by Rick Scaia  
Exclusive to OnlineOnslaught.com

Oh, wait:  the actual significance of the Buried Alive show...  well, the main event was just shown as a "From the Vault" match on "Confidential," so that's something, right?  Actually, the real cool thing looking back at this show is the simple fact that it was Steve Austin's first ever WWF match working as a babyface.  Although "Stone Cold" was still a heel more than six months away from turning face, he was given a test run on this event against fellow future mega-star Triple H.  Left to pick between two heels, the fans unanimously decided to cheer Austin.  It was, in it's way, a watershed moment.

Enjoy!]

WWF Buried Alive --/-- October 20, 1996
NFD Review Originally Published October 21, 1996

Hey, guess what?

I was at In Your House Buried Alive, live and in the flesh! Jealous? Probably not, but we still had a good time. Live, the show was really entertaining, with Steve Austin providing a lot of entertainment early, and Undertaker and Mankind proving a lot more late in the show. Upon reviewing the tape later last night, the show seemed a bit less exciting; still the PPV broadcast was a notch or two above mediocre, I'd say, earning a strong Thumbs in the Middle. But the live experience has to be considered a Thumbs Up. There are just some things every fan ought to do; seeing a WWF PPV, complete with light show and the palpable excitement, is one of them.

Along with three other members of the Dayton WWF Brigade, we were joined for the show by fellow RSPW Superstar Melina Barreca (all the way in from Cleveland), which made for a -- shall we say -- new and unique viewpoint on the evening's events. Any of you who know Mel know what I mean.

Due to a combination of a mind-bogglingly stupid night of bourbon drinking the night before (I was told this morning that my consumption of Jim Bean on Saturday night was estimated at 1 liter) and a total lack of drinking establishments in close proximity to Market Square Arena in Indy, there really wasn't much desire or opportunity to get all loosey-goosey (tm, Dusty Rhoades) for the show. But we had great seats (lower arena, just to the other side of the entrance gates from the "cemetery") and managed to enjoy ourselves just the same.

MSA was fairly well filled, but they had the building set up in a different configuration than for the Pacers' games I've been to. They basically curtained off about 6,000 or so of the upper arena seats. The lower arena was packed, the remaining upper arena seats were about half-filled. I'd guess there were still upwards of 8,000 fans present. And the people who showed up were a perfect wrestling crowd. Nice mix of young and old, but almost entirely markish (this is not a value judgment! I like watching wrestling with marks!). Makes me wonder if the Wrestling Lariat fliers I was handing out were worth the trouble. [Just kidding, Dave...] There were TONS of NWO shirts and stuff, but the crowd was relatively well-behaved (cheering for Austin was about the "smartest" thing they did all night). More than anything, the crowd was just hot for the show; the Undertaker interview thingie they did at the end of the Free For All really fired the crowd up.

So anyway, once we found our seats and had a $4.25 beer or two (but not much more than that, freaking draft beer concession nazis), the show was just about ready to get started. Dok Hendrix did the in arena opening for the Free For All, but after you folks at home got about 15 straight minutes of interviews and video packages (and the Faarooq angle, which we actually did see play out on a tiny monitor that we could see inside the WWF production area), we got the first of three non-PPV matches:

Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw vs. "The Stalker" Barry Windham 

Windham had a new look tonight, and it reminded me a LOT of ECW's The Sandman. Barry had on red and blue Zubaz workout pants and a WWF t-shirt. He wore no face paint, despite still being referred to as "The Stalker." The new look was a lot better than the old one, and Windham himself looked a lot better than in recent TV performances. All his moves are getting a bit sharper, and while these two did nothing special, they did piece together a surprisingly OK match. They went a little over 10 minutes, I would guess, and by the end, Barry actually wound up getting a decent response. Windham won the match with a nicely executed superplex.

Then we got an in-ring interview with the Smoking Gunns. Billy Gunn will make a great singles heel. Bart Gunn will become Marty Jannetty Jr. They tease a split for about the fourth PPV in a row, but nothing happens in this interview (and nothing really happens in their match later... who wants to bet the pay-off is on RAW tonight?).

The crowd had been chanting "We Want Ross" on and off after the Windham match ended, and finally got him as the FFA was winding down. Ross got a pretty nice babyface pop, which seemed odd, but it was heartening to see Ross getting a good reaction to reward him for being so good in this angle so far.

Then they really got the crowd going by turning down the lights, and having a mock thunderstorm while UT did an interview over the sound system. This was incredibly cool live, not only because the FX were neat, but because the crowd was so into it.

