SummerSlam 97 to D-Generation X: In Your House
I’ve been a wrestling fan for about six years now, and over those six years I’ve always heard about the greatness of the Attitude Era. As I was born well after the Attitude Era ended and only became a fan by the time people the The Rock and Stone Cold were long retired, I never understood what they were talking about. So I decided to go back and start watching old RAWs and pay-per-views from the Attitude Era to see what those people meant, and this is where I’ll be chronicling my thoughts. I started with the first RAW after Survivor Series 1997, where the Montreal Screwjob happened, and plan on watching all the way through WrestleMania 19, the site Stone Cold Steve Austin’s last match. And who knows, if I enjoy writing about it enough, I’ll continue watching past that.
If you need a little catching up on the state of the WWF after Survivor Series 1997, Shawn Michaels is WWF Champion after Vince McMahon with Bret Hart while Michaels had Hart in the sharpshooter, and Michaels was declared the winner by submission even though Bret didn’t tap out. That would be Bret’s last appearance in the WWF until 2005. Stone Cold Steve Austin is the Intercontinental Champion after beating Own Hart for the title, and Vader is mad at Goldust for abandoning his Survivor Series team. Those are the major storylines resulting from SS97.
Since the Montreal Screwjob was such a big deal, that’s what most of programing involving DX revolves around. Even though he is schedueled to face Ken Shamrock for the WWF Title at DX-In Your House, they don’t interact until the final RAW before the PPV, with Shawn cutting a promo about how he has built up a pain tolerance and how they have made everybody who fights them a sucker, and Shamrock being involved in a brawl between DX, and Jim Neidhart and Sergeant Slaughter (I’ll explain everything later). Michaels continually mocking Bret and the rest of the Harts does draw good heat, but it does get boring after a while. And DX is on TV a lot. I did get a little bored of it. There’s a moment when Jim Neidhart comes out to try and shut Michaels up, but they make Neidhart and the rest of the Hart foundation look really weak. When asked where the rest of the Foundation was, Neidhart says The British Bulldog is having knee surgery which is fine, but then says that Owen Hart was distraught and couldn’t come. Then later on DX has Neidhart join DX, only to betray him and beat him up later that night. These people were your top heels just a month ago why are you burying them now? Cutting the Hart Foundation’s balls off does no good. It doesn’t make DX look any better and it weakens some of your upper card guys.
While all this is going on, Triple H has started to feud with the kayefabe commissioner of the WWF, Sergeant Slaughter, after saying that Slaughter couldn’t preform in bed and that if he kept getting in DX’s way, he would have intercourse with his wife. Then they beat him up. Later on Slaughter cuts a great promo where he basically says ‘You can beat me up, but don’t come after my family. You may have beaten commishioner Slaughter up, but you haven’t beaten Sergeant Slaughter’. He then says he and HHH will fight in bootcamp match at DX-In Your House. I am actually really excited to see this match, thanks to Slaughter’s great promo.
Further down the card, Marc Mero is mad at all the attention Sable is getting, being both overly protective and abusive towards his partner. He makes her disrobe him, he berates her, then he berates the fans for chanting her name when he’s the one in the ring winning matches and preforming moves. This culminates with Mero getting into it with professional boxer Butterbean. Mero, a former amateur boxer and winner of the New York Golden Gloves boxing tournament, claimed that he was a better boxer than Butterbean and challenged him to a match after Mero accused Butterbean of ogling Sable. Even though Butterbean was on TV very little, this is still an interesting matchup just based on how much of an asshole Mero has been. I really want to see him get knocked down a few pegs.
Goldust has had an attention grabbing year, first walking away from his wife Marlena in an actually heart wrenching interview where he yelled and her and told her that he had fallen in love with someone else. That someone else would later be revealed as Luna Vachon. Thus began Goldust’s weird period, which is saying something. He came out one night with his arm in a sling, claiming he couldn’t wrestle. When Vader confronted Goldust about his supposed injury, Goldust cracked him on the back of the head with a hammer he hid in a sling. Later on Goldust would come out in a wheelchair, claiming he was now a quadriplegic. When Vader came down and started beating up the wheelchair bound Goldust, the nurse that was accompanying Goldust threw alcohol into Vader’s eyes. Goldust took advantage of the temporary blindness of Vader and attacked him, showing that his supposed quadriplegia was just a ruse. This has been an entertaning build up, with Goldust being extremely wacky and bizzare, but I feel like Vader has come off too much like an idiot in this feud. Goldust keeps getting one over on the Mastodon, with Vader not really doing anything to get back at Goldust.
Stone Cold Steve Austin and Rocky Maivia have been in a constant game of one upmanship ever since The Rock stole the Intercontinental title belt after The Nation Of Domination beat up Austin (And I mean Rock literally stole the physical belt. Austin is still the champion). This has resulted in Austin taking over a TV truck and getting the words “Rocky Sucks” to flash on the titantron, then beating the Rock up while he was distracted, and Austin driving his truck into the arena to distract the Rock during one of his matches. I see why Austin was so popular, His chaos causing mischief is extremely fun to watch, and unlike DX or Goldust, he doesn’t make his opponent look stupid when he punks them out.
