Wwf iyh 14: revenge of the take

[Guest]

Five years ago this month .....

WWF In Your House 14: Revenge Of The Taker

Rochester War Memorial Auditorium

Rochester, New York

April 20th, 1997

 

Quick note as this is the first of my tape reviews that I've posted.  I don't use the same ratings system that other people seem to.  If that angers you, sorry.  I rate wrestling matches the same way I rate books, dvd's and cd's.

 

***** = classic, **** = very good, *** = good, ** = sub-par, * = shit.

 

I don't go in for all this two & seven ninths business.  Basically, everything in life is either good, bad or okay.  That's three star-ratings.  I throw two additional stars in there for the hazy areas, and that's good enough for me.  My match ratings are also based not just on technical execution, but on a combination of a)the significance of the match, b)the skill with which it is executied & c)the heat of the crowd.  I believe all three factors play a vital role in what makes a wrestling match a pleasure, or a chore, to watch.  With all that said, it's time to make like Harry Zidler .....

 

On with The Show!

 

Tag Team champions Owen Hart & British Bulldog vs. Legion Of Doom = **

Months of dissention between Owen & Bulldog was abandoned when brother Bret decided he wanted to reform The Hart Foundation, so the champs were getting along just fine again.  LOD had returned to the WWF after a near five-year absence the previous month and seemed rejuvinated following their blistering Chicago Street-Fight at WrestleMania 13.  Alas, all the anticipation was for nought as the two teams somehow managed to assemble ..... nothing remotely noteworthy.  Indeed, the cameras almost immediately cut backstage where Steve Austin was just arriving at the arena having suffered a blown-out tyre.  Way to hype the significance of the match.  We came back, and Animal pinned Bulldog with a powerslam off the ropes to win the Tag Team titles.  But wait!  Bulldog was the illegal man, and the match restarts.  LOD simply get on with the task at hand and give Owen the Doomsday Device, so brother Bret runs in for the DQ.  Well, that was a damp squib.  In the post-match interview, the champs seem distinctly peeved that Austin has made it to the arena following his car mishap.

 

Intercontinental champion Rocky Maivia vs. Savio Vega = **

Rocky was a complete lame-duck champion at this point, due to his scheduled successor Marc Mero's knee injury ballsing up the booking.  I don't believe he was even scheduled to be on the PPV until Faarooq got injured and the Nation Of Domination's handicap macth against Ahmed Johnson had to get postponed until the following month.  Again, the in-ring action is completely unremarkable, and there's no crowd reaction to speak of whatsoever.  We get another split-screen to focus on Faarooq trash-talking Ahmed.  Eventually, Savio just throws Rocky to the outside where Crush beats him up for a while and he's counted out.  The NOD all beat up little Rocky some more until Ahmed runs out for the save.  Another nothing match.

 

As Mero was being interviewed about rehabbing his knee, Owen & Bulldog beat up Austin in the toilet behind, not realising their deceitful actions were being caught on film.  Funny stuff.

 

Jesse Jammes vs. Rockabilly (Mystery Opponent Match) = *

Double-J had the gall to spurn Honky Tonk Man's managerial services, and HTM swore revenge.  His mystery protege was assumed to be Jerry Lawler's son (and Honky's second-cousin) Brian Christopher.  It was, in fact, the former 'Smoking' Billy Gunn with a stupid dance.  The crowd took a piss-break as one.  Rockabilly didn't even win the damn thing, as Jammes eventually just sort of fell on top of him for the 1-2-3.  This just died before our eyes, a complete wash-out on every level.

 

World champion The Undertaker vs. Mankind = ****

Vader was supposed to get the first PPV title-shot against new champion The Undertaker on account of his pinfall victory over the Phenom at January's Royal Rumble, but in one of those crazy instances that happen to us all, he was at the time in a Kuwait jail-cell for attacking a talk show host.  Such is life, so his accomplice Mankind threw a fireball into UT's face and revived their feud to make up for it.  Poor Mick didn't really have much chance on a PPV entitled Revenge Of The Taker, and indeed he took a fair old beating in the early going until a good bonking over the head with Paul Bearer's urn.  It only got a two, so Mankind tore his own hair out, smashed a water-jug over Taker's head, then tore the bandages off his eye & forehead to reval some nice 'burn' make-up.  Mick then oinked like a pig for a bit, attacked the referee and got the ring-steps, but Taker busted out a dropkick to drill the steps back into Foley's face.  He followed that up with a nasty chair-shot, trapped Mankind's head between the ropes, then knocked him head-first through the Spanish announce table in a pretty innovative spot.  Dragging him back to the ring, a chokeslam only got two but the Tombstone finished him off.  Sweet match, and Taker threw a fireball into Paul Bearer's face after the bell for good measure, thus setting off a chain of events that would introduce the world to Kane.

