STW - In Your House: Buried Alive 1996 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Bruce today we’re continuing our trek back to 25 years ago...yes that’s right 25 years ago...to In Your House: Buried Alive.

We covered Mind Games last month and that’s where we’re going to start off this week! And we’re going to begin with the night after. From the Observer:

“It was the biggest and most important Monday night battle to date.

The WWF, losing the Monday night head-to-head rating battles by record margins the previous two weeks, was set to peak. It was its much ballyhooed beginning of the new fall season. It was the climax of the Razor Ramon/Diesel angle that now has to rank as the biggest flop since the Edsel. And it was the day after a fake shoot angle working with ECW. They had the finals of the Intercontinental tournament (Marc Mero beating Faarooq), pulled from the PPV show in order to help the rating. Not to mention the traditional bump one normally gets coming the day after a PPV and the fact they were going live. The latter is the most overrated criteria of all as in the days when there was no Nitro, it was generally the final week of the tapings or the oldest matches that which had the most time for the results to circulate that drew the best Raw ratings in any cycle, eventually the Internet will change that and that does have to be taken into account for future planning of the business, but the percentage of wrestling fans with Internet and newsletters combined today is probably less than two percent, hardly enough to make an iota of difference in a national rating.

WCW was hardly sitting still. With most of its talent in Japan since the original plan was to do a taped show this week, they practically promised that the NWO would take over the show, which they did, to the point they took out an ad in USA Today practically giving the angle away.

The results. Monday Nitro did a 3.4 rating and 5.2 share (3.3 first hour, 3.5 second hour). Monday Night Raw did a 2.0 rating and 2.9 share. The Nitro replay did a 1.4 rating and a 3.2 share.

For the past several weeks, ever since the introduction of this Ramon/Diesel angle, the WWF television has reeked of desperation. The TV is put together constantly begging the viewers in every commercial break not to tune away and leading the viewers along with teases the rest of the show that end with all the sincerity of a 900 line pitch. It's failed, miserably, in fact, despite it being for the most part the talk of the inside of the wrestling industry. The decision making processes, the constant striving for attention and attempts to be the thing talked out on Tuesday on the hotlines and internet, the one audience WWF is successful in being talked about on, is killing its adult audience, and that's the audience it needs to win on Mondays.

Jim Ross ended up as the scapegoat for the Razor/Diesel angle, something that had been clear from the bad reaction to the angle from the second week. After a brief glimpse the night before on the PPV where Rick Bogner and Glen Jacobs, dressed as Razor Ramon and Diesel, attacked Savio Vega, the television show was built around teasing their appearance later in the show. It made the WWF come across that much more foolish since Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were shown early on during Nitro, also live, and well before WWF unveiled its new men, they had "taken over" Nitro and were making a joke about accepting no imitations. WCW had its own inside joke during that show, introducing Michael Jones, formerly Virgil in the WWF (a name given as a knock on Dusty Rhodes, who was the NWA booker at the time the character was introduced), as the new Chief of Security for the NWO and named him Vince. Finally Ross came into the ring to "deliver the goods."

Instead it was a tremendous one-man performance. Yet another worked shoot angle. Ross turned on the WWF, saying that he left a good job in Atlanta, was also an announcer for the Atlanta Falcons and brought in to be the lead play-by-play man in the WWF. He said his first appearance was at Wrestlemania IX where they had him dress in a toga, and said he left broadcasting the NFL to wear a toga. He said that if you check his call of the King of the Ring that year that it was a level above what anyone else in wrestling is capable of, and said that everyone in the audience knows he's the best play-by-play announcer in the business, which actually got a big babyface pop. He then said he was taken off television because the egotistical owner of the WWF, Vince McMahon, couldn't stand the competition. He got some cheers at that point but more boos. He talked about getting Bells Palsy and then being fired two weeks later and said how he had to tell his new wife and two little girls that their dad had been fired. He said he had to live in Connecticut, which he called an overpriced hellhole. He said when McMahon got indicted, that they brought him back and then let him go again. Finally he was brought back in a front office position for 50 cents on the dollar and basically said that the wrestlers who left and wrestlers who came in were no coincidence, basically implying that the guys who left were the result of him sabotaging the company to try and take the heat off the company itself, similar to his role in the Ramon/Diesel angle. He then introduced Ramon with the original entrance music, which got a big pop, and then when it became apparent it was someone else, the crowd deflated. Almost immediately, Vega attacked him and the show went off the air without introducing Diesel, as if attempting to hold back on what was promised one more week for ratings purposes.”

