuendo on Shawn basically giving the belt up only to have one of the Kliq win it minutes later?  Was there a plan to keep it in the group?

James Miranda asks…

Does Bruce feel like Shane Douglas could have been a Main Eventer

Steven asks…

Never got why the belt went back to Razor who was in the middle of a feud with Kid. At the next in your house Ramon teamed with Jannetty and never defended the belt. Seems like a Clique decision  with a lack of foresight to me.

Jeremy asks…

When Cornette goes and buys his colorful suits at the colorful suit store, what may that sound like? #AskBruce

Rajiv asks…

How would you explain the character of Fatu for someone that may not have seen him before? #AskBruce

Completely unrelated question - but still…

Chris asks…

#askbruce How did Paul Bosch come up with using NutRocker by B. Bumble and The Stingers for the theme for Houston Wrestling? Has to be a interesting story in it.