Guest Report post Posted May 28, 2002 This is my first rant, so feedback would be appreciated. Live from Louisville, KY, it's the first ever 3-hour In Your House PPV... Ground Zero! Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler, & Jim Ross --- Goldust vs. Brian Pillman This is coming off of their Summerslam '97 match, which forced Pillman to wear a dress. If Pillman wins, he gets Marlena's services for 30 days, and if Goldust wins, Pillman must leave the "double-u double-u F FOREVER" (which is exactly how Pillman sounds when he named that stipulation. Let's get started... Early on, Pillman chases Marlena, until Goldust comes to the rescue. Goldust controls, and he throws him to the corner, and his 20 punches instead of 10. Crazy. Goldust goes for a bulldog, but Pillman counters with a backdrop. Pillman goes up to the top rope, only to get crotched. Goldust throws him to the outside and into the guard rail! Back inside, Goldust can't hit a superplex, and Pillman can't hit a move off the top rope. Goldust is back, and sets him up for the Curtain Call. Pillman bumps the referee on the way down. Goldust covers, but no referee to count. He goes to revive the ref, when Marlena gets on the apron with her purse. Pillman's up. Marlena goes to hit Pillman with the purse, but he gets hold of it and uses it on Goldust! The referee is back, and makes the 3-count, giving Pillman the win at 11.03. *3/4 match. So-So match. Marlena cries next to her fallen husband. Pillman drags her into the back, as Goldust starts to come to his senses. Backstage, Pillman escapes with Marlena in his car, as Goldust just misses them. --- Ringside, Jerry Lawler grabs the purse, and opens it up to reveal a brick. --- Scott Putski vs. Brian Christopher This all came about when Brian Christopher and his daddy, Lawler, kept double-teaming Putski. Early on, Putski throws Christopher around. The crowd starts chanting, "Jerry's kid! Jerry's kid!", because of course, Lawler and Christopher kept denying any relation. Putski hits a hurricanrana for two, and Christopher comes back with a full nelson face buster! German suplex, for two. Putski is thrown to the outside, and Christopher flies over the top onto him. Apparently, something went wrong for Putski, and his knee was dislocated or something. The ref stops the match at 4:35. A shot of Putski's knee is shown... ouch. The match? 1/2* for a few nice spots. --- Video package for a Triple Threat match between Faarooq, Crush, & Savio Vega. The story? Gang Warz! Need I say more? --- Faarooq vs. Savio Vega vs. Crush Of course, Crush represents the Disciples of Apocalypse! Faarooq is the Nation of Domination! And Savio is Los Buricuas. Honestly, to this day, I still don't know all the members of the Buricuas, but does it really matter? Crush comes in and immediately starts pounding on both Faarooq and Savio. Crush is thrown outside, and Faarooq hits a spinebuster on Savio for two. Crush hits a powerslam on Faarooq, for two. Crush takes both Faarooq and Savio, and hits their heads into one another. Boring action follows. Crush and Faarooq decide to form an alliance, as Vince on commentary fears that Crush has once again joined the Nation! They double team Savio, and Faarooq covers, but what's that!? Crush breaks it!? That's what the look on Faarooq's face was saying when it happened, at least. Crush covers, and Faarooq breaks it. Finally, they decide to both cover Savio, but the ref doesn't allow it. Savio and Crush form an alliance and spike piledrive Faarooq. Savio wants a high-five, but Crush doesn't. Crush hits the dreaded HEART PUNCH on Faarooq, but Savio comes in and spin kicks Crush, to get the 3-count and win, at 11:39. I have to question the logic of putting Savio over here: Savio & the Buricuas beat Crush & DOA at Summerslam, so why did they give him this win? Faarooq & the Nation are the most over faction here, and then Crush is the fan favorite. Why Savio? Anyway, the match was just brutal. 