Whole lot to unpack there Bruce. This was a big Raw as Meltzer states but you do get killed in the ratings. Was this an internal disappointment when the rating comes in?

What do you say about Dave’s line about desperate creative?

The execution of Jim Ross in this angle is tremendous but the rest of it...why didn’t this work?

Were there talks of having Ross lead a stable because of his heel work of disgruntled wrestlers or was this just limited to Razor and Diesel?

Did Vince McMahon even know they debuted Virgil as Vince?

As mentioned previously Marc Mero defeats Faarooq to become Intercontinental Champion. It was assumed the title tournament would crown Faarooq as intercontinental champion for the return of Ahmed Johnson but as we covered in the Faarooq episode recently that wasn’t to be. Do you think Mero was ready for this spot?

From the Observer: “Apparently Sable accidentally stiffed Sunny in the eye during their slap fight. Sunny was originally supposed to beat up Sable but Mero wouldn't go for it which caused a lot of backstage heat between Mero and Sunny.”

Is this the beginning of the long standing heat between Sable & Sunny? Was Mero difficult to deal with when it came to Sable?

Also during this Raw Taz jumps the guardrail before a commercial break with Bill Alfonso and “invades” Raw with a sign that says “Sabu Fears Taz.” We’ve covered this in the archives but these are moments that are remembered so even though the ratings didn’t reflect it there’s more memorable moments from the WWF shows then Virgil debuting as Vincent … shows maybe the WWF creative was stronger at this point than WCW wouldn’t you say?

Taz jumps the rail during the Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith vs Bodydonnas match which would be the last time we see the Bodydonnas. Was Tom sad to see the gimmick go?

The Real Double J is introduced...and it’s Jesse James and you guys expose Jeff Jarrett as a fraud since he’s about to debut in WCW. It’s reported in the Observer that James was signed to a 5-year deal. Was this important to lock down talent for a long time at this point in time?

That Raw draws 3,923 paying $63,010 for the tapings which we’ll run through shortly. At that time is that a decent house for Raw?

Neville Meyer and Linda McMahon are named co-CEOs in an organizational depth chart change. Meyer’s first act is cutting some front office members, Ausbert de Acre, Lee Barstow, Chris Bert, Ed DeLong, and Bob Mitchell. The assumption is that he wants to bring in his own people right? Also with JJ Dillon leaving this was what was written in the Observer regarding the firings and the change with JJ gone: “All those positions are expected to be filled shortly, while the J.J. Dillon position isn't going to be filled. Dillon's duties will be divided up with Linda McMahon handling contract negotiations with talent, Jerry Brisco and Jim Ross working as office liaisons with the talent, Ross handling personal appearances and Bruce Prichard handling the rest of talent coordination.”

How much did you workload change with JJ gone and these added?

The redone Livewire debuts to a 1.1 rating hosted by Jim Cornette and Sunny and was quite interesting right Bruce from Connecticut?

The push for the Buried Alive match begins between Taker and Mankind. Who’s idea is the Buried Alive gimmick and how much practice goes into making sure it’s exactly what you want it to be?

A tombstone is shown with Taker vs. Mankind and the date and name of show in the Raw entrance way in the coming weeks. This isn’t something that’s cheap is it Bruce? Who comes up with the idea as a promotional tool and do you know where that tombstone is now?

