Sunday, July 23rd, 1995
Nashville Municipal Auditorium
Nashville, Tennessee
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We get a country "In Your House" song and video to kick things off in the same vein as the Monday Night Football theme song. Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler dressed as a cowboy, which is a rarity for him.
1-2-3 Kid vs. Roadie
Kid goes out in the aisle and goes right after Roadie to start the match. This was the only right choice for the opener, so they're at least off to a good start in that regard. They go back to Jeff Jarrett's locker room and his back is to the TV monitor showing the match, as he's getting ready for his big night. Meanwhile, Roadie drives Kid's crotch right into the ring post. Roadie continues to dominate until he misses a top rope splash. Kid nails him with a spin kick and gets a 2 count. Kid goes up top and he hits the splash, but Roadie is able to get the shoulder up. Roadie comes right back with a sit down powerbomb. Kid avoids a charging Roadie in the corner and he hits his shoulder on the ring post. Kid goes up top, but Roadie crotches him. He then hits one of the most dangerous looking piledrivers off the second rope and picks up the somewhat surprising victory. They show the finisher again and it was just extremely ugly. The match itself otherwise was solid. Roadie then goes right to the stage and does a mic check and talks with the band.
Match Rating: ***
Todd Pettengill is backstage with the Million Dollar Corporation. King Kong Bundy is even there. We get lots of yelling and laughing, before Sid reminds us that he's the master and the ruler of the world.
We go to Barry Dadinski selling the In Your House shirt in the locker room of Diesel and Shawn Michaels. All the lumberjacks are just making lots of noise in the background.
Men On A Mission vs. Razor Ramon & Savio Vega
Razor throws his rib wrap at his opponents, followed by a toothpick. He hits a fall away slam on Sir Mo and tags in Savio. He hits a big kick on Mabel, but Mabel quickly shifts the momentum and throws him over the top rope. Mabel comes back and hits a kick to the back of Savio's head for a 2 count. Savio makes the classic mistake of trying to slam Mabel and it naturally backfires. Mo misses with a top rope moonsault and both men are down. Razor gets the hot tag and hits Mo with some right hands. He hits the super back suplex off the second rope and signals for the Razor's Edge. Mabel tries to get involved, but Razor is there first. It's just enough to let Mo recover and he hits Razor with a body slam. Mabel goes up to the top rope, but Razor is able to slam him off the top rope. Mabel is able to get his shoulder up on the pin attempt. Razor runs the ropes, but runs into Mo's leg and gets hit by a DDT from Mabel. Mabel misses with a splash and Mo tries to get involved, but Savio takes himself and Mo out of the ring. Mabel splashes Razor in the corner and hits the belly to belly suplex to pick up the victory. They sell it as him injuring Razor's ribs there. This was another entertaining enough match here on the card.
Match Rating: **1/2
Todd is with the band and being his usual, dorky self.
Dok Hendrix is with Adam Bomb, Bam Bam Bigelow, Man Mountain Rock and the Smoking Gunns. Dok talks about a rumor that DiBiase has bought one of Diesel's lumberjacks and Dok makes up some rumors to get some dirt out of each of them.
Roadie introduces Jeff Jarrett to the stage. The band plays his entrance song live, which is kind of cool. He of course ruins it by doing his stupid introduction. They perform the song and Jarrett does a decent enough job of lip synching. He then tells us to eat crow and that he's going to show us he's also the greatest wrestler later tonight.
We get a SummerSlam commercial that is engrained in my brain forever.
Todd is out in the crowd to see what the crowd thinks of Jarrett's performance. We get some mixed reviews with Todd sticking up for him.
Henry Godwinn vs. Bam Bam Bigelow
Godwinn hits a back suplex right off the bat, but Bam Bam is right back up and hits two of them on Godwinn. He hits him with a shoulder tackle to knock him out of the ring. The crowd is not very into this one. Bam Bam hits a DDT, but then is dumped over the top rope. The chemistry seems a little bit off in this one. They're kind of just hitting moves here. Bam Bam misses a headbutt off the top rope. Godwinn then thinks it's a good idea for him to go up to the second rope. He misses with a knee drop and Bam Bam rolls him up for the victory. I like both of these guys, but this one just never clicked. After the match, Godwinn is limping and grabs his slop bucket. Bam Bam just heads to the back.
Match Rating: *
They show Bob Backlund interacting with some kids in the crowd.
