WWF
In Your House: Buried Alive
October 20, 1996
Market Square Arena, Indianapolis, Indiana
Attendance: 9,649
We arrive at our first Pay-Per-View on our journey through these retro wrestling reviews, and of course it is one of the more infamous WWF shows: In Your House: Buried Alive. The show took place at the old Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, Indiana. 9,649 fans were in attendance for this show, and on commentary we had the regular crew of Vince McMahon, Jerry “The King” Lawler, and Jim Ross. The show kicks off with a promo package for Mankind vs. The Undertaker in the Main Event: a Buried Alive match! We instantly start getting technical difficulties as Jim Ross’s microphone and headset just aren’t working… and I for the life of me cannot tell if this is a rib (a wrestling term for a practical joke) or a shoot (another wrestling term for legitimate).
Out comes Hunter Hearst Helmsley for the first match of the night, and who is it against? Well it’s Steve Austin of course! Wasn’t he supposed to be facing off against Savio Vega!? Apparently Savio got injured, so Hunter is inserted into this match instead. That’s not the only match that’s been messed up on the card. Apparently Ahmed Johnson injured Farooq so now the Intercontinental Championship match is Marc Mero vs. Goldust.
We get a quick backstage promo between Kevin Kelly and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Austin is asked if his game plan has changed, to which he states he has a list, and everyone’s on it, so it doesn’t change “a damn bit”. He then declares that Savio Vega isn’t actually hurt, and that he knows it for a fact. He gives Hunter some credit for being a man and stepping up to challenge Stone Cold; Austin then pivots to Bret Hart coming onto RAW tomorrow night. He hopes it’s Bret’s retirement announcement, because if not, Austin is going to retire him then — and that’s the bottom line. Austin also has an amazing jab at people who, at this time, were getting pretty persnickety with some of the language he was using, and in his own words, “they can just kiss my a**”. I love Steve Austin; he is, in fact, the best thing going in wrestling at this time (unless you’re into the nWo).
Steve Austin vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley w/ His Valet
The match starts off pretty slowly for the most part, quite a bit of stalling and slight wrestling holds for no apparent reason. Austin does flip Hunter the double bird to a pretty remarkable reaction following a takeover hold, and God bless this crowd, even with nothing happening, they start chanting “Perfect” in reference to Mr. Perfect’s problems with Hunter. I actually think the stalling makes a bit of sense, considering they are two heels that nobody likes (except for Austin, everyone likes Austin, even if the WWF doesn’t want you to yet). A great spot is when Hunter slaps Austin, whom immediately slaps the pi** out of Hunter’s face in response. Once the match gets going, it gets good. It actually starts to turn into a pretty solid technical match and this crowd is all into it. Obviously, Hunter is the bigger heel of the match as he cheats constantly to gain an advantage. The middle of the match saw a nice sleeper hold battle where each guy would irish whip each other to prevent being knocked out, ending in Austin hitting a modified Stunner. Austin only got a two count, though. A good sequence in my opinion and I’m actually all for this match. Austin is extremely giving to the future Triple H.
Out comes Mr. Perfect and this crowd goes nuts. He distracts Triple H yet again, who gets attacked from behind by Austin. Austin, unsurprisingly, gets in the face of Perfect, who yells, “Don’t you ever get in my face!”. The cojones of Mr. Perfect is not lost on Austin or anyone else, ladies and gentlemen, because Perfect grabs Austin’s tights and starts jaw-jacking with him. Austin backs off, and like a heel, throws a cup of water on him when he has his back turned. Perfect is hot and tries to go after Austin, but Austin gets into the ring and eats some punches by Hunter. Hunter has the match won as he’s about to hit the Pedigree, but dag-nabbit, he’s still miffed about Perfect stealing his lady and goes after him. Austin attacks Hunter from behind and Perfect still wants a piece of Austin. Look at all of this storytelling (that will inevitably be rendered useless in the very near future)!
Austin has a suplex countered and he takes a bump on the solid concrete, which is ouch, ouch, ouch. The finish sees Austin missing his attack on the ropes, but recovering while Hunter doesn’t realize. Austin hits the Stone Cold Stunner and bada bing, bada boom, Austin wins this match in a pretty scant 15 minutes. This was a good match and a pretty solid opener. I think this is much better than what any Austin/Vega match could have been.
