By Nicholas Jason Lopez

With the first WWE Pay-Per-View held in Canada since WrestleMania VI five years prior, the “In Your House” series continued to invade the houses of professional wrestling fans in the 90’s, giving us trademark mid-90’s WWE – outlandish characters, strong emphasis on promos and athleticism in the tag team and main event matches.

Compared to some of the past IYH’s, this show ranked up in the better half, with a fast-paced two hours with some riveting matches, nothing ever getting slow or boring, even though some of the overbooked finishes were questionable.

All on that below.

(Aired 10/22/1995)

The Breakdown

– Interesting they got things off with “Great White North” by having “up and coming music sensation” Toni Wilson (who?) sing the Canadian National Anthem. Yes – there was also a stock footage montage with Toronto, a helicopter and a ship, you know… all Canadian things.

– We started off with a video promo from trusty WWE President Gorilla Monsoon saying there’d be a new Intercontinental Champion crowned via forfeit to Dean Douglas since Current Champion Shawn Michaels was out with a concussion injury, but Douglas would need to defend it against Razor Ramon on this night. He put over how tough it was. Given this was 90’s WWE, it was interesting that they used the real-life occurrence of HBK getting attacked by Marines outside a bar days before the show as storyline instead of having Douglas maybe “injure” Michaels to make him forfeit. Needless to say, Michaels-Douglas was meant to be the marquee match and it never materialized during Douglas’ much-too-short WWE stint. Sure, the “Dean” gimmick utterly sucked but in a time of such cartoonish characters, was a teacher gimmick really the worst card to be dealt? Douglas at least had the charisma and evil laugh to pull it off.

– The commentary trio of Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler were here again for our viewing pleasure. Sweet.

– The Fatu-Hunter Hearst Helmsley match had the “Connecticut Blue Blood” take on the peppy Fatu, who wore a baggy, vibrantly colored get-up reminiscent of Headshrinkers attire. He was still trying to find himself here. Just imagine if Triple H came out to his snoozer of a theme song one day in this age. As they get off to a hot start, we’re not sure why Fatu’s pants read, “Just say no.” He’s making a difference? Really? With the mention of Triple H yet to suffer his first loss on commentary, this was a giveaway right here of this being a glorified squash. Man, Fatu really resembled his nephews here. Triple H put in a mix of strikes and rest holds to dominate here, his clothesline great too. The crowd particularly woke up when Fatu reversed a Pedigree Attempt to hit a stiff Samoan Kick (which later became his finisher as Rikishi). All his luck would run out not long after that as the Pedigree ended it all. Obviously, this was all to keep Triple H undefeated. Post-match, Lawler sucked up to Triple H and they both talked about how bad Fatu smelled and good ‘ol country boy Henry Godwinn tried to slop up the scene but failed. Yup, if you couldn’t guess, Godwinn and Trips were in a feud.

– The backstage interview with British Bulldog/Jim Cornette saw Cornette put over the newly turned Bulldog hyping up the big match between former partners for the WWE Championship, the main event. Bulldog also echoed Cornette’s same confidence. Decent promo work.

– The WWE Tag Team Championship match between Champions Smoking Gunns and 1-2-3 Kid/Razor started with a face promo with them saying all their problems were behind and they even matched attires. How cute. The match kept some high energy with The Kid overly hyped at points perhaps overstepping his boundaries, doing some unsportsmanlike stuff. Oh, that Kid. Ross did a good job on commentary of noting how frequently Razor/Kid tagged in as opposed to the Gunns. Backstage shots showed The Dean watching a monitor of the match in his classroom taking notes on Razor. Interesting. The Gunns made a fair comeback and it was back-and-forth for a bit before the great finish that saw Kid end up getting pinned after he begged to get the pin once Razor hit his Razor’s Edge. It was a smart way to get Razor/Kid on bad terms again. Not sure what the stuff with Kid attacking both Gunns after the match was all about, but this was probably to give fans the impression things smoothed over with Razor/Kid when Razor calmed him down some.

– Funny trying to watch Dok Hendrix try to sell these ridiculous life-size cardboard cutouts as something totally not creepy.

– The Marty Jannetty-Goldust match was all about the latter’s debut with a promo that promised lights, cameras and actions, as he talked as if he was a Hollywood actor. Of course he had his trademark face paint and blonde wig on too. Liked the little Hollywood Stars Of Fame on the ramp during the entrance and Lawler comparing it to the Academy Awards and the photo flashes being paparazzi. Funny. Jannetty’s fringe was so distracting here. Both guys were evenly matched more than we thought, with Goldust strategically grounding the quick Jannetty. Some interesting spots here, like Jannetty jumping up at the ring post irish-whip to make it look more vicious. Interesting face-first suplex to end the match. Goldust definitely had the look down here.

– Had to feel sorry for those four guys bringing King Mabel to the ring with his match against Yokozuna. We saw highlights of both guys helping to crush The Undertaker’s face on a recent Raw. Before the match, Cornette accused Monsoon of instigating trouble with allies for the match’s reasoning. Fiery promo as you’d expect. Interesting start with a face-off to see who the best “big guy” was, as Mabel was pushed out of the ring and fell on his ass pretty much. There was a lot of falling out of the ring in this match, which was a downright big booty bonanza. Yokozuna fell on the outside on Cornette and Mabel fell as well, causing a double countout. Not a pretty finish. The two faced off again afterwards but no blows were drawn and they hugged. Nice tease.

– The in-ring segment with Douglas and Michaels involved the emotionally torn Michaels having to give the belt to Monsoon. Michaels’ eyes were practically bloodshot here as we “felt the emotion.” Liked how Douglas practically snatched the belt away as Michaels was disheveled. This followed by Razor coming out and the match was on. This was pretty good while it lasted, with an evenly contested affair, while the finish was shrouded in controversy as Razor got a pin laying his arm across Douglas while Dean’s leg was under the ring ropes, pointed out by Lawler. They’d probably follow this up on the next night’s Raw.

– The WWE Championship main event match between Bulldog and Champion Diesel with Bret Hart sitting on commentary had Hart be involved with the main event indirectly, as him and Lawler confronted each other, but Hart chased away Lawler twice. The match was okay, nothing too special, as Bulldog assumed control for the majority, targeting Diesel’s knees and when the face made the comeback, he seemed primed for a successful retain. This was after a moment when Diesel shoved Hart’s face when he mistook him for someone else when Hart put his hands up to stop Diesel from falling onto him. Hart factored into the finish again when Bulldog deliberately slapped him and Hart sought immediate revenge, causing a DQ, which meant that Diesel retained though Bulldog technically. This was sold with the pull-apart brawl between Hart and Diesel to end the show. All in all, a solid way to set up stuff for Survivor Series the following month.

Results

• Hunter Hearst Helmsley def. Fatu via pinfall
• WWE Tag Team Championships – The Smoking Gunns def. Razor Ramon/The 1-2-3 Kid via pinfall to retain
• Goldust def. Marty Jannetty via pinfall
• Yokozuna (w/Jim Cornette, Mr. Fuji) and King Mabel (w/Sir Mo) to a double countout 
• WWE Intercontinental Championship – Dean Douglas def. Shawn Michaels (Champion) via forfeit to become new Champion
• WWE Intercontinental Championship – Razor Ramon def. Dean Douglas (Champion) via pinfall to become new Champion
• WWE Championship – The British Bulldog def. Diesel (Champion) via DQ; Diesel retains