that or Vince just wanted to throw some gasoline on the U.S./Canada storyline.

Also at SS 97, I seem to remember Jim Neidhart promising to shave his beard if he lost. I think he was going to wrestle Vader. Do you know if this was on the Free For All or pulled from the card?”

In regards to the Anthem, I’m sure all venues require the anthem to be played, not just in New Jersey. I was more surprised by having them include it on the WWF Home Video version. You may be right about it being included because of the U.S./Canada storyline, but if that was the case, I think they could have done a better job making a reference to that, because from my viewpoint it just seemed tacked on and unnecessary.

As for the Neidhart situation, until you mentioned it, I had completely forgotten about him making that promise. However, in doing some research it seems that Neidhart wasn’t scheduled for a match that night. Instead, he promised to shave it off if ANY Hart Foundation member lost that night. Now as luck would have it, Neidhart left the WWF around the time of Summerslam so he never went through with the stipulation.

OK, with that taken care of let’s move on to making fun of this month’s show.

Emanating from the Louisville Gardens in Louisville, KY

Your commentators are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry “the King” Lawler

- Quick history note: This was the first In Your House PPV that went three hours. From here on out, all PPVs the WWF offered would be at least that long.

If you thought the wacky stipulations at last month’s PPV were a one-time thing, you were sorely mistaken. These would now become a regular staple for big matches. The one for this match is a doozy. If Pillman loses, he’ll leave the WWF FOREVER! However, if Goldust loses, Pillman gets Marlena for 30 days. It should be explained that after their match at Summerslam, Pillman claimed that Goldust’s daughter, Dakota, was actually his love child. That was enough to keep this feud going and bring about the above-mentioned stipulations. Goldust meets Pillman in the aisleway and attacks him to start the match. In the ring, Goldust gets a 10+ count punch on Pillman. That prompts Pillman to beg for forgiveness. Pillman slows Goldust’s momentum by choking him with his t-shirt. After knocking Goldust down, Pillman goes outside and begins to chase Marlena. Goldust catches Pillman and drops him across the steps. Back in the ring, the two exchange chops. Pillman tries for a bulldog, but Goldust picks him up and crotches him on the top rope. The fight heads back outside where Goldust suplexes Pillman on the steel ramp. Then, Goldust crotches Pillman on the post. Goldust works over Pillman’s knee, which is odd since he hasn’t done anything to injure it up until this point. Now Goldust goes for a bulldog, but Pillman shoves him off. A back bodydrop by Pillman puts him in control. Goldust escapes a chinlock by getting Pillman on his shoulders and then dumping him off. Pillman tries to go up top, but Goldust crotches him. Looks like Goldust is really trying hard to make sure Pillman doesn’t have anymore love children. Goldust then throws Pillman off the top corner and into the guardrail. That was a pretty big bump. On the floor, Goldust holds Pillman for Marlena to slap him. In the ring, Goldust goes for a superplex, but Pillman shoves him to the mat. However, when he goes for a top rope dropkick, Goldust moves out of the way. Goldust goes for the Curtain Call, but Pillman accidentally knocks down the referee in the process. When Goldust covers, there’s no one to count. Goldust goes to check on the referee, as Marlena tries to hit Pillman with her purse. Pillman grabs the purse and nails Goldust with it. The referee is up by this point and Pillman is easily able to pin a knocked-out Goldust for the count of 3.

Postmatch: Pillman drags Marlena away as Lawler picks up the purse and reveals a brick was inside it. Then in a scene eerily reminiscent from Summerslam 1990 that involved Dusty Rhodes, we see Goldust just miss getting to Pillman as he drives away. I wonder if that was on purpose or just some strange coincidence.

Bottom Line: A much better effort than their previous encounter, however it was still far from great. For me, there was just a bit too much outside brawling. It kinda ruined the flow of the match. I’ll note here that this storyline was supposed to go where we see Pillman and Marlena’s sexcapades in the following weeks and ultimately Marlena would turn on Goldust and stay with Pillman. However, Pillman’s unfortunate death less than a month later put a halt to those plans. I’ll go into more detail about that in the next review. * ¾

- In our first WWF Home Video Obtrusive (just doesn’t roll off the tongue like Coliseum Obtrusive, does it?) we see Goldust yelling and destroying his lockerroom. It’s hard to tell if this was filmed after he lost or when he was originally told that he was going to be involved with this storyline.

