Unforgiven: In Your House - Greensboro Coliseum Complex in Greensboro North Carolina, April 26th, 1998

The first Pay-Per-View of the Attitude Era proper, it’s Unforgiven: In Your House! They drop the In Your House moniker that they used for B PPVs pretty soon but this is the second (after February's “No Way Out: In Your House'' where they switched the order and made In Your House the subtitle (up until now, it was always In Your House: Unforgiven) A minor change but what I am I here for if not to provide intricate trivia and detail you don’t need? 

Great opening video package which is focused entirely on the Inferno match which you can see here;

Classy Freddy Blassie with the voice over work. We also get a different little voice over about how Vince McMahon has promised something catastrophic will happen tonight. (Maybe Freddy was double parked). That was actually just a throwaway line while he was on commentary of the last segment of the go home Raw. I like it though - it’s something I’ve mentioned before in my Unforgiven:Preview where I run down the Raw’s in between the big shows, I like that most shows in this era have a show-long storyline. Like a drama series - there’s an overarching plot of course but each episode has its own little mini-story within the bigger narrative. Credit where credit is due, that’s all Vince Russo. See, I'm not going to just pick on him when his name comes up.

6 Man Tag Team match

The Nation of Domination (WWF Intercontinental Champion The Rock, Mark Henry and D’Lo Brown w/Kama Mustafa) vs. Farooq, Ken Shamrock and Steve Blackman

After booting out Faarooq the night after Mania, The Rock has gone from strength to strength with his promo. The crowd aren’t particularly into Faarooq which I'd imagine is why the faces come out to Shamrock’s theme song. 

Our first proper look at D’Lo Brown here who has lost so much weight and gotten so much more athletic since joining The Nation. He’d get better, and he has a great moonsault which hardly anyone was doing at the time.

Steve Blackman has actually been on the WWF bubble since 1988! He was going to come in as a jobber/lower card talent as he’s friends with The Harts but sadly got very ill and lost most of his muscle mass during that. It took him until November 1997 to finally make his appearance as a member of Team USA at the Survivor Series.

The crowd’s first big pop is for Faarooq whipping D’Lo with a belt which doesn’t draw a DQ because of reasons. I’m not sure why Faarooq was wearing a belt/leather tie around the waist of his singlet but you’re not here for fashion tips.

Mark Henry with the “i’ve only just learned to wrestle” move set of an elbow drop, a scoop slam, a clothesline, a bearhug. We’re entering year two of his wrestling training/career at this stage. His first ever match was with Jerry Lawler in 1996 which they do not mention. His selling off Faarooq’s hot tag is particularly bad.

People’s Elbow on Blackman which does get a decent reaction from the crowd this time. They’re learning. He has like 90% of his most famous mannerisms, he just needs to use them enough for everyone to catch on. Watching The Rock in early 1998 is like watching a big countdown clock. 

A slow match which doesn’t really hold my attention. Faarooq hits the Dominator (which is one of wrestler’s least hit finishers) on The Rock for the pin and to add to his indignity, Shamrock’s theme music plays again.

The WWF Champion, Stone Cold Steve Austin marches to the ring next in his civvies as commentary debate why he’s here. He approaches the time keeper Mark Yeaton and forces him into the ring. In the main event of the previous Raw, Dude Love made Steve Blackman “submit” to an abdominal stretch. In reality, Vince at ringside (as he will be for tonight’s main event) was the one who instructed Mark to ring the bell and say that Blackman submitted. It’s Montreal. They’re doing Montreal. Stone Cold promises Yeaton that while Mr. McMahon might fire him for not doing as he says, Stone Cold will send him to the hospital along with Dude Love and McMahon himself. 

This segment really pushes the storyline for tonight but at the end of the day, it’s Stone Cold bullying and intimidating a tiny non-wrestler. He takes no crap from anyone and that’s cool but also it’s only little Mark Yeaton mate. 

WWF European Championship

Triple H © vs. Owen Hart

With Chyna suspended above the ring in a shark cage

The battle of the, shall we say, “noses with character”

Owen is very happy and smug that Chyna is going in the shark cage. He does trip over the big gas pipe that’s there for the inferno match which somewhat ruins his good mood. Made me laugh though. 

Owen Hart should have been a main eventer. After Montreal he was a super over babyface and over time that eased off. By this point, he was floundering and he was always much better as a heel anyway so they should have turned him on Austin (they have plenty of history, Owen legitimately shaved about 3 years off Austin’s career by severely injuring his neck with a botched piledriver at Summerslam 1997) and him being the one to buddy up to Vince after what he did to Bret in Montreal would have made for a good story and got him some great heat as well. Owen could have been a great challenger for Austin during this initial run. If Owen had been around these days he’d have won the World title a dozen times. An incredibly crisp, polished wrestler both on the mat and as a high flyer who could also work great character promos, if not serious main event ones.

