28 More WWF In Your House Matches You Should Definitely Check Out

Well, we did it. On the road to reviewing every WWE PPV between Wrestlemania 1 and Wrestlemania 30, we’ve finally covered all 28 In Your House events, starting with the premier show in 1995 and culminating four years later in the month after Wrestlemania 15.

In doing so, we’ve seen so many great matches that, even though I put together my list of the Top Ten Best In Your House Matches a few weeks ago, I felt that I could have easily have made that a top twenty, or even thirty.

Ultimately, I decided against doing that, but I still didn’t want to close this chapter of the Retro Pro Wrestling journey without looking back at some of my other favourite matches from the 28-show series.

What I’ve done today then, is go through all 28 In Your House shows and pick out at least one match that’s worth watching from every show, excluding those already featured on the top ten.

Many of these aren’t the main event, or even the most memorable matches from the shows they were on but were simply bouts that I enjoyed watching, and wanted to relive again.

Ready? Let’s get into it.

In Your House 1: Bret Hart vs. Hakushi

The very first In Your House match ever got the series off to a fine start at In Your House 1 back in May 1995.

This is typical of The Hitman‘s weird position in 1995 in which he mainly battled midcarders but still managed -much as he did here- to have the very best match on the show.

In Your House 2: Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett vs. Shawn Michaels

WWE - 28 Great WWF In Your House Matches - Shawn Michaels vs. Jeff Jarrett

In Your House 2: The Lumberjacks is better known as being the night that Jeff Jarret ‘sang’ With My Baby Tonight, but immediately after that, he dropped the Intercontinental Championship to Shawn Michaels in a fantastic, 20-minute effort which unequivocally stole the show.

In Your House 3: Bret Hart vs. Jean Pierre Lafitte

Hart and Lafitte had previously met at In Your House 2 and delivered a match which, though it wasn’t terrible, wasn’t much to write home about.

One month later, they regrouped at In Your House 3: Triple Header and put on the match of the night, a brilliant, 16-minute encounter that is still remembered fondly to this day.

In Your House 4: Goldust vs. Marty Jannetty

Making his WWF in-ring debut, Goldust locked up with Marty Jannetty at In Your House 4: Great White North in a very solid effort that could easily contend to have been the best match on the show.

When said show featured the farce of Razor Ramon vs. Dean Douglas and Diesel vs. Bulldog (a match reported to be so bad it apparently made Vince Mcmahon throw his headset down in disgust) earning match of the night honours may not be such an achievement.

Still, Goldie and Jannetty entertained here, and deserve a place on the list.

In Your House 6: Shawn Michaels vs. Owen Hart

A month earlier, Shawn Michaels had won the 1996 Royal Rumble. Yet before he could make The Boyhood Dream Come True at Wrestlemania 12, he first agreed to put his title shot on the line against Owen Hart.

Duking it out at In Your House 6: Rage in the Cage, Hart and Michaels put on what I once called one of the best matches of 1996, a match that was every bit as good as you’d imagine it could be.

In Your House 7: WWF Tag Team Champions The Body Donnas (Skip & Zip, w/ Sunny) vs. The Godwins (Henry & Phineas Godwin, w/ Hillbilly Jim)

WWE - 28 Great WWF In Your House Matches - Sunny and The Body Donnas

Of course, the best part of In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies, was the classic Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel match for the WWF title.

That match was so good that it made into to the aforementioned In Your House Top 10, leaving me to find another match from that show to include here.

Sadly, there wasn’t a lot to go on. Sure, Owen Hart and British Bulldog were pretty entertaining in their tag team match against Ahmed Johnson and Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts, but I think an underrated highlight of the show had to be this one.

We may crap all over the Body Donnas for their terrible gimmick, but the truth is that Chris Candido and Tom Pritchard were solid wrestlers capable of good things. Here, they dragged The Godwins to an enjoyable tag team match which I’m not ashamed to include on this list.

In Your House 8: WWF Champion Shawn Michaels vs. British Bulldog

Having accused WWF Champion Shawn Michaels of hitting on his wife, Dianna, British Bulldog challenged Shawn Michaels for the WWF title in a very good main event which only just missed out on making it into the In Your House Top Ten.