1/2* match. --- Max Mini vs. El Torito Max hits a somersault plancha early on. Torito misses a senton, as Max locks in an arm bar. They fight outside, where Torito clobbers Max with a boot. Back inside, Max hits a rana for two. Torito rolls him up for two. Max has spare time, so he runs outside and sits on Jerry Lawler's lap! He even wears the King's crown. Max hits a flying rana, followed by a sunset flip for the win, at 9:20. I don't rate mini-matches. --- A video of Steve Austin breaking his neck at Summerslam is shown. Owen Hart hit a botched sit-down Tombstone piledriver on Austin, which broke his neck. Austin won the Intercontinental title in that match, but he also held the Tag Team Titles with Dude Love. Since Austin can't compete now, Commissioner Slaughter is stripping him & Dude of both his titles, starting with the Tag Titles tonight. Slaughter & Jim Ross bring Austin & Dude Love in the ring. After some teasing, Austin gives the Tag Title to Slaughter. JR wants an interview, but Austin ends up Stunning him! This lead to a chain of Stunners on Slaughter, Jerry Lawler, and finally, Vinnie Mac in MSG! Up next, the now-vacant Tag Team titles are on the line... Owen Hart & The British Bulldog are interviewed backstage. --- WWF Tag Team Championship: Fatal Four-Way Elimination Match- British Bulldog & Owen Hart vs. Legion of Doom vs. Godwinns vs. Headbangers Pretty dull in the beginning. Neither the Bulldog or Owen are tagged in for a while. Hawk offers a tag to the Bulldog, who is reluctant. He goes for it, but Hawk decides to make the tag by slapping him in the face. Later on, Owen Hart has the ref distracted, as the Godwinns bring in their slop buckets against LOD. Animal gets hold of one of the buckets and nails the Godwinns with it, earning his team an elimination by DQ. The Headbangers come in and hit a double-team superplex on Phineas Godwinn for two. Thrasher goes for a sunset flip on Phineas, but Henry pulls on Phineas's arm to prevent the pin. Mosh takes out Henry, allowing Thrasher to pin Phineas, and eliminate him and Henry. That leaves the Headbangers and the Bulldog & Owen. Bulldog hits a hanging vertical suplex on Thrasher for two, and Owen follows up with an enziguri. Bulldog is knocked to the outside, and the Headbangers set Owen up for the Stage Dive. Mosh has Owen ready, but since Thrasher stalls forever getting balanced on the top rope, you know they're going to miss. Finally, Thrasher is ready for lift-off, but the Bulldog is back and brings him to the floor. Meanwhile, inside, Owen backdrops Mosh, and goes for the Sharpshooter. Mosh struggles, so Owen can't lock it in yet. Suddenly, the crowd pops, and Steve Austin runs down. The referee is outside with Thrasher and the Bulldog. Mosh pushes Owen away, and he walks right into a Stone Cold Stunner! Austin runs out, and Mosh makes the cover, at 17:22. The Headbangers win the Tag Team Titles, finally. Match was pretty boring at times... I give it **. The Headbangers take their titles and celebrate in the crowd. --- Video package for Bret Hart vs. The Patriot. This is still USA vs. Canada, except to a lesser extent, because the Patriot basically took the lead role for the US. Patriot got an upset win over Bret one week before Summerslam, so Bret's bitter. Leading up to the PPV, Bret made another new enemy, in Vader. On a funny not, in the video package, there's background on Patriot... such as his football days. In the video, their's a "Helmet Cam" view, meaning some guy put a camera in a football helmet and started running around the field. I wonder how idiotic and funny that must of looked... anyway... --- Sunny interviews the Patriot backstage. --- WWF Championship- Bret Hart © vs. The Patriot Bret and Patriot have a slug-fest to start, and Bret ends up hitting a back suplex. Patriot's in the tree of woe, and Bret chokes him. Patriot comes back with a clothesline and dropkick, forcing Bret outside. Patriot keeps in control, until Bret starts to work the legs. Bret locks in a toe-hold, and then the ring post figure-four! Meanwhile, the British Bulldog makes his way down, cheering on Bret. Back inside, Bret hits a Russian leg sweep. Patriot reverses a suplex, and hits a sunset flip for two. DDT hit for two. Patriot goes off the ropes, but Bulldog holds onto his leg. Bret goes for the schoolboy, but only two. Finally, Patriot hits Uncle Slam, but the Bulldog pulls him off. Patriot heads outside to confront the Bulldog, when Vader runs out! Vader and Patriot double-team the Bulldog. Vader gets some shots in on Bret, but the ref doesn't stop the match. Other referees get both Bulldog and Vader into the back, as Bret and Patriot continue their match inside. Patriot goes up top, and hits the Patriot Missile! Only two, though. Atomic drop and back suplex for two. Bret hits a bulldog headlock, and the ref is bumped. Patriot hits another Uncle Slam, but there's no ref! Bret