–Jim Ross and Todd Pettengill are in the booth and they are concluding this set of tapings from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
–Opening Contest: The Roadie (w/Jeff Jarrett) (3-1) defeats Matt Hardy after an inverted suplex at 3:24:
Pettengill does his best to keep up kayfabe, noting that the Roadie has to go from this show to Nashville so that he can prepare for tonight’s match against the 1-2-3 Kid at In Your House 2 as well as Jarrett’s live performance of “With My Baby Tonight.” This is a more competitive than your usual squash match, with Hardy getting the better of the Roadie in the early going and taking advantage of the Roadie’s taunting to go for a 450 splash. However, that misses and the Roadie dances before hitting an inverted suplex to win. It was clear that the Hardy brothers were liked by the locker room because they usually got more offense in than other jobbers.
–We get our last showing of Jeff Jarrett’s “With My Baby Tonight” music video.
–Footage of Diesel unveiling his lumberjacks on Monday Night RAW is shown.
–There’s a new wrestler coming to the WWF and his name is Goldust!
–Hunter-Hearst Helmsley (10-0) beats Barry Horowitz (1-12) after a Pedigree at 3:56:
I suppose that this is our feature match today since Horowitz has a feud going on and has finally won a match. Skip and Sunny comment on the lack of Horowitz’s physique backstage before the bout, with Skip crying into a towel that Sunny hands him. Horowitz gets a few hope spots out of a backslide and small package but he falls victim to the Pedigree after enduring some boring offense from Helmsley. This is the second time that Helmsley has defeated Horowitz this year. After the bout, Skip and Sunny run to the ring and Skip stomps away as he screams into the house mic that Horowitz’s victory was a fluke and that he can beat him in ten minutes.
–A replay of the Isaac Yankem vignette where he pulls the tooth out of a young kid is played.
–Highlights of Shawn Michaels defeating Irwin R. Schyster are shown from Monday Night RAW.
Sadly, at this point my copy of the show gets cut off by technical difficulties but here are the results from the rest of the show (and due to this I will not bother giving a last word summary because I was not able to see all of the broadcast):
*Waylon Mercy (4-0) beat Jeff LeBolt via submission with a sleeper hold
*The Allied Powers (14-0) defeated Jim Dimitri & Gus Kantarrakis. After the match, they were attacked by WWF Tag Team Champions Owen Hart & Yokozuna
*Henry Godwinn (14-4-2) beat Jerry Flynn with the Slop Drop
There were no additional bouts shown on Wrestling Challenge as the two shows are becoming very similar due to budget cuts. There were also a lack of major house shows prior to In Your House 2, but here were some news items prior to the card (courtesy of The Wrestling Observer from July 31):
*Budget cuts, which first affected the WWF’s front office staff, are now trickling down to the talent. Wrestlers and managers being let go include Sione, Afa, Captain Lou Albano, Doink, Dink, and Duke Droese, as well as road agent Tony Garea and television personality Stephanie Wiand. Other talents are likely to be phased out over the next month or so, including Mantaur, King Kong Bundy, the Heavenly Bodies, and Tekno Team 2000. The cuts to wrestlers are due to the company reducing its number of “B”-level house shows and the number of television tapings being cut in half.
*Hakushi’s push has been cut off significantly because rumors are circulating that he has given the company his notice.
*The Ultimate Warrior made his in-ring return at the National Wrestling Conference (NWC) promotions show in Las Vegas on July 22. The show drew a sellout crowd of 2,000 fans, the largest that the NWC has had so far. Jim Hellwig was just referred to as “The Warrior” on the show, where he defeated the Honky Tonk Man, due to legal threats from the WWF. The Warrior is also scheduled to wrestle for the promotion in September.
*Axl Rotten has begun working for the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) as a babyface in hopes of getting a look from the WWF.
*Jeff Jarrett and the Heavenly Bodies are doing some independent work while not wrestling for the company, wrestling on a few shows during the past week for Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling. Jarrett won and lost the promotion’s U.S. title in a series of matches with Jim Powers, while the Bodies captured and lost the promotion’s tag team titles during their stint.
*Independent wrestler Mike Rapuano, who wrestles under the name Bobby Rogers (and claims to be the grandson of former WWF Champion Buddy Rogers), has been threatened with legal action by the WWF after claiming to be the WWF’s light heavyweight champion and sporting a replica of the older title on the independent circuit. According to reports, Rapuano is also claiming in promos to have had homosexual relations with WWF talent (Note: In 2005, Rapuano was sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison for defrauding companies of thousands of dollars and intimidating witnesses).
Up Next: In Your House 2!