IWF Backlash: In Your House

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Revision as of 01:50, 20 February 2020

Backlash: In Your House was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF) promotion and presented by Castrol GTX, which took place on April 25, 1999 at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island. Backlash became the name for the post-WrestleMania pay-per-view beginning in 1999 and retained that name until 2009, before being resurrected in 2016 (albeit after SummerSlam) before getting back to the post-WrestleMania slot the following year.

The concept of the pay-per-view was based around the backlash from IWF's premiere pay-per-view event WrestleMania. As such, the main event was a rematch from WrestleMania, featuring Steve Johnson wrestling The Rock for the IWF Championship – this time with a special guest referee, Shane Matteson. Lower down on the card, Paul Wight and Mankind had a Boiler Room Brawl to settle matters after their previous encounter, which decided who would referee the WrestleMania event. Triple K also wrestled X-Pac due to Triple K causing X-Pac to lose a match for the European Championship the previous month.

Storylines

The event consisted of eight professional wrestling matches with predetermined outcomes. The matches involved wrestlers portraying their characters (known as gimmicks) in planned storylines that took place before, during and after the event.

The main feud going into the event involved the IWF Championship, which Stone Cold Steve Austin had won from The Rock at WrestleMania XV. The following night on Raw is War, however, Austin demanded the return of his Smoking Skull belt, a personalized championship belt that he had worn the previous year during his tenure as IWF Champion, which villainous IWF owner Mr. Matteson had stolen from him at Breakdown: In Your House, after causing Austin to lose. Rather than oppose him as he usually would, Matteson acquiesced to the request as The Undertaker had threatened his family. Mr. Matteson's son, Shane, disagreed and went against his father's wishes, stealing the Smoking Skull belt and giving it to The Rock, who was part of the villainous alliance The Corporation. Shane then unceremoniously ejected his father from The Corporation while Austin and Rock continued to feud over ownership of Austin's personalized belt. This culminated with a fight between the two which ended with Rock throwing Austin, and then the belt, into a river from a bridge in Detroit which alluded to the events of December 1997 when Austin threw Rock's Intercontinental Championship into the Oyster river. The Rock held a mock funeral the following week for Austin, revealing he still had possession of the Smoking Skull belt; Austin crashed the funeral with a monster truck and crushed Rock's limousine and hearse. During the Sunday Night Heat that aired before the event, Shane declared that the match was to have a no disqualification stipulation and announced himself as the special guest referee.

The Undertaker, meanwhile, was involved in a storyline where he became the leader of a Satanic group of wrestlers called The Ministry of Darkness. During the beginning of the year he began to articulate a desire for Kalia Matteson leading to a Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania where Corporation member The Big Boss Man was hanged from the ceiling. Undertaker then became more aggressive in his actions, demanding Kaila and offering 'sacrifices' when she was not given over to him. One woman he sacrificed, via crucifixion, was Ryan Shamrock who played the on-screen sister of Ken Shamrock. Fighting for family honor, Shamrock vowed to break Undertaker's leg.

Undertaker's obsession with Kaila led to another match being made at the event. During April Undertaker successfully managed to abduct Kaila, however Shamrock, looking for revenge, set about trying to find her and attacked various members of the Ministry for her whereabouts. Eventually Christian revealed where she was, forcing The Undertaker to reprimand him by whipping him and leading to a crucifixion. While he was in the Ministry along with Edge and Gangrel, the three also made up a smaller group named The Brood who chose Christian over the Ministry and saved him, leaving the Ministry. This led to Undertaker's minions being forced to wrestle the Brood.

Elsewhere on the card, Triple K fought X-Pac due to events that transpired at WrestleMania. During the event Chyna, who had been Triple K's valet and girlfriend but had since turned on him to ally with Kane, reunited with Triple K. The two, who were in a wrestling group called D-Generation X, came to ringside later in the match to ostensibly help fellow D-Generation X member X-Pac in his match against Shane Matteson. The two attacked X-Pac in order to ally with Matteson and The Corporation, however, and as a result, X-Pac lost the European Championship match.

Two hardcore wrestling matches were scheduled for the card. The first was a specialty match, a Boiler Room Brawl based around wrestler Mankind who was billed as being "from the boiler room". As a former member of The Corporation and challenger for The Rock's IWF Championship in December and January, Mankind found himself coming to blows with the Corporate enforcer Paul Wight especially when Wight caused Mankind to lose his belt in a ladder match, removing him from the main event of WrestleMania. Desperate to be part of WrestleMania's main event, Mankind staked a claim to be the special guest referee but Corporation leader Vince Matteson preferred Wight officiating to ensure The Rock remained champion. The two had a match at WrestleMania to determine who would referee the main event, which Mankind won by disqualification. In the storyline, however, Mankind was hospitalized after the match, while Wight was arrested after he punched Matteson for slapping him. With this, Wight left The Corporation but maintained a desire to settle the score between the two in a hardcore match. Gradually the two came to respect each other, rescuing the other from Corporate assaults, but wanted to wrestle for pride. The other hardcore match on the card was for the IWF Hardcore Championship; Bob Holly had wrestled Al Snow on the banks of the Mississippi River two months prior and despite the latter being notorious for his hardcore prowess, Holly picked up the victory. The two fought at WrestleMania but the match also included Billy Gunn and a deciding bout was needed. For Backlash, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams was scheduled to fight Snow and Holly, making the hardcore match a three-way for the IWF Hardcore Championship. However, Williams was taken off of television in mid-April for needing further time to rehab his injury and for refusing to work for FMW. He was released shortly afterwards. Williams had been being built as a midcarder at the time, feuding with Snow and Holly since March.

The final rivalry going into the evening saw Goldust try to regain his IWF Intercontinental Championship. On Raw is War Goldust was scheduled to defend against Big Boss Man but The Godfather, a wrestler whose gimmick involved being a pimp, offered Boss Man some prostitutes to take his place and won the title.

Event

Sunday Night Heat

Preliminary matches

Main event matches

Aftermath

See also Over the Edge (1999)

Reception

Canadian Online Explorer's professional wrestling section rated the entire event 8 out of 10, declaring "the World Wrestling Federation had something to prove and prove it they did" in reference to a lackluster WrestleMania. Both the main event and the Boiler Room Brawl received a full 10 with reviewer John Powell declaring the main event had "enough imagination in it" to top their previous encounter. While most matches had strong ratings, the Intercontinental Championship match was given a lowly 4 out of 10. The most criticized match was the penultimate contest between The Undertaker and Ken Shamrock which was given only 3 out of 10 and described as an "unbearably boring, 18 minute-plus submission hold extravaganza".

Results

References

External links