During some more interviews or promos or whatever on PPV, the Fink got in the ring and told us about changes in the card, which would mean that Goldust would now be facing Mero for the IC Title due to an injury Faarooq suffered at the hands of Ahmed Johnson while Hunter Hearst Helmsley would replace Savio Vega against Steve Austin. Both changes were relatively well received by the live crowd.

And then, the Fink asked us to be prepared to make some noise on the count of ten, because we were going live around the world on pay-per- view. The crowd obliged. As the PPV gets underway, it's time to do the first match, which happens to be:

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin 

HHH gets a luke-warm response, but Austin, complete with a much more appropriate and rockin' entrance theme, gets a sizable 100% babyface pop. There was not a bit of booing done as far as I could see/hear. I don't know how much different that would have been if Austin had been facing the babyface Savio Vega, but I don't think it would have been 180-degrees different. Austin is really over; I hope the Titan braintrust won't go noticing the generally positive reaction and get it in their head to turn Austin. How many examples do they need of taking a guy who's getting a lot of cheers as a heel, only to be turned face and become less well-received? As far as I am concerned, Austin should be the first REAL tweener; he can act like he wants to fight everybody. And then he will do just that. He'll fight heels (and be cheered mostly) and then he'll fight faces (and get booed a bit), but he'll always get a response. Anyway, the match itself starts off slowly with some psychology (including mocking some unfortunately shaped audience member in the front row), but picks up to a respectable pace fairly quickly. They go over 10 minutes, and then things REALLY pick up with an appearance by Mr. Perfect. Hennig got a big time face pop. As Perfect walks off with HHH's latest lady, HHH tries to stop him, only to be assaulted by Austin. After Austin tosses HHH back in the ring, he decides to go after Perfect himself. After Perfect backs him off, Austin sneaks up from behind and douses Perfect with a beverage. Perfect and Austin have to be separated. Back in the ring, HHH gains an advantage, and sets up the Pedigree, but releases it to chase after Perfect and his lady. Again, the men are separated. Finally it's just Austin and HHH in the ring... HHH is draped over the second rope, and Austin is gonna get a running start and sit on him (a la Bossman or Diesel), but HHH moves, assuming Austin has crotched himself. No such luck, as Austin blocked it. When HHH turns around to continue beating on Austin, he finds Stone Cold standing and delivering a double barreled single finger salute right before slapping the Stone Cold Stunner on HHH for the pinfall win. Extremely entertaining. Austin is definitely my new favorite wrestler. He thinks all the fans are mosquitoes? Hell, son, if that's the case, I'm proud to be one of the blood sucking varmints.

Next up we had the tag team title match...

Smoking Gunns vs. Owen Hart & British Bulldog 

Gunns get booed for the most part, Owen/Bulldog get cheered. Bulldog particularly was playing to the crowd and getting cheers. Owen had a very unflattering new haircut. It looked bad both in person and on TV. Again, these two teams put together a good, but unspectacular match. It's tough knowing they could work harder and do better, but settle for two notches above mediocre. But I think the problem is more that these matches are being used to tell a story and further an angle than anything else. We are supposed to be caring more about the Billy Gunn/Sunny thing and the impending break-up of the Gunns than about the title, and that hurts the matches. So while this match did not suck, I think it was the weakest of the PPV show. It lacked any sense of urgency. Still, they do some nice little spots, and they went a different direction with the finish than I thought they would. Bulldog broke up a Sidewinder attempt, leaving Owen in the ring to pin the stunned Billy Gunn, while Bulldog and Bart brawled outside. Billy and Bart left the ring about 20 feet apart, but other than that, no more was done to further that angle. Not bad, really, but definitely nothing special.

After this match, Ross took a house mic and told the crowd that he had had enough of dealing with McMahon ordering Ross' mic cut-off at the commentary table, but that he'd see Vince on RAW, and he would deliver Bret Hart. Ross again got a mostly positive crowd response.

Our new IC Title match followed...

Goldust vs. Marc Mero 

Goldust got pretty good heel heat with his gyrations. I guess that's about what you should expect from the mostly conservative, bible thumping midwesterners who populate these parts. Mero got a modest face pop when he entered, though by the time the match ended, he got a very strong response. I think Marc has to individually win over each crowd he performs in front of, which has to be frustrating for him. But it's got to be fulfilling for him to know he can -- and does -- do it on a regular basis. In addition to some nice, fluid work between the two guys, including all three of Mero's "HEY WATCH THIS!" moves (the somersault plancha, the MeroSault, and the Shooting Star Press), this match was made a lot of fun to watch by a couple extracurricular happenings. First, Goldust used his trusty old "Shut up or else I'm gonna come out there and stick my tongue down each and every one of your throats" shtick to get major league boos. Then, Mr. Perfect (who had come down to do color commentary and scout his pal Marc Mero) got into an altercation with HHH at ringside, which included HHH knocking HHH down with a right hand. The end effect was that when Mero hit the Shooting Star Press finisher, the crowd was a lot hotter than they had been at the start of the match. Nothing really special, but nice work and interesting angle development made this fun to watch.

