Ground Zero: In Your House - Louisville Gardens, Louisville Kentucky, September 7th 1997

Tonight’s opening video focuses on Shawn Michaels’ heel turn since Summerslam, making a mistake and instead of apologising and making amends he doubled down and made things so much worse! 

I was wrong about one of the big changes I mentioned last time we were at In Your House - the stage which looks like a house is still here but the format of the name of the event has changed and In Your House is now a subtitle. This is the first three hour B-PPV too so lets see what the WWF has in store for us.

Brian Pillman vs. Goldust (w/Marlena)

If Pillman loses he must leave the WWF.

If Goldust loses, Marlena must spend 30 days as Pillman’s personal assistant.

This one gets a video package too which is fitting given that they’ve been feuding for two months now. Pillman was forced to wrestle in a dress until he won a match on Raw but that’s been sidestepped now in favour of the far more important stipulations; Pillman has claimed that HE is the real biological father of Dustin and Terri’s daughter Dakota. This video cleverly uses footage of Dustin talking about his relationship with his father out of context and makes them fit this storyline too.

Goldust enters first and then attacks Pillman during his entrance, throwing him into the ring steps and then bouncing him around the ring with an atomic drop and big right hands. The commentators discuss the personal issue at the heart of this match; Brian Pillman DID used to date Terri prior to her marriage to Goldust so it is possible that he is Dakota’s biological father. He was the one who dumped her and she got with Goldust aka Dustin on the rebound. Maybe she’s still carrying a little flame for the Loose Canon? 

The match is pretty heated and Goldust takes it back out of the ring and drives Pillman into the ringsteps. It’s a brawl more than a wrestling match. Pillman’s attempts to fight back are thwarted as his running bulldog is turned into a back suplex and he’s dropped crotch-first across the top rope. He bails out of the ring and they fight up the entrance ramp where he’s suplexed onto the metal ramp! The crowd loved that spot and were really into this match which is unsurprising given that it's the opener. 

Goldust uses the ring post but his own running bulldog is countered too. Pillman slows things down with a deep camel clutch. He goes to the top which is blocked and turned into a superplex but then on the outside, Goldust holds Pillman in place so Marlena can slap him! Goldust hits another superplex but then as he sets up the Curtain Call, Pillman flails and catches the referee in the face. Marlena tries to use her purse as a weapon but Brian blocks it and disarms her, blasting Goldust in the head with it instead! That earns him the three count and Marlena must now go with Pillman and act as his personal assistant - day and night - for the next 30 days. 

Pillman is really rough with the way he grabs her, dragging her backstage and throwing her into his car. Goldust runs after them but is powerless to stop it. Jerry Lawler giggles with glee and comes across as a real monster taking pleasure in this situation - he basically spent the entire match implying that Pillman is going to spend the next 30 days raping her. He checks out Marlena/Terri’s purse and reveals that it had half a brick hidden inside it! JR and Vince are somber and serious about the situation, worried about Dustin and Terri’s daughter while Goldust goes balistic in his locker room, throwing things and punching walls and having a cry. Jerry Lawler continues to giggle about the impending sexual assault. God, I hate Jerry Lawler.

Scott Putski vs. Brian Christopher

This match is part of the WWF’s attempts to build a Light Heavyweight division to rival WCW’s cruiserweights. It’s been successful so far with most of these guys on Raw getting decent reactions. Brian Christopher is Jerry Lawler’s son - something be denied - and JR spends this match making lots and lots of jokes about it which is a bit I always enjoyed. Brian and daddy dearest Jerry have attacked Putski multiple times in the past month so this is the blow off to this short lived feud. It won’t be long now until a proper Light Heavyweight Championship belt was introduced. 

This sadly is the end of Scott Putski as when Christopher dives to the outside, Putski catches him but his leg buckled awkwardly, badly injuring his knee.

Brian Christopher was awarded the match via referee stoppage and while Putski did heal, he left the WWF all together shortly after this. 

Lawler is quick on his feet and grabs a mic so he can taunt and gloat over the fallen Putski, filling some PPV time for the match which was cut short by this injury but thankfully isn’t too mean about poor Scott who I’m sure was very upset. 