And for the more minor angles, The Legion Of Doom lost their tag team title belts to The New Age Outlaws after the Outlaws beat LOD after strategic use of a steel chair. Kane has been attacking people at random in an attempt to provoke a response from The Undertaker. Jeff Jaret has returned but has not wrestled yet, complaining that his contractually obligated demands like a plush dressing room have not been met. Commissioner Slaughter put Jaret in a match against The Undertaker as punishment, the groups of The Truth Commission, The DOA, and Los Boricuas have been brawling with each other, and the finals of the Light Heavyweight tournament will be Taka Michinoku versus Brian Christopher.
D-Generation X: In Your House opened with the finals of the Light Heavyweight tournament between Brian Christopher and Taka Michinoku. Taka wins after hitting Christopher with the Michinoku Driver after Christopher missed a top rope leg drop. I want to tell you more but outside of Christopher getting his mouth busted open there isn’t really anything to add! I’m sorry but this match sucked. It was so slow, with so much downtime between spots. There were some good moments, Taka was great when he was flying and Christopher had great interplay with the crowd, but it was really boring. Christopher was in control most of the match but he spent more time playing to the crowd instead of doing any moves. You could count on one had the number of moves Christopher did that weren’t punches and kicks and have a finger to spare. It make Taka look bad when he spent so long selling without anything happening to him. And Taka is not a bad worker. his match with Aguila before this was great stuff that I really enjoyed. So this match really let me down.
I didn’t have much hopes for Los Boricuas versus DOA, but it was a nice, entertaining match. The story of the match was that one of Los Boricuas hurt themselves on a move, but it turned out he was playing possum and committed a blindside attack on one of the members of DOA, leading to his partner getting the pinfall win. It was simple stuff but it was done well and everything looked good
There’s a reason Butterbean never became a wrestler. He doesn’t have an intimidating voice and he spends all his time stuttering and muttering. He cuts a really bad promo on Mero and says he is ready. We then see Mero berate Sable for giving an interview, saying that she is trying to steal his spotlight, then walking out to face Butterbean. I haven’t seen a gimmicked boxing match before but I can’t imagine they’re all that different from this. Mero spent his time running from Butterbean and getting cheap shots when possible, stuff like hitting Bean before and after the bell has rung and choking him with wrist tape. the match ends when Mero low blows Butterbean, causing a disqualification. Mero continued to beat up Butterbean after the bell rung for the DQ, hitting him with his wooden stool. During the match, a fan held up a sign that really sums up my opinion on this match. The sign said “Who booked this?”. Who decided to book a boxing match on a wrestling show? The match wasn’t interesting, as most of the action was just punching, and while Mero was knocked down by Butterbean, he still gets the last laugh with the low blow. It was really disappointing.
After Butterbean and Mero leave, we get Goldust reading from Green Eggs and Ham. This was honestly very funny. Seeing Goldest in his pink wig, white face paint and masquerade mask reading Dr. Seuss in voices is great stuff. Unfortunately Goldust is interrupted when Luna drags him backstage by his chain leash.
LOD has a backstage promo, and Hawk is just great here. Calls the outlaws boogers that you pick at before flicking away, and ends the promo by going “Ohhhhh what a booger!” It made me laugh out loud. The Outlaws then cut a promo calling LOD dinosaurs. There’s some shtick before the match with Road Dogg and Billy Gunn retreating backstage every time the LOD come after them before they’re finally forced to the ring by officials. The match is exactly what you would expect from these two, with LOD using their power to assert their dominance over the Outlaws, and the Outlaws cheating and using sneaky tactics to get the upper hand. I like how when the Outlaws are in control they slow the match down a lot, so it makes LOD, who aren’t super fast, feel much faster and more powerful. The match ends when Henry Godwin hits Animal with a bucket as LOD goes for the doomsday device, then Hawk gets disqualified because he takes the bucket and attacks the Outlaws with it. Despite the disappointing finish I thought it was a pretty good match.
After we see a video package hyping up the Cobra Clutch and Sgt. Slaughter, we see Triple H backstage giving an interview. He says he brought a survival guide to deal with Slaughter, and in it is a comb with no bristles since Slaughter is bald, he has fiber and prunes to help Slaughter’s digestion, and to top it all off he also brought some diapers for him. Well isn’t that thoughtful. HHH ends the promo by saying he’s gonna have sex with Slaughter’s wife after he beats him. Well that’s less thoughtful. We then go to the match I’m most excited for on this promo, HHH versus Slaughter in a bootcamp match. Triple H comes out with Chyna, and I’m sure that won’t matter later. After HHH comes to the ring we cut to a backstage promo of Slaughter saying that he’s gonna beat HHH up. This match is pretty good since one of these men is basically retired. It’s a big, violent brawl, the kind of which Slaughter was involved in back in the 70s and early 80s. These two hit each other with everything. Belts, riding crops, ring bells and everything on the outside of the ring. It’s good more for the feelings it gives you as a fan more so than the in ring action, because it’s satisfying to see HHH get beat up, but you really hate HH for beating up this 49 year old man. THe match ends when Slaughter has HHH in the Cobra Clutch and Chyna runs in and kicks Slaughter right in the grapefruits. One pedigree on a chair later, Triple H wins. Some would say having Triple H sell for someone who’s 49 and retired makes him look weak, but I disagree since most of what Slaughter did to HHH involved weapons, the ring steps and the barriers. Your age doesn’t change how much getting whipped with a belt hurts.