Most of the commentary for this match deals with how Christopher may (wink wink) be Lawler’s son. We do know, however, that Putski is the son of “Polish Power” Ivan Putski. A big stall to begin leads the crowd to start a “Jerry’s kid” chant. Christopher tries a sneak attack, but Putski catches it and attacks him instead. A dropkick by Putski knocks Christopher to the outside. Christopher blocks a hiptoss and clotheslines Putski to take over on offense. Putski catches Christopher coming off the top rope with a punch to the midsection. A hurricanrana by Putski gets 2. After hitting Putski with a German suplex, Christopher tosses him outside. Christopher hits Putski with a crossbody on the floor and Putski landed badly on his way down. He landed so poorly that he can’t even get up. After being informed of the legit injury, Christopher leaves him on the outside and the referee simply counts him out.

Postmatch: We get a good shot of Putski’s leg and it is one of the nastiest things I’ve ever seen. As the referees tend to him, Lawler gets on the microphone and makes some insulting comments. Nothing like kicking a man while he’s down.

BL: Hard to rate this as there wasn’t too much to go by. From what we saw, there was some decent moves, but no real flow behind them. It would have been interesting to see where the match would have went had it been completed. As for Putski, I believe he did return at some point from the injury, but never made an impact. ¾ *

- Well, since we have to kill some time now, we get a video package for the upcoming triple threat match between Farooq, Savio Vega and Crush. About the only thing of interest in this footage is that we see that Rocky Maivia is now part of the Nation of Domination replacing Ahmed Johnson. Ahmed was out because he was recently injured. Please continue reading this review despite that last sentence. This review is NOT a rerun.

First man to score a pinfall is the winner and all 3 men will be fighting at the same time. Farooq and Savio begin by teaming up to attack Crush. Crush, however, comes back with a double clothesline. Savio rolls up Crush after he missed a charge in the corner, but Farooq breaks it up. Farooq now begins attacking both guys with his belt. Savio hiptosses Farooq, but when he tries to hiptoss Crush, Crush blocks it and gets a hiptoss of his own. Both Crush and Farooq try for pins on Savio, but both times the other breaks up the pin. A lowblow by Farooq knocks Crush to the floor. Farooq hits a spinebuster on Savo and gets a nearfall. Crush powerslams Farooq, but again the pin attempt is broken up. A slugfest breaks out between all three men until Crush gives Farooq and Savio a double noggin knocker. Savio hits Crush with a spinning heel kick and then goes to work on Farooq. He whips Farooq to the corner, but gets booted when he charges in. Savio goes for a big splash on Farooq, but he gets his knees up. Crush throws Farooq to the floor, and then goes after Savio…by putting him in a reverse chinlock. Ever the announcers note what a dumb move that is. Farooq comes back in with a diving headbutt from the top rope on Crush. As Savio goes for a 10-punch count on Crush, Crush stops it midway through and hits him with an inverted atomic drop. Savio and Farooq botch a swinging neckbreaker spot as each man swings in an opposite direction. Crush and Farooq work out a tentative partnership, but when both try to pin Savio, things go awry. Fans could care less about what’s going on in the ring right now. Crush and Farooq now keep tossing Savio to the outside so they can just fight in the ring. Savio and Crush decide they’ll team up and they hit Farooq with a spike piledriver. Afterwards, Savio wants a high five, but Crush just knocks him out of the ring again. Crowd finally reacted to that. Crush connects with the heart punch on Farooq. But before he can cover, Savio comes back in and nails Crush with the spinning heel kick. With Farooq still down, Savio is able to cover Crush and get the 3 count.

BL: This one started off spirited enough but lost steam pretty quickly. The only thing I didn’t like was how every pin attempt had to be broken up by the third man. I get that they were trying to hammer home the point of the nature of the triple threat rules, but it just makes guys look weak if they always have to be saved. This was a decent first try, but certainly there would be guys who would come later and improve on the format of this type of match. **