(Action in Motion)
So following the match we got ourselves a video package for the Smoking Gunns vs. Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith. It essentially recaps the troubles between the Smoking Gunns, with Bart Gunn focused on the tag-team championships, and Billy Gunn more focused on manager Sunny. It all comes to a head when Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith win the WWF Tag Team Championships from the Gunns, causing Sunny to quit on them. It’s now about the Smoking Gunns fighting to not only win back the WWF Tag Team Championships, but Sunny as well. After the video package we get a Michael P.S. Hayes (until further notice to be referred to as Dox Hendrix) interview with the Smoking Gunns. Hendrix throws right to Billy and asks about Sunny and his obsession with her, and whether Billy can refocus on the championships without her. Billy Gunn mentions that she’s probably still around somewhere and when *he* beats the Bulldog and Owen, *he’ll* get Sunny back. Bart is flustered and tries to spell out that they’re a tag team and thus it’s “*we*”, but Billy just steamrolls over him.
WWF World Tag Team Championships
The Smoking Gunns vs. The British Bulldog and Owen Hart (c) w/ Clarence Mason
We get the WWF Tag Team Championships between The Smoking Gunns and the champions Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith. Billy Gunn is clearly heeling it up for the crowd, being overly confident and arrogant. Owen and Bulldog are a great tag team in all honesty. This is an okay match in all fairness. Sunny watches backstage, if for no other reason than just to get Sunny involved in the show; she is wearing like a beautiful red evening gown. A major spot is Bart Gunn fighting out of a sleeper hold, and running into the ropes, but look out!
Billy Gunn is in the middle of the apron jaw-jacking with Bulldog and eats the brunt of Bart running into the ropes. Billy goes flying and Bart looks distraught! Billy and Bart are arguing and this is where the story of the match comes in. The Smoking Gunns are just unable to work together as they are just on two different wavelengths. I will say this about Billy Gunn though, he is a great tag-team worker, but a bad singles performer. Once Smoking Gunns start controlling the match though, they find a way to just do enough to stay on the same page. But the finish of the match is actually pretty great. The Smoking Gunns are just about to hit their finishing move on Owen, but in comes Bulldog, who pulls Bart away, causing Billy to miss Owen entirely; Bulldog drags Bart out of the ring, Owen hits the flying side kick on Billy, and gets the 1-2-3 for the victory. An okay match, but it’s obvious Owen and Bulldog dragged Bart to a good match.
After the match in comes Jim Ross who has had enough of these shenanigans and “technical difficulties” which I now believe is a total work. And Jim Ross cuts a damned scathing promo on Vince McMahon and tells everyone that Bret “Hitman” Hart will be in Fort Wayne, Indiana for tomorrow night’s RAW. He takes credit for bringing back Hart, as well. Ross tells everyone that Hart may be bringing a shovel because he’s going to bury some folks. He finally says that since Vince McMahon talks out of both sides of his mouth, he can have two mics. JR leaves in a huff.
Up next is a WWF Free For All interview from earlier in the night with Farooq and Ahmad. We now understand why Farooq is no longer challenging for the WWF Intercontinental Championship against Marc Mero. Ahmed had attacked him with a 2×4 and injured him. Classy, Ahmed, classy. Out next comes Mr. Perfect who is chatting with Jim Ross. He joins the commentary table and I’m all hype. It’s now very clear that the broken mic was just a gimmick; which I’m personally not cool with. Why distract from the matches for this silly cr**? Perfect is so good on commentary.
In the back we get Marc Mero whom Jerry Lawler talks directly to. He asks if Marc Mero is getting cold feet after learning he has to face off against the “Bizarre One” Goldust. Mero mentions he’s too focused on the match. Lawler says that every time Mero and Goldust have faced off, Mero has lost, to which Mero responds with “I’m the champ, and you’re the chump, buddy!” Mero is not the greatest on the mic, but this was pretty funny.
WWF Intercontinental Championship
Goldust w/ Marlena vs. Marc Mero (c) w/ Sable
We start off this match with Goldust playing his usual mind games, but Mero having none of it. Man, when Marc Mero was younger he could fly around the ring was actually a pretty good wrestler. One annoying thing is Goldust’s glitter being all over the damn ring. Goldust sucked in the ring though at this time in his life. He sure could bump like a boss though. There’s actually not much to actually say about this match, it isn’t bad but it’s just so mediocre. It’s actually pretty sad that the Intercontinental Championship was held by Goldust for most of the year outside of short runs by Ahmed Johnson and Marc Mero. A few years ago you had guys like Mr. Perfect, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and Razor Ramon holding it. At least the Intercontinental Championship would see better days real soon.
