No Way Out of Texas: In Your House was a 1998 professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and presented by Western Union. It was the 20th In Your House event and inaugural No Way Out event. It took place on February 15, 1998, at the Compaq Center in Houston, Texas.
Seven matches were contested at the event. Shawn Michaels did not appear in the main event as advertised, due to a severe back injury that resulted in his first retirement after the following month's WrestleMania XIV. He was replaced by Savio Vega.
This was one of the In Your House events which later became the title of an annual pay-per-view, replacing the method at the time of making new names for all events, aside from the "Big Five" (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, King of the Ring, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series). It was also the last In Your House event to have the In Your House banner around the ring. However, because later events did not take place in Texas, the event's name was truncated to "No Way Out", and was not reinstated until 2000, becoming the annual February PPV until 2009, after which, only one further event was held, which was in June 2012.
Production Background
In Your House was a series of monthly professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) events first produced by the 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. No Way Out of Texas: In Your House was the 20th In Your House event and took place on February 15, 1998, at the Compaq Center in Houston, Texas.
Storylines Due to jealousy over his wife, and valet, Sable, receiving all the attention of the audience, Marc Mero sought to annoy the crowd by sending Sable away from ringside, and instead being accompanied by The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust, who first dressed up as Sable, and then later, in a nod to the popular song "The Beautiful People", as Marilyn Manson. Metalheads, and cross-dressers The Headbangers, took exception to this.
During WWF Shotgun Saturday Night, the number one contender for the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship, Pantera, was getting ready to execute a moonsault on Brian Christopher. However, Christopher managed to get up, and attack Taka Michinoku, before laying him down for the moonsault instead. It turned out to all be a ploy, as the next week, Christopher and Pantera tagged up against Taka, and Aguila. During the match, Christopher tried to use a foreign object against Taka, but it was kicked out of his hands; Pantera quickly picked it up, and put it inside of his mask, making use of it by tagging himself in and performing a diving headbutt to take the pin.
Two Saturdays previous to the event, The Godwinns interrupted The Quebecers' match, causing them to lose by hitting them with a slop bucket; the Quebecers took revenge the following week; attacking Henry on the outside, distracting Phineas in the ring, giving Savio Vega a chance to hit a spinning heel kick, and win the match.
The National Wrestling Alliance's (NWA) presence continued to be felt in the WWF, proposing respect for tradition, whilst letting Jim Cornette's tennis racket assist them in winning matches. In a match against NWA North American Champion Jeff Jarrett, The New Blackjacks found themselves torn apart when Barry Windham mistimed a lariat, and hit teammate Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw when trying to aid him from interference from Cornette, and The Rock 'n' Roll Express. This turned out to be not so accidental as after the match, Windham attacked Bradshaw again and declared his alliance with the NWA. Windham appeared the next week without his facial hair, severing ties with Bradshaw, but after winning a match with Jeff Jarrett against the Legion of Doom, Bradshaw rushed the ring and chased away the NWA contingent. Accepting a challenge from the tag team, Bradshaw revealed his partner to be Flash Funk, who offered little assistance once the Express took him out behind the referee's back, leading Bradshaw to fight an effective handicap match. Despite winning the match, he suffered a post-match beat down after being hit with Cornette's tennis racket and suffered a four-man elevated neck breaker, followed by a figure-four leg lock, with the Express stretching his arms, and Windham – now sporting blond hair, further separating his image with Bradshaw – striking with a running bodysplash.
At the Royal Rumble, Ken Shamrock was awarded the Intercontinental Championship, defeating Rocky Maivia, despite The Rock using a foreign object. However, the decision was reversed immediately after the match when Rocky told the referee it was he who had been hit with the brass knuckles (Rocky had placed the knuckles inside of Shamrock's trunks after hitting him with them), and, subsequently, the match and the title was re-awarded to Rocky Maivia. This caused Shamrock to snap, and deliver a belly-to-belly slam on referee Mike Chioda, before putting him in the ankle lock submission. Later that night, Kama Mustafa was entering the Royal Rumble match as Ahmed Johnson was exiting the arena. The two crossed paths and Mustafa shoved Johnson, reigniting a longstanding feud between Johnson, and the Nation of Domination. The following week on Raw is War, a match between the Nation, and Disciples of Apocalypse went to a double disqualification. In a tag match between Rock & Faarooq versus Shamrock & Chainz, outside brawling between the two gangs distracted the referee, allowing Rock to hit Shamrock with a steel chair to steal the match away from him.
In a Royal Rumble rematch, Vader was booked to take on The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust, when the lights went out, and Kane interrupted, delivering a tombstone piledriver to the 450-pound wrestler. The following week, Vader returned the favor by attacking Kane in the ring, spraying him down with a fire extinguisher to taunt him over his burns, while trying to blind his one good eye. Paul Bearer later revealed his disgust at hearing Vader's catchphrase "It's time, it's time, it's Vader time", and presented a Vader-branded clock, which he handed to Kane as it spontaneously combusted to flames.
