–A poor knock off of the Monday Night Football theme plays us in with a chorus of “In Your House, In Your House, tonight!”
–Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler are in the booth, both dressed in country music-like attire, and they are live from Nashville, Tennessee.
–Opening Contest: The Roadie (4-1) pins the 1-2-3 Kid (7-1) after a piledriver off the second rope at 7:26:
The company has retconned the Kid’s neck injury to be at the hands of Jarrett and the Roadie several months ago and hence the pretext for this match. Conspicuous by his absence is Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett, who is too preoccupied with preparing for his musical performance tonight and is showed ignoring the Roadie’s match on a television monitor in the locker room. Although many fans may have been expecting the usual wrestler versus manager massacre, the Roadie more than holds his own, kicking out of a frog splash and countering a hurricanrana with a sit out powerbomb. And after crotching the Kid on the top rope, the Roadie delivers an insane piledriver off the second rope and shocks the audience with a clean win. Both men packed a lot of action into these seven minutes and the Kid was crazy to take that bump considering his recent injury. Rating: ***¼
–After the match, the Roadie does a mic check of the set where Jarrett is going to perform later.
–Todd Pettengill interviews the Million Dollar Corporation. Ted DiBiase says that he has bought the best lumberjacks money could buy, with Tatanka and Kama telling WWF Champion Diesel that Sid is going to annihilate him. Sid reminds Diesel that he is “the master and ruler of the world.”
–Barry Didinski is in WWF Champion Diesel’s locker room, where Diesel is holding a team meeting with his lumberjacks. Didinski encourages fans to buy the generic In Your House 2 t-shirt, which fans can buy buy for $16 (plus shipping & handling) by dialing 1-800-TITAN-91!
–Men on a Mission (16-2) beat Razor Ramon & Savio Vega (0-1) when Mabel pinned Ramon after a belly-to-belly suplex at 10:09:
This match stems from King of the Ring, where Men on a Mission laid out Ramon and Savio after Mabel defeated Savio in the final match of the tournament. This is also Ramon’s first televised match since June 10 as he suffered bruised ribs in a house show ladder match with Jeff Jarrett prior to King of the Ring. However, he takes off a guard around his ribs before the bout, showing that he goes to a better doctor than Diamond Dallas Page or “Cowboy” Bob Orton. Again, the company puts Mabel in a tag team match here rather than a singles bout despite the fact that he is reportedly being groomed for a big singles push, something that would better warrant a singles match with Ramon to give him credibility. And they might as well have gone that way, with Mabel dominating the heat segment on Savio until Mo misses a moonsault and then saving his team by avalanching Ramon against the buckles and pinning him after a belly-to-belly suplex. For the second time tonight, the crowd is shocked at a finish. Mabel gets a lot of hostility because of this period but he looked far better here than Mo, who came close to botching moves like a bodyslam or taking Ramon’s fallaway slam, and he pulled off some big man spots well in the closing portion of the match. In addition, this is the second time that Ramon has eaten the pin when he has tagged with Savio. It would have been a great justification for turning Ramon heel but sadly, that never came to pass as Ramon and Savio kept tagging and trying to make it work. Rating: **
–Call 1-900-737-4WWF and hear from the winners and losers of tonight’s matches for $1.49 per minute!
–Pettengill scouts the platform where Jeff Jarrett will perform later and he gets the drummer to play lots of tunes for him.
–Dok Hendrix tries to stir up the babyface locker room by saying that Ted DiBiase has paid off one of Diesel’s lumberjacks. The Smoking Gunns are said to be driving better trucks and Man Mountain Rock is also rumored to be sporting a new guitar, not to mention the fact that Bam Bam Bigelow just turned against the Corporation. Adam Bomb is also singled out, but is hilariously given no reason for why he might turn, illustrating how low he is on the card.
–Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett cuts a promo against the audience about how great he is while his band plays in the background. He then performs “With My Baby Tonight,” closing with a warning to the fans that he is going to prove that he is also the world’s greatest wrestler when he faces Shawn Michaels later.
