Every week we’ve been going into the vault and going through the wrestling shows from what would become the Big 3 in 1996. At the bat for WWE first is WWE In Your House 10: Mind Games.
Before we really dive in, I’m looking at the promo poster for this show and SummerSlam and Shawn Michaels’ grit and determination face wasn’t really selling me.
Sure, he delivers in his match but we might need to get back to HBK action shots from the match instead. Now let’s get into the show!
Low-Tier
I don’t know if I should even rate Jose Lothario vs. Jim Cornette. It’s on the card and I wasn’t expecting a decent match seeing who was involved.
I will say that I love Corny’s bumping and oversells. His performance made the match fun but it was ultimately meh.
Shawn Michaels defeating Jerry Lawler was also meh but mainly because of how green Mizmark was here. Lawler was fine and the buildup this match was bad either.
Mid-Tier
If a match has “Caribbean Strap,” “Chain,” “Dog Collar,” or “Bull Rope” in it, I’ll watch it. Bonus points if Savio, Eddie, or Cena are in it.
This one was alright. Not good but not bad either. Bradshaw just wasn’t up there or that interesting at this point to warrant a strap match but he had a program with Savio Vega and it got to this point.
While Bradshaw wasn’t interesting, he didn’t stink things up. It was a brawl with a gimmick and both guys could work with that well.
Owen and Davey were a really solid tag team as were the Smoking Gunns. This match was solid as expected. Nothing that was really going to shock and awe.
If this match was at a larger event or even if it had a little more time, it would’ve popped a little harder for me.
Exotic-Tier
The Undertaker facing minions and weirdos work for me. This was like a more 90s comic book version of Hogan facing giants in the 80s and Sting facing monsters in the early 90s.
Actually, I could see his boiler room match vs. Mankind and The Undertaker vs. Goldust being on the cover of an Image Comics The Undertaker title with Todd McFarlane or Greg Capullo doing the artwork.
Now that I think about it, that probably should’ve been the promo poster for this PPV. The match itself was pretty good for the time it had.
Goldust is really good and Taker really shined when facing brawlers from his generation in wrestling. Especially if that match was laxer with the rules.
I’m not going to be unfair and deduct a point for gear—that’s just petty—but WWE’s gear designer needed to get to Goldust’s classic gear quick. These Goldust wedgie shots are disturbing.
Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind for the WWE World Championships was great. Hands down, the best match on the card. HBK can really go at, Mankind was still very mobile and could go at it.
Both are awesome with bumps and sells—I was really into this match. The Sting vs. monsters formula from WCW is working well for Michaels here!
WWE In Your House 10 Verdict: Mid-Tier (6/10)
This was a pretty meh PPV. WWE In Your House 10 had two really good matches on a brief card and only one had enough juice to pull it past the middle of the scale.
Besides the main event and semi-main, I can’t strongly recommend this show. Without both of those matches and not one or the other, I would’ve said this show was skippable.
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