WWE In Your House 4: Great White North GRADED - Review

Well, folks, it appears it has been 31 years since WWE presented In Your House 4, which was retroactively given the title ‘Great White North’. A more apt title would be ‘Load of Sh*te.’

Let me assure you guys there is nothing ‘great’ about it, but we’re going to look back and see just what the hell was going on with this oft-maligned pay-per-view presentation anyway.

The show took place on October 22, 1995, at the Winnipeg Arena in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, drawing 10,399 fans, which isn’t too bad for that era, really. 

The pay-per-view buy rate was a different story, mind. At 90,000 buys, it set a record as the then-lowest bought WWE PPV to that point (a record which would be ‘beaten’ by December’s IYH 5).  

Anyway, let’s get to it…

WWE In Your House 4: Great White North GRADED:

We kick things off with Canada’s own Joni Wilson singing the Canadian national anthem. Way to go, Joni!

And then interim WWE President Gorilla Monsoon pops up to let us know that Shawn Michaels is not cleared to wrestle tonight (after getting his head kicked in by a bunch of Marines in Syracuse, New York). He will have to hand over the Intercontinental Championship to his scheduled opponent, Dean Douglas. However, Douglas will then defend the title against Razor Ramon. 

Hunter Hearst Helmsley def. Fatu

Triple H is still a Connecticut blue-blood, while Fatu is trying to make a difference. And just four years later these guys would conspire to run Steve Austin over with a car. Makes you think, doesn’t it? Well, not really. 

Fatu starts things off hot with some right hands before the bell and sends HHH into the lights with a back body drop. Fatu follows with a 10 punch in the corner and HHH takes the Harley Race bump over the top turnbuckle to the outside. Fatu follows and beats him up on the floor. 

Back in the ring, HHH begs off and then tries to throw Fatu headfirst into the top turnbuckle, but he’s Samoan so that doesn’t work and Fatu responds with a headbutt. HHH avoids a charge and Fatu’s head gets tangled in the ropes hangman-style, allowing HHH to take over. HHH with a piledriver and then a neckbreaker for two. HHH beats him down some more and slaps on a chinlock. Fatu eventually fights his way out of it but HHH hits a power post and a big clothesline to cut him off. Fatu gets a schoolboy for two, but is once again cut off.

HHH goes for the Pedigree, but Fatu backdrops his way out of it. HHH tries a DDT, but Fatu no-sells it and hits a superkick, followed by another back body drop, a running clothesline and a backbreaker. A second-rope diving headbutt gets two. Fatu with a running cutter out of the corner, but the top-rope splash misses. HHH hits the Pedigree for the three. 

After the match, Jerry Lawler interviews HHH, when Henry Godwinn shows up runs him off with his slop bucket.

Grade: C- - Perfectly acceptable opener, here. They didn’t do too much, but they worked hard. It was fine and the crowd were into it.

Backstage, Dok Hendrix interviews Jim Cornette and The British Bulldog, who vow to take the WWE Title away from Diesel in the main event. Well they would vow to do that, wouldn’t they?

The Smoking Gunns (Billy Gunn & Bart Gunn) (c) def. The 1-2-3 Kid & Razor Ramon - WWE Tag Team Championships

Lovely matching purple and gold gear for the Kliq boys tonight. Both teams are basically babyfaces, but Ramon is the most over guy in the match. Kid and Billy start things off and Kid gets a quick arm drag before Gunn powers him down. They run the international, ending with Billy hitting a hip toss, but Kid nips straight back up. Tags to Bart and Razor. Bart takes him down a couple of times, so Razor hits some right hands and sends Bart off the ropes, with Kid pulling down the top rope to send him to the floor. 

Back in the ring, Razor takes over for a minute before tagging out to Kid, who hits some martial arts kicks in the corner and then a jumping heel kick, followed by a pair of leg drops. Ramon comes in and hits the fallaway slam and then fallaway slams Kid into Bart for a near fall. They continue to chop and punch away on Bart in the corner before hitting a double back elbow. Ramon goes for a back body drop, but Bart slams him down before they crack heads for a double down. 

Hot tag to Billy, who cleans house and gets a near fall on Kid after a big jumping elbow. The Gunns isolate Kid and hit a nice stalling suplex/dropkick double team. Gunn misses a Stinger splash and they do a bit where Bart and then Ramon switch the cover while the referee’s back is turned. Tag to Ramon, who runs wild with right hands and hits the Razor’s Edge on Billy, but Kid asks for the tag and Billy reverses his cover into a crucifix to retain. 

