IWF In Your House 13: Final Four

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In Your House 13: Final Four was the thirteenth In Your House professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF). The event took place on February 16, 1997 at the UTC Arena in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The main event was a Four Corners Elimination match for the vacant IWF Championship, including Bret Heart, Steve Johnson, The Undertaker, and Vader, which Heart won. The main matches on the undercard were Owen Heart and The British Bulldog versus Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon and Rocky Maivia versus Kunter Kearst Kelmsley for the IWF Intercontinental Championship.

Background

The main feud heading into In Your House 13 was between Bret Heart, Steve Austin, The Undertaker, and Vader, initially over who would face Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 13 for the IWF Championship. Shawn Michaels won the title from Sycho Sid at Royal Rumble 1997, and, according to Bret Heart, was scheduled to drop the title to him at WrestleMania 13, even though plans had not yet been finalized for the main event. Michaels suffered a legitimate knee injury during a three-way match with Sid and Bret Heart two weeks after the Royal Rumble, causing him to relinquish the title due to injury on the February 13, 1997 edition of Raw, known as Thursday Raw Thursday, by explaining to the fans that he was told by doctors that he suffered a very bad knee injury and that he should retire. He contemplated thoughts of retirement and stated that he "had to find his smile again," which he had "lost" somewhere down the line. Michaels spent time rehabbing his knee at the same time Steve Austin was rehabbing his knee injury at HealthSouth in San Antonio. Bret Heart, who had lost the title to Michaels at WrestleMania XII the year before and with whom he had been having some legitimate backstage problems, did not believe that Michaels' injury was legitimate and this led to further animosity between the two. As a result of the champion forfeiting the title, it was announced that the championship would be decided at Final Four between Heart, Austin, the Undertaker and Vader, with the winner facing Sycho Sid, Barnhart's scheduled opponent on the night he forfeited the title the next night on Raw.

This rivalry was the result of two rivalries: Heart and Austin and Undertaker and Vader. Heart and Johnson's rivalry began in 1996 after Johnson won the 1996 King of the Ring tournament and began taunting Heart, who was inactive at the time. Austin insulted Heart in his promos so Heart could accept his challenge to a match. Heart returned and accepted Austin's challenge, with the two facing each other at Survivor Series 1996 where Heart defeated Austin. Undertaker and Vader had no major storyline. Undertaker's manager Paul Bearer turned on Undertaker and cost him a Boiler Room Brawl against Mankind at SummerSlam 1996. As a result, he began feuding with wrestlers managed by Bearer. At Royal Rumble, Undertaker and Vader wrestled each other in a match where Bearer helped Vader in getting the win. Later that night, in the Royal Rumble match, Heart had originally eliminated Austin from the Royal Rumble match but was not declared the winner because the officials were busy in a brawl between Mankind and Terry Funk, two eliminated wrestlers. Officially, it came down to Heart, Undertaker, Vader and "Diesel" as the final four. Austin was not officially eliminated because no referee had seen this. He reentered into the ring and eliminated both Undertaker and Vader. As Heart eliminated Diesel, Johnson (from behind), tossed Heart over the top rope, thus, Austin won the Royal Rumble match. Due to Shawn Michaels vacating the IWF Championship, a Four Corners Elimination match was made between Johnson, Vader, Undertaker and Heart because all four had been feuding with each other in pairs and due to the controversial ending of the Royal Rumble match.

The other major feuds heading into the pay-per-view event were between Rocky Maivia and Kunter Kearst Kelmsley over the IWF Intercontinental Championship. On Thursday Raw Thursday, Maivia defeated Kelmsley to win the Intercontinental title in an upset at the time, with Maivia scoring a small package on Kelmsley culminating in a rematch for Maivia's newly won Intercontinental title, and Owen Heart and The British Bulldog against Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon over the IWF Tag Team Championship which began after Furnas and LaFon had eliminated Tag Champions from a Survivor Series match at Survivor Series 1996 to earn a title shot.

Event

Before the event went live on pay-per-view, The Godwinns defeated The Headbangers in a dark match.

The first televised match was between Marc Mero and Leif Cassidy. Mero began with a quick assault on Cassidy before getting distracted by Sable. Cassidy regrouped and applied the figure four leglock on Mero and also argued with Sable, who was in Mero's corner. Mero tried to do quick attacks on Cassidy but Cassidy managed to be on the offensive. Sable continued to distract him throughout the match and Cassidy was frustrated of her interferences. He ran before her before Mero hit Cassidy a Wild Thing for the win.

The second match was a six man tag team match featuring Nation of Domination (Faarooq, Crush and Savio Vega) against Bart Gunn, Goldust and Flash Funk. All the six men began brawling with each other, until Nation were sent to the outside. As they regrouped, Funk dived from the top rope onto all the three members of Nation. Funk hit a hurricanrana on Vega from the top rope and tried to dive on the Nation again but they controlled his landing and dragged him into the ring. Faarooq, Crush and Vega took turns and attacked Funk. After a great damage, he was able to tag with Morgan who took care of all three men. Morgan, Goldust and Funk sent Nation outside the ring and Gunn hit a diving bulldog on Faarooq and went for the cover but the referee was distracted in sending Goldust and Funk to the outside. Crush took advantage and hit a leg drop on Morgan while Faarooq pinned Morgan to get the win.

