1996 Summerslam

The pay-per-view opened up with a promo about villains in masks (aka Mankind and Vader) and the heroes that fight them (Michaels and Undertaker). It described Michaels as a "gallant hero" and Undertaker in the role of David vs. Goliath. We're not even 30 seconds in and already the mind boggles.

The video ends but the voiceover continues to tell us that tonight is coming from "beautiful historic Cleveland, Ohio". Using the word 'beautiful' to describe Cleveland may be the biggest lie ever told on a wrestling PPV and there have been some whoppers. I guess Cleveland was attempting some revitalization at the time because entering the arena Vince calls it the 'New American City' and continouisly referred to the 'beautiful' Gund Arena.

Match 1; Savio Vega vs. Owen Hart
Winner: Owen Hart via ref stoppage

The 'Slammy Award winning' Owen Hart came down to the ring with his cast over his supposedly broken wrist and Slammy Award in hand. Vega had a pre match discussion with the ref about the cast, which pretty much telegraphed the finish. Vega started the match working on the arm, much to the chagrin of Curt Hennig (damn he was great as a heel commentator). They had a split screen during the match showing Corrnette in the back training Vader, teasing dissension within Camp Cornette, as he was not ringside to support Owen. There was a lot of talk about Bret during the match and how much better a person he was than Owen. Clarence Mason, the legal counsel for Camp Cornette, started walking down to the ring mid-match with Vince suggesting that he was moving in on Cornette's territory.

After a couple near falls for Vega, and a few horrible facial expressions by Mason Owen won by striking Vega with the cast that came off his wrist and then applying the Sharpshooter. It was right in front of the referee but they pretended the ref didn't see. Pretty sloppy stuff.
Following the match Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw came out to yell at McMahon before laying out Vega

They then had a backstage segment where they were attempting to show how ominous the boiler room was only to find Mankind sitting comfortably back there. Mankind then cut a promo about how he was home.

Match 2: The New Rockers vs.The Body Donnas vs. The Godwinns vs. The Smoking Gunns w/ Sunny (champions)  in Tag Team Elimination Tournament for the Tag Team Championship
Winner: Smoking Gunns via pinfall

The New Rockers (Marty Jannety and Leif Cassidy) came down in their tie dye outfits; the Body Donnas walked in with  a cast around the neck of Skip (casts seemed to be a theme of the show); the Goodwinns entered with a dog and finally the champion Gunns came down to the ring with Sunny, Again the highlight of the tag team division at this time was Sunny. The rules for the match were that you could tag any other person to come into the ring, not just your partner. It was an elmination match so why any team would accept a tag until the end is a mystery they didn't try to explain. The match started off with Billy Gunn and Henry Godwinn and then became Zip vs. Phineas. Zip and Phinas both tagged the Gunns, which resulted them being in the ring together against each other. They argued and moved around the ring until Bart tagged Zip making the whole segment of the match pointless. Marty Jannetty pulled out Zip's legs when he tried to run the ropes, which was enough to incapacitate him and Billy pinned him eliminating the Body Donnas, without Skip getting in the ring. The Rockers' role seemed to be to help the Gunns. After a sidewalk slam by Henry Godwinn both Rockers came in to break up the count but instead double elbowed Billy, who immediately got up and started arguing with them. Immediately.

Somehow, without a tag, Leif Cassidy became the legal man. He was quickly dispatched with a "Slop Drop" eliminating The New Rockers. Sunny teased the Godwinns with a version of 'na-na-na-na poo poo" from the outside. Phineas eventually got the hot tag and had Billy pinned. With Hillbilly Jim and Sunny tangled up on the outside, the ref got distracted and Bart was able to do an axehandle from the turnbuckle breaking up the tag and allowing Billy to pin Phineas for the win.
Sunny then cut a promo praising the Gunns as the only real men and her as the best woman in the arena and unfurled a giant picture of herself as a distraction from the women beside them.

Vince then addressed the entire audience from the announcer's table discussing the WWF events that had occurred in Cleveland that weekend. Then the WWF aired the best Cleveland tourism video of all time. They showed "a race" between The Godwinns using Cleveland rapid transit vs. the Gunns in a horse and carriage. So congratulations Cleveland: your transit system is better than a horse and carriage. They then encouraged the crowd to take the rapid transit to the Gund Arena on Sunday: the arena they were already at on the day they were already there.

