No Way Out of Texas: In Your House - Compaq Centre, Houston Texas, February 15th 1998

Ok so I LOVED this opening video, which speaks in vague terms about the wrestlers on the show and their motivations and drives. It’s very cool, without getting into specifics about any of tonight’s matches. Notable by his absence is the WWF Champion Shawn Michaels who isn’t shown once - it’s been addressed on the pre-show but HBK will not be able to compete in tonight’s main event.

Jim Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler open the show with that news and the pending mystery - who will replace Shawn Michaels in that match, because there’s only one HBK? The main event has also been made an unsanctioned match, which just means no disqualifications. The way they hype the replacement up throughout the show, most fans were expecting a big name. Lower those eyebrows and expectations folks.

The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher) vs. Marc Mero (w/Sable) and The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust (w/Luna)

Mero and Goldust have formed a bond over their shared desperate need for the spotlight at all costs, and Goldust is once again dressed up as Marylin Manson for this event. It has a connection to The Headbangers of course but I think it's probably more because the company was very pleased with his “Beautiful People” rip off and wanted to get more use out of it. It’s pretty great.

Before the match, Mero grabs the mic and takes issue with the “Sable” chants, which also really bother Luna. Mero says that there’s only room for one beautiful lady so Sable can get the hell out of here! This backfired on Raw - she came back out and slapped Goldust and cost him a match to Thrasher! 

The early story of this match is that Mero and Goldust are better singles wrestlers so control the match but as soon as Mosh or Thrasher make a tag, their superior team work takes over. They hit some nice double teams like a double clothesline, flapjack and then Thrasher suplexes Mosh off the middle rope and drops his partner down onto Goldust. There’s a funny exchange on commentary too as Lawler takes Mero’s side and questions why the fans are chanting for Sable, and then tries to get a “Luna” chant started. 

The Headbangers are in control until Goldust from the outside low-bridges the top rope and sends him tumbling to the outside. He gets thrown into the ringsteps and Luna attacks him with one of her high-heel shoes and somewhere in this exchange, Thrasher starts bleeding quite heavily from the top of his head. Ouch.

He’s obviously not in too much pain as he stays in the ring and Marylin-Dust and Mero isolate him with quick tags and double teams. After enduring a long beating, Thrasher counters a suplex attempt into a DDT and makes a hot tag to Mosh - the crowd popped big for that, they’re really into this match! The Headbangers get on a roll but when Mosh goes to the top rope, Luna shoves him off after a low blow. Marc Mero hits the TKO and has the match won but Sable comes back down to the ring to fight with Luna! Luna has been mean-girling her for a while I guess, so with Mero and Goldust trying to keep the two women apart the Headbangers switch places! Thrasher catches an unsuspecting Mero with a small package and the Headbangers win the match but the fans are way more invested in seeing Sable and Luna fight! Mero and Goldust have a really hard time restraining their women as they try to get at each other - it seems like Sable, for whatever reason, can’t stand up to Marc Mero so she’s taking her frustrations out on Luna instead! With Goldust and Luna gone, Sable gets a HUGE pop for shoving Marc Mero on his ass - good stuff. 

Backstage, Michael Cole speaks to European Champion Owen Hart and asks how he can possibly co-exist with Stone Cold given their history - Owen says that as long as Austin stays out of his way everything will be fine because his focus is on Hunter Hearst Helmsley and busting up his legs again.

WWF Light Heavyweight Championship

Taka Michinoku © vs. Pantera

Sunny is the special guest ring announcer for this match which has been her only consistent role on WWF TV for months at this point. It’s a shame because she was a great performer but I think her personal demons made her unreliable and the company was reluctant to give her a bigger role. That’s just speculation on my part.

Pantera became number one contender by beating Brian Christopher, but then kind of leaned into Brian’s heel ways and used a weapon to pin Taka in a tag team match on Raw. Taka Michinoku gets a respectable pop when he comes out - I’ve made it clear how much I love this guy and it's nice to see him getting a good reaction and some consistent booking early in his career. It feels like they’re building to Brian Christopher vs. Taka Michinoku at Wrestlemania, and just as I was typing this very sentence, Christopher comes down the entrance aisle and joins Lawler and Ross to do commentary on this match.

