Rock Bottom: In Your House was the twenty-sixth
pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by
the
World Wrestling
Federation (WWF) in the
In Your
House series.
It took place on December 13, 1998 at
General Motors
Place
in Vancouver,
British Columbia
.
Background
When
The Nation split up,
D'Lo Brown and
Mark
Henry became a tag team, with Henry's gimmick being that of the
ladies man Sexual Chocolate. When
Terri
Runnels revealed she was pregnant,
Val
Venis admitted to having a vasectomy and disowned her, aligning
himself with
The Godfather
by virtue of his pimp gimmick.
Jacqueline had also been ditched by her
partner
Marc Mero and so she formed
Pretty Mean Sisters with
Runnels, putting their needs first and ostensibly being seduced by
Mark Henry.
The Headbangers turned heel in
November.
The Oddities had come to the
ring with
Insane Clown Posse, who
sung their entrance theme at the time and when The Headbangers came
to the ring, they joined in dancing with the stable. However, after
spraying silly string into the crowd, they then sprayed into the
eyes of The Oddities and since then had been utilising weapons and
other underhand tactics to win matches. Most notably, they
challenged Insane Clown Posse to a match but the two asked The
Oddities to substitute for them before the Posse attacked Oddities
and helped The Headbangers win.
On September 28,
Owen Hart (kayfabe) broke
Dan Severn's neck with a
piledriver. He announced
the following week that he would retire from professional
wrestling, however at exactly the same time a lucha libre type
character started making appearances called The Blue Blazer. The
Blazer was a gimmick of Hart's in the late '80s and this did not
escape the fans, or the attention of
Steve Blackman. The Blazer began to regularly
interfere in matches, using moves that were associated with Hart
and eventually Blackman caught up with The Blue Blazer backstage,
trying to rip off his mask and prove that it was Hart. When he did
this, however, Hart came at Blackman from behind and locked in his
dragon
sleeperhold. A variety of repeated attacks continued to occur,
with The Blazer attacking Blackman, or Blackman attacking The
Blazer only for Hart to use this as a distraction to further beat
Blackman until on December 7 he officially came out of retirement
to meet Blackman at the event.
On December 6's
Sunday Night Heat, the
sexually charged
Goldust challenged
Jeff Jarrett to a match in which, if he
won, Jarrett's business-like valet
Debra would have to strip naked. Jarrett
accepted the match on the condition that without a valet, should
Goldust lose he would have to do the same. The following evening on
Raw, Goldust came to the ring in just a trenchcoat, flashing
Jarrett and causing him to lose his match while later in the
evening Debra would do the same to Goldust, but as his opponent
Owen Hart was also distracted, it actually helped him win the
match.
The feud for the
WWF Championship
began one month earlier when
The Rock
had won the WWF title in controversy at
Survivor Series 1998 when he put
Mankind in the
Sharpshooter
submission and
Vince McMahon forced
the referee to ring the bell, despite former promises McMahon had
made to Mankind. Commissioner
Shawn
Michaels gave Mankind a match for the title when he revealed
that his ties to The Corporation were not as secure as initially
thought. Before the event, on
Sunday Night
Heat Mankind attacked the champion during an interview,
damaging his ribs. Mankind, meanwhile, had a contract saying if the
Championship was not defended then he would win it by default and
throughout the evening McMahon tried to convince him to relinquish
the contract.
Although initially a feud of respect, animosity between
The Undertaker and
Steve Austin arose when Austin lost
his WWF Championship in an effective handicap match also including
The Undertaker's (
kayfabe) brother
Kane. Despite both men being screwed at the
Survivor Series tournament,
Austin received a title match the next evening but amongst a myriad
interferences from other wrestlers, The Undertaker came to the ring
and hit Austin with a shovel. Despite continuing, Austin eventually
passed out at a house show the following Saturday and was admitted
into hospital. A live feed from the hospital was used in order for
Austin to be interviewed on Raw is War, but during one of the
interview segments The Undertaker arrived at the hospital with Paul
Bearer, kidnapping him and attempting to bury him alive before
changing his mind and embalming him intead. However, just as
Undertaker was chanting ceremoniously, Kane burst in and attacked
the two of them allowing Austin to make his escape. Wanting to
further distance Austin from the WWF Championship, Mr McMahon
capitalized on the rivalry between them, booking them in a Buried
Alive match with the winner receiving a spot in the Royal Rumble.