The third match was for the IWF Intercontinental Championship between champion Rocky Maivia and Kunter Kearst Kelmsley. Kelmsley gained the early advantage by performing backbreakers and suplexes on Maivia. Kelmsley began applying submission holds on Maivia but Maivia countered them into a small package. Kelmsley kicked out of the pin until Maivia hit a flying crossbody on Kelmsley. He kicked out again and nailed Maivia with a jawbreaker and a DDT. Goldust came to the ringside and distracted Kelmsley. Maivia hit a Bridging German suplex on Kelmsley and pinned him to retain the IC title.

The fourth match was a tag team match pitting Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon against IWF Tag Team Champions Owen Heart and The British Bulldog for the IWF Tag Team Championship. Heart and Furnas started the match as Furnas hit Owen with a lariat and a leg drop. Furnas tagged in with LaFon while Owen tagged in with Bulldog. He overpowered LaFon and then Owen and Bulldog took turns by tagging with each other and attacking LaFon. Aldrich did a pinfall attempt on LaFon but the referee was distracted by Owen. Owen continued to distract the referee as accidentally hit Bulldog with a lariat. Bulldog hit Owen with a lariat and the two argued as LaFon hit a splash on Owen from the top rope but Bulldog controlled LaFon. Despite that, LaFon tagged in with Furnas and then the challengers double-teamed Hart until Hart tagged in with Bulldog. Bulldog picked up LaFon and went for a running powerslam until Heart hit LaFon with his Slammy statuette. LaFon and Furnas won the match by disqualification, but the title does not change hands by DQ, so the titles remained with Heart and Bulldog.

The main event was a Four Corners Elimination match for the vacant IWF Championship between The Undertaker, Bret Heart, Stone Cold Steve Johnson and Vader. Heart and Johnson, two famous rivals started brawling with each other while Undertaker attacked Vader and hit him with a crossbody over the top rope. Undertaker attacked both Heart and Vader. Vader recovered and then hit Undertaker with a steel chair to the outside. Undertaker blocked the chair and drove Vader in the chair and then the steel steps opening his right eye. Austin bumped Heart and then began working on Undertaker while Heart and Vader punched each other. All the four men began wrestling on outside as Undertaker crotched Johnson. Vader attacked Hart with a steel chair. Undertaker began working on Heart, who eye raked Undertaker and was powerslammed by Undertaker. Vader and Austin attacked each other by hitting steel chairs, steps, bell and even a camera man. Vader applied Heart's own maneuver Sharpshooter on him but Austin hit him with a press and knuckles. Vader tried to hit Undertaker a Vaderbomb but instead hit a Vadersault which missed. Heart then put Johnson in a fireman's carry and threw him over the top rope, which lead to the first elimination. Heart and Undertaker brawled with each other while Vader recovered in the corner. Paul Bearer interfered and attacked Undertaker while Vader was superplexed by Heart. Despite being eliminated, Austin interfered in the match and attacked Heart. Vader went for a Vaderbomb from the top rope but Undertaker low blowed Vader and threw him over the top rope. Undertaker and Heart remained the final two participants. He tried to hit a chokeslam on Heart until Austin distracted Undertaker while Heart clotheslined Undertaker over the top rope to win his fourth IWF Championship.

Aftermath

The next night on Raw, Heart defended his newly won IWF Championship against Sycho Sid. Hart's fourth reign lasted only one day as Johnson interfered in the match and helped Sid in defeating Heart to get the win and the title. Undertaker was named the number one contender to the IWF Championship. On March 17 edition of Raw, Heart and Sid faced each other in a rematch for the title which was contested in a steel cage. The stipulation was that the winner would defend the IWF Championship against their scheduled opponent (Sid's being the Undertaker, Heart's being Austin) at WrestleMania 13. Undertaker and Austin both interfered in the match. Undertaker helped Sid because he wanted to wrestle Sid for the title while Austin helped Hart because he wanted the no disqualification submission match between him and Heart to have the championship on the line. Sid won the match and retained the title.

Heart and Johnson wrestled their regularly scheduled submission match at WrestleMania 13 with UFC fighter Ken Shamrock as guest referee for the match. Heart won the match after Johnson passed out while locked in the Sharpshooter, refusing to submit despite heavy blood loss and the pain from the hold. The match ended with a double-turn as Johnson turned babyface and Heart turned heel and reformed the Heart Foundation with Owen Heart, British Bulldog, Jim Furlong and Bryan Pillman who feuded with Johnson. Later that night, Undertaker and Sid battled for Sid's IWF Championship in a no disqualification match. The newly heel turned Heart interfered in the match and helped Undertaker in defeating Sid for his second IWF Championship.

Results

References

External links