These two move fast with head scissors and hurricanaranas. Taka hits a gorgeous running springboard dive to the outside but his attempt to hit a superplex is blocked and Pantera drives him into the security rail with a dive through the ropes. From there, Pantera works over the champion’s lower back with submissions and a nice looking mexican surfboard. On commentary, Lawler and Brian make a LOT of borderline racist jokes about Taka while JR teases them about being father and son. “Everyone knows the Japanese are losers - Barney can even beat Godzilla!” In between the various jokes, Brian throws out the phrase “slant-eyed” which is DEFINITELY too far and JR pulls him back in for it. He does also have some fun making fun of Too Sexy; Brian says that Taka “don’t know no English” and JR gets all over him for not speaking very good English either! 

Pantera hits a nice dive through the ropes onto Taka and then a second up and over the rope and down into Taka’s back with a senton bomb. That was great, as is the split screen where Jerry and Brian do a good job of matching their mannerisms and looking as similar as possible for maximum comedy while they still claim to not be related. 

The two pick up the pace and after a top rope hurricanrana, a string of roll ups and kick outs and a gorgeous missile dropkick to the back of Pantera’s head, Taka hits the Michinoku Driver to retain the title in a great match! I really enjoyed this.

Post-match, Brian is furious and wants to go and attack Michinoku. Even Jerry asks him not to and as they debate it at ringside, Taka hits a running dive up and over the top rope onto both men! The Lawler family is about to jump Taka two vs. one but the Light Heavyweight Champion makes a run for it, getting into the crowd and escaping that way. 

Backstage, Kevin Kelly speaks to Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie about tonight’s main event. Their sentiment is much the same as Owen Hart’s earlier - they don’t care who the mystery replacement for Shawn Michaels is, they are focused on revenge on the New Age Outlaws and putting a serious hurtin’ on the Tag Team Champions.

The Godwins (Henry O and Phineas I Godwin) vs. The Quebecers (Jacques and Pierre)

This feud is based on sneak attacks using slop buckets, but there’s still no information on what caused them to start attacking each other in the first place. I assume just a general desire to “make an impact” but given that this is a battle between two heel teams, the fans aren’t especially into this one and neither am I. I suppose that’s the problem with so much of the build having taken place on Shotgun Saturday Night, which I sadly have no way to watch. 

This is a slow match with the Godwins showing off some wrestling skill, focusing on Pierre’s arm with holds and hammerlocks and quick tags. I don’t want to say this match is ruining the PPV but the crowd was actually pretty hot for everything before these two teams started wrestling. I like the Quebecers, especially Jacques who has a ton of charisma. I liked him back in 1994 when they were dressed as mounties, and I liked him in the early 90s when he was The Mountie. As always during a Godwins match, it gives the commentators a chance to talk about their fellow Arkansas native President Bill Clinton. Neither Lawler nor Ross make any attempt to hide how extremely Republican they are and Lawler straight up makes a joke about hoping Clinton gets assassinated. Jesus Christ. 

I don’t have much to say about this match honestly. It’s a slow plodding brawl with both teams exchanging the advantage. Jacques hit a nice piledriver on Henry but the finish comes when Phineas clocks Pierre with the slop bucket and that gives The Godwins the victory. The crowd didn’t react at all for the finish but they did react a little when Henry and Phineas hit BOTH Jacques and Pierre with their buckets after the match too and left them laid out. 

Backstage, Dok Hendrix speaks to the WWF Tag Team Champions Road Dog and Bad Ass Billy Gunn and they seem angry and flustered that even THEY don’t know who will be their fourth tag team partner in tonight’s main event.

NWA North American Championship

Jeff Jarrett © (w/Jim Cornette, NWA Tag Team Champions The Rock N Roll Express (Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton) and Barry Windham) vs. Blackjack Bradshaw

Bradshaw has a pretty kick-ass theme song and he gets a big pop from the Texans in the audience by swinging a big bull rope at the NWA contingent and chasing them out of the ring. He’s got a lot of odds to overcome in this match with many people at ringside. I never liked Bradshaw as a person but personally I think this is his coolest version - big rugged babyface. Maybe I just feel that way because I’m watching Yellowstone currently and like cowboys. 