Faarooq vs. Savio Vega vs. Crush

The road to this one started a few months ago with them teasing a fall out between Nation of Domination members Savio and Crush and has led to this; Faction Warfare! 

New WWF commissioner Sgt. Slaughter has smartly banned all of these men’s groups from ringside to try and keep it reasonable. Triple threat matches were still new enough to the WWF that they needed to flash the rules up on the screen to remind us all how it works. The Nation has already added Rocky Maivia to its titantron after ditching Ahmed Johnson in favour of the 25 year old. 

I’ve talked about this storyline and the fan’s reaction to it in the Preview and build up to this match but for the record once again, I find the WWF’s assumption that the white biker gang would get cheered over the black group and the Puerto Rican group significantly more offensive than the actual outcome. 

This is just a brawl from the second the bell rings. Faarooq and Savio work together on the bigger man but turn on each other as soon as someone goes for a pin. Given how new this triple threat idea was to the WWF these three guys have the advantage of just being able to do fairly basic spots - partnering up and then turning on each other - to get good reactions from the crowd. 

Crush makes the error of going for a sleeper hold rather than a pin and pays for it when Faarooq comes off the top with a splash to break it up and almost steals the pin himself. There’s an odd spot in the middle of the match as Crush just calmly walks around the ring and ignores Faarooq and Savio while they wrestle. He and Faarooq do break up each other’s pins but continue to work together until they go for a double pin - the referee obviously refuses to count and that causes the break down and a fight between the DOA and Nation leaders.

Savio and Crush partner up next and put down Faarooq with a spike piledriver. They can’t agree to who should pin so Crush knocks Savio out of the ring and hits Faarooq with his Heart Punch finisher. Savio recovers and hits Crush with his own spinning heel kick finisher and that’s enough to score the win - Savio Vega wins for Los Boricuas. This wasn’t a bad match but it also wasn’t very good either.

El Torito vs. Max Mini

There’s no build to this match, but this minis division was featured periodically on the weekend shows during this era. The WWE did try to relaunch a midget-division in the mid 2000s but that failed really quickly. 

Max Mini gets a big pop when he comes out; he was the most popular mini because he was also by far the smallest at only 83lbs. El Torito - Spanish for The Mini Bull - is a lot bigger and bullies Max who has to use his technical skills and goes into a wrist lock and some chain wrestling. Max kicks the referee in the shins and then bites him on the butt which gets a laugh, followed by the referee chasing him around the ring like its a Benny Hill sketch. Max does a lap of the announce tables and then jumpers into Jerry Lawler’s lap, putting his crown on! It’s all pretty funny and gets a better reaction from the fans than the wrestling got. Lawler does his best to look outraged but there’s a smile creeping in - he can’t pretend he didn’t enjoy that spot.

Torito dominates the match in the ring; he was announced as being 101lbs but there’s no WAY he’s only 18lbs heavier than Max, he’s about double his size! 

After a short (no pun intended) match, Max reverses an attempted backdrop into a sunset flip to pick up the win! The crowd were happy with that but the only spot worthy of a replay is Max sitting on Lawler’s lap.

Next up is a video package about Stone Cold Steve Austin and his major neck injury sustained at Summerslam. The company did hope he’d be cleared by doctors to return to the ring at this PPV but sadly he is now forced to vacate the WWF Tag Team Championships. He and Dude Love are out of this next match and The Headbangers now take their place for the now vacant title belts.

They’ve built in a clever storyline and character aspect here as Stone Cold continues to push to wrestle regardless of what the doctors say and so Commissioner Slaughter is forced to suspend Austin to make him take care of his own health.