In an interesting note...this will be the first time ever … and I mean ever … that the WWF World Champion will not be wrestling on a pay-per-view. From the Observer: “The thinking behind Michaels not wrestling on the show is that he's been in the main event on every PPV show since Wrestlemania and they figured it's time to try a show with someone else on top. Michaels will almost surely be on the show in some fashion, but it won't be in a match.”

Is that what the office consensus is at this time?

Business is in a bit of trouble. From the Observer: “A combination of the loss of television syndication in the New York market and a weak line-up wound up with the lowest paid attendance for a pro wrestling show in Madison Square Garden in more than 40 years and perhaps ever. According to WWF figures on the 9/29 show, 6,747 fans paid $146,437.”

This is a drastic drop from the last MSG show in August headlined by Shawn vs. Goldust which draws 11,314 paying $239,594. This show is headlined by Shawn & Taker against Mankind & Goldust. When you run a house show like this at MSG, first off the assumption is it is a money loser for the cost of running the arena. Second off, how big a loss was the syndication in New York in your mind to drawing that type of number or is it the old adage of … we just didn’t have a card that people wanted to see?

The story always was and is that Vince uses MSG as a barometer of the business in terms of what’s working and what’s not. Detroit and Pittsburgh outdraw MSG in the same week but let’s talk about what’s on the MSG show underneath Shawn & Taker and Mankind & Goldust. Vader vs. Sid, Marc Mero vs. Faarooq, Owen & Davey vs the Grimm Twins, Godwinns & Smoking Gunns in a four-way, Steve Austin vs. Savio Vega, Barry Windham vs. The Goon, Jake Roberts vs. TL Hopper, Justin Bradshaw vs. Alex Porteau, Salvatore Sincere vs. Bob Holly. Not exactly the top tier lineup the Garden is really used to wouldn’t you say?

The next day on Raw Steve Austin pins Jake Roberts after Jerry Lawler interferes and spits “alcohol” in Jake Roberts’ face. We couldn’t give Austin a clean win over Jake since we’re about to be building Austin up against Bret Hart could we?

Savio Vega saves Jake from a beat down from both Austin & Lawler and it’s announced Austin will be taking on Vega again at Buried Alive. Didn’t we see this enough already?

The Godwinns squash the Grimm Twins and it’s announced that Owen & Davey will be defending their tag titles against the Smoking Gunns at Buried Alive. Two things here Bruce. Tell me about the Grimm Twins, Jason & Jared, also known as the Harris Brothers Don & Ron and why they never worked out in the WWF.

Also two heel teams is sort of a recipe for disaster for a crowd isn’t it?

Mr. Perfect and Hunter Hearst Helmsley are continuing their feud and it’s announced by Perfect that he will accept Helmsley’s challenge and he’ll be ready in a few weeks. How hands on is Curt with his creative here?

Savio Vega beats Razor #2 after Diesel interferes causing a DQ. Gorilla Monsoon and Jim Ross get into it during the match and it’s great back and forth between the both. Was this something that you think both of them enjoyed?

Vader & Cornette beat Shawn & Jose Lothario when Vader pins Shawn. Was the plan at this point for Vader to defeat Sid at Buried Alive in the #1 contender's match and that got changed later because having Vader pin Shawn here and then not get the title match for Survivor Series doesn’t make that much sense?

There’s talk of Dan Kroffat (Phil LaFon) & Doug Furnas coming in to be opponents for Owen & Davey Boy. Was that something Owen & Davey Boy fought for with their connection to Canada and Stampede or something somebody else recommended?

Terry Gordy is brought in as a tryout against Savio Vega and is good enough that the Executioner role is going to be brought to life. What was it about Gordy that made him a good fit here and what did you think of him as a wrestler at this time?

Jim Neidhart … also known as Who?.... Leaves around this time. What just didn’t work with the big Rhino?

On Raw on 10/7 there’s an interesting line that Jesse Jammes says regarding Jarrett … is that when he (Jeff) comes back he can carry his bags. Was there legit heat between the two or is someone feeding him that line?

