In Your House 6 - Louisville Gardens, Louisville Kentucky, February 19th 1996

The WWF’s attempt to sex up their product and compete with WCW by appealing to adults continues with Sunny’s most revealing appearance yet - her in that bikini on that beach went the 1996 equivalent of viral and contributed to making her “the most searched on AOL person” in 1996 (that’s true, look it up)

The rest of the video focuses on tonight’s main event, specifically including The Undertaker despite him not being IN the match. See the reason its in a cage, other than Bret and Diesel’s hatred, is to keep Undertaker from interfering. He’s promised it’ll be a cold day in hell before Diesel becomes the WWF Champion again

Vince and Lawler open up the show talking about the Kentucky Derby. Weirdly while talking about the most important parts of the show, King mentions the HHH/Dumpster match BEFORE the WWF title match. I mean you like what you like. 

Crybaby match

Razor Ramon vs. The 1-2-3 Kid (w/Ted Dibiase)

This crybaby stipulation came out of nowhere, with the Kid and Dibiase calling Razor a crybaby for losing at the Royal Rumble. This feud has of course been ongoing since the final Raw before Survivor Series which actually makes me bring something up that I haven’t mentioned - where is SID? He had left the company in December citing a neck injury as the reason why. Don’t worry though, we’ll see him again soon. 

The Kid enters pushing a babystroller with a Razor Ramon teddy bear in it and immediately pays for it. Razor has barely gotten his hands on the Kid for months but here he hammers him with punches and sends him packing. The Kid hangs up Razor on the top rope and puts him down with a springboard clothesline. Razor is significantly more giving for his little buddy than he ever was for someone like Goldust or Dean Douglas and the Kid beats him up with heel kicks and picks up multiple near falls. 

Razor mounts a comeback but it doesn’t last long before Ted Dibiase throws a handful of baby powder into Razor’s eyes, blinding him. The Kid beats him down some more and gets his closest near fall so far with a splash off the top rope and then locks in a long, long sleeper hold to grind down The Bad Guy. 

Razor eventually suplexes out of it to break the hold but both men are down and trade big shots and near falls. Razor rocks the 1-2-3 Kid with punch after punch - those big strikes were very much his trademark - but the Kid counters an attempted suplex off the top and comes off with a twisting crossbody; the move he used to win his first match against him. Razor kicks out of that, and out of a big jumping heel kick. Razor catches a crossbody and turns it into a fallaway slam off the top rope which looked great. The crowd goes nuts when he signals for the Razor’s Edge and Dibiase sprints around the ring to distract him. The Kid tries to use the baby powder again but Razor kicks it back in his face and follows up with the Razor’s Edge to win the match. Or does he? He pulls the Kid up off the mat by the hair, breaking his own pin and gives him ANOTHER Razor’s Edge to prove his point. Razor wins and per the stipulation, the 1-2-3 Kid must now put on a diaper and suck from a baby bottle.

Razor doesn’t bother waiting until the Kid wakes up and powders his bottom and puts the diaper on by force, leaving him humiliated in the ring. This was a good match with a silly stipulation and visuals at the end. That draws a neat line under the Razor and 1-2-3 Kid feud after a long few months of costing each other matches. The Kid sells it for comedy, groggy and flailing around. It didn’t get as big of a laugh from the crowd as you’d expect and the Kid caps it off by literally crying. See, he IS a crybaby.

On the WWF Superstar line, Sunny and Ray Rougeau are standing by to interview all the winners and losers. Sunny is basically playing two characters these days; the heel manager of The Bodydonnas and the babyface backstage interviewer played up for sex appeal. Earlier tonight on the Free for All preshow, Jake Roberts dropped by with his snake and scared her. I don’t think she actually was scared because if anything she looked like she was trying not to laugh when talking about it. 

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Duke “The Dumpster” Droese

Helmsley once again has a lovely lady with him. This girl is prettier than the one on Raw but once again, I’m not going to bother telling you her name because she’s one and done. Much like his feud with Henry Godwin, the snobby aristocrat feuding with a garbage man does at least make conceptual sense. Duke beat him on the Rumble Free for All to secure the number 30 spot in the Rumble match and sore loser Triple H cut Duke’s hair. I think he looks better with the shaved head to be honest, he’s actually quite a handsome guy in my opinion (when he stops grimacing and trying to look mean).