With the crowd all fired up, it was time to move onto the semi-final match to determine the number one contender:

Sid vs. Vader

Without any doubt, Sid was the most popular man in the building last night. His pop was loudest, and it lasted the longest. It was really impressive to see. And despite relatively low expectations for this match, I enjoyed what Sid and Vader delivered. For his part, Sid looked like he's at least been *trying* to add some stuff to his arsenal, as he did both a from-the-apron-to-the-inside sunset flip and a top rope flying body press tonight. Vader did not impress me similarly, but hey, he's one of my favs and it was cool to finally see him wrestle a match in person. [Vader was not with NWA/WCW back when they still made trips into Dayton, and Vader only made a non-wrestling appearance at the RAW tapings I went to in February.] Between the surprising effort out of Sid and the incredible crowd interest in the match, this wound up being rather fun to watch. The finish was well done, with a couple of believable teases thrown in to keep the crowd on their toes. Vader actually had Sid beat once or twice, but pulled him up on the count of 2, instead of pinning him. In the end, Sid pulled out a chokeslam, which was enough to score a (somewhat) surprising win. Shawn Michaels was at ringside to do color for the match, and came in to talk to Sid after he became the #1 contender. They did have some words, but wound up shaking hands. A real feel good finish, eh? I would have preferred seeing Shawn superkick Sid, but hey, who cares what I think? Anyway, I think that a Shawn/Sid main event is MUCH more marketable than Shawn/Vader would have been, and even though Sid isn't quite the worker Vader is, he showed he might have a trick or two up his sleeve, which may indicate he could be carried to a good main event by Shawn. Not to sound like a broken record, but the crowd really dug Sid.

At this point in the show, it was time for the PPV main event:

Mankind vs. Undertaker 

UT's entrance is really cool. You ought to go see it live. This match started out fast, and stayed intense all the way through. Anyone who still has UT pegged as a slow-moving "one trick pony" (in reference to the Zombie Sit Up -- which if you were paying attention was only used once this whole match) is ignoring new information. Maybe he always had it in him, and was just constrained by what he or McMahon thought the gimmick should be, but this whole year, UT has been adding new stuff and altering his persona to be a much more athletic, entertaining athlete. Maybe that should make him a front runner for our "Most Improved" award this year? This match was a great showcase for both men, as Mankind is the master of great bumps, and UT really turned things up from his lukewarm performance on the last PPV. One example? Well, right as the match started, UT debuted a from-the-top-rope-to-the-floor cross body onto Mankind. From there, they went to the burial plot quickly, but after a shovel to the throat and some scrapping in the dirt, they went back to the ring. The next time they went to the outside, they used some mic cord to choke each other out. Then, Mankind got tossed into the crowd by UT; UT followed, and they brawled about 8 rows deep before UT whipped Mankind back over the barrier; perhaps the most memorable move of the match was seeing UT then get a running start and completely leap over the 4+ foot high barrier and deliver a majestic clothesline on Mankind. They took another brief trip out to the cemetery, but returned to the ring to do some more work. Mankind introduced a chair, and delivered an absolutely wicked chairshot right on UT's skull. Mankind got in more offense, but when UT recovered, and got the chair, he flattened Mankind with a stiff chairshot to the spine, and then did a modified Arabian Face Buster using the chair. There is probably a lot more I am forgetting, but this was a really good brawl. The end came with Mankind and UT brawling up on the mound of dirt... finally UT had enough of an advantage to grab Mankind by the throat. He proceeded to chokeslam Mankind into the grave, and cover him with enough dirt be be declared the winner. Solid brawl and a lot of fun to watch!

