No Way Out of Texas: In Your House

No Way Out of Texas: In Your House was the 20th

This was one of the In Your House events which later became the title of an annual pay-per-view, replacing the method at the time of making new names for all events aside from the "Big Five" (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, King of the Ring, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series). It was also the last In Your House event to have the In Your House banner around the ring. However, because later events did not take place in Texas, the event's name was truncated to "No Way Out" and was not reinstated until 2000, becoming the annual February PPV until 2009, after which, only one further event was held, which was in June 2012.

Shawn Michaels did not appear in the main event as advertised, owing to a severe back injury that resulted in his first retirement after the following month's WrestleMania XIV. He was replaced by Savio Vega.

This was the last event to feature visible In Your House branding on the ring apron and the upper reaches of the venue.^{[citation needed]}

Production

Background

In a Royal Rumble rematch, Vader was taking on The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust when the lights went out and Kane interrupted, delivering a tombstone piledriver to the 450 lb wrestler. The following week, Vader returned the favor by attacking Kane in the ring, spraying him with a fire extinguisher to taunt him over his burns and to try to blind his one good eye. Paul Bearer later revealed his disgust at hearing Vader's catchphrase "It's time, it's time, it's time", and presented a Vader clock which he handed to Kane as it spontaneously set on fire.

The eight-man main event was the result of several interlinking feuds. As winner of the Royal Rumble,

Jim Ross revealed at the beginning of the pay-per-view that Shawn Michaels would not be taking part in the eight-man tag match main event due to injuries he had sustained during a casket match with The Undertaker the month before.^[5] JR also announced that owing to the heated nature of the fight, the WWF did not want to accept any responsibility for the bout, making it an unsanctioned match.

After making their way to the ring,

The

The ten-man "War of Attrition" began with D'Lo Brown taunting the audience with his fist. When Mark Henry entered the ring, he demanded Ahmed Johnson to be tagged, the latter picking up the 400 lb wrestler and body slamming him; Brown responded by delivering the Lo Down from over half the ring away but would later miss a moonsault on Skull. Both teams, particularly the Nation, frequently tagged all their members in and out until Rocky Maivia and Ken Shamrock met for the second time causing all ten men to break through the ropes into the ring for a mass brawl. Eventually they all fell out to brawl at ringside, leaving Chainz to deliver a spinebuster to Faarooq and the legal man Shamrock struck a belly to belly slam to Maivia, following up immediately with an anklelock causing the Intercontinental champion to tap out. After the match Maivia and Faarooq shared words, with Maivia shoving his leader and walking out, but Faarooq demand he return to the ring, upon which point the Nation saluted the audience with their fists.

Vader attacked Kane before he had time to detonate his pyro, but the brawl quickly turned into Kane's favor, isolating his opponent in the turnbuckle before suplexing him. Vader took much punishment for the beginning of the match, succumbing to a DDT before eventually fighting back, punching Kane from the turnbuckle and turning the match in his favor by kicking Kane in the groin to prevent a chokeslam attempt. Vader capitalized by slamming his opponent to the mat and then using a moonsault from which Kane almost immediately sat up. The fight went to the outside of the ring, where Vader began to spray a fire extinguisher in Kane's face, using his disorientation to powerbomb Kane. Kane once again sat up and grabbed Vader by the throat, chokeslamming him and then finishing him with a tombstone piledriver. After the match Kane struck Vader with a wrench, leading to an EMT team wheeling him out on a gurney.^[6]

The majority of wrestlers in the main event came to the ring with some form weapons, including the last-minute replacement for

In 2008, J.D. Dunn of 411Mania gave the event a rating of 5.5 [Not So Good], stating, "The wrestling was about par for 1998. There wasn't any angle advancement, and the PPV didn't do anything to set up WrestleMania that wasn't already done on Raw. I can't honestly think of a reason to recommend it, but it's not actively bad. Thumbs down."[7]

Aftermath

Goldust and Marc Mero would continue to tag for some weeks until the hostility between their valets, Luna Vachon and Sable, respectively, resulted in an in ring brawl. Mero took exception to Goldust grabbing Sable to restrain her and hit Goldust, after which a mixed tag team match was booked for WrestleMania which Sable won after using Mero's TKO on Vachon.^[8] Vachon, insistent on humiliating Sable demanded a rematch between just the two of them at Unforgiven, and laid down the stipulation of an evening gown match.

Ken Shamrock would go on to face Rocky Maivia in a singles match at WrestleMania for the Intercontinental Championship. He won the match, making Rock tap out but in his fury he would not let go of the submission hold and thus was disqualified and the title returned to Maivia.^[8]

Vader's post-match assault allowed him to take some time off for some much needed surgery^[6] while Kane had to refocus his efforts on the resurrected Undertaker. Vader would make his return at Unforgiven while interfering during the first-ever Inferno Match.

Aside from Savio Vega, the members of the main event faced each other in smaller matches at WrestleMania with Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie winning the Tag Team Championships in the first ever dumpster match, although

The In Your House branding was retired following February 1999's St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House event, as the company moved to install permanent names for each of its monthly PPVs. After two years, No Way Out returned in February 2000 as its own PPV event and its title was truncated to "No Way Out" as it was not held in Texas.^[10] It then continued as the annual February PPV for nine years, during which the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2002. No Way Out was replaced by Elimination Chamber in 2010,^[11] though one further event was produced in 2012 as a one-off event.^[12] It was again discontinued and replaced by Payback in 2013.^[13]

Results

References