On the Raw’s in the build up, it’s already clear that DX are getting too popular to stay heel for long. Triple H’s strength is as a bumping heel though and he makes Owen look like a million bucks in this match.

It’s during this match that I note how small the ringside era is! The barricades and announce tables are all really close to the ring. I think the layout changes when they start using those smooth black padded guard rails at some point soon. It’s a pretty big visual change and in my head, it draws a clear line between these older looking shows and the modern WWF/WWE. 

It was going at a great pace but it slowed right down in the middle with a series of very long dragon sleepers by Triple H. Killing an already quiet crowd here.

I think they mistimed the finish as Owen got Triple H in the sharpshooter as the cage was lowering. That’s what caused Owen to break the hold in the end but by result, Triple H survived the sharpshooter for a very long time.

Owen has a nice pedigree! But in the end, more DX “numbers game” leads to Triple H retaining thanks to a Euro belt shot from X-Pac. 

Post match ringside interview with Owen Hart by Michael Cole, Owen is pissed off and says he’s had enough of this “bullshit” for which Jim Ross apologises. It’s fine JR, I'd be raging too. Enough is Enough and it MIGHT be time for a change (wink)

NWA Tag Team Championship

The Midnight Express (Bodacious Bart and Bombastic Bob) (c) (with Jim Cornette) Vs. the Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson)

Jim Cornette comes out and says that we probably all think The Rock and Roll Express is the best tag team of all time. From the crowd reaction, I don’t think many people cared even the tiniest bit in 1998 Jim. And the WWF had the cheek to rip on WCW for using old men. The Rock and Roll Express do come to the ring to The Rocker’s theme music which is pretty cool. 

This whole NWA invasion was pants from start to finish. No one cared at all about the NWA at this time and Jim Cornette tried really hard with hyping his guys up and pushing it as hard as he could but it didn’t change the fact that no one cared. It was a bunch of indy looking guys coming in with belts no one recognised and feuding with lower carders. Jeff Jarrett was initially the North American champion but after dropping that to Bradshaw in February, he moved back to his old mid-90s gimmick because he saw the writing on the wall. I have no idea what happened to that title after Brawshaw won it but honestly, who cares? 

Bob and Bart were pushed reasonably hard as a team at this early junction but it didn't last either. Bob has better things to come as Hardcore Holly and Bart...well amazingly his run with Billy as the Smoking Gunns in 1994 - 1996 was already his peak. See you at the Brawl for All mate. 

This isn’t a bad match but the crowd do not care. At all. 

Jim Cornette challenges the referee to a fist fight after he disagrees with a call and it gets a polite muted pop. This kind of stuff is why I don’t have any time for Jim Cornette - he’s so stuck in this hokey 1980s mindset. Some of it might still work if the talent was over with the crowd but the kind of talent he likes isn’t getting over with anyone in the late 90s. 

King keeps trying to ignore this match and talk about Sable which I don’t approve of normally but during this match? Yeah, fair. Let’s talk about Sable.

Bob and Bart win with a bulldog headlock to what could generously be described as a quiet reaction. 

The NWA invasion was an attempt by the WWF to generate some drama and interest in the product, while also giving them a handful of talent to book regularly and hide how thin the roster was. If they’d come in with some name talent and gone after main eventers this could have done something for business but instead we got a bunch of go-nowhere lower carders feuding with The Headbangers and the like. In the end, it peeters out in a few months and isn’t remembered fondly (or at all) It does give us some noteworthy moments from a purely historical standpoint (like the NWA world title belt showing up on Raw with Dan Severn) but it’s not especially interesting.

Michael Hayes interviews Luna. Sorry, he’s Doc Hendrix here. I have no idea why he had a gimmicked name because JR and King would regularly call him Michael Hayes anyway. Luna promises to strip Sable naked. Somehow, I think they may be over promising here. 

Evening Gown Match

Sable vs. Luna Vachon (w/The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust)

The real star of this match is Sable’s plastic surgeon.

Sable is a terrible performer both in the ring and as on the mic. She has negative charisma. She was insanely popular because the crowd was gross. There’s a sign offering her a “free tongue bath” held up by a middle aged balding man that made me gag a little.

Luna is a great performer. A good wrestler who never got a chance to show it, and who worked really hard on her promos and character. The attitude era fans are so rowdy (in general, not so much during this show, they’re kind of terrible all night) but they perk up for this in a crass way. The noise is a sort of mess of men’s voices shouting different things. 

Marc Mero distracts Sable, she gets stripped to her underwear (to officially lose the match but like that even matters) and then hits a powerbomb on Luna. Or more accurately, Luna powerbombs herself as Sable holds her.