In the ring, Jim Ross is with Sgt. Slaughter and discusses the situation before then calling for the WWF Tag Team Champions Dude Love and Stone Cold to come to the ring. Dude has no intention to be one half of the champions without the man he won the gold with and so has taken the approach that if Austin has to vacate the title then he will too. There’s no mention of Stone Cold’s Intercontinental Championship during all of this; I’m sure we’ll get to that in due course. The Rattlesnake shoves his middle fingers in JR’s face and stares down the Commissioner. He has no time or patience for any of the kind words and tells them to blow it out of their asses, including Vince McMahon. He’s pissed off because he wants to wrestle and doesn’t care what the doctors say and so he’s even more pissed off at the WWF itself for forcing him to surrender his title. The fans cheer for every single one of Austin’s insults and threats; the guy was a phenomenon. It’s especially funny that he’s needlessly brutal with poor Jim Ross; that’s a little inside joke because the two were and are very good friends behind the scenes. Stone Cold drops Ross with a Stone Cold Stunner which gets a massive pop and sets Vince off! What the hell’s the matter with him?! The ring fills with referees and officials to check on Jim and Dude Love holds back a smiling Rattlesnake as Jerry Lawler tells Vince not to dare getting into the ring. Austin just does not give a damn! 

Backstage, Dok Hendrix interviews Owen Hart and the British Bulldog and asks if Owen is scared given what we just saw; we all know Austin is coming for him next! Owen calls Stone Cold a dangerous lunatic and that Austin should surrender the Intercontinental title back to him and then be gone from the WWF all together.

Four Way Elimination match for the Vacant WWF Tag Team Championships

The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher) vs. The Godwins (Phineas I and Henry O Godwin) vs. The Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal) vs. Owen Hart and WWF European Champion The British Bulldog

As each team makes their way to the ring, a pre-recorded interview with them plays. They all say roughly the same thing about wanting to be the Tag Team Champions but Hawk and Animal are more focused on The Godwins and making them suffer for all of those slop bucket attacks over the past two months.

Just like the triple threat earlier, the rules for this match are flashed up on the screen so we can all follow along. It’s Thrasher and Henry Godwin who start the match officially.

There isn’t much to say about this match as each man tags in and out, hits one move and then disappears again. The only real story that emerges is that Owen and Bulldog smartly refuse to get involved, never tagging in or leaving their corner and staying fresh as daisies. The other three teams mix it up liberally.

The match breaks down a little and with the referee busy trying to control Mosh and Animal, The Godwins try to use one of their steel buckets as a weapon. It’s stopped and Hawk and Animal use it instead, hammering both Phineas and Henry about the head and shoulders with their own buckets! The referee sees that and so the Legion of Doom are the first team eliminated via disqualification.

Mosh and Thrasher act quickly and try to eliminate the Godwins quickly while they’re still hurt but they kick out and keep the match going. Thrasher tries a sunset flip on Henry and a clothesline from Mosh completes the move, pinning Henry to eliminate the Godwins next! 

Owen and Bulldog are still very fresh and act swiftly to try and finish off Mosh quickly as the legal man, grinding him down with rest holds and a missile dropkick. Threasher tags in and builts some momentum but Bulldog cuts him off too. He tries to hold him in positon for an Owen spinning heel kick but the Headbanger ducks and Owen hits Bulldog! Hart recovers quickly and is about to lock the Sharpshooter on Mosh but Stone Cold Steve Austin picks his spot, running to the ring and dropping Owen Hart with a Stone Cold Stunner! The Rattlesnake takes off quickly and Mosh gets the cover and the three count! Mosh and Thrasher win the WWF Tag Team Championships in a match they weren’t even supposed to be in! The fans went nuts for the three count and the pair of them jumped into the crowd and celebrated with the people properly. That was cool. I didn’t say much about this match but it did last almost 18 minutes - It definitely wasn’t a bad match and this crowd being so hot all night really helps.

After a commercial for next month’s PPV, Mosh and Thrasher have made their way backstage and continue to celebrate with the people, hitting the concessions stand to drink beer with their fans (including two good looking girls in bikini tops). Elsewhere in the backstage, Jim Ross in the trainer office complains to Sgt. Slaughter about his treatment. He swears up a storm telling Slaughter that if this happens again he’ll be gone because it’s not acceptable. 