The mind games between the two intensified as the weeks went on,
with Austin finding an unlikely ally in Kane, who was being chased
by asylum orderlies, by directing them towards Undertaker and
having him incarcerated, leaving
Paul
Bearer stranded and eventually thrown down a
sewer and Undertaker retaliating the
following week on December 7 by ending a tag team match, also
featuring Mankind and Rock, by crucifying Austin in front of the
TitanTron.
Event
D'Lo Brown offered little resistance to Val Venis or Godfather when
he was tagged in. Similarly when Mark Henry was tagged in, he was
thrown around the ring and received the
Ho Train from
Godfather. He managed to reverse an Irish whip, though, and began
to slam Godfather around the ring. Despite Venis tagging in, Henry
still remained dominant and tagged in his own partner, Brown who
successfully took down Venis with the
Sky High. The match was effectively
reset when Brown missed the
Lo
Down causing him and Venis both to crawl to their partners
slowly. With Godfather in the ring, Brown was thrown out as Mark
Henry received a
double
team suplex. Although Venis continued to dominate Henry in the
ring, a fight outside the ring between The Godfather's Hos and PMS
distracted the referee while Jacqueline pulled down Venis' trunks,
distracting him and allowing Henry to push him over and finish him
with a
big
splash followed by a pin.
Mosh fought his way out of the
corner to begin the match, jumping over the turnbuckle to pull
Kurrgan's neck onto the top ropes.
When Mosh tried to jump on Kurrgan, though, he used his height to
catch Mosh and slam him into the mat. Mosh fled to tag in his
partner,
Thrasher, who similarly felt the
mat with a
sidewalk slam.
Golga briefly used his weight with
seated
sentons and
leg drops
to further take out Thrasher but when Kurrgan was brought back in,
he missed a splash and both Headbangers teamed up to suplex him,
following up with a
frog leap. Being dominated, Kurrgan desperately tagged in Golga
who managed to turn things round, utilizing running jumps again to
take out Mosh but Thrasher made a blind tag and while Golga was
busy
missile
dropkicked him and followed with a pin while Mosh held
Kurrgan's leg to prevent him from breaking up the pincount.
Steve Blackman entered the ring on the receiving end of floor kicks
from Owen Hart who then
suplexed him.
Blackman was able to counter an Irish whip and forced Hart into the
corner, clotheslining him then kicking him out of the ring as Hart
tried to flee. Blackman brought him back into the ring to deliver a
suplex#snap suplex snap suplex
and a
backbreaker before locking an
Indian crossbow hold. When Hart would not tap he released him and
tried to use his leg in a throw but received an
enzuigiri which
allowed Hart to dominate again, teasing a
Sharpshooter but
merely kicking him in the torso. After a low blow in the corner and
an
inverted
atomic drop, Hart suplexed Blackman and climbed the ropes for a
diving
elbow drop. When Blackman would not be pinned, Hart tried to
secure him with a sleeper hold but Blackman stood up out of it and
regained some momentum, the two clashing with kicks and throws.
Hart untied the turnbuckle pad but found himself thrown into it,
Blackman then jumping out of the ring to drag Hart's neck onto the
top rope. He climbed back in the ring and Hart countered a sleeper
with the Dragon Sleeper. Hart followed this with a
DDT but when he tried a flying
move, Blackman was able to side step him and lock Hart in his own
move, the Sharpshooter. Hart crawled for the rope break and then
left the ring in pain; Blackman initially followed to fight him but
became aware of the referee's count and ran into the ring to win
via count out.