I’d like to think that they threw this on here to fill time as a result of the Putski injury, but sadly I think this was planned ahead of time. Like their larger Mexican counterparts, these guys begin by flipping each other around and doing a lot of flying headscissors. After knocked Torito to the outside, Max dives through the ropes and onto him. Crowd popped big for that. Torito comes back in and absolutely punts Max in the head. After Max works Torito’s arm with a wristlock, Torito reverses the hold and then bites Max on the ass. Max sells it as if he just sat on hot coals. Now Torito continues to just murder Max with these stiff kicks. Torito again bites Max on the ass and Max complains to the referee about it by kicking him in the shin. Max then bites the referee in the ass, causing the referee to chase Max around the ring. Max runs out of the ring and hops on Lawler’s lap. Lawelr freaks out as Max puts on his crown. That was pretty funny. Max flips back into the ring only to be booted right in the head again. Poor little bugger. Torito remains in control until Max gets him with a hurricanrana. A powerbomb by Torito gets 2. Max gets a nearfall with a sunset flip. The two do some more flips until Torito gets knocked to the floor again. As he gets up, Max connects with a springboard moonsault. Impressive! In the ring, Max hits Torito with a top rope hurricanrana. Torito whips Max to the ropes, but Max comes back and hits him with a sunset flip and that’s enough for the pinfall.

BL: I have to admit I enjoyed this a lot. I’m probably going to hell for laughing so hard whenever Max would get kicked in the head. However, as much fun as this was, I don’t think I would like to see it on a regular basis. Matches like these are better in short spurts (Ha! I slay me.) ***

- We get a video of the Intercontinental title match from last month, where “Stone Cold” Steve Austin injured his neck. This is followed by the new commissioner, Sgt. Slaughter, informing us that Austin will have to forfeit his half of the tag team titles tonight since he’s not been medically cleared to wrestle yet.

- Back to live action, as Jim Ross interviews Slaughter, who blathers on about how this was a tough decision. Big “Slaughter sucks” chant during all of this. Then Dude Love comes out and regretfully turns over his tag title. Finally, it gets good as Austin comes out and begins by cussing out Slaughter, J.R. and Vince. He then throws the title at Slaughter’s feet and asks him to give him 20. Nice. J.R. tries to act cordial with Austin and as a result he gets Stunnered! The crowd eats all of this up. Somehow Austin was getting more over injured than he was wrestling. This was the beginning of Austin’s war on authority.

- As they try to regain order in the ring, we go to the back where Dok Hendrix interviews Owen and the Bulldog. Owen claims that Austin should be fined, suspended and even jailed for assault. I’m sure he’s saying that because he’s such good friends with J.R. and not because he’s afraid of what Austin might try to do to him next.

This is elimination rules and the last team remaining will win the vacated tag team titles. Thrasher and Henry are the lucky ones to start this thing off. They do little before Thrasher tags Phinneas in. However, before we can get any Godwinn-on-Godwinn action, Henry tags Mosh into the match. Lots of stalling thus far and I’m quickly losing interest. Now the Legion of Doom are in and each have their way with Mosh. Hawk tries to tag the Bulldog, but he refuses. So Hawk punches him as a way of tagging him. Everyone has been tagged in now, yet very little in the way of exciting action has occurred. Henry gets a press slam on Owen, but he comes right back with an enziguri. After being tagged, Animal comes in and charges at Phinneas, but misses and falls to the floor. We get a brief Ricky Morton sequence until Animal boots Phinneas as he was coming off the second rope. Hawk gets tagged and takes on both Godwinns. The Legion of Doom try the Doomsday Device on Phinneas, but Henry breaks it up. Things get chaotic and in the process Henry grabs his bucket. Animal steals it from him and waffles both Godwinns with it. The referee sees it and disqualifies the Legion of Doom. The Headbangers come in and quickly take advantage of the Godwinn’s weakened condition. As Thrasher runs to the ropes, Henry pulls on the top one, causing him to fall to the floor. Back inside, we get another brief Ricky Morton sequence, this time being played by Thrasher. The Godwinns try a double-team move, but Thrasher catches Phinneas with a sunset flip and actually gets the pin, despite Phinneas being under the bottom rope throughout the pin. So now we’re down to the Headbangers and Owen and the Bulldog. Owen comes in and continues the attack on Thrasher. The Bulldog hits the delayed suplex and covers, but Mosh breaks it up. A top rope dropkick by Owen gets another nearfall. The Bulldog whips Thrasher to the ropes and when he comes back they botch a spot that could have been anything from a DDT to a Samoan drop. The end result, however, is that both men are now down. Both men tag out and now Mosh takes it to Owen. Owen and the Bulldog try a double-team move, but Mosh avoids it and Owen ends up hitting the Bulldog with a spinning heel kick. Now the Headbangers try a double-team move, but the Bulldog shoves Thrasher off the top rope. As Thrasher and the Bulldog brawl on the floor, Owen tries for the Sharpshooter in the ring. With the referee distracted by the fight on the floor, Austin comes out and hits the Stunner on Owen. Mosh covers and gets the 3. New champions!