Sable chases Luna under the ring and comes back out with Luna’s underwear implying that Luna is - gasp - naked. Goldust wraps his robe around her and carries her out as Sable screams like a banshee in the ring. It’s pretty horrible sounding which detracts somewhat from the beautiful blonde woman in her underwear. Sable is working hard to make herself less attractive based on personality alone. 

Next up, we’re joined by Vince McMahon, who comes out with the stooges - Pat Patterson and Gerry Brisco. They’ve both been bumped up to regular on screen characters now and are brilliant in their roles. We’ll see a lot more of them and talk about them a lot more going forward. Vince hasn’t quite found his character yet. He’s performing Mr. McMahon as a sort of soft spoken intellectual who calls Stone Cold “Mr. Austin”, and doesn’t express a lot of emotion. I think this was all to play off Austin being a physical man’s man. North Carolina is where Vince was born so he talks about that and he does say that his mother “had the pleasure of giving birth to me” which is pretty funny. He promises that he’s not going to screw Stone Cold Steve Austin tonight. A far cry from the Vince everyone would come to know and hate.

We then get a very long shot of Sable on the WWF Superstar line. I’d have definitely called that when I was a kid if they still had it (we’re about a year away from the point where I started watching so nostalgia hasn’t kicked in yet on these shows, I’m taking them as they come) 

WWF Tag Team Championships

The New Age Outlaws (Bad Ass Billy Gunn and Roaddogg) © vs. LOD 2000 (Hawk and Animal w/Sunny)

LOD 2000 are also accompanied by Animal’s pot belly of solid muscle. He’d eventually be outshone in this area by Kurt Angle in 2006.

The New Age Outlaws bring out an inflatable doll which Roaddogg introduces as Dean Smith. I assume that’s a local sports reference but the reference is now 25 years old and about something in American sports so you’ll forgive me for not hitting wikipedia for this one.

This is the debut of Billy’s “Mr. Ass” trunks. They’re very shiny and lilac and they’re lovely. 

This match had a lot of build technically as The Outlaws are the ones who took the tag titles from the LOD back in late 1997 and over the course of a month or two shaved Hawk’s head and powerbombed Animal through the announce table injuring his back. The New Age Outlaws retained the tag titles in shady fashion back at the Royal Rumble and so LOD returning (albeit with a tweaked gimmick) to earn another shot at the Outlaws at Wrestlemania was a big storyline payoff. This match was crying out for a video package recapping all of that to help with the big fight feel but instead we get Jim Ross making a couple of vague mentions of their history.

LOD 2000 is getting an ok reaction here but that’s mostly based on past glory. This new look isn’t working and “updating them” so openly like this draws attention to how old they are. They just needed to cut promos and destroy jobbers with their awesome tag team finish and they’d have still been worth keeping.

This match is slow and feels twice as long as it is. The Outlaws are the heels and so by WWF tag team match law, should work over one of the faces until we get a hot tag and the finish but alas, the LOD aren’t selling for anyone so it’s a bit disjointed instead.

The finish comes when Animal hits (i’m being generous) a german suplex on Roaddogg and the referee inexplicably counts down Animal’s shoulders for the “pinned himself” spot. Dumb. They play the LOD’s music and Sunny rushes the ring with the tag title belts but then Howard Finkle announces The Outlaws as the winners.

LOD 2000 - the tag team for the new millennium - hit the Doomsday Device on the referee who gets the full stretcher treatment. 

Double J Jeff Jarrett performs “Some Girls Do” with Sawyer Brown

Jerry Lawler loves Double J but makes some pretty good jokes about how much he doesn’t like country music, throwing out some fake song titles. “Her teeth were stained but her heart was pure” is my favourite. He's a dirty liar though as he gets really into the song when it starts (to be fair, I quite liked this song) 

The crowd chants “we want Flair” (they’re in North Carolina, and Flair was on the outs with WCW at the time too so it’s not impossible to think he’d show up).

Double J is definitely lip syncing. They don’t acknowledge it or play it up or anything but I am telling you now - I will bet anyone reading this six months wages that it’s not Jeff Jarrett singing. 

The crowd boos Double J when he cuts a promo after the song, and then Steve Blackman - the busiest man in the WWF - jumps him from behind. They’ve been feuding on Raw for weeks now after Jeff cheated to hand Blackman his first televised loss. He’s also been tagging with Shamrock, backing up Faarooq in his feud with The Nation and was in the main event on Raw against Dude Love. 

Tennessee Lee waffles Blackman with a guitar and Double J slaps on a figure four as Blackman lays there selling that he’s unconscious. The “we want Flair” chants get pretty loud here and King tells us that the people “want an encore” 

I’ve been pretty mean about Double J in my Unforgiven Preview article recapping the Raw’s. I like Jeff Jarrett but this Double J gimmick is so New Gen and out of place now, and his segments with Tennessee Lee are so long. Tennessee Lee, played by Rob Parker, is a really good promo and performer but they don’t give him much to work with as Tennessee Lee. If you want to see him being pretty awesome, check out his much longer run as Colonel Parker in WCW. 

