WWF In Your House - No Way Out (of Texas) (Version II)

Original Airdate: February 15, 1998

From Houston, Texas; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

Opening Match: The Headbangers v Marc Mero and Goldust: Mosh and Mero start, and Marc uses his boxing skills to take control. Backelbow sets up an elbowdrop, but a corner charge misses, and Mosh corner whips him to set up a charge of his own. Clothesline sends Mero over the top, and he regroups out there. Tag to Thrasher for a 2nd rope clothesline as Marc comes back inside, so Mero goes to the eyes, and passes to Goldust. Goldust charges in, but Thrasher uses a drop-toehold, then a clothesline. Back to Mosh for a flying axehandle, and a backdrop follows. Bodyslam sets up a combo for one, and a dropkick finds the mark. Thrasher tries a headlock, but Mero catches a bling tag, and nails him with a kneelift. Elbowdrop follows for two, and Goldust adds a cheap shot to make sure Thrasher gets the message. The heels go to work on him, and Thrasher does a blade job, which is kind of aggressive for a nothing opening match. Mero looks for the TKO to finish, but Thrasher counters with a DDT, and both men tag out. Mosh runs wild, and Roseanne Barr the door! Flapjack on Goldust gets two, and they go for another combo, but Luna Vachon interferes. That allows Mero to TKO Mosh, but Sable shows up to go after Luna, and Mero fails to cover due to dealing with her. That allows the Headbangers to make a switch, and Thrasher cradles a distracted Mero at 13:27. This was a little long, but the work was generally fine, even if the finish was more appropriate for TV than PPV. * ¼ (Original rating: ¼*)

WWF Light Heavyweight Title Match: Taka Michinoku v Pantera: Sunny acts as the guest ring announcer for this one, and Brian Christopher shows up to do commentary. Taka dominates early on, but gets dumped to the outside, and Pantera dives after him with a somersault suicada. Inside, a criss cross ends in Pantera getting a pair of takedowns, but a charge misses, and Pantera ends up back on the outside. Taka dives after him with a springboard flying bodypress, and a cross corner whip sets up a corner forearm on the way back in. Taka with a seated dropkick, but he loses an exchange on the apron, and takes a headscissors to the floor. Pantera nails him with a tope into the guardrail, and he delivers a butterfly backbreaker on the way inside. Pantera keeps the hurt on with a camel clutch, but the champion makes the ropes, so Pantera kicks him in the back. Surfboard into a bow-and-arrow look for a submission, but Pantera nearly pins himself in the process. Pantera with a dropkick, so Taka tries coming back with a charge, but gets backdropped over the top. Pantera follows with another dive, and he works another surfboard on the way into the ring. Pantera shifts it into a cradle for two, and a backbreaker sets up a flying elbowdrop to the lower back. Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker connects, and a rana off the top follows. Slam gets two, and a flying moonsault gets two. Another one, but Taka dodges, and dives with a flying knee. Scoop sitout brainbuster, but Pantera blocks, and cradles for two. A magistral cradle gets him another two, but Taka counters a rana with a sitout powerbomb for two. That allows Taka a missile dropkick, and the sitout brainbuster retains at 10:11. This didn’t connect with the crowd, but Pantera was doing some great, focused work here, and it was a strong showing from both guys. *** (Original rating: ***)

The Godwinns v The Quebecers: Phineas Godwinn and Jacques start, and Jacques stalls the frustrate him, then dominates. Tags all around, and Henry Godwinn gets pounded by Pierre. The Godwinns manage to get control of Jacques, and they work him over, until Pierre catches a tag, and Roseanne Barr the door. Jacques hits a dive on the floor, and Pierre tries a roll up on Phineas - only to get clobbered by Henry in the process, and pinned at 11:05. Really, really dull. ¼* (Original rating: ¼*)

NWA North American Title Match: Jeff Jarrett v Justin Bradshaw: Bradshaw brawls with him to start, and a hiptoss allows the challenger a series of short-chops. Backdrop, but Jeff boots him to block… only for Bradshaw to no-sell, and boot him right back. Clothesline sends Jeff over the top, and Bradshaw goes after him, but gets distracted by Jim Cornette, and Jarrett is able to turn the tide. Jeff with a dropkick on the way back in, and a jumping clothesline finds the mark. 2nd rope dropkick gets the champion two, so he ropechokes Bradshaw to take some of the pep out of his step. He works the leg ahead of the figure four, but Bradshaw blocks, so Jeff drops him with a desperation DDT. That allows the champ to get to the top for a flying bodypress, but Bradshaw catches him in a fallaway slam, and makes a comeback. Bradshaw with a powerbomb, so Cornette tries another distraction, but gets beat up. Jeff gets hold of the tennis racket in the chaos, however, and he blasts Bradshaw with it for the DQ at 8:41. Another terrible finish for a pay per view match here. ¾* (Original rating: ¼*)