In a tag team match between
The Brood and The
J.O.B. Squad Edge found
himself in trouble early at the hands of
Bob
Holly but managed to put Holly on his shoulders for an electric
chair giving him time to tag in
Christian
who could not capitalize, receiving a
double underhook
powerbomb before
Scorpio) was
tagged in. After slamming Christian on the mat and securing a
somersault leg drop, he
tagged in
Al Snow who utilized his headbutts
to continue dominating Christian. Christian tagged in
Gangrel who had more success with
Snow, slowly isolating him from the rest of the JOB squad and
keeping him in their corner allowing all three members of The Brood
to illegally team up on Snow before Edge wrestled him in earnest in
the middle of the ring. Despite taking an enziguiri, Edge managed
to clamp Snow's leg so that he could tag in Gangrel but still
isolate Snow. Snow managed to counter both of them though, with a
spinebuster to
Edge, and tagged in Scorpio who met with Christian though soon all
six men were in the ring. With the referee distracted, Snow used
Head on Christian and Scorpion almost won after
Dropping
The Bomb but Edge stopped the pin count, then using Gangrel's
back to help jump over the ropes to take out the rest of the JOB
Squad outside the ring. Stranded on his own, Scorpio took an
Impaler from
Christian and was pinned.
Jeff Jarrett was initially dominant in his match, using underhand
tactics, on Goldust and despite being rolled over in a
crossbody,
controlled much of the early match mostly with kicks and punches. A
neckbreaker and a dropkick could not
keep Goldust down, much to Jarrett's dismay and neither could a
number of successive sleeper holds. Goldust was taken all the way
down to the mat before finding the power to stand up with enough
momentum to
back drop
Jarrett. Debra tried to aid Jarrett by picking up his guitar but
when Goldust ducked she
almost hit Jarrett with
it. Goldust took advantage with an
inverted
lifted DDT but referee Jack Doane was too busy reprimanding
Debra to make the pinfall. Goldust positioned Jarrett for
Shattered Dreams and
while Debra tried to distract Goldust from doing it, she actually
distracted the referee allowing Goldust to perform the illegal
move. Jarrett fell out of the ring though, and had to be counted
out allowing Debra to strike Goldust down with the guitar making
him dazed enough for Jarrett to pin him after a facebuster. After
the match Commissioner Michaels came to the ring to send Jarrett to
the back and ostensibly oversee Goldust stripping. However, he
declared Debra to have disqualified Jarrett making her the loser
and forcing her to strip to her lingerie. Before she could take off
her bra though Jarrett and the Blue Blazer appeared, covering Debra
with the Blazer's cape.
Ken Shamrock controlled Road Dogg in the beginning of the match,
with Big Boss Man helping through the ropes. Billy Gunn had to save
Road Dogg from Shamrock's
ankle lock, becoming
the legal man only to also suffer Shamrock's rage until he floored
Shamrock with a
FameAsser.
Despite tagging in the fresh Road Dogg, the Outlaws were once again
on the backfoot after a
belly to belly slam suplex
after which Boss Man used his size to control Road Dogg, jumping on
him and into him in the corner. Road Dogg remained isolated, being
taken to his corner only to taunt Gunn but not allowed to tag
despite some punching reversals. After Boss Man used his body to
attack Dogg and Shamrock used a mixture of suplex slams and
clotheslines Dogg finally managed to tag Gunn but Boss Man had the
referee distracted, with Gunn almost taking out his rage on Shawn
Michaels, for which he'd be fired. Boss Man tried to piledrive Road
Dogg but was
back body
dropped out of the ring, rather than tag in Road Dogg elbow
dropped on Boss Man but as he tried to climb back into the ring he
was held to the floor with Shamrock kicking him. Back inside the
ring Road Dogg crawled to his corner and despite having his foot
held managed to tag in Gunn on who reversed Shamrock's
hurricanrana
attempt into a
powerbomb. Michaels pulled
out the referee when the three count was made allowing Boss Man to
strike Gunn with a night stick. Shamrock could not make a pin
though and despite Michaels pulling at Gunn's feet in the middle of
a suplex, causing him to fall with Shamrock on top of him, Gunn
managed to roll over and retain the pin with a title.