Grade: C - Decent tag match here. Nothing revolutionary, but they played the formula well and it didn’t drag or anything.

After the match, Kid attacks the Gunns and steals the title belts, but Razor plays peacekeeper and gives them back.

Backstage, Dok Hendrix peddles life-size cardboard cutouts of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, noting that the Bret one can watch kids as they sleep. Not creepy at all, Dok.

Goldust def. Marty Jannetty

This is Goldust’s televised in-ring WWE debut after an age of vignettes building him up. Goldust’s entrance is certainly quite the production. 

Goldust tries the sneak attack, but Jannett ducks and hits a right hand and a back body drop before clotheslining Goldust over the top rope. Jannetty brings him back in, but Goldust bails again. He takes his time but eventually gets back in and gets two off a roll-up, followed by some uppercuts. Jannetty comes back with a hurricanrana and some right hands before getting turned inside-out with a clothesline. 

Goldust with some generic heel offence before hitting the chinlock. That goes nowhere so he hits a back body drop (which feels like the Move of the Night at this point). He cans Jannetty and bashes his head off the steel stairs. Jannetty comes back by snapmaring Goldust over the top rope, which is certainly unique, and then bashes his face into the stairs. Goldust sends Jannetty into the ring post to cut him off, however. Goldust suplexes Jannetty back into the ring for two and goes back to the chinlock. 

They mess something up before Jannetty misses a Stinger splash. Goldust hits a DDT for two. Jannetty hits a Rocker Dropper and they do a weird spot where Goldust moves out of the way of a top-rope splash, so Jannetty hits a standing back elbow instead. Jannetty hits a series of clotheslines and climbs up top but Goldust gets his boot up to counter the flying nothing. A front suplex finishes things. 

Grade: D - A bad debut for the Bizarre One. They just didn’t really click and Dustin Rhodes was still very much figuring out the Goldust character. Fans didn’t look like they knew what to make of Goldust, too, which hurt the heat. 

Yokozuna w/ Mr. Fuji & Jim Cornette vs. Mabel w/ Sir Mo – Double Count-Out

Cornette cuts a promo on behalf of Yokozuna before the match. Slaps to start, which turns into trading right hands and Yokozuna knocks Mabel through the ropes with a clothesline. Well, that’s enough action for now, so they take a well-deserved breather. Back in, Mabel slugs away and hits a diving clothesline as Yokozuna goes to the floor for another breather. I wouldn’t put money on this one lasting long, to be honest. 

Back in, Mabel hits a running splash in the corner and hammers away. Yokozuna comes back with a clothesline, but misses the leg drop. Mabel misses his own elbow drop, however. Yokozuna hammers away as Mabel tries a bulldog, but Yokozuna doesn’t bump and just falls through the ropes. Now that’s just sad. On the floor, Yokozuna shoves Mabel into the ring post and accidentally falls on Cornette as the referee counts both men out, drawing boos. 

After the match, they tease a confrontation but end up hugging and raising each other’s hands instead. Awwwww. Cuties.

Grade: D- - Yeah, this wasn’t great, to put it mildly. It had the freak show curiosity factor to start, but there was just nothing going on and they both looked completely knackered mere seconds in, especially Yokozuna, whose weight was just ballooning at this point. 

Sad Shawn Michaels comes out and hands over the Intercontinental Title belt to Dean Douglas. This show could really use a Shawn Michaels match, to be honest.

Razor Ramon def. Dean Douglas (c) - WWE Intercontinental Championship

Ramon tees off to start as Douglas bails. Back in, Ramon controls the arm. And controls it. And then controls it some more. Douglas eventually elbows his way out of things, but misses a charge and Ramon goes back to the arm. After some more arm control, Douglas backs Ramon into the corner and hits a right hand before stomping away. Clothesline is ducked, but Ramon hits the fallaway slam and clotheslines Douglas over the top rope. Ramon won’t let him back in, hitting a hotshot and then a right hand to knock Dean off the ring apron. 