The next segment in the video was Jerry Lawler heading to Jacobs Field to get pitching tips from...a catcher. The catcher to be fair was the great Sandy Alomar, but again it made little sense. Lawler asked Sandy how to throw a spitball. Sandy asked him to teach him how to piledrive him. He then asked All-Star pitcher Charles Nagy for spitter tips, again without success.

The third segment of the video was showing WWF superstars helping clean up the inner city...by painting over graffiti, with a voiceover talking about it and surrounded by smiling youth.

Then in a part I rewound multiple times to make sure I heard it correctly Undertaker and Paul Bearer gave away a funeral. Pardon me. A FUCKING FUNERAL!!!!!

Honestly, even if you have no time to go back and watch this PPV, find this video segment and watch it. It's unintentionally  a better parody than the actual parody Cleveland Tourism videos. The final segment was an autograph session. A fucking funeral for fuck's sake.

Match 3: British Bulldog w/ Clarence Mason vs. Psycho Sid
Result: Sid via pinfall

I recently watched a Kevin Nash video that said that Sid wanted to be a vicious heel but Vince wanted him to be the new face of the WWF a la Hogan. Quick personal shout out to the member of the audience, who was featured several times on camera, in full Goldust regalia.

Sid got a long entrance, talking to himself and hyping the crowd.The crowds started chanting 'USA' and despite Sid's psychosis he still remembered he was American, so that's good, I guess, Sid started dominating the match, which led Bulldog to rollout of the ring. A 'Psycho Sid' chant then emerged. Sid then started some headlocks, takedowns and slams. JR called it deliberate, which is JR speak for 'boring'. Surprisingly, they let Bulldog get some offense in, before returning to some more rest holds despite the fact they had hardly done anything in the ring. They showed the split screen with Cornette in the back again but this time Cornette was actually watching the match. The match ended after Bulldog powerslammed Sid but got distracted by Cornette who had come down to the ring to argue with Mason. As Cornette and Mason settled down Sid was able to powerbomb Bulldog and get the win. Just some awful stuff.

A promo aired for the next WWF In Your House PPV, Mind Games. A guy watching wrestling alone on his couch suddenly became surrounded by aliens, then hot girls. Sold.

Match 4: Goldust w/ Marlena vs. "Wildman" Marc Mero w/Sable
Winner: Goldust via pinfall

They said in a prematch interview that this match was due to Goldust's obsession with Sable but showed a video of Mankind calling Sable 'Mama', which just confused things. I guess women being a rare commodity in the WWF made all the men go crazy, even Goldust.

Mero changed his look away from the leopard print and JR said Mero promised a new move during this match, They explained during this match that Ahmed Johnson was injured at home, which helped me to understand why Vince's golden boy wasn't there. Vince did promise an interview with Johnson later in the PPV. Hennig, who was on commentary, tried to get to JR and Vince to focus on the match in the ring. Once again, Mr. Perfect was the best. During the match Mankind came down to find his mother Sable. After scaring Sable, he left as quickly as he arrived.

Meanwhile, Marlena was unperturbed on the other side, continuing to smoke on her cigar.and right, there was still a a match going on. Mero seemed to be a much better worker than Goldust and his moves looked crisper, while Goldust looked lazy and sloppy. There was a botched spot where he carried him to the side of the ring and both just fell over the ropes, but Mero quickly got up and did an attack from the ring to the outside to save the spot. Mero did an impressive shooting star press, called "The Wild Thing", his new signature manoeuvre, but Marlena distracted the referee preventing the pin. Goldust then got the Curtain Call for the win. With Mero out Goldust creeped out Sable again, which led to her acting scared for the second time in the match, and equally unconvincing.

 Mero eventually recovered to save Sable.

A video segment then showed Ahmed Johnson, who was having surgery for his kidneys after an attack by Farooq and Gorilla Monsoon vacating the title. There will be an 8 man tournament for the Intercontinental Title beginning on RAW the next night. The video questioned whether Johnson would ever return to wrestling. Johnson had also won a WWF Title shot in a Battle Royal so the Final 4; Stone Cold, Goldust, Savio Vega and Psycho Sid would be in a sudden death Battle Royal for a title shot at a special Raw Championship Friday.

Farooq, dressed in his then gladiator-like outfit, came to the ring with his manager Sunny, who had changed from earier.

