Well glory be!  I’m back again for a third consecutive week.  You’d think this was supposed to be a regular column or something.  I think the dedication is paying off too because I got plenty of feedback this week based on last week’s revue.  I had asked a lot of questions because I had some memory holes regarding certain storylines around this time.  Thanks to my astute readers, I can now give you the answers.
 

Regarding the origin of D-Generation X: I had mentioned that I wasn’t sure when Shawn and co. starting going by that name.  One reader wrote in to say he was pretty sure that the name didn’t begin until closer to Survivor Series.  During the build for the Shawn/Bret match, Hart had called Shawn and his gang, “a bunch of 

degenerates” and the name came from that.  That sounds about right to me, but since I wasn’t positive I didn’t want to risk being wrong.

Regarding the Vader face turn: Another reader e-mailed me and explained the story: “Vader and the Patriot had a match on Raw where the finish was the Patriot getting the pin, but was worn out after the match.   After losing the match Vader started to beat the stuffing out of the worn out Patriot, Bret hart came down and started to attack the Patriot also but Vader didn't like that. So Bret and Vader got in a brawl over who got to beat up the Patriot. The American crowd loved the fact that Vader attacked Bret and that was Vader’s face turn.”  Very interesting stuff.  I suppose I could have looked up how he turned, but it is much more fun having you write in and tell me.

Regarding the Shawn/Undertaker main event:  I didn’t have a question about this match, however I did recommend that everyone should check it out.  Well, one of my readers sent me a note informing me that this match will be included on the upcoming Undertaker DVD.  So if you were trying to find this show on Ebay simply to see this match, just wait a couple of months and you can watch on a format other than horribly dubbed videotape.

OK, with all of last week’s mysteries solved, I think now is as good of time as any to get into this week’s bag of goodies.  And away we go…

OOld Tyme Rasslin Revue for WWF In Your House: Badd Blodd

Emanating from the Kiel Center in St. Louis, Missouri

Your commentators are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry “the King” Lawler.  This show would be historic, as it would be the last one Vince would do as a commentator.

- This would also be a memorable show for a very sad reason.  At the top of the show, Vince informed us that Brian Pillman passed away earlier that day.  Pillman was found dead in his hotel room earlier in the day of the show.  Being only a WWF fan all of my life, I never got a chance to see Pillman at his peak, but I’ve been around wrestling long enough to know that we lost a strong performer that day.  It’s always sad to see people that young have their lives ended prematurely.

Handicap Tag Team Match: The Legion of Doom vs. The Nation of Domination

This was originally supposed to be a 6-man tag team match with Ken Shamrock joining the Legion of Doom, but he was injured at the hands of Farooq a couple of weeks ago during the Intercontinental title tournament.  LOD stupidly decide to go short-handed instead of finding a replacement.  D’Lo Brown and Hawk start off with Hawk dominating early.  Rocky Maivia gets tagged in and immediately receives a “Rocky sucks” chant.  A shouldertackle and a dropkick by Animal send Rocky bailing to the floor.  Coming back in, Rocky gets Hawk over to his corner and tags Kama Mustafa.  Hawk and Kama double clothesline each other and then both no-sell it.  Huh?  Then Hawk drops Kama with an enziguri.  Animal is tagged in and powerslams Kama.  However, Rocky comes in and DDTs Animal.  That certainly turned the tide.  Kama dumps Animal to the floor, allowing the other Nation members to attack him.  In the ring, D’Lo whips Animal to the corner, but when he charges, Animal fires back with a clothesline.  D’Lo prevents Animal from tagging and goes back to work on him.  The Ricky Morton sequence provides us with nothing interesting from the Nation.  A missed charge by Kama allows Animal to tag.  However, the referee was tied up with Rocky and didn’t see it, so he won’t allow it.  As Hawk argues with the referee, the Nation triple-teams Animal.  D’Lo hits the frog splash, but Animal somehow kicks out at 2.  Animal and Rocky double clothesline each other and as Animal gets up, he finally makes the tag to Hawk.  Hawk takes it to Rocky and soon all five men are in.  LOD clear out D’Lo and Kama and then set Rocky up for the Doomsday Device.  As Hawk goes up, Farooq comes out.  This provides enough of a distraction for the other Nation members to attack from behind.  Rocky hits the Rock Bottom on Hawk and picks up the victory.