It’s worth pointing out that In Your House 8: Beware of Dog also featured a very enjoyable strap match between Steve Austin and Savio Vega (the one where Ted Dibiase left the WWF), but for my money, this one was just marginally better.

In Your House 9: Steve Austin vs. Marc Mero

Back at King of the Ring 1996, Austin and Wildman Marc Mero had stolen the show with their King of the Ring final match.

One month later, at In Your House 9 – International Incident, they were at it again in a thrilling contest which gave that night’s main event (Michaels, Sid & Ahmed vs. Owen, Bulldog & Yoko) a serious run for its money.

In Your House 10: WWF Tag Team Champions The Smoking Gunns (Billy & Bart Gunn) vs. Owen Hart & British Bulldog

WWE - 28 Great WWF In Your House Matches - Sunny and The Smoking Gunns

Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind was clearly the best match at In Your House 10: Mind Games, but the whole point of today’s post is to pick one good match from each In Your House that I didn’t already feature in the aforementioned Top 10.

So I went with this one. While it may not have been anywhere near as good as Michaels/Mankind, Owen and Bulldog taking the tag team titles from Billy and Bart was at least very entertaining and proved to be the best match on the card that wasn’t the main event.

In Your House 11: Undertaker vs. Mankind – Buried Alive

A rare heel vs. heel match between Steve Austin and Hunter Hearst Helmsley would have been my pick for In Your house 11: Buried Alive had Undertaker and Mankind not gone on to wage an all-out war on each other.

Competing in the buried alive match which gave the show its name, the two did the one thing they always did best when they worked together:

Giving us something we’d never seen before.

Like their Boiler Room brawl at Summerslam 1996 and their Hell in a Cell classic at King of the Ring 1998, this unique match was unlike anything else on WWF programming and was all the more entertaining for it.

In Your House 12: Leif Cassidy vs. Flash Funk

There wasn’t a lot to like about In Your House 12: It’s Time. Even the main event (WWF Champion Sid vs. Bret Hart) left a lot to be desired.

Still, the show did have at least one good match – an opening contest between the future Al Snow and the former Too cold Scorpio.

In my original review, I called this:

A very enjoyable bout with lots of high flying and submissions held together by the kind of solid psychology that this kind of wrestling sometimes lacked.

I stand by this. Cassidy vs. Funk was about as good a PPV opening as you were going to get in mainstream American pro wrestling in 1996.

In Your House 13: WWF Tag Team Champions Owen Hart & British Bulldog vs. Doug Furnas & Philip LaFon

WWE - 28 Great WWF In Your House Matches - Owen Hart & British Bulldog

The fatal fourway match that gave the show its name was the real star of In Your House 13: Fatal Four Way, but this WWF tag team title match was pretty good in its own right.

This was at the time when Owen and Bulldog were beginning to tease a breakup, but even when they were at odds with each other, the champs were still able to get the job done in a very good match which -along with the main event- stopped Fatal Four Way from being a total dud.

In Your House 14: Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin

WWE - 28 Great WWF In Your House Matches - Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart

One month after their legendary battle at Wrestlemania 13, arch-rivals Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin met in a rematch at In Your House 14: Revenge of The Taker.

The show also featured Undertaker vs. Mankind for ‘Taker’s WWF title. Both matches had something in common – neither were the best match the participants would have with each other, but despite that, both were still really, really good.

Austin/Hart III for example, didn’t live up to the aforementioned ‘Mania classic, but it was still a great bout in its own right.

In Your House 15: WWF Champion The Undertaker vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin

Almost a year before he’d cement his status as the company’s biggest ever headline attraction, Stone Cold Steve Austin headlined his first ever WWF PPV against reigning champion The Undertaker.

At the time that I first reviewed this show, the match didn’t really do it for me, but I’m willing to accept that I was probably just in an off mood that day. After all, I’ve read nothing but high praise for the match from just about everybody else.

Besides, everything else at In Your House 15: A Cold Day in Hell was mediocre at best.

In Your House 16: WWF Light Heavyweight Champion Taka Michinoku vs. The Great Sasuke

There’s a good reason I often refer to In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede as one of my favourite PPVs of all time:

Every single match offered a lot to enjoy.