Farooq demanded the Iintercontinental Title in an in-ring interview. Sunny called him a "modern day glaidator", which explains the outfit. Sunny then promised Farooq Assad would be the next Intercontinental Title because "what Sunny wants, Sunny gets". Farooq, Ron Simmons, was a WCW Champion back in the day so he probably should have been given a better gimmick but hey Vince knows best.

Match 5; Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs. Jerry "The King" Lawler
Winner: Lawler via pinfall

I was not looking forward to this match. They aired a video beforehand outlining the fued. Jake was shown being interviewed about being an alcoholic and drug addict interspersed with clips of Jerry on commentary making fun of him about it. Prior to the match they introduced "The World's Strongest Man" Marc Henry, complete with fireworks, who joined them at ringside for commentary,

Lawler came to the ring carrying a green bag, with bottles in his pockets. He removed his jacket to reveal a Ravens jersey and pennant. Cheap heat as the Browns had recently left town to become the Ravens.

Jerry cut a promo talking about how he had invited his friends the Modells (owners that moved the Browns to Baltimore) to the arena and Jake's friends 'Jim Beams', pulling out the bottles. He then ridiculed Jake's wife and Marc Henry for not winning any medals at the Olympics. Jerry is a terrific heel and the way they use him now, with that much great heat is such a misuse of talent. Jake walked to the ring with his green bag, with the snake inside.

Jerry took out a giant bottle to offer to Jake, which resulted in Jake taking out the snake to choke Jerry. Jerry rolled out of the ring to escape and again grabbed a mic and the Jim Beam bottles. Finally, Jake started attacking Jerry on the outside. After a short attack, a boot to the 'lower abdominal area' , an attack on thhe ring post, Jake was dominating. The crowd was chanting for the DDT but l Lawler hit him in the throat with one of the Jim Beam bottles, again right in front of the ref, Harvey Whippleman, who didn't see it.

As Jake sold the throat shot Jerry attempeted to pour the two bottles of Jim Beam down his throat. Mark Henry then got up to stop Jerry before he was able to pour the second bottle, seemingly too lazy to get up to stop the first.

Henry and Whippleman helped Jake get to the back and a video played outlining the fued between Mankind and The Undertaker.

Match 6: Mankind vs. The Undertaker in a Boiler Room Match
Winner: Mankind via grabbing urn

Paul Bearer walked down to the ring with the urn as Vince explained the object was to fight out of the boiler room and get to ring to take the urn.

They immediately cut to the back where Undertaker was entering the boiler room and began playing hide and seek with Mankind. There was a lot of walking around here until Mankind finally came out from behind Taker and hit him with a 2x4.

This was a fairly typical backstage fight; some wood , some trashcan lids, and the slamming into various walls and barriers. The commentaors were silent throughout the initial portions of the fight other than some grunts and yelps of "ouch". Maybe they took a bathroom break. The crowd was also dead silent or unable to be heard on camera. I can't imagine their excitement at paying money to go see a live show and then watching a fight on video. What a thrill!
There were even some transmission difficulties resulting in dead air static for a few seconds.

As much as I like Mankind and Taker, the idea of them fighting in a dimly lit back room was ill conceived, especially on a PPV, with no commentary and no crowd noise. At some point the crowd was able to be heard after Mankind put a pipe in Undertaker's nether regions but they returned to dead silence again after that. Throughout the fight Mankind screamed unintelligibly and was responsible for most of the offense. Once again there was sporadic crowd noise, which makes me think it was just poor audio engineering. They then returned to this wonderful screen for an uncomfortably long time:

Getting your money's worth, When the screen returned Mankind had grabbed a ladder, from helpful production staff I assume. He climbed to the top but Undertaker recovered to knock him off for a backstage ladder bump. The two of them began to struggle towards the exit, with Taker finally getting in some attacks, and a visible bleeding elbow. Taker was able to launch a fire extinguisher into the face of Mankind and open the door. The two struggled with the door for a while before Mankind emerging first and attempting to barricade the doors that led to the arena. Instead of using the time to run to the ring he stood there holding the barricade until Taker broke through. The fight continued past the locker rooms where we got an Austin cameo. Mankind was first into the arena as he had incapaciated Taker with hot coffee but once again he just waited for Taker to follow. The two began to fight to the ring past TVs that had been set up for the fans to watch what was going on backstage....Yep...mini TVs. Not even a giant Titantron, mini TVs.

Taker was able to get to Bearer first but Bearer turned the urn away from him. Mankind applied the Mandible Claw on Undertaker twice and held him for Bearer to slap and kick.