WWF Championship

Bret Hart © vs. The Patriot

This is a very paint by number feud, with Canada vs. America. Is it an insult that Bret Hart, after winning the WWF title, has instantly been moved out of the “main event” to feud with a newcomer in a match which isn’t even going on last? Shawn Michaels talked about this in his book; it was written after Shawn found God and so he’s careful not to mock anyone or be nasty BUT, he does comment that at the peak of he and Bret’s real life hatred it amused him that the Hitman “politic’d” to get the WWF Championship again only to find out that the title doesn’t make the man.

Before the match, Sunny interviews The Patriot (and smiles and mugs for the camera the whole time rather than actually listen to what he says) and Michael Cole interviews Bret Hart - he says that he’s the WORLD Champion, not the America champion and this belt belongs to him as a proud Canadian. Focusing way too much on the Americans only was something the WWF/WWE has struggled with for decades now but it is nice that in 2026 there’s usually multiple international tours and PPVs on other continents per year now.

Bret is a great wrestler obviously but I’m not interested in this match and neither is the crowd. The Hitman is aggressive and hammers on The Patriot with right hands and headbutts before focusing in on his leg. He kicks him around the ring and wears it down with stomps and holds as the fans disinterestedly chant “USA”. It’s probably not a spoiler to tell you all that at this point in time, Bret was very close to leaving the WWF and I’m not sure how close that was to being reality during this event. I’ll talk a great deal more about Bret and his departure soon enough.

Bret locks The Patriot in a Figure Four around the ring post which is one of his favourite spots but it doesn’t actually make sense when you stop to think about it. He uses the ring post to great effect before going over to shout abuse in Vince McMahon’s face, prompting the owner to ask what happened to Bret. 

He is in full control of this match but the European Champion Bulldog comes down to watch his brother-in-law’s back. That draws an Austin chant from the crowd for some reason. Bret ignores it and hits a crisp backbreaker but his suplex attempt is countered by the challenger into one of his own.

The Patriot builds some momentum and hits the Uncle Slam but Bulldog pulls him out of the ring to prevent a three count. The challenger gets out of the ring and goes after Bulldog and Vader - now a babyface based on the power of being an American - comes out to help! Vader beats up Bret Hart right in front of the referee and throws him into the ringsteps which the fans booed, assuming the match ended via disqualification but for some reason the referee ignores it and lets the match continue? Referees escort Vader and Bulldog to the back and Patriot hits a big boot and slam in the ring, followed by his Patriot Missile - a diving headbutt off the top rope. Bret kicks out of that. They continue to battle back and forth and as they brawl in the corner the referee catches an elbow to the head. Patriot hits the Uncle Slam again but there’s no referee to count and by the time he recovers, Bret gets his foot on the ropes to break the count. The Hitman has come very close to losing the WWF title more than once now and the fans have gotten into it, loudly chanting USA and popping for the near falls - credit to Bret for winning them over with this match which has been, in all fairness, very good.

The Patriot is on a roll and locks Bret Hart in his own Sharpshooter right in the middle of the ring but Bret manages to kick up out of it and reverse it, turning it into one of his own. The Hitman sits down deep and that gets the submission victory.

This was a solid match and I enjoyed it but it does feel like Bret is a little directionless as WWF Champion. I’m sure they have big plans for him at Survivor Series. Post match, Bret continues the attack and hammers on Patriot’s leg some more before being stopped by referees. Backstage, Bret and Bulldog give Michael Cole their thoughts; the United States is full of losers, listing all the Americans he’s beaten lately and what big losers they are. At least in the UK, they support great wrestlers. That’s a plug for our next PPV outing, One Night Only in England. 

Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker

You can really see the shift in story telling style in the past six months and The Undertaker’s shift to a more grounded, realistic character is the best example of it. Here’s an awesome video package about Undertaker and Shawn’s shifts in attitude.

Shawn speaks ahead of the match and says that the fans and even Vince might want to see him get his butt kicked but he hasn’t slept in 13 years so there won’t be any resting in peace tonight. The mystique of The Undertaker ends tonight because only one man can do it and it's him. He’s certainly confident! 