He rushes the ring and the two trade punches; Helmsley lost to Duke via disqualification at the Rumble but he remains undefeated in the sense that he’s never been pinned or submitted. 

Duke throws Hunter around with ease, sending him from corner to corner while the aristocrat begs for mercy. Duke whips him with his hernia prevention belt which should be a disqualification but the referee lets it go. Weirdly, the crowd starts to boo Duke as he dominates which made me wonder if something else was happening in the crowd - I like The Dumpster! 

Helmsley finally stops the momentum of Droese on the outside, reversing a whip into the steel ringsteps and then starts to slowly pick him apart in the ring. Vince speculates that perhaps Duke will cut Helmsley’s hair which makes me wonder, if they were planning to shave Duke’s head anyway, why they didn’t do a hair vs. hair match? Strange. 

They go back and forth but when it's a straight up fight, Duke wins and overpowers HHH. He rocks him and calls out that it’s time to take out the trash, followed by a big swinging powerslam. He pretty clearly has the three count but decides to bring his trash can into the ring and use it as a weapon first. Hilariously he throws his trash can lid into the ring and it lands square on Triple H’s head! What a throw. The referee gets distracted stopping the can from coming into the ring allowing Helmsley to use the lid as a weapon. The referee very clearly saw and heard that but has to pretend he didn’t. Triple H pins and defeats Droese thanks to a trash can lid. Not a great match sadly. 

Here’s a commercial narrated by my boy Todd Pettengill for WWF “The Store”. The internet was in its infancy as far as people using it is concerned so it was all mail order and telephone. 

The British Bulldog (w/Jim Cornette) vs. Yokozuna

This match was a last minute addition to the card. They teased issues between Yoko and the other members of Camp Cornette for a while but it finally came to a head. Yokozuna’s the only man in his group who’s been WWF Champion after all, how dare they treat him like he’s the problem? You’ll have read all about the final blow up and developments in my Preview. 

Before the match, Dok Hendrix interviews Yokozuna and says this is the first time he’s ever spoken because Jim Cornette forbade him from speaking. This is a cool moment, but we just need to try and ignore that this Japanese superstar is now speaking with an American accent. I hear you asking “where is Mr. Fuji?” Sadly his physical health had declined so much that even just walking to the ring had become very difficult for him. He couldn’t even get in and out of the ring anymore so Mr. Fuji is gone. 

Yoko gets a decent reaction when he comes out - the fans in 1996 were starting to get “smart” but they did still tend to cheer the babyfaces and boo the heels without asking too many questions. Yoko and Bully trade punches and the bigger man comes out on top and bounces Bulldog around with clotheslines and a backdrop. 

Bulldog avoids an elbow drop and throws punches and kicks but Yokozuna shrugs that off and knocks down Bully to set him up for the Banzai drop. Cornette pulls Bulldog out of the ring to safety and Yoko follows, missing a charge and crashing into the ring post. In the ring, Bulldog gets his first proper near fall with an axe handle off the top rope but Yokozuna comes back with a Samoan drop and a belly to belly suplex. He’s about to win the match when Jim Cornette hits him with his tennis racket. That ends the match via disqualification but Yokozuna no-sells the attack and goes after Cornette. He’s rescued by Vader who attacks Yokozuna, handcuffing him to the ring ropes so that he’s helpless while Vader and Bulldog hammer on him with forearms and fists. It takes an army of referees and officials to stop the attack on Yokozuna but made harder by the fact that everyone is afraid of Vader. This was a nothing match but I like Yokozuna and it seems like this sets up Yokozuna vs. Vader for Wrestlemania which is a cool match. The fans get into it when the two huge men trade blows but in the end, this attack went on for far too long. 

Backstage on the WWF’s online AOL chat, Intercontinental Champion Goldust speaks with the fans via some nerd who does the typing for him. Tomorrow night on Raw he was supposed to be wrestling The Undertaker but instead he’ll be facing Razor Ramon in a rematch for the title. There’s a reason for that which I’ll discuss at the end of the show.

