WWE heads to the home of Jerry “The King” Lawler of February 1999’s St. Valentine’s Day Massacre: In Your House! This event drew over 19,000 for a last man standing World title match between The Rock and Mankind as well as Stone Cold Steve Austin fighting Vince McMahon in a steel cage!
The Best
Bob Holly taking on Al Snow to crown the Hardcore champion is one of my favorite hardcore division matches from this period. It was just a fun brawl that made the most of the time it was given. No one just showed up with their plunder, they used what was around and simply brawled around. This is how the division should’ve been the whole time: random and a little dangerous.
Another rowdy, wild Mankind-Rock brawl and I’m with it! I really don’t need to go into it more: Mankind taking on the Rock tends to be good-at-the-minimum. They had chemistry and always put on an exciting or wild bout. There was always something new to expect out of them and it’s one of those feuds that added some toughness to a clean-cut, obvious superstar or future superstar.
The main event cage match between Austin and Vince was hard to rate because honestly, Austin spanking Vince before the bell rang was gold medal-worthy. Vince ate that ass whipping. The man took bumps, sold a lot of Austin’s offence. As for the match itself—it was fine, nothing special. Vince would get spanked against before Austin got out of the cage and won the match—as expected. Good debut by Big Show here.
Along with the World title Last Man Standing match, go out of your way to catch this one.
The Rest
St. Valentine’s Day Massacre: In Your House opened with Goldust taking on Bluedust. I’ll say that the good thing about it is that it’s so short, it doesn’t take away from the show. It also doesn’t add anything and could’ve been on HeAT. However, I can’t complain with it being on an In Your House. Then again, this was a late 90s IYH when those PPVs started become worth catching.
Boss Man taking on Mideon is one of those matches you don’t ask for or didn’t know what be on the PPV. Of course, I saw that it was listed and didn’t expect much. I will say the German Suplex from Mideon in this match was nice but that was it really…
The following tag bout saw Jeff Jarrett and Owen Hart defend the Tag Team titles against D’Lo and Mark Henry. Pretty 9:34 – garden variety match that could’ve been on HeAT or earlier in the show. Not bad but it’s not going to have you percolating or anything.
Actually, it would’ve been a better opener than the opener. Also, it definitely should be on PPV as a title match and it’s not bad at all. However, it would come off as a good HeAT bout. D’Lo needed a partner that either wasn’t still green or could do a little something in the ring.
Shamrock put his IC title on the line against Val Venis in a pretty solid match. I’d say it ran a bit on the long side. Val takes Shamrock’s sister and his title. What’s weird is that Shamrock was even involved in this kind of storyline but WWE needed to keep him involved somehow on TV happenings. Also, Billy Gunn finished up his night early and had time to be a guest referee. How nice of him.
Kane and Chyna teaming up against Triple H and X-Pac was another decent undercard match that also had a bit more time than necessary. That aside, the quality in midcard matches have hit an acceptable minimum. Even though these matches are in “The Rest” pile, most of them would be strong on TV and hold their own enough to not drag down the PPV overall. Chyna’s weaknesses were hidden well and she was in there with the right talent to do that while still putting on an entertaining match.
WWE St. Valentine’s Day Massacre: In Your House Verdict: Silver Medal (6.25/10)
While WCW SuperBrawl IX had a better concentration of good matches, it lacked that amazing match which would’ve bumped it to silver. St. Valentine’s Day Massacre: In Your House had that match a few good ones, allowing the show to shake off Boss Man-Mideon and Goldust-Bluedust.
The match of the night was obviously Mankind defeating The Rock for the WWE Championship in a Last Man Standing match.
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