Bret Hart’s contract is a focus at the time of Vince McMahon’s and it’s reported in the Observer that WCW made a last minute play at him. Eric Bischoff has denied this up and down but Bret even confirmed it in his book. What do you remember of all this and how much of this is taking up Vince’s time?

Here’s an interesting note from the Observer: “The Cauliflower Alley Club ran a banquet run in Newark, NJ on 10/5 which was the first one of these events attended by Vince McMahon and family so it was heavily-WWF oriented. There's an irony in that because for years WWF and CAC had nothing to do with one another. In fact, in 1991, CAC ran its banquet in Los Angeles which by coincidence was the day before Wrestlemania at the Sports Arena, and there wasn't one WWF person at the banquet and those who wanted to go were discouraged or swerved from doing so. But times change. McMahon was there to accept an award for his late father, while also awarded into the CAC Hall of Fame were Tony Cosenzo, Dom DeNucci, Afa the Samoan, Jimmy Snuka, Killer Kowalski, Curt Hennig and Sunny. Also among those in attendance were Arnold Skaaland, Chris Candito, Tom and Bruce Prichard, Pat Patterson, Shane McMahon, Lou Thesz, former promoter Abe Coleman, Fred Blassie, Davy O'Hannon, Tommy Cairo, Ted Lewin, Lou Albano, Red Bastien, Karl Von Hess, Billy Darnell, Ray Stern, Dennis Coraluzzo, Jim Kettner, Ace Darling, Kodiak Bear, Gino Caruso, Tom Brandi, Duane Johnson and bodybuilder/soon-to-be-wrestler Achim Albrecht among others who blew everyone away with the size of his shoulders. Reports were it was largely uneventful other than the McMahon appearance, although there were lots of complaints regarding Albano's behavior, some even saying that Albano ruined the entire evening. The Conan O'Brien show was there trying to make fun of the festivities asking the wrestlers questions about politics.”

This isn’t a very Vince thing to do but to honor his father I get it. What was it like and what do you remember about Albano’s behavior here?

You guys start getting aggressive with advertising on Monday Nitro. From the Observer: “WWF bought two commercials in most of the country, the first airing at 8:56 p.m. telling viewers to "Make the switch to Raw" and also for the PPV, and a second commercial at about 9:45 p.m. trying to get them to switch in the final quarter hour. The Buried Alive PPV commercials were awesome.”

How important is it to market yourselves differently and with Nitro gaining viewership share were you thinking there were eyes on their product that weren’t on yours?

On Livewire we see the debut of the ultra heel Vic Venum and the continuation of the Jim Ross - Vince McMahon storyline. What did you think of Russo as Vic Venum and how much did Jim Cornette enjoy sharing the screen with him on Livewire?

Here’s one of my favorite things from any Observer ever: “Paul Heyman called up, as "Bruce from Connecticut" (and Sunny reacted as if it was her brother-in-law which I guess, if Zip and Skip are brothers, that if you mix wrestling storyline with reality which many are prone to do, he is), as if in that entire state there is only one person named Bruce, and yelled at McMahon saying he was copying all his ideas from him and screamed "Shut the f up" (so he didn't swear on television) as the cue to be cut off.”

I just...I just...did you know Paul was going to call as Bruce from Connecticut?

The concept of Livewire. A fan of it or no?

On October 5th a special show is run in Calgary where many of the talent, including Shawn Michaels, donated their pay in disease research for Matthew Hart who died from a flesh eating disease. Also on the show is Teddy Hart, 16 at the time, Harry Smith, 10, TJ Wilson, 16 and Andrew Pakarnyk in a tag match. Bruce...I know most of them are Harts but what the hell is the company thinking allowing this?

You film the Boy Meets World scenes on October 13th at a house show in Anaheim with Vader and Jake Roberts and also Barry Windham and Justin Bradshaw. Talk us through how the deal all comes together and what it was like filming the show?

On the go-home Raw for the pay-per-view Jake Roberts beats Jerry Lawler in 39 seconds. Jake comes out acting drunk but it’s all a ruse you see and he DDTs Lawler for the win. Is this the blowoff for Jake & Lawler?