 

Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin = ****

Just to complete the cobbled-together nature of this show, Psycho Sid had hit the injured list as well, so his match against Bret was scuppered in favour of the latest installment of Hart-Austin: This Time Bret's A Bad Guy.  Austin came out strong and took the early lead until Hitman went to work on his bad knee.  A ringpost figure-four, chairshots & matwork all served to take him off his vertical base.  Hart even took Steve's knee-brace off just to be a dick and continued the assault at ringside.  The hobbling Austin managed a brief comeback and brawled him into the crowd, but back in the ring Bret superplexed his knee right on top of the metal brace and clamped on the Sharpshooter to finish him.  StoneCold somehow managed to reverse the move, fight off an interfering Owen & Bulldog, then sinch it back on again.  Bulldog finally just belted him with a chair and that was enough to draw the DQ.  Austin got a third Sharpshooter on Bret after the bell to foreshadow the time off Bret needed for legitimate knee surgery.  With that in mind, you wouldn't have thought it was too much to ask to put the Rattlesnake over clean.  Still, backstage gripes aside it was another bloody good match, and a very welcome one after that shitty undercard.

 

WWF In Your House 14: Revenge Of The Taker

 

Rating: C

 

Comments: A thrown-together, raggedy placeholder show for the WWF, who were in bad shape at the time.  Shawn was out, Sid was out, Vader was out, Faarooq was out, Mero was out, and as of the following day Bret would be out.  The undercard was one of the worst ever presented, and the show was only saved from being a complete disaster by the two fine matches on top.  Still, what fine matches those two contests were.

 

MVP's: Steve Austin, Bret Hart, Mankind, The Undertaker

[Guest nWoScorpion]

Good rant, although its unique you put the rating before the match.

[Guest JAMES900]

Nice but you like everyone else falls into the same catagory when writing.  You write in the style of Scott keith try to be different.

[Guest nWoScorpion]

Its kind of hard tow rite different from eveeryone

 

(yes i plagerized once, i apologzied end of that)

 

but, Scott Keith uses several writing techniques so its hard not to accidentally adopt one of his tradmark styles.

[Guest]

Thanks.  I do accept that my review became somewhat too similar to an SK rant though - it was an experiment I did.  The original tape review inc. rating was done at the time of the show, before I even had access to the internet.  When I finally joined the rest of the human race and got online towards the beginning of last year, I discovered Scott's rants on the old Wrestleline site, and from that found Rantsylvania.  Needless to say, I fell in love with them.  

 

The main thing I loved about the retro-rants was the modern perspective, viewing the shows in their historical context and the way they all seemed to make more sense in retrospect.  That, and the fact that Scott's probably the funniest writer on the net.  I went back and re-did a few of my old tape reviews and tried to adapt them to the style I thought was so great.  Once I'd posted the IYH14 review, I re-read it and immediately realized it had simply become a poorer version of what SK had already done, which rendered the whole exercise kind of pointless.  

 

I'm a wrestling fan who watches & reviews wrestling shows because he likes to do that sort of thing.  Scott Keith is a wrestling fan who watches & reviews wrestling matches because he likes to do that sort of thing, but he has done it with such a unique, funny & distinctive style that it seems to have become THE definitive style of reviewing.  When you admire & enjoy something so much, it's difficult not to try to emulate it.  Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I guess Scott Keith must be a flattered Canadian because a hell of a lot of wrestling show reviews on the net now tend to immitate his style.  

 

Because I'd been reviewing wrestling shows for my own amusement in remote Scotland for ten years or so, suddenly gaining access to the net and finding someone doing it so much better than I had ever done was both exciting and annoying to me.  I tried to enhance my own style to meet his in order to make my original IYH14 review better, a stupid thing to do, and it simply didn't work that well.  Still, you live and learn.  Experiment over.