Finally, Bearer delivered the final blow and smashed the urn into the head of Undertaker allowing Mankind to take possession of the urn and win the match.

As Paul Bearer left the arena with a taunt of "I'm Paul Bearer and you're not." the arena when dark and masked druids walked to ring as a Gregorian like chant played. The druids carried out Undertaker.as the commentators wondered what was going on and the crowd clapped. Cartoon like stuff.

Then after abruptly cutting to the back, Cornette cut a promo standing behind Vader, in an interview with Michael Hayes.

Match 6: Vader w/Jim Cornette vs. Shawn Michaels (champion) w/Jose Lothario for the WWF Championship
Winner: Michaels via pinfall

This is, according to Cornette and others, the match that killed the possibility of Vader becoming a legitimate top level heel. The original plan was for Vader to win the title, but HBK being HBK refused to the job and the finish was changed. The Outsiders had just recently debuted on WCW Nitro and they were beginning to have some winnings in the ratings, perhaps scaring Vince in taking the title off Michaels. Short term thinking hurt what could have been a long term money making feud.

This was a good match, albeit a little overbooked. Jose Lothario was supposedly at ringside with HBK but he's completely useless so I didn't notice until halfway through the match. Shawn initially had control over the match until Vader caught Michaels and powerbombed him on the outside. They tried to show Michaels punch Vader with no effect, but since Michaels had already managed to get Vader down a few times it wasn't very convincing. The fact that Michaels got as much in as he did isn't the way you want to build a massive heel.

Vader managed to get Michaels knocked down for long enough by picking him up and dropping him on the steel barrier on the outside that he was counted out. Since the title could not change on a countout, Cornette asked Michaels to continue the match to which Michaels agreed.

Cornette hit Michaels with the tennis racket outside the ring and Vader hit a belly to belly but could not get the pin. Michaels took the advantage and was set to hit Sweet Chin Music when Cornette jumped in. He then hit Vader in the head with Cornette's tennis racket earning himself a DQ, giving Vader his second victory of the match. Since the title could not change hands on a DQ Cornette once again asked Michaels for a restart. Michaels once again acquiesced.

Michaels hit Vader with the Sweet Chin music, but Vader kicked out, which was almost unheard of at the time. Vader hit another powerbomb but referee Earl Hebner was knocked out and by the time a replacement ref came to count Michaels kicked out. Vader attempted a moonsault, which is super impressive for a man his size, but Michaels moved out of the way. Michaels then prevailed with a moonsault of his own

All in all this could have been done better. They could have had Michaels hit multiple superkicks to Vader in order to put him out. Better yet, they could have put the title on Vader and had him go on a heel reign with Michaels struggling and eventually getting it back. Instead they killed the Vader experiment before it got off the ground and he was out of the WWF before the Attiude Era got hot. Worst of all they gave away a funeral. A fuckin' funeral...

In Your House: International Incident

What the hell am I watching?

The event took place at GM Place in Vancouver (GM Place is really old), which was claimed to be at capacity. This PPV was a disaster on paper as everyone on the card seemed to drop out just before the event. Jake the Snake was replaced in his match with Mankind by Henry O. Goddwinn, while Sycho Sid took the place of Ultimate Warrior (more on him later)

Match 1: Bodydonnas vs. The Smoking Gunns w/Sunny
Result; Bodydonnas via pinfall
The Bodydonnas (Skip, Chris Candido,vwho was dating Tammy Sytch aka Sunny at the time and his "cousin" Zip, Tom Prichard) began with a promo thanking Cloudy, their short lived cross dressing manager, and explaining that since the fans were behind them they no longer needed a manager. If you heard their promo, however, they clearly needed someone to talk for them. Skip and Zip (seriously? What is with these names) took control over the match at the start while Jerry Lawler insulted the Vancouver Grizzlies and the Canucks. The majority of the match though was the Gunns controlling the action but the highlight of the match was a botched spot as Billy attempted to launch himself over Bart but couldn't get high enough. Sadly, this was before the days of the "You Fucked Up" chant.

It's amazing how bad the WWF Tag Team division was at the start of the era than during its prime with the Hardys, Dudleys, and Edge & Christian. The Match ended when Bart Gunn had Zip set up for the Sidewinder but Skip hit a dropkick on Bart from the turnbuckle as Harvey Whippleman, despite his big glasses, couldn't see what happened as he was distracted by Sunny on the outside. Zip fell over Bart Gunn for the three count.

