Original Airdate: Monday, December 9th, 1996
New Haven Coliseum
New Haven, Connecticut
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This is the go home show before In Your House and we're getting Mankind vs. Undertaker.
Sid vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
It's champion vs. champion here. Sid runs down the aisle and attacks Helmsley during his entrance. Sid completely dominates here and hits the powerbomb after just a couple of minutes. He doesn't go for the pin for some reason and Helmsley rolls out of the ring. Helmsley is crawling up the aisle and we have a countout. I'm not really sure how that made him look any better than eating a pin. This established Sid as a force and made Helmsley look like a con.
Match Rating: 1/2*
They show highlights of the Boiler Room Brawl between Mankind and Undertaker. They then claim that we have never seen them go at it in No Holds Barred. Minus the fact that the Boiler Room Brawl was exactly that.
Goldust vs. Bart Gunn
Vince loves JR's Cruella de Vil joke, showing the power of terrible humor. Goldust is pretty aggressive here to start. The action spills outside and Goldust shoves Bart into the steps. They continue to hype up how we have never seen Mankind and Undertaker No Holds Barred. We get a live interview with Billy Gunn watching the TV on an angle. It's about as cookie cutter of a "I'm a heel now" promo as you'll see. This match actually gets a commercial break for some reason. Bart hits a crossbody and gets a 2 count out of it. Bart hits a bulldog, which is an interesting choice since it's one of Goldust's signatures. They are trying to work a quicker pace, but they both look a little gassed. Bart misses off the top rope, hurting his knee. Goldust clips him and picks up the victory. They were definitely trying; I'll give them that. Out comes Billy after the match and grabs a mic. He says that this is what happens when he's not around. Billy gets in his face and Bart hits him with a left hand. Billy scoots out and we are reminded that they are going to have a match next week.
Match Rating: *1/2
They show clips of the Buried Alive match, which was most definitely not No Holds Barred.
We then get a Justin Bradshaw and Uncle Zebekiah promo about their handicap match with Jesse James. I can't imagine why they were losing to WCW.
Speaking of ratings, we go to Todd Pettengill for the Karate Fighters tournament and get highlights of the tournament.
Handicap Match
Justin Bradshaw & Uncle Zebekiah vs. Jesse James
Double J does his singing entrance and cuts it short so he can attack both opponents. The crowd is absolutely dead for this match and that's no surprise. Even for Double J's comeback, absolutely nothing. Bradshaw holds James for Zebekiah and of course James ducks and Bradshaw gets hit with the branding iron. He does it right in front of the referee and he does nothing, so James pins him and gets the win. After the match, Bradshaw attacks Zebekiah and Vince is baffled by it. The guy has done nothing so far in his run, so not really sure why he would keep him around. This stunk.
Match Rating: 1/2*
Jim Ross is in the ring and introduces Bret Hart for an interview. Bret says that you take the technical wrestling and throw it out the window. All Bret has been thinking about is getting the title back. Bret says they call him Sycho Sid when he snaps, but when Bret snaps, they'll call him the WWF Champion.
We see Mankind in Dubai saying he wants to go home and then into a Royal Rumble commercial with George and Adam. January 19th.
We see the highlights from the Boiler Room Brawl, which was most definitely not No Holds Barred.
Mankind vs. Undertaker
Mankind doesn't even get a televised entrance. The action starts off quick and Undertaker hits a leaping clothesline. Taker hits Old School, which I am still shocked to this day that they didn't come up with a name for that move for years. Taker has Mankind up for the Tombstone and out comes the Executioner. Taker sets him down and goes after Executioner. That leads to a Full Metal commercial, which is an album I listened to every morning while getting ready for school that year. We come back and they are brawling against the guardrail. Taker then stomps on Mankind's Mandible Claw hand on the steps. Taker then takes one of the steps and slams it on Mankind's hand. Mankind goes by the announce booth and sets up Taker's leg on a chair. Mankind leaps off the ring and hits an elbow right on Taker's leg. JR lets us know that he heard a pop. Mankind tries to use a padded chair but Taker kicks it into him. Mankind is then able to get the Mandible Claw on so I guess the early attack on his hand didn't end up working. Taker is in the hold for a long time and slowly starts to stand up. Taker escapes and we get a really weird looking move in the corner. They just kind of pretend it never happened and Taker hits the Tombstone for the win. This was a good main event, even if we have seen this 500 times by now. Right after the match, Executioner attacks Taker from behind and puts on the worst looking sleeper you will ever see. We go off the air with Taker about to pass out.
Match Rating: ***
The Bret interview was short, but sweet and the main event was good enough for an hour long show to make this enjoyable. The rest was stuff that no one cared about, especially the Jesse James match. This really did nothing much in the way of getting you hyped for In Your House, so in that respect it was kind of a failure.
Overall Rating: 55%
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