10 Wildest Backstage Stories About In Your House

In 1995, the PPV landscape looked a whole lot different. WWE had five big tent pole events (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, King Of The Ring, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series). The company was looking to monetize the months in between but weren’t quite ready to ask the WWE Universe to pay top dollar for those events the way it would for the Big Five. Hence, In Your House was born.

Don’t let the two-hour runtime fool you, plenty of great matches happened during In Your House and so did plenty of crazy stories about putting the show on. It could be a task to get the match into the ring, keep genuine reactions kayfabe, or keep family members from shooting on the boys.

10 Heyman Plays “Mind Games” - In Your House 10 - Mind Games

With the tenth event being held in the backyard of ECW, it made sense for Paul Heyman to try and weasel his way into a cameo appearance. It also made sense for Vince McMahon, who was then floundering against the sea of the nWo to garner some buzz. McMahon, Bruce Prichard, and Heyman orchestrated an appearance for Heyman and a few ECW stars to sit front row during the show’s opening match.

But none of them thought to tell any of the WWE wrestlers! When Gerald Brisco was set to head down there, Prichard told him to tell Heyman “Bockwinkel (the safety word that Heyman came up with)” and to get the heck out of the arena. The Undertaker met Prichard at Gorilla to make sure the whole ordeal was indeed the work he thought it was and demanded that someone be clued in from now on.

9 "Dancing In The Dark" - In Your House 8 - Beware Of Dog

If you’re from South Carolina and you’re ever wondering why your state doesn’t get a PPV, make like Milli Vanilli and “Blame It On The Rain.” There was a severe thunderstorm that cut power to this show right before the Caribbean Strap Match between Savio Vega and Steve Austin and came back right before the main event. The entire event actually still took place under the cover of darkness.

Two days later, the WWE redid the matches that took place during the blackout, along with the first and last from the previous show on PPV.

8 Giving Away A House In The Middle Of The Street - In Your House

How do you jumpstart a brand new concept in Sports Entertainment? You give away a house, that’s how! The WWE ran a contest to give one lucky viewer a brand new home at the inaugural In Your House event. Then 11-year-old fan Matt Pompaselli was called on the air to reveal that he was the lucky recipient of the Orlando home.

According to an interview he did years later for WWE.com, Pompaselli got to film a slew of vignettes in the house. But ultimately, he and his family opted to flip the house and invest in Matt’s eventual college fund instead of live there.

7 Mad Dog's Got Legs, Diesel Knows How To Use It - In Your House 7 - Good Friends, Better Enemies

One of the best HBK and Diesel matches came as the main event of Good Friends, Better Enemies. Shawn Michaels defended the WWE Title against Big Daddy Cool in a No Holds Barred match. During the match, Diesel did to what back then might have been the most surreal and violent thing a heel could’ve done.

He walked up to Mad Dog Vachon, sitting in attendance, and yanked off his prosthetic leg! HBK was able to stop the big man before he could use it, however. The entire spot was actually Mad Dog’s idea, as he kept telling WWE brass to use his leg.

6 Jarrett Leaves With His Roadie Tonight - In Your House 2: The Lumberjacks

A lot has been made about Jeff Jarrett walking out on WWE in 1999 and holding Vince up to drop the Intercontinental Title. But that was the second time Jarrett walked out on the company.

The first time was at the second-ever In Your House event. He also took the Roadie, the future Road Dogg with him. The reason they both left at this time was due to Jeff’s dad, Jerry surmising that Jeff wasn’t happy with the way he was being booked and essentially told him to come back home to Memphis. Road Dogg, being loyal, followed him out the door.

5 Owen's Having A Baby - In Your House 3: Triple header

In the spring of 1995, Diesel and Shawn Michaels were the WWE and Intercontinental Champions, respectively. Owen Hart and Yokozuna were the Tag Team Champions. For the first time ever, these two teams were set to collide with every single title on the line. But prior to match time, a more important moment was happening in Owen’s life - Martha was giving birth to Athena.

Family man Owen headed home and The British Bulldog would take his place. Athena was born a day early, allowing Owen to make the show. The company still ran an angle that saw Bulldog sub, and Owen interfere and get pinned. The next night on Raw, the match was overturned since Owen wasn't legal in the match.

4 McMahon Does Not Love His Dog - In Your House 4: Great White North

The main event of the fourth installment featured Diesel defending the title against The British Bulldog. The match ended in a skirmish, thanks to Davey Boy striking guest commentator, Bret Hart, and the Hitman retaliating.

According to Kevin Nash, he witnessed Vince heave his headset down when the show went off the air and screamed about how horrible the match was. It was this moment that Big Daddy Cool thought his time as champion was coming to a close.

3 Diesel's Right Next Door To Hell - In Your House 6: Rage In The Cage

Two stories come from the same match at Rage In The Cage. In one of the most iconic moments in WWE, as Diesel was about to defeat Bret Hart for the WWE Title in a cage, The Undertaker popped up through the ring and dragged Diesel into the abyss. One story is that Bret Hart didn’t like the booking since it made him look weak (The Phenom reportedly snapped back at him, “It isn’t always about you!”).

Another fun fact is that Kevin Nash has suggested he come back out of the hole with a giant white streak in his hair to show how terrified he was of The Deadman. Of all of the things Vince McMahon shot down over the years because of how hokey it sounds, this one seems completely silly.

2 Harts Beat As One? - In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede

With every single one of Stu and Helen Hart’s kids involved in the business somehow, it’s easy to wrangle all of the family together to participate. It’s even easier when the event is in their backyard. Canadian Stampede emanated from the Calgary Saddledome. If you’ve never seen the show, go watch it, at least for the tremendous reaction The Hart Foundation received. It’s one of the loudest pops of all time.

During the match, the Harts in attendance would get involved. Bruce Hart was always known for notoriously trying to get more involved than he was booked to be. During this match, he tried to take liberties with several members of the opposing team. You could see him get a few receipts on the PPV for his troubles.

1 We're In Your House Tonight - The In Your House Video Game

The WWE was so completely devoted to the In Your House brand that there was even a video game produced. Like many early wrestling games, it wasn’t quite the mix of great action and graphics.

The company opted for the Mortal Kombat approach of filming its stars to turn into digital sprites and featuring over top move sets. The video game was not promoted very well thanks to the distributor, Acclaim dealing with financial troubles at the time.

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