In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies

In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies
Information
Promotion	World Wrestling Federation
Date	April 28, 1996
Attendance	9,563[1]
Venue	Omaha Civic Auditorium
City	Omaha, Nebraska
Pay-per-view chronology
WrestleMania XII In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies In Your House 8: Beware of Dog
In Your House chronology
In Your House 6 In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies In Your House 8: Beware of Dog

In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) that took place on April 28, 1996, and emanated from the Omaha Civic Auditorium in Omaha, Nebraska.^[1][2]

The event featured nine professional wrestling matches, five of which were broadcast live on pay-per-view. The main event of the show saw Shawn Michaels defeat Diesel in a No Holds Barred match to retain the WWF Championship. Other matches on the card included The Bodydonnas retaining the WWF Tag Team Championship by defeating The Godwinns and The Ultimate Warrior defeating WWF Intercontinental Champion Goldust by countout.

The event marked the last televised appearances of the performers behind the Diesel and Razor Ramon characters in the WWF until 2002, when they returned to the organization under their real names of Kevin Nash and Scott Hall respectively, by which they had become better known in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from mid 1996 to the early 2000s. It would not be the final portrayal of the Diesel and Razor Ramon characters in he WWF, however: Glenn Jacobs and Rick Bognar delivered a short-lived portrayal of the characters from late 1996 to early 1997, and Nash revived the Diesel character for one night only at the 2011 Royal Rumble.

Background

In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies featured professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that were played out on Monday Night Raw and other World Wrestling Federation television programs. Wrestlers portrayed a villain or a hero as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated into a wrestling match or series of matches.^[3] The event was notable for being the last televised WWF event for Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) until 2002. Both men would sign with main competitor World Championship Wrestling shortly thereafter and form the nWo with Hulk Hogan in July.

Event

Before the event aired live on pay-per-view, Marc Mero (with Sable) wrestled The 1–2–3 Kid (Sean Waltman) (with Ted DiBiase) in a standard wrestling match on WWF Free for All. The 1–2–3 Kid was disqualified^[1] when Hunter Hearst Helmsley, as part of the script, interfered and attacked Mero.

Preliminary matches

The first match to air live on pay-per-view (PPV) was originally scheduled to be a standard match between The British Bulldog (Davey Boy Smith) and Jake Roberts. Bulldog was accompanied by Owen Hart, Jim Cornette and Cornette's storyline attorney Clarence Mason, while Roberts entered the ring with his pet (storyline only) python named Damien. It had been revealed the previous weekend that Bulldog was extremely afraid of snakes and because of this, Mason presented the referee with a document ordering the snake to be placed backstage. Roberts tore the paper to shreds, took the snake out of its bag, and charged at Mason and Cornette before taking the snake to the locker room. Roberts returned to the ring with Ahmed Johnson (Anthony Norris) and the match became a tag team bout featuring Bulldog and Hart vs. Roberts and Johnson. Jake and Ahmed controlled much of the match until the Bulldog and Hart gained the upper-hand when Bulldog distracted the referee, allowing Hart to choke Roberts. Bulldog and Hart took turns wearing down Roberts until he countered a sleeper hold by Owen and tagged Ahmed. Johnson came in strong and soon tagged Roberts back in. Shortly afterwards, all four participants were scattered around the ring area. The referee focused on Hart fighting with Johnson outside of the ring, while Bulldog struck Roberts multiple times in the knee with Cornette's tennis racquet. Bulldog then grabbed Roberts' leg and applied pressure to the knee, forcing Roberts to submit.^[1]

The second match to air on PPV was a standard match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship between the challenger, The Ultimate Warrior and the champion, Goldust. The only physical contact between the two consisted of a clothesline and Warrior burning Goldust's hand with a cigar. The match began with Goldust being chased out of the ring by Warrior, where he stayed for the next several minutes while his valet Marlena and personal Bodyguard attempted to distract Warrior. Warrior took possession of Goldust's robe and Marlena's director's chair, which prompted the two to return to the ring and retrieve the items. Goldust put on his robe, sat in the chair and presented his hand for Warrior to kiss. Instead, Warrior took Marlena's lit cigar, burned Goldust's hand and then clotheslined him out of the chair. Goldust ran from the ring and was counted-out.^[1] Because the championship could not change hands on a countout, Goldust retained the title.

After the match, Dok Hendrix was shown near Shawn Michaels' locker room, while the British Bulldog was yelling and attempting to enter it. Dave Hebner and Tony Garea were trying to hold him back as Hendrix reported that Bulldog had said something about his wife (storyline and real life) Diana and wanted inside of Shawn's locker room.