Bottom Line: Boy do I hate that ending.  It’s not creative and it didn’t help the Nation look strong by having Farooq have to come out and help, despite them already having a 3-on-2 advantage.  The match itself was pretty pedestrian.  I would have liked to see the Nation use their 1-man advantage more than they did.  However, given the LOD’s difficulty in selling, it may not have been worth it.  * ¼

- Vince again gives us the brief info about Pillman’s passing and how obviously his match against Dude Love will not happen tonight.  As I mentioned last month, this night was supposed to be the culmination of Marlena turning on Goldust and staying with Pillman.  However, that storyline got all screwed up and they scrambled in the following weeks to figure out what they would do with them.  Speaking of scrambling, the WWF had to do just that in order to find a replacement match.  This is what they came up with…

Vertically Challenged Tag Team Match: Max Mini and Nova vs. Tarantula and Mosaic

Tarantula starts things off proper by booting Max in the head.  Geez, this guy takes more shots to the cranium than Mick Foley.  Tarantula and Mosaic try a double-team move on Nova, but that backfires.  Nova continues to take on both of his opponents with ease until Mosaic trips Nova from the apron.  All four guys brawl on the floor until the referee breaks it up.  Back inside, it barely stays 1-on-1 for long.  Soon all four guys are in there tossing each other around and blowing a handful of spots.  Mosaic chopblocks Nova to give his team their first advantage.  Tarantula hits Nova with a top rope splash and gets 2.  Max is back in now and he gets attacked from behind.  Tarantula then takes Max and press slams him onto the announcer’s table, right in front of Lawler.  Lawler cackles in delight over that move.  Max continues to get abused in the ring until he’s able to hit a top rope bodypress on Tarantula.  After hitting an armdrag on Tarantula, Max gets him in a crucifix and pins him in an ugly looking 3 count.

BL: Not the enjoyable romp that last month’s match was.  A lot of blown spots and just a general sense of confusion by all the participants.  I should cut them some slack since this was last minute.  As I alluded to last month, if used properly they can be used as fun filler.  But when we get performances like the one here, I’d rather see two guys who are on the roster fight and give them a chance to be elevated. ¾ *

- They cart Sunny out for some reason (not that I’m complaining) and have her be guest ring announcer for this next match…

WWF Tag Team Championship Match: The Headbangers (champs) vs. The Godwinns

Completing their heel turn, The Godwinns dumped Hillbilly Jim as their manager and are now being managed by Uncle Cletus.  If you don’t remember him, I wouldn’t be surprised as he was only around for a cup of coffee.  The Headbangers clean house to begin the match.  As things settle down, both Headbangers take it to Phinneas.  The Headbangers try a flapjack on Phinneas, but Phinneas ends up landing on his head.  Cringe-worthy moment right there.  A lot of nothingness continues to happen as the Headbangers remain one step ahead of the Godwinns.  The Headbangers do a number of double-team moves, including Thrasher throwing Mosh off the top rope and onto Phinneas.  With the referee’s back turned, Henry is able to knock down Thrasher with a clothesline.  Now Henry crotches Thrasher on the top rope and dumps him to the floor.  With Thrasher on the outside, Uncle Cletus is able to get in a few shots.  Thrasher gets Phinneas in a sunset flip, but the referee was distracted long enough that Phinneas was able to kick out at 2.  Henry and Thrasher collide mid-ring, knocking both men down.  Henry is able to tag Phinneas, but Thrasher can’t tag Mosh.  A missed charge by Phinneas allows Thrasher to hit him with a back suplex.  Tag is made to Mosh, who takes out both Godwinns and Uncle Cletus.  Thrasher powerbombs Mosh onto Phinneas and that gets 2.  Mosh tries a move off the top rope, but Phinneas catches him and plants him with a powerbomb.  Phinneas covers and as Thrasher tries to make the save, Uncle Cletus holds onto him.  Without the help, Phinneas gets the pin and the Godwinns become the new tag team champions.

Postmatch: The Godwinns continue to attack the Headbangers until Howard Finkel announces that the referee says that if the Godwinns don’t leave they’ll be stripped of their titles.  Well, that sure is more effective than ringing the bell 20 times.