Number One Contendership for the WWF Championship at Wrestlemania

Shawn Michaels vs. Owen Hart (w/Jim Cornette)

This one gets a video package and rightfully so when Shawn Michaels is on the move, marching to becoming a main eventer. He’s been on that level for about a year now.

There’s lots of variables heading into Wrestlemania - Owen has history with his brother Owen, HBK has plenty of history with Diesel, Undertaker is in the mix too. It’s exciting, it keeps the Wrestlemania main event (and indeed, tonight’s WWF title match) unpredictable. It’s definitely more interesting booking than we were used to at the time. HBK continues to wow with a special entrance too, dancing on top of the mock house entrance ramp and then swinging like Tarzan and dropping gracefully down onto his feet. He rushes the ring, beats up Owen, throws him out of the ring and then continues with his entrance, dancing and removing his gear piece by piece. Awesome and the crowd love it (especially the girls).

These two fantastic wrestlers, obviously, and so this is very good. They lock up and trade holds with Michaels coming out on top more than once, dancing and posing and letting the crowd scream themselves silly for him. Michaels gets Owen in a long, long headlock and does some fun house show, crowd pleasing spots like waiting until the referee isn’t looking to pull Owen’s hair just because he can. They’re evenly matched and go counter for counter until Michaels performs a hurricanrana and peppers Owen with punches. Owen finally gets some control a gorgeous overhead belly to belly suplex and dominates Michaels with stomps and a crisp backbreaker.

Owen grinds down Michaels with a long sleeper as Jerry Lawler says that Hart plans on booting Michaels in the head and causing another concussion. It’s tasteless in hindsight to hear commentators talk so flippantly about head injuries but even in the mid 2000s that kind of thing was still going on. Michaels fights out of the sleeper and picks up the pace, sending Owen to the outside. He dives off the apron and is countered into a powerslam on the floor. That looked so good. In the ring, Owen connects with a beautiful missile dropkick.

Owen locks Shawn in the Sharpshooter in the middle of the ring but HBK fights and scratches and crawls to the ropes to break the hold. He saves himself but Michaels’ back has taken a pounding in this match and Owen shows no mercy. He hits HBK with the stiff enziguri kick to the back of the head and Michaels collapses out of the ring. Vince immediately reacts like Shawn might be dead, laying on the outside not moving. The referee checks on him but he’s obviously fine because he then gets back in the ring and starts counting. Owen Hart probably has the match won via count out here but that's not good enough and he rolls a limp Michaels back into the ring for a close two count. 

The tide turns again and HBK fights off Owen with punches and goes into his familiar finishing routine of a flying forearm and top rope elbow drop. Jim Cornette gets knocked off the apron and Michaels goes for Sweet Chin Music. Owen ducks and goes for another enziguri. HBK ducks that and hits the second Superkick attempt to pick up the win in a great match. Shawn Michaels keeps his WWF title match at Wrestlemania and dances in victory with a young female fan - a member of his Klique. Great stuff. Between how long his entrance was and how long he celebrates for I think in total we heard Michaels’ music loop four times on this PPV! Yeah, I might have danced a little.

In 1996, steel cages need to be built from scratch every time so we need some filler while the main event gets set up. Todd Pettengill brings out the acting president of the WWF, Rowdy Roddy Piper! He takes pleasure in officially announcing that Shawn Michaels is going to Wrestlemania and will face either Bret Hart or Diesel. He says he doesn’t feel sorry for Yokozuna because he’s a big monster who can stand up for himself and mocks Vader for wearing a jockstrap on his head. Vader’s suspension is officially lifted and Yokozuna will face him at Wrestlemania. That match gets changed a little before we get to that point. Jim Cornette and his lawyer Clarence Mason come out to confront Roddy Piper. He screams about how scary Vader is and Piper mocks Cornette for letting Yokozuna slip through his fingers and suggests he might get a Banzai drop when Yoko wins. This got a bit rambly at the end but they had to keep us entertained while the cage was built somehow. 