is back up, and they double KO each other, as the ref comes back. Small package by Bret, for two, and Patriot reverses for two. Patriot decides to apply the Sharpshooter, but Bret simply reverses it, and after a little while, Patriot can take no more, so he taps out, at 19:13. ***3/4 Good wrestling match. Bret gets some shots in on Patriot afterwards, and then breaks the US flag. --- Michael Cole interviews Bret and the Bulldog. Somehow, after this, Vince starts to talk to Lawler about Coca-Cola. Uh-huh... --- Video package for the first-ever match between Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker, one of my favorite feuds of all time. At Summerslam, Shawn Michaels accidentally cost Taker the title. The key word there is "accidentally". As the video shows, after the PPV, some fat girl thinks that Shawn Michaels did it on purpose. Anyway, a match was set up on Raw for some odd pairings... it was Undertaker & Mankind vs. Shawn Michaels & Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Keep in mind, this is pre-DX. And hey, what do ya know... I was in attendance for that particular Raw! Live from Atlantic City, NJ! Anyway, good match, which saw Shawn nail Undertaker with two vicious chairshots, busting Taker wide-open. Now... HBK, HHH, Chyna, & Rick Rude have unofficially formed DX. --- Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker Quite an entrance for Shawn. He's walking down the ramp, where he spits into the crowd. Directly afterwards, he gets something thrown at him. He gets into the ring for the usual fireworks & pose, but the pyro just doesn't go off until later, when Shawn isn't even posing. Undertaker comes out and stares down Shawn. Taker starts to walk toward Shawn, who's hiding behind the ref. Shawn turns his back, so Taker KOs the ref, so Shawn runs away toward the ramp. Commissioner Slaughter confronts him, demanding him to go back. Shawn turns back toward the ring, only to get that referee thrown at him from inside by Taker! Taker pummels Shawn all the way up the ramp, and into the plants on the In Your House entrance. Shawn starts pounding on the FAKE door of the house, rather than conveniently run through that curtain that's just to the right. Taker hits him with a right hand that sends him tumbling down the stage and back ringside. Shawn begs for a DQ. They head back in, and the match officially starts. Shawn gets some shots in, but Taker immediately comes back. Everything Shawn tries has little or no effect. Taker goes for the top rope walk, but gets crotched, and Shawn hits a baseball slide. Shawn jumps to the outside after Taker, but Taker catches him and rams him into the post. Back inside, Shawn hits a neckbreaker, and goes outside to get a chair. Taker grabs it, but the ref won't allow it. That ref is also bumped. Shawn takes control, as Rick Rude comes down. Rude throws Shawn a pair of brass knucks. Shawn pummels Taker with them, as Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna come down, bringing another ref. Shawn covers Taker, but only two! DX is pissed. Shawn beats that ref. HHH and Chyna double-team Taker. Inside, Taker blocks a superkick, and he grabs the brass knucks from Shawn's tights. Taker gets his shots in, as another ref comes out. Taker makes the cover, but only two! Taker, fed up, chokeslams that ref. Finally, another ref comes out and calls the match a No Contest, at 21:57. DX triple-team Undertaker. Taker is caught in the ropes, as Chyna hands Shawn a chair. He charges, but Taker kicks it back at him. Taker Tombstones HHH, as Shawn superkicks officials. They keep brawling. Suddenly, all the wrestlers come out to break it up. Here's a list of guys... just to let you know... DOA, LOD, Savio Vega, The Sultan, Rocky Maivia, Godwinns, Brian Christopher. The wrestlers have Undertaker held in the ring, and DX is held back outside. Suddenly, Undertaker breaks free and dives over the top rope and into DX and anyone else outside! Holy shit! Everyone leaves, as Undertaker stands pissed off inside. What a match! ****1/2. Of course, these two would go on to have an even better match next month in the first ever Hell in a Cell! END SHOW... --- --- --- --- --- --- Well, the undercard is pretty bad. The Title match and Undertaker-HBK brawl are really the only things worth watching on the show. Overall, this is worth a rentle for the Main Event... mildly recommended... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
