Rock Bottom: In Your House was a 1998 professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the American promotion World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It was the 26th In Your House and took place on December 13, 1998, at General Motors Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This was the second In Your House at the venue, after In Your House 9 in July 1996, and fifth In Your House in Canada overall, including In Your House 4 in Winnipeg, Manitoba in October 1995, In Your House 16 in Calgary, Alberta in July 1997, and Breakdown: In Your House in Hamilton, Ontario in September 1998. The event was named after The Rock's finishing move, the "Rock Bottom".
The main event featured "Stone Cold" Steve Austin facing The Undertaker in a Buried Alive match for a spot in the 1999 Royal Rumble match. The main match on the undercard was for the WWF Championship between The Rock and Mankind.
Production Background
In Your House was a series of monthly professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) events first produced by the American promotion World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in May 1995. They aired when the promotion was not holding one of its then-five major PPVs (WrestleMania, King of the Ring, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and Royal Rumble) and were sold at a lower cost. Rock Bottom: In Your House was the 26th In Your House event and took place on December 13, 1998, at General Motors Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This was the second In Your House at the venue, after In Your House 9 in July 1996, and fifth In Your House in Canada overall, including In Your House 4 in Winnipeg, Manitoba in October 1995, In Your House 16 in Calgary, Alberta in July 1997, and Breakdown: In Your House in Hamilton, Ontario in September 1998. The event was named after The Rock's finishing move, the "Rock Bottom". The Rock himself was also involved in a prominent match on the card.
Storylines When The Nation split up, D'Lo Brown and Mark Henry were left as 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 title in controversy at Survivor Series 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 "Stone Cold" 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 instead. 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 + Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:English commentatorsMichael ColeJerry LawlerSpanish commentatorsCarlos CabreraHugo SavinovichInterviewerKevin KellyRing announcerHoward Finkel RefereesMike ChiodaEarl Hebner Jim KorderasJack Doan Tim White
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 Thrasher, but Mosh made a blind tag and while Golga was busy missile dropkicked him and followed with a pin while Thrasher 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 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 J.O.B. 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.