Inferno Match

The Undertaker vs. Kane (w/Paul Bearer)

A really good video package which is narrated by Michael Cole. I actually really like the format of this where Cole just spells out the feud with us in black and white, tells us what the characters are thinking and feeling, while we see footage. It’s a bit “hand holdy” but that’s how you get things over. Beat people over the head with it. The WWF/E have done it for decades and it works.

It also features the incredible series of segments which lead to Kane and Paul Bearer dragging the dirty, soil covered coffins containing the Undertaker’s parents that were freshly dug up onto the ramp and setting fire to his father’s and then chokeslamming Undertaker through his mother’s. The camera even zoomed in to show human bones and maggots! Incredible, over the top stuff.

Jerry Lawler undoes all the tension in this one pretty early as he sits at ringside with sausages and marshmallows on skewers laughing about how he’s going to cook them on The Undertaker’s burning body. Jesus Christ. Maybe he’s the real Prince of darkness. 

The Undertaker’s entrance is looooong.

Paul Bearer throws a chair into the ring and Kane nails Undertaker with a brutal chairshot to the head. Undertaker was always famous for how much he got his hands up to block these things but this one is stiff and his hands are by his side! 

Much like the Wrestlemania match, this is long bouts of slow selling punctuated with a few big spots. It should be commended the speed with which these lads move and wrestling given that it must be hotter than the inside of a microwavable apple pie in that ring (Alan Partridge reference) 

The crowd were into it and gave Vader a decent pop for his run in what might be the last decent pop he gets in his WWF career sadly. 

Hot (lol) finish as Kane ends up outside the ring but Vader stops him from leaving. Undertaker hits an amazing dive over the top rope with the flames exploding behind him which looks insanely cool. He wears out Kane with a chair and then brutalises Paul Bearer up on the stage using Sawyer Brown’s instruments, busting a drum over his head which popped me. Bearer blades off the drum shot! Oh the humanity. Undertaker returns to the ring, big boots Kane into the fire and his arm catches in spectacular fashion to end the match with an Undertaker victory.

Now...to be a negative nancy, during this whole brawl with Bearer it is very obvious that Kane is laying with his arm under the ring and when he comes out, his sleeved arm is covered in transparent gel or paste of some kind. Obviously I don’t want anyone to get injured or hurt here but I do wonder if the live crowd could also tell what was happening and that’s why they didn’t really pop or react for Kane catching fire? They pop for the announcement that The Undertaker has won though, thankfully.

WWF Championship

Stone Cold Steve Austin © vs. Dude Love

Click here to see the video package for this one;

Another classic attitude era video package which recaps the storyline so far and the likely conspiracy between Vince McMahon and Dude Love. It’s actually pretty subtle on the Raw’s during the build up but this video does a great job of recapping it. These would get better as the storylines would get sillier and more outlandish. Basically, Mick Foley was angry at Stone Cold after the fans dared to chant for Austin while Foley was being beaten up by DX. He returned as Dude Love to ruin the planned Austin/McMahon match on Raw and attacked Stone Cold, seemingly on a whim but between him being made number 1 contender out of the blue, and Vince giving the old Montreal treatment to Blackman on Raw, it seems like Vince and Dude Love have been cooking this up in the background all along. I am strapped in and excited for it. 

This starts hot and heated. Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross are pretty great here as they start to find what would become their defining dynamic for the next two years. King keeps talking trash about the babyface - especially Austin - and JR cheers them on. JR’s fake, forced apology by Vince was great character building in the build up to this. There’s a lot of chat during this about the future of the WWF. What Stone Cold would mean. You have no idea.

The crowd at one point gets a “Stone Cold” chant going which….lads, you’re trying too hard. Just chant “Austin” It fits. 

Mick takes some sick bumps in this one! Splat on the concrete and then a suplex bringing his legs down hard on the ring steps. This is a classic Stone Cold main event and one the fans would get very used to as they brawl and fight all over the arena. Entertaining but slows down significantly in the ring when it’s Austin’s turn to get worked over. 

The finish comes when the referee goes down, Austin swings a chair on the outside at Dude but blasts Vince right on the top of his head instead. Austin stuns Dude back in the ring, covers and counts his own three count. His theme music then plays which is all very odd. He leaves with the title belt but post match, as they’re attending to Vince at ringside, Pat Paterson tells ring announcer Howard Finkle that Stone Cold lost via disqualification.

The PPV ends on a weird, muted note as we get a long period of watching Vince be stretchered out while JR talks in a soft, serious voice about Vince’s previous neck injuries and that he hasn’t moved his arms or legs since he went down. Christ almighty!