There is one sequence I will concede was good though, and that was when both Goldust and Mero were running the ropes, Mero hits a big crossbody on Goldust, only gets a two, and then eats a clothesline from Goldust. Immediately afterwards, Goldust gets on the mic and tells the crowd to “shut the hell up”. He then says if the crowd doesn’t be quiet he’s gonna go out there and stick his thong… somewhere. That was a bad strategy as Marc Mero recovers immediately and hits an amazing backflip crossbody onto Goldust. It was a legitimately great spot in this otherwise boring match. I will say the second half of this match is great. Mr. Perfect is having none of what referee Mike Chioda is doing, and goes out to help get Marc Mero in the ring when he’s dumped outside.
Out comes Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Hunter and Perfect jaw-jack for a bit and while Goldust tries to blindside Perfect; it doesn’t work, Perfect knocks his teeth out, and since the ref didn’t see, it’s not a DQ. Mero hits the Samoan Drop on Goldust and it’s time for the finish. Marc Mero hits the Wild Thing and Marc Mero has successfully defended the Intercontinental Championship. Perfect, Sable, and Mero celebrate in the ring.
Up next we get a video package for the biggest hoss fight ever seen this side of 1996: Sycho Sid vs. Vader. The whole story is Vader claims Sid stole Vader’s powerbomb so the two are duking it out for the #1 Contender’s spot against Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series. Out comes Sycho Sid with his awesome theme, and this man is over like Elvis came back from the dead. Sycho Sid is one of those guys who is so awesome despite being so bad at wrestling. He is indeed the master and ruler of the world.
Sycho Sid vs. Vader w/ Jim Cornette
Right before the match, Shawn Michaels comes out to a thunderous applause. He shakes hands with Sid, but talks smack with Vader and Jim Cornette, then kicks Corny in the butt. Aaaaand we’re off! This hoss match has both big men attacking each other with big power moves and I love it. Shawn Michaels joins us on commentary and he essentially spends all match hyping up Sid. Jim Cornette absolutely whacks Sid over the back with his trademark tennis racket, and right away, it is Vader’s match to win. Sid had one of the funniest moves of the entire match: a sunset flip to Vader… a sunset. flip. For reference, that is diving over the top rope and over your opponent while holding their waist to get a pinfall. It was hilarious, to say the least. For reference, Sycho Sid is 6’9″, and Vader is over 400 pounds. It looked hideous, which is why I’m laughing at this.
There’s an amazing spot where Vader eats a big boot from Sid, and Sid tries to do a diving crossbody off the top rope… That didn’t work out the way Sid wanted it to, as he gets caught by Vader, who slams him down like he was nothing. I love this match. It’s not a stellar display of technical ability, but it’s just two big dudes beating the the sh** out of each other, and I’m all for it. Vader goes for the Vader bomb and eats some knees to the stomach. Now comes Sid’s big comeback. Shawn is going absolutely nuts on the mic.
Sid tries to go for the powerbomb, but notices Jim Cornette sneaking into the ring, he lifts the ropes violently to hurt Jimmy’s crown jewels. Turnabout is fair play though as Vader low-blows Sid while the ref is tending to Cornette. Vader goes for a powerbomb of his own, but Sid powers his way out and hits a chokeslam for the win! Sycho Sid just beat Vader! Shawn Michaels and Sycho Sid will be facing off against each other at Survivor Series! Shawn and Sid exchange words but shake hands and part as friends… for now.
Backstage we get Dox Hendrix interviewing Sycho Sid. Out comes Jim Ross to take over the entire interview. Poor Dox, man got cut in by both JR and Vince McMahon. JR asks the tough question: Is Sycho Sid willing to do anything it takes, including injuring Shawn Michaels, to become the WWF Champion. Of course Sid is willing to, he’s the master and ruler of the world of course. Sycho Sid stumbles and mumbles his way through this promo but he gets the point across.
We finally come to the main event of the evening. A video package displays the entirety of Undertaker vs. Mankind. We get some pretty violent clips from between the post-WrestleMania XII RAW, and up until In Your House: Mind Games intermixed with The Undertaker and Mankind cutting promos. This was a pretty good video and honestly, WWF is great at doing videos.
Buried Alive Match
Mankind w/ Paul Bearer vs. The Undertaker
So the premise for the match is pretty simple, the objective is to bury your opponent alive. These kinds of matches could literally only work with someone like The Undertaker. Now this is less like a big hoss match and more a straight up brawl. Mankind and Taker beat the ever-loving pi** out of one another. The first bump of the match is Mankind falling head first into the guard rails, which is ouchies. Mick Foley has probably taken more bumps to the head than anyone in wrestling history. Taker dives off the top rope to the outside and lands on Mankind. This match is okay. They have a giant set placed in the entrance way with the open grave where they start brawling at and trying to throw each other into. Mankind uses a shovel to attack Taker.