Freddie Joe Floyd … Tracy Smothers … gets a win over Triple H! It’s by countout after Mr. Perfect comes out and takes away Hunter’s female valet again but still. A win’s a win! Surprised Hunter never tried to hire him back to get his win back.

Faarooq beat Alex Porteau and JR has another great shot at Vince McMahon on commentary about how Faarooq’s helmet is embarrassing and “is Vince McMahon truly a marketing genius?” How much fun did Jim & Vince have at this aspect of their angle?

Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin main event Raw which ends in a DQ when Vader attacks Michaels but man what a tip to the future between these two. They just seemed to have it in the ring together, am I right?

Here we are now Bruce. Indianapolis, Indiana. 9,649 in the building, 8,238 paid for a gate of $135,605. There are some last minute changes to the card due to injuries. Savio Vega gets hurt in Puerto Rico and Faarooq has a hamstring pull. Savio is just announced as being hurt but Faarooq is shown being attacked by Ahmed Johnson to explain his absence.

“1. Steve Austin pinned Hunter Hearst Helmsley in 15:30. Austin got the face reaction from the crowd. Austin seems to be getting over as a face as the swearing flipping off character. During the match, the fans were chanting for Perfect because Perfect had confrontations with both although mainly with Helmsley. Perfect came to ringside to take away the model to a big pop. As Helmsley went after Perfect, Austin jumped Helmsley from behind. Helmsley set up for the Pedigree, but dropped it seeing Perfect leave with the model and chased him to the back where they were separated by officials. Austin then came to the aisle and jumped Helmsley. Helmsley ended up suplexing Austin on the floor, but Austin came back by monkey flipping Helmsley into the post. Back in the ring, Austin did a spot where he appeared to crotch himself, then got up unhurt and flipped off the fans and Helmsley and hit the stone cold stunner for the win. ***¼”

First thing of note but this is the first time Steve Austin used the glass breaking music. You can see Austin is starting to get over as the rebel babyface. Was this something you all expected? Austin vs. HHH in 1996 is a whole lot different than Austin vs. HHH in 1999 isn’t it? If Perfect doesn’t leave and go to WCW can you picture Austin vs. Mr. Perfect because that would’ve been some money!

“2. Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith retained the WWF tag titles beating Smoking Gunns in 9:17. They were doing a storyline of Billy still having the hots for Sunny and wanting to get Sunny back while Bart didn't care. Bart's pretty much the face while Billy is still a heel. Once again these two teams who on paper should have very good matches had another average match. Finish saw the Gunns have the sidewinder slam on Hart set up, but Billy took forever to get to the top rope. As he came off the top, Smith was behind Bart and pulled him out of the way so Billy legdropped canvas. Owen then pinned Billy after a spinning heel kick. **”

We’re building to the Smoking Gunns turn here but Bruce this is two matches in a row where it’s heel vs. heel. Is it just a lack of babyfaces on the roster that this is just so glaring?

What about the Gunns and Owen & Davey that didn’t click?

“The Jim Ross-Vince McMahon storyline continued in the first two matches. Ross came out to a big pop as the PPV show began joining McMahon and Jerry Lawler at the announcing table. However, they did a gimmick where Ross' headset and mic continued to malfunction. Ross continued to blame it on a practical joke by McMahon, while McMahon claimed that Ross was the technical advisor on the show. The two did their storyline with McMahon coming off strongly as the face and Ross playing a stronger heel role than in the past, trying to get his character more into the old fuddy duddy Oklahoma hick role as they made fun of his references to Will Rogers and being taken to the woodshed, and Ross complained about Sunny not wearing enough clothes. After the second match, Ross stormed off complaining about the headset and mic, got in the ring and did an interview taking credit for bringing Bret Hart back, and left. He was seen twice more during the show, once talking to Mr. Perfect, who acted as if he and Ross were friends as he appeared to be reverting to a heel role in some ways during the Marc Mero vs. Goldust match that he ended up getting involved in. The other time he basically took over a Dok Hendrix interview with Sid and tried to do what appeared to be a Howard Cosell gimmick making fun of the softball questions Hendrix was going to ask Sid.”