The WWF Championship match was delayed when Mankind tried to have
Vince McMahon and The Rock admit that he had not submitted at the
previous event. When they
refused to, Mankind ripped up his contract allowing Rock to skip
the match and started brutally attacking Rock, smacking his head
around the ring before taking him inside the ring and running him
into the turnbuckles. McMahon then told referee
Mike Chioda to disqualify Mankind for any kind
of offense, no matter how small. While Mankind was distracted with
Mr McMahon talking, Rock recovered and clotheslined Mankind, taking
him to the outside and using the steel steps against him before
suplexing him. When they returned to the ring Mankind almost
recovered, but as he went to perform an elbow drop from the
turnbuckle, Shane McMahon held down his foot stopping him from
jumping and letting Rock drag him to the ground, leaving him so
injured that Rock had enough time to join the commentary team as he
recovered. After being spat at in the face, Mankind jumped over the
announce table into The Rock and then went to use a steel chair
only to be stopped by Chioda. Rock, though, had no such restraints
and launched Mankind into the chair with a DDT. When they returned
to the ring Rock scooped Mankind into position for the
Corporate Elbow but could not
successfully secure the pin afterward. When they resumed fighting
Mankind managed to fight back eventually
headbutting Rock's
crotch. Vince then reminded the referee he was to disqualify
Mankind for any offense but before he could call for the bell,
Mankind grabbed him and knocked him out with a piledriver. Vince
then called for the bell himself but Mankind attacked the time
keeper too. Rock chased Mankind round the ring and back inside,
launching a chair shot and then the eponymous
Rock Bottom on him but with no referee
to make the call. Shane McMahon came into the ring with the
Championship belt to strike Mankind, but he ducked and The Rock was
struck, allowing Mankind to cover the champion. By the time
replacement referee Tim White made it to the ring Rock was able to
kick out, doing the same after a double-armed DDT. Mankind then
pulled out
Mr. Socko and
applied the
mandible claw making Rock
pass out. Before Howard Finkel could call the victory, though,
Vince grabbed his
microphone and
explained that as Rock had not been pinned or explicitly submitted,
he was still champion. Mankind responded with a mandible claw to
Vince until Shane hit him twice with a chair, causing him to use it
on Shane too before attacking
Pat Patterson and
Gerald Brisco until Corporation members
Shamrock and Boss Man subdued him, allowing Rock to beat him
too.
The two fought back down the walkway towards the ring, Austin
smashing Undertaker's head into the crowd barrier and the ring
post. Undertaker replied by elbowing him to gain some time,
knocking him to the floor with a chair shot and then putting him in
the ring only to be clotheslined back out. He returned, undeterred
and caught a running Austin by the throat,
chokeslamming him. Undertaker then dragged a
completely spent Austin up the walkway towards the burial site,
pushing him in the
grave. Undertaker
then started grabbing the dirt by hand and piling it on top of
Austin, Stone Cold slowly climbed out though and met Undertaker's
attempt to stop him by hitting him with a
jerrycan. Undertaker fell into the grave with a
Stone Cold Stunner and Austin poured a
wheelbarrow of soil on him. Austin then left the
front of the arena and in the meantime Undertaker sat up, climbing
out of the grave. As Undertaker was recovering on the dirt mound,
an explosion came from inside the grave and Kane climbed out and
began to fight Undertaker on the dirt. Undertaker almost eliminated
Kane with a
tombstone
piledriver but was distracted when Austin returned to the
arena, driving a
backhoe loader
causing Undertaker to drop his brother in confusion. Kane seized on
the opportunity to utilize the tombstone piledriver on Undertaker,
pushing him into the open grave afterwards. Austin then came out of
the digger and instructed the driver to drop the dirt on
Undertaker. It was still not enough to cover him though and Austin
had to shovel some more dirt on his opponent before going to the
back then returning with some cans of beer, at which point he was
declared the winner. After celebrating in the ring, he returned to
the grave to pour some beer on the Undertaker as the digger
continued to pile on soil.
Aftermath
The Rock and Mankind would feud over the title trading it with each
other several times before eventually forming the Rock 'n' Sock
Connection.
Vince McMahon ended up being in and winning the Rumble. Soon after
that Austin beat Vince to take his #1 contendership in a Steel Cage
match. Austin would go on to win the WWF title at
WrestleMania XV defeating the Rock and
continued the feud with Vince, The Rock, and The Undertaker into
the summer of 1999.
Results
References
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