It’s February in 1997 which means it’s time that we get into WWE In Your House 13: Final Four. I love these In Your House PPVs, even though there’s usually some between-the-Big-Four chaos, they’re shorter and easier to digest than WCW’s full year of PPVs.
This was the beginning of WWE playing it fast and loose with the WWE Championship in the months before the Attitude Era as Shawn Michaels vacates the title. As a result, the final four of the Royal Rumble a month prior meet up to see who will take the belt.
Besides, that match ended in controversy and this match was meant to crown the number one contender for WrestleMania 13. Just wait until we get to the title situation with the flagship show of the year.
WWE In Your House 13: The Best
Triple H moved on to a feud with Rocky Maivia who managed to snag the belt from him three days earlier, ending an almost 4-month reign. An above-solid bout that could’ve done with shedding a minute or two just to keep the overall pace of the show going.
Still, there’s nothing to really complain about here and you can see that these two had the potential to burn. Following that was a brisk, dope as hell WWE Tag Team Championship bout between champions Owen Hart and The British Bulldog and the superb Can-Am Express of Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon.
Their beef goes back to Survivor Series 1996. The Can-Am Express would win the match but Hart and Bulldog held on the titles thanks to an intentional DQ. I loved the pacing and athleticism of this match.
Looking at its placement on the card, I don’t know if it is fine where it is or if it should’ve been moved to improve the pace of the event.
Finally, we have a dope main event as Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Vader, and Bret Hart all face off for the vacant WWE Championship. As The Undertaker vs. Vader from Royal Rumble 1997 showed us: you need to be a little specific about the match.
https://youtu.be/LnmGQUWXRjI
I mean, the match looked good on paper but was garden variety when you watch it. That isn’t the case here as it’s exactly the type of match I love: a chaotic brawl with some roughness/sloppiness and a smidge of technical wrestling.
It seems like the kind of fight four guys would have with an important stake on the line: no big bumps to set up for or cool but super choreographed spots. There’s a rawness here that I dig.
The Rest
WWE’s pre-Attitude Era/late-New Generation undercard had some juice and Marc Mero and Leif Cassidy put on a solid, very enjoyable bout.
When Mero has a competitive match with a capable opponent, he shows up with authority. The bout wasn’t lengthy and would’ve been at home on one of the weekend B-shows or kicking of WWE Monday Night RAW.
That Nation of Domination vs. Bart Gunn, Flash Funk, and Goldust match was just…there. You have a card full of pretty good-to-great matches then you have this basic b**** of a match right after it.
Like this wasn’t a bad match but it was out of place. Flash, Goldust, and Savio Vega could’ve probably done something else on the card. Better yet, this could’ve been a dark match.
Into the Vault Verdict: Bronze Medal Show (2.8/5)
One match pretty much stopped this from at least getting the Silver Medal Show (3/5-4.5/5) honor. Overall, it was a pretty good PPV with a good pace and some entertaining matches. As a PPV—and a supplemental one at that—it did the minimum of what was expected almost perfectly.
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