Suplex back in, followed by a power post, as Douglas retreats yet again. Ramon meets him on the floor and pours a bottle of water on Dean’s head. Back in the ring, Ramon hits a reverse atomic drop and sets up the Razor’s Edge, but Douglas backdrops him over the top rope to the floor. Douglas comes off the top, but Razor catches him and hits a chokeslam. Ramon with more right hands and sets Douglas up on the top rope. Douglas fights him off and hits a crossbody, but Ramon rolls through for a near fall. Douglas gets a dropkick, but Ramon gets his foot on the rope. They post each other before Ramon ducks a right hand and hits a back suplex, draping his arm onto Douglas’s chest for the three. 

Grade: D - A very sluggish match with a weak finish. Douglas had an ‘out’ since his foot was under the bottom rope when the referee counted the three, but whatever. Who would want to see a rematch of that? Ramon gave him almost nothing and then beat him with a back suplex.

Of course, the real story to this is Shane Douglas’s claim in the decades since that The Kliq politicked against him and made his WWE stay miserable. He also claimed that Scott Hall sandbagged him during their matches. Hall, meanwhile, maintained that Douglas was a disappointment in the ring and consistently had poor matches and injury issues. Aside from all that, there were questions over just how ‘injured’ Shawn really was and whether he exaggerated his condition to avoid dropping the title to Douglas.

Playing devil’s advocate here, with the assumption that I’m sure The Kliq did mess with him to some degree, Douglas just wasn’t that over and the Dean character was a no-hoper. Razor Ramon, on the other hand, was over and had a proven track record of being able to have good matches with a variety of different opponents. With Michaels on the shelf, he was the next best available option at the time.

Anyway, back to the show, as Bret Hart comes out to provide commentary for the main event, chasing off and beating up Jerry Lawler as he does so.

The British Bulldog w/ Jim Cornette def. Diesel (c) by DQ - WWE Championship

Diesel gets the better of two lockups to start, before Bulldog runs into a big forearm and a couple of slams. Bulldog bails and tries to crotch Diesel on the ring post, but gets sent face-first into the steel instead. Back inside, Diesel hits a couple of running clotheslines in the corner and elbows away until Bulldog clips the knee. Bulldog dropkicks Diesel, who goes over the top rope and pie-faces Bret at ringside. That allows Bulldog to chopblock Diesel from behind. 

Back in the ring, Bulldog begins working over the leg. He does this for a while, with Cornette dropping an elbow on the leg at ringside for good measure. Back inside for more delicious legwork, as Bulldog locks in a half crab and then a full crab, because he’s an enigma like that. Bulldog continues to work over the leg in a very lazy and tedious way. This feels like it goes on forever. It just never ends. Well, until Diesel reverses a suplex attempt into one of his own, anyway. Then a back suplex. But, oh Jesus Christ, Bulldog is going BACK TO THE LEG! I will give Diesel my own leg if it means they change things up a bit here. There’s match psychology and then there’s Kevin Nash lying down and trying to make the ropes for 15 whole minutes.

Bulldog locks an awful Sharpshooter in, as Bret dies inside at ringside. Diesel powers out and then falls on top of Bulldog after a slam attempt. Bulldog sets up the running powerslam, but Diesel slips out and hits a big boot. Diesel brings Cornette in the hard way and Bulldog accidentally collides with his manager. On the floor, Bulldog rams Diesel into the ring post and then slaps Bret, who slides into the ring and starts beating on his brother-in-law, drawing the DQ.

After the match, Bret and Diesel get into a fight until referees and then the rest of the locker room come out and break them up.

Grade: D- - Good lord. The fans sat through all of that, almost 20 minutes of mostly interminable leg work, just for a DQ finish. Things were alright for the first couple of minutes, but the match fell off a cliff after that because they just don’t have good chemistry with one another and clearly ran out of ideas.

According to reports, Vince McMahon threw down his headset and chewed Kevin Nash out at ringside after this debacle, which was the beginning of the end for him in WWE. Bret won the title at Survivor Series the next month and Nash hung around until his contract expired six months later before signing with WCW. Davey Boy Smith, who was calling the match, reportedly apologised to McMahon backstage for how bad it was.

Show Grade: D- - It’s a bad show, all right. It started off well enough with a competent opener and an entertaining tag match, but the last four matches were all varying degrees of terrible. 

It’s a somewhat interesting show, historically speaking, as you have the in-ring debut of Goldust, the Shawn/Razor/Douglas IC Title controversy and the final nail in the Diesel WWE Title reign coffin, but even at only (barely) two hours in length it’s just not worth putting yourself through it.