In Your House 8: Beware of Dog

In Your House 8: Beware of Dog
Promotional poster featuring Vader
Tagline(s)	It's Vader Time
Information
Promotion	World Wrestling Federation
Date	May 26, 1996 May 28, 1996
Attendance	6,000[1] 4,500[2]
Venue	Florence Civic Center North Charleston Coliseum
City	Florence, South Carolina North Charleston, South Carolina
Pay-per-view chronology
In Your House 7 In Your House 8: Beware of Dog King of the Ring (1996)
In Your House chronology
In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies In Your House 8: Beware of Dog In Your House 9: International Incident

In Your House 8: Beware of Dog was the eighth In Your House professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), that originally took place on May 26, 1996, from the Florence Civic Center in Florence, South Carolina.^[1] Due to a severe thunderstorm, the power went out during the event, resulting in only two matches being shown on pay-per-view and a series of, literal, dark matches.^[3] The televised event was rescheduled as "Beware of Dog 2" and took place on May 28, 1996, at the North Charleston Coliseum in North Charleston, South Carolina.^[2] The two matches televised from the May 26 event were shown again at the beginning of the rescheduled pay-per-view. To date, this is the only WWE pay-per-view event to ever be held in the state of South Carolina.

Event

May 26

Before the event aired live on pay-per-view, a match for the WWF Tag Team Championship between the challengers, The Smoking Gunns (Bart and Billy), and the champions, The Godwinns (Henry and Phineas), was broadcast live on Free for All. The Godwinns were accompanied by Hillbilly Jim and Sunny. Several minutes into the match, Sunny appeared on the ring apron and approached Billy Gunn while Phineas and Bart wrestled inside the ring. Billy then grabbed Sunny and kissed her, causing Phineas to become distracted which allowed Bart to perform a German suplex and make the pinfall to win the WWF Tag Team Championship.

The first match to air live on pay-per-view was a standard match between "Wildman" Marc Mero (with Sable) and Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Helmsley attempted to perform his finishing move, the Pedigree, when Mero countered by grabbing Helmsley's legs out from under him and performed a slingshot catapult, sending Helmsley head-first into the top of the ring post. Mero covered a "knocked-out" Helmsley for the pinfall.

The next scheduled match was a Caribbean Strap match between Steve Austin and Savio Vega. At the beginning of the match, power to the arena and WWF satellite TV trucks went out and the pay-per-view feed cut out due to a severe thunderstorm. This match, along with the other scheduled matches, still took place but with little light in the arena and not broadcast on pay-per-view. The power and feed were restored just before the ring entrances for the main event match.

The main event of the night featured WWF Champion Shawn Michaels defending the title against the British Bulldog. Just before the match began, as scripted, Michaels was served a summons from Bulldog's storyline attorney Clarence Mason. It stated that Michaels was a defendant with the charge of "attempted alienation of affection" due to the allegation of him making advances towards Bulldog's wife (storyline and real life) Diana Smith, therefore causing strain in their marriage. The timing of the subpoena by Bulldog's camp was an attempt to throw Michaels off his game, giving Bulldog a better chance of winning the championship. During the match, as part of the script, Bulldog accidentally ran into referee Earl Hebner, knocking him out for a period of time. A replacement referee (Mike Chioda) continued the match. Shawn Michaels performed a German suplex into a pinfall combination on Bulldog. By this time, the original referee had regained his senses, and both referees counted the pinfall. Both wrestlers had their shoulders on the mat as Chioda counted Michaels' shoulders down, while Hebner counted Bulldog's down. Due to both wrestlers being pinned simultaneously, the match was ruled a draw and Michaels retained the WWF Championship.

May 28

The encore presentation of Beware of Dog was held live on Tuesday, May 28, 1996 and was entitled "Beware of Dog 2". The event began by re-airing the two matches shown on pay-per-view from May 26 (Mero/Helmsley and Bulldog/Michaels). The first match that aired live on May 28 was a Caribbean Strap match between Steve Austin (with Ted DiBiase) and Savio Vega. The previous night on Raw (May 27), Ted DiBiase announced that if Austin didn't beat Vega, DiBiase would leave the WWF.^[4] The match was back-and-forth until Austin wrapped a portion of the strap around Vega's neck and began to drag him around the ring with the strap over his shoulder. Austin started the process of touching all four corners to win the match, but Vega also touched the corners (without Austin's knowledge) as he was being tugged. After Austin and Vega touched the third corner, Vega put up enough fight to force Austin to turn around. The two were now facing each other and Austin pulled on the strap, attempting to touch the last corner, but instead pulled with enough strength that Vega flew into the corner causing Austin to lose the match and DiBiase to leave the WWF.

The following match was a standard match featuring Vader (with Jim Cornette) versus Yokozuna. It began with Vader reluctant to engage with his opponent until Yokozuna gained control for most of the match. Eventually, Yokozuna became occupied with Cornette and attempted to perform his finishing move, the Banzai Drop, on him when Vader pulled Cornette out of the way. Yokozuna missed his target which provided Vader the opportunity to deliver an elbow drop to the leg, followed by a Vader Bomb allowing him to make the pinfall.

The next, and last match of the event was a Casket match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship between the champion, Goldust (with Marlena), and the challenger, The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer). During the match, Undertaker performed his signature Tombstone piledriver to Goldust and went to roll him into the casket. However, when Undertaker opened the casket, Mankind appeared inside and locked-in his Mandible Claw hold, positioned Undertaker into the casket and shut the lid, which resulted in Goldust winning the match and retaining the Intercontinental Championship. After the match, Mankind sat on top of the casket until it suddenly started to smoke. Mankind retreated to the locker room while Paul Bearer and WWF officials tried to open the casket. When it eventually opened, the Undertaker was gone. The arena lights darkened and Undertaker's entrance theme began to play as the pay-per-view signed off the air.

Reception

The WWF earned $63,435 in ticket sales from the May 26 event with an attendance of 6,000.^[1] The pay-per-view received a buyrate of 0.45, which is the equivalent of approximately 180,000 buys.^[5] The event was released on VHS in the United States on August 6, 1996 by Coliseum Video.^[6]

Results

May 26

May 28

This was also a WWF Superstars television taping^[7]

References

External links

• Florence Civic Center official web site
• North Charleston Coliseum official web site