In the lead up to this event they teased Michaels forming a partnership with Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna, as well as hiring the returning Rick Rude to provide security and “insurance”. It’s far from a done deal but there’s definitely more to that story (wink wink). Michaels dances to the ring and takes his time, letting his theme music play in its entirety and then pulling a face and miming “jerk off” when his pyro is delayed in going off. Is he playing up his character or is he being unprofessional? Knowing HBK in the 90s it could easily be either. 

The Undertaker has added some more ominous aspects to his entrance; the sound of thunder rumbles through the arena before the lights plunge everything into darkness and there’s a big pop for the familiar gongs. This is the peak presentation of The Undertaker in my opinion and the fans worship the guy and his aura.

Shawn plays cool, calm and collected but when Undertaker gets to the ring he flinches at his pyro and then uses the referee as a human shield, shoving him into the Deadman. Undertaker won’t be deterred and punches the referee out! HBK is freaked out and leaves, telling Vince that he wants nothing to do with this match but Sgt. Slaughter comes out and chases him back to the ring. The Undertaker picks up the referee and throws him out of the ring and onto Michaels and goes out after him, punching him all the way up the entrance ramp and gorilla press slamming him on the metal entrance ramp! He continues the punishment and throws him into the flower bed of the In Your House set and then sends him bouncing and pirouetting down to the ring with a single right hand. The Undertaker is a man possessed and wants Michaels’ blood - there’s no referee, this is just a street fight and Undertaker chokes HBK with a camera cable and throws him over the security rail and up onto the announce table too. He will rue the day he pissed off The Undertaker! 

A second referee finally comes down and as Undertaker distracts himself by intimidating him, Shawn catches him in the knee with a chop block. The bell finally rings and after 10 minutes of beating, the match officially begins.

Michaels advantage doesn’t last long as Undertaker quickly shakes off everything he does continuing to hammer him with punches, send him in and out of the ring and straddle him on the top rope. Michaels has endured an almighty beating so far. He catches a break with a dropkick, dropping Undertaker as he tries his walk along the ropes but when he jumps to the outside he’s caught and driven spine first into the ring post not once, not twice but thrice.

In the ring, Shawn finally gets some separation and goes to get a steel chair but Undertaker stops that and tries to use it himself. The referee grabs the chair and argues with him about it so Michaels dropkicks him in the back and we lose a second referee! Michaels hits a pair of absolutely gorgeous top rope elbows and at that moment, Rick Rude comes down and throws him a pair of brass knuckles. HBK knocks Undertaker out cold and Triple H and Chyna arrive with a third referee, encouraging him to count. The Undertaker kicks out so in a fury they beat up the third referee too! 

Helmsley and Chyna start to beat up The Undertaker, confirming that they are indeed in cahoots with Shawn Michaels and HBK wakes up the second referee Earl Hebner…just to knock him down again! That made me laugh at least, I hate Earl Hebner. The Undertaker does his best to fight back but with it now being three on one odds he has a hard time. He won’t be denied and manages to get the brass knuckles out of HBK’s tights and uses them to knock Michaels out cold! He gets a cover but by the time the referee recovers, HBK kicks out. It’s Undertaker’s turn to be frustrated and he plants Earl Hebner with a chokeslam so the fourth and final referee runs down and waves off this match, ruling it a double disqualification. There’s too much chaos to let it continue. 

Michaels and Undertaker continue to fight and with Helmsley involved, Undertaker has a hard time fighting them both off. Referees and officials fill the ring, Michaels drops Pat Patterson with a Sweet Chin Music and Undertaker drills Helmsley with a Tombstone! The referees cant stop the fight so the locker room empties and midcarders, members of the Nation and Los Boricuas, the LOD and more fill the ring to restrain both men. Undertaker makes a run up and in an awesome spot, dives up and over the top rope and crashes onto Michaels and all of the various superstars trying to restrain him! The Deadman cannot be stopped and finally he’s left in the ring brandishing a steel chair as Helmsley and Chyna help Shawn Michaels escape the melee. This was wild! I really enjoyed it.

This was a great PPV with important happenings (like the new Tag Team Champions and Stone Cold hitting a Stunner on JR, plus Brian Pillman apparently abducting Goldust’s wife) as well as two very, very good main events. Both great matches and both totally different. I’m very happy with this one!