In Your House

[wandshogun09]

2 hours ago, Supremo said:

Not sure if this is the same Battle Royale, but the chaotic way Ahmed wins this is one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen. Distilled Ahmed. Uncontrolled madness.

No amount of stiff strikes or worked shoot promos over the next thirty years could ever match this for convincing me pro-wrestling was real.

Yep that’s the one. I wonder what would’ve happened if he hadn’t got injured around that time. Obviously him winning that #1 contenders battle royal meant they were planning for him to at least challenge for the title. I don’t think they’d have put it on him at that time though due to Vince’s raging boner for Shawn, plus the plan was for Vader to win the belt at some point so maybe Ahmed was being positioned as new champ Vader’s first challenger before Shawn would eventually win it back from Vader in a rematch. Just seems weird to me thinking about what they were planning. Ahmed had earned himself a title shot by winning that battle royal but was being lined up to feud with newly debuted Blue Faarooq at the same time. Fuck knows.

Back on the subject of the thread, I used to love those bonus matches you’d get on the VHS releases. And yeah, it’s a shame they never continued that to include stuff like Shawn vs Goldust (Buried Alive) and Shawn vs Mankind and Austin vs Goldust (It’s Time). Think those matches all got released eventually on DVDs but they took ages to surface. 

[Chili]

I reckon had they gone with Vader with the title as originally planned then I can see Ahmed/Vader going on at IYH: It's Time or maybe could have been on a Raw main event or something. And fucking hell it sounds like it could either be an absolute mess or a fantastic, stiff, amazing mess. 

Love that Ahmed battle royal finish, Ahmed in 1996 until it all went to pot was amazing, I completely bought into him as this unstoppable, mad diving, chaotic unit of a man.

Edited July 4, 2025 by Chili

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

Ahmed was one of my faves in that 95-97 period, King of the Ring 96 especially where he destroyed Goldust to win the IC title then did the run in after the HBK/Smithers match that led to Warrior’s return and the International Incident show where Sid replaced Jimbo (massive upgrade looking back)

Hated his heel turn though, he’d already dropped Taker the night before at KOTR 97 but everyone thought ‘oh he’s just frustrated’ then he does it the next night after Taker gets squashed in the tag match by the ‘debuting’ Kama FatherShango and lays him out again to join the Nation

[wandshogun09]

9 hours ago, Chili said:

I reckon had they gone with Vader with the title as originally planned then I can see Ahmed/Vader going on at IYH: It's Time or maybe could have been on a Raw main event or something. And fucking hell it sounds like it could either be an absolute mess or a fantastic, stiff, amazing mess. 

There was a Vader vs Ahmed match on Raw in 96, think it was a King Of The Ring qualifier or it was around KOTR time anyway. I definitely saw it at the time but can’t remember it now. Don’t know if that episode will be on Netflix, might have a look for it later. Think they had a match on Shotgun Saturday Night as well when it was still being held in clubs and stuff. 

9 hours ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

Hated his heel turn though, he’d already dropped Taker the night before at KOTR 97 but everyone thought ‘oh he’s just frustrated’ then he does it the next night after Taker gets squashed in the tag match by the ‘debuting’ Kama FatherShango and lays him out again to join the Nation

I’ve said it before on here but that heel turn made zero sense and actually made Ahmed look weak. Faarooq and then the Nation Of Domination were terrorising him for almost a year at that point and after fighting them forever, then he just joins them? In storyline terms he’d joined the bully gang so they wouldn’t bully him anymore. Then when they kicked him out and he just went back babyface, it was never the same. Even if he wasn’t so injury prone, that heel turn and then the way he turned back face because the Nation fucked him off, killed him as a character.

It’s gotta be said though, Nation Ahmed did look boss for the few weeks or whatever it lasted…

[Callum1993]

18 hours ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

It comes to something when you have to hide the wrestling magazine in between FHM and Nuts magazines just to avoid dodgy looks. 

I remember buying the first couple of In Your House tapes because they had 'Bonus matches' on them, which were just the dark matches from the event but IYH 2 had Bret v Jean Pierre Lafitte and Kama v Undertaker in a coffin match. 13 year old me was all over that! 

That Kama and Undertaker match was the first match I ever watched. Must have been in about 1998 so years after the fact. 

[air_raid]

18 hours ago, ReturnOfTheMack said:

I have a massive soft spot for IYH:20s 8 man tag match. Austin throwing the bin across the ring always got a laugh out of me

The remarkable thing for that one being as “do fuck off” as Los Boricuas’ Savio Vega (seriously WTF) subbing into a main event was… bell to bell he does a great job, which was probably the idea given his experience in nutty garbage matches pre-WWF.

Though obviously for the sake of the marquee, I wish they’d had The Rock work twice and tee him up to be a challenger for Stone Cold sooner than they re-entered each others’ orbit.

[wandshogun09]

Just watched Shawn Michaels vs Jeff Jarrett from In Your House 2 for the first time in donkeys years. Absolutely fantastic match and still stands up today. Shame we never got more of them against each other but this was a great one-off match that I’m really glad we got to see once at least.

Only dawned on me while I was watching it that the match is 30 years old this month. Thirty! 

[tiger_rick]

On 7/4/2025 at 11:42 PM, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

Ahmed was one of my faves in that 95-97 period, King of the Ring 96 especially where he destroyed Goldust to win the IC title then did the run in after the HBK/Smithers match that led to Warrior’s return and the International Incident show where Sid replaced Jimbo (massive upgrade looking back)

As mentioned, I really struggled to find wrestling for much of 1996. Remember my brothers and I coming across some sort of WWF minifigures late that summer and being intrigued by Ahmed. When we picked up some tapes, we were captivated by him winning the IC Title at KOTR. Little did we know he'd already had the first of 8,734 injuries by that point and was already useless.