Before the match begins, the referee makes a ruling and Howard Finkle announces that as Jim Cornette has a manager’s license he is allowed to remain at ringside but Windham, Morton and Gibson need to go backstage immediately. This marks the first NWA championship match on a WWF PPV in history. It’s not the final time that’ll happen in 1998 as this “invasion” continues.

Bradshaw takes off his leather chaps and lashes Jarrett across the back (which should probably be a disqualification) and then lights up Jeff with chops and strikes in the corner. The crowd reaction is weird as I’d have assumed they would be cheering this but it sounds like Bradshaw is getting some boos? I can only assume something is happening in the crowd that’s stolen their focus. 

Jarrett bails to the outside to regroup and is thrown into Cornette for his troubles but Bradshaw makes the mistake of getting distracted by Jimmy so Jeff can jump him from behind and get some control of the match. The action back in the ring isn’t bad, but the crowd isn’t especially into either of these men. The NWA invasion is not setting the world on fire, and I’ve no idea what the plan for this was. From the WWF’s standpoint, a stable of “old timey rasslers” lecturing the fans on how the Attitude era isn’t “real” wrestling works as heels but for the NWA, how did being seen as old fashioned heels help their image? Jarrett works over Bradshaw as JR explains that the big Texas has had four surgeries on his knee thanks to his past in the NFL and Jarrett is focused on it. When Bradshaw starts a comeback, Cornette hits him in the leg with his racket case but Bradshaw won’t be denied and catches Jarrett’s top rope cross body and turns it into a slam and then drills the champion with a powerbomb. He pulls Cornette into the ring and throws him around but all that does is distract the referee - I think there was a botch here as Jeff used Cornette’s racket to knock down Bradshaw but the referee turned around too quickly and saw it, so ends the match via disqualification. I think he was supposed to get the pin. 

Bradshaw disarms Jeff and hits him with the racket, followed by fending off Windham and the Rock N Roll Express. He slams Cornette and is about to kill him with a big clothesline but Barry trips his former partner and the NWA group beat down Bradshaw until finally Hawk and Animal run down to make the save! The Legion of Doom sends the NWA scurrying to the back and get one of the loudest chants of the night so far - I wonder why, given how popular the LOD was, they were given a losing streak and bumped down the card so far? 

In the DX locker room, Michael Cole speaks to Chyna and Triple H about who will be taking HBK’s place in the eight man tag. Triple H cuts a pretty babyface promo about how they don’t need a partner and he’s decided that it’ll be a 4 vs. 3 match and they’ll win anyway. Michael Cole tells him that the WWF will probably force a partner on them. 

Elsewhere, Dok Hendrix chats to the Nation of Domination. I love this promo - not because of the content, which is just Faarooq talking about their impeding victory - because of The Rock who spends the entire time mugging for the camera, rolling his eyes at Faarooq and popping his pecs, raising his eyebrow and laughing at the replay of himself smashing Ken Shamrock in the face with a steel chair. Great stuff, and it gave birth to a gif (Rock rolling his eyes) which I use almost every day.

“War of Attrition” 

Ken Shamrock, Ahmed Johnson and The Disciples of Apocalypse (Chainz, 8-Ball and Skull)

vs.

The Nation of Domination (WWF Intercontinental Champion The Rock, Faarooq, D'Lo Brown, Kama Mustafa, and Mark Henry)

D’Lo starts things off against Chainz but this match is difficult to call as the early moments are just men tagging in and out to get their moment in the spotlight. Mark Henry tags in and insists on Ahmed Johnson tagging in - he wants to fight the biggest, strongest man and prove how tough he is and in fairness, the crowd goes nuts for them trading big blows. JR calls Mark “the strongest drug-free athlete in the world” which is probably a dig at WCW. Ahmed slams Mark for a big pop but then gets busy celebrating and is jumped from behind by D’Lo Brown. The back and forth continues and The Rock finally willingly tags in once Shamrock is on and on the ropes. He spikes him with a float-over DDT and then rolls into a cover which was a cool looking move but Shamrock kicks out. Lawler and Ross debate who is the REAL leader of The Nation and whether Faarooq is just a spokesman but being Intercontinental Champion makes The Rock the real leader. It’s a fair point honestly. The twins Skull and 8-Ball get involved but neither I not the commentators can tell them apart. One of them is isolated and in succession he takes a frog splash off the middle rope from D’Lo and then the move that would later be known as The People’s Elbow from The Rock but kicks out. The beating continues with The Nation keeping lets-call-him-Skull in their corner and working him over.

