A couple of
months prior to In Your House: Beware of Dog,
Shawn Michaels beat Bret Hart in a classic Iron Man match at Wrestlemania XII
to become World Champion. At this point, fellow Hart family member British
Bulldog set his sights on Michaels and his title. The storyline goes that
Michaels was supposedly trying to sleep with British Bulldog’s wife Diana. Then
Jim Cornette got involved and there were all kinds of allegations made against
Michaels. They were going for the look of trashy TV shows like Jerry Springer.
It tried to blur the line between reality and fiction but Diana’s terrible
acting killed it. She looked like a deer in headlights the whole time, not
knowing what to do. There have been worse reasons for matches to happen so it
wasn’t a terrible idea, it just wasn’t executed to perfection.
“Wildman” Marc Mero with Sable vs
Hunter Hearst Helmsley
Before there was Triple H, we had
Hunter Hearst Helmsley. The rich snob character has been used a million times
in wrestling and Hunter did a decent job with it but you could tell he was
better than the character he was given. Marc Mero on the other hand was not
very captivating. No one ever cared about him, there was always much more
interest in his wife Sable. The arena was quiet for this match, not much
interest at all. Mero took a couple of violent throws in the ring post, it
looked like his shoulder was about to pop out. Some decent action but nothing
memorable.
Winner: Marc
Mero
WWE World Championship: Shawn
Michaels (c) with Jose Lothario vs British Bulldog with Diana Smith, Owen Hart
and Clarence Mason
Hold on, why is the world
championship match on second? It turns out that there was a thunderstorm that
night that knocked out the power and cut off the Pay Per View feed. There were
several matches that went on in the dark until the power came back on just
before the main event, which was this match. The match was actually much better
than I expected. Everyone knew Shawn Michaels was a great wrestler and I expected
British Bulldog to be fairly slow given his size. That was not the case as he
and Michaels had great chemistry and the match flowed very well. Great action
and moves from both men. There was one moment during a rest hold where Michaels
looked like he was legitimately upset and swearing about something but I couldn’t
tell what it was. The match ended with a double pin, which was just a setup for
a later match.
Winner:
Draw, Shawn Michaels retains the WWE World Championship
Caribbean Strap Match: Stone Cold
Steve Austin with Ted DiBiase vs Savio Vega
Since those who paid for the Pay Per
View only got to see 2 matches, a couple of nights later the WWE redid the
matches that went on in the dark and broadcasted it live on TV for free. The
strap match was a gimmick match that does not work for me. I loved the violence
but the way to win, where one wrestler has to touch the four turnbuckles in
succession, was lame. Despite that, the match went well. Austin and Vega beat
the hell out of each other with those straps through lots of whipping and
choking out. There was a stipulation in the match that if Austin lost, Ted
DiBiase would have to leave the WWE. It was a good idea to split them up.
Austin ended up becoming a mega star later on and he was able to better define
what the Stone Cold character was.
Winner:
Savio Vega
There was a
segment after the match that showed Shawn Michaels on America Online chatting
with his friends like it was a big deal. Oh 1996, how you were so innocent when
it came to the Internet.
Vader with Jim Cornette vs Yokozuna
It’s bizarre seeing Yokozuna as a
fan favorite. He suited the evil foreigner character better but I guess at this
point there wasn’t much else they could do with the 600 lb wrestler. This match
was extremely slow. It took several minutes before they even started fighting.
Vader just never seemed like a credible villain. His mask looked ridiculous, I
don’t understand how he got a world title match at SummerSlam later that year.
Luckily this match didn’t last too long.
Winner:
Vader
Intercontinental Championship Casket
Match: The Undertaker with Paul Bearer vs Goldust (c) with Marlena
Goldust was a very unique character
in WWE at this time. Playing on people’s homophobia, he would rub up on
wrestlers inappropriately to make people uncomfortable. The fact that he got
this casket match against the Undertaker is a big deal. The casket match itself
was nothing special. The interactions between the 2 were awkward, their timing
was not quite right and the casket they used was flimsy. Near the end the lid was
ripped off its hinges and the referees were trying to hold it together. For the
finish, Mankind popped out of the casket, made Undertaker pass out with the
Mandible Claw then threw him into the casket to give Goldust the win. But then,
smoke started coming out of the casket and when the officials opened it again,
the Undertaker has disappeared, oooohhh.
Winner :
Goldust, retains Intercontinental Championship
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