Shawn Michaels tells Todd that he's going to be the next Intercontinental Championship.
Intercontinental Championship Match
Jeff Jarrett vs. Shawn Michaels
We get the always effective quick paced Michaels beginning and it ends with a clothesline over the top rope and Michaels skins the cat. Jarrett teases heading to the back, but decides not to and then rolls right back out. Michaels eventually has enough and throws him back in. He goes off the top though and Jarrett hits him in the midsection. We get some more babyface shenanigans where Jarrett gets thrown over the top and onto Roadie. Michaels then hits a dive from the top rope to the floor on both men. Things calm down and Jarrett takes over. On the plus side, Vince's mic stops working. Jarrett sends Michaels into the corner and he goes bouncing over the top. The pace picks up again and Jarrett hits a big dropkick for a 2 count. He slaps on the sleeper hold and has Michaels down. He breaks out of the hold and has the big comeback moment. Michaels slides under Jarrett and crotches him on the ring post. He goes up top and gets crotched on the top rope by Roadie. That allows Jarrett to hit a superplex. He goes for the Figure Four, but Michaels rolls him up and gets a 2 count. Jarrett goes for it again and this time Michaels kicks Jarrett into the referee. Shawn is ready to go for Sweet Chin Music, but Roadie runs in and hits him with a chop block. Jarrett hits a top rope crossbody, but Michaels kicks out at 2. Roadie accidentally trips up Jarrett and Michaels hits him with Sweet Chin Music to become the new champion. This was a stellar performance by both men, working a tremendous pace and filling the match with lots of traditional pro wrestling staples.
Match Rating: ****1/2
They go back to Shawn Michael's locker room, where he's celebrating with his buddies. Oh, and buy his sunglasses.
We then go to Dok Hendrix, who apparently is on speed. He's talking about some trouble in paradise between Roadie and Jeff Jarrett.
WWF Tag Team Championship Match
Owen Hart & Yokozuna vs. Allied Powers
They do a total Owen spot where Yokozuna falls on Owen's foot and he sells the injury. He then limps in to get in Yoko's face and Yoko shoves him down. Jim Cornette gets them calmed down and Owen slaps Luger in the face. The ref tries to get in between them and it allows Owen a cheap shot to the face. Bulldog is in and dominates Owen until he runs into Yoko's knee. Vince promises that they'll give us as much action up until the hour and 58 minutes is up. They aren't working the match like they are in a rush, with Yoko doing the dreaded nerve hold at the moment. Bulldog makes the hot tag to Luger and he seems pretty motivated for a guy who's going to leave in a month. He picks up Owen and chucks him at Yoko. Even Lawler thinks this is it for the champs. Yoko misses in the corner and they hit a double back suplex. The ref is trying to get Bulldog out of the ring and that allows Owen to hit Luger off the top rope while he's covering Yoko. Yoko hits the leg drop and the champs are able to retain. This was actually a better match than expected. They gave them just the right amount of time to succeed.
Match Rating: **1/2
After a lengthy recap, Diesel is with Todd and does his usual interview.
Lumberjack Match For The WWF Championship
Sid vs. Diesel
They quickly establish the Lumberjack gimmick by having Diesel knock Sid into his friends twice in a row. Diesel gets tricked into going near the ropes and is dumped into Sid's side and is quickly attacked. Diesel's buddies come and make the save, with Shawn Michaels leaping off the top somewhat recklessly. It's kind of surprising that Fatu is sort of making his debut here. But I guess at the same time, this was them making it clear that he isn't going to matter much. Diesel launches himself over the top and onto Sid's goons in a pretty surprising spot. Diesel gets tripped up by Mabel and pulled out of the ring. Mabel then squashes Diesel into the ring post. He follows that up with a body slam and a leg drop. Back in the ring, Sid slows things down. Sid goes out of the ring and goes after Diesel's team, but then Michaels flies off the top rope again. Diesel goes for the Jackknife, but IRS, Godwinn and Tatanka run in. Diesel hits the big boot and that's enough for the win. That was kind of a weak finish, but this match was much better than it had any right to be. This was all smoke and mirrors, which is exactly what it needed.
Match Rating: **1/4
Make fun of me all you want, but this was a good show. You had one of the best matches of the early 90s WWF and some other solid matches. It flew by and was just pretty consistently entertaining. Thumbs up.
Overall Rating: 78%
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