Throwback Thursday: Looking back at In Your House: Ground Zero
Each and every Thursday I will look back at a different pay-per-view event from the past via the WWE Network. Want to see a certain event covered? Send your suggestions to @VaughnMJohnson on Twitter.
Last time, I covered In Your House: Canadian Stampede. Next week, we'll look back at King of the Ring 1996.
In Your House: Ground Zero
Date: Sept. 7, 1997
Venue: Louisville Gardens, Louisville, Ky.
Some random notes
The Louisville Gardens was a historic wrestling venue that hosted events from Mid-Southern Wrestling, which was based out of Memphis, Tenn. during the territory days of wrestling. Louisville was the stop for the Memphis territory every Tuesday night.
This was one of the longer editions of In Your House, clocking in at nearly three hours. In Your House events were typically two hours. It was also the final time WWE used the traditional In Your House stage.
After Ground Zero, WWE went away from the house-themed stage and began using unique sets for each event.
One storyline on this show that did not culminate in a match was the story of Steve Austin. Austin was still recovering the severe neck injury he suffered during his WWE Intercontinental championship match against Owen Hart at SummerSlam.
By Ground Zero, Austin was still the Intercontinental champion as well as one half of the WWE Tag Team champions alongside Dude Love.
However, WWE, specifically Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and on-screen commissioner Sgt. Slaughter, kept Austin out of action for fear of permanent paralysis despite Austin's insistence that he was fine and ready to wrestle.
As you could imagine, WWE's reluctance to clear Austin to wrestle angered him and WWE fans. Both Austin and the fans were even angrier when Slaughter forced him and Dude Love to relinquish the Tag Team titles at Ground Zero.
After Dude Love went to the ring and quietly relinquished his share of the titles, Austin came to the ring, threw down the belt, talked a lot of trash and eventually delivered a stunner to Ross.
With that said, let's get to the matches.
Brian Pillman def. Goldust
This feud felt more like something that would be featured on an episode of Jerry Springer than a wrestling program, but that was what people were watching back in 1997.
The stipulation of this match was that if Pillman lost, he had to leave the WWE forever. If Pillman won, Goldust's wife Marleena had to be his personal assistant for 30 days. That was obviously a problem for Goldust not just because he wouldn't have his wife for 30 days, but also because their three-year-old daughter would not be able to see her mother for an entire month.
During the match, Jerry "The King" Lawler was not very nice to Marleena on commentary. Among the many unsavory things he said about her, he said that she had been on more laps than a napkin.
However, Pillman came out on top by way of grabbing Marleena's purse and using against Goldust while the referee's back was turned. It turned out that Marleena's purse was loaded with a brick.
By virtue of his victory, Pillman received the services of Marleena for the next 30 days. Unfortunately, Pillman didn't live to see the next 30 days, as he died on Oct. 5, 1997. He was 35 years old.
Brian Christopher def. Scott Putski
This was a match between a pair of second-generation wrestlers.
Christopher was Lawler's real-life son wheeas Putski was the son of WWE Hall of Famer Ivan Putski.
Despite everyone knowing that Christopher was Lawler's son, the latter would frequently deny that fact on commentary, which was pretty funny. Although Lawler denied that Christopher was his son, he still cheered for him like a proud papa.
Putski was in tremendous shape, but suffered what looked like a legitimate knee injury during the match and was counted out as a result.
Savio Vega def. Crush & Farooq
WWE showed a graphic for triple threat rules before the match. By this point, WWE had not done a bunch of triple threat matches to this point so I guess WWE felt the need to bring everyone up to speed on the rules.
This was a match between the leader of The Boricuas (Vega), The Disciples of Apocalypse (Crush) and the Nation of Domination (Farooq).
Every group was based off racial stereotypes with the worst being The Boricuas. This eventually led into the "Gang Rulez" tagline for Survivor Series later that year.
The match itself wasn't anything to write home about.
Max Mini def. El Torito
That was not the El Torito that was just released from WWE. This was a different El Torito by the name of Mario Jimenez. He had won championships in AAA on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, he died back on Jan. 23 at the age of 49.
On this particular night, both El Torito and Max Mini put on a heck of a match. It was actually one of my favorites of the night.
WWE Tag Team championship – The Headbangers def. The Legion of Doom, The Godwins, Owen Hart & British Bulldog
This was an elimination match with only one member needing to be pinned for the team to be eliminated. The participants were also able to tag in any member of any team at any time.