BL: Wow, was that a chore to sit through. It seemed as if none of the guys had a gameplan going into the match. The end result was a lot of stalling and moves that had no logical flow to them. The finish to the match gave us some excitement, but you actually had to be able to sit through the whole thing to be rewarded with that. The Headbangers wouldn’t have been my first choice to win the match, but there are certainly worse choices that they could have gone with. ½ *

- We get a shot of the Headbangers celebrating with fans by the concession stands. Featured prominently in the shot are two women who look like strippers, but could easily be just some of the Louisville locals. Hard to tell.

- Now we go to somewhere in the back where J.R. is applying ice to his neck and cursing Austin to Slaughter. It’s funny knowing the Austin fanboy that J.R. is nowadays completely bitch him out here.

- The video package for the Bret Hart/Patriot match is more just a retrospective on the Patriot’s career than it was about the events that led to this match. Aside from the fact that we got to see some footage from his days in Japan, this whole video was rather worthless. Perhaps that’s what they were going for, though. Produce a worthless video package that is a metaphor for this worthless feud.

Whoo! It’s Kurt Angle! Oh wait, nevermind, it’s just the Patriot coming out to his music. For the first time ever, I chant “You Suck” along with the music. Bret doesn’t waste anytime and immediately attacks the Patriot. It’s all Bret early on as he puts the Patriot in a tree of woe and stomps away on him. The Patriot finally comes back with a whip reversal and a clothesline. Another clothesline sends Bret to the outside, so he decides to take a breather. Back inside, the Patriot hits a series of armdrags on Bret and then begins working over Bret’s arm. I’ll just note that ever since J.R. left after getting Stunnered, Vince and Lawler have really been out of sync in their commentating. Bret stops the attack on his arm by kicking the Patriot in the knee. Now Bret takes over by doing some damage to the Patriot’s left leg. Bret puts the Patriot in the figure four leglock around the post and then rams his knee into the same post. As the action goes back into the ring, we see the British Bulldog come down to ringside. That causes an “Austin” chant to break out. The Patriot blocks a suplex attempt and then delivers one to Bret. A sunset flip gets 2 for the Patriot. As the Patriot runs off the ropes, the Bulldog trips him. The Patriot starts to yell at the Bulldog, which allows Bret to roll him up for 2. Then the Patriot throws Bret into the Bulldog, who was on the apron and cradles him for another 2 count. The Patriot hits Uncle Slam and covers, but the Bulldog pulls Bret out of the pin. As the Patriot begins to go after the Bulldog, Vader comes out and joins the Patriot in beating up the Bulldog. Vader turned face? I never got that memo. Now Bret joins them, but Vader throws him into the steps. The Usual Bunch of Idiots send Vader to the back and action resumes in the ring. The Patriot hits the Patriot Missile, but can’t put Bret away. Bret slows the Patriot’s moment with a hotshot. Now Bret begins to go through his Trademark 5. The Patriot hits a second Uncle Slam and covers, but Bret gets his foot on the rope at 2. Both men go down after colliding in the middle of the ring. Bret gets the Patriot in a small package for two and then the Patriot rolls over and gets a nearfall himself. After whipping Bret HARD to the corner, the Patriot applies the Sharpshooter to Bret. Bret somehow powers out of it and puts the Sharpshooter on the Patriot. Despite being relatively close to the ropes, the Patriot gives up and Bret retains.

Postmatch: Bret continues to attack the Patriot and then chokes him out with the American flag.

BL: This one is tough to call. On one hand it was very technically sound. It had some decent psychology and the action was consistent. However, there was just nothing exciting about this match. I think part of the problem is that I never bought the Patriot as a serious contender. That lack of credibility really hurt the drama of the match. Sadly, despite the clean finish the Patriot would be sticking around the main event scene for at least another month. *** ¼

- Lawler delivers a LOL moment as he tries comparing the Patriot’s near win to Vietnam. Vince’s reaction and facial expression as he tries making this analogy is priceless.

- Now we get the story of why the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels are fighting tonight for the first time ever. It started out simple enough with the accidental chairshot by Shawn that cost Taker the WWF title last month. But then things escalated as Shawn slowly turned heel by becoming friends with HHH. Then, on an episode of RAW, Shawn attacked Taker with a chair and this time it was no accident. Man, give me some of that cool promo music and I could do the voice-overs for these video packages.

