St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House was the 27th
Paul Wight, formerly known as The Giant in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and who would later be renamed to The Big Show. It was the final In Your House event until June 2020, as at the time, the WWF moved to install permanent names for their monthly PPVs, which began with Backlash in April 1999
.
Eight
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin and the owner of the company, Vince McMahon, to decide whether Austin would go on to headline WrestleMania XV
Saint Valentine's Day massacre of 1929, which saw seven people murdered as part of the gang war between Al Capone and Bugs Moran.[2]
Storylines
The leader of
The J.O.B. Squad, Al Snow had his mascot, a mannequin head he believed to be sentient, stolen from him by Goldust who restyled the head in keeping with his own make up style. In a match on the edition of January 25 of Raw is War, The Blue Meanie made his WWF debut by coming through the crowd and stealing the head back for Snow. The following week on February 1, Goldust attacked Blue Meanie but the night before the event, on a special Saturday Night Raw, Goldust lost a match to perennial jobber Gillberg when Meanie distracted him with a video parodying the wrestler, renaming himself Bluedust. After the match was over the arena went dark with a blue hue, similar to Goldust's effect of a gold hue, and Goldust had been disgraced by having blue paint poured over him.[3]
In the first few weeks of the year,
The Road Dogg and Al Snow had formed an ad hoc hardcore tag team but, after losing to The Acolytes, they had a dispute and Snow challenged Road Dogg to a match to decide who was more hardcore. When The Road Dogg was attacked backstage and could not fight, Snow began to have a match with himself by hitting himself with weapons and moonsaulting into a table. Fellow J.O.B. Squad member Bob Holly came to the ring and tried to talk sense into him but found himself brawling instead.[3] When it was discovered the attack on Road Dogg would prevent him defending the WWF Hardcore Championship
, a match between the two J.O.B. Squad members was made for the vacant championship.
As part of his "Sexual Chocolate" gimmick,
delusions of grandeur pertaining to his status with the opposite sex. When he flirted with Debra, she pretended to be attracted to him when the wrestler she managed, Jeff Jarrett attacked Henry from behind. To try to prevent Debra from further distracting Henry, his tag team partner D'Lo Brown introduced him to a new woman in their corner Ivory in the hope that Henry would not be distracted in their match against the new tag team champions
Val Venis who performed a dance for her. Despite the overbearing attempts of Shamrock to keep his sister chaste, she was soon shown to have appeared in Val Venis' "adult film" Saving Ryan's Privates and, despite Shamrock promising he would not put his hands on Venis this did not stop him from attacking Venis with a steel chair. Although Shamrock put up his Intercontinental Championship for the event, he could not contain his rage and attacked Venis again when he was conducting an interview in the ring. When the referees and officials tried to break them up, Shamrock attacked them all leading to senior referee Earl Hebner refusing to offer services in the match for fear of his own safety and that of the team of referees. In a later segment with D-Generation X
, Billy Gunn took off his top to reveal a referee shirt, volunteering to officiate the match.
The night after the
Kane would chokeslam his bodyguard Chyna if he did not quit the match. When he did, The Corporation left but Chyna revealed that she had switched sides by lowblowing Triple H. The following week Triple H had a steel cage match with Kane which he won thanks to some help from X-Pac after Chyna also interfered. After the match she threatened her erstwhile partner telling him she had a special St. Valentine's Day gift for him.[3]
When The Rock became
"I Quit" match thanks to a recording of his voice being played[5] and win it back again in an Empty Arena match on Halftime Heat during Super Bowl XXXIII by trapping Rock underneath a forklift. Going into WrestleMania XV
, a definite decision needed to be made over who the champion would be and thus a match with no seeming ambiguity over its end was booked, a Last Man Standing match where the winner is the wrestler left standing.
When Vince McMahon won the Royal Rumble he earned a match against the WWF Champion at WrestleMania XV, but at the time, it seemed as if that champion was fellow Corporate member The Rock. Not a full-time wrestler, McMahon announced on the January 25 episode of Raw Is War that he was vacating his place at WrestleMania only to be informed by
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin, this enraged McMahon and Austin used this to goad McMahon into a match. Explaining that even more than a WWF Championship match, he wanted another chance to fight McMahon without any legal ramifications so much that he would risk his WrestleMania place for a chance at the match, and to make sure that it was just one-on-one it would take place inside a steel cage. The night before on Raw Saturday Night (actually filmed the preceding Monday), McMahon made Austin run the gauntlet against all The Corporation members ending with McMahon pinning a weakened Austin.[3]
Before the pay-per-view went to air, two matches were contested on Sunday Night Heat. Corporate member Test was disqualified in a match against Ministry of Darkness member Viscera. Tiger Ali Singh's match against Billy Gunn would go to a no contest.