They begin fighting their way back to the ring after Taker recovers from the shovel attack quickly, and if you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot of brawling in this match. Just brawling all day long. For over 18 God-forsaken minutes these two men beat the absolute crud out of one another. I was honestly surprised neither man was busted open by the end of it. So they’re back at ringside, and Taker is utterly killing poor Mick. Undertaker is choking Mankind with microphone cords; Jerry Lawler quips “I haven’t seen this much choking since the Cardinals played the Braves”. Timely joke Lawler! They go into the crowd they go, and Taker has an awesome spot where he dives over the guard-rail to attack Mankind. He just barely makes it over the rail because his foot absolutely caught the bottom of it.
Undertaker prepares for his Old School move (walking on the ropes), but Paul Bearer shakes the ropes and poor Taker falls right on the family jewels. It’s here that Mankind takes over the match, trying desperately to disfigure Taker. A reminder that Mankind has a victory over Undertaker at SummerSlam just this year. Taker mounts a comeback but Paul Bearer hands Mankind a foreign object and of course Taker takes the brunt of it. It honestly looks like a taped up pencil or something.
Turnabout is fair play because Taker gives him a taste of his own medicine. Jerry Lawler is such a heel that he says it’s okay if Mankind uses the foreign object in a No DQ match but isn’t okay if Taker is. Taker starts to go after Paul Bearer, and Mankind sneaks up behind him, but Taker sees it coming! Mankind goes down, so Bearer hits Taker with the urn… Taker turns around and looks madder than a pack of rabid dogs. He starts going after Bearer again but he finally eats a chair to the head from Mankind.
Mankind drags Taker back to the site of the grave and now the two begin yet another brawl at the grave site. Into the grave goes Taker… Mankind starts to dig, but Taker drags him in! The two are now fighting in the grave, with Mankind doing everything in his power to stop Taker from coming back. Another great spot is Undertaker hip-tossing Mankind off the set and down to the floor below. Mick Foley, I love you, but this is why you can barely walk in 2020.
Back to the ring they go. Is this getting repetitive? I’m glad you agree. It’s not like it’s a bad match though. Mankind hits a sweet looking piledriver and tries to pin Taker… in a match where pinfall doesn’t count. Taker mounts a comeback here but Mankind is one step ahead. Paul Bearer gives him a chair and DDT’s Taker into the chair. Taker sells it like death… before he of course sits up and begins thwacking the crud out of Mick Foley’s back and face. It is not pretty, ladies and gentlemen.
Mankind tries next to pile drive Taker onto concrete, but Taker backdrops him right onto the “steel” steps. Mankind has to be feeling a lot of pain, because Taker heaves those steps as hard as he can at Mick Foley’s face. Undertaker lands the Tombstone Piledriver, and it is all over for Mankind. Taker literally carries him to the grave. Mankind lands the Mandible Claw right on Taker to get a last minute grasp of strength. Paul Bearer tosses Mankind the urn, and he’s just about to hit Taker with it, when Undertaker grasps Mankind on the throat and hits the chokeslam right into the grave! Mankind is dead, folks. Taker wins the match, thankfully. What a long, long match. At least it was a nice brawl between the two.
After the match, Undertaker tosses refs off the set and continues burying Mankind. From behind comes the debuting Executioner (really just Terry Gordy in a mask, but don’t ask, long story) from behind with a shovel and cracks Taker over the head with it. Ouch. They dig out Mankind and toss Taker in, starting to bury him themselves. This is a painfully long segment and funnily enough several heels from the back hop on out to help bury Taker as “thunder and lightning” strike in the background or whatever. This literally, I kid you not, goes on for over eight minutes. Good God. Crush, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Goldust, Bradshaw… Why are these guys helping out? Who cares, get that grave filled as fast as possible darn it! Honestly, a nice visual is the fans throwing trash because of the preposterous situation before them.
Eventually the thunder and lightning scare away the peanut gallery as well as Mankind, The Executioner, and Paul Bearer. Everyone thinks Taker is dead… when suddenly lightning strikes a shovel etched in the grave and a hand pops out from the grave (oh how obvious they were gonna do something like this. Thus ends In Your House: Buried Alive. Unironically this is a good show that is kinda underrated. Hunter vs. Austin is probably my favorite match of the night, Smoking Gunns vs. Bulldog & Owen is okay, standard tag-team affair for the time, Mero vs. Goldust is arguably the worst match of the night, and even it wasn’t bad. Sid vs. Vader was a fun hoss-fight that had so many hilarious and awesome spots, and the main event was just one long brawl with big spot after spot. So yeah, for our first Pay-Per-View being covered, pretty darn good. We’ll check up on RAW next time we come together.