The next match was a standard match between Vader (with Jim Cornette) and Razor Ramon. Vader controlled much of the match until Ramon attempted a "Razor's Edge" but was countered with a back drop. Vader then performed a seated senton, in which he jumped and sat onto Ramon's chest and covered him for the pinfall.^[1] Following the match, Dok Hendrix came to ringside and informed Cornette that because Vader had won the match, WWF President (storyline only) Gorilla Monsoon ruled that Vader would be allowed to wrestle at the next month's In Your House pay-per-view and that his opponent would be Yokozuna. Vader had injured Yokozuna's leg during an attack on Raw three weeks prior.^[4]

Main event matches

The following match was a tag team match for the WWF World Tag Team Championship between the challengers, The Godwinns (Henry and Phineas) and the champions, The Bodydonnas (Skip and Zip) accompanied by Sunny. The action was back and forth until Sunny went to the locker room and returned to ringside with a framed, autographed portrait of herself and gave it to Phineas, who believed that Sunny genuinely liked him. Meanwhile, Henry performed the "Slop Drop" on Skip and then attempted to get Phineas away from Sunny. This led to the referee being distracted with the situation and allowed Zip to enter the ring, rolling Skip out and pretending to be him. Henry turned his attention back to who he thought was a knocked-out Skip, when Zip rolled Henry into a small package for the pinfall to retain the championship.^[1] Because Skip and Zip's appearance were similar and sometimes hard to tell apart from a rear view, the referee did not realize the illegal man made the pin.

The next, and last match to air live on pay-per-view was Diesel versus WWF Champion Shawn Michaels in a No Holds Barred match for the WWF Championship. During Diesel's entrance, Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon, who lives in Omaha, was shown at ringside in the audience. The match began with Michaels entering the ring quickly, ducked a clothesline from Diesel, and nailed him with multiple right and left hands to the chin until Diesel connected hard with a high knee to his chest. Michaels recovered and knocked Diesel outside the ring and performed a moonsault from the top rope to Diesel while still out of the ring. Shawn then snatched a boot off of Spanish commentator Hugo Savinovich, climbed the top rope, and hit Diesel in the head with it. Diesel soon got the upper-hand by knocking Shawn into the steel ringside barricade. Diesel controlled the match for several minutes before turning the match up a notch by taking the belt off the pants of referee Earl Hebner and choked Michaels with it. His next weapon of choice was a steel chair. Diesel continued his assault on Michaels when he powerbombed him through a ringside announcers table. Back-and-forth action started after Michaels managed to grab a fire extinguisher and sprayed Diesel in the face. Diesel eventually turned his sights to Vachon. He grabbed Vachon out of his chair and threw him to the floor. He then pulled off Vachon's artificial leg and attempted to hit Michaels with it,^[5] but was hit with a low blow which allowed Michaels to grab the leg and nail Diesel with it. This set up sweet chin music and Michaels pinned Diesel to retain the WWF Championship.^[1]

Backstage, Dok Hendrix interviewed Paul Bearer and The Undertaker and announced that at next month's In Your House, Goldust would defend the WWF Intercontinental Championship against Undertaker. After an interview of Hunter Hearst Helmsley by Mr. Perfect, Gorilla Monsoon announced that Shawn Michaels would defend his WWF Championship against the British Bulldog at next month's PPV. During this announcement, Bulldog entered the room and shouted, "That dirty rotten pervert Shawn Michaels! He wants to sleep with my wife? I can't wait for May 26! I'm gonna finish him right now!", before storming off as the pay-per-view feed ended.

After the event went off the air, three dark matches took place, all of which were standard singles matches. Savio Vega defeated Steve Austin;^[1] Hunter Hearst Helmsley defeated Marc Mero;^[1] The Undertaker defeated Mankind.^[1]

Aftermath

This was Diesel's last televised appearance for the WWF, which allowed Shawn Michaels to immediately begin a heated rivalry with the British Bulldog. As a result of the match made for the following month's In Your House between the two, Goldust began a feud with The Undertaker. In the weeks leading up to their Casket match at In Your House, and during the match itself, Mankind assisted Goldust by continually attacking Undertaker^[6] which then led to a feud between Mankind and Undertaker. Vader restarted his feud with Yokozuna, while Good Friends, Better Enemies was Razor Ramon's last televised WWF appearance. The Godwinns went on to win the Tag Team Championship from The Bodydonnas in a rematch on May 19.^[7]

Reception

The WWF earned $120,668 in ticket revenue with an attendance of 9,563.^[1] The venue can seat up to 9,300 for sporting events and 10,960 for concerts.^[8]

Results

References

External links

• Omaha Civic Auditorium official web site