We’re back for the fourteenth installment of one of my favorite classic WWE institutions. WWE In Your House 14: Revenge of the Taker took place April 20th from the Rochester Community War Memorial.
We have a double main event as The Undertaker defends his WWE Championship against Mankind and a number one contender match featuring Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin!
WWE In Your House 14: The Best
The first banger on this card is the WWE Championship match between defending champ The Undertaker and Mankind. I always liked how announcer-period Vince would say “Mankind” during promo packages.
Just thought I’d throw that out there. He made Mankind seem like something that shouldn’t be in WWE off the bat. It’s the same tone for someone like Doink, Yokozuna, and The Repo Man.
This match was awesome. A wild brawl will keep my attention but an intense, physical brawl will really get me going and really have me invested in the match.
I’d say this match checked the second box. It was just really good and these two had incredible chemistry. There’s history here and the mere characters have always gelled well.
With the existence of Mankind as a reoccurring foe to The Undertaker, it often makes me wonder did Kane need to be a long-term character after their story was concluded.
The Mankind character had mileage to be at the top as Taker’s main villain and later as a rival. Speaking of incredible chemistry, Austin vs. Hart III—technically four but the first match isn’t usually included in their rivalry—was a dope match.
Then again, like Taker vs. Mankind, that’s to be expected. It’s not as good as the Survivor Series showdown or WrestleMania 13 submission match but it’s a damn good match and closed out In Your House 14 better than the WM 13 main event before it.
The Rest
This show opened with a Tag Team title bout as Owen Hart and the British Bulldog defended against the Legion of Doom. The match went to a DQ and was mostly LoD lumping up Owen and Bulldog.
I’d say that the main pro for this match is that it didn’t go too long and the crowd was interested. Owen and Bulldog have delivered good tag matches in the past and so did Legion of Doom.
LoD was always over like Rover so there was something here. The Rock defending his IC title against Savio Vega was mainly another chapter in the Nation of Domination saga.
This match wasn’t it at all and that’s a shame because Vega could deliver a serviceable match with almost anyone in the heart of the midcard and could crank out bangers with the upper midcard and main event floaters.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of those matches. I wouldn’t even say that The Rock was too green at this point, something just didn’t click here or more of the attention was on NoD and not the title defense.
The future New Age Outlaws faced off in their Jesse James and Rockabilly phases. This match did zero for me and the crowd didn’t really care when Rockabilly was announced as Honky Tonk Man’s charge.
There was definitely build to this match but it’s like…did anyone ever care about that build-up? Their feud would continue for some time after this bout.
WWE In Your House 14 Verdict: Bronze Medal (2.75/5)
Match of the night is a hard one to call here. I appreciated the storytelling of both matches and you could see that both Hart and Austin would go on to some really dope stuff as the year went on.
However, I was totally invested in Undertaker-Mankind. When you’re smiling and nodding in approval of a match as the match goes on that’s good sh**, pal. In a rarity for “Into the Vault”, I’m calling it a draw for match of the night. As for the rest of the matches, it’s whatever.
I’m really curious about why WWE didn’t just shorten the Goldust vs. Young Triple H dark match and include it on the PPV.
There’s stuff that could’ve been scrapped but…whatever, folks. Time restrictions, et cetra, et cetra.
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