BL: Zzzzzzzzz…huh?  What’s that?  The Godwinns won?  Oh great, wake me when some real action comes my way.  ½ *

- We get a video of Stone Cold’s “greatest hits”, so to speak, as he continued to attack announcers and authority figures, since he can’t wrestle yet.  This all culminated in Austin stunning Vince at Madison Square Garden a couple of weeks before this show.  Ladies and Gentlemen, the first shot in the Austin-McMahon war was fired right then and there.  What it meant for right now is that Vince was outed as the owner of the WWF at this point and gave Austin three options: a) He could find a doctor to sign his clearance to wrestle, b) he could wrestle without clearance, but he would have to absolve the WWF of all liability, or c) Vince would have no other choice but to fire him.  That decision would come on the RAW after this show.  However, tonight we will determine who will be the next Intercontinental champion after it was vacated due to Austin’s injury. 

- We fill some more time by honoring the great wrestlers who have history in the St. Louis area.  The men honored included Gene Kiniski, Jack Brisco, Dory Funk Jr., Harley Race, Terry Funk, Sam Muchnick, and Lou Thesz.  A nice moment, but since none of these guys had any ties to the current product, the fans don’t really care.  However, WWF fans would get to know Terry Funk real well in a couple of months.

WWF Intercontinental Title Tournament Finals: Owen Hart vs. Farooq

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that this was the PPV debut of Owen Hart’s sweet “Owen 3:16” t-shirt, which said on the back, “I just broke your neck” and the debut of his cool ambulance siren theme music.  Before the match begins, Austin comes out and sits ringside, so he can present the winner with the title.  I’m sure that will all go smoothly.  Farooq uses his strength early on as Austin keeps stealing the announcers’ headsets and providing his own commentary.  Owen drops Farooq with a spinning heel kick.  Now Owen begins to work over Farooq’s left leg.  As Owen tries for a figure four leglock, Farooq boots him off and Owen’s shoulder goes flying into the post.  Meanwhile, Austin has made stops over at the Spanish and French announce tables.  Farooq gives Owen some rough turnbuckle treatment.  A powerslam attempt by Farooq fails as Owen falls on him for a count of 2.  Farooq tries a legdrop from the second rope, but come up empty.  Owen goes for the Sharpshooter, but gets thrown off.  A powerslam by Farooq gets 2.  Now Jim Neidhart has made his way down to ringside.  Another nearfall for Farooq as he connects with a spinebuster.  With the referee and Commissioner Slaughter (who was sitting at ringside with Austin) tied up with Neidhart, Austin grabs the Intercontinental title and clocks Farooq with it.  Owen covers and scores the easy win to become the new champ.  The announcers are confused as to why Austin helped Owen win.

BL: It seems that they booked themselves in a corner here.  They were stuck going heel vs. heel after Farooq was subbed in for an injured Ahmed Johnson (I think that phrase is a redundancy by this point).  But by going heel vs. heel, they were forced to keep it short, so the fans wouldn’t turn on the match.  Despite its brevity, there was some solid work done in there.  However, the way this all went down, it seems like it would have been better suited for RAW.  Oh and if you can’t figure it out, Austin helped Owen win so that he could then beat him for the Intercontinental title.  * ¾

8-man Tag Team Match: Disciples of Apocalypse vs. Los Boricuas

So we short the Intercontinental title match to squeeze this in?  Actually, Vince announces that this is another last minute match to fill the void from the Pillman match.  Remember what I said about preferring they use roster guys as opposed to midgets to fill time?  I take it back.  Jose and Skull start things off.  Now everyone gets a chance to come in and do some vanilla move on his opponent.  Chainz gets dumped to the floor, where all the Boricuas beat him up.  Back inside, each Boricua gets their opportunity to attack Chainz.  The other DOA members try to rally the crowd, but they aren’t following along.  Jesus hits a top rope dropkick and gets a nearfall.  Savio goes for a charge in the corner, but nobody’s home.  This allows Chainz to mercifully tag out.  Pretty soon everyone comes in and begins to brawl.  All of the combatants end up on the outside except for Crush, who boots Jesus.  Crush covers, but the referee is preoccupied.  As Crush argues with the referee, Jesus comes from behind and hits him with a DDT.  That gets 2.  As Jesus is whipped to the ropes, Chainz nails him from the apron.  Crush then grabs him, hits him with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and finishes him off.