Backstage, Camp Cornette showed a clip from "Free for All", the preshow at the time, in which Vader saved Cornette from Jose Lothario's "switchblade", which caused Shawn Michaels to enter the ring and save Lothario. Cornette promised to refund all the tickets and PPV money if Camp Cornette did not win tonight ("about 7 or 8 million dollars"). Owen Hart promised to knock someone out with his cast.

Match 2: Mankind vs. Henry Godwinn w/Hillbilly Jim
Winner: Mankind via ref stoppage

Jake the Snake could not make it to this match as he was injured. The Godwinns, slop bucket in hand, came down to the ring and did their trademark jig. This match just looked ridiculous in terms of characters. "If there's one good thing about Canada, they don't have an Arkansas. A state that gave us the Godwinns and a President named Bubba", said Jerry Lawler. Then followed it up with "Unlike Clinton Jake always inhaled", which was probably too on the nose. During the match Mankind screeched and ripped out his hhair. He was being promoted as a dangerous man who didn't care about his own safety or anybody else's. Mankind took a crazy bump from a scoop slam from the ring apron to the concrete floor. The match ended with the mandible claw that Godwinn could not recover from. It's interesting that they booked the mandible claw as an extremely painful manoeuvre rather than just the gross out finisher it became once he added Mr. Socko.

The WWF then advertised their 1-900 Superstar line with the Gunns on one side and Brian Pillman and the Bodydonnas on the other side. The WWE Network thankfully informed me that this line from almost 20 years ago was no longer active, as I would have been tempted to call it. The segment had a line in which Pillman suggested the Gunns wanted to "double team Sunny", which once again brought an apology from Vince McMahon

Match 3: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs. "Wildman" Marc Mero w/Sable
Winner: Austin via pinfall

This was the first time I'd seen Austin with writing on his tights as he had a Stone Cold wordmark on his gear. Jim Ross put over how Austin was destined for superstardom. Vince tried to suggest his opponent was as well...not so much.

This match was a rematch from their semi-final match at King of the Ring, which was Mero's first loss in the WWF. They flashed back to the previous month when Mero "accidentally kicked" Austin in the face while he attempted a rollup. It's unclear why kicking someone in the face that you're fighting would be an accident. Austin was once again the heel and was consistently praised by Lawler.

They then had a splitscreen to backstage where Marlena, smoking a cigar, along with an usher, was on America Online. I thought the WWF pushing their online presence was a recent phenomenon but it was around even then. Later in the match Marlena and the usher came down to the ring and handed a gold envelope to Lawler. It's unclear what was the point as the envelope was never read during the match and did not have any impact the rest of the PPV. Austin won the match with the Stunner.

Following the match Bob Backund was shown in the crowd campaigning to be President (despite being in the wrong country) and then ran a promo for the Tag Team Championship match on Raw. Non title match on PPV followed by a title match on free TV? Makes sense to me.

Match 4: Goldust w/Marlena vs. Undertaker w/Paul Bearer
Winner: Undertaker via DQ

One of the good things about this era is that they actually allowed elaborate entrances. Taker walked to the ring, in pitch black, led by Paul Bearer with the urn. The only time we see entrances like this any more is at Wrestlemania or on NXT.

Undertaker controlled most of the match. They attempted to make Taker seem human as he held the steel steps above his head ready to throw them at Goldust but stopped himself because Marlena was in the way. Goldust, on the other hand, tossed Taker back first into the exposed turnbuckle and also slammed the steel steps against his back. As Undertaker made his comeback he attempted to get the win with a small package. I have never seen Undertaker do that before and am not sure if he's done it since. Undertaker finally hit the Tombstone and went for the pin. As the ref counted Mankind burst through the ring and dragged the Undertaker underneath. Smoke came out from through the hole as Paul Bearer shrieked on the outside. Undertaker eventually emerged from a hole on the other side of the ring and beat Mankind on his way to the back

They aired a short Olympic themed commercial for the next PPV, Summerslam.

The camera focused on the broadcast crew who were waving the smoke away from their faces. The fans behind the crew started chanting "Jerry!" a la Jerry Springer. A fan placed what looked like a paper Burger King crown on Lawler's head as he yelled for security.

The camera then showed Undertaker and Mankind fighing backstage. McMahon noted that they were fighting in the boiler room, but it's unclear how he could know that based on how dark the shot was.