He finally works for a tag and the match breaks down into a 10 man brawl. Everyone spills out of the ring leaving Shamrock and The Rock as the only two men in the ring - Ken puts him down with a belly to belly suplex and locks in the ankle lock for a submission victory. That finish came out of nowhere! 

The babyfaces leave and in the ring, The Nation are all mad at each other. Rocky gets in Faarooq’s face and screams at him for not doing more to save him and actually shoves the leader and in the melee, Faarooq punches D’Lo in the face too! The Rock just gets out of the ring and leaves as Faarooq does his bet to settle things down and make the peace. He DEMANDS The Rock come back to the ring and join in the group salute which, after some delay, The Rock does and the five Nation Members raise their firsts as a united force, at least in appearance. Things are not all well inside the Nation of Domination. 

This match matched the final appearance of Ahmed Johnson. He was at the next set of Raw tapings and, according to him, was asked to film a segment where someone would hang him with a rope around his neck. Lynchings are a touchy subject for the black community and he made the decision that he didn’t want his sister (who was seriously ill and about to die) to see that on TV and walked out of the company never to return. He did resurface in WCW about 18 months later as Big T (his real name is Tony) but that didn’t last long either. 

The night of interviews with main event participants continues with Stone Cold Steve Austin. Considering he was the hottest star in the world at the time he doesn’t have much to say and echoes the earlier sentiments. Someone is going to get their ass whipped tonight etc. I do find it interesting that in addition to him having been removed from the opening video, there has been next to no mention of the WWF Champion Shawn Michaels tonight and there has been zero mentions of Mike Tyson! My theory is that in the build up they kind of hinted that Tyson would appear at this show but, realising that is intentionally misleading to sell PPVs, chose to ease off on the references so they can’t be accused of lying.

Kane (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Vader

Here is the very cool video package for this match which serves as a highlight reel of Kane’s path of destruction since his debut. This match is amazingly only Kane’s second official televised match! 

Kane’s entrance is awesome and, thankfully, this is the first of his appearances where they turn off the glowing red lights and let us actually see what's going on. Vader steps right up to Kane’s face and starts clubbing on him, showing no intimidation but he’s easily overpowered and beaten up outside the ring by the big red machine. Kane is bigger, stronger and more powerful than The Undertaker himself! Kane slowly works over Vader as Paul Bearer cheers him on and enjoys the assault. I don’t have a great deal to say without just calling this blow by blow but its a lot of punches and kicks and uppercuts. Vader fights back with a series of stiff rights and lefts right to Kane’s face and given Vader’s reputation for working a little stiff I hope that mask offers some protection.

Vader endures a long beating and finally fights back with forearms and clubs. He slams Kane and sets up a moonsault off the top rope which connects (kind of, he only just barely caught Kane with his arms and head) but Kane sits up like nothing happened! They go back and forth a little more and Vader his a powerbomb. Kane no-sells it. Kane hits a chokeslam! Vader no-sells that, but he doesn’t no-sell the Tombstone Piledriver. Kane wins. The match was mostly pretty dull but I enjoyed the last couple of minutes.

After the match, Kane fires his pyro and then goes under the ring to retrieve a giant metal wrench which he violently clubs Vader in the head with! Vader goes down, unmoving and after Kane and Bearer are done a bunch of referees, officials and medical staff come out to check on the big man and load him onto a stretcher. The camera zoomed in on the wrench on the mat and to be honest, it looked pretty obviously like it was made of rubber to me but let’s not be assholes and give them the benefit of our suspension of disbelief! 

This main event has a video package which was clearly made after they knew Shawn Michaels couldn’t wrestle, but before they had decided who it would be. It says that Michaels will handpick his replacement but that’s no longer the case; the WWF is forcing a partner on DX and the New Age Outlaws

Unsanctioned match

Stone Cold Steve Austin, WWF European Champion Owen Hart, Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie

vs.