BL: Almost a virtual replay of every single 8-man these two teams have.  I was bored to tears the first time I saw it and guess what, nothing has improved since then.  That’s the biggest problem I had with these gang wars.  They were stuck always feuding with each other, yet nothing new ever developed in their feud.  Let us please move on.  *

- Bret Hart and the British Bulldog talk to Michael Cole and pretty much give their same old spiel.  The Bulldog ends by saying that they’ll win “right here in St. Louis…right here”.  Normally I would take a potshot for that verbal blunder, but I’ll let it slide since I’m sure Pillman was on their mind that night.

Flag match (sort of): The Patriot and Vader vs. Bret “the Hitman” Hart and the British Bulldog

Rules were changed just prior to the match.  A team can win now either by capturing their country’s flag or by pinfall or submission.  Here comes Kurt Angle!!  Damnit, I got fooled again.  Match unofficially begins with everyone brawling on the floor.  Everyone is using flag poles as weapons to wear down their opponents.  The faces go in the ring and the bell sounds.  The Patriot goes for the flag, but the Bulldog knocks him down.  Vader in now and he manhandles the Bulldog pretty easily.  Bret gets tagged in and starts a slugfest with Vader.  Vader easily wins that.  Things change, however, as Vader misses a corner splash.  After hitting Vader with a Russian legsweep, Bret climbs up for the flag, but Vader gets up and delivers a lowblow.  Both men tag out and the Patriot comes in and hits an ugly dropkick on the Bulldog.  After slamming the Bulldog, the Patriot goes up, but Bret stops him.  The Bulldog then goes for his, but Vader stops him as well.  The Patriot charges at the Bulldog, but misses and ends up ramming his shoulder.  Bret tries to put the figure four around the post on the Patriot, but Vader stops him.  When the referee chases Vader away, Bret is then able to apply the hold.  In the ring, Bret applies the Sharpshooter, only for the Patriot to power out and apply the same hold onto Bret.  The Bulldog quickly breaks it up.  Everyone brawls in the corner and the Patriot tries climbing on top of everyone to reach the flag.  The Bulldog, however, yanks him down.  A back suplex and a big splash are only good enough for a 2 count on the Bulldog.  Vader goes for the flag, but again is thrwarted.  Bret applies the Sharpshooter to Vader, but he quickly grabs the ropes.  The Patriot is back in and he gets Bret in a figure four leglock.  Bret is able to tag and the Bulldog comes in to break up the hold.  After suplexing the Patriot, Bret goes for the flag, but Vader stops him.  Vader slams the Bulldog and goes up for the moonsault.  The Bulldog moves out of the way, but Vader lands on his feet.  Vader’s attempt for the flag is stopped by Bret.  The fight spills to the floor, where Bret nails Vader with the ring bell.  In the ring, Bret hits Vader with a DDT for 2.  The Patriot is tagged in and he takes out both heels.  Uncle Slam gets 2 for the Patriot.  A fan suddenly gets into the ring, but the referee and the Bulldog literally kick him out.  Maybe he was just trying to liven up the match.  I don’t blame him.  In all the craziness, Vader hits the Vader Bomb on Bret.  The Patriot rolls up Bret, but Bret rolls through it and keeps the Patriot down for the count of 3.

BL: You mean to tell me I sat through all of that for that finish?  Talk about anti-climatic.  Why did they ever bother making it a flag match in the first place if that was the finish?  The whole match had pacing problems as guys weren’t even bothering to make tags half the time.  This went on too long for that kind of finish.  Also, I’m no big Vader or Patriot fan, but it wouldn’t have killed them to give them the win in a meaningless match like this.

- Dok Hendrix interviews Shawn Michaels and he brings the funny by sarcastically expressing relief that his newly won European title isn’t on the line in this match.  After Shawn is done talking, HHH tries to add something, but they cut away.  To think what would happen today if something like that would occur…

- We get the requisite video package that highlights the Shawn Michaels/Undertaker feud.  This is nice and all, but lets just get to the carnage.