The man was magic though. 

On 7/5/2025 at 8:56 AM, wandshogun09 said:

I’ve said it before on here but that heel turn made zero sense and actually made Ahmed look weak. Faarooq and then the Nation Of Domination were terrorising him for almost a year at that point and after fighting them forever, then he just joins them? In storyline terms he’d joined the bully gang so they wouldn’t bully him anymore. Then when they kicked him out and he just went back babyface, it was never the same. Even if he wasn’t so injury prone, that heel turn and then the way he turned back face because the Nation fucked him off, killed him as a character.

It’s gotta be said though, Nation Ahmed did look boss for the few weeks or whatever it lasted…

I was really into it. Though, tbf, it was 1997 WWF and I ate up everything they said and did. The Nation looked amazing around that time, and Faarooq was cutting great promos. There's  YT account that has been doing "Story of" feud videos much longer than those Johnny-come-latelys at the WWE Vault and I watched the Taker/Faarooq one recently. It's good stuff. An odd feud because it's completely overshadowed by what would become the Taker & Kane feud. Big Ron is on fire though. I'd retrospectively put the belt on him and have him ripping Vince a new one every week for a couple of months if it wasn't for the fact you'd lose the greatest finish in company history at SummerSlam.

[LaGoosh]

On 7/5/2025 at 12:03 PM, air_raid said:

remarkable thing for that one being as “do fuck off” as Los Boricuas’ Savio Vega (seriously WTF) subbing into a main event was… bell to bell he does a great job, which was probably the idea given his experience in nutty garbage matches pre-WWF.

I always felt like Savio should have got a better push, he was a good worker. Austin credits him with getting him into ring shape when he came to WWF and Dustin Rhodes always praised him. It's a shame he never really found the right gimmick to get him over in 98-99.

[Chili]

Savio getting that monster pop doing a run-in on the Backlash Puerto Rico show (essentially the modern day IYH) felt like a 'honestly we're ALL sorry about No Way Out. Wasn't your fault and we were all in retrospect a bit harsh on you pal' apology... And he bloody well deserved it too. 

[gmoney]

Probably more to do with it being a hometown pop, no? I think you're ascribing a lot to it. 

[tiger_rick]

Savio was a pretty good hand who had some decent matches and had a place in that whole Gang Rulz run. He was missing a huge amount, particularly on promos and lack of charisma in his work and his "gang" were fucking abysmal. Him being the poor bastard who came out to replace Shawn at No Way Out and him having to carry KOTR 95 are his lowlights.

Edit: And him getting a kick-in off a fake Razor Ramon. Ouch.

Edited July 7, 2025 by tiger_rick

[gmoney]

1 minute ago, tiger_rick said:

Savio was a pretty good hand who had some decent matches and had a place in that whole Gang Rulz run. He was missing a huge amount, particularly on promos and lack of charisma in his work and his "gang" were fucking abysmal. Him being the poor bastard who came out to replace Shawn at No Way Out and him having to carry KOTR 95 are his lowlights.

Edit: And him getting a kick-in off a fake Razor Ramon. Ouch.

He had a terrible look too, which i know shouldn't count, but it does. He seemed small, ring gear was always horrible. He was always a bit of a groaner to me. I fucking love that strap match though. 

[Chili]

34 minutes ago, gmoney said:

Probably more to do with it being a hometown pop, no? I think you're ascribing a lot to it. 

Yeah I'm just taking the piss and having an exaggeration to be honest. But to see him get that big hometown surprise pop in the Los Boricua gimmick after the last time he was a surprise in that gimmick was so famously received it became lore was a nice moment. 

[wandshogun09]

5 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

Faarooq was cutting great promos. There's  YT account that has been doing "Story of" feud videos much longer than those Johnny-come-latelys at the WWE Vault and I watched the Taker/Faarooq one recently. It's good stuff. An odd feud because it's completely overshadowed by what would become the Taker & Kane feud. Big Ron is on fire though. I'd retrospectively put the belt on him and have him ripping Vince a new one every week for a couple of months if it wasn't for the fact you'd lose the greatest finish in company history at SummerSlam.

Yeah, Faarooq was great in that role. You never really think of Ron Simmons and ‘good promos’ but in 97 he was actually really good. He always had a great voice for it (think Jim Ross once said he sounded a bit like James Earl Jones) but he just rarely had a storyline or character where he could sink his teeth into what he was saying. As a heel and leader of the Nation Of Domination in 97, he had something to work with and he was in good form.

Always loved the little promo he cut just before he went out to face The Undertaker at King Of The Ring 97. As you said, it was intertwined with the teasing of Kane coming in and Paul Bearer was holding that over Taker. Faarooq’s last line here is quality…

”Chances are for old folks and fools. History will be made here tonight. What you’re looking at, all you hicks out there, you can punch in the record books right now. You’re looking at the World Wrestling Federation’s first black champion. Undertaker, don’t worry about Paul Bearer’s blackmail. You worry about this black male.” 

2 hours ago, gmoney said:

He had a terrible look too, which i know shouldn't count, but it does. He seemed small, ring gear was always horrible. He was always a bit of a groaner to me. I fucking love that strap match though. 

He looked like a fat, bald Beppe off Eastenders. I think he was pretty much fucked from day one, being the focal point of that awful KOTR tournament in 95. An unmasked Kwang replacing Razor was shit enough as it was. To then have to sit through him making it to the finals while the likes of Shawn and Undertaker went out early was just utter bollocks. Wasn’t Savio’s fault they booked it that way but I think first impressions count for a lot in wrestling and my first impression of Savio was KOTR 95, him going further than Shawn and Taker, and from that point on I think I just subconsciously associated him with disappointment and feeling underwhelmed.