Of course, it was the main event, a wild, 10-man tag pitting The Hart Foundation against Austin, Shamrock, Goldust and The LOD, that really stole the show. That’s why it ranked so highly in the list of the Top Ten Best In Your House matches ever.

Having said that, the other three matches were solid. Undertaker and Vader had a good big-man match, while Mankind and Hunter Hearst Helmsley extended their wild, chaotic brawl throughout the show, spending most of the ‘tween-match segments beating the life out each other.

But it was this, a crisp, light heavyweight masterpiece from Michinoku and Sasuke that really stood out.

Honestly, I’d add the whole show to this list, but if you only watch one match from it besides that incredible main event, watch Taka and The Great Sasuke trading stiff strikes, dazzling ariel moves and suplexes that were truly a thing of beauty.

This, my friends, was probably the best match Taka Michinoku would have in his WWF run.

In Your House 17: WWF Champion Bret Hart vs. The Patriot

Undertaker and Shawn Michaels stole the show at In Your House 17: Ground Zero, which is why they’re on the top ten list.

Before those two kicked off the first chapter of one 1997’s hottest rivalries, however, Bret put his title on the line against The Patriot in a match that was better than this sceptical fan anticipated.

In my original review, I wrote:

This wasn’t the best Bret Hart match ever.
Then again, even the worst Bret Hart match is better than many other’s best, and that was certainly the case here.
After a somewhat dull start, things quickly picked up, turning into a good match with a few exciting moments.

Sure, the ending was never in doubt – nobody ever expected The Hitman to lose, but that didn’t stop he and Patriot from putting on a dramatic contest that would have been match of the night had HBK and Taker not delivered a masterpiece.

In Your House 18: Tarantula & Mosaic vs. Max Mini & Nova

WWE - 28 Great WWF In Your House Matches - Minis Match

In my original review, I called Badd Blood: In Your House 18 ‘the very definition of one match show.’

I stand by that. The only really good match was the Undertaker/Michaels Hell in a Cell match, which was so good it made it all the way to the number one spot in the Top Ten Greatest In Your House matches.

Still, with the death of Brian Pillman lingering over the show, the rest of Badd Blood was a relatively poor show. Even a tag team match pitting Vader and The Patriot against Bret Hart and British Bulldog failed to deliver.

Meaning that, since I’ve stubbornly committed to picking one good match that wasn’t in the top ten from every In Your House card, the nod goes to this fun little minis match.

In Your House 20: The Rock vs. WWF Intercontinental Stone Cold Steve Austin

Austin and Rock would face each other for the WWF title at the final ever In Your House, Backlash.

That match was so good it ranked highly in the top ten.

Two years earlier, however, the two men had met for the Intercontinental championship in a really good match at D-Generation-X: In Your House 19, a match that proved -if ever proof were needed- that these were two bonafide main event superstars on the very cusp of greatness.

In Your House 20: War of Attrition
The Nation of Domination (Farooq, D’Lo Brown, Mark Henry, Kama Mustafa, and WWF Intercontinental Champion The Rock) vs. Ken Shamrock, Ahmed Johnson, Chainz, Skull, and 8-Ball

WWE - 28 Great WWF In Your House Matches - The Rock and The Nation of Domination

Yep, I’m recommending a match featuring The Disciples of Apocalypse. That’s how slim the pickings were for quality matches at No Way Out of Texas: In Your House 20.

Sure, the main event (an eight-man pitting HHH, Savio Vega and the New Age Outlaws against Austin, Owen, Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie) was awesome, but that already made it into the top ten.

That left us with this, a match which was better than its list of participants may suggest. Though while the match itself was fun, it’s the hilarious pre-match promo in which Rock upstages Farooq without saying a word that makes this must-see viewing.

In your house 21 – World Wrestling Federation Championship
WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Dude Love

First of all, I’ll make no apologies for including both Austin vs. Dude Love matches in this list. Both were tremendous fun and were very strong contenders for the top ten.

In fact, the biggest problem I had writing that top ten was debating whether or not to include at least one of these two matches.

In the end, I didn’t, but that’s to take nothing away from the quality of this one. Making his first PPV title defence, Austin laid out the blue print for how all of his main event matches would run for the best part of the Attitude Era.

It was wild, it was chaotic, it contained a whole lot of brawling and was just about as good of a main event as you were ever going to see in 1998.