The eight-man main event was the result of several interlinking feuds. As winner of the Royal Rumble match, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin earned the right to a WWF Championship match at WrestleMania XIV against champion Shawn Michaels. Following the Montreal Screwjob, Owen Hart disappeared from WWF programming, only to reappear at the end of In Your House: D-Generation X, attacking Michaels. Owen then set his sights on Triple H, demanding a match for his European Championship, which Hunter declined on the grounds of a fractured kneecap injury, which was legitimate. Hunter eventually agreed to the match on the January 26 episode of Raw is War; however, he sent down the Artist Formerly Known as Goldust (who had been dressing up in various disguises each week) in his place with the belt, with Luna Vachon also posing as Chyna. After Hart won the match, WWF Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter declared the disguise to be so convincing that he upheld the decision, and awarded the European title to Owen. After tormenting the New Age Outlaws, the hardcore tag team of Cactus Jack, and Chainsaw Charlie opened Raw is War with a match to determine the "king of hardcore wrestling", but after Cactus Jack had elbow dropped Charlie inside a dumpster, the Outlaws appeared; the Outlaws then locked the dumpster shut, and wheeled it off the stage, resulting in Cactus, and Chainsaw being hospitalized. Despite this, the two would reappear later in the night after Austin's match with Road Dogg ended in disqualification due to interference from D-Generation X, who tied Austin up in the ropes, and taunted him until Cactus, and Charlie came to his aid. The week before the event, Austin stole the championship belt from Shawn Michaels and locked up Los Boricuas, who were employed by Chyna to help retrieve it. Following a standoff in the ring between Austin, and DX with the Outlaws, Chainsaw Charlie chainsawed his way from underneath the ring, appearing with Cactus Jack as Owen Hart ran in through the crowd.
Event + Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:English commentatorsJim RossJerry LawlerSpanish commentatorsCarlos CabreraHugo SavinovichInterviewerMichael ColeDok HendrixRing announcerHoward Finkel RefereesTim White Jim KorderasJack Doan Mike Chioda
Jim Ross revealed at the beginning of the pay-per-view that Shawn Michaels would not be taking part in the eight-man tag match main event due to injuries he had sustained during a casket match with The Undertaker the month before. JR also announced that due to the heated nature of the main event, the WWF did not want to accept any responsibility for the bout, opting to make it an unsanctioned match.
After making their way to the ring, Marc Mero announced there was only room for one sexy lady at ringside, and sent Sable to the back, despite the protestations of the audience. Mero's initial dominance was soon overturned by The Headbangers fluid teamwork, which included some abuse of the rules, despite not being the heel team. The tables were turned when Dustin Rhodes threw Thrasher over the top rope, where Luna Vachon opened him up on the steel steps while the referee was distracted. Sable returned during the match, making a beeline for Luna. This distraction allowed the Headbangers to swap places (Mosh having just suffered a TKO from Mero, and Thrasher taking his place), and steal a victory with an inside cradle. After the match, Mero, Goldust, and various officials had to restrain the two fighting women. After Goldust, and Luna left, Sable shoved Mero to the ground and walked away to loud cheers from the audience.
Sunny then made her way to the ring as the guest ring announcer for the Light Heavyweight Championship bout. Before the match could begin, Brian Christopher made his way down to ringside, and was invited to join the commentary team by Jerry Lawler. Challenger Pantera, and champion Taka Michinoku exchanged offense until Pantera was eventually thrown out of the ring; Taka then executed a springboard crossbody from the top rope. The highflying continued with Pantera delivering a diving spinning hurricanrana to Michinoku from the apron to ringside, before applying some submission holds, including a chicken-wing stretch, and a modified STF submission. Taka managed to kick out of a moonsault, and rolled out of a second attempt, building some offensive maneuvers until he eventually nailed Pantera with the Michinoku Driver for the win. After the match, Christopher went to enter the ring to attack Taka. As Jerry Lawler tried to stop Christopher, Taka took them both out with a crossbody to the outside of the ring, before escaping through the crowd.
The tag team match between The Quebecers, and The Godwinns began with a lot of technical wrestling; a mixture of shoulder barges, arm twists, and armbar takedowns. The Godwinns isolated Jacques, frequently double-teaming him in the corner, which eventually led to their undoing, as the referee reprimanded Henry Godwinn, allowing Pierre to break the deadlock. This amounted to little though, as the illegal man, Henry, hit Pierre with a clothesline, forced into it by Phineas Godwin, from the apron, which led to the pin. Feeling cheated, The Quebecers held their hands up in celebration after that match and were struck from behind with slop buckets for their effort.