Match 5:
Camp Cornette (Vader, Owen Hart and the British Bulldog w/Jim Cornette) vs. The People's Posse (Shawn Michaels, Sycho Sid, and Ahmed Johnson w/Jose Lothario)
Winner: Camp Cornette via pinfall
Prior to the match a video explained that Ultimate Warrior was suspended by Gorilla Monsoon for not showing up at various WWF events. They also showed him being attacked by Camp Cornette so they had two reasons for him not to be there.

In reality, however, Warrior had been fired by the WWF before the show even aired. The WWF claimed that Warrior had missed several house shows and was taking time off to supposedly grieve the death of his father. Vince did not buy this explanation as he said that the Warrior had not seen his father in a decade and was not close to him. Warrior, on the other hand, claimed that the reason that he did not show up for the shows was due to the WWF breaching his contract, by selling merchandise with his persona and not giving him a share of the profits. I'm more inclined to believe Vince, because Warrior was a nutjob, but there's likely blame to go around to both parties. The end result was he was replaced by the "two-time institutionalized" Sycho Sid in the match and had a hack DVD by the WWF called "The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior" released several years later. Preceding the Warrior's Hall of Fame induction the WWF apologized for the ham-fisted DVD and released a new one more properly acknowledging his contributions.

They aired a Michael Hayes interview with Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson and Psycho Sid. HBK mist have mixed up his catchphrases because he ended it with a Hulk Hogan trademarked "Whatchu gonna do?"

Michaels came out to a huge crowd pop but an even bigger pop from JR and McMahon, promoting Michaels as the most charismatic man in the world. McMahon reused his "boyhood dream" line from Wrestlemania.

A breathless McMahon then announced Ahmed Johnson who walked to the ring witth the "People's Championship Belt\' aka the Intercontinental Title. Wonder if Johnson ever sued the Rock. Psycho Sid go the last entance with his horror music entrance team, because this was still the cartoon character age.

Camp Cornette all entered together because they weren't special enough to get their own entrances. Cornette carried his tennis racket, which he had originally began carrying to protect himself from fans.  Now we're ready for the 6-man tag main event...A 6-man tag main event...on a PPV. Oh god.

The match started with Vader and Michaels and Vince asked "Imagine if Vader had the chance to beat Michaels for the WWF Title', giving away the build for the next PPV.

As Vader and Michaels fought I wondered what the need for Jose Lothario was,other than his punny name.   At one point Sid gott the hot tag, dominatted and cleared the ring. What says babyface better than complete dominance of smaller underdogs? Vince McMahon logic astounds me.

It was then Johnson's turn to dominate. He hit his finisher, the "Pearl River Plunge", on the Bulldog but the count was broken up by Vader. Johnson then pummelled Vader, who fought back witth some unconvincing punches, but again Johnson responded with a scoop slam, continuing the domination of the big men.

Even when Owen Hart, in his home country, got in the ring with Sid the crowd was solidly behind the Posse. Chants of Sid rang out whenever he was in the ring and "We want Sid", when he was outside the ring.

Camp Cornette eventually isolated Michaels and began to work on him but Sid again came in and chokeslammed all three opponents. Sid and Johnson made Vader look small.

Babyface Shawn Michaels hit Vader with Cornette's tennis racket but could not get the pin. He tried to set up for Sweet Chin Music but had his leg pulled by Cornette. Vader was then able to give Michaels the Vader Bomb for the win.

Following the match Sid powerbombed Bulldog and Owen Hart and Lawler rightfully pointed out that they were "sore losers". He would have powerbombed Vader too but Bulldog and Hart pulled Vader out of the ring.

This would be a heel turn if this booking had made any logical sense but, no. The WWF expected the crowd to cheer for a team that had 2 belt holders, a size advantage and attacked the team that hey had lost to just because Shawn Michaels flashed a smile? If you can explain how this makes any sense please do so because I can't figure it out. The booking was so bad it distracted me from even being able to determine whether this was a quality match or not. (I'm assuming it wasn't)

The PPV ended with Hayes interviewing Monsoon, who announced the Boiler Room Match between Undertker and Mankind for Summerslam. They were interrupted by Cornette's victory celebration rantt to end the show.

Overall, this show was substandard, It was like watching a RAW. There were no belts on the line, Mankind coming through the ring to pull down the Undertaker was over the top silliness and the main event was one of the worst booked matches I have ever seen.

I hope the rest of the In Your House events are better than this, but I'm not holding my breath.