Triple H (w/Chyna), WWF Tag Team Champions The New Age Outlaws (Bad Ass Billy Gunn and Road Dog) and Savio Vega

Elephant in the room - Savio Vega is not a fitting replacement for Shawn Michaels. You can see why they didn’t hype this up and get people excited that it might be a return or debut. Ironically, it’s only 7 weeks until Sean Waltman returns to the company so if they had timed this better, it could have been him! Road Dog now has the full version of his pre-match promo including dragging words out for maximum impact. Savio came out carrying a trash can lid and some barbed wire and, if they wanted to make an interesting storyline out of this they could point out that Savio comes with some backup in the form of the other three Boricuas. Spoilers but that is not a factor in this match. Stone Cold enters last and gets a huge reaction from his fellow Texans; he’s been the most popular man in the company for a while but by this point it was undisputed!

Things kick off with a wild eight man brawl with the Rattlesnake taking centre stage and beating Billy Gunn up with fists, kicks and a trash can lid. There’s a huge collective groan of disappointment when he goes for the Stunner but Bad Ass escapes. It settles down to Austin and Triple H as the legal men with the crowd loudly chanting for Austin. Great stuff.

This is chaotic and with fighting inside and outside of the ring I’ll try to pick out the key spots as best I can. Funk uses a chair to hammer on both Outlaws and, with a table set up in the ring against the ropes Owen Hart belly to belly suplexes Billy Gun through it! Austin chokes Savio with a camera cable but Billy attacks him with a trash can to finally stop the Rattlesnake’s momentum. Owen Hart and Triple H finally get their hands on each other in the ring but no one is watching any of that as Stone Cold just BATTERS people around the ring with the ring bell and a steel chair. Billy Gunn takes the brunt of the abuse and seems to be everywhere, all at once. 

Things finally settle into a proper tag team match with the villains isolating and working over Chainsaw Charlie. There’s an awesome spot where Stone Cold picks up a trash can and hurls it across the ring right into Billy Gunn who takes a big bump off it. That made me laugh out loud and full credit to Billy for making that look so good. Chainsaw finally makes a tag to Owen Hart but the referee didn’t see it and so doesn’t allow it, physically wrestling Owen back to his own corner. I’m sure Owen would have happily slapped Earl Hebner for the role he played in Montreal but he keeps his cool. I’m not sure why the tags being allowed is such a big deal given that 1) this match is unsanctioned and 2) they spent the first 5 - 10 minutes of it brawling with no tags anyway. Chainsaw makes the tag finally to Cactus Jack who rolls through all four opponents but the crowd isn’t very loud; they’re just waiting on Stone Cold getting the tag! Cactus gets a bit overzealous and fights to the outside but Billy drops him with a DDT on the floor and then he and Road Dog work together to drive the ringsteps right into his head and face. Back in the ring, Cactus is picked apart and, with some gloves on to protect his own hands, Savio Vega actually wraps him in barbed wire! The crowd reacts big when it's threaded into his mouth but it's wrapped entirely around his body. In the background on the apron there’s a shot where Stone Cold and Owen Hart are in deep conversation and I’d love to know what they were saying. Savio and the Outlaws just hammer on poor Mick Foley with chairshot after chairshot, all the while he’s still wrapped in barbed wire.

Billy swings with one big shot which Cactus ducks and it’s Road Dog who takes it to the head. Mick crawls and just barely makes the tag to Stone Cold and that begins the end - the Rattlesnake is a hurricane of right hands, fighting off the entire opposing team and he drops Road Dog with a Stone Cold Stunner to pick up the win for his team. He drops Billy Gunn with a Stunner too for good measure! 

Austin wins and everyone is happy to just clear out and go home but Chyna is pissed. She gets in Austin’s face and keeps shoving him. Stone Cold won’t strike a woman so he tries to just leave but Chyna refuses and keeps pulling him back for more. Stone Cold resisted as long as he could but she left him with no choice - Stone Cold Stunner to Chyna! Austin can’t be controlled and was a one man wrecking crew in this main event which I really, really enjoyed. Just a fun, wacky, chaotic brawl. 

I thought this was a mixed bag of a show - the crowd was super hot for the first two matches which really helped me enjoy those and I really liked the main event. The rest of the matches were nothing special but there were bits I enjoyed, like the final couple of minutes of Kane vs. Vader, and the finishing sequence of the “War of Attrition”. Worth a watch for sure.