Steel Cage match for the WWF Championship

Bret Hart © vs. Diesel

I thought this one might get a video package too but the story is simple enough - Diesel desperately wants the WWF Championship back and has a whole new attitude after losing it. He spent a year being a good company man but now we’re seeing the “real” Diesel who’s a lot more selfish and a lot less friendly. He cost Undertaker the WWF title at the Royal Rumble and may have cost him it again on the last episode of Raw so the cage is here to prevent Undertaker from returning the favour. We’ll see how effective THAT is. Bret has never lost a steel cage match, but they don’t tell us how many cage matches he’s actually been in. 

The two go at each other with ring hands and kicks but it’s Bret who wins the exchange thanks to the steel cage, pulling Diesel in and bouncing his head off the steel. Bret is the first one to try and climb out but Diesel is so tall he has no problem catching him and bringing him back downand throwing him into the cage wall. Diesel tries to escape through the door so Bret stops him with kicks to the knee and a low blow. Diesel no-sells that and pulls Bret back and then dives for the door himself - it's very similar to the Bret and Owen cage match at Summerslam 1994 with both men going for the escape early and often. Bret finally starts to actually wrestle, focusing on Diesel’s leg. Lawler has some good insight here - unlike their previous matches this is not two men who respect each other trying to prove who the better man is, this is two men who will stop at nothing to be WWF Champion and go into Wrestlemania as the champion. Respect has gone out the window when Diesel’s attitude changed. 

Bret tries to escape after the attack on the leg but Diesel still has enough energy to stop him and he launches Bret off the top rope all the way to the mat with a big slam. We’re only six minutes or so into the match but both men are moving and selling like they’ve been going at it for 20+

Diesel finally fights back a bit and elbows Bret and then runs him across the ring for his classic high impact chest to the turnbuckle spot. Bret kicks away from Diesel and runs for the top rope, clambering over the cage and getting all the way out but Diesel grabs a handful of hair and drags the Hitman back into the ring the hard way. Vince said that he thought the crowd would be split for these two but Diesel draws a lot of boos when he celebrates having control of the match. He smirks - he’s definitely a heel now! 

He tries to drive Bret into the cage but the Hitman wriggles free and shoves Diesel into the steel. He goes for the Sharpshooter and Diesel uses a desperate thumb to the eye to stop that. The crowd ignored what I said moments ago and started chanting “Diesel”. The fans appear to be going through the same change in attitude that Diesel did. Diesel crawls for the door and as it looks like he might escape, The Undertaker’s gloved hand bursts through the ring mat! The Undertaker emerges from the ring and grabs Diesel, dragging him through the hole in the mat and under the ring as steam and smoke billows out! Bret climbs the cage and escapes to win the match and retain the WWF Championship but the story is Diesel and The Undertaker. Big Daddy Cool remerges with his pants ripped and runs, climbing the cage and running away from The Undertaker. Maybe he’s a little more afraid of the dark than he said! 

Sadly, Bret Hart being WWF Champion is an afterthought here at the end of the PPV and for the second month in a row, he retains the WWF Championship thanks to a huge amount of help from an outside party. Let’s hope he takes centre stage while we head into Wrestlemania 12.

Earlier in the show, I mentioned there was a reason for Goldust’s match on Raw being changed to a title defence against Razor Ramon. In short, the reason is because on the day of this event Scott “Razor Ramon” Hall, Kevin “Diesel” Nash and Sean “1-2-3 Kid” Waltman all broke the news to Vince McMahon that they were leaving the WWF and going to WCW. At a time when the WWF was struggling financially, WCW and Eric Bischoff offered huge increases in pay to make the jump and they’d be silly to turn down that kind of offer. Vince McMahon was about to lose three of his New Generation tent poles including two of his biggest stars. The fact that it confirmed what he’d been saying about Ted Turner (WCW couldn’t create stars, just buy them) was no consolation to McMahon as it destroyed his whole narrative that WCW was a show for old men. I’ll talk more about Razor in the next Preview, but their contracts didn’t expire until after the May PPV so we have a little time with the Kid and Diesel. 

Is this a good PPV? I liked the opening match a lot and I liked Shawn Michaels vs. Owen Hart. I thought the cage match was the worst Hart and Diesel match of the ones I’ve seen and the rest felt like filler. My thumbs are up but only a little.