The opening match began with Goldust delivering a
Shattered Dreams but Bluedust escaped the position and kicked a running Goldust to the ground. His attempt at a Meaniesault miscued and when he rose to his feet, Goldust used the Curtain Call to pin him then successfully delivering Shattered Dreams after the pinfall.[6]
The hardcore match between the two J.O.B. Squad members began with Al Snow throwing Bob Holly out of the ring and hitting him with a chair before throwing him into the crowd. By the first tier of fans Holly managed to reverse things, finding a chair to strike Snow with before blinding him with a fire extinguisher and breaking a glass jar over Snow's head. Snow returned with a blast from the fire extinguisher going through to the backstage area where he was thrown into technical boxes. Holly then found floor tiles to break over Snow's head as well as a beer cooler. Snow managed to escape into the car park, using mop handles to break over Holly's back. The two found their way past the car park onto the banks of the Mississippi River. Snow kicked Holly to the floor and choked him before throwing him into the river, Snow being dragged into the river soon after. Snow escaped the river but Holly chased him, tripping him over to wrap Snow in a chain fence, making it virtually impossible to kick out of the pin fall.[6]
The third match began with Big Boss Man gaining an advantage by delivering a low blow to Mideon. He then chased him out the ring with a chair but hit it against the ring post after which Mideon countered by biting Boss Man's fingers. Inside the ring Boss Man dominated Mideon, throwing him round and jumping on him, using the ropes to choke him and jump on him. Although Mideon offered some attempts at fighting back, he ran into a
big splashes to him before being carried away by the Ministry.[6]
After a brief fight between Owen Hart and Mark Henry, D'Lo Brown and Jeff Jarrett were tagged in. Brown used a
hit with a guitar when the referee was distracted, Jarrett then applied a figure four leg lock and made him tap out.[6]
Val Venis began the match by throwing Shamrock from corner to corner and chopping his chest. After he tried to pin Ken Shamrock, to a somewhat slow count from the special referee, Shamrock began to attack Venis, kicking him into the corner and shoulder barging him to the floor when he returned. Shamrock then threw Venis outside the ring, using the environment to attack him. After putting him back inside the ring Shamrock scoop slammed Venis but Venis would retaliate by stopping a suplex and reversing it into his own delayed suplex followed by an inverted atomic drop. Venis then picked him up and ran him into the ring post twice and returned to the ring to continue his assault on Shamrock's back. Despite frequent attempts by Shamrock to reverse the situation, Venis seldom let his assault continue for more than one or two strikes until Shamrock kicked him in the face and followed it up with a DDT. As Shamrock went for the pin, Gunn counted a slow two count then refused to finish the third and as Shamrock complained, Venis put a sleeper hold on Shamrock. Venis then performed his trademark double running knee, finishing it with a Russian leg sweep. Gunn reprimanded Venis for his mounted punches, claiming they were closed fist so instead Venis went to the top rope but Shamrock caught him and tried to pin him with a hurricanrana pin. With Gunn's slow counting, Shamrock instead decided to apply an ankle lock but Venis made it to the rope break with the help of Ryan Shamrock. Shamrock shouted at his sister but she slapped him and when he returned to the ring Venis rolled him up and won the match with a quick pin count. After the match Gunn beat down a celebrating Venis, taunting him with crotch chops.[6]
The tag team match began with Triple H and Kane exchanging punches until Kane had a slight momentum causing Helmsley to tag in X-Pac who also suffered at the hands of Kane and was slammed from turnbuckle to turnbuckle until Chyna demanded to be tagged in, knocking X-Pac down with a forearm punch. Kane tagged himself in, much to the chagrin of Chyna and while she shouted at him for it, X-Pac found time to weaken him by kicking at his legs, Triple H illegally aiding him. He was soon tagged in but was floored by Kane's
Bronco Buster to Chyna, Shane McMahon interfered and was chased away by X-Pac. Triple H fought with Chyna, trying to Pedigree her but Kane soon recovered and chokeslammed Triple H, pulling Chyna over him so that she pinned him when the referee recovered.[6]
Main event matches
The Last Man Standing match began with the champion Mankind turning round and holding his hands together, mocking the previous pay-per-view where The Rock handcuffed him. Rock utilized this to begin an assault on him but Mankind soon fought back, biting him in the corner. Mankind took it upon himself to move the match up the walkway, where Mankind was thrown into the stage set up. When Mankind recovered he DDTed Rock through a television table and took him into a backstage area where he was thrown through some tables. The two fought back to the ring where Mankind scoop slammed Rock and, after some cheering from the crowd, performed his own version of the