Hell in a Cell: The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels

Taker begins by stalking Shawn.  Shawn tries to use speed, but gets booted.  Now Taker is giving Shawn some rough turnbuckle treatment.  Shawn escapes a chokeslam attempt and begins to pound away on Taker.  Taker whips Shawn to the corner and he already does his flip, flop, and fly sell.  It’s all Taker thus far, as he connects with the ropewalk.  A legdrop by Taker gets 2.  Taker back bodydrops Shawn and his feet almost hit the top of the cell.  Shawn is tossed over the top rope and then Taker follows him out to the floor.  You can hear some sadistic fans yell, “Make him bleed” to Taker.  Shawn tries climbing the cell wall, but Taker yanks him down.  Taker whips Shawn into the cell and then clotheslines him.  Then he repeats that sequence.  Taker sets Shawn up for a powerbomb and then decides to just ram Shawn’s back into the cell.  Shawn back continues to be abused as Taker rams it into anything he sees.  Taker misses a charge, which allows Shawn to finally go on the attack.  As Taker gets up on the apron, Shawn shoves him off and into the cell.  Then Shawn does a tope, which sends both men crashing into the cell.  From the apron, Shawn knocks Taker down with a clothesline.  Now Shawn does some damage to Taker by using the steps.  Then, Shawn is able to piledrive Taker right on the remaining part of the steps.  Back in the ring, Shawn attacks Taker with a chair.  After two chairshots, Shawn can only get a nearfall.  Shawn ties Taker into the ropes, but when he charges, Taker backdrops him onto a cameraman who was ringside.  Angered, Shawn decides to beat up the cameraman some more.  Back to action, Shawn hits the flying forearm and kips up.  As Shawn connects with the big elbow, we see Commissioner Slaughter come down and try to unlock the cage so that the injured cameraman can be tended to.  Shawn tunes us the band and delivers Sweet Chin Music.  Taker, however, does the zombie sit-up almost instantaneously.  Spooked, Shawn flees out the now open cell door.  Both men are outside now.  Shawn goes for a dropkick, but Taker grabs his leg and sends him into the cage via a slingshot.  What’s amazing is that if you look closely, you can see Shawn blade in mid-air.  Impressive!  Taker now treats Shawn like a javelin and throws him head first into the cage twice.  A lowblow by Shawn slows down Taker’s momentum.  Now Shawn climbs up on top of the cell and Taker follows him up.  Shawn goes for a piledriver, but Taker reverses it and backdrops Shawn on top of the cell.  Then, Taker does the cheese grater spot on the roof of the cell as we get a camera angle that captures it by looking above.  Awesome!  After being press slammed onto the roof, Shawn tries climbing down the other side.  However, Taker boots him off and Shawn goes flying into the Spanish announce table.  Wow!  Shawn has a complete crimson mask at this point.  Finally, both men make it back into the ring and the door is once again locked.  Taker perches Shawn on the top turnbuckle and then proceeds to chokeslam him off the top rope.  Now Taker gets some payback by nailing Shawn with a chair.  Taker signals for the end…but all of a sudden the lights go out and out comes Paul Bearer with some masked man that Vince assumes must be Taker’s brother, Kane.  Kane rips the cell door off its hinges and throws down the referee.  Kane enters the ring and stares at Taker.  Kane does his lighting the posts on fire and then grabs Taker and gives him the Tombstone.  Bearer revives the referee as Shawn crawls over to cover Taker.  The referee counts 1……2……3.  Shawn somehow survives Hell in a Cell.

BL: Simply awesome.  The first time out they got it right.  Shawn played his role perfectly by being bumptastic.  They pulled out some innovative spots and the action was again non-stop.  Thanks to their efforts, Hell in a Cell would forever be the benchmark for brutality.  And as cool as the Kane debut was, the fact that it prevented this from being a completely clean finish knocks the rating down a quarter star.  Still, this match is just great.  **** ¾

Final Thoughts: Clearly this is the epitome of a one-match show.  Thankfully that one match delivered big time.  The rest of the show is completely filler and uninteresting filler at that.  See the main event somehow, but you’re better off seeing it by another means other than on this tape.

Next time…we look back at just another ordinary, run-of-the-mill Survivor Series.