At one point, The Godwins almost went up against each other. Later in the year, The New Age Outlaws took part in a match like this and took advantage of that rule. Both Road Dogg and Billy Gunn were in the ring, but instead of fighting each other, one simply pinned the other to win the match.
The Legion of Doom was the first to be eliminated by virtue of being disqualified for using The Godwins' bucket. The Godwins didn't last much longer after The Headbangers eliminated them.
This left The Headbangers to go up against Owen Hart and Bulldog.
Of the four teams in the match, The Headbangers were the proverbial new kids on the block. All of the other teams had been champions before, but the Headbangers had yet to reach that plateau.
But for the first and only time in their careers, Mosh and Thrash were crowned WWE Tag Team champions. The Headbangers benefitted from some unexpected help from Austin, who ran down and delivered a stunner to his nemesis Owen Hart.
The Headbangers' reign was brief, as they lost the titles the next month at Badd Blood.
WWE championship – Bret Hart def. The Patriot
If you listen to my illustrious podcast, The Straight Shooters on Wildfire Radio, you know of the running joke we have about "The Patriot" Del Wilkes. Yes, you have to say the entire name.
Before the match, WWE dug deep into Wilkes' highly successful football career at the University of South Carolina and talked about him beginning his wrestling career in Japan. WWE really went out of its way to get people to care about "The Patriot" Del Wilkes, which is something the company should do more of today.
About a month before this match, "The Patriot" Del Wilkes defeated Bret Hart on Monday Night Raw, which earned him a shot at the WWE championship. This match was also about patriotism. Why wouldn't it be? It had "The Patriot" Del Wilkes in it.
"The Patriot" Del Wilkes was obviously all about America, which immediately put him on the opposite side of Bret Hart, who had essentially wrapped himself in the Canadian flag after the American fans turned on him earlier in the year.
I forgot that "The Patriot" Del Wilkes' theme music was used for Kurt Angle as well, so when I heard it I immediately thought of Angle, not realizing it wouldn't be for another two years before Angle debuted in WWE.
It is still interesting to see Bret Hart work as a heel, as he spent the vast majority of his singles career as a babyface. Although it was quite jarring to see him as a heel, Bret Hart played the role quite well. It also helped that the fans were really behind "The Patriot" Del Wilkes.
Eventually, The British Bulldog came down to the ring in support of Bret Hart. Once he got involved, Vader came down to even the odds. Vader even got into it with Bret Hart, but the referee opted to not disqualify "The Patriot" Del Wilkes.
After Bret Hart forced "The Patriot" Del Wilkes to tap out to the sharpshooter, he continued to beat him down after the match. He even choked him with the American flag. I'm not sure what this was supposed to do for "The Patriot" Del Wilkes, but whatever.
Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker ended in a no contest
This was The Undertaker's attempt at getting revenge for Michaels hitting inadvertently hitting him with a chair at SummerSlam, which cost him his WWE championship.
This also was only about a month into the run of D-Generation X, which meant it was the beginning of Shawn Michaels' shift in attitude on the screen. It was really just Michaels bringing his real-life persona in front of the camera. Because of that, I'm pretty sure he spat on fans on two occasions.
Before the bell could ring, The Undertaker sucker punched the referee and eventually tossed him out of the ring onto Michaels, who was trying to escape. He then beat the daylights out of Michaels all over the arena.
At one point, The Undertaker went for a pin, but there was no referee. The Undertaker had already taken care of him. Another official then came down told Michaels to get back in the ring.
Michaels eventually did, but only when The Undertaker's back was turned. Once Michaels got back into the ring, the match finally officially started.
After fighting each other for a lengthy period of time, the second official is also knocked out of commission.
Rick Rude then came down and tossed Michaels brass knuckles. Michaels didn't waste any time hitting The Undertaker with them. The only problem was that there was no referee.
A third one quickly slid in, but Michaels took him out as well after The Undertaker kicked out of a pin attempt. Triple H and Chyna eventually joined the fray and helped Michaels beat the breaks off The Undertaker.
After multiple referees were punched, kicked and choke slammed, another official finally came down to call off the match. The entire locker room eventually came out to keep these two a part, but even that didn't work, as The Undertaker did his patented dive over the top rope onto a group of wrestlers.
All of this was to set up the Hell in a Cell match between the two at In Your House: Badd Blood the next month. That match also served as the debut for The Undertaker's brother, Kane.