clotheslined the pair over the top rope. Mankind tried to set up a piledriver on the announce table but was back body dropped off the end of it and as he was recovering The Rock went back into the ring and threw the steel steps on him from inside the ring. Mankind staggered to his feet and entered the ring only to suffer a Corporate Elbow. While Mankind was being counted, Rock grabbed a microphone and sang Heartbreak Hotel, substituting certain lyrics with his own catchphrases, but Mankind pushed the mandible claw into The Rock and accidentally pushed referee Earl Hebner out of the ring. When he relinquished the mandible claw, Mankind brought Hebner back in the ring and grabbed his hand, controlling the count, but only made it to eight before Rock stood up. Mankind used a double-arm DDT to land Rock onto the chair but he stood up on the count of nine, prompting Mankind to stuff a smelly gym sock down the Rock's gullet. Rock withstood the foul smelling sock and reversed Mankind into a Rock Bottom, but Mankind still stood up and the two both grabbed for chairs and ran into each other delivering a double chair shot which neither could stand up from after a ten-count, ending the match in a draw. Since titles cannot change in a draw, Mankind remained the WWF Champion.[6]
WWF debut at the event when he cut through the ring mat; Wight was formerly known as The Giant in World Championship Wrestling
The main event began with Vince McMahon not entering the steel cage, frustrating "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, who then left the cage to chase McMahon round until McMahon entered the ring and then closed the door locking Austin out. Austin then tried to climb in but McMahon punched him off the top causing him to land awkwardly. McMahon, thinking Austin was injured, exited the cage but was met with a clothesline from Austin who then wrapped his neck in cable and pushed him into the crowd,
the finger. Austin then went back into the cage, stomping McMahon in the corner but McMahon lowblowed Austin and threw him into the cage before trying to escape. Austin caught McMahon's leg and caused McMahon's stomach to fall on the top of the cage and was then pulled back into the ring, allowing Austin to repeatedly throw him into the cage walls causing McMahon to bleed. Austin then climbed out of the ring and was almost on the floor outside but again McMahon gave him the finger, this time with both hands, and Austin climbed back in. After delivering a Stone Cold Stunner to him, Austin began to further taunt McMahon. Paul Wight, making his WWF debut, entered the ring by way of tearing a hole in the canvas and climbing through it. He proceeded to throw Austin into the cage several times. After checking on McMahon, he was given the instruction to throw Austin into the cage again. This time, Wight threw Austin into the cage with such force that the entire panel swung open and Austin was able to drop to the floor and gain the victory to earn a WWF Championship shot at WrestleMania XV causing McMahon's master plan backfired.[6]
Reception
In 2017, Kevin Pantoja of
411Mania gave the event a rating of 2.5 [Very Bad], writing, "This was on the way to being one of the worst Pay-Per-Views I've ever seen. Starting with Goldust/Bluedust, Holly/Snow and Mideon/Boss Man was an awful decision. The Tag Title and Intercontinental Title matches didn't turn things around. It [wasn't] until the final three matches that things became watchable. Mankind/Rock was MOTN but even that wasn't great. Austin/Vince and the DX tag were both decent. A lame show heading into what turned out to be a shitty WrestleMania".[7]
Aftermath
St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House would be the final In Your House event as the company moved to install permanent names for each of its monthly PPVs, which began with
Ryan Shamrock would be dumped by Val Venis on Raw Is War and would then be by the side of Billy Gunn and later Goldust, whom she would accompany for his four-way match at WrestleMania XV for the Intercontinental title. Paul Wight would go by his real name until WrestleMania, when he would adopt his ring name, The Big Show and would make his WrestleMania debut against Mankind.
Results
No.
Results
Stipulations
Times
dark match
H
– the match was broadcast prior to the pay-per-view on Sunday Night Heat
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411Mania
. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
^Sacco, Justine; Weitz, Michael (April 7, 2011). "The New WWE" (Press release). Connecticut: WWE. Archived from the original on May 3, 2018. Retrieved November 25, 2021.
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