Who came up with the idea of Jim Ross being fucked with? Because it’s great. How much did Vince enjoy this?

“3. Marc Mero pinned Goldust to retain the IC title in 11:38. Mero did a lot of good moves in this match, but the two didn't work together as well as you'd think. Goldust looked worse than usual. Mero did a Liger dive flip plancha and injured his left knee legit on the landing. At 8:00, Goldust got on the house mic and threatened to slip tongue to everyone in the audience. Mero did a move where he was on the top rope facing the ring, then jumped out and reversed positions like a gymnast on the balanced beam, and did a moonsault block. The ref was out of it and Perfect left the broadcast position to apparently ref. Helmsley then came out. Goldust went to attack Perfect from behind but Perfect decked him. The officials then separated Helmsley and Perfect and in the ring, Mero used a blockbuster suplex (Samoan drop) and shooting star press (Wild thing) for the pin. **¾”

This did nothing for me and honestly it wasn’t a bad match just I didn’t care if that makes sense. The Goldust mic work just didn’t make any sense. What was missing?

“4. Sid pinned Vader in 8:00 to earn the shot at the WWF title at Survivor Series. Shawn Michaels came out to do commentary. Before the match he blew his nose in Jim Cornette's handkerchief in the ring. Sid was awful, although the match was probably better than you'd expect given the participants. At one point Sid even did a crossbody off the top and Vader caught him and slammed him. Vader twice had Sid pinned but picked him up at two. As he went for his Vader bomb finisher, Sid got his knees up. Sid went for the power bomb but Cornette distracted him the first time, resulting in Sid raising the ropes as Cornette was about to come in and getting crotched. Second time Vader gave Sid a low blow. Vader went for the power bomb but Sid blocked it, and eventually got the pin with a choke slam. Michaels got in the ring and shook Sid's hand to lead to their title match. Michaels was having trouble carrying on a conversation while he was doing the commentary, but even he made more sense than the incoherent interview with Sid that followed. 3/4*”

What was up with Shawn here? I mean he wasn’t as bad as Sid’s promo after which Dave mentioned but too much time to kill in the back before he made it on the air? Sid and Vader just...not a styles clash but woof.

“5. Undertaker beat Mankind in 18:25 in the buried alive match. They had built a dirt mound cemetery behind the ringside seats on the arena floor. Although the ending was goofy, the match itself was a really good effort by both. Mankind took lots of crazy bumps into the guard rail, over the guard rail, onto the floor and on the steps. Undertaker actually did a great plancha and must be the biggest guy ever to try such a stunt. This was worked similarly to a lot of recent ECW main events with crazy bumps and brawling, but the work itself wasn't as sloppy. Undertaker took a hard chair shot to the face from Mankind after no-selling an urn shot by Paul Bearer. Undertaker threw him on the ring steps a few times and finally hit the tombstone. Undertaker carried him to the cemetery but Mankind recovered and got the Mandible claw on. Undertaker got out and choke slammed Mankind into the grave for the victory and started burying him with dirt. As the ref tried to stop Undertaker from throwing dirt on him, he twice threw the ref off the cemetery. Finally Terry Gordy showed up under a mask with a shovel and hit Undertaker with the shovel, pulled Mankind out of the grave and put Undertaker in the grave. Several heels began burying Undertaker until the thunder and lightning in the arena and the "Carrie" finish. ***¾”

The Carrie finish as Meltzer refers to it is the Undertaker’s hand coming out. What a match though but the finish with all the heels burying Undertaker is soooooo long. Was this what you pictured when coming up with the concept?

The show was well received by the Wrestling Observer readers. 63.8% thumbs up, 22.1% thumbs down and 14.1% thumbs in the middle. What say you Bruce?

What’s your favorite memory from this show?