–Pettengill interviews fans about what they thought about Jarrett’s singing, with many saying that he can sing pretty well, but some disagree.
–Bam Bam Bigelow (12-3) beats Henry Godwinn (15-4-2) after Godwinn misses a knee drop off the second rope at 5:32:
Bigelow was in the main event last month but for this show he is trying to settle a score with Godwinn, who cost him a match several weeks ago on RAW against Sid. Sadly, the crowd does not care, popping very little for Bigelow’s entrance and not bothering to chant his name when Godwinn gets the advantage. Since both men have the same physical frame they brawl for several minutes, with things really slowing down after that, and then there is a puzzling finish as Bigelow misses the flying headbutt but Godwinn misses a flying knee drop and loses. In that case why not have Bigelow just win with his finisher? These weak finishes are doing nothing for Bigelow’s status as a babyface and are killing his momentum with each passing week, later proven by the fact that this was Bigelow’s last pay-per-view win in the company. Rating: ¾*
–Bob Backlund is shown campaigning in the crowd, telling a young fan something that we cannot hear because Lawler will not be quiet.
–Pettengill interviews Shawn Michaels, who cuts a generic promo about how he is going to win tonight’s match with Jeff Jarrett.
–Intercontinental Championship Match: Shawn Michaels (12-1-1) defeats Jeff Jarrett (Champion w/The Roadie) (13-7-1) with Sweet Chin Music to win the title at 20:01:
Jarrett gets a personalized introduction from the Roadie and a live playing of his theme music during his entrance. The roles are reversed for this title match as both men wrestled each other a few years earlier in the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) where Jarrett was the babyface and Michaels was the heel who came from New York to defend the Intercontinental title (and Michaels won that match due to outside interference). The pacing of the match is excellent as both men work a feeling out period and the momentum of the match swings in some creative spots, with Michaels taking a backdrop from the corner to the floor and the Roadie later delivering a flying clothesline behind the referee’s back to Michaels to keep Jarrett in control. Considering how poorly Jarrett has been booked in 1995 it is somewhat surprising that he holds his own with Michaels as well as he does, and in an ironic twist of fate he appears headed for a successful title defense until the Roadie trips the wrong man, a lapse that causes Jarrett to eat Sweet Chin Music and Michaels to join Razor Ramon and Jarrett as the company’s only three-time Intercontinental champions. This was the best match of the year to this point, although to appreciate the atmosphere you had to see the buildup of Jarrett’s horrid Intercontinental title run and experience the elation of him losing. In a vacuum the match lacks that quality but if you followed the television or lived during this era the excitement of him no longer being champion, and done in by his own manager no less, give this match a special shine. Rating: ****½
–And here is where the drama starts as the post-match booking, according to Bruce Pritchard, called for Jarrett and the Roadie to have an altercation and a split over the finish, which would then lead to it being revealed that the Roadie had sung “With My Baby Tonight” and setup a match for SummerSlam. However, Jarrett just lays unconscious in the ring with the Roadie over him as Michaels celebrates.
–Didinski encourages fans to buy a Shawn Michaels t-shirt and sunglasses for $21 (plus $3.95 shipping & handling).
–Hendrix has to improvise a cocaine-induced frenzy that would make Hulk Hogan blush with shame because Jarrett and the Roadie have walked out of the company, refusing to engage in their planned angle. Hendrix tells the crowd that Jarrett and the Roadie had a physical altercation backstage and are refusing to speak to him.