By far the best thing at Unforgiven: In Your House 21.

In Your House 22: Austin vs. Dude Love 2

One month after Austin vs. Dude Love 1 ended in controversial fashion, the two went at it in a rematch with Vince McMahon as the special guest referee and The Undertaker stalking around the place to make sure McMahon didn’t do anything shady.

The resulting match may seem overbooked by today’s standards, but it was a hugely entertaining affair that more than made up for what was otherwise a disappointing show at Over the Edge: In Your House 22.

In Your House 23: Two out of Three Falls for the World Wrestling Federation Intercontinental ChampionshipWWF Intercontinental Champion The Rock vs. Triple H

WWE / 28 WWF In Your House Matches You Should Watch - The Rock vs. Triple H

The Rock and Triple H would absolutely steal the show at Summerslam 1998 later that year in what is easily one of your writer’s top five all-time favourite matches.

Before that, however, the two clashed in a two-out-of-three-falls match at Fully Loaded: In Your House 23, a match which most people have probably forgotten about but is absolutely worth tracking down.

In Your House 24: Cage Match to Determine WWF Championship Number One Contender – Mankind vs. The Rock vs. Ken Shamrock

WWE / 28 WWF In Your House Matches You Should Watch - The Rock vs. Ken Shamrock vs. Mankind

Speaking of things long since forgotten, Breakdown: In Your House 24 isn’t exactly a show that people still talk about today, but it did feature a few pretty decent matches.

Austin vs. ‘Taker vs. Kane for the title was a whole lot of fun, but the real star of the show was The Rock who, at this event, made it known that he wasn’t just The Rock: Popular Wrestler but that he was in fact, The Rock: Major Main Event Superstar.

His triple threat cage match against Mankind and Ken Shamrock may not be the best match you’ve ever seen, but it was a highlight of this show.

In Your House 25: World Wrestling Federation Light Heavyweight Championship
WWF Light Heavyweight Champion Taka Michinoku (w/ Yamaguchi-San) vs. Christian (w/ Gangrel)

X-Pac and D’Lo Brown didn’t just steal the show at Judgement Day: In Your House 25, they put on an underrated classic that was one of the best matches of that year. It was so good, in fact, that I put it in the In Your House top ten, meaning I had to pick something else for this spot.

Unforunately, pickings were slim.

Judgement Day 1998 was not a good show, but it did feature this decent effort in which Christian beat Taka to become Light Heavyweight Champion in his debut WWF match.

This was a good performance from both men that would have been even better had the crowd actually cared.

In Your House 26: World Wrestling Federation Championship: WWF Champion The Rock (W/ Vince & Shane McMahon) vs. Mankind

Despite the whole show being name after his finishing move, The Rock’s first WWF title defence on PPV was not the main event of Rock Bottom: In Your House 26.

That honour went to Austin vs. The Undertaker in a Buried Alive match.

What Rock/Mankind was, however, was the best match on the card by a long shot.

That’s not to say it was the best match the two would ever have. Their Royal Rumble 1999 encounter a month later would far top this one, but this was still a hell of a match to watch.

In Your House 27: Vince McMahon vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin in a Steel Cage

Even if this match had sucked, it would still deserve a spot on the list thanks to the historical significance of Vince McMahon finally lacing up a pair of boots and going toe-to-toe with his arch-nemesis, Austin.

The fact that their steel cage match at St. Valentine’s Day Massacre: In Your House 27 was an absolute riot was a very welcomed bonus.

In Your House 28: Triple H vs. X-Pac

The main event of The Rock vs. Steve Austin in a Wrestlemania 15 rematch was by far and away the best thing at Backlash: In Your House 28.

It was so good in fact, that I put it on the Top Ten Greatest In Your House Matches Ever list, meaning I had to find something else for this one.

To be honest, there was a lot to choose from.

Whether it was Hardcore Holly and Al Snow getting creative in their hardcore title match or The New Age Outlaws having one of their better outings against Jeff Jarrett and Owen Hart, Backlash was a pretty fun show overall.

Still, though this near-20 minute epic from former DX teammates Triple H and X-Pac had its down moments, it was still very, very good indeed.

Did I miss out your favourite WWF In Your House match? Come and let me know on the Retro Pro Wrestling Facebook page.