As I mentioned above, Shawn started hanging around with HHH around this time. I did not have cable at this point, so I don’t know whether they were officially called DX yet. Perhaps someone can help me out with that timeline. Taker begins to stalk Shawn, who hides behind the referee. Taker isn’t patient, so he just decks the referee. Shawn decides to bail and walks up the ramp. Commissioner Slaughter comes out, however, and sends Shawn back. As Shawn approaches ringside, Taker picks up the referee and heaves him onto Shawn. Taker comes out after him causing Shawn to scurry away. Shawn tries to exit out the In Your House door, but it’s locked. It should be mentioned that this was the last IYH to use the house prop. At the top of the ramp, Taker grabs Shawn and press slams him onto the steel. Then Taker punches Shawn, which causes him to tumble all the way down the ramp. Back at ringside, Taker continues his assault by choking him with a mic cable. After getting knocked into the guardrail a couple of times, (he’s a bump machine tonight), Shawn is finally thrown into the ring. A couple of elbow drops by Taker and he covers, but there’s no referee in the ring. Another referee finally comes down as Shawn is whipped to the corner and does his flip, flop and fly sell. Shawn pleads with Earl Hebner to end the match, but Earl won’t have any of it. With Taker’s back turned, Shawn is able to clip his knee and finally go on offense. Shawn tries a 10-punch count, but Taker shoves him off. Taker grabs Shawn for a chokeslam, but Shawn escapes. Shawn gets clotheslined to the floor and again tries to walk, but Taker grabs him. Shawn tries for a sunset flip, but Taker just grabs him by the throat. Taker works over Shawn’s arm for a bit and then goes for the ropewalk. However, Shawn is able to crotch Taker before he can connect. After knocking Taker to the floor, Shawn leaps over the top rope, but is caught by Taker who then rams Shawn’s back into the post. Back inside, Taker continues to work over Shawn’s back. On Shawn’s umpteenth attempt at leaving the ring, Taker grabs him by the trunks and gives us one of Shawn’s patented gratuitous ass-shots. Shawn catches Taker with his head down and hits him with a rolling neckbreaker. Taker does the zombie sit-up, which prompts Shawn to grab a chair, but the referee pulls it out of his hands. As they get into a tug-of-war with the chair, Shawn dropkicks Taker into Hebner. Shawn then hits two big elbows and covers. At 2, Taker shoves Shawn off and he lands on top of Hebner. Meanwhile, Rick Rude, who was also hanging around with Shawn and HHH at this time, strolls down to ringside. Rude tosses Shawn a pair of brass knuckles, which Shawn uses on Taker. Shawn covers and after a few seconds a third referee comes out, but only gets a 2 count. Frustrated by that 2 count, Shawn punches the third referee. Now HHH and Chyna have joined us as well. Shawn kicks Taker to the floor, where he’s attacked by HHH and Chyna. Shawn helps the second referee back up only to knock him right back down. This has gotten completely out of control. After some more brawling, both men come back into the ring. Taker gets Shawn up for the Tombstone, but Shawn escapes. Shawn then tries Sweet Chin Music, but Taker grabs his leg. Taker now grabs the brass knuckles and nails Shawn with them. By the time the referee gets over to count, Shawn is able to kick out. Now Taker grabs Hebner and clotheslines him. As Taker hits a big clothesline, a fourth referee comes out and ends the match with a double disqualification. Crowd boos the hell out of that call.

Postmatch: Everyone continues brawling, prompting the entire lockerroom to come out and separate them. With Shawn and half the roster on the floor, Taker runs across the ring and does a plancha, landing on everyone that was outside. Wow!

BL: This was far from perfect, but one hell of a brawl. Shawn’s bumping like a madman really added to the entertainment value of this match. By the end, things got a little silly with all the referee bumps. Plus, they basically did this same finish with Shawn back in June. But I’ll cut them a little slack since this all set up the awesome rematch next month. *** ½

Final Thoughts: There’s a real mixed bag here. The last two matches provided something for everyone. If you like some sound psychological wrestling, you have the title match and if you like sports entertainment brawls, there’s the main event. On top of that you have an entertaining midget match as well. This is not a must rent, but if you’re looking for something from ’97, you could do a lot worse. A decent effort for the first 3 hour In Your House.

Next time, we go to hell…Hell in a Cell. Bye!