But it didn't end there. UT continued to cover Mankind with dirt, though the ref was telling him to stop. So the ref got pushed down the mound and to the floor. A second ref tried to stop UT, but he wound up taking a SUPER bump, flying all the way off the mound, landing barely on the end of the dirt. A third ref also came in, and took a tamer bump (more like the first ref). With all the refs taken care of, it looked like UT would be able to completely bury Mankind. And then all of a sudden a large masked man came out and plastered UT with a shovel (breaking it over UT's head). While I am sure this was a gimmicked shovel, live and in person, this was incredible; they didn't do the shovel shot justice on TV. UT sold it like he was dead. The masked man (who really bore a striking resemblance to Terry Gordy -- go figure...) revived Mankind and got him out of the grave. The two then put UT in the grave and started filling it up with dirt. Then the heel locker room cleared and guys like Goldust, Bradshaw, and Crush were out helping fill it in with dirt. Finally they had it mostly full when the lights dimmed and UT's music started. Everyone cleared out. And then BOOOOOMMM! There was a fireball right behind the gravestone, and when it was set off, it scared just about everyone in the building. Especially those of us real close to the grave site. I thought that was pretty cool. When I saw on TV that they added in a lame lightning effect, I thought otherwise. Then UT's hand popped up and that's when the PPV faded to black. For the rest of the night, UT never came out of the dirt mound, so I'm assuming he had a nice set-up with some beverages and a TV monitor down there so he'd be comfortable for the hour or so it would take till they could clear the building and let him out.

At this point, the Fink reminds us that the show is not done yet, and to stick around for two more matches. The first of which was:

The Godwinns vs. The New Rockers 

I love the New Rockers. They are hilarious. Lief Cassidy is the most underutilized, underrated performes in the world today. But this match sucked. The Godwinns attempted to encourage a "Rockers Suck" chant, but it kept fizzling, indicating just how little the crowd cared about this match. Nobody did anything in this match. Jannetty taking an "accidental" dive onto the floor was the only really memorable spot. The best thing I can say for this match is that it was short. Like 5 minutes long. I may not like seeing the Rockers reduced to jobber status, but anything that kept this match from going longer is OK with me. In our minds, this was the hands down low point of the entire evening. The Godwinns win a virtual squash.

After that, they get the crowd going again with our in-arena main event:

Goldust vs. Shawn Michaels 

Michaels' belt was on the line, but I don't think anyone in the building really thought they'd do a switch. However, we did note that just about all of the WWF suits (except for McMahon) came out and watched this from the back of the entrance aisle near the production area. Dustin and Shawn debuted a hilarious new pre-match segment. After Michaels did his usual dancing and posing ring entrance, Goldust took the mic and demanded the sound man start "Sexy Boy" again. Dustin proceeded to perform a homoeroticized version of Shawn's usual routine, while Shawn laughed and egged Goldust on. This was totally hilarious. Once they got started wrestling, we got a very good match. Nothing special, and kind of on the short side (less than 15 minutes), but good nonetheless. Goldust kept doing his little gyrations and whatnot to keep the crowd strongly against him. While the pre-match shtick was new, the end of the match was the same thing they've been doing across the country: Shawn stuns Goldust by kissing him, then takes advantage of the break to superkick Goldust and pin him. Nice end to the live show to complement to solid end to the televised show.

An enjoyable event all around. Normally, I would have liked to hung around in the parking lot area, but my ride was heading back to Dayton, due to various persons other than myself needing to wake up at an ungodly hour to go to work or class this morning. I report to campus promptly at noon! Mel stuck around, and she might have some stories to add. Or maybe not. You'd have to ask her.

On the whole, it was a good time. Even if the show itself was nothing special, it's always fun to see live wrestling, especially when you know the cameras are rolling. When we watched the telecast on tape later last night, we thought we definitely had more fun at the show than if we'd watched on TV, but the PPV broadcast wasn't all that bad at all. I'd probably have rated it as a strong Thumbs in the Middle, with the opening match (with Austin), advancement of the Perfect/Austin/HHH angle, and the closing match (UT/Mankind brawl) being the high points. However, the sense that Titan is more interested in building to future shows, be it RAW or the next PPV, instead of paying off on the current PPV, is not really a good feeling. Live, the show was a lot of fun and definitely Thumbs Up.

One of the cool things about being there live is that you can see who people are really cheering for and/or responding to, rather than having to go by what you see/hear on TV. I don't think it came across on TV just how behind Steve Austin the crowd was. Also, being there live, I feel I can definitely say Sid is the most over man in the company right now. Undertaker was #2 on this night. Perfect or Michaels could have been #3; it was a close call. Goldust got the best heel response. Those are things that don't you don't really get from just watching TV.

Later...

E-MAIL RICK SCAIA  
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Rick Scaia is a wrestling fan from Dayton, OH.  He's been doing this since 1995, but enjoyed it best when the suckers from SportsLine were actually PAYING him to be a fan.

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