Prior to his match with The Undertaker, Jeff Jaret gives an interview about how he’s not scared of The Undertaker and that he’ll add him to the list of people he’s beaten. The story of the match is Jaret trying to duck and dodge the Undertaker, taking any opportunity he can to attack The Dead Man’s legs. That is, until Kane interferes. The match ends when Kane chokeslams Jaret, causing ‘Taker to lose via disqualification. Kane then slaps Undertaker, but Undertaker continues to refuse to fight his brother. After Kane leaves, Jaret recovers from his beating and attacks the Undertaker, who gives him another chokeslam. I actually liked this segment a lot. I liked the fusing of the two stories of Jeff Jaret’s first match back and Kane fighting his brother. Jaret also looked good in defeat. He had a few moments where he was in control of the match and he never looked cowardly. When he was losing, it was to the Undertaker so there is no shame in that. It also builds towards when Undertaker finally attacks Kane, which I’m looking forward to.
The Rock is still very raw, and he shows it in his promo before his match against Steve Austin. It’s a quite generic “I am the best” promo. I’m excited to see how he grows. He still has a ton of charisma. Before the match actually starts, The Rock and Austin start brawling with each other before the rest of The Nation get involved, beating down Austin. There’s an impressive spot where Austin throws D’lo Brown out of the ring and onto the roof of his truck which he drove to the side of the ring. Austin then hits D’lo with a stunner on the roof of the cab of the truck, and the crowd explodes. The crowd has been fine all night but they’re really loud for this match. The Nation keeps getting involved in the match, attacking Austin whenever the ref’s back is turned. Eventually it backfires as Austin ducks a chair shot from Kama Mustafa, causing Kama to hit Farooq instead. Austin then whips Kama into his truck, meaning the rest of the Nation is incapacitated for the time being. The match continues with some back and forth between Austin and Rock, but as Austin is going for the stunner on the rock he gets distracted by one of the Nation members on the apron. Austin runs at the Nation member to get him off the apron and stunners the person he feels brush up behind him, thinking it’s the Rock. Unfortunately it’s actually the referee. With the ref down the Rock pulls out some brass knuckles and tries to punch Austin, but Austin blocks and hits him with the stunner. Another referee comes in to count the pinfall and Austin wins. This match had a lot chocked into the short amount of time it had and I think it was really good. My favorite match of the night. Austin looks great, basically beating four men at once and was only struggling for a little bit. The Rock was fine in this match but it was the Steve Austin show. This match was short. So short I fit most of it into my description of the match. It’s most likely due to the fact that Austin is only four months removed from breaking his neck in a match against Owen Hart at SumerSlam 97. That’s also probably the reason its mostly brawling. But despite that it was still great.
Ken Shamrock cuts a promo on Shawn Michaels before their WWF championship match, talking about how his experience as a fighter counteracts Michaels experience as a wrestler, and how he’s gonna make Michaels cry. Very intense promo as he stares right into the camera. I like it a lot. Michaels cuts a promo of his own, it’s quite comedic. He says he’s respectful while insulting J.R., talks about Triple H farting, it’s standard DX stuff but Michaels is so charismatic it makes you laugh. This match was very predictable. Michaels doing whatever he can do avoid Shamrock and find any possibility to cheat. This is my problem with DX. They’re your top group but you book them to look weak and unable to win unless they cheat. It also becomes very predictable. “Oh look! Shawn/Triple H is in trouble! Oh look they cheated and now they won. I never saw that coming”. With that aside, the action in this match is pretty good. Shawn bumps all over the building for Shamrock and makes him look great. And Shamrock is no slouch himself. His body language makes Shawn look great. The match ends when HHH and Chyna jump Shamrock as he attempts to put Michaels in the ankle lock. Shamrock wins via disqualification but Michaels retains. The match was good, probably second best on the night, but I just want to see a DX match without any interference.
After the match is when things get interesting. Michaels, who was posing on the apron after his match, got pushed through the announce table by a hooded figure. That hooded figure? Owen Hart. I guess he recovered from being distraught. We haven’t seen him since he lost the IC title to Austin at Survivor Series 97. He escapes through the crowd after beating up Michaels Hart’s return is a great way to end the show, providing a jolt of excitement after the disappointing end to Michaels v Shamrock
Overall the final In Your House was a fine show, but unfortunantly not the swan song you would hope for. The previous In Your House, Badd Blood, was much better. But this show and its share of good moments and fine matches. It’s not something you should go out of your way to watch, except for Hawk’s booger promo and Goldust reading Green Eggs and Ham. Join me next time as I write about the RAWS leading up to the next Pay-Per-View and the show itself, the Royal Rumble 98.