War of Attrition Ten-Man Tag Team Match: Rock, Faarooq, Kama Mustafa, D-lo Brown, and Mark Henry v Ahmed Johnson, Ken Shamrock, Chainz, Skull, and 8-Ball: Oddly, this is not an elimination match, despite the name. Brown and Skull start, and Skull manages to dominate him. Over to Ken, so Brown goes to the eyes on him, but it only momentarily slows Shamrock down, and D-lo eats a jumping backelbow. Tags to Kama and Chainz to slug it out, with Chainz dominating. Big boot sets up a trio of elbowdrops, so Kama goes to the eyes, and passes to Mark. Henry wants Ahmed instead, and Johnson obliges, giving us another slugfest. Ahmed wins that, and delivers a bodyslam, but ends up getting stomped after Brown tags back in. D-lo tries a suplex, but Ahmed counters with a gourdbuster, so D-lo goes up with a flying frogsplash. The Nation of Domination go to work Ahmed, until Ken gets a tag in, but Faarooq goes low on him, and Rock delivers a DDT for two. The Nation control for a while, until a giant brawl breaks out, and Shamrock gets Rock to tap to the anklelock at 13:43. This wasn’t unwatchable, just not very interesting, without much of a story being told. This was also Ahmed’s last WWF appearance, ending his wildly turbulent run. ½*(Original rating: *)

Kane v Vader: Slugfest right away, won by Kane. Vader bails, but Kane chases, and continues hammering him into the aisle. Vader manages to whip him into the post, but loses control on the way back inside, and Kane dives with a flying clothesline. Kane unloads in the corner, and a vertical suplex sets up an elbowdrop. Kane works him over, until Vader makes a comeback, and goes up with a flying moonsault. Odd execution on that one, where he did almost a twist in midair, and landed weird. Kane sits up, and they spill back to the outside, where he reverses a whip into the steps. Vader responds by grabbing a fire extinguisher, and he blinds Kane with it on the way back in. He delivers a powerbomb, but Kane sits up again, and chokeslams him. Tombstone finishes at 10:59. Kane was a well developed and interesting (and over) character, but much like Undertaker’s early stuff, the ring work was terribly unengaging during this period. ½* (Original rating: ½*)

Main Event: Non-Sanctioned Eight-Man Tag Team Match: Owen Hart, Steve Austin, Cactus Jack, and Chainsaw Charlie v Billy Gunn, Jesse James, Triple H, and Savio Vega: Vega is a surprise replacement for WWF Champion Shawn Michaels, who they announced at the top of the show would not be competing (due to the legitimate back injury that nearly ended his career). Big brawl to start, with the babyfaces dominating. Austin nearly hits Gunn with the stunner, but Billy manages to get away, so Steve grabs a trashcan lid, and unloads on everyone else to vent his frustrations. Dust settles on Austin and HHH, and Steve cross corner whips him to set up a clothesline for two. He grabs a broomstick to choke HHH with on the outside, as Jack beats on Jesse with a weapon in the ring. What is this, lucha libre rules? The babyfaces continue to absolutely wreck the heels with weapon shot galore, and Charlie and Vega are dressed like they’re a tag team here. The referee finally forces them to stop brawling and adhere to tag rules, and the dust settles on the heels cutting the ring in half on Charlie. Jack gets the tag, and puts the New Age Outlaws in a double mandible claw, but HHH delivers a low blow to save. The heels go to work on Cactus, complete with barbed wire for the first time on WWF pay per view. I’m not really getting why the babyfaces don’t just run in, there’s no disqualifications, and they were all brawling with weapons anyway. The Outlaws accidentally hit each other with chairs to allow the hot tag to Austin, and Roseanne Barr the door! Stunner on James in short order, and we’re out at 17:44. While the booking certainly did, the match itself didn’t really miss Shawn Michaels. It would have been nice to have him there, but realistically he probably wouldn’t have been able to do what he does best in this chaotic environment, and would have been just another guy throwing punches, kicks, and weapon shots. The match itself was alright for what it was, but it didn’t really feel like a pay per view main event level bout. Especially when you compare it to past In Your House multi-man tag mains from this period, like at International Incident or Canadian Stampede. * ½ (Original rating: *** ¼)

BUExperience: This is a really inconsequential show, with not a single (major) title match, and no real angle development/payoff of note. And then Shawn Michaels unable to compete, which killed one of the biggest angles going into the show (Austin getting his hands on him). It was all about WrestleMania at this point anyway, this was just filler. 

DUD