–WWF Tag Team Championship Match: Owen Hart & Yokozuna (Champions w/Jim Cornette & Mr. Fuji) (11-0) beat the Allied Powers (15-0) when Yokozuna pins Luger after a leg drop at 10:52:
This clash of undefeated tag teams has been building for months and all of the participants have a history, having fought prior to and during the qualifiers for the King of the Ring Tournament. Despite the fact that the pay-per-view is beginning to run out of time, with roughly forty minutes to go in the broadcast, the participants start off very slowly and Yokozuna compounds that by working a nerve hold on the Bulldog. Luger eventually cleans house and the Allied Powers do a cool double side suplex to Yokozuna, but Owen takes advantage of the referee ushering the Bulldog out of the ring and the heels retain. This was a shocking outcome at the time as it appeared that the Allied Powers were bound to win the titles and then feud with the Blu Brothers, who were still positioned as a major team in the division. There was also a crazy Internet rumor at the time – later debunked – that Owen was going to be fired as part of the company’s budget cuts. However, Luger chokes again in a title match with Yokozuna, further cooling him down in the eyes of the fans. Rating: *
–A video package recaps the Sid-Diesel feud.
–Pettengill interviews WWF Champion Diesel, who says Sid has “nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.” He pledges to finish his feud with Sid once and for all.
–Lumberjack Match for the WWF Championship: Diesel (Champion) (6-0-1) defeats Sid (w/Ted DiBiase) (4-1) after a big boot at 10:05:
Shawn Michaels accompanies Diesel to the ring because he is above all the other lowly lumberjacks backing the champion. Bam Bam Bigelow gives a fake smile and a half-hearted hug to Shawn Michaels, furthering the awkwardness of this babyface trio that is soon to be forgotten. Like our prior Diesel-Sid encounter this one slogs along, with Diesel desperately trying to interject some energy into the bout by doing a plancha onto the heel lumberjacks. We also get insight into Diesel’s next feud, as Mabel attacks him on the floor as the heel and babyface lumberjacks brawl. But remember, Sid is actually the one wrestling in this bout, something that is easy to forget when he was billed as a coward and not given much of a serious chance to win the title. Sid delivers a powerbomb but spends too much time celebrating and attacks the babyface lumberjacks for some reason, possibly because he hates Erik Watts, since Watts is the first lumberjack he goes after, but that just allows Michaels to steal the spotlight by flying onto Sid. After that Sid is ripe for the kill, and Diesel dispatches of Irwin R. Schyster, Henry Godwinn, and Tatanka before blasting Sid with a big boot and finally ending a feud that should have died at King of the Ring. That finish presumably sets up Michaels first Intercontinental title defense against Sid at SummerSlam. Oh, and all those rumors of Ted DiBiase paying off a lumberjack? Yeah, that never went anywhere because that might spark some interest around the WWF title that the company desperately needs right now. Rating: ¼*
–After the match, Diesel stares down at Mabel, serving as the beginning of their feud for SummerSlam.
The Last Word: This show marked the last pay-per-view appearance for a lot of talents as Man Mountain Rock, Tekno Team 2000, King Kong Bundy, Mantaur, Jimmy del Ray, Irwin R. Schyster, and Adam Bomb would be released shortly after this show or gradually phased out. And of course, the Roadie and Jeff Jarrett, coming off of the two best bouts on the card, packed up and left the company, with Jarrett feeling that the proposed angle where the Roadie would turn against him and he would be exposed as a Milli Vanilli-like fraud in his hometown was too much for his character. Looking back, the move was a big mistake. Not only did it reduce the enthusiasm of many in the company for ever putting Jarrett in a prime position again when he returned later in the year – the Roadie would return as “The Real Double J” in 1996 – but it took Jarrett out of what would have been arguably the second-best feud in the company – not that the selection was all that great at this point in the year – and a battle with the Roadie could have given Jarrett more depth to his character. Regardless, the opener and the Intercontinental title match made this show worth the price of admission and put a better taste in many people’s mouths after the lousy effort at King of the Ring. However, the WWF title picture remains lousy as Diesel still lacks compelling opponents and Mabel, despite giving a good effort on this show, is just not ready for primetime as a singles competitor.
Attendance: 6,482
Buyrate: 0.70 (155,000 buys)
Up Next: Monday Night RAW from July 24, 1995!